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
San Diego County leaders announced Thursday they have a plan to
help reduce toxic sewage pollution in the Tijuana River Valley
and measure its impact on residents’ health. At a news
conference from the river valley, Supervisors Paloma Aguirre
and Terra Lawson-Remer said they want the county to use
reserves typically set aside for emergencies for two
initiatives they estimate would cost $4.75 million. The
proposal to use rainy-day funds for Tijuana River sewage
efforts is the latest Aguirre has made this week. On Tuesday,
she suggested using $19.25 million to buy more air purifiers
for residents and air monitors for the county to record
real-time data of hydrogen sulfide levels and to run a
treatment pilot program that would improve the river water’s
conditions.
We’ve been following the ongoing pollution crisis in the
Tijuana River Valley, and today, we’re zeroing in on a spot
that’s drawing a lot of attention: Trash piled up in Smuggler’s
Gulch, just feet from where stormwater flows straight into the
estuary. … During heavy rain, the creek bed turns into a
roaring river. When that happens, trash gets swept downstream
and straight into the Tijuana River Estuary and, eventually,
the ocean. … This part of the Tijuana River Valley is a
complex network of streams and creeks all feeding into the
estuary. County officials say trash booms can only do so much,
especially when flooding moves fast and carries heavy debris.
Close to 100 community members impacted by a massive sewage
spill in the northern part of the city of Clearlake attended a
town hall on Wednesday evening to hear the latest about efforts
to test wells and help residents try to get back to normal.
Wednesday marked 10 days since a 16-inch force main operated by
the Lake County Sanitation District ruptured in the area of
Robin Lane in Clearlake, spilling an estimated 2.9 million
gallons during the 38-hour period of time in which repairs were
underway. … [Environmental Health Department Director Craig
Wetherbee] said monitoring will be long-term — for years — but
the response itself won’t last that long. If there is more
rain, he said it could cause more contamination, with the
bacteria mobilized in the soil.
After millions of gallons of raw sewage spilled into San Diego
through the Tijuana River, federal officials said Monday the
toxic flows had stopped. The U.S. International Boundary and
Water Commission (IBWC), which oversees the treatment of some
of Tijuana’s wastewater north of the border, said the spill
began Thursday night. The cause: a major sewage pipe collapse
in eastern Tijuana. … Last week’s spill is the latest of
many over the past decade and amid infrastructure repairs
happening on both sides of the border. But those who live and
work in the South County communities affected by the sewage
pollution said they feel like reprieve is far from coming.
The same week politicians in Congress and the State House
announced progress on a decades-old pollution crisis in the
Tijuana River Valley, officials also announced a major new
spill. The U.S. International Water and Boundary Commission
notified the public Friday morning that Mexican officials
reported a failure at the Insurgentes Collector wastewater
system Thursday night that will cause 11.5 million
gallons of sewage and chemicals to spill into the
Tijuana River daily, pending repairs. … Alex Padilla
said [Thursday] they had arranged nearly $3.5 million in
federal aid for a dredging project to remove sediment, trash
and debris from Smuggler’s Gulch to reduce pollution and
flooding in local communities.
Rep. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, Thursday joined Sen. Alex
Padilla, D-California, in announcing they had secured nearly
$3.5 million to help address pollution and trash in the Tijuana
River Valley. The money was secured through the Community
Project Funding process and is intended for a project to dredge
the Smuggler’s Gulch area and remove waste, debris and
accumulated sediment. … The decades-long process to
clean the area has been exacerbated in recent years due to
multiple consecutive years of beach closures in the South Bay
due to elevated bacteria levels as a result of sewage and
wastewater runoff.
The North Bay city of Clearlake has declared a local emergency
because of a massive sewage spill. It all started from a
ruptured pipe on Robin Lane around 8 a.m. on Sunday. But
the spill has not stopped, despite efforts to repair it,
because of multiple faulty valves.Raw sewage has flooded the
area and has spread into waterways and ditches. About 58
properties are impacted. The wastewater system is managed
by the Lake County Sanitation District. People in that
area are being urged to drink bottled water.
Recent storms have once again pushed large amounts of trash
from Mexico into the Tijuana River Valley, but new equipment
installed along the river is already making a noticeable
difference. Project leaders say newly added floating trash
deflectors are improving how debris is captured, preventing
waste from scattering throughout the river corridor in San
Ysidro and reducing the risk of pollution reaching
the Pacific Ocean. … The deflectors work alongside
an existing trash boom installed about a year and a half ago at
the start of the Tijuana River Valley. Stretching roughly 700
feet across the river, the barrier is designed to intercept
debris flowing north from Tijuana before it spreads downstream.
Scores of communities around the United States have aging and
decrepit wastewater systems that can put residents’ health and
homes at risk. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and former
President Joe Biden’s administration promised hundreds of
millions of dollars to address the problem, but much of that
has been undone in President Donald Trump’s return to office.
Some of the Trump administration’s cuts have come as he has
targeted diversity, equity and inclusion. Advocates say that
will likely widen inequality, as many of the worst wastewater
systems are in poor communities. Here are key takeaways from
The Associated Press’ reporting on the issue.
A wastewater spill that spurred warnings to stay out of the
Russian River this week after a storm drenched Sonoma County
was stopped Thursday morning, officials said. Tuesday’s heavy
rainfall overwhelmed a local wastewater treatment facility, the
Russian River Treatment Plant in Guerneville, which received
flows at a rate of around 4 million gallons per day — nearly
six times its average dry-weather design of 710,000 gallons.
With no additional storage available, millions of gallons of
untreated wastewater traveled roughly a quarter-mile through a
forested redwood grove before entering the mainstem of the
river. … The spill was officially stopped at 6:50 a.m.
Thursday.
People are being asked to stay away from the lower Russian
River after an unknown volume of untreated wastewater spilled
from a sewage treatment plant in Guerneville during the
tail-end of a storm that drenched Sonoma County and flooded
many roads across the region. Heavy overnight rainfall — part
of the region’s prolonged atmospheric river — caused storage
ponds at the facility to overflow early Tuesday morning, said
Stuart Tiffen, a spokesman for Sonoma Water, which operates the
Russian River Treatment Plant. Affected residents were alerted
of the spill Tuesday morning, officials said. … Some of
the discharge was traveling a quarter of a mile through a
forested area before it reached the mainstem of the river,
officials said.
The recent rainstorms are putting the Tijuana River Trash Boom
Project to the test, and so far, it’s proving its worth.
The trash boom was installed about a year and a half ago to
stop waste from spreading through the Tijuana River Valley and
into the Pacific Ocean. The barriers, stretching roughly
700 feet across the beginning of the Tijuana River Valley, are
designed to catch debris flowing from Tijuana before it reaches
the ocean. Oscar Romo, the director of the project, told
CBS 8 that during last year’s rain season, the system collected
about 500 tons of trash. Now, just two months into this
rain season, the boom has already trapped nearly that same
amount.
The Environmental Protection Agency has issued a rule delaying
by five years deadlines for stricter wastewater treatment
standards for coal-fired power plants, a move that will allow
continued releases of toxic pollutants into waterways that
supply drinking water for more than 30 million Americans. The
delayed standards would have required coal plants to
significantly reduce discharges of wastewater containing
arsenic, mercury, bromide, and other hazardous pollutants.
Under the new rule, power plants will have additional time
before being required to install more advanced treatment
technologies.
Local officials are again distributing air purifiers to
residents inundated with pollution from the Tijuana River
sewage crisis after they botched their first attempt to do so.
The first batch of 400 air purifiers distributed through a
lottery system under former District 1 Supervisor Nora Vargas
lacked the necessary filters to clean the gases in the air.
Specifically, the first purifiers lacked the necessary
potassium permanganate and charcoal to effectively filter toxic
gases. A contractor also failed to transfer applicant
information to the San Diego County Air Pollution Control
District, forcing people to reapply for the purifiers without
notification.
… Rich in biodiversity, the [Tijuana River] estuary is home
to hundreds of migratory bird species and endangered plant and
animal life. It’s also the site of a worsening
environmental crisis marked by billions of gallons of
wastewater that have spilled annually over the international
border in recent years, the byproduct of Tijuana’s urban and
industrial growth fueled in part by U.S. trade
policies. When storms sweep the region, massive downpours
collide with poor or aging wastewater infrastructure, causing
sewage overflows and dragging the waste and urban runoff
through Tijuana communities to the
border. … inewsource spent months talking to more
than 100 people living and working near the Tijuana River. Many
say this place — their longtime home — is making them
sick.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Delta explores the competing
uses and demands on California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta. The 11th edition examines this critical
water hub and its myriad challenges. The 2025 version
includes the latest information on the tunnel project, habitat
restoration efforts, climate change impacts and an updated
section on the legal and political facets of the Delta.
California has reached a major milestone in understanding the
condition of its wastewater systems with the completion of
Phase 1 of the statewide Wastewater Needs Assessment (WWNA).
Led by UCLA’s Luskin Center for Innovation and partners, the
effort established a first-ever comprehensive baseline
evaluation of wastewater infrastructure performance, risks, and
unmet needs—creating a foundation for more equitable sanitation
policy and investment across the state. The WWNA was
conceived to help answer a simple yet critical question: how
well are California’s thousands of wastewater systems serving
people and communities, especially disadvantaged and
underserved areas?
As Tijuana River sewage has contaminated neighborhoods in
southern San Diego County, the federal government has pledged
two-thirds of a billion to clean it up. Now local
lawmakers are calling on California to step up the fight
against cross-border pollution, and one introduced a bill this
week to revisit air quality standards for noxious gas from the
river. … The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
on Monday announced a new agreement with Mexico to plan for
wastewater infrastructure to accommodate future population
growth in Tijuana. On Wednesday State Sen. Steve Padilla
introduced a bill to update state standards for hydrogen
sulfide, a noxious gas with a rotten egg smell that’s produced
by sewage in the river.
… [Last] week, California state officials held a series of
public meetings across the county to discuss public health
responsiveness, wastewater infrastructure and U.S.-Mexico
relations related to the [Tijuana River sewage] crisis. …
Meetings ranged from Thursday’s State Senate Environmental
Quality Committee hearing in La Jolla, chaired by Sen.
Catherine Blakespear, to a three-day California Coastal
Commission meeting in Imperial Beach from Wednesday to Friday.
… Officials repeatedly discussed the so-called “hot spot” on
Saturn Boulevard, where raw sewage and industrial waste flowing
from four concrete culverts create a toxic waterfall that
aerosolizes pollutants.
Cities across California and the Southwest are significantly
increasing and diversifying their use of recycled wastewater as
traditional water supplies grow tighter.
The 5th edition of our Layperson’s Guide to Water Recycling
covers the latest trends and statistics on water reuse as a
strategic defense against prolonged drought and climate change.
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.
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.
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.
