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
Over in the South Bay, the sewage crisis has been impacting the
community for years on end. We’ve heard complaints about the
smell and the pollution and all the heartache it has caused. To
help alleviate the pain, one local group, Wildcoast, is working
hard to at least stop thousands of pounds of trash from flowing
in. Watch the video in the player at the top of this page to
see how ABC 10News reporter Madison Weil follows through with
those volunteers.
A California landfill has been illegally dumping toxic waste
into the Napa River for years, polluting waters that feed a
valley known around the world for the quality of its vineyards,
according to a federal lawsuit filed by landfill employees.
Fifteen workers from Clover Flat Landfill and Upper Valley
Disposal Service (UVDS) in Napa County, California, allege that
operators of the landfill intentionally diverted what is called
“leachate” – untreated liquid wastewater often containing heavy
metals, nitrates, bacteria and pathogens – into the Napa River
and other area waterways for decades. The actions were done to
“avoid the costs of properly trucking out the toxic leachate”
to facilities designated for safe disposal, the lawsuit
alleges.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom visited the U.S.-Mexico border on
Monday — but not for the reason you’d expect. The border crisis
that drew the Democrat wasn’t immigration, but sewage. For
nearly a century, billions of gallons of sewage have been
pouring into Southern California from Mexico, making coastal
communities near San Diego the victim of a crisis few people
know about. The problems have disrupted daily life around
America’s eighth-largest city, affected military operations and
exposed how generations of politicians in Mexico and the U.S.
have failed to provide sanitation on both sides of the world’s
busiest border.
The U.S. Supreme Court won’t take up an Arizona tribe’s
petition that looks to overturn a ruling that sides with a
state environmental agency’s decision to let a copper mining
company discharge untreated wastewater into a creek that’s
considered sacred to the Indigenous community.
The Martinez Refining Company has agreed to pay $4.482 million
to settle allegations of federal Clean Water Act violations at
its refinery, the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality
Control Board said Thursday. The refinery allegedly discharged
millions of gallons of wastewater from oil refinery processes,
which harmed water quality and threatened aquatic life in
marshes linked to the Carquinez Strait. … The water
board found three cases of unauthorized discharges into nearby
marshes.
… Commissioner Maria-Elena Giner, head of the IBWC, told
[Matt] Henry and others gathered at the meeting that a
long-awaited project to repair and expand the dilapidated
[South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant] broke
ground earlier Tuesday. … But it will be several years before
the benefits of construction projects on both sides of the
border are felt and data yet to be collected reveals other
possible solutions. …Together with the overhaul of a
wastewater plant in Baja California, [the] expansion
should eliminate about 90 percent of untreated wastewater
reaching South County shorelines.
San Diegans across the political spectrum worry a changing of
the guard at the White House could bring major upheaval to the
federal agency on the frontlines of the Tijuana River sewage
crisis: The International Boundary and Water Commission or
IBWC. The president of the United States appoints the IBWC
leader and a post-election shake up could add uncertainty to
the already precarious state of one of San Diego’s largest
pollution problems. Treating millions of gallons of sewage
spilling from Tijuana into San Diego is just one among myriad
IBWC water management responsibilities along 1,255-miles of the
U.S.-Mexico border. … With little recourse to hold
Mexico responsible for the contamination, San Diegans
historically pinned blame on the IBWC. But since President Joe
Biden appointed Maria-Elena Giner to the top post in August of
2021, most agree she’s done a good job – despite a very low bar
– and don’t want to see her go.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday toured wastewater treatment
facilities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, marking his
first in-person visit to the sites undergoing critical upgrades
to reduce rampant sewage polluting Tijuana and south San Diego
County communities. The California leader started his tour at
the San Ysidro-based South Bay International Wastewater
Treatment Plant, which on Tuesday will begin a yearslong effort
to repair and expand its capacity, which has long been
insufficient for treating Mexico’s sewage. He then traveled to
the San Antonio de los Buenos plant in Baja California, which
also is being overhauled after at least a decade of dumping
millions of gallons of untreated wastewater into the Pacific
Ocean. Years of negligence and underinvestment in wastewater
treatment plants in both countries have resulted in sewage and
toxic chemicals pouring over the border, leaving people ill
with headaches, nausea, respiratory issues and other symptoms.
The South Tahoe Public Utilities Department (STPUD) held a
stakeholders advisory group and public information meeting
regarding how they deal with recycled water. The plan is open
for comment from October 24 to November 11. STPUD was
established in 1950 to provide drinking water and provide
sewage collection, treatment, and export for the South Tahoe
community. Since California has limited water supplies, the
entire state has recycled wastewater for decades through
chemical and microbiological treatment. STPUD is no different
and currently recycles 100% of its wastewater. Because of
the Porter Cologne Act, which protects water quality and water
use in the state, the STPUD began exporting its wastewater to
facilities in Alpine County in 1967, a response to
environmentally protect the watershed of Lake Tahoe. Since
then, STPUD has worked with Alpine County and Harvey Place
Reservoir to store and distribute wastewater—a costly endeavor,
as the water must be pumped over 26 miles over major elevation
changes.
Seats at the Monte Rio Community Center were full Thursday
night for what residents thought was the final step before
county supervisors forced them into an unpopular and expensive
plan to replace their septic systems. Clarity only came
late in the meeting, when Deputy County Administrator Barbara
Lee attempted to calm frustrated residents. Until then, the
prevailing assumption was the Sonoma County board of
supervisors would decide in January whether every household in
Monte Rio and Villa Grande had to connect to a new sewer line
or create community leach fields, all at a cost of tens of
thousands of dollars per home.
San Francisco has long used the Pacific Ocean as its toilet. In
heavy rains, the city on the hill cannot store all the storm
runoff and sewage that flows toward an oceanside treatment
plant in a single old pipe, so some heads out to sea. Now, in a
case with national implications, San Francisco is hoping that
the U.S. Supreme Court will allow it to pollute the ocean on
occasion without violating the federal Clean Water Act.
Although San Francisco has lived under this regulatory
construct for decades, it has now decided to test the limits of
federal regulations with a right-leaning high court known for
restricting environmental laws. —Written by Tom Philp, columnist with The
Sacramento Bee
San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer is teaming up
with several local officials in an attempt to get the
Environmental Protection Agency to take action against the
sewage crisis in the South Bay. On Thursday morning in
Coronado, Lawson-Remer is slated to speak alongside those
officials and some South Bay residents, submitting a petition
to the EPA to designate parts of the Tijuana River Valley as a
“superfund site.” A superfund site is part of a 1980 law
that the EPA can use to free up federal funding to clean up
hazardous waste sites around the country. Those sites are meant
to target toxic waste, not raw sewage — which normally falls
under the Clean Water Act. But Lawson-Remer wants the EPA to
designate a six-mile stretch of the Lower Tijuana River Valley
as a superfund site after decades of exposure to toxic
chemicals, heavy metals, and pesticides.
San Diego County leaders are weighing whether to take legal
action aimed at holding the company managing a federal
wastewater plant along the U.S. border accountable for
pollution. The County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously
Tuesday to “explore litigation options” against Veolia, the
French transnational company managing the federal wastewater
plant on the U.S. side of the border with Mexico. The
options on the table are to start their own case against Veolia
for failing to curb Tijuana River pollution, or join one of the
other lawsuits already filed this year against the company on
behalf of Imperial Beach residents. Supervisor Terra
Lawson-Remer also said they may consider taking action against
other responsible parties, including Mexico.
New groundbreaking research aims to evaluate potential human
health risks from bacteria in surface water systems across four
U.S. states. The project involving the University of Hawaiʻi at
Mānoa will assess the environmental spread of
antimicrobial-resistant pathogens—disease-causing
microorganisms that have evolved to withstand the effects of
antibiotics and other medicines designed to kill them—through
wastewater discharge and agricultural runoff. The three-year
study recently received a $2.4 million grant from the
Environmental Protection Agency. … UH Mānoa
researchers will focus on Kauaʻi’s Hanalei River, where
they will examine how cesspools and animal agriculture
contribute to the spread of antimicrobial resistance. The river
system in Hawaiʻi, along with waterways in Nebraska, New
Jersey and California, were selected to represent diverse
environmental conditions and pollution sources.
New research released today by the Pacific Institute and the
Center for Water Security and Cooperation (CWSC) reveals
existing laws and policies fail to protect water and sanitation
systems from climate change impacts in frontline communities
across the United States. The report, “Law and Policies that
Address Equitable, Climate-Resilient Water and Sanitation,”
examines federal, Tribal, state, and local laws and policies
governing centralized drinking water and wastewater systems, as
well as decentralized onsite drinking water and sanitation
systems. The research demonstrates that most existing US water
laws and policies were developed assuming historical climate
trends that determine water availability would be constant and
that communities’ vulnerability to climate events would be the
same over time. The research specifically outlines how laws and
policies often do not anticipate or help to proactively manage
the impacts of climate change on water and wastewater systems
in frontline communities.
Families in the South Bay are being asked to share their
concerns regarding sewage pollution along the Tijuana River
Valley for a health assessment being conducted by the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC arrived to the
region Thursday to begin the assessment intended to gather
information about the needs arising due to concerns about toxic
air pollution in the South Bay stemming from sewage overflow in
the Tijuana River Valley. Over the last few weeks, more than
6,000 homes were expected to receive flyers informing them of
the Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response,
or CASPER, Volunteers wearing reflective vests will begin
distributing the flyers door-to-door on Oct. 3.
Residents of Imperial Beach in southern San Diego County filed
a lawsuit Tuesday against the operators of an international
wastewater treatment plant — alleging that the site has failed
to contain a cross-border crisis that has long contaminated
their community. The plaintiffs said they are seeking to hold
the plant’s managers accountable for severe environmental and
public health effects that have resulted from an influx of
untreated sewage, heavy metals and other toxic chemicals.
Imperial Beach, which sits just a few miles north of the
U.S.-Mexico border, has long been the recipient of untreated
wastewater that comes from the Tijuana metropolitan region and
ends up on the beaches of San Diego County.
County, state, and federal officials held Wednesday morning a
groundbreaking ceremony near this unincorporated town for the
$11.7 million Niland Sanitation District Wastewater Treatment
Plant and Collection System Improvements Project. “The county
today conducted a groundbreaking ceremony on the much expected
Niland wastewater treatment plant,” Imperial County Executive
Officer Miguel Figueroa said in an interview. “This plant will
not only help us serve better the community of Niland, but also
grow and expand future capacity needs as Niland and its region
grows, obviously considering renewable energy development
coming down.” According to the county official, the wastewater
treatment plant will help better serve local residents and the
future growth of the Lithium Valley and the additional
expansion of the geothermal energy plants.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared to side with the City
of San Francisco in its unusual challenge of federal water
regulations that it said were too vague and could be
interpreted too strictly. The outcome could have sweeping
implications for curtailing water pollution offshore and would
deal another blow to the Environmental Protection Agency, which
has faced a string of losses at the court over its efforts to
protect the environment. The case has given rise to unusual
alliances, with the city joining oil companies and business
groups in siding against the E.P.A. In arguments on Wednesday,
it was the conservative justices who seemed the most aligned
with a city best known as a liberal bastion. At its core, the
case is about human waste and how San Francisco disposes of it
— specifically, whether the Clean Water Act of 1972 allowed the
E.P.A. to impose generic prohibitions on wastewater released
into the Pacific Ocean and to penalize the city.
Decades of neglect by a French company operating a federally
funded wastewater treatment plant on the U.S.-Mexico border has
led to billions of gallons of sewage and toxic chemicals in the
Tijuana River, according to nearby residents who in a lawsuit
decried the serious ecological and human health devastation.
The plant is supposed to treat wastewater from Tijuana and then
dump it into the Pacific Ocean at Imperial Beach, California.
But according to the residents, [Veolia Water West Operating
Services has by virtue of ] misconduct, reckless behavior and
negligence — including not investing in or maintaining the
sewage plant’s infrastructure — discharged fecal bacteria,
heavy metals and chemicals banned in the U.S. like DDT,
benzidine, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the
Tijuana River.
Following last week’s vote by the San Diego County Board of
Supervisors to delay any formal decision on pursuing a
Superfund designation for the Tijuana River Valley, Supervisor
Terra Lawson-Remer Monday decided to get public support.
Lawson-Remer put out a call on Monday for San Diego County
residents impacted by the Tijuana River sewage crisis to sign
her petition to the Environmental Protection Agency. “The
Tijuana River sewage crisis affects all of our coastal
neighborhoods,” she said. … The board voted 3-2 on Oct.
9 to wait on pursuing the Superfund distinction under the 1980
law which lets the EPA clean up contaminated areas, such as the
infamous Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York.
On Tuesday, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors rejected
a notion that could’ve resulted in millions of dollars and
other resources to clean up the badly-polluted Tijuana River
Valley, a decision that baffled and disappointed Paloma Aguirre
and other political and community leaders in the area. “It’s
frustrating,” said Aguirre, mayor of Imperial Beach. She wanted
the County of San Diego to declare the valley as a “Superfund
Site,” meaning the federal government and Environmental
Protection Agency would have to start an investigation into the
pollution and sewage problems in the Tijuana River Valley.
Measure J, put forth by the Coalition to End Factory Farming,
is on the ballot in Sonoma County this November. It would
require farms in Sonoma County classified by EPA as
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) to either
downsize or shut down in a three-year period. According to the
EPA, CAFOs are classified as such when surpassing an exceeded
limit of animals held, with varying limits depending on the
animal. Farms can also be classified as CAFOs if they
release manure or wastewater to surface water.
… The debate grew contentious over a disagreement to how
medium CAFOs are classified and targeted by Measure J. Measure
J text would ban all CAFOs from running in Sonoma County and
downsize 21 large CAFOs to a size and water waste management
that meets EPA standards to no longer be a CAFO.
The largest regulated water and wastewater utility company in
the United States announced Monday that it was the victim of a
cyberattack, prompting the firm to pause billing to customers.
New Jersey-based American Water — which provides services to
more than 14 million people in 14 states and on 18 military
installations — said it became aware of the unauthorized
activity on Thursday and immediately took protective steps,
including shutting down certain systems. The company does not
believe its facilities or operations were impacted by the
attack and said staffers were working “around the clock” to
investigate the nature and scope of the attack. The company
said it has notified law enforcement and is cooperating with
them. … According to its website, American Water manages more
than 500 water and wastewater systems in about 1,700
communities in California, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana,
Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
The doctor who exposed elevated levels of lead in the
bloodstream of children in Flint, Michigan, leading to a
nationwide crisis that has lasted years, has compared it with
the situation going on in southern California. “It’s a
very similar story of environmental contamination, an
environmental injustice,” said Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha
in a public health forum in Imperial Beach during the
weekend. “My biggest message is to tell the residents that they
are not alone,” she added. The statement comes shortly after
local researchers said they detected a poisonous
substance in the Tijuana River Valley as a result of the high
volume of raw sewage flowing from Mexico into the region.
Water recycling — once dubbed “toilet-to-tap” by naysayers —
has officially entered a new era in California. This month,
statewide regulations for what’s technically called “direct
potable reuse” went into effect. The rules allow wastewater —
yes, the water that goes down the drain or is flushed down the
toilet — to be treated to drinkable standards then distributed
directly to homes and businesses. … Previously,
California law only allowed “indirect potable reuse,”
which is what the Fountain Valley facility does — highly
treated wastewater is injected underground into an aquifer,
where further, natural filtration occurs. Then that water is
put into the pipelines to our homes and businesses.
Direct potable reuse, which is what these newly effective
regulations are about, skips that step where the water is
injected into groundwater basins. Instead, the highly treated
sewage water goes directly to drinking water treatment plants
and then is distributed.
San Diego County residents will have an opportunity to share
their pollution concerns about the Tijuana River when officials
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention arrive
later this month to conduct a health survey. This is the first
time that a federal agency is investigating the potential harm
caused by millions of gallons of raw sewage pouring through the
Tijuana River that have caused beach closures of more than
1,000 days. Residents living near the river say they have been
suffering unexplained illnesses, including gastrointestinal
issues and chronic breathing problems, because of the stench of
hydrogen sulfide.
Zooplankton—tiny aquatic animals known to graze on bacteria—are
ineffective at removing fecal microorganisms
from sewage-contaminated water, according to a new
study. The findings challenged the assumptions of the
researchers that these tiny animals could act as natural
cleaners by inactivating harmful pathogens in freshwater and
saltwater environments. The hypothesis was that zooplankton
would consume or neutralize fecal microorganisms, potentially
reducing the risk to human health after water contamination.
But the results told a different story.
People who live and work near the U.S.-Mexico border have
complained for years about the ill effects from the
cross-border pollution: noxious odors, headaches, breathing
difficulties, nausea, stomach ailments. They now will have a
face-to-face opportunity to tell the nation’s public health
agency how the toxic mix of sewage and other contaminants that
spill into the Tijuana River Valley affects them. The effort
kicks off Thursday with a large team from San Diego County and
San Diego State University notifying more than 6,000 homes of
an upcoming visit by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention and the possibility that their household may be
selected for an interview, county public health officials said
Wednesday.
Yucca Valley property owners who aren’t complying with a ban on
septic tanks are beginning to feel the hammer from state
enforcers, who want an aquifer that supplies drinking water for
the rural town off Highway 62 to stop being polluted with
toilet waste runoff. After years of warnings, state water
regulators have now issued cease-and-desist notices against
three Yucca Valley homeowners for failing to hook up to public
sewage lines, and for discharging septic waste into the town’s
primary drinking water source. If they do not comply by
December, they could face penalties of $5,000 a day and
referral to the state attorney general for possible further
sanctions. None of the owners responded to requests for comment
from The Desert Sun.
There is a new effort that aims to expand access to drinking
water across California. The state is working to adapt to
hotter, drier conditions by creating new regulations for
converting wastewater to high-quality drinking water. Officials
say it clears the way for water systems to recycle and reuse
millions of gallons of water per day. The State Water Resources
Control Board unanimously approved the regulations in December
2023. California invested 24 million dollars in research
problems to ensure the water would be safe to drink.
Following 31 years of consecutive extensions of a local state
of emergency regarding sewage outflow in the Tijuana River
Valley, the San Diego City Council on Tuesday approved a
resolution asking for a national emergency. The largely
symbolic item passed 7-0, and officially implores the federal
government to make the local crisis a recognized national one,
as well as asking for total funding of the Environmental
Protection Agency’s infrastructure solution to the pollution.
Councilwoman Vivian Moreno, who put forward the resolution and
represents San Diego’s southernmost communities such as Nestor,
Egger Highlands, San Ysidro and Otay Mesa, said she feared for
the health of her young child during an especially egregious
incident amid a recent heat wave.
Elected officials across San Diego said Monday they hope that
$5.7 million for the renovation of a key piece of
infrastructure at a wastewater treatment plant that straddles
the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego will be the first step in
solving a decades long sewage-pollution problem that fouls the
air and makes people sick. … The South Bay
International Wastewater Treatment Plant — under a joint
U.S.-Mexican body called the International Boundary and Water
Commission — treats sewage from Tijuana, but hasn’t been doing
that since 2021 following the failure of a piece of the plant’s
infrastructure. When Junction Box-1 is operable, it’s supposed
to control the amount of wastewater coming into the plant from
Tijuana before it’s treated and sent to the Pacific
Ocean. Since 2021 though, the box — which sits mere feet
away from the border wall — has been inoperable, meaning mounds
of sewage passed through the plant without being treated.
Local water officials and city leaders invited the public to
Desert Hot Springs Friday morning for a ribbon cutting marking
the completion of a new water reclamation facility. The Mission
Springs Water District’s “Nancy Wright Regional Water
Reclamation Facility” is located on Little Morongo Road, north
of 20th Avenue. Officials with MSWD said the new facility
will help protect groundwater and reduce dependence on the
Colorado River by enabling wastewater treatment and eventually
recycling. “This is almost 100% financed by grants from
the state’s clean water fund, it’s a benefit to
everybody,” said Robert Griffith, MSWD Vice President.
Work is also continuing on a project to bring wastewater flows
from other areas of the district to the new plant as well as a
project connecting about 700 homes currently relying on septic
tanks to the sewage system.
Lawmakers in San Francisco are launching a last-ditch effort to
kill the city’s lawsuit challenging federal water pollution
requirements, weeks before Supreme Court oral arguments are set
to begin. The city has accused EPA of including unreasonably
vague requirements in a wastewater permit for one of its sewage
treatment plants. The language in the permit is designed to
protect water quality and is widely used in permits for
municipalities nationwide. San Francisco says it’s virtually
impossible to follow. But on Tuesday, San Francisco Supervisor
Myrna Melgar introduced a resolution urging the city attorney’s
office to drop the case. … Despite the case’s
local origins, the outcome could have broad ramifications for
wastewater permits and limit EPA’s ability to control the
release of sewage and other contaminants, legal experts
said.
Momentum is building for a unique
interstate deal that aims to transform wastewater from Southern
California homes and business into relief for the stressed
Colorado River. The collaborative effort to add resiliency to a
river suffering from overuse, drought and climate change is being
shaped across state lines by some of the West’s largest water
agencies.
Martha Guzman recalls those awful
days working on water and other issues as a deputy legislative
secretary for then-Gov. Jerry Brown. California was mired in a
recession and the state’s finances were deep in the red. Parks
were cut, schools were cut, programs were cut to try to balance a
troubled state budget in what she remembers as “that terrible
time.”
She now finds herself in a strikingly different position: As
administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
Region 9, she has a mandate to address water challenges across
California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii and $1 billion to help pay
for it. It is the kind of funding, she said, that is usually
spread out over a decade. Guzman called it the “absolutely
greatest opportunity.”
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
The southern part of California’s Central Coast from San Luis Obispo County to Ventura County, home to about 1.5 million people, is blessed with a pleasing Mediterranean climate and a picturesque terrain. Yet while its unique geography abounds in beauty, the area perpetually struggles with drought.
Indeed, while the rest of California breathed a sigh of relief with the return of wet weather after the severe drought of 2012–2016, places such as Santa Barbara still grappled with dry conditions.
Blasted by sun and beaten by waves,
plastic bottles and bags shed fibers and tiny flecks of
microplastic debris that litter the San Francisco Bay where they
can choke the marine life that inadvertently consumes it.
Summer is a good time to take a
break, relax and enjoy some of the great beaches, waterways and
watersheds around California and the West. We hope you’re getting
a chance to do plenty of that this July.
But in the weekly sprint through work, it’s easy to miss
some interesting nuggets you might want to read. So while we’re
taking a publishing break to work on other water articles planned
for later this year, we want to help you catch up on
Western Water stories from the first half of this year
that you might have missed.
Each day, people living on the streets and camping along waterways across California face the same struggle – finding clean drinking water and a place to wash and go to the bathroom.
Some find friendly businesses willing to help, or public restrooms and drinking water fountains. Yet for many homeless people, accessing the water and sanitation that most people take for granted remains a daily struggle.
Californians have been doing an
exceptional job
reducing their indoor water use, helping the state survive
the most recent drought when water districts were required to
meet conservation targets. With more droughts inevitable,
Californians are likely to face even greater calls to save water
in the future.
For the bulk of her career, Jayne
Harkins has devoted her energy to issues associated with the
management of the Colorado River, both with the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and with the Colorado River Commission of Nevada.
Now her career is taking a different direction. Harkins, 58, was
appointed by President Trump last August to take the helm of the
United States section of the U.S.-Mexico agency that oversees
myriad water matters between the two countries as they seek to
sustainably manage the supply and water quality of the Colorado
River, including its once-thriving Delta in Mexico, and other
rivers the two countries share. She is the first woman to be
named the U.S. Commissioner of the International Boundary and
Water Commission for either the United States or Mexico in the
commission’s 129-year history.
Although Santa Monica may be the most aggressive Southern California water provider to wean itself from imported supplies, it is hardly the only one looking to remake its water portfolio.
In Los Angeles, a city of about 4 million people, efforts are underway to dramatically slash purchases of imported water while boosting the amount from recycling, stormwater capture, groundwater cleanup and conservation. Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2014 announced a plan to reduce the city’s purchase of imported water from Metropolitan Water District by one-half by 2025 and to provide one-half of the city’s supply from local sources by 2035. (The city considers its Eastern Sierra supplies as imported water.)
Imported water from the Sierra
Nevada and the Colorado River built Southern California. Yet as
drought, climate change and environmental concerns render those
supplies increasingly at risk, the Southland’s cities have ramped
up their efforts to rely more on local sources and less on
imported water.
Far and away the most ambitious goal has been set by the city of
Santa Monica, which in 2014 embarked on a course to be virtually
water independent through local sources by 2023. In the 1990s,
Santa Monica was completely dependent on imported water. Now, it
derives more than 70 percent of its water locally.
In rural areas with widely dispersed houses, reliance upon a
centralized
sewer system is not practical compared to individual
wastewater treatment methods. These on-site management facilities
– or septic systems – are more commonplace given their simpler
structure, efficiency and easy maintenance.
Microplastics – plastic debris
measuring less than 5 millimeters – are an
increasing water quality concern. They enter waterways and
oceans as industrial microbeads from various consumer
products or larger plastic litter that degrades into small bits.
Microbeads have been used in exfoliating agents, cosmetic washes
and large-scale cleaning processes. Microplastics are used
pharmaceutically for efficient drug delivery to affected sites in
patients’ bodies and by textile companies to create artificial
fibers.
Microplastics disperse easily and widely throughout surface waters and sediments. UV
light, microbes and erosion degrade the tiny fragments, making
them even smaller and more difficult for wastewater treatment
plants to remove.
The particles, usually made of polyethylene or polypropylene
plastic, take thousands of years to biodegrade
naturally. It takes prohibitively high temperatures to
break microplastics down fully. Consequently, most water treatment plants cannot remove
them.
The health effects of consumption are currently under
investigation.
Responses
Many advocacy groups have published lists of products containing
microbeads to curb their purchase and pollution.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulates microbeads in
industrial, but not domestic, wastewater.
Federal
law required microbeads to be phased out of rinse-off
cosmetics beginning in July 2017. Dozens of states also
regulate microbeads in products. California has the strictest
limitation, prohibiting even the use of biodegradable microbeads.
Microplastics in California Water
In 2019, the San Francisco Estuary Institute published a
study estimating that 7 trillion pieces of microplastic
enter San Francisco
Bay annually from stormwater runoff, about 300
times the amount in all wastewater treatment effluent entering
the bay.
California lawmakers in 2018 passed a package of bills to raise
awareness of the risks of microplastics and microfibers in the
marine environment and drinking water. As
directed by the legislation, the State Water Resources Control
Board in 2020 adopted an official
definition of microplastics in drinking water and in 2022
developed the world’s standardized methods for testing drinking
water for microplastics.
The water board was expected by late 2023 to begin testing
for microplastics in untreated drinking water sources tapped by
30 of the state’s largest water utilities. After two years, the
testing was expected to extend to treated tap water served
to consumers. A progress report and recommendations for
policy changes or additional research are required by the end of
2025.
Directly detecting harmful pathogens in water can be expensive,
unreliable and incredibly complicated. Fortunately, certain
organisms are known to consistently coexist with these harmful
microbes which are substantially easier to detect and culture:
coliform bacteria. These generally non-toxic organisms are
frequently used as “indicator
species,” or organisms whose presence demonstrates a
particular feature of its surrounding environment.
The biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) of water determines the
impact of decaying matter on species in a specific ecosystem.
Sampling for BOD tests how much oxygen is needed by bacteria to
break down the organic matter.
Point sources release pollutants from discrete conveyances, such
as a discharge pipe, and are regulated by federal and state
agencies. The main point source dischargers are factories and
sewage treatment plants, which release treated
wastewater.
This 30-minute documentary-style DVD on the history and current
state of the San Joaquin River Restoration Program includes an
overview of the geography and history of the river, historical
and current water delivery and uses, the genesis and timeline of
the 1988 lawsuit, how the settlement was reached and what was
agreed to.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
Many Californians don’t realize that when they turn on the
faucet, the water that flows out could come from a source close
to home or one hundreds of miles away. Most people take their
water for granted; not thinking about the elaborate systems and
testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state. Where drinking water comes from,
how it’s treated, and what people can do to protect its quality
are highlighted in this 2007 PBS documentary narrated by actress
Wendie Malick.
A 30-minute version of the 2007 PBS documentary Drinking Water:
Quenching the Public Thirst. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues surrounding the elaborate systems
and testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state.
As the state’s population continues to grow and traditional water
supplies grow tighter, there is increased interest in reusing
treated wastewater for a variety of activities, including
irrigation of crops, parks and golf courses, groundwater recharge
and industrial uses.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to California
Wastewater is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the history of wastewater
treatment and how wastewater is collected, conveyed, treated and
disposed of today. The guide also offers case studies of
different treatment plants and their treatment processes.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Delta explores the competing
uses and demands on California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Included in the guide are sections on the history of the Delta,
its role in the state’s water system, and its many complex issues
with sections on water quality, levees, salinity and agricultural
drainage, fish and wildlife, and water distribution.
Wastewater management in California centers on the collection,
conveyance,
treatment, reuse and disposal of wastewater. This process is
conducted largely by public agencies, though there are also
private systems in places where a publicly owned treatment plant
is not feasible.
In California, wastewater treatment takes place through 100,000
miles of sanitary sewer lines and at more than 900 wastewater
treatment plants that manage the roughly 4 billion gallons of
wastewater generated in the state each day.