Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
April 24, 2007
4. Water Quality
Dixon design for sewage treatment flows along - Vacaville Reporter
LOS OSOS HIKE:
20 percent water hike for nearly 8,000 Los Osos customers - Associated Press
WATER CLEANUP FUNDS:
Editorial: Tap into water cleanup funds -
By Melissa Murphy, staff writer
The Dixon Wastewater Project Committee is moving along with its plans to find the best solution to meet the city's sewage processing needs.
Meeting every Monday evening for the last several months, the 14- member committee so far has agreed on the city's design of a $6 million headworks project - the main city wastewater pumping facility, where every gallon of sewage the city produces must be pumped to treatment ponds.
The 20-year-old facility is showing signs of wear. A pit, which is part of the headworks, has been retrofitted with beams for reinforcement and cracks have been sealed for continued use.
According to committee member Ourania Riddle, who is also a part of the
"We're moving along pretty good," Riddle said Monday, before the committee's regularly scheduled meeting. "We're going to be walking encyclopedias before we have a recommendation to the City Council."
Riddle said that she and her husband, Gary, have spent countless hours perusing and studying the wastewater manual given to each committee member by the city.
Working with a facilitator, the committee is charged with, among other things, gathering pertinent information and sharing that information with the public.
At a minimum, the group must find the best solution to meeting the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board's water quality discharge and treatment capacity criteria.
Now, as the city faces a looming state compliance deadline, the small city is finally in the process of gaining deeper insight into what exactly needs to be done, though the debate over costs and how to cover them continues.
The wastewater plant, which sits southeast of the city, has undergone several years of scrutiny by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board. In June 2005, the board issued a cease-and-desist order to
Monday, the wastewater committee was scheduled to continue discussion on the collection system component of the project and preparation of a Financial Plan and Rate/Fee Study. #
http://www.thereporter.com/news/ci_5738893
LOS OSOS HIKE:
20 percent water hike for nearly 8,000 Los Osos customers
Associated Press – 4/24/07
Some 8,000 customers of the Los Osos Community Services District will be paying 20 percent more for water.
The district board said the hike is necessary to keep water flowing.
Rate increases go into effect May 19.
The district's previous rate increase occurred in November when the board adopted a base rate jump of 12 percent while the cost of the amount of water used went up 30 percent.
The district has been struggling with a failed sewage treatment plant proposal. It filed for federal bankruptcy protection last year as a way to deal with nearly $40 million in debts. #
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/04/24/state/n065853D51.DTL&hw=water&sn=004&sc=752
WATER CLEANUP FUNDS:
Editorial: Tap into water cleanup funds
AS is typical of
The local San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority, created by the state Legislature in 1993 to get the groundwater cleaned up, hasn't seen a penny from the state since 1999. Yet, state and federal laws require stringent standards for delivering toxin-free drinking water from the tap. This is as it should be - placing health and safety first. Only, the state is not done once it passes these laws; it must kick in the bucks.
The West Covina-based WQA is fighting such "unfunded state mandates." With some long-overdue help from a new crop of legislators who hail from the
Today, two important bills that could pave the way for future state funding go before the Assembly Environmental Quality Committee. These bills need to be approved and eventually adopted by the Legislature and signed by the governor.
First, AB1114, authored by new Assemblyman Mike Eng, D-Monterey Park, sets up a San Gabriel Basin Restoration Fund as a line in the state treasury. It directs the state's top environmental secretary to watch over any funds established by the Legislature for local groundwater cleanup.
Essentially, it holds our place in line. It functions like a savings account given by a parent to child. Just open it up, put in $10 and that son or daughter will be encouraged to save for the future.
Too often, WQA officials would come away from
The second bill, AB1010, authored by Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina, would continue the life of the agency another 10 years beyond July 2010. The cleanup of the
So far, the WQA has done an excellent job. It has cajoled $600million out of the federal government (thanks to local members Adam Schiff and David Dreier) but it estimates it needs another $520million to finish the job.
The next in line for paying the cleanup are ratepayers. Already, homeowners are shouldering electric bills that are 20percent higher than last year. Trash bills also are rising. Some predict water rates will skyrocket if local water companies are handed the bill for groundwater cleanup and pass the rise on to consumers.
In 1998,
We don't want to see this burden fall on the Valley's 1.5million residents. We also don't want to see underground contamination seep farther south and west, into "clean"
Though these two bills don't actually fund the cleanup, they are a bulwark against such unwanted outcomes. They also make
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/opinions/ci_5734487
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