pollution

As students head back to class across California this month, many will sip water from school fountains or faucets that could contain high levels of lead. That’s because two-thirds of the state’s 1,026 school districts have not taken advantage of a free state testing program to determine whether the toxic metal is coming out of the taps and, if so, whether it exceeds federal standards.

On Sept. 8, an ungainly, 2,000-foot-long contraption will steam under the Golden Gate Bridge in what’s either a brilliant quest or a fool’s errand. Dubbed the Ocean Cleanup Project, this giant sea sieve consists of pipes that float at the surface of the water with netting below, corralling trash in the center of a U-shaped design.

The U.S. Navy knew as far back as 1993 that the tap water at its former shipyard in San Francisco contained dangerous amounts of lead, but didn’t tell local officials, visitors or people who worked there, including hundreds of police employees stationed at the site since 1997.

Someone had a water balloon fight on Ocean Beach on a recent Saturday, just under the sand dunes across from Lincoln Way. Someone else peeled the wrapper off their new pack of cigarettes and lit up. And at some point in the past few months, someone enjoyed a coffee in a Styrofoam cup, probably on a damp, foggy morning like this one.

Health officials on Tuesday reopened a stretch of the shoreline in Long Beach after tests showed the water was safe for beachgoers following a sewage spill over the weekend 17 miles north of the city.

The depletion of California’s aquifers by overpumping of groundwater has led to growing interest in “managed aquifer recharge,” which replenishes depleted aquifers using available surface waters, such as high flows in rivers, runoff from winter storms, or recycled waste water. At the same time, there is growing concern about contamination of groundwater supplies with nitrate from fertilizers, septic tanks, and other sources.