Water containing wastes – aka wastewater – from residential,
commercial and industrial processes requires treatment to remove
pollutants prior to discharge. After treatment, the water is
suitable for nonconsumption (nonpotable) and even potable use.
In California, water recycling is a critical component of the
state’s efforts to use water supplies more efficiently. The state
presently recycling about 669,000 acre-feet of water per year and
has the potential to reuse an additional two million acre-feet
per year.
Non-potable uses include:
landscape and crop irrigation
stream and wetlands enhancement
industrial processes
recreational lakes, fountains and decorative ponds
toilet flushing and gray water applications
as a barrier to protect groundwater supplies
from seawater intrusion
wetland habitat creation, restoration, and maintenance
The City Council is split on how much to raise water rates over
the next five years to fund projects that will wean Santa
Monica off of imported water. … Bi-monthly water and
wastewater bills for single-family homes would increase by $23
on average under the lower rate structure and $36 under the
higher rate structure.
Sonoma County has hired a new ombudsman, Alisha O’Laughlin, to
help river residents deal with the new maze of regulations
targeting older sewage disposal systems along the Russian River
and its tributaries. … O’Loughlin’s hiring coincides with
county efforts to implement its onsite wastewater treatment
system (OWTS) regulations and comply with state law…
Across the United States, more than 460,000 households, or
nearly 1.5 million people, lack a plumbed connection to
drinking water or sewers. … A new study in the Annals of the
American Association of Geographers takes a detailed look at
the persistence of “plumbing poverty” in the U.S. …
In Jamestown work has begun on a new $13.73-million wastewater
treatment facility that should be operational by September of
2021. The facility is being built on property along Karlee Lane
that was purchased by the Jamestown Sanitary District in 1993
for the sole purpose of constructing a future plant.
Native seaweed has the potential to be cultivated in California
coastal waters and used to alleviate the effects of local ocean
acidification, according to a new study funded by NOAA’s
California Sea Grant.
Like many communities throughout California, Carpinteria faces
sustained and historic drought conditions. … In response to
the shortfall, CVWD proposes a $25 million project to take
wastewater that has been cleaned, purify it and then inject it
into the groundwater basin to be used for various needs,
including potable drinking water.
A team of scientists from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the Colorado
School of Mines (Mines) is developing a microbe-based system
that could remove toxic compounds from oilfield produced water
so it can be reused in other water-intensive sectors such as
agriculture and energy production.
Customs and Border Protection commissioned a six-month study,
published earlier this year, of 42 samples from the river and
two culverts during dry, wet, post-rain, and standing water
conditions. … Justin Castrejon, a Border Patrol agent and
regional spokesman, said the report validated the claims of
agents who have complained of physical health ailments after
patrolling the affected areas.
Researchers from Stanford University have developed an
affordable, durable technology that could harness energy
generated from mixing freshwater from seawater. Outlined in a
new paper … they suggest that this “blue energy” could make
coastal wastewater treatment plants energy-independent.
State water officials ordered an investigation this week into
the elusive source of contamination in Richardson Bay, where
water samples collected near Tiburon beaches have shown high
bacteria levels for more than two months.
Contractors are busy digging, stockpiling and hauling off an
average of 40 truckloads of contaminated soil a day from the
site of a former wastewater treatment plant at Larkspur
Landing. About 64,000 tons of the mixed soil and demolition
debris, which contains trace amounts of polychlorinated
biphenyls, or PCBs, will be sent to a municipal landfill, while
another 2,600 tons, will be shipped to a hazardous waste
landfill.
The sewage processing agency that serves Menlo Park, San
Carlos, Belmont and Redwood City paid its former general
manager $875,000 as part of a severance agreement, according to
documents obtained by the Post. However, the circumstances
behind the departure of Daniel Child are about as murky as the
effluent that flows into the agency’s plant…
The East Bay Municipal Utility District now has a back-up plan
that includes filling water tanks to capacity during Red Flag
Warnings… Portable generators would go in cities like
Berkeley, Castro Valley, and San Ramon starting on Aug. 1.
Other Bay Area water agencies also have plans in place.
By 2030, the Carpinteria Valley Water District estimates that
on a dry year, the deficit could be as high as 1,550 acre
feet—enough to fill 775 Olympic-sized swimming pools, or serve
the average yearly use of 6,200 local households. In response
to the shortfall, CVWD proposes a $25 million project to take
wastewater that has been cleaned, purify it and then inject it
into the groundwater basin…
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.
Just how much Manteca’s treated wastewater is worth to
agricultural users served by the Delta Mendota Canal that are
often at the mercy of fish flows diversions and drought that
reduces their Central Valley Project allocations may be
determined in the coming year.
On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors approved an exclusive
negotiating rights agreement with Cal Am for the Chualar,
Boronda and Pajaro sanitary sewer systems, and authorized
county Resource Management Agency director Carl Holm to
negotiate, execute, and implement the sale and transfer of the
systems. … The county has been seeking to sell the sewer
systems for years…
Today, Rep. Juan Vargas (CA-51) along with Reps. Susan Davis
(CA-53), Scott Peters (CA-52), and Mike Levin (CA-49), hosted a
press conference to announce the introduction of their Tijuana
River Valley Pollution Solution bill package. The combined
legislation would further support mitigation efforts in the
region.
Fifty feet below the platform of the Powell Street BART Station
sits the starting point for one of the largest water recycling
projects in San Francisco — one that’s transforming dirty
groundwater into clean steam heat for hundreds of downtown
buildings. In the process, it’s saving tens of millions of
gallons of drinking water annually.
Visitors are being encouraged to stay out of the water at
Mission Bay due to high bacteria levels. On July 17, the San
Diego County Department of Environmental Health issued an alert
for the Bonita Cove part of the Bay that stated: “Bacteria
levels may exceed health standards. Avoid water contact in the
advisory area.” In addition to Bonita Cove, visitors are being
told to not enter the water at Leisure Lagoon.
For around 20 years, Los Angeles has shipped a large portion of
“biosolids” from its toilets to fertilize a farm it owns just
west of Bakersfield. Bakersfield, in return, has been providing
an annual load of 18,000 acre-feet of free water to the farm.
However, after passage of the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act, the value of treated wastewater increased.
While the San Simeon decision appeared quick and easy to make,
it had taken decades to get the issue to that point.
Commissioners and San Simeon representatives seemed equally
relieved to have finally come to an agreement that involves
getting within 10 years enough grant funds to move the plant
further from the coast.
On June 28, the city of Lompoc received an inspection report
from the Environmental Protection Agency concerning an April
inspection of its wastewater discharge permit. … Seven
violations were noted. While some were technical, there were
also some violations aimed at the current political attitude of
three councilmen toward regulatory compliance.
A plan to connect two ecologically rich areas in Glendale’s
Verdugo Wash has been endorsed by officials tasked with
revitalizing the upper part of the Los Angeles River.
In a letter recently distributed to a number of residents in
the unincorporated areas of the Los Angeles County Department
of Public Health announced a new fee on septic tank users,
leaving some confused and others surprised.
American Biodiesel also admitted to tampering with monitoring
devices and methods that are designed to detect clean water
standards. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, employees’
tampering was done with the purpose of underreporting acid and
pollutant levels and volumes that otherwise would have exceeded
figures allowed by the city’s regulations.
The commission voted unanimously Thursday to proceed with the
new infrastructure plans. Project advocates said the site,
located more than 3 miles inland, was the type of plan the
commission wanted to see because it will keep the plant away
from the sea where it’s vulnerable to flooding, tsunamis and
sea-level rise.
While the local sewerage agencies followed state and federal
law in reporting spills to governmental agencies, the public
wouldn’t necessarily know much about them. In this case, it has
taken Heal the Bay, a statewide environmental organization, to
dig them out of bureaucracies’ files.
Climate-conscious local and state officials are increasingly
embracing electricity sources that float on water, as they seek
ways to convert their least-coveted spaces into hubs of
electricity. This summer alone, developers broke ground on
California’s largest floating solar project, located on a
wastewater treatment pond in Sonoma County.
People who fish for carp have a love for them, as I learned
when I joined my guides at the middle of the river in Long
Beach. Lauren Mollica, a former pro skateboarder who now works
primarily as a carpenter, has been fishing the L.A. River for
about a year, and she waxes rhapsodic about the scent freshly
caught carp leaves on one’s hands.
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.
There’s a new twist in the California-Trump brawl in the state
Legislature. It’s aimed at overriding the president’s power to
weaken environmental protections. Put simply, any federal
protections President Trump tried to gut would immediately
become state regulations in their original, strong form.
A decade-long debate over how and where to build the new Morro
Bay sewage treatment plant will come to head at a California
Coastal Commission meeting in San Luis Obispo on Thursday. …
The preferred site is located on about 15 acres of a 396-acre
property at the corner of Highway 1 and South Bay Boulevard.
A legal case brought by the Associated General Contractors has
delayed the Pure Water project, one of the city’s most
ambitious undertakings ever. Hundreds of jobs are on the line,
but the stakes may be even higher regionally.
The 2018-19 Solano County grand jury concluded that if treated
wastewater could be used to irrigate crops that saved water
would help meet the water needs of a growing population. …
The grand jury also had recommendations on plant efficiency and
taking advantage of other renewable energies and plant output,
such as using wind and solar power for plant operations…
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.
Californians have been doing an
exceptional job
reducing their indoor water use, helping the state survive
the most recent drought when water districts were required to
meet conservation targets. With more droughts inevitable,
Californians are likely to face even greater calls to save water
in the future.
Steve Frattini, mayor of Herrin, Ill., went to a water
conference a few years ago in California amid a severe drought.
So he started working on a plan to send water to the area. The
water is from the city’s wastewater treatment plant … The
Wastewater Treatment Plant has a rail line nearby that would be
used to transport the water… Initially, Frattini said the
water would go to the area near the Salton Sea in southern
California, a sea that’s been drying up for years.
While there are all kinds of water safety issues to be aware
of, the State Water Resources Control Board wants the public to
know about one that may not be so obvious — freshwater harmful
algal blooms, or HABs. As California confronts the realities of
climate change, HABs have become increasingly common in rivers,
lakes and reservoirs, and they can be especially dangerous to
children and pets.
As the city considers changes to its wastewater rates, its
consultant, Nebraska-based HDR Engineering Inc., suggests users
that send “high strength” wastewater to the city’s treatment
system pay more because of the additional treatment costs.
Domestic septic tank/portable restroom discharges, industrial
laundry services and alcohol beverage manufacturers such as
breweries, wineries and distilleries could be affected…
Billions of gallons of treated wastewater is dumped into our
California coast each day, and with it, billions of resident
dollars are quite literally going to waste. Why aren’t we
utilizing available solutions to stop this sewage discharge and
capitalize on our people’s investment in clean drinking water?
The Moulton Niguel Water District has agreed to pay $4.8
million to settle a 3-year dispute with South Orange County
Wastewater Authority, which processes a portion of the
district’s wastewater, according to a settlement agreement
released Monday. … Moulton Niguel stopped paying capital
improvement invoices for the plant in 2016, saying it would
sign past-due checks only as part of a process to terminate its
contract to use the plant.
A new bill introduced by State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson …
would effectively ban traditional cigarettes through its
prohibition on the sale of tobacco products that have
single-use filters. … Cigarette butts constitute about a
third of all the trash found on California’s beaches
The agency charged with monitoring water quality standards
throughout the Greater Los Angeles region found that local
cities have committed more than 2,000 water quality violations
within a five-year period, but the violators suffered little if
any consequences.
Atascadero residents will likely be paying more for wastewater
services starting in just a few months. The last time
wastewater rates were increased in Atascadero, President Bill
Clinton began began his first term in office and Seinfeld was
one of the most watched shows on television.
The district is considering a five-year series of rates
increases — up to 5% per year for sewer and up to 6% per year
for water. … As district staff have explained during public
meetings, much of STPUD’s infrastructure is outdated and in
need of repair or replacement. Additionally, more than 10% of
the STPUD’s water system lacks adequate water capacity to fight
a major fire.
People who live along the southern border all say the same
thing: When it rains, it stinks. The reason is a failing, aging
network of pipes that run from Mexico to wastewater treatment
plants in the U.S. When heavy rains fall, the pipes often break
and spill raw sewage on both sides of the border, causing not
only a putrid odor but public health and environmental
concerns.
State water regulators gave local sanitation officials three
more years to carry out their plan to reduce the amount of
chloride that ends up in the Santa Clara River. … The
sanitation district … was mandated to reduce the amount of
chloride, or salt, that discharges from wastewater treatment
plants into the Santa Clara River, largely due to concerns by
downstream farmers that chloride was damaging salt-sensitive
crops such as strawberries and avocados.
In California, treated wastewater also is a critical source of
water for the environment, and, increasingly, a source for
recycled water. Climate change is worsening water scarcity and
flood risks. Advancements in engineering and technology can
help prepare wastewater agencies for a changing climate. But
significant shifts in policy and planning are needed to address
these challenges.
There are actions we can take today that will reduce the
pressure on struggling sea life and protect the industries and
communities that rely on a healthy ocean. … The Ocean
Resiliency Act of 2019 (Senate Bill 69) tackles a range of
threats facing our fisheries, from fertilizer runoff that feeds
harmful algae to sediment flowing downstream from logging
operations that violate clean water rules, which can silt up
the spaces between rocks where baby salmon shelter and feed.
County supervisors backed an ordinance that would regulate
alternative water treatment options for contaminated small
water systems on a trial basis amid public concerns regarding
the potential cost and complexity of the proposed rules.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer said Tuesday after a
meeting at the White House, that President Trump has agreed to
invest $2 trillion to revitalize the nation’s infrastructure.
Congressional leaders said they will return to the White House
in three weeks to determine how to pay for it.
A group of Democratic senators and San Diego County-based
congressional representatives sent a letter to multiple federal
agencies Tuesday urging them to address sewage runoff in the
Tijuana River … Local and state officials as well as
environmental activists have decried the condition of the
Tijuana River for years, which regularly causes beach closures
along the county’s coastline, particularly after heavy rain.
Mayor Eric Garcetti Monday unveiled a Green New Deal for Los
Angeles, setting aggressive new environmental goals in a range
of areas, including electric autos, air quality, trees and
public transit. … The plan includes a reiteration of some
previous commitments, but also sets some new benchmarks,
including sourcing 70% of L.A.’s water locally and
recycling 100% of all wastewater for beneficial reuse by 2035.
Gena Jacob figures she may come out ahead, in at least one
respect, in the wake of the Tubbs fire that leveled her
Larkfield home. … Through a program created by Sonoma Water
and offered to 143 homeowners in Larkfield Estates, they plan
to connect to a new sewer line — freeing them from the
constraints of their aging septic system — with a financing
package that takes some of the sting out of the cost.
Despite cost increases and weather-related delays, construction
of the 1.6 billion-gallon Trampas Canyon Reservoir in south
Orange County is well underway and officials continue pointing
to long-term savings to be gleaned by reducing the need for
imported water. … Construction costs have soared from the
2016 estimate of $56 million to $83 million today…
Tracy Hall says she’s lucky to have friendly neighbors who
allow her to live in an RV on their property while water laps
at a temporary barrier on the edge of her property. But Hall
and others are tired of the disruption to their lives that
started more than two years ago when the formerly dry lake in
Lemmon Valley filled with stormwater runoff and urban effluent.
The development of the Arcata Marsh as an integral part of
wastewater treatment in Arcata was the primary focus of two
professors at Humboldt State University, George Allen and
Robert Gearheart, who developed a process that uses what was a
former salt marsh as a means to treat sewage that is then
discharged into Humboldt Bay. On May 7, Gearheart … will be
honored by the Environmental Law Institute at its annual awards
dinner in Washington, D.C.
Santa Barbara’s wastewater treatment facility has officially
rebranded as El Estero Water Resources Center in a move to
change public perceptions about the reuse of wastewater. The
facility, previously known as El Estero Wastewater Treatment
Plant, celebrated the name change on Monday with a host of
speakers and a tour of the facility.
Introduced by State Senator Scott Wiener (D-SF) and backed by a
diverse array of environmental and business interests, SB 69,
“The Ocean Resiliency Act,” tackles questions as big as the
ocean itself. How much waste does California put in the ocean?
How much more can our oceans take? And how will climate change
amplify our mistreatment of our natural resources?
The current five members of the Montecito Water Board ran as
slate candidates in 2016 and 2108, and they won election
largely on the promise of recycling treated wastewater for
irrigation. A group of wealthy donors poured $200,000 into
their campaigns. Yet the new board seems in no hurry to get the
job done.
In an effort to end Thousand Oaks’ near total reliance on
imported water, public works staff is asking the City Council
to commit $16.6 million over the next two years to build a
groundwater treatment plant at the city’s publicly owned golf
course. The Los Robles Greens Golf Course Groundwater
Utilization Project—which will be offset with an estimated $6
million in State Water Project (Prop. 1) grants—is the single
most expensive item on the city’s proposed $97-million 2019-21
capital improvement program budget…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled on Friday
that the EPA’s 2015 power plant wastewater pollution rule was
not stringent enough, siding with environmentalists. Circuit
Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan ruled in favor of various
environmental groups that portions of the wastewater rule
regulating legacy wastewater and liquid from impoundments were
“unlawful.”
Currently, the city has two significant environmental impact
reports, which CEQA requires, making their way through the
development process. One is for a plan to build a 7-mile
pipeline to tap into Ventura’s long-held investment in state
water. … The other project would capture effluent from
Ventura’s wastewater treatment plant, treat it and turn it into
drinking water.
Oakwood Lakes Water District that serves a gated community and
a mobile home park just outside of the southwest Manteca city
limits needs to expand and upgrade its wastewater treatment
plant. Manteca needs to find a way to send storm water from a
large swath of southwest Manteca to the San Joaquin River. The
two needs have led to a proposed agreement between the water
district and the city …
San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer unveiled his proposed budget
for fiscal year 2020 on Thursday, saying it includes the
highest infrastructure investment in the city’s history. …
The budget includes an infrastructure investment of $715.8
million, an increase of nearly 300% over the $179.4 million
infrastructure allocation in the city’s fiscal year 2014 budget
… More than half of that is earmarked for the city’s Pure
Water program, which aims to recycle sewage into drinking
water.
With recurring sewage spills, some San Diegans are still afraid
to go into the water at some of the county’s southern-most
beaches. Now, local leaders are fighting the U.S. and Mexican
governments to clean up the waste-filled waters near the
border.
Expected to temporarily hold excess sewer flows during storms,
a project to build an underground flow equalization system
underneath the San Mateo County Event Center parking lot is one
of several components of San Mateo’s Clean Water Program. …
But for many residents … pile driving and the installation of
dewatering wells included in the project’s construction plans
drew concerns about noise, the structural integrity of nearby
homes and the project’s impact on neighbors’ quality of life.
On 177 acres situated between San Clemente’s Talega community
and Ortega Highway, mountainous earthworks are taking shape.
Santa Margarita Water District … is building a
1.6-billion-gallon reservoir. When completed in 2020, Trampas
Canyon Reservoir, less than a half-mile north of Talega, will
be able to store recycled wastewater collected from as many as
five South Orange County treatment plants.
Statewide leaders in agriculture recently launched an
initiative to clean oilfield wastewater for use in arid Western
states, hoping to reduce the region’s carbon footprint and
improve the lives of ranchers and farmers.
City officials approved a plan for a new groundwater
sustainability project, hoping it will be a solution to
increase the supply of groundwater and find a place for excess
effluent water coming to the Tehachapi Waste Water Treatment
Plant. The benefits will not appear for decades, when the
project is complete.
Mexican and American officials met in Mexico City this week to
talk about fixing a costly set of problems that have sprung up
along the border: failing sewer systems that send raw sewage
spilling into rivers. … Roberto Salmón, Mexico’s commissioner
of the International Boundary and Water Commission, said border
cities from Tijuana to Matamoros need a total of about 10
billion pesos, or $520 million, “just to bring the sanitary
systems up to speed, to correct the problems.”
Armed with a recent court ruling that climate change must be
considered in decisions to open federal land to oil and gas
drilling, conservationists shot the opening volley Thursday in
what promises to be a protracted legal battle over the future
of fracking and oil drilling in Northern California.
Behind every toilet flush and faucet turn that draws on a
public water system, there’s an entire industry making sure the
water meets certain standards. … But McKeon and others in the
field worry about a looming shortage of water-treatment plant
operators, as a wave of older operators hits retirement age.
McKeon fears that in the next 10 years, there won’t be enough
operators to monitor and control every public water system
adequately.
San Diego water customers will soon pay $6 to $13 more a month
to fund the first part of the city’s new recycled water
project, according to a newly released estimate. The city is
working on a multibillion-dollar plan to purify enough sewage
to provide a third of the city’s drinking water by 2035.
Rate increases are being proposed in part to help pay for
improvements to the Regional Wastewater Control Facility, which
is set to go through the first phase of a modification project
aimed at extending the life of existing amenities at the plant.
The modification project will also improve working conditions
for employees, and bring the site into compliance with national
pollutant discharge standards.
In places like Oakland, flooding will occur not just at the
shoreline, but inland in areas once considered safe from sea
level rise, including the Oakland Coliseum and Jones Avenue,
where [UC Berkeley professor Kristina] Hill and her students
now stood, more than a mile from San Leandro Bay. In fact, she
added, rising groundwater menaces nearly the entire band of
low-lying land around San Francisco Bay, as well as many other
coastal parts of the U.S.
City officials in Tehachapi are investigating ways to move
treated effluent water coming from Tehachapi’s Waste Water
Treatment Plant. More potable water could be available if a
groundwater reuse project becomes reality, opening more land at
Tehachapi Municipal Airport for potential growth.
The upgraded facility can now handle an average of 18 million
gallons per day, with a wet weather flow capacity of up to 36
million gallons. There’s also room for growth, with the
facility designed to accommodate up to an average of 22 million
gallons per day with the addition of added MBR cassettes.
AquaCycl, a San Diego-based wastewater treatment startup, took
home the grand prize at the San Diego Angel Conference on March
15. … The company developed a technology that uses
electricity-generating bacteria to speed up wastewater
treatment rates, resulting in a more efficient, lower-cost
option.
Milpitas mayor Rich Tran is following up on a campaign promise
to do something about the bad odor that has drifted over the
city for decades. … The goal is to trace the source of the
stench, which residents have long suspected to come from the
Newby Island landfill, the San Jose-Santa Clara Regional
Wastewater Facility or the Zanker-owned recycling facility.
Otters, birds, and turtles might be the last animals you would
expect to find living next door to the Interstate 680
toll-plaza. But, tucked between the freeway, an oil refinery
and a wastewater facility hides an oasis on the mend. … The
21-acre constructed wetland is in the middle of an industrial
zone and is part of the Mt. View Sanitary District Wastewater
Treatment Plant. “It’s the very first wetland on the west coast
to use treated wastewater to create wetlands,” explained
district biologist Kelly Davidson.
After years of planning, the Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary
District is gearing up to break ground on a three-year,
multimillion-dollar renovation of its sewage treatment plant.
Workers were rained out the past couple of months but are now
preparing the work site at the district headquarters at 300
Smith Ranch Road in San Rafael to replace the wastewater
treatment facilities and expand its recycled water capacity.
The city of Sacramento has approved a $2.9 million contract
that will allow construction of a new sewage vault underneath
McKinley Park. The goal of the project is to provide a place to
store sewage during wet weather, when stormwater runoff — and
wastewater — can end up in the same place, and overflow can
send it all into East Sacramento’s streets.
For the bulk of her career, Jayne
Harkins has devoted her energy to issues associated with the
management of the Colorado River, both with the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and with the Colorado River Commission of Nevada.
Now her career is taking a different direction. Harkins, 58, was
appointed by President Trump last August to take the helm of the
United States section of the U.S.-Mexico agency that oversees
myriad water matters between the two countries as they seek to
sustainably manage the supply and water quality of the Colorado
River, including its once-thriving Delta in Mexico, and other
rivers the two countries share. She is the first woman to be
named the U.S. Commissioner of the International Boundary and
Water Commission for either the United States or Mexico in the
commission’s 129-year history.
The announcement by Mayor Eric Garcetti last month that Los
Angeles will recycle all the wastewater produced at the
Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant by 2035 signals an end to the
era of addressing water shortages by importing water from
far-flung places and initiates a long-anticipated era of
reusing locally available supplies. The shift will require L.A.
residents to understand both the necessity of the plan and the
technology that will produce safe water.
Santa Rosa officials said Tuesday that managers at the city’s
wastewater plant have been forced to release at least 250
million gallons of treated sewage into two creeks and the
nearby Laguna de Santa Rosa amid record inflow to the facility
that began in last week’s storm. The three-day deluge pushed
more than five times the normal flow of wastewater and runoff
into the city’s Laguna de Santa Rosa plant. It was the highest
inflow ever recorded at the site, according to the city.
A long-simmering, multi-million dollar dispute among coastal
Orange County water and sewage districts took a major step
toward resolution Wednesday, when a Superior Court judge issued
a tentative ruling that Moulton Niguel Water District is
obligated to pay outstanding bills to the South Orange County
Wastewater Authority.
Although Santa Monica may be the most aggressive Southern California water provider to wean itself from imported supplies, it is hardly the only one looking to remake its water portfolio.
In Los Angeles, a city of about 4 million people, efforts are underway to dramatically slash purchases of imported water while boosting the amount from recycling, stormwater capture, groundwater cleanup and conservation. Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2014 announced a plan to reduce the city’s purchase of imported water from Metropolitan Water District by one-half by 2025 and to provide one-half of the city’s supply from local sources by 2035. (The city considers its Eastern Sierra supplies as imported water.)
Imported water from the Sierra
Nevada and the Colorado River built Southern California. Yet as
drought, climate change and environmental concerns render those
supplies increasingly at risk, the Southland’s cities have ramped
up their efforts to rely more on local sources and less on
imported water.
Far and away the most ambitious goal has been set by the city of
Santa Monica, which in 2014 embarked on a course to be virtually
water independent through local sources by 2023. In the 1990s,
Santa Monica was completely dependent on imported water. Now, it
derives more than 70 percent of its water locally.
Gena Jacob figures she may come out ahead, in at least one
respect, in the wake of the Tubbs fire that leveled her
Larkfield home. … Through a program created by Sonoma Water
and offered to 143 homeowners in Larkfield Estates, they plan
to connect to a new sewer line — freeing them from the
constraints of their aging septic system — with a financing
package that takes some of the sting out of the cost.
A comprehensive bill addressing ocean concerns will call for
improving the quality of ocean water and wetlands, better
salmon habitats, and rules that would protect whales from being
hit by ships. … Other potential legislation ranges from
a move to end the practice of pumping treated sewage into the
ocean to a law that would eliminate most paper shopping
receipts to a smoking ban on all California state beaches.
A controversial oilfield wastewater disposal operation east of
Bakersfield has been shut down amid a years-long regulatory
crackdown and opposition by environmental activist
organizations. The Jan. 3 closure … puts an end to a
practice regional water quality regulators say threatened to
foul Bakersfield’s water supply through a slow process of
underground migration.
Redlands’ wastewater treatment facility needs $40 million in
upgrades soon thanks to years of deferred maintenance,
officials say. But it could be worse – building a new
facility would cost $100 million. The original plant was
built in the 1960s, and the last major changes were made in
2004.
San Diego County has agreed to pay nearly $700,000 for a
pipeline rupture that dumped raw sewage into a San Diego River
tributary. The spill sent about 760,000 gallons of sewage into
Los Coches Creek in February and March 2017, violating the
federal Clean Water Act, among other state and federal rules.
The sewer rate increases approved for Morro Bay will go into
effect in July, despite opposition from a group that earlier
claimed it got enough protest signatures to stop the rate hike.
Morro Bay City Manager Scott Collins clarified in a recent
report that the protest was unsuccessful and the measure will
go into effect with customers seeing the additional charge on
their August bill.
California’s Imperial Irrigation District will get the
last word on the seven-state Colorado River Drought Contingency
Plans. And IID could end up with $200 million to restore the
badly polluted and fast-drying Salton Sea. Thursday, as the
clock ticked toward a midnight deadline set by a top federal
official, all eyes had been on Arizona. But lawmakers there
approved the Colorado River drought deal with about seven hours
to spare. IID, an often-overlooked southeastern California
agricultural water district, appears to have thrown a
last-minute monkey wrench into the process.
The City of Chico has seen a population explosion,
and it’s not just the roads that are impacted. Post-Camp
Fire sewage production numbers are at an all-time
high. Before the fire, Chico’s wastewater treatment
facility processed about 6 million gallons of waste on average
per day. Since then that amount has gone up to 7 million.
Biosolid production has gone up 70%, while overall waste and
sewage flows are up 17%.
Sonoma County water officials, under order from the state to
improve the capacity of their sewage system, say a valve
malfunction and leaky pipes resulted in a string of spills this
month that released 2.7 million gallons of waste and
stormwater, some of which flowed into local creeks and San
Pablo Bay.
Technology already exists to treat reused water to levels
meeting or exceeding health standards. But adequate technical
capacity is not sufficient. Water reuse can trigger revulsion,
especially when water is reused for drinking or other potable
purposes. This note explores outreach and engagement strategies
to overcome the “yuck factor” and achieve public support for
water reuse.
For decades, the New River has flowed north across the
U.S.-Mexico border carrying toxic pollution and the stench of
sewage. Now lawmakers in Washington and Sacramento are pursuing
legislation and funding to combat the problems. “I feel very
optimistic that we’re going to be able to get some things done
on the New River issue,” said Assemblymember Eduardo
Garcia.
The new majority on the Escondido City Council
appears poised to rescind the former council’s 2017 decision to
locate a $44 million recycled water plant in the middle of a
residential area. “It’s the wrong location,” newly elected
Mayor Paul “Mac” McNamara said of the site in the center of the
city at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Ash Street.
”It might cost us a few more bucks, but in the long term, it’s
better to have it where it needs to be.”
Arcadis has announced it will partner with Kiewit
Infrastructure West and PERC Water to serve as the progressive
design-build team for the Sustainable Water Infrastructure
Project (SWIP) in the City of Santa Monica, Calif. Currently,
the city partially relies on imported water to meet its
water needs. This project will allow the city to take a major
step toward water independence, supporting existing programs
designed to create a sustainable water supply
You can now register for our full slate of water tours for
2019, including a new tour along California’s Central Coast to
view a river’s restoration following a major dam removal, check
out efforts to desalt ocean water, recycle wastewater and
manage groundwater and seawater intrusion.
This month’s second annual Cuyamaca College Center for Water
Studies “Women in Water – Exploring Career Pathways” symposium
will provide a good opportunity for women and girls to learn
about a career in the field. Cuyamaca’s Center for Water
Studies opened in the fall of 2018. A renovated complex with
new classrooms, it also has a water quality analysis laboratory
and a workshop, and offers related skills-based courses. Last
year’s event drew nearly 200 participants. This year’s all-day
conference starts at 8 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 17.
Yosemite National Park officials say Hetch Hetchy and Mariposa
Grove are now closed from lack of available restrooms and the
impact of human waste as a result of the government shutdown.
Montgomery is known for fostering collaborative relationships
among stakeholders and as a leader in protecting and restoring
water quality within California and throughout the Southwest
and the Pacific Islands. He is currently serving as the
Assistant Director of the Water Division in the US
Environmental Protection Agency (Region 9).
There’s every reason to expect that 2019 will be far better,
largely because of Measure W, which was passed by voters in
November. The initiative imposes a Los Angeles County parcel
tax that will generate $300 million per year to reduce
pollution from runoff and capture storm water to add to the
water supply.
The tenth annual performance report evaluates what the
state water boards do and how the environment is responding to
its actions. The report presents numerous performance
measures for specific outputs and outcomes.
A sewage spill that federal officials said started Monday night
south of the border continues to flood the Tijuana River with
millions of gallons of raw effluent. A ruptured collector pipe
in southeast Tijuana is leaking roughly 7 million gallons a day
of sewage into the river, according to the U.S. section of the
International Boundary and Water Commission.
The equivalent of more than six million gallons a day of raw
sewage has been spilling into the Tijuana River since Monday
night, according to federal officials. The U.S. section of the
International Boundary and Water Commission, or IBWC, said
Tuesday that counterparts in Mexico informed the agency that
the cause of the sewage leak was a ruptured collector pipe.
The Río Nuevo flows north from Mexico into the United States,
passing through a gap in the border fence. The murky
green water reeks of sewage and carries soapsuds, pieces of
trash and a load of toxic chemicals from Mexicali, a city
filled with factories that manufacture products from
electronics to auto parts.
Cross-border water pollution between Tijuana and South San
Diego is not new, but in recent years, the problem has grown
worse. The reasons are complicated: There is Tijuana’s
topography, with its steep hillsides and canyons that drain
towards the border; the factories that get away with illegal
dumping; the city’s rapid population growth, aging wastewater
infrastructure and inadequate garbage collection. In the U.S.,
funding cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency have
prevented improvements to the Borderlands’ sewage system.
The Río Nuevo flows north from Mexico into the United States,
passing through a gap in the border fence. The murky
green water reeks of sewage and carries soapsuds, pieces of
trash and a load of toxic chemicals from Mexicali, a city
filled with factories that manufacture products from
electronics to auto parts.
The Hopi Tribe cannot claim special damage on land controlled
by the Arizona Snowbowl ski resort, the Arizona Supreme Court
ruled Thursday, all but ending an eight-year legal battle
and ensuring the ski area can continue using machine-made snow
on the state’s most popular slopes. The Hopi Tribe’s
lawsuit was originally about the machine-made snow. Its
complaint alleged that Snowbowl’s use of treated
wastewater to make the snow damaged the San Francisco Peaks,
which the tribe considers sacred.
In the waning weeks of the two-year legislative session,
Michigan lawmakers and local health departments are negotiating
revisions to two bills that would alter the state’s sanitary
code for septic tanks and other household wastewater treatment
systems. Changes are expected to expand the number of septic
inspections in order to identify leaking or broken systems that
pollute waters and pose disease risks.
Poor countries around the world are facing a dangerous shortage
of toilets that puts millions of live at risk, according to
campaigners marking World Toilet Day by urging governments and
businesses to invest more in sanitation.
Wastewater flowing from Mexico into Arizona fills a stretch of
the lower Santa Cruz River through the state’s southern
desert—but keeping the water clean and sewer pipe repaired
rankles both sides of the border. The 8.5-mile sewer pipeline
has caused issues for at least a decade and leaked raw sewage
last year, prompting Gov. Doug Ducey ® to briefly declare a
state of emergency.
A settlement agreement approved by the Ukiah City Council
Friday has the City of Ukiah paying the Ukiah Valley Sanitation
District $7.5 million to dismiss a lawsuit the agency filed in
2014.
California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra filed a lawsuit Tuesday
night against the Trump administration, alleging that the
federal government violated the Clean Water Act by allowing, in
recent years, millions of gallons of raw sewage, heavy metals
and other contamination to routinely spill from Tijuana into
San Diego.
A lawsuit brought by South Bay cities alleging the federal
government is not doing enough to prevent and treat the flow of
Tijuana sewage into the U.S. can move forward, a San Diego
federal judge ordered this week. The ruling, filed Wednesday,
comes a day after U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller toured
pumps and water-capture basins in the Tijuana River Valley to
get a first-hand look at the issue.
Among the great variety of locations a couple might consider as
their wedding venue, a sewage treatment plant probably would
not rank highly. Yet weddings are happening at the Brightwater
Treatment Plant near Maltby, Washington. To be precise, couples
are booking the Brightwater Education and Community Center for
their nuptials. Two dozen couples have tied the knot within the
center’s striking contemporary architecture since 2014.
Horror tales from recent earthquakes overseas are moving people
in Seattle, Portland and along the Pacific Northwest coast to
give a crap about where to crap after a major earthquake. It’s
not something we typically discuss in polite company, but
disaster planners say that when water and sewage service fails,
finding a place to poop is a big deal.
Federal court judge Jeffrey T. Miller toured the Tijuana River
Valley for several hours on Tuesday to observe pumps and canyon
collectors along the border intended to prevent sewage from
spilling into San Diego. The unusual move comes as the result
of a contentious legal battle in which Miller must decide
whether the Trump administration is doing enough to stop sewage
that routinely pours into the United States from Mexico.
It might seem harmless at first: a thread of dental floss
tossed in the toilet, a contact lens swirling down the drain of
the bathroom sink. But even the tiniest of items can
contaminate waterways. … Pharmaceuticals, which are also
frequently flushed down the drain, have been found in our
drinking water, and the consequences are not fully known.
Bottled water giant Crystal Geyser has been charged by a grand
jury with 16 counts of violating environmental and hazardous
waste laws, after the jury viewed evidence that the company
improperly disposed of toxic waste, a Department of Justice
press release said.
Coronado’s mayor flew to Oklahoma this week to talk with the
head of the Environmental Protection Agency about possible
solutions to the recurring Tijuana sewage spills that sully the
San Diego County coastline. Mayor Richard Bailey and
Administrator Scott Pruitt spoke one-on-one for about 20
minutes Tuesday during an annual meeting between leading
environmental experts and regulators from Mexico, the United
States and Canada.
Wastewater recycling doesn’t have to be a fancy affair.
Sometimes it can be as simple as building a pipeline. That is
more or less the full description of the North Valley Regional
Recycled Water Project. Only a year after starting
construction, at a cost of around $90 million, the project is
already delivering recycled urban wastewater to farms and
wildlife refuges in California’s San Joaquin Valley, providing
a reliable new water supply to a drought-plagued region.
The state Attorney General has joined San Diego’s regional
water regulators in pressuring the White House to do more to
address sewage from Tijuana that routinely spills over the
border fouling beaches as far north as Coronado. The San Diego
Regional Water Quality Control Board, with the backing of
Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s office, on Monday filed a
60-day notice of intent to sue the federal government for
violations of the Clean Water Act.
The top United States official at the international agency
charged with overseeing efforts to stem ongoing water pollution
in the Tijuana River Valley stepped down on Friday. The
departure of Edward Drusina, former commissioner of the U.S.
section of the International Boundary and Water Commission, or
IBWC, comes as the agency continues to face legal attacks from
South Bay cities that routinely shutter beaches due to
pollution from south of the border.
The city of Oakland and East Bay Municipal Utility District
must pay more than $360,000 for violating the Clean Water Act
by allowing untreated sewage into the San Francisco Bay,
officials said Tuesday. In 2014, EBMUD and seven East Bay
communities it serves, including Oakland and Berkeley, paid
$1.5 million in civil penalties for past sewage discharges.
[Rep. Susan] Davis, a San Diego Democrat on the House Armed
Services Committee, has grown concerned about untreated sewage
leaking from Tijuana’s aging and overworked wastewater
collection and treatment system, a problem exacerbated by
surges of fecal contamination when Mexican pipes break, pumps
fail and rain falls.
Disposal of sewage is something most people would rather not
think about, but that reluctance is costing Marin residents a
pretty penny, according to a new Marin County Civil Grand Jury
report. The report, released Friday, recommends immediate
consolidation of three sanitary districts in central Marin —
Sanitary District No. 1 (Ross Valley), Sanitary District No. 2
(Corte Madera) and the San Rafael Sanitary District.
A plan to pipe treated wastewater from Tijuana to the Guadalupe
Valley is being championed by authorities who say the project
not only would support the state’s wine-growing region, but
also solve another problem: reducing the flow to the
overburdened San Antonio de los Buenos coastal sewage treatment
plant.
Members of the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board
gathered in a closed session on Monday afternoon, debating
whether to file a lawsuit against the federal government to
stem the cross-border flow of sewage, sediment and other
contaminants from Tijuana to San Diego.
South Bay elected officials said they are filing a lawsuit
Friday in the most dramatic attempt in decades to force the
federal government to plug up the millions of gallons of sewage
and polluted water that routinely stream over the border from
Tijuana into the San Diego region.
Becky Van and Kale Novalis knew exactly when and where they
were going to tell each other, “I love you,” for the first
time. … The couple had signed up for a Valentine’s Day tour
of the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, the largest of
14 wastewater treatment facilities in New York City.
The pipes carrying away the effluvia of very sick people are
bound to be nasty, dirty places. But just how unwholesome they
are is made clear in a new report showing that the pipes
beneath a hospital intensive care unit are a throbbing,
seething hookup zone for antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
On Thursday, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
special agent Don Tanner confirmed the investigation will be
conducted into the incident involving the spill of up to 4.9
million gallons of untreated wastewater into the bay from the
Monterey One Water treatment plant.
An investigation will be conducted into the failure of a
computer warning system at the Monterey One Water regional
treatment plant which allowed millions of gallons of untreated
sewage to flow into the Monterey Bay for more than eight hours
late Friday night and early Saturday morning. According to
Monterey One Water General Manager Paul Sciuto, the
investigation began Monday morning and will be conducted by the
consulting firm Pinnacle ART.
Precipitation carrying tainted water through the Tijuana River
into the Pacific Ocean triggered beach closures Tuesday evening
from the international border to Seacoast Drive in Imperial
Beach. … The pollution from stormwater runoff adds to
spills from aging pipes and potentially hazardous discharges
from the deteriorating San Antonio de Los Buenos sewage
treatment plant in Punta Bandera, located about six miles south
of the border.
The U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water
Commission announced Thursday that it wants to hold a workshop
with San Diego-area cities and agencies in hopes of staving off
a lawsuit over the flow of sewage from Mexico.
Officials in Imperial Beach said Wednesday that sewage flowing
up the coast from Tijuana fouled miles of shoreline over the
weekend, severely sickening surfers and other beach goers.
Mayor Serge Dedina, who also fell ill, said he received no
advanced notice from officials in Mexico about the pollution.
At least one San Diego leader wants water researchers to start
testing city waterways for hepatitis A. Councilman David
Alvarez on Thursday penned a letter to the Southern California
Coastal Water Research Project requesting that the
environmental research group start testing as many as a
half-dozen area waterways for the deadly liver infection.
Modesto has agreed to pay the state a $165,000 fine for
releasing about 755 million gallons of partially treated waste
water into the San Joaquin River in March in violation of its
discharge permit.
The San Diego River saw a huge increase of pollution from human
feces last winter, according to documents obtained from
regional water quality regulators. The flood of human waste
came as storms drenched the region, washing pollution from the
urban environment into watersheds and potentially flushing
sewage from leaky pipes through groundwater into rivers and
creeks.
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to join
the growing legal campaign to force the federal government to
do more to stop sewage from spilling over the border from
Tijuana that routinely fouls South Bay beaches. “Enough is
enough,” Supervisor Greg Cox, whose district includes border
region with Mexico, said in a statement.
Kern County has agreed to stop challenging the City of Los
Angeles over its practice of dumping treated human waste on
Kern County farmland, capping a bitter legal battle that has
spanned more than a decade.
North Coast water regulators are taking another run at a
comprehensive program to prevent bacterial contamination of the
Russian River, one that includes provisions likely to have
significant impacts for thousands of homeowners dependent on
aging septic systems.
Federal water-quality officials on Thursday released a list of
actions taken in recent years to stop wastewater from flowing
from Mexico into the San Diego region, a little more than a
week after the city of Imperial Beach threatened a lawsuit.
The National Park Service has plans to replace aging sewer and
water lines in the Muir Woods National Monument that could
cause “significant damage” to the environment if they rupture,
including to Redwood Creek, home to delicate fish populations.
A state agency has issued a notice of violation to Modesto for
discharging roughly 755 million gallons of partially treated
waste water in to the San Joaquin River in March because the
city’s sewer system had been overwhelmed by storms and rising
river water.
A much-anticipated report on a sewage spill in Tijuana that has
sparked tensions with San Diego County gave mixed findings
Monday. … The investigation was launched by the
International Boundary and Water Commission, which oversees
water treaties between Mexico and the United States, among
other things.
Baja California’s governor is preparing to declare a state of
emergency in the coming days, hoping to draw financial aid for
Tijuana’s strained and underfunded sewage system following a
massive spill that sent millions of gallons of untreated
wastewater from Tijuana across the border and into San Diego
last month.
About 143 million gallons of sewage spilled into the Tijuana
River during a period of more than two weeks, said a
report released Friday. No other sewage spill in the
greater San Diego-Tijuana region has approached this magnitude
in years, according to the environmental group Wildcoast.
Modesto appears to have bought itself some time before it may
have to release partially treated wastewater that poses a
public health risk into the San Joaquin River. The city’s sewer
system has been overwhelmed by the recent storms and rising
river water, and it is reaching its capacity to store the
wastewater.
For decades, California oil companies have disposed of
wastewater by pumping it into aquifers that were supposed to be
protected by federal law. California regulators mistakenly
granted permits to do it, through a combination of poor record
keeping, miscommunication and permitting errors.
Kern County has lost a key round in its decade-long battle with
Southern California waste districts over the land application
of treated human and industrial waste. Now the Board of
Supervisors will have to decide whether to appeal the loss and
continue the fight.
For more than 30 years, wastewater from oil and gas operations
has been used to irrigate food crops in California. Regulators
will re-examine the safety of that practice during a public
hearing Friday.
A company that has trained dogs to recognize the smell of human
fecal bacteria has been sniffing out sources of water pollution
nationwide, discovering broken sewer pipes, leaking septic
tanks and illegal sewage discharges, to the delight of
environmental groups and government agencies.
Though he knows it makes no financial sense, Sam Lipson
regularly drives to a local sewer plant to haul home free
effluent to irrigate the trees in his yard.
Would you rather drink a cup of recycled wastewater or advanced
purified water? Actually, that’s a trick question – both
terms are often used to talk about the same thing.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calls nutrient
pollution the “single greatest challenge to our nation’s water
quality.” Rising concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus in
waterways, the agency reports, are a significant threat to
human health, ecosystems, and local economies.
It is now possible to imagine a future in which highly treated
wastewater will be plumbed directly into California homes as a
new drinking water supply. On September 8, the State Water
Resources Control Board released a long-awaited report on the
feasibility of so-called “direct potable reuse.”
I [John Holland] drove out past Merced last year to see a dairy
farmer testing a new idea. He irrigated 40 acres of feed corn
with drip lines, which are much more common in orchards and
vineyards than annual crops.
In rural areas with widely dispersed houses, reliance upon a
centralized
sewer system is not practical compared to individual
wastewater treatment methods. These on-site management facilities
– or septic systems – are more commonplace given their simpler
structure, efficiency and easy maintenance.
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.
The biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) of water determines the
impact of decaying matter on species in a specific ecosystem.
Sampling for BOD tests how much oxygen is needed by bacteria to
break down the organic matter.
The first test of ocean water following a massive California
sewage spill came back clean Wednesday, suggesting stinky
sludge that drained into the Los Angeles River didn’t flow 20
miles to the coast, officials said.
A damaged sewage line spilled a total of
about 2.4 million gallons of untreated
waste into the Los Angeles River and has
forced the closure of all beaches in Long Beach and Seal
Beach, officials said Tuesday.
Organizers of a petition drive to ban the practice of
irrigating crops with recycled oil field wastewater will be
pitching their cause on Saturday morning to customers at
markets in nine cities across the state, including a
Ralph’s in Los Angeles.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has banned the
disposal of hydraulic fracturing waste water at public sewage
plants, formalizing a voluntary practice that removed most
fracking waste from Pennsylvania plants starting in 2011. The
EPA on Monday finalized a rule that prevents operators from
disposing of waste from unconventional oil & gas operations at
publicly owned treatment works [POTW's].
Settling a major lawsuit from environmentalists, San Jose city
officials on Tuesday agreed to spend more than $100 million
over the next decade and beyond to reduce tons of trash that
flows into creeks and San Francisco Bay, repair miles of
leaking underground sewage pipes and clean stormwater
contaminated with harmful bacteria.
The Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District hired
Dragados USA to build a biological nutrient removal station,
part of a larger $1.5 billion to $2 billion effort to meet
stricter state standards on wastewater pollutants discharged
into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is failing in its
mandate to protect underground drinking water reserves from
oilfield contamination, according to a federal review singling
out lax EPA oversight in California, where the state routinely
allowed oil companies to dump wastewater into some drinking
water aquifers.
Californians have lived with the risk of a damaging earthquake
for centuries. Now Oklahomans, and some Kansans, face the same
threat, federal seismologists said on Monday.
By a unanimous vote, the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water
District, a water wholesaler for about 353 square miles of San
Bernardino County, certified the proposed Sterling Natural
Resources Center project, which would capture and treat East
Valley Water District’s wastewater and add the output to the
Bunker Hill Groundwater Basin, which is at a historic low
level.
A 2005 spate of quakes in California’s Central Valley almost
certainly was triggered by oilfield injection underground, a
study published Thursday said in the first such link in
California between oil and gas operations and earthquakes.
In the wake of drought and environmental concerns, more water
agencies in California and across the West are finding a new
water source for human consumption in an unexpected place: the
sewer.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials were in Carlsbad
on Wednesday to announce more than $182 million in federal
funding that will be funneled to drinking water and wastewater
infrastructure improvements throughout California.
Like all ski areas in the Tahoe-Truckee region, Soda Springs
Mountain Resort’s efforts to stretch out its operations during
California’s four-year drought has been an uphill climb.
A U.S. Interior Department investigation glossed over the
federal government’s negligence in a massive toxic wastewater
spill from an inactive gold mine that fouled rivers in three
states, Republicans in Congress said as they pushed for a more
detailed explanation of the accident.
In an attempt to prevent its oil industry from contaminating
groundwater sources that could be used for drinking water,
California regulators closed 33 wells last week that were
injecting oilfield waste into protected aquifers.
