The US Environmental Protection Agency has put restrictions on
four pesticides to save endangered Pacific salmon and steelhead
species from extinction. The new mitigation measures, announced
Feb. 1, aim to protect 28 salmon species in Washington, Oregon,
and California from pesticide runoff and spray drift. The four
targeted pesticides are three herbicides—bromoxynil, prometryn,
and metolachlor—and the soil fumigant 1,3-dichloropropene. The
EPA put the measures in place after the National Marine
Fisheries Service found in 2021 that such restrictions are
needed to protect endangered and threatened salmon species. The
measures require no-spray vegetative buffers between waters
where salmon live and agricultural fields. They also require
retention ponds and vegetated drainage ditches. All of these
measures are intended to capture pesticides that otherwise
could seep into the water.
The State Water Resources Control Board will spend $34 million
for six projects to improve the water quality of the New River
and the Tijuana River along the U.S.-Mexico border. The New
River starts south of the city of Mexicali, and runs through
Calexico on the U.S. side of the border and through Imperial
County to the Salton Sea. The Tijuana River runs from Baja
California into San Diego. Both rivers are heavily polluted by
sewage, trash, industrial and agricultural waste, and other
sediment and pollutants.
The Biden administration on Tuesday moved to protect one of the
world’s most valuable wild salmon fisheries, at Bristol Bay in
Alaska, by effectively blocking the development of a gold and
copper mine there. The Environmental Protection Agency issued a
final determination under the Clean Water Act that bans the
disposal of mine waste in part of the bay’s watershed, about
200 miles southwest of Anchorage. Streams in the watershed are
crucial breeding grounds for salmon, but the area also contains
deposits of precious-metal ores thought to be worth several
hundred billion dollars. A two-decades old proposal to mine
those ores, called the Pebble project, has been supported by
some Alaskan lawmakers and Native groups for the economic
benefits it would bring, but opposed by others, including
tribes around the bay and environmentalists who say
it would do irreparable harm to the salmon population.
An estimated 62 million gallons of sewage — or about 94
Olympic-sized swimming pools — spilled into the San Francisco
Bay during the storms in late December and January. Those
storms are now behind us, and officials say the water is now
safe. But now is actually the perfect time to unpack what went
wrong with our sewage system, and how we can better prepare our
infrastructure for the next big storm.
Chevron’s oil refinery in Richmond is among the U.S. petroleum
producers that most regularly exceed limits aimed at keeping
pollution out of local waterways, according to a nonprofit that
ranked it eighth worst out of 81 oil refineries on that point
after studying Environmental Protection Agency reports. From
2019 through 2021, the EPA recorded 27 instances when the
Richmond facility reported dumping unpermitted amounts of
regulated substances into San Pablo Bay, researchers with
national nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project found. None
of those violations resulted in official enforcement actions or
financial penalties, the group said.
A study of oil refineries nationwide ranked the Chevron El
Segundo facility on Santa Monica Bay as the largest water
polluter for nitrogen and selenium in 2021, compared to 80
other oil operations. The pollutants, which are byproducts of
the oil refining process, are legally discharged into the
Pacific Ocean. Authors of the report, as well as
conservationists, are calling on federal environmental
officials to revise and tighten regulations that permit such
discharges into water bodies, saying they have the power to do
so but choose not to act. … In an email to The
Times, the oil company said it directly treats all of the
facility’s process wastewater and storm water runoff “under a
rigorous discharge permit …
The release of 64,000 gallons of untreated sewage prompted the
closures of several Los Angeles County beaches Wednesday,
public health officials said. A blocked main line led to the
sewage entering the storm drain system near Admiralty and
Palawan ways in Marina del Rey, the Los Angeles County
Department of Public Health said in a news release. The
blockage was cleared by Wednesday afternoon, but Mother’s Beach
in Marina del Rey, Venice City Beach and Dockweiler State Beach
were ordered closed. … The closures will remain in
effect until bacterial levels in daily water testing meet
health standards, the department said.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it will study
whether to toughen regulation of large livestock farms that
release manure and other pollutants into waterways. EPA has not
revised its rules dealing with the nation’s largest animal
operations — which hold thousands of hogs, chickens and cattle
— since 2008. The agency said in 2021 it planned no changes but
announced Friday it had reconsidered in response to an
environmental group’s lawsuit. While not committing to stronger
requirements, EPA acknowledged needing more recent data about
the extent of the problem — and affordable methods to limit it.
In September 2020, workers in Brawley near the Mexico border
began loading dump trucks with soil from the site of an old
pesticide company. As an excavator carefully placed the
Imperial County waste into the vehicles, a worker sprayed the
pile with a hose, state records show. … Shipping documents
indicate the soil was contaminated with DDT, an insecticide the
federal Environmental Protection Agency banned decades
ago and that research has linked to premature births,
cancer and environmental harms. The Brawley dirt was
so toxic to California, state regulation labeled it a hazardous
waste. That meant it would need to go to a disposal
facility specially designed to handle dangerous material – a
site with more precautions than a regular landfill to make sure
the contaminants couldn’t leach into groundwater or pollute the
air. At least, that would have been the requirement if the
waste stayed in California. But it didn’t.
Towering refineries and rusty pumpjacks greet visitors driving
along the highways of Kern county, California. Oil wells sit in
the middle of fields of grapevines and almond trees. The air is
heavy with dust and the scent of petroleum. The
energy fields here are some of the most productive in the US,
generating billions of barrels of oil annually and more than
two-thirds of the state’s natural gas. And in a
drought-stricken state, they’re also some of the thirstiest,
consuming vast quantities of fresh water to extract stubborn
oil. But in the industry’s shadow, nearby communities
can’t drink from the tap. One of those communities is Fuller
Acres, a largely Latino town in Kern county where residents
must drive to the nearest town to buy safe water.
The atmospheric river that fueled a string of heavy downpours
in California this month brought much-needed water to the
parched Golden State. But those billions of gallons of rain
also swept a form of pollution off roads into streams, rivers
and the Pacific Ocean that’s of rising concern to scientists,
environmentalists and regulators: particle dust created by car
tires. A growing body of research indicates that in addition to
being a major source of microplastic pollution, the chemical
6PPD, an additive that’s used to keep tires from wearing out,
reacts with ozone in the atmosphere to form a toxic new
substance scientists call 6PPD-Quinone. It’s killing coho
salmon and likely harms other types of fish, which exhibit
symptoms resembling suffocation.
When Governor Gavin Newsom announced that all new car sales in
California would be zero-emission vehicles by 2035, many
activists celebrated the move. … But there was a word few
people mentioned in response to the news: microplastics. One of
the potential unintended consequences of the transition to
electric vehicles could be more microplastics. When rubber
meets road, tires shed small synthetic polymers less than five
millimeters in diameter. … “We ended up estimating that
stormwater was discharging about seven trillion [microplastics]
into the [San Francisco] Bay annually,” said Rebecca Sutton, a
senior researcher at the San Francisco Estuary Institute
(SFEI). Half of those particles come from tires. … These
tire particles are already in the air we breathe as well as the
San Francisco Bay and the groundwater that empties into
it.
A new study shows that pesticides are a key contributor to
climate change, from their manufacturing, transportation, and
application, all the way to their degradation and disposal. …
According to [the Pesticide Action Network of North America],
the pesticide-climate change connection is a loop: Pesticides
add emissions to the atmosphere that accelerate climate change,
warming climates stress agricultural systems and increase the
number of pests and insects, requiring more pesticides.
… California uses nearly 20% of the
pesticides applied annually across the United States. The state
grows fewer commodity crops than other regions, but supplies a
third of the country’s vegetables and two-thirds of the
country’s fruits and nuts.
Much has been made of two drinking water pollutants recently:
PFAS and microplastics. We spoke with Jason Dadakis, executive
director of water quality and technical resources with the
Orange County Water District, to find out how worried we should
be. What are PFAS and microplastics, why are they in our water
supply, and why should we care? “PFAS” is an acronym for a
large family of manmade chemicals that all feature the
carbon-fluorine bond, one of the strongest bonds in nature.
They resist degradation in the environment, which is where they
get their nickname “forever chemicals.”
Researchers at Princeton Engineering have found a way to turn
your breakfast food into a new material that can cheaply remove
salt and microplastics from seawater. The researchers used egg
whites to create an aerogel, a lightweight and porous material
that can be used in many types of applications, including water
filtration, energy storage, and sound and thermal insulation.
Craig Arnold, the Susan Dod Brown Professor of Mechanical and
Aerospace Engineering and vice dean of innovation at Princeton,
works with his lab to create new materials, including aerogels,
for engineering applications.
Eating one freshwater fish caught in a river or lake in the
United States is the equivalent of drinking a month’s worth of
water contaminated with toxic “forever chemicals,” new research
said on Tuesday. The invisible chemicals, called PFAS, were
first developed in the 1940s to resist water and heat and are
now used in items such as non-stick pans, textiles, fire
suppression foams and food packaging. But the indestructibility
of PFAS, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, means the
pollutants have built up over time in the air, soil, lakes,
rivers, food, drinking water and even our bodies. There have
been growing calls for stricter regulation for PFAS, which have
been linked to a range of serious health issues including liver
damage, high cholesterol, reduced immune responses and several
kinds of cancer.
Some 2,000 gallons of gasoline are estimated to have reached
the Colorado River after an accident in Glenwood Canyon Tuesday
resulted in fuel spilling from a tanker. Kaitlyn Beekman, a
spokeswoman with the Colorado Department of Public Health and
Environment’s Water Quality Control Division, said in an email
Wednesday that the estimated volume of gas that made it to the
river came from the Colorado State Patrol’s on-scene
responders, with whom CDPHE has coordinated. … She said
that upon learning of the spill, her department immediately
began contacting downstream water systems to alert them.
As recent storms have shown just how vulnerable the Bay Area is
to flooding, a new study finds that rising groundwater is a
crucial contributor to the region’s flooding challenges. The
study’s goal in four counties — Alameda, Marin, San Francisco
and San Mateo — is huge. “It’s to make the Bay Area the most
climate-resilient coastal region in the world,” said Adrian
Covert, senior vice president of the Bay Area Council, a
business association that helped fund the research. In
partnership with local climate scientists at Pathways Climate
Institute, the San Francisco Estuary Institute, UC Berkeley,
regional agencies and the counties, the study took existing
groundwater levels and imagined how they would push up around
the lip of the bay as seas rise. The authors also created
maps to provide a high-level overview of this challenge.
Amid dramatic ocean swells and drenching atmospheric rivers, a
new report lays bare a hidden aspect of sea level rise that has
been exacerbating flooding in the Bay Area. The report, which
was released Tuesday, maps areas that could flood from
groundwater hovering just a few feet, or even inches below
ground. This layer of water gets pushed upward as denser water
from the ocean moves inland from rising tides. On its way up,
even before the water breaks the surface, it can seep into the
cracks of basements, infiltrate plumbing, or, even more
insidiously, re-mobilize toxic chemicals buried underground.
Communities that consider themselves “safe” from sea level rise
might need to think otherwise, said Kris May, a lead author of
the report and founder of Pathways Climate Institute, a
research-based consulting firm in San Francisco that helps
cities adapt to climate change.
All legislation aimed at regulating toxic PFAS “forever
chemicals” died in the Democratic-controlled US Congress last
session as companies flexed their lobbying muscle and bills did
not gain enough Republican support to overcome a Senate
filibuster. … PFAS are a class of about 12,000
compounds used to make products resist water, stains and heat.
They are known as “forever chemicals” because they do not
naturally break down, and they have been linked to cancer, high
cholesterol, liver disease, kidney disease, fetal complications
and other serious health problems. The Environmental
Protection Agency this year found that virtually no level of
exposure to two types of PFAS compounds in drinking water is
safe, and public health advocates say the entire chemical class
is toxic and dangerous.
Exposure to low levels of nitrate in drinking water may have
adverse reproductive effects. We reviewed evidence about the
association between nitrate in drinking water and adverse
reproductive outcomes published to November 2022.
… Nitrogen is very important for plant nutrition and
growth, being incorporated by plants into amino acid synthesis,
and is therefore commonly used in inorganic fertilizers.
However, because nitrate is highly water soluble, it leaches
through soils and into groundwater very easily, particularly
after heavy rainfall. … The increasing use of artificial
fertilizers, the disposal of wastes, particularly from animal
farming, and changes in land use have become significant
contributors to the progressive increase in nitrate levels in
groundwater supplies.
On September 7, California’s State Water Resources Control
Board (SWRCB) approved initial requirements for testing
microplastics in drinking water, becoming the first government
in the world seeking to establish health-based guidelines for
acceptable levels of microplastics in drinking water. …
Microplastics are tiny plastic particles, less than five
millimeters in length, that occur in the environment because of
plastic production from a wide range of manufactured products.
… The SWRCB’s implementation of Senate Bill 1422, will now
require select public water systems to monitor for
microplastics over a four year period—a daunting task as there
is no EPA-approved method to identify the many types of
microplastics in drinking water, and no standardized water
treatment method for removing microplastics from the public
water supply.
One apparently is hiding under the driveway of a million-dollar
home in Placentia. Another lurks beneath a parking lot at
Ontario International Airport. And another is under a
commercial building in Culver City — much to the surprise of
the upscale window company doing business there. Thanks to its
once expansive, 150-year-old oil and gas industry, Southern
California has one of the nation’s highest concentrations of
so-called “orphan wells,” or wells that companies abandoned
without first plugging them up for safety. The state has
documented nearly 2,000 orphan wells in Los Angeles, Orange,
San Bernardino and Riverside counties alone, while estimating
that thousands more could be paved over, unrecorded, and
waiting to be rediscovered.
Last year was a good one for trash. Or, rather, for the
prospects of reducing it. For the last several years, lawmakers
have passed new laws aimed at curbing plastic, from the 2014
ban on single-use plastic grocery bags to restrictions on use
of plastic straws. But in 2022, they went big and broad,
enacting Senate Bill 54, a revolutionary law that will start
phasing out all varieties of single-use plastic in 2025 —
basically everything on the shelves of grocery and other retail
stores — through escalating composting and recycling
requirements on consumer products packaging. Most importantly,
the law puts the onus on the producers of the packaging to
figure out how to make it happen rather than on consumers or
state and local governments.
The atmospheric river storm hitting California this week
presents a test for an experimental waste-capturing system
that’s intended to keep plastic bottles, diapers and other
trash from flowing into the Pacific. It has even captured a
couch. The solar-powered system, designed to work mostly
autonomously, was introduced in October at the mouth of Ballona
Creek near Playa del Rey.
A pilot program in the Salinas Valley run remotely out of Los Angeles is offering a test case for how California could provide clean drinking water for isolated rural communities plagued by contaminated groundwater that lack the financial means or expertise to connect to a larger water system.
Martha Guzman recalls those awful
days working on water and other issues as a deputy legislative
secretary for then-Gov. Jerry Brown. California was mired in a
recession and the state’s finances were deep in the red. Parks
were cut, schools were cut, programs were cut to try to balance a
troubled state budget in what she remembers as “that terrible
time.”
She now finds herself in a strikingly different position: As
administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
Region 9, she has a mandate to address water challenges across
California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii and $1 billion to help pay
for it. It is the kind of funding, she said, that is usually
spread out over a decade. Guzman called it the “absolutely
greatest opportunity.”
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
It’s been a year since two devastating wildfires on opposite ends
of California underscored the harsh new realities facing water
districts and cities serving communities in or adjacent to the
state’s fire-prone wildlands. Fire doesn’t just level homes, it
can contaminate water, scorch watersheds, damage delivery systems
and upend an agency’s finances.
Blasted by sun and beaten by waves,
plastic bottles and bags shed fibers and tiny flecks of
microplastic debris that litter the San Francisco Bay where they
can choke the marine life that inadvertently consumes it.
Summer is a good time to take a
break, relax and enjoy some of the great beaches, waterways and
watersheds around California and the West. We hope you’re getting
a chance to do plenty of that this July.
But in the weekly sprint through work, it’s easy to miss
some interesting nuggets you might want to read. So while we’re
taking a publishing break to work on other water articles planned
for later this year, we want to help you catch up on
Western Water stories from the first half of this year
that you might have missed.
Each day, people living on the streets and camping along waterways across California face the same struggle – finding clean drinking water and a place to wash and go to the bathroom.
Some find friendly businesses willing to help, or public restrooms and drinking water fountains. Yet for many homeless people, accessing the water and sanitation that most people take for granted remains a daily struggle.
One of California Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade
Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within
weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that
Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing.
That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach”
on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded
floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.
Low-income Californians can get help with their phone bills, their natural gas bills and their electric bills. But there’s only limited help available when it comes to water bills.
That could change if the recommendations of a new report are implemented into law. Drafted by the State Water Resources Control Board, the report outlines the possible components of a program to assist low-income households facing rising water bills.
The growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges.
These were among the topics that Western Water news explored in 2018.
We’re already planning a full slate of stories for 2019. You can sign up here to be alerted when new stories are published. In the meantime, take a look at what we dove into in 2018:
For decades, cannabis has been grown
in California – hidden away in forested groves or surreptitiously
harvested under the glare of high-intensity indoor lamps in
suburban tract homes.
In the past 20 years, however, cannabis — known more widely as
marijuana – has been moving from being a criminal activity to
gaining legitimacy as one of the hundreds of cash crops in the
state’s $46 billion-dollar agriculture industry, first legalized
for medicinal purposes and this year for recreational use.
As we continue forging ahead in 2018
with our online version of Western Water after 40 years
as a print magazine, we turned our attention to a topic that also
got its start this year: recreational marijuana as a legal use.
State regulators, in the last few years, already had been beefing
up their workforce to tackle the glut in marijuana crops and
combat their impacts to water quality and supply for people, fish
and farming downstream. Thus, even if these impacts were perhaps
unbeknownst to the majority of Californians who approved
Proposition 64 in 2016, we thought it important to see if
anything new had evolved from a water perspective now that
marijuana was legal.
Joaquin Esquivel learned that life is
what happens when you make plans. Esquivel, who holds the public
member slot at the State Water Resources Control Board in
Sacramento, had just closed purchase on a house in Washington
D.C. with his partner when he was tapped by Gov. Jerry Brown a
year ago to fill the Board vacancy.
Esquivel, 35, had spent a decade in Washington, first in several
capacities with then Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and then as
assistant secretary for federal water policy at the California
Natural Resources Agency. As a member of the State Water Board,
he shares with four other members the difficult task of
ensuring balance to all the uses of California’s water.
A new study could help water
agencies find solutions to the vexing challenges the homeless
face in gaining access to clean water for drinking and
sanitation.
The Santa Ana Watershed Project
Authority (SAWPA) in Southern California has embarked on a
comprehensive and collaborative effort aimed at assessing
strengths and needs as it relates to water services for people
(including the homeless) within its 2,840 square-mile area that
extends from the San Bernardino Mountains to the Orange County
coast.
Microplastics – plastic debris
measuring less than 5 millimeters – are an
increasing water quality concern. Entering the water as
industrial microbeads or as larger plastic litter that degrade
into small pellets, microplastics come from a variety of
consumer products.
Contaminants exist in water supplies from both natural and
manmade sources. Even those chemicals present without human
intervention can be mobilized from introduction of certain
pollutants from both
point and nonpoint sources.
Directly detecting harmful pathogens in water can be expensive,
unreliable and incredibly complicated. Fortunately, certain
organisms are known to consistently coexist with these harmful
microbes which are substantially easier to detect and culture:
coliform bacteria. These generally non-toxic organisms are
frequently used as “indicator
species,” or organisms whose presence demonstrates a
particular feature of its surrounding environment.
Point sources release pollutants from discrete conveyances, such
as a discharge pipe, and are regulated by federal and state
agencies. The main point source dischargers are factories and
sewage treatment plants, which release treated
wastewater.
Problems with polluted stormwater and steps that can be taken to
prevent such pollution and turn what is often viewed as
“nuisance” runoff into a water resource is the focus of this
publication, Stormwater Management: Turning Runoff into a
Resource. The 16-page booklet, funded by a grant from the State
Water Resources Control Board, includes color photos and
graphics, text explaining common stormwater pollutants and
efforts to prevent stormwater runoff through land use/
planning/development – as well as tips for homeowners to reduce
their impacts on stormwater pollution.
20-minute version of the 2012 documentary The Klamath Basin: A
Restoration for the Ages. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues related to complex water management
disputes in the Klamath River Basin. Narrated by actress Frances
Fisher.
For over a century, the Klamath River Basin along the Oregon and
California border has faced complex water management disputes. As
relayed in this 2012, 60-minute public television documentary
narrated by actress Frances Fisher, the water interests range
from the Tribes near the river, to energy producer PacifiCorp,
farmers, municipalities, commercial fishermen, environmentalists
– all bearing legitimate arguments for how to manage the water.
After years of fighting, a groundbreaking compromise may soon
settle the battles with two epic agreements that hold the promise
of peace and fish for the watershed. View an excerpt from the
documentary here.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
Salt. In a small amount, it’s a gift from nature. But any doctor
will tell you, if you take in too much salt, you’ll start to have
health problems. The same negative effect is happening to land in
the Central Valley. The problem scientists call “salinity” poses
a growing threat to our food supply, our drinking water quality
and our way of life. The problem of salt buildup and potential –
but costly – solutions are highlighted in this 2008 public
television documentary narrated by comedian Paul Rodriguez.
A 20-minute version of the 2008 public television documentary
Salt of the Earth: Salinity in California’s Central Valley. This
DVD is ideal for showing at community forums and speaking
engagements to help the public understand the complex issues
surrounding the problem of salt build up in the Central Valley
potential – but costly – solutions. Narrated by comedian Paul
Rodriquez.
20-minute DVD that explains the problem with polluted stormwater,
and steps that can be taken to help prevent such pollution and
turn what is often viewed as a “nuisance” into a water resource
through various activities.
Many Californians don’t realize that when they turn on the
faucet, the water that flows out could come from a source close
to home or one hundreds of miles away. Most people take their
water for granted; not thinking about the elaborate systems and
testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state. Where drinking water comes from,
how it’s treated, and what people can do to protect its quality
are highlighted in this 2007 PBS documentary narrated by actress
Wendie Malick.
A 30-minute version of the 2007 PBS documentary Drinking Water:
Quenching the Public Thirst. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues surrounding the elaborate systems
and testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Klamath River Watershed. The
map text explains the many issues facing this vast,
15,000-square-mile watershed, including fish restoration;
agricultural water use; and wetlands. Also included are
descriptions of the separate, but linked, Klamath Basin
Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric Agreement,
and the next steps associated with those agreements. Development
of the map was funded by a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
As the state’s population continues to grow and traditional water
supplies grow tighter, there is increased interest in reusing
treated wastewater for a variety of activities, including
irrigation of crops, parks and golf courses, groundwater recharge
and industrial uses.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to California
Wastewater is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the history of wastewater
treatment and how wastewater is collected, conveyed, treated and
disposed of today. The guide also offers case studies of
different treatment plants and their treatment processes.
As part of the historic Colorado
River Delta, the Salton Sea regularly filled and dried for
thousands of years due to its elevation of 237 feet below
sea level.
This printed issue of Western Water, based on presentations
at the November 3-4, 2010 Water Quality Conference in Ontario,
Calif., looks at constituents of emerging concerns (CECs) – what
is known, what is yet to be determined and the potential
regulatory impacts on drinking water quality.
This issue of Western Water looks at some of the issues
facing drinking water providers, such as compliance with
increasingly stringent treatment requirements, the need to
improve source water quality and the mission of continually
informing consumers about the quality of water they receive.
This issue of Western Water examines PPCPs – what they are, where
they come from and whether the potential exists for them to
become a water quality problem. With the continued emphasis on
water quality and the fact that many water systems in the West
are characterized by flows dominated by effluent contributions,
PPCPs seem likely to capture interest for the foreseeable future.
This issue of Western Water examines the presence of mercury in
the environment and the challenge of limiting the threat posed to
human health and wildlife. In addition to outlining the extent of
the problem and its resistance to conventional pollution
remedies, the article presents a glimpse of some possible courses
of action for what promises to be a long-term problem.
This issue of Western Water examines the problem of perchlorate
contamination and its ramifications on all facets of water
delivery, from the extensive cleanup costs to the search for
alternative water supplies. In addition to discussing the threat
posed by high levels of perchlorate in drinking water, the
article presents examples of areas hard hit by contamination and
analyzes the potential impacts of forthcoming drinking water
standards for perchlorate.
2002 marks the 30th anniversary of one of the most significant
environmental laws in American history, the Clean Water Act
(CWA). The CWA has had remarkable success, reversing years of
neglect and outright abuse of the nation’s waters. But challenges
remain as attention turns to the thorny issue of cleaning up
nonpoint sources of pollution.
