Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
March 22, 2007
4. Water Quality
LOS OSOS:
Regulators to get tough in Los Osos sewer saga - San Luis Obispo Tribune
Survey says New River unhealthy - Imperial Valley Press
LOS OSOS:
Regulators to get tough in Los Osos sewer saga
By Sona Patel, staff writer
Regional water quality regulators announced Wednesday that they will crack down on thousands of individual property owners in Los Osos because the town still hasn’t built a sewer.
Notices have been mailed to the nearly 4,400 property owners in the Los Osos and
That’s the first step toward issuing them formal orders that would bar them from disposing their homes’ waste in septic tanks. Homes there use septic systems because the town does not have a sewer.
"The letter is to notify residents in the prohibition zone that discharges from their septic tanks are prohibited and that we’re serious about eliminating them," said Matt Thompson, an engineer for the regional water board. "We’ve been clear from the beginning that we’ll continue until all properties are addressed or they have eliminated discharge."
Established in 1983 by the Regional Water Quality Control Board, the prohibition zone includes most of Los Osos. Five years later, a ban on nearly all building in that area was imposed.
The water board blames septic systems in that zone for nitrate pollution found in local groundwater and the bay. Regulators want the town to build a sewer in hopes of stemming the pollution.
Frustrated after decades of efforts to build a sewer in Los Osos, earlier this year the water board threatened to order 45 randomly selected Los Osos property owners to stop using their septic tanks by 2011 or face fines of up to $5,000 per day.
Last year the water board fined the Los Osos Community Services District $6.1 million after its newly elected leaders halted work in October 2005 on a sewer that was under construction. The district’s new board was elected in a recall the month before, in which voters ousted the board majority that started construction on the sewer.
Although progress is again being made toward designing a sewer, water board officials said it is too early to determine whether new efforts to build the wastewater treatment system will be successful.
Under legislation crafted last year by Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo, and approved by the California Legislature, the county has taken over preliminary design and construction of a sewer.
About 14 of the 45 randomly selected property owners received cease-and-desist orders, which require them to hook up to the sewer within 60 days of its availability.
Many of the others signed settlements that outline similar terms to the cease-and-desist orders, except for an agreement to submit a technical report with an alternative to ceasing discharge should a sewer not be built by the 2011. A few cases remain unresolved.
Gail McPherson, who represented many of those property owners in their fights against the water board, said the agency’s new actions are premature.
McPherson — a community activist in the sewer issue who has long been critical of the water board — is now involved in a legal defense fund that represents some of those property owners.
"They need to wait, and if the county’s process doesn’t work then they could say ‘Fine, that’s enough’," McPherson said. "At this point they are going to anger people."
That legal defense fund is appealing to the State Water Resources Control Board — which oversees the regional agency — alleging unfairness and questioning the legality of its enforcement actions.
Thompson said the water board staff did not know what type of enforcement residents would be faced with, but that property owners would be able to sign settlements to comply with the agency’s demands. #
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/16951573.htm
Survey says
By Greg Holt, staff writer
CALEXICO — Eric Reyes believes encasing the New River is the only way to prevent the hyper-polluted waterway from causing illness and death in
Reyes, executive director of the Institute for Socioeconomic Justice, a Calexico non-profit organization, said the results of a survey of 200
According to the survey, 2 percent of respondents said they have been diagnosed with cancer, while 11.5 percent of households said at least one family member had been diagnosed with cancer. Eight percent of households said a family member had died from cancer.
“We can all see there is a health issue,” Reyes said. “Encasement of the river is the only way to eliminate this problem, and we need to demand at the state and federal level that something be done about it.”
The survey went on to say that more than half of respondents complained of chronic headaches, allergies and cold and flu illness, and more than a third complained of persistent stomach pains, skin irritation and asthma.
“Race is part of the issue. A poor area of color has less political influence, but we’re becoming more sophisticated,” Reyes said.
Although the California Environmental Protection Agency is planning to dump massive amounts of chorine into the river, Reyes said encasement of the river between the U.S.-Mexico border and the
“The chlorine will only kill the bacteria, and the chemicals could spread from any part of the river,” Reyes said. “We need to act as a unified voice if we are to get anything done at the state and federal level.”
“We need to implore (California Senators Dianne) Feinstein and (Barbara) Boxer to use their influence to procure funding to clean this river,” Carrillo said.
Miguel Figueroa, executive director of the Calexico’s New River Committee, said his organization is preparing to release the results of its own study in upcoming weeks.
“We want to distinguish what we’re doing from what they’re doing. Ours is a two-year study that will cover everything,” Figueroa said.
The New River is commonly considered to be the most severely polluted river in the
http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2007/03/22/news/news06.txt
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