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
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
The American Academy of Environmental Engineers (AAEE) has teamed up with the New Jersey Water Environment Association to provide our members and theirs with a thought-provoking AAEE PreConference Workshop on Monday, May 10, at the New Jersey Annual Conference at Bally’s in Atlantic City followed by a Tuesday, May 11th AAEE Breakfast “Momentum for Change.”
AAEE’s Workshop and Seminars Work Group worked tirelessly with AAEE Past President Alan Vicory to create this event and lineup of expert panelists including:
- Alan Vicory, Jr., PE, BCEE, Executive Director and Chief Engineer Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (moderator),
- Richard Dewling, PE, BCEE, former Commissioner New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection,
- G. Tracey Mehan, Cadmus Group, former US EPA Assistant Administrator for Water,
- Mary Buzby, Global Water Lead, Merck & Co. Industrial,
- Jeffrey Eager, General Manager, Sanitation District No. 1 of Northern Kentucky Wastewater Utility
- Christopher Len, Staff Attorney, Hackensack Riverkeeper and NY/NJ Baykeeper -Environmental NGO.
Following discussion and Q&A, attendees will breakout into groups to discuss and report on critical elements such as identify changing needs, roles of engineers and scientists, and more that need to evolve for the Act to achieve fruition. CEUs/PDHs in Water/Wastewater will be available including New York P.E.s.
Please consider registering for this event and help to bring the Clean Water Act closer to reality!
For Registration please click here
State and federal studies indicate that thousands of water and sewer systems may be too old to function properly.For decades, these systems — some built around the time of the Civil War — have been ignored by politicians and residents accustomed to paying almost nothing for water delivery and sewage removal. And so each year, hundreds of thousands of ruptures damage streets and homes and cause dangerous pollutants to seep into drinking water supplies.
California Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) Workshop in Los Angeles – Wednesday, May 5, 2010
See flyer for more information
The LA City Council is pondering a name change for the Bureau of Sanitation which runs the treatment plants and collections system. A motion was introduced and referred to committee.
Navigating Through the Storm – Setting a Course to Clean Water!
CWEA P3S Conference – Pretreatment, Pollution Prevention and Stormwater Treatment
March 1-3, 2010
Long Beach Hilton
Sign-up forms:
Sponsored by:
MWD (administrative sponsor); TetraTech (food and breaks); and our session sponsors: Malcolm Pirnie; MWH; Larry Walker Associates; Stormwater Solutions Magazine; and JWC Environmental
For exhibitor or sponsorship information please contact co-chairs Greg Kent (stormwater) or Alec Mackie (Ww).
Conference Contacts:
Chair – Michael Simpson
City of Los Angeles
michael.simpson@lacity.org
Programs Chair – Preeti Ghuman
Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts
pghuman@lacsd.org
Conference Brochure – Joe Petchuk
City of Santa Monica
Joe.Petchuk@SMGOV.NET
Exhibitors and Sponsors Co-Chairs
Greg Kent
BioClean Environmental Services
Alec Mackie
JWC Environmental
alecm@jwce.com
Tel: 714-428-4614
CWEA Contacts
Marci Chase
Senior Meeting Planner
mchase@cwea.org
Julie Taylor, CAE
Dir. Education and Training
jtaylor@cwea.org
The Santa Monica Bay’s dry-weather water quality record has improved and some habitats have rebounded since the release of a report five years ago on the bay’s environmental health.
But the latest analysis of the waters off the South Bay coastline points to some lingering problems, including contaminated seafood, threatened fish populations and pollution caused by wet weather discharges.
Link to 2010 State of the Bay Report published by the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission
The segment by reporter Lesley Stahl is embedded below. Some highlights:
Governor Schwarzenegger:
We have been in crisis for some time now. We are now 38 million people and not the 16 million in late 1960 and it developed into a battle between environmentalists and farmers, north and south, and rural and urban people. And everyone has been fighting these last four decades over water.
Jeffery Mount, Center for Watershed Sciences, UC Davis:
If there’s one take away message from this crisis it’s this – the future for California is dealing with scarcity. We have to adapt to living with chronic scarcity.
The project is being developed through a partnership between the Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District, the Water Replenishment District of Southern California, and several other water agencies that do not include the Central Basin Municipal Water District.
Southern California has embraced water conservation, but it must be more than a temporary response to drought.
California did it. This month, the Legislature passed a package of bills that includes a statewide urban water conservation goal of 20% by 2020. We have confronted the kind of conservation that will be needed to secure the water supply of Los Angeles, and the state, in the face of population growth and climate change.
Or have we?
It all depends on where you put the goal posts.
Read the full LA Times Opinion piece.
Congress set aside billions of dollars in this year’s stimulus bill for water-treatment systems. But that might not be enough…
Residents in environmentally sensitive areas of Malibu will have until 2019 to hook-up to a wastewater treatment system. The Civic Center area has until 2015 to comply. The LA Times notes the long running argument over septic systems versus sewer system dates back to 1991 when the city was first incorporated.
“The lack of adequate sanitation is a basic public nuisance issue,” said Madelyn Glickfeld, a Regional Water Quality Control Board Member who lives in Point Dume. “Here we are in one of the richest cities in the U.S., and we have sewage running down the street.”
The City has already started construction on a stomrwater treatment plant called Legacy Park.
By Andre Schmidt, LACSD
First published by SCAP.
The California Recovery Task Force recently announced that one percent and three percent interest loans funded through $25 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Economic Stimulus Package) funds are available for eligible public energy efficient and renewable energy projects in California.
Available through the California Energy Commission, the loans will help local jurisdictions stimulate their economies and job growth while investing in energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions – all in a cost effective manner. Cities, counties and special districts are eligible to apply.
Types of projects eligible for loans include:
- Automated energy management systems/controls
- Energy audits and feasibility studies may be eligible for loans
- Energy generation including renewable and combined heat and power projects
- Heating and air conditioning modifications
- Lighting systems
- Pumps, motors and variable frequency drives
- Wastewater treatment equipment
The maximum loan amount is $3 million per application. There is no minimum loan amount. Projects must have a simple payback of 11 years or less based on energy costs savings. Loans for energy projects must be repaid from savings within 15 years. For more information see the following CEC website: www.energy.ca.gov/efficiency/financing/index.html.
The EPA Superfund project will place a layer of sand over DDT contamination (credit: EPA)
The EPA Region 9 office announced a plan to spend $50 million on a Superfund project to cover a 5-mile area of DDT and PCB pollution on the sea floor near the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The pollution built up from the 1950s through 1971 when Montrose Chemical Company in Los Angeles washed chemicals into the sewer system. Montrose was the largest maker of DDT in the world at the time.
The EPA has conducted studies and test runs and believes the cap will lower contamination levels in fish and wildlife in the region. The EPA provides education for local anglers on avoiding fish from the area and minimizing contact with contaminated fish.
“Signing this interim cleanup plan is a major milestone that puts the Palos Verdes Shelf Superfund Site on the road to remediation,” said Keith Takata, Superfund director for the EPA’s Pacific Southwest region. “The EPA will spend more than $50 million to cap the most contaminated sediment on the shelf, as well as continue the highly effective public outreach program to protect at-risk populations from consuming contaminated fish.”
Read the EPA press release, go>
The City's dedicated and award winning sewer cleaning crews are one of the reasons for the outstanding performance this year.
The City reached an important milestone this year, recently announcing they achieved a record performance for their 6,500 miles of wastewater pipelines with the lowest number of wastewater overflows this decade. The City’s Bureau of Sanitation provides wastewater collection and treatment for over 4 million people and 100,000 businesses within the 600 square mile LA basin.
Officials point to four key Bureau programs:
- Fats, oil and grease (FOG) control programs
- Focused tree root control program
- Improved sewer planning and renewal
- More sewers inspected, more cleaned and more of those ancient sewer lines are being upgraded or replaced
From Bureau Director Enrique C. Zaldivar…
“These numbers show that the Bureau of Sanitation has taken an aggressive approach in developing and executing programs to reduce SSOs. I am very proud of our wastewater conveyance and collections staff and crew. Rain or shine, day or night, our committed staff is in the community, keeping the pipes flowing. These excellent results demonstrate the City’s continued commitment to the protection of public health and the environment.”
And praise from environmental organizations…
“My congratulations to the Bureau for consistently designing, constructing and maintaining the sewerage infrastructure that protects our communities and our coast; the 77% reduction in spills is a wonderful accomplishment,” said Tom Ford, Executive Director, Santa Monica Baykeeper
Read the City’s press release here…
The LA Times reports Assembly members passed AB 1366 late last night. The bill by Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles) will give local governments the flexibility to ban residential water softeners – the salt dumped into the wastewater collection system can lead to problems removing chloride and other expensive problems at wastewater and water reuse treatment plants.
The bill still must pass the Senate and be signed by the Govenor (who, according to media reports, is threatening to veto all legislation unless fiscal issues such as prisons are taken care of).
The Times reports on the efforts of the LA DWP’s dozen water officers who are on the look-out for homeowners and businesses using sprinklers when they shouldn’t or using a hose when they shouldn’t. Money quote:
Try as they might, offenders can’t hide the evidence. The precious commodity flows down gutters and driveways, glistening off blades of grass and rosebushes when Kevin Cato rolls up, he’s a DWP water conservation officer.
“Some people look at me and say, ‘Go ahead and write me up. I’m gonna do what I’m gonna do,’ ” Cato said.
DWP’s Water Conservation rules are here (PDF).
The tip-off line to report water wasters is waterconservationteam@ladwp.com. And please note – this ONLY applies to City of Los Angeles residents. The other water service providers in LA have very different regulations.
The Housing and Community Development agency has released new rules last week relaxing the requirements for gray water recycling for residential homes. Washing machine water and other “gray” water can be reused on landscape trees and shrubs.
Some basic guidelines from the San Diego Union-Tribune…
New state rules provide permit exemptions for some residential gray-water systems, but people still have to follow several requirements. Including:
• The system must allow users to direct water to an irrigation field or the sewer.
• Ponding and gray-water runoff are prohibited.
• Gray water can be released above ground, but the discharge point must be covered by at least 2 inches of mulch, rock or other material that minimizes human contact.
• Water used to wash diapers or other soiled garments must be sent to the sewer.
• Gray water shouldn’t be used on root vegetables.
Continue reading the Tribune article, go>
Calif. Dept. of Housing and Community Development emergency rules, go>
