This video takes a closer look at the slowly shrinking Lake Mead and the impact it might have on the Southwest. Over 25 million people depend on the Colorado River for drinking water. An eight year drought has put a big dent in snow fall, the river’s flow and thus Lake Mead.
(hat tip: BC Water News)
According to the SacBee the DWR is putting together a “Water Bank” - a far-reaching plan to move more water from North to South (that would be us). Cities that need the water will be given first priority – SoCal agricultural will get the lowest priority. Complicating the situation are court orders ordering DWR and US Bureau of Reclamation to protect fish in the Delta.
Now in its third year the California drought is beginning to bite and long range forecasts don’t offer much hope. One of the state’s largest reservoirs, Lake Orville is at 30% of capacity, the lowest since the 1977 drought.
“We would be negligent if we didn’t prepare for the worst,” DWR Director Lester Snow said.
Ouch. SacBee story here.
An evening presentation featuring several Los Angeles company leaders who will speak about designing sustainable solutions for water gathering and treatment. The event will be at Lime in Santa Monica, cost $20, comes with drinks and appetizers and appears to be open to the public. It is not a LABS-CWEA event.
CNN takes a look at Mayor Villaraigosa’s water recycling plan. “The days of just thinking water is unlimited are over,” says the Mayor.
The Times reviews the basics of water recycling – from influent to treatment to further treatment to spreading grounds to percolation to aquifer. The article seems to bemoan the fact the City tried, but failed to implement the process several years ago. Money quote:
The quality is extraordinary when you run water through that level of treatment. – Mark Gold, President, Heal the Bay
The goal is to recycle 4-billion gallons of water annually by 2018. The water takes a year or more to percolate into deep underground aquifers. Who knew?
LAT story here. (graphic: LAT)
Our friends to the south have won one of the biggest honors in the water industry. The Groundwater Replenishment System, built jointly by OCSD and OCWD, has been awared the Stockholm Water Award by the Stockholm International Water Institute. It’s the closest thing the wastewater industry has to the Nobel Prize.
Press release after the jump…
In his weekly KCRW commentary, Kevin Roderick of LA Observed points out the Mayor’s push for water recycling will face a skeptical City which defeated the proposal only eight years ago.
Over at Curbed LA a lot of comments seem to indicate there’s hope after all. Several gems such as this one:
If we don’t have faith in nature’s services, we can’t really live on this earth. Consider a mountain spring. Those water molecules were once in pee.
Check out the comments here.
The Mayor, City officials and DWP’s leader announced on Thursday major efforts to conserve water and begin planning for projects which can help increase supplies. This includes putting recycling wastewater back on the City’s agenda – a story which ended badly in the 1990s. Money quote:
Just to meet a 15% increase in demand by 2030, officials say 32 billion gallons a year will have to be saved or recaptured.
Mayor’s Water Plan website here
The success of the Orange County Groundwater Replenishment System certainly underscores the future of recycling and groundwater recharge. LABS story here.
Pasadena engineering firm Tetra Tech was featured in the LAT’s Money & Finance blog this morning. Is the stock a good buy? Money quote:
Aquifers are being depleted and polluted in China, Mexico and Saudi Arabia. The Sierra Nevada snowpack retreats as the Colorado River strains under demand (from) seven states. The know-how of a company like Tetra Tech may come into play to keep us afloat.
The U.N. points to statistics which say every day nearly 6,000 children around the world get sick from drinking unclean water. To bring attention to the problem the U.N. started World Water Day in 1992. U.N. World Water Day website here.
This year has also been designated the Year of Sanitation by the U.N. General Assembly.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHWup7ifW2M[/youtube]
Note: YouTube uses Flash video.
The fine folks at Water for People Los Angeles are getting the ball rolling with a new website. Go check it out, go on… shoo, shoo….
In December 2007, Joyce T. Lee of MWH Americas, along with five others from Boyle Engineering, Greeley and Hansen, CH2MHill, University of Washington, and Vanguard, conducted a Water for People, WaterCorps Monitoring Study in Malawi. The study involved follow-up research on previously installed water and sanitation projects funded by Water for People including borehole wells, hand-dug shallow wells, Afridev hand pumps, rainwater catchment tanks, community tap stands and pit latrines.
The team conducted water committee and user interviews, reviewed operations, data and revenue collection, sanitation and hygiene education. Data was entered into the Water for People database for future site monitoring and follow-up. A complete report from the monitoring study should be available shortly on the Water for People website.
Interested in learning more about Water for People Los Angeles, including attending their monthly chapter meetings, contact Mischelle Mische MMische_AT_lacsd.org or (562) 908-4288 x2488.
Captions (starting with top row, left to right)…
- A typical scene during the monitoring study: a deep borehole well with an Afridev hand pump, and a woman carrying a five gallon bucket of water on her head.
- A latrine built with Water for People support, with a small bucket of water and a cup demonstrating that the village has adopted a form of hygiene education to wash hands following use of the latrine.
- A typical ventilated improved pit latrine built over a pit in the ground. The vent pipe is covered with a mesh so that flies will be attracted to the light at the top but cannot escape.
- A bar of soap costs almost half of an average day’s wages. It was uncommon to see soap used following latrine use, although many users interviewed attested to the importance of washing hands with soap.
- We inspected the inside of many pit latrines; this one is much cleaner than most latrines that were inspected.
- The hanging perforated cup at this hand washing station by a latrine enables latrine users to wash their hands without contaminating the cup as they change hands to pour water and wash the other hand.
- We traveled for several hours on unpaved roads to reach remote villages where Water For People projects existed. This was our last interview conducted during a heavy rain.
- A typical Water for People hand-dug shallow well.
- People of the arid region who drew water from the shallow well in the previous photo, who used to walk 12 kilometers, one way, to reach an unprotected water source.
- Children excited to have water from the well.
The Arizona Daily Star reports on a strange scenario in the Tucson region. The local wastewater district agreed to sponsor a low-flow toilet program – replacing water guzzling toilets in older parts of the city. However the reduced flow from homes might be causing problems in neighborhoods near the starting point of a sewer line or in areas with poor slope in the line. The program has been suspended. (hat tip: WEF industry news)
The Los Angeles chapter of Water For People has several upcoming events. The non-profit group is made up of water and wastewater professionals and helps fund, develop and track water and sanitation projects in five countries (with more on the way).
Upcoming:
- February 26 – 5:30pm – Committee meeting, MWD downtown. Contact Mischelle Mische for meeting and parking info.
- April 22 – 7:00am – Fundraising Golf Tournament in connection with the AWWA trade show.
- March 20 – evening – Comedy Club in Hollywood fundraising event. Water and wastewater pros from across the region can come together for a rollicking good time.
For details contact:
Mischelle Mische
President, LA Chapter of Water for People
MMische@lacsd.org
(562) 908-4288 x2488
The LACSD and Culligan Water Conditioning of Orange County have partnered to remove about 1,000 units by mid-2009. There is a problem with chlorides (salt) in local rivers and water softeners are a top source. Money quote:
“As we work toward ridding our Valley of automatic water softeners it becomes clear that partnerships such as the Culligan agreement… in addition to the good stewardship by our residents, is vital in removing salt from the Santa Clara River,” remarked Mayor Bob Kellar, Santa Clarita.
The region needs to meet certain chloride levels set by the California Regional Water Quality Control Board or a brand new advanced wastewater treatment facility will need to be constructed.
The media has re-discovered SoCal wastewater this week:
- From Sewage, Added Water for Drinking - NY Times
- Soon On Tap – Purified Sewer Water – OC Register
- OC Prepares to Open Faucet – KNBC
- Plant to Make Sewer Water Drinkable – UPI
- In Orange County, Don’t Call it Toilet-to-Tap – KCRW
- Saving Water After it Goes to Waste – Marketplace, Public Radio International
The folks at the Orange County Groundwater Replinishment District are doing well with the attention. They’re unflappable, professional and the news stories underline the fact the water is clean, pure, meets all health requirements and is desperately needed around here. I’m not sure the media grasps the important fact that all tap water is “toilet-to-tap.” The city upstream from you used some of that water before you did.
In an LA Times op-ed environmental advocate Dorothy Green and writer Jamie Simons offer several straightforward, no-nonsense ideas for getting SoCal through a future of dwindling drinking water supplies, including this gem on water reuse…
Thinking “yuck?” Consider this: The Colorado River, a major source of water for Southern California, contains the treated wastewater of Las Vegas. The delta that stretches from Sacramento to the San Francisco Bay, another major source of imported water to Southern California, contains the water from 10 sewage treatment plants. As we said, there is no such thing as new water.
Now that’s telling it like it is. Read their op-ed here: LA Times website.
The Water Environment Federation (WEF) and the International Water Association (IWA) are coordinating the events associated with the 2007 World Water Monitoring Day (WWMD). WWMD is a global education and outreach event designed to promote personal stewardship and individual involvement in the protection of our world water resources.
The message is simple, it is not solely the responsibility of government agencies and corporations to assure clean safe water. It is up to the users of water, to become involved in the protection of the world’s waters. Clean water is everyone’s right and it is also everyone’s responsibility. Water is a renewable resource carried by the hydrologic cycle throughout the world therefore collaborative partnerships are necessary to protect this resource.
By Wendy Wert
Editor
On September 13, 2007 the Orange County Water District and the Orange County Sanitation District hosted LABS and SARBS participants on their annual joint facility tour. This year attendees were given the opportunity to visit the Groundwater Replenishment (GWR) System, which is the largest water purification project of its kind in the world. When completed the system will have the capacity to produce 70 million gallons per day of finished water or enough the meet the needs of 144,000 families.
LABS is an association of water professionals, so what’s news to us, is what’s news with you!
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