Check out Heal the Bay’s mockumentary narrated by Jeremy Irons, on the plastic bag’s adventures as it travels to the great garbage patch in the Pacific.
July 27, 2010
By Daniel Strain and Mark Shwartz
Within the sludge of wastewater treatment plants is an invisible world teeming with microbes. Here, diverse species of bacteria convert solid and liquid wastes into gases, some of which contribute to global warming.
Now two Stanford University engineers are developing a new sewage treatment process that would actually increase the production of two greenhouse gases – nitrous oxide (aka, “laughing gas”) and methane – and use the gases to power the treatment plant.
Water, along with plastic bags and other trash, rushes head-on into a metal stormdrain gate that will soon be installed in 16 cities upstream along the Los Angeles River. Credit: Long Beach Post
About 12,000 metal gates will be installed at the opening of stormdrains in sixteen cities that empty into the Los Angeles River, as a measure to reduce pollution that accumulates in the river and ultimately, the Pacific Ocean and the coast of Long Beach.
California beaches violated water quality standards fewer times than usual last year. That’s a key finding of a national report the Natural Resources Defense Council released this morning. The conclusion isn’t as good as it may sound.
Beaches in the Golden State tested dirty less often than before – particularly in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties – because testers sampled for bacteria at state beaches less often than before. “It’s really a case of ‘what you don’t look for, you don’t find,’” says Noah Garrison, a lawyer for the NRDC.
He adds that the culprit is a shrunken state budget. “We’re simply monitoring the beaches less. Often that’s in the wintertime, but that’s still a concern because people really visit the beaches year-round in California,” he says.
Ventura County cut sampling in the winter and spring; Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties saw around 60 percent drops in frequency. Some beaches Orange County used to test daily were tested weekly; overall Orange County’s testing dropped by a quarter. Los Angeles County recorded a 38% drop – not as bad as it could have been, Garrison said, mainly because regional water regulators have required sampling as a top priority.
In winter months, stormwater sends bacteria into the ocean as rainfall carries more pollutants into drains. But even in summer months, Garrison says water quality wasn’t necessarily improving. “During summer months the percent of samples that did not meet bacterial health standards for L.A. County and for Orange County remained about the same as it was in 2008, or in many cases actually was worse,” Garrison says.
The NRDC report points out that known sources of contamination at California beaches are a tiny fraction of the total. Unknown sources make up three-quarters of reported contamination; “no data” counts for 13 percent more. That could be stormwater, or sewage; nobody knows.
Some of the dirtiest beaches are the usual suspects: Surfrider Beach in Malibu, Santa Monica State Beach near the pier, Cabrillo Beach, Newport Bay. Garrison says beaches popular with tourists and locals are vital to the coastal and state economy. “To be allowing them to become a public health threat where not enough monitoring is done so people don’t know whether the beach they’re swimming at is safe for them to be in the water at, we really can’t continue that practice and hope that our economy will continue to thrive,” he says.
Federal stimulus money has followed this logic. In Hermosa Beach, the Environmental Protection Agency gave the city 1-and-a-third million dollars to reduce and clean stormwater runoff at Pier Street. The project includes a greywater component; wastewater will be recycled to feed plants in a pedestrian park at the area.
To learn more about the NRDC report, please join us on September 16 for a LABS luncheon with Senior Attorney David Beckman from the NRDC for a discussion of triple bottom line solutions that address regional stormwater from an inclusive perspective.
Safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is a human right essential to the full enjoyment of life and all other human rights, the General Assembly declared today, voicing deep concern that almost 900 million people worldwide do not have access to clean water.
City Achieves 80% Reduction in Sewer Overflows and Aggressively Addresses Sewer Related Odors
LOS ANGELES (July 23, 2010)—The Bureau of Sanitation continues to be aggressive in implementing various projects and programs to manage effectively and renew the City’s 6,700 mile wastewater sewer system. As a result, the Bureau of Sanitation has reduced the number of sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) by 80% since the baseline fiscal year (FY) of 2000/2001, reaching yet another record low number of SSOs this year. The City of Los Angeles wastewater collection system is operated and maintained by the Department of Public Works, Bureau of Sanitation (BOS). There were 687 recorded SSOs in 2000/2001, 444 in 2003/2004, 200 in FY 2007/2008, 159 in FY 2008/2009, and just 139 in FY 2009/10. The number of SSOs during last fiscal year is 12 percent lower than the previous year’s record low. The wastewater collection industry measures excellent system performance by the number of SSOs per 100 miles each year. The City’s metric for last fiscal year was a record low 2.07 SSOs per 100 miles per year, one of the lowest in the nation.
Equinox Center Study Shows Treated Wastewater Safe To Drink
SAN DIEGO — When it comes to the prospect of turning wastewater into drinking water, a new report from the non-partisan research group Equinox Center shows it could be safer than most would think.
“Purified, recycled water is safer to drink than what we are drinking today,” said Aaron Contorer of the Equinox Center. “A significant portion of our water today is extracted from wastewater upstream.”
The Equinox Center’s report reveals a map of some 350 sewage plants that discharge wastewater into the waterways the country draws its water from before it is treated locally.
Essentially, the report shows everyone routinely drinks recycled wastewater.
Las Vegas already recycles its wastewater to drink, and that drinking water also ends up in the San Diego water supply.
“All the tests have shown purified, recycled water is safe and clean,” said Contorer. “According to our research, it’s safer, cleaner, more reliable and uses less energy than other water sources.”
The Equinox Center’s report comes days ahead of a critical vote, when the San Diego City Council will vote on a construction contract for an $11.8 million wastewater recycling pilot project.
It is a first step that could lead to recycled water in San Diego faucets if it is deemed successful.
Other areas that have wastewater-to-tap programs included Long Beach, Orange County, Reno and the country of Singapore.
Three New Customers Will Help the Department Save 6.5 Million Gallons of Water per Year
LOS ANGELES — Furthering its commitment to expand local water supplies and reduce the City’s dependence on imported water, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) has successfully expanded its network of recycled water pipes to deliver treated reclaimed water to the newest customers in the San Fernando Valley: two local churches and the LADWP Power System, who will use recycled water for outdoor irrigation. These new customers will reduce the need for using drinking water for non-potable purposes by 20 acre feet per year (AFY) or 6.5 million gallons.
Heather Wylie was a key instigator of what must be the biggest, most important boating expedition ever undertaken on the Los Angeles River.
With two dozen others in kayaks and canoes, she braved the river’s shallow waters, paddling past garbage trucks at the water’s edge, homeless bathers and other unexpected riparian obstacles.
“I’ve never had so much fun on a boating trip,” Wylie told me. “It was a new kind of adventure.”
That adventure cost Wylie, then a 29-year-old government biologist, her job — and $60,000 salary — with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. But it helped save the L.A. River.
Here’s an entertaining video describing how bottled water is bad for the environment and promoting switching back to tap water. There’s an interesting comment on how our clean water infrastructure is under-funded as well:
Link to video
Annie Leonard used to spout jargon. She reveled in the sort of geek-speak that glazes your eyeballs.
Externalized costs, paradigm shifts, the precautionary principle, extended producer responsibility.
That was before she discovered cartoons.
The Environmental Protection Agency proposed daily pollution limits for lakes in nine urban and suburban parks in the Los Angeles area that have been identified as impaired due to nutrients, mercury, trash, pesticides, and polychlorinated biphenyls. EPA and the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board are racing to beat a March 2012 deadline to establish total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) for waterways in California’s Los Angeles and Ventura counties, a deadline set in a 1999 consent decree. Half of the over 90 TMDLs that must be established are in place, according to EPA documents. The latest proposed rule lists an additional 32 limits. The federal agency is stepping in because the regional board is short on resources and EPA can establish the TMDLs in less time, according to the EPA documents. The lakes and the pollutants contributing to their impairment are: Peck Road Park Lake – nitrogen, phosphorus, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, PCB’s, and trash; Lincoln Park Lake – nitrogen, phosphorus, trash; Echo Park Lake – nitrogen, phosphorus, chlordane, dieldrin, PCBs, trash; Lake Calabasas – nitrogen, phosphorus; El Dorado Park Lakes – nitrogen, phosphorus, mercury; Legg lakes (North, Center and Legg) – nitrogen, phosphorus; Puddingstone Reservoir – nitrogen, phosphorus, chlordane, DDT, PCBs, mercury; Santa Fe Dam Park – nitrogen, phosphorus; and Lake Sherwood – mercury.
Water and Wastewater Equipment Mfg Association
The DWP has a dismal record on providing local sustainable sources of water from water recycling, aquifer management and rainwater capture. L.A. should separate water and power into two departments.
During the rainy season, the city of L.A. sends 100 million gallons of untreated runoff into the Pacific Ocean.
Tuesday, the city’s engineering department signed off on six standard plans that can be used to prevent some of the flow coming from parkways, highways, alleyways and cemented curb areas and divert it into the ground where it can recharge groundwater and prevent pollutants from reaching waterways. The plans give specific guidelines for installing swales, vegetation, permeable pavement and other systems to prevent storm water from flowing over nonporous surfaces into storm drains.
“What we’re trying to do here is take storm water or urban runoff and infiltrate it in streets or alleys and make it consistent so that people aren’t frustrated with trying to do something innovative,” said Gary Moore, engineer for the city of L.A. “We’ve developed standard plans, we’ve done the details, we’ve done the engineering to enable the city or a developer to use the plans to implement the desired solution.”
Developed in partnership with the city’s Board of Public Works, Bureau of Sanitation and Bureau of Engineering, the standard plans have been in the works for six months and will be available for free online starting July 9 at http://www.eng.lacity.org.
“There are more than 6,500 miles of streets in Los Angeles,” Moore said of the plans that will be used for street reconstruction, street widening, landscape medians and other projects. “There’s a lot of potential.”
Moving aggressively forward to improve water quality and protect public health at the world-renowned Paradise Cove, the City of Malibu today hosted a beach party and picnic to celebrate the launch of its Clean Ocean Project, an innovative facility to capture, clean and disinfect stormwater and urban runoff before it reaches the Pacific.
The victor of a water war over chloride levels in the Santa Clara River, pitting upstream suburbanites against downstream farmers, could be determined with the flourish of a pen on two emerging fronts this summer, The Signal has learned following a month-long investigation.
Snow melting atop mountains in Plumas County, some 480 miles from the Santa Clarita Valley, is as clean as state legislators demand in their Porter-Cologne Act of 1969, and it’s as clean as the Feds demand in their Clean Water Act of 1972.
Any part of the water that is not as pure as rainwater, according to both acts, is a contaminant. Read more
This video from the British Pathe Archive shows Vienna Policemen on regular patrol in 1934 inside the city’s sewer system. Policemen decend into the sewers to check on the homeless and patrol for thieves – using torches to light their way (ack!).
And if you come to LABS June 17th dinner meeting in Pomona – you can see how today’s wastewater investigators handle legal cases. A wastewater inspector will talk about a multi-year, multi-agency investigiation into a Los Angeles firm burying drums with toxic substances in them behind their warehouse.
View the LABS June 17th dinner flyer for details and RSVP information.
Here is the video’s original description: M/S of the ‘Canal Brigade’ rushing to get into a charabanc and driving off. Although they are dressed as normal sewage men, they are really members of the Vienna Police Department who patrol the famous sewers of the city. Several shots of the armed policemen walking through the sewers, climbing down through manholes, patrolling underground and searching for a tramp who is looking for items of jewellery that people have lost down the drains. A long line of men walk through a river that flows under the city; they all carry lighted beacons. The men are seen getting back into the charabanc on street level.
Stanford, CA — Faulty septic systems have long been blamed for polluting some of California’s most popular beaches. Yet few scientific studies have established a direct link between septic systems and coastal contamination.
Now, in the first study of its kind, Stanford University researchers have tracked a plume of polluted groundwater from a septic system to one of Northern California’s top recreational beaches. The researchers say their findings could be an important step toward improving wastewater management in coastal communities throughout the United States. Read more
Photo: LA Team Effort
The keyword is “We”… the collaboration between the Mar Vista community and LA Stormwater set the bar for what is possible when the community gives up the ‘why don’t they…’ attitude and works with the city towards a greener LA! Read more
