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
High bacteria levels at beaches near the site of a massive
sewage discharge in Playa del Rey have prompted Los Angeles
County health officials to issue a warning about going in the
water. The L.A. County Department of Public Health did not rule
out a link between the 17-million-gallon sewage release from
the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant on July 11 and the rise in
bacteria. But a connection was “unlikely,” given the currents
and the more than two weeks that have elapsed since the
incident, the department said.
The Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District (Regional
San) has completed a significant upgrade to its wastewater
treatment facility that serves the Sacramento region. The new
Biological Nutrient Removal project (BNR) is now operational,
virtually eliminating ammonia from the region’s treated
wastewater.
Rain fell on San Diego Monday. It wasn’t a lot of rain – an
Accuweather forecast called for “a brief morning shower or two”
with an anticipated rainfall of 0.01 inches. But it was enough
to prompt a beach closure at the Tijuana Slough, just south of
Imperial Beach. That section of the beach is closed whenever
the Tijuana River is flowing. Cross-border sewage spills have
been an issue in South County for decades.
For years, oily, odorous and — at times — thick runoff water
flowed from the back end of the Knolls Lodge Mobile Home Park
in Torrance into the storm drain of a neighboring cul-de-sac.
Marc Evans’ family home happens to be in the runoff water’s
path, and he has been trying to get it to stop for years. Evans
shared that the area recently caught a break from the eyesore.
… The flow came from the park’s resident car wash area
that’s located along a brick wall sharing a property line with
Evans’ family home.
Multiple failures in communication between Los Angeles city and
county agencies delayed crucial public warnings and a full
emergency response to a massive sewage discharge earlier this
month at the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant, according to a
report obtained by The Times that was discussed Tuesday by
county officials. The report provides new details regarding
plant flooding and the evacuation of staff just before an
hours-long discharge of 17 million gallons of raw sewage into
the waters off Dockweiler and El Segundo beaches July 11 and
12.
Environmentalists say desalination decimates ocean life, costs
too much money and energy, and soon will be made obsolete by
water recycling. But as Western states face an epic drought,
regulators appear ready to approve a desalination plant in
Huntington Beach, California. After spending 22 years and
$100 million navigating a thicket of state regulations and
environmentalists’ challenges, Poseidon Water is down to one
major regulatory hurdle – the California Coastal Commission.
On a jog in her El Segundo neighborhood, Corrie Zupo’s head
hurt and her eyes watered. She blamed the symptoms on noxious
fumes from the nearby Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant, which
is undergoing at least a month of repairs after discharging 17
million gallons of raw sewage into the ocean on July 11. Other
residents have complained of rashes, nausea and burning eyes.
On Thursday, the Los Angeles Sanitation and Environment
Department, which runs the plant, announced that it would
reimburse El Segundo residents for air conditioners if they
stay in their homes, or hotel vouchers if they would rather
leave.
Los Angeles Controller Ron Galperin sent a letter to LA
Sanitation and Environment on Tuesday, July 20, demanding
answers about the cause and impact of a 17 million gallon
sewage spill early last week that temporarily closed beaches
from El Segundo to the southern end of Playa del Rey. … The
Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant, near El Segundo, discharged
17 million gallons of untreated sewage through a one-mile
outfall beginning the evening of July 11 and into the morning
of July 12, prompting the beach closures.
Desalination is the process of converting seawater into potable
water by removing salt and other minerals. Although rudimentary
forms of desalination have been used since antiquity, only in
the mid-20th century did industrial-scale desalination methods
become widely available for water-insecure coastal communities
around the world. Today, about 300 million people in more than
150 countries get water every day from some 16,000 desalination
plants.
A South Carolina federal judge issued an order late last
week allowing the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, the Trump
administration’s “waters of the United States” rule, to remain
in place while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and
Army Corps of Engineers work on rulemakings to revoke and
replace it. The final rule was issued in April 2020, redefining
“waters of the United States” and narrowing the scope of Clean
Water Act jurisdiction.
For years, petroleum hydrocarbons have been seeping from the
groundwater beneath the old oil tank farm property in Avila
Beach into tide pools below. Much of the source of the
pollution has been cleaned up, but an unknown amount remains.
The question now is, what should be done with it and could
over-aggressive remediation cause more harm than good?
The trickle of hydrocarbons — comprised of a mixture of
diluted, broken-down gas from the tank farm — was discovered in
May 2012 …
There is growing scrutiny over a 17-million-gallon sewage spill
into the Santa Monica Bay, with many asking how the spill
occurred and why it took so long to alert the public. … Here
is a breakdown of what we know — and what we don’t. The
emergency discharge at Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant in
Playa del Rey began Sunday evening and ended around 4:30 a.m.
Monday, according to interviews. The 17 million gallons —
about 6% of the facility’s daily load — amounted to the largest
emergency discharge conducted at the Hyperion plant in a
decade, officials said.
After 17 million gallons of raw sewage were discharged into the
ocean off Los Angeles beaches early Monday, county officials
waited hours before notifying the public to avoid swimming in
areas potentially affected by high levels of bacteria. The
delay occurred even though officials from the Los Angeles
County Department of Public Health, which is responsible for
notifying the public, were at the Hyperion Water Reclamation
Plant in Playa del Rey during the emergency discharge procedure
that began Sunday evening and ended Monday around 4:30 a.m.,
according to interviews.
A prominent oil and gas lobbying group seeks to strip
environmental protections from groundwater sources designated
by the state for agricultural use and which may grow
increasingly important to California’s water-scarce future,
according to a memo obtained through a records request. The
proposal, which hasn’t been publicly announced, suggests
removing protections for groundwater reserves underneath 1,500
square surface miles in western Kern County, where the
upper groundwater zone alone can extend down thousands of feet.
For years, the city of Eureka sent treated wastewater directly
into Humboldt Bay from its Elk River processing plant.
But five years ago, the North Coast Regional Water Control
Board ordered the city to “cease and desist” and to move to
ocean discharge by 2030. The city is now seeking a
resolution that would allow wastewater to continue to be
discharged into the bay. The water board will meet in
mid-August to decide. Whether or not the city is granted
the exemption to continue, there are plans in the works to make
upgrades to the Elk River wastewater facility.
Miles of beaches in Los Angeles were closed to swimmers Monday
as 17 million gallons of sewage from the city’s largest
treatment plant spilled into Santa Monica Bay the night
before. A mechanical failure “at the Hyperion plant last night
caused untreated sewage to be discharged into the ocean,” Los
Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said on
Twitter. … Closure signs were posted in the areas around
El Segundo and Dockweiler State Beaches, as well as Grand
Ave. Storm Drain, and officials urged visitors from going
into the water.
Lake Tahoe’s water continues to show some of the murkiest
levels on record, according to a new report from UC Davis.
Readings from 2020 put the average depth of Tahoe’s water
clarity at 62.9 feet, on par with 2019’s average of 62.7 feet
but down a substantial 8 feet from the year before. The 2019
and 2020 data show the lake near its lowest level of clarity
since UC Davis researchers began keeping records 53 years ago.
The worst year was 2017, when lake clarity measured 59.7 feet.
Two Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD) projects have
received preliminary federal funding allocations in
appropriations legislation, thanks to the diligence of
Representatives Ken Calvert and Mark Takano. In the House
Appropriations Committee’s FY2022 Interior, Environment, and
Related Agencies legislation, EMWD’s Quail Valley Septic to
Sewer program is slated to receive $2.5 million from
Congressman Ken Calvert’s (CA-42nd) request, and its Mead
Valley Booster Station project received $1 million from
Congressman Mark Takano’s (CA-41st) request.
The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (“Regional
Board”) is in the process of issuing a new permit for water
discharges through the municipal separate storm sewer systems
(“MS4”) in Los Angeles County and Ventura County. The MS4
permit is an important document that regulates how
municipalities can allow stormwater to flow through the MS4
system and out into natural (or modified) waterways. Stormwater
typically contains high quantities of pollutants, including
toxic metals, bacteria, and other materials picked up from
buildings and streets during wet weather events, all of which
harms both the ecosystem and human health.
The Long Beach City Council is set to weigh in on the next
phase of the planned Long Beach Municipal Urban Stormwater
Treatment Facility … The project will include both
construction of the facility and a new wetland habitat area,
though the contract with Shimmick will just be for the
stormwater treatment site; a contract to build the wetlands
will come to the panel at a later date.
The beaches are back, and according to research taken from the
coastal watchdogs at Heal the Bay, there are plenty of
excellent Southland beaches for people to enjoy this summer.
Even so, a handful of beaches across California, including a
perennial “beach bummer” in Los Angeles County, leave something
to be desired. Heal the Bay’s complete 2020-2021 Beach Report
Card covers the entirety of the west coast, from the Pacific
Northwest down to Tijuana, and includes brief water quality
updates from along the coast. It also features grades on
freshwater sources and swimming holes, such as those along the
LA River.
Here’s some good news (and then, some not-so-good news) for
those seeking a summer respite by the sea: Beaches across
California are much cleaner than in years past. In its annual
survey of more than 500 beaches, Heal the Bay reported Tuesday
that 93% of California’s beaches logged good water-quality
marks between April and October 2020 — an encouraging
assessment for a coastline that sees all manner of trash,
pesticides and bacteria (not to mention microplastics,
automotive fluids and tire particles) flushed into the ocean
whenever it rains.
The Clean Currents Coalition – a global network of local
projects – is on a mission to clean up the world’s rivers,
using scientific solutions to address the problem of plastic
waste … Pollution doesn’t respect international
boundaries, making plastic waste in the Tijuana River Estuary,
which forms the border between the US and Mexico, everyone’s
problem. As the river is the sole source of clean drinking
water for many people, California and Mexico-based
environmental non-profit WILDCOAST, has erected a “Brute
Boom” across the Los Laureles Canyon to collect debris.
Mission Springs Water Districtis facing as much as
$9.4 million in fines from state and regional water
regulators after district officials failed to report
a nearly million-gallon spill from a breached
wastewater percolation pond as required, and failed to
notify state authorities that a temporary holding pond had
been constructed. District officials waited two weeks to
notify state authorities that last Oct. 3,
large amounts of treated wastewater
gushed through Desert Hot Springs residential streets …
California’s existing release reporting requirements, which are
in addition to federal requirements, are viewed by many as
vague and often require companies to make difficult judgment
calls to determine if small spills or threatened releases must
be reported. In workshops held on June 22 and 24, 2021 the
California Office of Emergency Services (CalOES) previewed
amendments to its Hazardous Material Release Reporting
regulations that aim to clarify when a release or threatened
release of a hazardous substance must be reported.
As science and policy director for Santa Barbara Channelkeeper
and a 14-year resident of Carpinteria, I appreciated Bob
Franco’s June 16 letter to the editor, “Don’t drink the water,”
for its effectiveness in raising awareness about an important
pollution issue impacting Carpinteria’s local waterways.
Channelkeeper is a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to
protecting and restoring the Santa Barbara Channel and its
watersheds. -Written by Ben Pitterle, Channelkeeper’s interim
executive director and science and policy director.
ACWA-sponsored SB 323 passed out of the Assembly Judiciary
Committee on Tuesday and is headed to the Assembly floor. SB
323, authored by Senator Anna Caballero (D–Salinas), would
provide financial stability for public agencies by creating a
120-day statute of limitations for challenges to new water and
sewer rates. This would provide public agency water and sewer
service rates the same protections already afforded to fees and
charges that fund other essential government services.
PG&E will pay the Central Coast Regional Water Quality
Control Board $5.9 million in a landmark settlement that
recognizes the long-term impacts of dumping water used to cool
Diablo Canyon Power Plant back into the Pacific Ocean — but
also the realities of a plant that is expected to close in the
next decade.
Riverbank is looking at upgrading its sewage plant to produce
water clean enough for crops. The city would join three others
in Stanislaus County that recycle water from kitchen and
bathroom drains for use on farms. Modesto, Ceres and Turlock
send their highly treated effluent to the Del Puerto Water
District on the West Side. Riverbank would sell its water to
farmers just to the north, possibly including some in the South
San Joaquin Irrigation District.
After more than a decade of planning, community meetings — and
more planning — an ambitious $630 million effort to replace two
aging underground wastewater pipes officially launched on
Monday, June 21, as a two-story-high electric tunneling machine
was lowered underground at the sanitation plant on the border
of Carson and Wilmington. The details have been continually
refined since planning began in 2006. The Clearwater Project,
its formal name, was approved in 2012 by the Los Angeles County
Sanitation Districts and was described by engineers involved in
the work as sophisticated, intricate and precise.
The San Elijo Joint Powers Authority’s water reclamation
facility near San Elijo Lagoon on Manchester Avenue in
Encinitas was named “Plant of the Year” by the California Water
Environment Association, the agency announced today. The award
recognizes accomplishments in compliance, innovative practices,
cost-effectiveness and superior plant performance amongst
wastewater agencies across California.
San Diego Gas & Electric Co. (SDG&E) appears to be
violating a water discharge waver by the California Water
Quality Control Board issued earlier this month by the board,
according to Larry Schmidt of the VC Planning Group, whom The
Roadrunner contacted Saturday. Schmidt is the lead for the
planning group on this issue after being appointed Monday night
to head the group’s subcommittee investigating the utility’s
work on Cole Grade Road that is near Cool Valley Road.
Several locations along the American River north of Sacramento
are showing above-average levels of E. coli, according to the
Central Valley Water Board. KCRA 3 spoke with health officials
in Sacramento County on Friday about the concerning levels of
E. coli.
Hot temperatures are drawing people to the cool water of
Tiscornia Beach, but what many there may not know, there are
high levels of E.coli found in the water. … Robert
Metcalf is a retired professor who’s taught microbiology at
Sacramento State University for 42 years. He said finding
E. coli in the water means there is recent fecal
contamination. Mary Beth Metcalf, a retired clinical
professor of pediatrics from UC Davis, said E.coli leads
to other infections.
A long-planned water recycling project for the Five Cities area
— Central Coast Blue — hangs in uncertainty after the City of
Arroyo Grande unanimously voted on June 8th to withdraw from
the project unless their demand for a shared operating
agreement is met. Central Coast Blue, spearheaded by the City
of Pismo Beach, is a multi-million dollar project set to bring
a reliable water source to the Five Cities area by using
recycled water.
Pee yew! If you’ve noticed a funky smell south of town — you’re
not alone. Over the last year, a new treatment system at the
city’s wastewater facility has proved to be far more efficient
in the removal of solids from the waste stream than was
expected. Ultimately, the new treatment system improves the
reliability and quality of treated water released into the
ocean, but it means there’s a lot more… stuff… to dry
out.
The U.S. House of Representatives’ Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee last week marked up and advanced H.R.
1915, the Water Quality Protection and Job Creation Act of
2021. … By 2035, the City of Los Angeles expects to
recycle 100 percent of its water supplies and reduce its
reliance on costly imported water from the Colorado
River. Truckee Meadows Water Authority in Reno is planning
13-mile pipeline to provide 1.3 billion gallons of recycled
water annually to the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, home to
Tesla, Switch and Google, and ensure 20,000 jobs remain in
Nevada.
A large oilfield wastewater disposal pond near Buttonwillow
will likely close this summer, and its operator and last
remaining customer will together pay $645,000 in penalties and
fees, under a recent court settlement that further restricts a
decades-old practice that has become a focus of regional water
quality regulators. The accord concludes a 2019 lawsuit that
accused facility owner Valley Water Management Co. and
Colorado-based oil producer Sentinel Peak Resources of dumping
fluid containing harmful chemicals above a reservoir that
provides local drinking and irrigation water.
Humboldt County gave the public two chances to air concerns
this week surrounding Nordic Aquafarms’ proposed onshore fish
farm on the Samoa Peninsula. County planners held two public
scoping meetings Thursday to gather input from the public and
affected governmental agencies on areas that should be covered
in the project’s environmental impact report (EIR). The
Humboldt County Planning and Building Department had released a
mitigated negative declaration (MND) for the project in April
but a coalition of environmental groups argued that the
assessment didn’t go far enough.
A Central Valley pistachio processing plant whose wastewater
ponds triggered numerous odor complaints from nearby residents
will pay a $221,440 fine, a portion of which will fund improved
ventilation at two public schools in the area. The Central
Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board (Central Valley
Water Board) fined Setton Pistachio after determining the
company had violated the terms of an August 2020 cease and
desist order (CDO) directing it to immediately eliminate
objectionable odors coming from ponds at its plant in Terra
Bella in Tulare County.
The Union has printed several opinion pieces by Idaho-Maryland
Mine Project opponents. The majority of these columns present
“information” that’s either biased or misleading and based
neither on science nor logic. Here are the facts.
… Recent columns erroneously suggest that groundwater
impacts cannot be accurately predicted. Numerous expert
hydrogeologists and a century of mining at the Idaho-Maryland
say otherwise. … The actual conclusion is that no wells
would be drained… -Written by Ben Mossman, president of Rise Grass
Valley and CEO of Rise Gold Corp., U.S. corporations.
Five years ago Bay Area voters wisely approved Measure AA, a
nine-county, 20-year, $12 per parcel annual tax to restore San
Francisco Bay and guard against the threat of rising sea levels
due to global warming. … An estimated 355,000 Bay
Area residents live within a 100-year flood plain that includes
800 miles of roads and highways, 70 miles of critical rail
lines, 46 wastewater plants, 35 schools and 15 hospitals.
The White House last week announced the official
launch of the Low-Income Household Water Assistance
Program (LIHWAP) housed at the U.S. Department of Health &
Human Services (HHS). This program is the first of its
kind designed to provide funding to help low-income households
affected by the COVID-19 pandemic pay their water and
wastewater bills. According to the National Association of
Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), the available federal funds,
which total $1.138 billion, were secured as part of
the federal COVID-19 relief spending in December 2020 and March
2021.
As California responds to yet another drought and prepares for
a future of greater climate extremes, securing funding to boost
the water system’s resilience is a top priority. One go-to
funding source over the last two decades has been state general
obligation bonds. In dollar terms, GO bonds play a relatively
small role in water system spending, yet they punch above their
weight when it comes to filling critical gaps.
A proposal that would more than double the cost of sewer
service in the region over the next five years and has drawn
the rage of the area’s hospitality and business interests heads
to a board for final approval on June 7. The board of directors
for Monterey One Water, the regional wastewater management
service, will vote on the proposed schedule of rate increases.
If approved, ratepayers will see a 47-percent jump in their
sewage bills after July 1. By 2025, rates would be 122-percent
higher than they are today. … [T]he increase is needed to
maintain and update the utility’s $750 million infrastructure
assets, some of which are more than 30 years old.
Water is weird – and yet so important. In fact, it is one of
the most unusual molecules on Earth. It boils at a temperature
it shouldn’t. It expands and floats when it is in the
solid-state. Its surface tension is higher than it should be.
Now, new research published in the journal Nature has
added one other equally strange property to water’s list of
oddities. The implications of this new revelation could have a
remarkable impact on all water-related processes from water
purification to drug manufacturing.
The ocean shoreline at Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge
and Border Field State Park was closed Saturday due to
contaminated sewage water that may be moving north into the
U.S., county water authorities said. The San Diego County
Department of Environmental Health and Quality issued the
contact closure for the ocean shoreline Saturday. Ocean water
samples exceeded state health standards, DEHQ officials said.
Adel Hagekhalil is an inspired choice to be the next general
manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern
California, the agency that delivers the water ultimately used
by half of the state’s population. He’s an engineer, a
consensus builder and a champion of the movement to integrate
management of different types of water — drinking water,
wastewater, stormwater, environmental water — in order to
reduce costs and use precious resources more efficiently. He
may be exactly what the MWD needs at this point in its
history…
At the May meeting of the Delta Stewardship Council, Dr. Steve
Brandt, Chair of the Delta Independent Science Board, provided
a brief background on the Delta Independent Science Board,
reported on the Board’s recently completed review on non-native
species in the Delta, and discussed the Board’s approach going
forward in light of the recent compensation issues. Also,
Dr. Laurel Larsen spotlighted a recent study looking at the
effects of the Sacramento Regional Sanitation District plant
upgrade on phytoplankton.
Too often, ocean water is laced with sewage and pollutants,
affecting how safe beaches are for swimming and surfing –
that’s the message of this year’s Clean Water Report released
Tuesday, May 25, by the Surfrider Foundation. …
[T]he report highlights inefficiencies in sewer
infrastructure and a need to stop urban runoff before it
reaches the coast, both main contributors to dirty water that
plagues the country’s coastlines.
Hidden from view when driving by is the [Rise Gold]
mine that is filled with water contaminated with
byproducts of hard rock mining. The water now forms a murky
lake several hundred yards wide. Rise Gold plans to pump out
3.6 million gallons of water every single day for six months
and after that another 1.2 million gallons a day for up to 80
years from this site. Let that sink in. Get your mind
fully around this. This is real. They will dump this water
into the little creek alongside the site and send it on its way
down Wolf Creek to the Feather River to the Sacramento River to
San Francisco Bay … -Written by Billy Packard.
[R]esearchers collected water during heavy rainstorms from 12
streams flowing into the San Francisco Bay. … Microscopic
fibers and black rubbery fragments were the most common
microparticles, while natural debris, glass, paint and wool
were only minor components. Then, the team identified a subset
of plastic- or rubbery-looking fragments as being made mostly
of plastic polymers or other synthetic materials, and many of
the black rubbery particles originated from tires.
Rosamond Community Services District’s residential and
commercial customers will see their water and sewer rates
increase after the District’s governing Board approved rate
adjustments earlier this month as part of the District’s
efforts to remain fiscally solvent. The average district
residential customer will see a monthly water bill increase of
$6.11. This average represents about 70% of the District’s
residential customer base. The average commercial 1 customer
will see a monthly water bill increase of $20.90, while the
average commercial 2 customer will see an increase of $2.56.
In terms of sheer size, Nordic Aquafarms’ land-based
aquaculture facility, slated for construction on the Samoa
Peninsula, would be the largest development project Humboldt
County has seen for decades, maybe since the heyday of the
timber industry. The facility’s five buildings — including two
massive production modules where Atlantic salmon would be
raised inside fully-contained recirculating tanks — would total
766,530 square feet, nearly an acre larger than the footprint
of the Bayshore Mall. It’s been more than two years since the
Norwegian company announced its ambitious plans, and the
environmental review period was scheduled to wrap up this
week.
Because Bay Area low-lying sewage treatment plants remain
vulnerable to rising sea levels, government regulators told
sewage facility managers to “provide a written plan for coping
with SLR by the fall of 2021 – or they will be given a
plan.” The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit reached out to
10 “at risk” sewage treatment plants to see those
plans. All except one provided extensive documents of
their proposals, the cost to address them, and even provided
tours of completed work. San Francisco’s Public Utilities
Commission replied to the Investigative Unit’s public records
request that after a “diligent search for records…no records
were found.”
The Crescent City Council is moving forward with a study on
water and sewer rates, which may result in increased rates for
residents. After receiving a grant from the California State
Water Resources Control Board totaling about $80,000, the city
is pressing on with the overdue rate studies. Typically, rate
studies for water and sewer are completed every five years,
however, the last water rate study came in 2013 and the last
update to wastewater came in 2015, said City Manager Eric Wier.
Wier said these projects are the first-step in maintaining the
overall health of both systems.
Growers in the Central Coast region of California produce most
of the cool-season vegetables for the U.S. from March to
mid-November. After several years of multi-cropping vegetables,
the groundwater in many of the coastal valleys has become
contaminated with nitrate. Some wells have concentrations of
nitrate several times the federal drinking water standard of 10
ppm (parts per million) nitrate-N. Rural communities that rely
on groundwater as their sole source of drinking water must
purchase bottled water or install small reverse osmosis
systems.
Crystal Geyser bought the nearly 145,000 square foot bottling
plant in 2013. Since then, it’s been the target of protests by
local activists and members of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe.
Opponents say if it ever started operating, it would draw down
too much water, and cause air and noise pollution. … They are
in the midst of suing the beverage company in an effort to get
a new environmental impact report.
The U.S. Senate confirmed Radhika Fox, former US Water Alliance
CEO, as EPA Office of Water Assistant Administrator during a
confirmation hearing May 12. With the confirmation, Fox became
the first woman of color and first individual of Asian heritage
to be both nominated and confirmed to lead the EPA Office of
Water. Fox had been appointed to the Office of Water after
President Joe Biden’s inauguration in January.
Suffering through a prolonged dry period, utilities are
increasingly relying on sewage to generate the state’s water
needs. Known in industry parlance as “recycled wastewater”
and in lay terms as “toilet to tap,” this water source
understandably triggers a gag reflex in some consumers — but it
shouldn’t. Recycled wastewater is quickly becoming the
single most important element of a drought-proof water supply
in the climate-change era, and it happens to be as pure and
delicious as anything you might buy bottled from the Swiss
Alps.
In California Coastkeeper v. State Lands Commission, the Third
District Court of Appeal upheld the State Lands Commission’s
decision to prepare a supplemental environmental impact report
(EIR) for a desalination plant in Huntington Beach, overturning
an earlier trial court ruling that invalidated the
EIR. Limited changes to a desalination project were
proposed in order to comply with desalination-related
amendments to the State’s Ocean Plan.
[I]n a new study, UCLA researchers found that nitrogen in
treated sewage is driving a massive growth of oceanic algae and
loss of oxygen, which will likely have lasting effects on the
region’s ecosystem. From 1997 to 2000, for example, the growth
of microscopic marine algae called phytoplankton was 79% higher
than it would have been without nitrogen from human sewage in
the waters along the coast from the Baja California Peninsula
to Santa Barbara. The problem occurs in large part because
freshwater from sewage is less dense than the seawater it’s
injected into, which causes the wastewater to rises to the
surface, where phytoplankton live.
Twenty years ago, in the 2001 Los Angeles mayoral race, a topic
usually seen as dull became the most lurid issue of the
campaign. The topic was water recycling, and we are still being
hurt by the rhetoric from that election today. Candidate Joel
Wachs, a longtime member of the City Council, didn’t even make
the runoff that year. But during the primary he alarmed voters
across the city by insisting that Los Angeles was furtively
planning to pipe recycled sewage to millions of unsuspecting
Angelenos — without, according to Wachs, adequate public input
or scientific research. The recycling idea became widely known
as “toilet to tap” … -Written by Marc Haefele, a Santa Monica freelance
writer.
May is American Wetlands Month and this year also marks the
50th anniversary of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of
International Importance. This intergovernmental treaty is
focused on the conservation and wise use of important wetlands
and their resources. … Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine
Research Reserve … provides habitat for a diversity
of wildlife species, including more than 100 species of fish,
500 species of invertebrates, and the region’s iconic southern
sea otters. … Tomales Bay is a marine-coastal
wetland consisting of estuaries, eelgrass beds, sand dune
systems, and tidal marshes.
Senators Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla (both D-Calif.)
today joined with Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky
Rosen (both D-Nev.) to introduce bipartisan legislation to
extend authorization of the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act. The
original Lake Tahoe Restoration Act was passed in 2000 and
authorized $300 million for the restoration of the lake and
surrounding basin. The current authorization, which was passed
in 2016, will expire in 2024. Reauthorizing the bill will
prevent an interruption in conservation and restoration
planning.
When Sandra Chavez’ mother discovered she had stage four cancer
last year, one of Sandra’s first thoughts was about their
water. Her family’s private well is contaminated with nitrates
and Chavez wondered if years of drinking the water could have
caused her mother’s sickness. Chavez and her family have relied
on bottled water since they found out their well water was
unsafe in 2015. But sometimes they don’t have enough and are
forced to drink the contaminated water. So when Chavez
found out about a new program providing free bottled water
delivery for families with nitrate-contaminated wells, she was
frustrated she hadn’t been contacted.
Among attributes of the controversial Poseidon desalination
plant proposed for Huntington Beach is the $1.5 million or so
it would spend annually to keep the tidal inlet open at the
Bolsa Chica wetlands, five miles up the coast from the project
site. But as much as the money is needed there, the three
non-profit groups dedicated to the wetlands’ preservation clash
when it comes to support for the desalter plant. The state
spent $151 million to create the inlet in 2006, restoring the
estuary’s interaction with the ocean and revitalizing the
wildlife habitat. The work has been a particular boon to the
population and variety of birds.
You can’t water your lawn more than twice a week in the city or
Sacramento during summer, and never on Thursday or
Friday. For thousands of Sacramento County residents, the
limit is three days a week. In Roseville, there’s no watering
between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. Customers of the San Juan Water
District have five days to fix leaks, and hosing down the
driveway or sidewalk is off-limits in Elk Grove. Long
before Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a drought
emergency for the Sacramento region — and much of the rest
of California — area residents were already dealing with an
assortment of restrictions on water consumption, depending on
their supplier.
Newly announced state funding for the Salton Sea is expected to
maximize habitat outcomes and provide immediate economic relief
to the community. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s $5.1 billion water
infrastructure, drought response and climate resilience
proposal, which he announced Monday as part of his $100 billion
“California Comeback Plan,” includes $220 million for the
Salton Sea. At Tuesday’s Imperial County Board of Supervisors
meeting on Tuesday, District 1 Supervisor Jesus Eduardo Escobar
wanted to know what is meant by providing immediate economic
relief to the community and how this would occur.
The California State Lands Commission properly reviewed a
stalled desalination planned to be built on the coast south of
Los Angeles, a state appeals court says. In a decision filed
Saturday, the appeals court affirmed a lower court’s rejection
of a challenge to the plant by the environmental group
California Coastkeeper Alliance and others. It determined that
a 2017 re-review of the planned desalination plant in
Huntington Beach adequately complied with the requirements of
the California Environmental Quality Act.
Chula Vista resident and Imperial Beach lifeguard Lillian
Burkhart still remembers the sting on her skin after surfing in
Imperial Beach waters one day last summer. Within 24 hours, she
fell ill with a gastrointestinal infection, she said.
… Burkhart’s experience is commonplace and a reminder of
the decades-long struggle to address the recurring sewage
spills from Tijuana that pollute the South Bay shoreline.
A U.S. District Court judge has ordered McKinleyville-based
construction firm Kernen Construction Co. to pay over
$2,087,750 in civil penalties after it was found to have
violated the Clean Water Act by discharging contaminated storm
water into a nearby tributary creek of the Mad River. The order
was issued by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers on May 2 after the
company was found to have discharged storm water without
engaging in pollution control measures mandated by the
CWA.
At its next meeting Wednesday, the Ukiah City Council will
consider a recommendation to spend more than $175,000 on a
system to help control algae in its recycled water system, also
called the Purple Pipe. According to the staff report prepared
for the May 5 meeting, “due to high nutrient content and local
climate, the water quality of recycled water within the storage
reservoirs can become negatively impacted by algal blooms.
Algae can become problematic once it is in the distribution
system and lead to clogging of filters or irrigation
equipment.”
Farmersville is opening the floodgates for growth upon the
completion of the wastewater treatment facility expansion, the
most expensive public works project in the city’s history. The
newly-updated wastewater treatment facility comes in at about
$23 million, switching from percolating basins to updated
technology like digesters and clarifiers to meet the city’s
growing population and updated state requirements. City manager
Jennifer Gomez said she’s excited to see the project of over 10
years come to completion.
Many miles of streams and rivers in the United States and
elsewhere are polluted by toxic metals in acidic runoff
draining from abandoned mining sites, and major investments
have been made to clean up acid mine drainage at some sites. A
new study based on long-term monitoring data from four sites in
the western United States shows that cleanup efforts can allow
affected streams to recover to near natural conditions within
10 to 15 years after the start of abatement work. The four
mining-impacted watersheds—located in mountain mining regions
of California, Colorado, Idaho, and Montana—were all designated
as Superfund sites …
When Ramona Hernandez turns on her kitchen faucet in El Adobe,
an unincorporated town just a few miles southeast of
Bakersfield, the water that splashes out looks clean and
inviting. But she doesn’t dare drink it. … Drinking the
tap water in this tiny community of dusty ranches and unpaved
roads could expose Hernandez to arsenic. So, for years, she and
her husband, Gerardo, have shuttled twice a week to the nearby
town of Lamont to load up on bottled water. At a cost of about
$80 a month, it’s enough for drinking and cooking.
A familiar scene has returned to California: drought. Two
counties are currently under emergency declarations, and the
rest of the state could follow. It was only four years ago when
a winter of torrential rain finally wrestled the state out of
its last major drought, which had dragged on for five years and
left thousands of domestic wells coughing up dust. That
drinking-water crisis made national headlines and helped shine
a light on another long-simmering water crisis in California:
More than 300 communities have chronically unsafe drinking
water containing contaminants that can come with serious health
consequences, including cancer.
On Thursday the U.S. Senate voted to pass S. 914, the
Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act
(DWWIA). It is the first infrastructure bill approved by
the Senate this Congress. The bipartisan, comprehensive clean
water and drinking water infrastructure legislation will
authorize strong annual water infrastructure investment to help
boost total federal investment. In full, the legislation
authorizes more than $35 billion for drinking water and
wastewater resource development projects across the country …
Regenerative farming practices integrate the entire ecosystem —
building upon the relationships of the natural world — to
simultaneously produce healthier, more abundant crops and
restore the Earth’s natural resources. … And
restoring soil health and fertility produces more abundant,
nutrient-dense crops that better resist pests and disease. It
increases soil’s ability to filter and store water, reduce
erosion and sequester carbon. And it builds a diversity and
abundance of microbes that drive every function of soil.
Seven years ago, after the fish died, Sarah Ryan decided she
couldn’t wait any longer for help. California at the time
was in the depths of its worst drought in the last millennium
and its ecosystems were gasping. For Ryan, the fish kill in
Clear Lake, the state’s second largest and the centerpiece of
Lake County, was the last straw. Ryan is the environmental
director for Big Valley Rancheria, a territory of the Big
Valley Band of Pomo Indians that sits on the ancient
lake’s western shore. She and others raised alarms for several
years about increasingly dire blooms of toxic
cyanobacteria.
A little more than a week ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that
not only would California effectively ban hydraulic fracturing,
or fracking, by 2024, but the state also would work to phase
out oil extraction entirely by 2045. … It was — like the
governor’s promise last year that the state would ban the sale
of new gas-powered cars by 2035 — a sweeping pronouncement
meant to show urgency in addressing climate change while the
state he leads struggles with many of its most dire effects.
But meeting those goals requires complex regulatory
maneuvering.
It’s been a week since Mayor London Breed tapped City Attorney
Dennis Herrera to lead the Public Utilities Commission, a
massive, billion-dollar entity providing San Franciscans — and,
in fact, millions of nearby locals — with water and/or
power. It’s been a week, and nobody seems to be saying it,
so we’ll say it: This is weird. It would be weird if the
mayor transferred a hypothetical general manager of the Public
Utilities Commission — with a background touching on
engineering and water and wastewater and sewage treatment and
hydroelectric power generation and distribution — into leading
the City Attorney’s office. The reverse is weird, too.
British journalist James Bartholomew is widely credited with
creating the phrase “virtue signaling” to describe positioning
oneself on the popular side of an issue without actually doing
anything about it. Politicians are particularly prone to
uttering words or making token efforts on difficult issues to
stave off criticism about their failure to act meaningfully.
Gov. Gavin Newsom is California’s champion virtue-signaler as
he faces a recall election later this year. … There’s no
better example than Newsom’s ever-shifting attitude toward
hydraulic fracturing to increase petroleum production. -Written by Dan Walters
Poseidon Water won a key approval Thursday in its long quest to
build a seawater desalination plant on the Orange County
coastline. But the permit from the Santa Ana Regional Quality
Control Board does not ensure that the $1-billion ocean
desalter will rise on the grounds of an old power plant in
Huntington Beach. Poseidon still needs a construction permit
from the California Coastal Commission and, most critically, a
binding deal with a public agency to buy 50 million gallons a
day of purified seawater.
Attorneys for the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District
filed a complaint with state regulators Tuesday asking that
California American Water Co. be forced to purchase water from
the expansion of a recycling project because Cal Am is failing
to meet a deadline for its part in increasing the local water
supply, according to language in the complaint. Any decision by
regulators is important because it will affect the ability of
the Monterey Peninsula to generate an alternative water source.
Cal Am in 2009 was hit with a state cease-and-desist order to
stop over-pumping from the Carmel River basin.
Brown and Caldwell has been granted funding from The Water
Research Foundation (WRF) to study the fate of per- and
polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) through sewage sludge
incineration. PFAS is a group of human-made chemicals found in
a range of consumer and industrial products. Many PFAS are
resistant to grease, oil, water, and heat and used in many
applications, including stain- and water-resistant fabrics and
carpeting, cleaning products, paints, and fire-fighting foams.
The widespread use of PFAS and their ability to remain intact
in the environment over time can result in environmental
contamination.
The US Forest Service is taking public comments on a proposed
exploratory mining operation near the headwaters of Hot Creek
in the Eastern Sierra that could lead to harmful open pit
mining near this fishery. We need your help to stop it. This
project is problematic and disastrous in many ways: KORE
Mining wants to drill around Hot Creek for gold with no plan or
guarantee that gold exists in that area. Dredging,
excavation, and hydraulic mining will cause dramatic
stream degradation. The proposal for the exploratory operation
provides no information on how much water is needed, the depth
of drilling, or the negative impact on the wildlife and the
environment.
Monterey One Water officials on Monday moved closer to its goal
of providing additional water for the Monterey Peninsula when
it unanimously approved a key environmental report for its
expansion project. The 10 members of the board of Monterey One
Water all voted to approve an environmental document called a
supplemental environmental impact report, or SEIR, that
advances closer to the expansion of its regional treatment
plant. … Monday’s action allows Monterey One to move
closer to expanding its treatment facility — Pure Water
Monterey — to increase the amount of treated water reintroduced
to groundwater and consequently dramatically increase the
Peninsula’s supply.
It’s been years since the Bay Area has had to deal with drought
conditions. While some counties look to instituting water-use
restrictions, some communities look to creative ways to reuse
water. When Ashley Shannon does a load of laundry, her garden
and fruit trees get a super soaking. … Shannon is a Santa
Clara Valley Water District employee who recently installed a
gray water system on her washing machine. Outlet pipes that
would normally send wash water to the sewer system were
redirected to go outside and around her garden. Valves
installed in the ground let the water seep out to irrigate her
plants and trees.
Hydraulic fracturing has occurred in California and nationwide
for decades; however, recent advancements in horizontal
drilling technologies and “well stimulation” techniques have
been instrumental in triggering an oil and gas boom, making the
U.S. the world’s largest producer of oil and gas
reserves. California produces more oil than all but three
other states (Texas, North Dakota and Alaska), and Kern County
is responsible for more than 70 percent of the state’s oil
production. Environmentalists and other members of the
public became concerned that the hydraulic fracturing process
may contaminate groundwater aquifers …
CZU Lightning Complex fire survivors who are rebuilding their
homes, are invited to join the Santa Cruz County Office of
Response, Recovery and Resilience on Saturday for a townhall on
the septic and water permitting process. … Attendees can
expect to learn about septic and water system permitting
requirements, but also county and state-level regulations that
apply to their properties. … The Office of Response, Recovery
and Resilience works with fire survivors on an
individual-basis, to help them understand what is needed
to ultimately, get a rebuild permit.
Corn is America’s top agricultural crop, and also one of its
most wasteful. About half the harvest—stalks, leaves, husks,
and cobs— remains as waste after the kernels have been stripped
from the cobs. These leftovers, known as corn stover, have few
commercial or industrial uses aside from burning. A new paper
by engineers at UC Riverside describes an energy-efficient way
to put corn stover back into the economy by transforming it
into activated carbon for use in water treatment.
Worms are helping a [San Joaquin] Valley winery on its path to
becoming more green. Olympic-sized swimming pools at O’Neill
Winery are actually beds filled with worms helping the company
become greener. … The technology allows the company to
take about 80 million gallons of processed water and clean
it. O’Neill Winery is the seventh-largest winery in
California. They produce wines and spirits sold around the
United States.
On Friday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) unveiled a new
initiative to ban new and future permits for hydraulic fracking
beginning in 2024. The ban is part of California’s effort to
move away from oil extraction to source fuel, focusing on
developing renewable sources such as wind and solar. Fracking,
or hydraulic fracturing, is the sourcing of oil from deep
subterranean rocks, using a high-pressured water mixture
drilled into the earth that releases natural gas and oil.
California’s continuing failure to adopt a comprehensive water
strategy is exacerbating its looming drought crisis. For nearly
two decades, the state has put its focus on dam projects and
the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta tunnel fiasco. The
primary aim is creating new ways of diverting additional water
to Central Valley farmers at the expense of the fragile,
over-tapped Delta, which supplies about one-third of the Bay
Area’s fresh water supply. There’s a better approach. President
Biden’s infrastructure plan calls for $50 billion to ease the
West’s drought crisis by heavily investing in water efficiency
and recycling programs.
For years it’s been relatively easy to measure pollution from,
say, a factory. At a factory, there might be just one pipe of
waste to measure. Easy enough. But what about a farm? We
might not typically think of farms as sources of pollution. But
they can have big impacts on the land over time. Unlike at a
factory, the waste filters slowly through soil across
the whole plot of land. This waste—excess nutrients from
fertilizer—can eventually reach groundwater.
Both proponents and opponents of the controversial Poseidon
Water desalination plant in Huntington Beach made their voices
heard Friday in an all-day virtual meeting that continued well
into the night. In the end, however, a decision by the Santa
Ana Regional Water Board on whether to permit Poseidon’s
$1.4-billion project will have to wait until at least [this]
week. Another meeting is scheduled for Thursday, with a third
meeting on May 13, as necessary.
Gov. Gavin Newsom directed the state Friday to stop issuing
permits for the oil extraction method known as fracking by
January 2024 and to draw up plans to end all fossil-fuel
drilling in California by 2045 — the most sweeping declaration
of its kind in the nation. … Eliminating all extraction would
have far-reaching consequences in California, the nation’s
seventh-largest producer of crude oil… [Fracking
has] long been a controversial method because of what
climate activists see as unacceptable dangers, including the
possibility that it can contaminate groundwater.
Questions have been raised over California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s
political maneuvers to push a controversial seawater
desalination plant proposed for the Huntington Beach
coastline. Critics say their concerns about the actual
need for the project and its potential environmental effects
remain. The company pushing it, Poseidon Water, remains
steadfast in its intent to build a plant that would suck in 100
million gallons of seawater daily and make half of it
drinkable….[The Regional Water Quality Control] board’s next
hearing is scheduled for [Friday] April 23. If the board
approves the permits, the project then goes for a final say
from the state Coastal Commission.
Thousands of wells that bring water to San Joaquin Valley homes
are at risk of drying up this summer, leaving families without
running water for drinking, cleaning and bathing. While no one
knows the extent of the threat from this second year of drought
conditions, Jonathan Nelson with the Community Water Center
says “the alarm bells are sounding.” Homes, farms and
entire communities that rely on shallow wells as their only
source of water are vulnerable to declining groundwater levels
from dry conditions and agricultural pumping.
A committee for the Monterey One Water Board has recommended
final certification of an environmental report crucial to the
expansion of Pure Water Monterey, signaling increased momentum
for the recycled water project. The five-member Recycled
Water Committee of the Monterey One Water Board of Directors
voted 4-0-1 on April 15 to recommend the board of directors
certify the completed supplemental environmental impact report,
or SEIR, needed for the expansion.
Following a temporary delay in Colorado federal court, the
Trump administration’s Navigable Waters Protection Rule (NWPR)
will now take effect in Colorado on April 23, 2021. Under
the NWPR, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and
Army Corps of Engineers will no longer require permits for
operations affecting certain categories of streams and wetland
areas previously subject to the Clean Water Act.
[A] study, titled “Freshwater Salinization Syndrome on a
Continental Scale,” found at least a third of U.S. streams and
rivers have become saltier over the last 25 years. On December
3, freshwater scientist John Olson of California State
University, Monterey Bay, conducted a modeling study that
validated these results, indicating that the future looks briny
as well. The study is titled “Predicting Combined Effects of
Land Use and Climate Change On River and Stream Salinity.”
Salinization levels will likely increase by at least 50% in
half of U.S. streams by 2100 if salt use persists at its
current pace, according to Olson’s party.
If the San Diego-Tijuana region were a human body, it’d have
the stomach flu: Bad stuff is coming out of both ends. But
instead of tackling the complicated source of the infection,
the border towns are fighting over where to put a Band-Aid. Six
miles from the U.S.-Mexico border lie three giant ponds full of
really old poo that regularly flush into the Pacific Ocean and
flow north along the Southern California coast during summer
tourist season.
[A]s massive a challenge as wildfire presents … a different
climate crisis could rival it as a destroyer of the California
dream: sea level rise. … AB 67 addresses state
infrastructure. It would ensure that state agencies incorporate
sea level rise estimates in the development of roads, ports,
airports, water-treatment, desalination and power plants. In
particular, it seeks to advance “natural infrastructure” such
as restored estuaries, wetlands, dunes and sea grasses that
could generate thousands of new “blue” jobs while reducing the
impact of rising water at a lower cost than hardened structures
such as seawalls. -Written by David Helvarg, an author and founder
of Blue Frontier, an ocean conservation group.
With a drought affecting the Western part of the country, here
are ten simple ways to conserve water this Earth Day: Turn off
the faucet while brushing your teeth; Fix leaky faucets; Only
run a fully loaded dishwasher or wash a full load of laundry;
Take a shorter shower; Consider installing a water-saving
shower head; Use a broom to clean your driveway instead of
hosing it down; Find a use for water instead of pouring it down
the drain…
Publicly owned treatment works in California have been
observing a trend of permit requirements issued by EPA Region 9
and the State to develop and utilize an Asset Management
Program as part of their NPDES/Wastewater Discharge Order. In
the case of OC San, an Asset Management Plan has already been
in place; however, with many of its major assets aging, the
development of a more robust AMP became a priority for the
agency.
In a potential solution to a two-decade-old problem, Sonoma
County’s water agency has commissioned a $156,000 study of a
potential pipeline carrying Occidental’s wastewater to a
treatment plant in neighboring Graton. A pipeline between
the two west county hamlets would resolve the dilemma dating
back to a 1997 state order banning Occidental from
discharging effluent into a tributary of
the Russian River. Since 2018, the Occidental wastewater
system — one of eight managed by Sonoma Water — has been
trucking raw sewage 18 miles through Graton to a county
treatment plant at the airport, an expensive program seen as a
stopgap measure.
San Diegans will undoubtedly head to the ocean this weekend as
temperatures warm — but not in Imperial Beach. Sewage spilling
over from Tijuana forced officials on Friday to completely
close the city’s shoreline yet again. The move comes less than
a week after Baja officials said repairs were completed to a
broken water pump in the Tijuana River, which had allowed tens
of millions of gallons of sewage-tainted water to escape
capture starting in late March.
In what one board member called a hearing that isn’t going to
be topped, the Imperial County Air Pollution Control District
Hearing Board voted 4-0 to issue an order of abatement against
the Imperial Irrigation District over the Red Hill Bay project
site at the Salton Sea. … The Red Hill Bay project
is aimed at creating hundreds of acres of shallow marine
wetlands to provide aquatic bird habitat and reduce airborne
dust from playa exposed due to a shrinking Salton Sea.
General Waste Discharge Requirements for Discharges
from Irrigated Lands, simply known as Ag Order 4.0, will
officially begin to be implemented. Just prior to the deadline,
the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board approved
the measure Thursday evening. There has been unease among
farmers throughout the lengthy development process as to how
the rule will affect production.
No country is immune from water scarcity issues — not even the
world’s wealthiest country, the United States. The southwestern
states, in particular, have faced frequent and ongoing droughts
over the past two decades, and traditional water supplies are
failing. … Our existing water supplies must go
further, and the technology exists to make this happen — by
turning wastewater into drinking water.
For the past four years, a Canadian mining company has been in
Nevada County, about 60 miles northeast of Sacramento,
collecting samples of what it suspects is one of the world’s
highest-grade underground gold deposits, potentially worth
billions. … The legacy of gold, while widely celebrated, is
not something that many in this area, now home to more retirees
and Bay Area transplants than men in hard hats and overalls,
want to revisit. … [T]he scars it left on the landscape
remain visible, and unwanted. Creeks still get mucked up
with iron and sulfuric acid from old mines. Soils contain
arsenic left over from drilling. …
Monterey County must rescind all approvals of California
American Water’s proposed desalination project, per an order
from a Monterey County Superior Court judge who earlier this
year found the county violated the California Environmental
Quality Act by approving the project without identifying a
water source. The ruling was handed down April 3 by Judge Lydia
Villarreal, who on Jan. 21 granted in part—and denied in part—a
writ requested by the Marina Coast Water District regarding the
2019 approvals of the desal plant component of Cal Am’s
Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project.
A final decision on the pending Irrigated Lands Regulatory
Program known as Ag Order 4.0 is expected by Friday, April 16.
Producers have anxiously been monitoring the development of the
program from the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control
Board. Stakeholders have repeatedly provided feedback on the
proposal, detailing the challenges it would create within
agriculture. As the adoption deadline quickly approaches,
industry members still have concerns about multiple provisions
of the measure.
The state plans to inspect three dairy ranches in the Point
Reyes National Seashore after independent water quality tests
conducted in nearby creeks and lagoons earlier this year found
E. coli bacteria concentrations up to 40 times higher than
state health standards. The San Francisco Regional Water
Quality Control Board plans to inspect Kehoe Dairy, McClure
Dairy and R&J McClelland Dairy, which are located near
Kehoe Creek and waterways that flow into Abbotts Lagoon in the
northern region of the national seashore.
A far-reaching proposal to outlaw hydraulic fracturing and ban
oil and gas wells from operating near homes, schools and
healthcare facilities failed in the California Legislature on
Tuesday, a major setback for progressive leaders who hail the
state as the nation’s bellwether on environmental protection.
Gov. Gavin Newsom in September called on state lawmakers to ban
fracking and voiced his support for safety buffer zones around
wells …
Tree roots are being blamed for a 98,280-gallon sewage spill in
Sausalito that went unnoticed for two weeks. The overflow
started on March 17 and went undetected because of heavy
vegetation, according to the county.
Poseidon Water announced that the Third District California
Court of Appeal issued a decision denying the petition by
seawater desalination opponents to overturn the Sacramento
County Superior Court’s 2019 ruling upholding the California
State Lands Commission’s 2017 approval of an amended lease for
the proposed Huntington Beach Desalination Project (“Project”).
The Court of Appeal decision reaffirms that the State Lands
Commission correctly analyzed the Project under the California
Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and that the Project protects
the state’s Public Trust resources.
Legislation that would gradually phase out fracking and other
extraction methods that account for most of California’s
petroleum production faces its first big test in Sacramento on
Tuesday. The nine-member Senate Natural Resources and Water
Committee is set to vote on a proposal, Senate Bill 467, that
would bar new permits for hydraulic fracturing, cyclic
steaming, steam flooding and water flooding. The legislation
would begin taking effect in 2023 and also prohibit renewing
existing permits for fracking and the other targeted methods,
which a committee bill analysis says accounts for an estimated
80% to 95% of the state’s oil production.
The California State Water Resources Control Board (the State
Board) will use $4.4 million of a U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) grant to fund projects in seven counties around
the state. EPA’s Nonpoint Source Program grant assists the
State Board in implementing programs to address pollution
caused by runoff moving over the ground, known as nonpoint
source pollution. The Marin Resource Conservation District was
awarded over $700,000 by the State Board for its Conserving Our
Watersheds Program. This project helps ranchers within the
Point Reyes National Seashore prevent nitrogen, phosphorus,
sediment, and bacteria from livestock operations from running
off into Tomales Bay. Tomales Bay supports oyster production
and recreational activities including kayaking and fishing.
The Goleta Water District on Tuesday will discuss a resolution
to enroll the district in an initiative program and to execute
agreements with Tesla, Inc., for battery systems at the Corona
Del Mar Water Treatment Plant and Ellwood Reservoir. Under the
proposed agreement, Tesla would design, furnish, install,
operate and maintain the battery systems through the California
Public Utilities Commission Self-Generation Incentive Program.
… The two battery systems, estimated to be currently
worth approximately $1 million, will be owned by the district
and provide emergency backup power during electrical outages
and PSPS events, including approximately seven hours for
Ellwood Reservoir and 8.3 hours for CDMWTP.
The theme of the April 14 meeting of the Cloverdale City
Council is seemingly water — the council will be viewing a
presentation on its updated water and sewer rate study and
giving direction on whether or not to proceed to a public
hearing with new rates, and will also be discussing whether or
not it wants to join the Sonoma-Marin Saving Water
Partnership.
ACWA staff testified with a support-if-amended position on AB
1500 (E.Garcia) during an Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife
Committee hearing on April 8. The bill is one of two climate
resilience bond proposals that are currently advancing through
the state Legislature and could be headed for the June 2022
ballot. AB 1500 would create a $6.7 billion bond measure. ACWA,
with input from the State Legislative Committee’s Bond Working
Group, is requesting amendments to the bills to add funding for
water-related climate resilience projects that help provide a
reliable water supply during drought and flood. The amendments
propose the bill include funding for conveyance, dam safety,
groundwater protection and sustainable groundwater management,
flood management, integrated regional water management and safe
drinking water for disadvantaged communities, as well as water
quality and water reuse and recycling.
A year ago, when stay-at-home orders were a newly disorienting
fact of life, I started taking long walks through my
neighborhood on L.A.’s Westside. Wandering south from Palms
into Culver City, I realized I live near a huge concrete
channel — a creek, trapped in place — with a bike path along
the water, and a view of oil pumpjacks rising and falling atop
the Baldwin Hills. There were beautiful murals, too, showing a
healthy, thriving waterway. They were hashtagged
#KnowYourWatershed. And the more I admired them, the more I
realized that I did not, in fact, know my watershed, despite
growing up not far from here. -Written by Sammy Roth, a Los Angeles Times staff
writer.
South Bay officials are beginning to run out of patience over
the continued cross-border flow of sewage-tainted water. The
pollution warning signs have been up most of 2021 on the sand
in Imperial Beach. Last Friday, the pollution flowed north to
Coronado, forcing beach closures there. Imperial Beach’s top
officials are fed up.
State water pollution officials have hit the city of Sunnyvale
with $187,000 penalty after the city’s wastewater treatment
plant spilled more than a quarter million gallons of partially
treated sewage into San Francisco Bay last summer. The spill
occurred on July 29 when a 36-inch welded steel pipeline
ruptured, releasing 292,600 gallons — the equivalent of about
12 backyard swimming pools — of partially treated sewage that
had not been disinfected into channels that flow into the bay
near Moffett Field. … The spill was one of the two largest
illegal discharges from a Bay Area sewage treatment plant into
San Francisco Bay over the past six years …
Governor Gavin Newsom frequently says California is a leader in
sustainability and the transition away from fossil fuels. The
governor has also issued an executive order to fight climate
change in response to the deadly wildfires that ravaged our
state last year. Despite these public statements and official
efforts, it’s puzzling that his administration has been
promoting the climate-wrecking Poseidon desalination plant in
Huntington Beach as an infrastructure to source additional
water for California. There are plenty of things we can do to
ensure that Southern Californians have enough water to
thrive….
-Written by Alejandro Sobrera, the Orange County Hub
Coordinator for the Sunrise Movement, a youth led effort to
bring about a just transition to a greener
world.
For the first time since her historic ascension as the nation’s
first woman vice president, Kamala Harris returned to her
native Oakland on Monday to promote the Biden administration’s
ambitious proposal to rebuild the country’s infrastructure and
create jobs…. Harris toured the East Bay Municipal Utility
District’s water treatment plant, speaking to employees and
touting the district as the kind of operation that should be
emulated. …. Harris highlighted the water portion of the
[Biden] plan, saying the goal is to invest in jobs that can
build up, replace and modernize water infrastructure — all with
the goal of getting clean drinking water to everyone.
The California Department of Justice (DOJ) filed comments with
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps) regarding Sunset
Exploration’s proposal to drill for natural gas in the Suisun
Marsh. Located in the San Francisco Bay-Delta, this 88,000-acre
wetland is home to a number of endangered and threatened
species, including California Ridgway’s rail, black rail, and
Chinook salmon – and is just a few short miles from
environmental justice communities in Solano County…. DOJ
urges the Army Corps to fully consider the proposal’s
significant environmental impacts, including harm to these
communities and protected species, as well as increased
greenhouse gas emissions, before deciding whether to grant the
requested permit.
A $230,000 revision of the Pure Water Monterey expansion
project’s environmental review document will move forward after
the Monterey One Water board approved the work earlier this
week. At the same time, board members backing the study
revision made it clear they wouldn’t support approving the
recycled water expansion proposal itself until an outside
funding source is available. On Monday, the Monterey One Water
board voted 7-3 to approve the work needed to update a
supplemental environmental impact report for the expansion
proposal, including consultant contracts and a cost-sharing
agreement with the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District
whose board agreed last month to cover most of the revision’s
cost.
Barack Obama was seven months into his first term as President
of the United States, the World Health Organization had
declared a H1N1 flu pandemic, and the California State Water
Resources Control Board (State Board) adopted the current
Construction General Permit for Stormwater Discharges (Permit
or CGP). It was September 2009. Now, having
administratively extended the Permit since 2014 when, by its
terms, the Permit expired, the State Board may, under a
schedule released late last year, soon release a new draft CGP
for public comment, with a goal of adopting it late this
summer. As with the current permit, the proposed new CGP will
regulate the discharge of pollutants from construction sites in
California.
Last week, the California State Water Resources Control Board
(State Water Board) officially released an order (the Order) to
investigate and sample for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances
(PFAS) at over 160 bulk fuel storage terminals and refineries
throughout California. The State Water Board’s Order is the
latest action in a series of investigative orders over the last
two years to study and identify industrial and municipal
sources of PFAS in California including at airports, landfills,
manufacturing facilities, chrome platers, and wastewater
treatment facilities.
Rejecting arguments that a utility can’t be sued over
century-old pollution, a federal judge signaled Wednesday that
he will likely advance a lawsuit seeking to hold Pacific Gas
and Electric liable for contamination that occurred more than
100 years ago. … [Plaintiff and San Francisco resident Dan]
Clarke claimed groundwater contamination stemming from the site
of PG&E’s former gas plant “is intermittently discharged
into the bay.” He said seasonal, tidal and other factors result
in groundwater passing the former plant site and intermixing
with contaminants before leaking into the San Francisco Bay.
Much of the state’s water infrastructure was designed decades
ago and was built to serve half the size of our current
population. Faced with aging infrastructure, California cities
have taken innovative approaches to modernizing water treatment
and recycling systems to meet the needs of a growing population
and a changing climate. One infrastructure need that many
residents take for granted is wastewater treatment.
… The San José-Santa Clara Regional Wastewater
Facility is the largest advanced wastewater treatment
facility in the Western United States. Originally built in
1956, today it serves more than 1.4 million residents and
17,000 businesses in eight cities in Silicon Valley and
unincorporated areas of Santa Clara County. Using
a treatment process that simulates the way nature
cleans water, the facility treats an average of 110 million
gallons of wastewater per day.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has
agreed to pay a $2.5 million penalty for discharging comingled
stormwater at Mule Creek State Prison, in violation of the
Clean Water Act. The penalty was assessed for unpermitted
discharges between January 2018 and April 2019 to Mule Creek, a
tributary to Dry Creek and the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta. The case began three years ago when the Central
Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board (Central Valley
Water Board) received a complaint that the prison was
discharging wastewater into the nearby creek. Central Valley
Water Board staff confirmed discharges were occurring from the
prison to Mule Creek.
Now that his massive coronavirus relief package is law,
President Joe Biden is laying out his next big proposal: A
roughly $2 trillion plan for improving the nation’s
infrastructure … Biden’s plan allocates $111
billion to rebuild the country’s water infrastructure. It
would replace all of the nation’s lead pipes and service lines
in order to improve the health of American children and
communities of color. The White House says replacing the pipes
would reduce lead exposure in 400,000 schools and childcare
facilities. The proposal would upgrade the country’s
drinking water, wastewater and stormwater systems, tackle new
contaminants and support clean water infrastructure in rural
parts of the country.
For the last seven years, Lomita resident Brenda Stephens has
been advocating for better, locally sourced tap water.
… Following a long history of water quality issues, plus
the detection of benzene in 2019, the city of
Lomita’s Cypress Water Production Facility has remained
offline. The city currently outsources its water supply. For
Stephens, it’s been a break from water issues. … In late
2019, Stephens and other Lomita residents took part in a CWPF
tour that showcased how a new filtration system will
alleviate the city’s locally-sourced water problems and bring
the facility back online, safely. The city of Lomita received
a $2 million grant from the Water Replenishment
District’s Safe Drinking Water program.
Even before the pandemic, Americans were already flushing far
too many wipes into the sewer system. After a year of staying
at home, the pipe-clogging problem has gotten worse.
… Sewer backups are up 50%… Last year, Washington
became the first state to pass legislation requiring
manufacturers to label their products with “do not flush”
disclaimers, and states including California have
also introduced bills that would mandate similar labels.
Padre Dam Water District wants to keep everyone in the loop
about its massive sewage reclamation project, especially the
city where the project is located — Santee. At its March 24
virtual meeting, the Santee City Council approved a legal
agreement to work collaboratively with the joint powers
authority that is overseeing the nearly $700 million program
called Advanced Water Purification. … The Advanced Water
Purification project got going in 2014 and is similar to
several other water reclamation projects in the state,
including one being built by the city of San Diego called Pure
Water.
ACWA-sponsored SB 323 (Caballero) passed out of the Senate
Government and Finance Committee on March 25, following a
hearing in which ACWA staff and members testified in
support….The bill would improve financial stability for
public agencies by creating a 120-day statute of limitations
for legal challenges to water and sewer service rates. It comes
as water and wastewater agencies have faced increased
litigation from ratepayers over whether agency rates comply
with Proposition 218 and other existing laws.
The Ninth Circuit reversed a conviction for three counts of
violations under the Clean Water Act because the district court
failed to instruct the jury that the defendant needed to
knowingly discharge material “into water” to convict.
… In the summer of 2014, Lucero executed a scheme under
which he charged construction companies to dump dirt and debris
on lands near the San Francisco Bay, including wetlands and a
tributary subject to the Clean Water Act. Although Lucero
admitted to “walking the land” where the dumping happened, the
period when the dumping occurred was unusually dry due to
drought. The trial court found Lucero guilty on two counts of
discharges into wetlands and one count of discharge into a
tributary.
A water project that would generate revenue, make wise use of
reclaimed water and preserve large tracts of open space in the
city of San Luis Obispo was first made public over 10 years
ago. Since then, the city has made no progress on the proposal
to allow Edna Valley landowners to reuse some of the city’s
treated wastewater to irrigate vineyards and other agricultural
crops. Surplus water already could be assisting growers in Edna
Valley, which is an important part of the city’s
greenbelt.
– Written by Neil Havlik, who served as San Luis
Obispo’s natural resources manager from 1996 to 2012.
Two East County water agencies plan to reduce future water
rates by using millions of dollars they received from the
County Water Authority as part of a legal settlement. The Water
Authority announced a plan Feb. 25 to distribute $44.4 million
to its 24-member agencies — including the Helix Water District
and Padre Dam Municipal Water District — after receiving a
check for that amount from the Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California. A San Francisco Superior Court ruled in
favor of the Water Authority in January in two lawsuits against
Metro challenging rates and charges. The money is for legal
damages and interest from the decade-long rate cases.
Water quality testing commissioned by two groups lobbying for
the end of ranching in the Point Reyes National Seashore shows
fecal contamination exceeding federal recreational standards in
several waterways feeding the Pacific Ocean. In response,
seashore personnel point to their nearly finalized general
management amendment, which requires water quality
improvements. The tests from two rainy January days included
samples from and near Kehoe Lagoon, Abbotts Lagoon and Schooner
Creek, and showed exceedances in levels of E. coli and
Enterococcus—bacteria that serve as common indicators for fecal
contamination.
A San Diego program that aims to keep toxic sewer water out of
the Pacific Ocean suffers from outdated methods and inadequate
efforts to identify and inspect the business sites of
industrial polluters, a new city audit says. The 56-page audit
says the program, which oversees industrial polluters served by
San Diego and 12 other local sewer districts, needs to step up
efforts to find polluters and modernize its inspection program.
The program – the Industrial Wastewater Control Program – is
also understaffed and not capable of handling the larger
workload it should handle without adding more workers, the
audit says.
The Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary District completed
construction this week on an expansion of its water recycling
system, increasing the district’s recycled water production
capacity nearly fourfold. …The expanded system allows the
district to treat roughly 5.4 million gallons of recycled water
per day at its headquarters at 300 Smith Ranch Road in San
Rafael. That’s up from the district’s previous capacity of 1.4
million daily gallons.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced awards
totaling $27.5 million for 16 water infrastructure projects.
Modern technology has the potential to reduce energy use in
aging water infrastructure, particularly in wastewater
treatment, which demands up to 2% of domestic electricity use
each year. These projects, operating in 13 states, have the
potential to reduce carbon emissions and water-treatment costs
while improving water quality and equity of distribution
nationwide. … They are based out of California,
Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas,
Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, and
Virginia.
Nitrogen pollution is one of agriculture’s biggest and most
intractable problems. Crops can’t grow without the critical
nutrient, and because sources of nitrogen are easy to come
by—synthetic fertilizer is cheap and manure from large animal
agriculture operations is plentiful—farmers often apply too
much, to try to ensure the highest yields. Because plants can’t
use it all, the excess makes its way into groundwater and
washes into waterways where it contaminates drinking water and
creates vast dead zones in oceans and lakes.
… California’s largest hotspot unsurprisingly includes
21 counties that cover the Central Valley, America’s produce
capital.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management decided to sell oil and gas
leases on public land in California for the first time in
nearly a decade without taking a hard look at the environmental
and public health impacts, according to a lawsuit filed Monday
in a federal court in the state. The agency’s “hasty”
environmental review ignored comments from experts and failed
to consider evidence showing fracking could pollute already
scarce groundwater resources, environmental groups say in the
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California
filing. The decision violated the National Environmental Policy
Act …
A Biden initiative expected to pour up to $3 trillion into
repairing America’s decrepit infrastructure and funding other
programs has sparked a scramble across the nation for the
federal funds — with California expecting to reap the biggest
piece. …Rep. John Garamendi, a Northern California Democrat
who is a senior member of the House Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee…spent more than an hour with Biden
in recent weeks and came away convinced that the program will
be broad enough to improve most areas of the nation’s
infrastructure: highways, passenger rail, electric grids, dams,
sewers and water systems, ocean terminals and
airports….
Under an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), the USDA Forest Service closed 77 large-capacity
cesspools (LCCs) it operated in Arizona and California. The
Forest Service met the deadlines set forth in the agreement and
closed the cesspools, which can be sources of harmful water
pollution, in 11 national forests across the two states.
… Cesspools collect and release untreated raw sewage
into the ground, where disease-causing pathogens and harmful
chemicals can contaminate groundwater and surface waters that
are sources of drinking water.
The Porter-Cologne Water Quality Act, California’s state clean
water law, passed in 1969 and became the model for the 1972
federal Clean Water Act. Nearly half a century after passage of
the landmark federal law, it is time for both the state and the
nation to assess progress and chart a new course. Once again,
California is leading the way with Assembly Bill 377, a new
bill introduced by Assemblyman Robert Rivas (D-Hollister).
Although new legislation is needed, the existing federal and
California clean water acts have produced successes that should
be celebrated. -Written by Terry Tamminen, president of 7th
Generation Advisors and founder of Santa Monica
Baykeeper.
Witnessing the devastating effects of drought in rural
California and India at the age of 11 spurred Shreya
Ramachandran to action. She devoted years to researching the
reuse of grey water—lightly used water from sinks, showers, and
laundry—and painstakingly tested the environmental safety of
organic detergents. The nonprofit Ramachandran founded, the
Grey Water Project, has inspired thousands of people to build
their own “laundry to lawn” grey water systems. Now a high
school senior, she’s collaborated with several California water
agencies and the United Nations Global Wastewater Initiative,
and created a grey water curriculum for elementary students to
show them that small actions can make a big difference.
As more people move into the Truckee River watershed, demand
for water is increasing while more and more nonpoint source
(NPS) pollution is making its way to the river. Nearly half a
million people get their water from the Truckee River, and
nonpoint source pollution threatens the quality of not just the
drinking water, but the greater ecosystem of the entire
watershed. Nonpoint source contaminants are the largest single
source of water pollution in Nevada and across the
nation. Here in the Truckee Meadows, things such as
fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, motor oil, engine
coolant, septic tanks, chemical runoff , silt from erosion, and
e. Coli bacteria, to list a few, all affect the overall quality
of ground, surface, and ultimately, drinking water.
Acting in advance of its Pure Water Monterey expansion project
partner, the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District board
has agreed to spend an additional $180,000 on updating the
project’s environmental document and source water analysis for
the proposal. On Monday, the water district board voted
7-0 to spend $181,125 on work to update the recycled water
expansion project’s supplemental environmental impact report
and conduct source water modeling in an attempt to address an
issue that has drawn heavy criticism and opposition.
The construction of 8 miles of water pipeline that will be
integral to the Pure Water Soquel project, was approved by
Soquel Creek Water District Board of Directors this week. The
Santa Cruz Mid-County Groundwater Basin, from which at least
50,000 residents depend on for drinking water, has been deemed
critically depleted by the state. Years of intensive pumping
for agriculture and drinking water has drawn out more water
from the aquifer than is being replenished naturally by
rainwater. That’s led to seawater seeping into underground
storage and wells. The Pure Water project aims to bolster
groundwater levels in the aquifer, and prevent seawater
contamination, which has already been detected in some areas.
The Kiewit-Stantec design-build team recently broke ground on
two multi-year projects that together total $400 million and
will help remediate water from the San Fernando Valley
Groundwater Basin (SFB) for the Los Angeles Department of Water
and Power (LADWP). The SFB covers 226 square miles northwest of
downtown Los Angeles. The new state-of-the-art facilities at
the North Hollywood Central Response Action Treatment Facility
and Tujunga Well Field Response Action Treatment Facility will
address historical groundwater contamination from post WWII and
cold-war era industrial operations in the area.
The city of Lathrop’s longstanding goal of discharging
highly-treated wastewater into the San Joaquin River could
clear a major hurdle tonight. Based on the current plan
the wastewater would be mainly discharged directly into the
river during winter months when irrigation demands are low and
river flow is high and reduced in the summer months when
irrigation demands along the river are at their peak.
Spurred by the rising price of gold, K2 Gold Corp., of
Vancouver, Canada, is drilling and trenching in hopes of
selling its findings or partnering with a bigger company that
would, perhaps, transform the public lands into an open pit
cyanide heap leach mine, just a few miles from Death Valley.
… Opponents … worry about air pollution … and
the water required for mining gold. Pumping out millions
of gallons from desert aquifers, or underground lakes, they
fear, could exhaust regional springs in valuable wildlife
habitat, and attract wildlife to ponds of cyanide-laced water.
A beach water use advisory is now in effect until Thursday,
warning people of possible bacteria in the water following
rainfall. The recent rainfall, bacteria, chemicals, debris,
trash, and other public health hazards from city streets and
mountain areas are likely to contaminate ocean waters at and
around discharging storm drains, creeks, and rivers. People who
enter the water in these areas could become ill, according to
Los Angeles County Health Officer, Muntu Davis, MD, MPH. This
advisory will be in effect until at least Thursday at 1o a.m.
I’ve been writing a lot about the broken sewage system in
Tijuana causing spills into San Diego. Part of the concern, San
Diego officials told me, is that Mexico lacks a system to
monitor whether businesses are dumping toxic waste into the
sewer system. That’s part of the reason why it’s risky to reuse
any of that river water because, if we don’t know what’s in the
water, we can’t be sure how to best treat it. San Diego is
about to run into this issue in a big way with its Pure Water
project, a multibillion-dollar system that’s going to recycle
the city’s sewage and treat it so, well, you can drink
it.
Last week, President Biden signed into law a historic,
wide-reaching $1.9 trillion stimulus package aimed at throwing
a lifeline to Americans struggling through the pandemic. In
California, the news has come as a particular relief.
… $16 billion: That’s the amount that is expected
to be split between city and county governments to help make up
for lost local tax revenue during the pandemic. And that’s what
pays for essential services like law enforcement and
firefighters. The money can also be used for water, sewer and
broadband infrastructure projects.
Companies in these [pollution] cases weren’t required to plead
guilty; they weren’t convicted of any crimes, according to the
agreements. Instead, the government agreed to forego
prosecution for a certain time period or drop the case
altogether if the companies paid hefty fines and promised to
clean up the environmental damage they had inflicted.
… One concerned a waste hauler, Asbury Environmental
Services, accused of discharging marine diesel oil into a storm
drain that led to the Los Angeles River. In 2020, 10 years
after that incident, prosecutors wrapped up the case with a
nonprosecution deal.
It was a chilly morning in 2010 when Oxnard farmworkers,
tending to their broccoli crops, discovered an oily sheen
floating on their irrigation water. In a nearby oilfield, a
tank of diluent — a carcinogenic mix of benzene, toluene, and
diesel — had sprung a leak. … A decade later, we
still face the same dangers. Right in the heart of our prime
farmland, which infuses Ventura County with over two billion
dollars annually. We’re risking that vital economy for the
dregs: Tar Sands becomes bunker fuel and asphalt — not
gasoline. And annually, Tar Sands extraction in Oxnard could
use up approximately 12 Olympic-size swimming pools worth of
drinkable water — just to make steam. -Written by Liz Beall, executive director of Climate First:
Replacing Oil and Gas.
President Biden signed into law a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief
package, the American Rescue Plan of 2021, aimed to provide
financial relief to Americans and incentives to stimulate the
economy as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The latest
package … provides $500 million for low-income water and
wastewater grants. Funds will be allotted to states and tribes
based on percentage of households with income less than 150
percent of the federal poverty line.
The massive COVID-19 relief bill Congress approved Wednesday
will pump more than $150 billion into California’s economy,
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration said Wednesday, including a
$26 billion windfall for the state’s already burgeoning budget
surplus. … [The U.S. Treasury Department has told state
governments] they can use the money to respond to the public
health emergency, provide government services or invest in
water, sewer or broadband infrastructure.
California is home to a diversity of coastal ecosystems like
tidal marshes, seagrass beds, and estuaries. These ecosystems
provide flood and storm protection, healthy habitats for fish
and birds, and recreational spaces. They may also play an
important role in addressing climate change. A new COS
and Natural Capital Project study in Global
Environmental Change investigates the carbon sequestration
potential of habitats along the California coast and details
pathways incorporating carbon-capturing habitats into climate
change policy.
A plan to fast-track drilling of thousands of new oil and gas
wells over the next 15 years in California’s prime oil patch
was approved Monday by Kern County officials over objections by
environmental groups….The ordinance came up for discussion as
the industry faces challenges from lawmakers as well as
ever-present opposition from environmental groups for creating
air and water pollution and significant contributions to
climate change.
A coalition of San Diego County elected representatives
introduced a bill on Monday to address water pollution along
the U.S.-Mexico border. The Border Water Quality Restoration
and Protection Act would designate the Environmental Protection
Agency as the lead agency coordinating federal, state and local
agencies’ efforts to build and maintain infrastructure projects
aimed at reducing pollution along the border.
Stinson Beach will launch a multi-year effort to craft its
first sea-level rise defense plan as oceans threaten to swallow
up beaches, roads and waterfront homes by the end of the
century. The community is the most immediately vulnerable to
sea-level rise on Marin’s ocean coast and could face a water
level as much as 10 feet higher by 2100 in a worst-case
scenario, according to county officials and state projections.
In 2018, the county outlined strategies Stinson Beach could
adopt, including elevating roads and homes, building sea walls
and dunes, boardwalking entire neighborhoods and building a new
sewage system.
San Diego is ready to start building the long-awaited Pure
Water sewage recycling system, now that city officials have
resolved litigation that delayed the project 18 months and
increased its estimated cost to $5 billion, city officials say.
Pure Water will boost San Diego’s water independence by
recycling 83 million gallons of treated sewage into potable
drinking water by 2035.
AB 377, entitled the “California Clean Water Act,” introduced
by Assemblymember Rivas in February 2021, includes provisions
to eliminate all “impaired waterways” and make all waters in
California suitable for drinking, swimming, and fishing by
2050. If adopted, this bill would have significant
impacts on the ability to timely and cost-effectively comply
with discharge requirements set forth in National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”) permits, Waste Discharge
Requirements (“WDRs”), and waivers of WDRs (collectively,
“water quality permits”). The bill would also usher in an
era of focus on enforcement, rather than good-faith compliance.
A bill aimed at addressing pollution along the U.S.- Mexico
border and improving water quality in the Tijuana and New
rivers was introduced Wednesday. The Border Water Quality
Restoration and Protection Act would designate the
Environmental Protection Agency as the lead agency coordinating
federal, state and local agencies to build and maintain
infrastructure projects aimed at reducing pollution along the
border. It would also require the EPA and other agencies to
identify a list of priority projects and would authorize the
EPA to accept and distribute federal, state, and local funds to
build, operate and maintain those projects.
On a Saturday in late October, Carolyn Phinney is hip-deep in a
half-acre of vegetables, at the nucleus of what will one day be
15 acres of productive farmland. … The patch is a wealth of
herbs, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, kale, winter squash, and
zucchini. So much zucchini—fruits the size of bowling pins
hidden under leaves as big as umbrellas. “Zucchini plants are
supposed to be 30 inches across. Ours are 8 feet,” she says.
“Everything looks like it’s on steroids.” Phinney is the farmer
behind CoCo San Sustainable Farm of Martinez,
California, a farm built on reclaimed land, using reclaimed
water, and started with a simple mission: to get kids to eat
more vegetables.
Approximately 62 acres of land in Rio Vista, including the
former Army Reserve Center, have been incorporated into
legislation by Rep. John Garamendi, D-Solano, to increase the
boundaries of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta National
Heritage Area. This bill, known as House Resolution 1230,
passed in the U.S. House of Representatives Friday and will
move on to the Senate. The bill is an expansion of bicameral
legislation by Garamendi and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.,
that was signed into law in 2019 to provide $10 million for
community-based efforts to preserve the Delta’s cultural
heritage as well as its historical landmarks.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday abandoned
its appeal of a federal judge’s ruling last year that a
sprawling collection of Redwood City salt ponds is protected
from development under provisions of the Clean Water Act. The
move brings to an end the federal government’s attempts —
started during former President Trump’s administration — to end
protections that could have led to development at the site.
Related article:
Monterey One Water just celebrated the one-year anniversary of
delivering recycled wastewater via the Pure Water Monterey
project. The advanced filtration system is used on treated
sewage water, which is then injected deep underground where the
new supply will be mixed with the existing water supply.
Even before phase one of the Pure Water Monterey project was
online, the board of M1W began debating an expansion of the
project. But that expansion has been on ice for months, after
the M1W board voted 11-10 (on a weighted vote) in April of 2020
not to proceed. It’s about to come back.
Like a giant garbage disposal, three huge new green pipes sit
on Mexico’s side of the border, shredding trash in the Tijuana
River that would otherwise jam this critical piece of the
city’s wastewater system that caused spills on the United
States side.
Caught between climate change and multi-year droughts,
California communities are tapping groundwater and siphoning
surface water at unsustainable rates. As this year’s
below-average rainfall accentuates the problem, a
public-private partnership in the Monterey/Salinas region has
created a novel water recycling program that could serve as a
model for parched communities everywhere.
San Juan Bautista made progress on its water compliance
projects on Feb. 16 as the City Council unanimously approved
contracts for moving wastewater out of the city, financing, and
a formalized agreement with the San Benito County Water
District to provide water. On Oct. 15, the city opted to
send its wastewater to the Hollister Wastewater Treatment Plant
and to acquire potable water from San Benito County Water
District’s West Hills Water Treatment Plant.
California and Texas, the country’s two most populous states,
have each faced major energy crises within the past six months
that share a primary cause: extreme weather….The Lone Star
State’s plight is many orders of magnitude worse than the
rolling blackouts Californians endured over two blistering days
in August. Yet both situations have exposed the extent to which
the United States’ vital energy infrastructure is threatened by
erratic and extreme weather conditions that are becoming
increasingly common as climate change advances.
Big projects aimed at stemming the toxic sewage flowing from
Tijuana into Imperial Beach and the surrounding region are on
the horizon and that’s a welcome development. But any such
improvements come with a nagging question based on historical
experience: How long will this fix last? Cross-border pollution
has been a problem for the better part of a century and has
defied past efforts to solve it. It’s not that previous actions
didn’t help. Some did, and they greatly diminished the health
and environmental threat — and reduced beach
closures. -Written by Michael Smolens, a columnist for the San Diego
Union-Tribune.
The state of California has changed its sea level rise guidance
for state agencies and coastal communities, now advising in new
“Principles for Aligned State Action” that Californians employ
a single sea level rise target — plan for 3.5 feet by 2050 — as
opposed to the more flexible approach the state used in the
past. But this single sea level rise number does not represent
the best available science and could make California less
resilient to climate change.
–Written by Robert Lempert, a senior scientist at
the RAND Corp. and a member of the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change, and David Behar, climate program director at
the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and co-chair of
the World Climate Research Programme’s Sea Level Rise Grand
Challenge Committee.
In its 25-year plan ensuring the San Diego region has enough
water to go around, the county’s largest water provider didn’t
appear to take the region’s biggest water recycling project to
date very seriously, at least at first. Emails between the San
Diego County Water Authority staff and city of San Diego
officials show the city had to argue for the second and biggest
phase of its Pure Water program to be considered a realistic
future source of drinking water.
The Long Beach Water Department approved an agreement this
month to acquire two properties near an existing well site in
West Long Beach as it aims to build a new potable water
treatment facility that would treat groundwater there.
When a storm pummeled the San Diego-Tijuana region two weeks
ago, hundreds of millions of gallons of water laced with raw
sewage, trash and industrial chemicals flowed over the border,
shuttering beaches as far north as Coronado. The shoreline
stink and closures came as no surprise to residents of Imperial
Beach, a city where swimming was prohibited at its main
oceanfront for nearly half of 2020. The beach along Border
Field State Park was closed for 295 days last year. The South
Bay shoreline was partially opened after the recent rains, only
to be abruptly closed again on Wednesday as polluted water
continued to leak out of Tijuana into the Pacific Ocean.
San Francisco is challenging the EPA over conditions imposed in
a permit that allows the city to send discharge from its
combined sewer system into the Pacific Ocean, according to a
petition for review in the Ninth Circuit.
Trees benefit residents in communities around the world by
mitigating pollution and other environmental impacts of
contemporary society and by broadly improving livability in
cities and towns. However, many locales are feeling the heat as
urban, or community, forests—defined by the U.S. Forest Service
as “the aggregate of all public and private vegetation and
green space within a community that provide a myriad of
environmental, health and economic benefits”—struggle against a
multitude of stressors stemming from climate change. …
[H]eat, megadroughts, and shifts in the amounts and timing of
precipitation are changing water availability—all contributing
to a looming urban tree crisis.
In the five years since Colorado’s Water Plan took effect, the
state has awarded nearly $500 million in loans and grants for
water projects, cities have enacted strict drought plans,
communities have written nearly two dozen locally based stream
restoration plans, and crews have been hard at work improving
irrigation systems and upgrading wastewater treatment plants.
But big challenges lie ahead — drought, population growth,
accelerating climate change, budget cuts, wildfires and
competing demands for water, among others.
As long as people have lived in Pasadena, water has been an
essential element for the life-style, health and economy of our
region. Now, however, Pasadena faces a severe water crisis.
This never has been an easy need to resolve, but population,
growth and climate change have made the development of a
sustainable or resilient water program an even greater
necessity for the future. It’s not just a challenge
for Pasadena, but also for all of California, and even the
nation. -Written by Tim Brick, the Managing Director of the Arroyo
Seco Foundation.
On January 20, 2021, the California State Water Resources
Control Board (State Water Board) adopted a new statewide
general Waste Discharge Requirement (WDR) order for winery
process waste discharge facilities (New Winery Order). This
action will affect thousands of wineries and wine processing
facilities throughout the state.
