Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
May 4, 2007
4. Water Quality
Recycled sewage water to boost Lake Elsinore's fluctuating level - Riverside Press Enterprise
LOS OSOS:
New septic orders may loom for Los Osos; ‘Clean up and abate’ mandate on agenda as water board meets - San Luis Obispo
FLUORIDE:
Board brushes up on fluoride - Eureka Times Standard
Recycled sewage water to boost
Riverside Press
By Mary Bender, staff writer
LAKE ELSINORE - It starts out as sewage, something nobody wants to think about after they flush their toilet, flip on their garbage disposal, run their dishwasher or do a load of laundry.
But after being filtered through gravel, heated and disinfected with ultraviolet light, filtered through carbon, oxygenated, cleansed by coliform bacteria-chomping microorganisms that also eat the waste, and filtered some more -- not necessarily in that order -- this formerly putrid wastewater emerges as its new, improved, reinvented self: suitable to spray from sprinklers at golf courses, athletic fields, freeway landscaping, and even to irrigate agricultural crops.
And, starting next month, recycled water processed by the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District will serve another important role in town: to help refill a lake with a long history of fluctuating water levels. Some years it has been bone dry, while other years it overflows its banks, the changing depth a result of drought, floods and evaporation.
The water district is building a pipeline that will carry about 4.5 million gallons of recycled water per day from its Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant on
The pipeline's $4.5 million construction cost is being paid for with state water-bond funds, said Greg Morrison, director of legislative and community affairs for the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District.
The recycled water should start flowing into the lake by early June, Morrison said. The wash connects to the lake near
The objective of the recycled water pipeline is to stabilize the lake's water level, which is measured by its elevation above sea level. The lake loses about 4 ½ -feet of depth per year due to evaporation, a situation that the infusion of recycled water can partially offset.
"We need every drop of available water to maintain the water quality of the lake, by (keeping) the lake above a minimum elevation of 1,240 feet above sea level," said Pat Kilroy, the city's director of lake and aquatic resources. "There is no other practical source of available water for an arid region like
For those squeamish about the prospect of extensively treated sewage being discharged into a recreational lake on which people fish, sail and water ski, Kilroy offers an analogy:
Rainfall, sprinkler runoff and other sources of water trickle through gutters into storm drains, ultimately emptying into the creeks and flood-control channels that flow -- unfiltered and untreated -- into lakes, rivers and oceans. Recycled water, on the other hand, must be purified to meet stringent state health standards.
"This water is much lower in bacteria levels than storm water that comes off the streets," Kilroy said.
Added city spokesman Mark Dennis: "The risk of going into a swimming pool in somebody's backyard is greater than going into a lake filled with recycled water." #
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_recycle04.3ee3be1.html
LOS OSOS:
New septic orders may loom for Los Osos; ‘Clean up and abate’ mandate on agenda as water board meets
San Luis Obispo
By Sona Patel, staff writer
The regional water board could crack down on Los Osos residents next week in a move that would require almost every property owner in most of town to stop using their homes’ and businesses’ septic tanks by January 2011.
If a sewer were built before then, property owners would be required to hook up within 60 days of its availability.
Notices were mailed to the nearly 4,400 property owners in Los Osos and
The properties affected are in the so-called prohibition zone that makes up most of the town. The Regional Water Quality Control Board has forbidden almost all building there since 1988 because of groundwater and bay pollution blamed on septic systems.
Water board officials want the coastal town of about 14,000 to build a sewer in hopes it would stem the nitrate contamination.
Water board staff said they will recommend “cleanup and abatement orders” next week to individual property owners.
Last year the board targeted 45 randomly selected property owners for cease-and-desist orders. Those orders, which under state law require public hearings before they are issued, outline terms similar to the newly proposed cleanup orders.
State law, however, allows the water board to issue the new orders without holding individual hearings, according to Harvey Packard, a division chief and enforcement coordinator with the agency.
Under staff’s recommendation, property owners would have the opportunity to submit written comment against the enforcement but would not be entitled to a public hearing.
“It is impractical to hold board hearings for all 4,300 properties in the prohibition zone,” Packard said.
Arguments made during the hearings held for the 45 property owners allowed the water board to “review and approve staff’s enforcement policy.”
“We feel that the issues raised have already been thoroughly reviewed and discussed by the board in a public setting,”he said.
MEETINGS NEXT WEEK
The Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board will discuss its proposed enforcement against Los Osos property owners at 10 a.m. on May 10 and 11 at
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/183/story/32121.html
FLUORIDE:
Board brushes up on fluoride
By
The Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District's Board of Directors heard from several people regarding the pros and cons of treating water with fluoride, and stressed repeatedly that there has been no decision to move forward with any such effort.
But the directors also weighed whether to even crack the books on the subject before its seven wholesale customers have decided whether they want their water treated at its source. The district's role presents interesting questions, since it is an elected body representing both the public and its customers -- cities and service districts with their own elected officials.
”We want to know about this issue and learn about this issue before any decisions are made,” said board Chairman J. Bruce Rupp.
Rupp said public hearings will be convened before any action is taken.
So far, several of the district's seven customers -- who collectively serve 65,000 residents -- have voiced interest in analyzing the costs and benefits of regional fluoridation.
Director Aldaron Laird voiced concern about diving into the controversial subject before the district's customers have held public hearings about it and solidified their stance.
”I think that they should be asking that hard question first,” Laird said.
Perhaps the diciest procedural question the water district may have to deal with is what to do if its customers are not unanimous about pursuing regional fluoridation.
The district convened a water task force in April to get initial views about regional fluoridation, a topic raised anew in December at a McKinleyville Community Services District meeting. In the meantime, district General Manager Carol Rische has been gathering information for the board about the advantages and risks of fluoridation.
Advocates and opponents of fluoridation via water provided an outline of what could become a major debate similar to a recent one in Arcata, where a ballot initiative to stop fluoridation in the city failed 60-40. Dental health proponents said the county is facing an oral health crisis that could best be dealt with through water fluoridation. Those opposed to the method argued that people should not be medicated without consent, and said prevention and other means of providing fluoride would be safer and more effective.
”You guys are in the business of delivering water -- not controversial substances,” Chase said to the board.
Northcoast Head Start Health and Nutrition director Linda Shepard said her experience working with children at or below the poverty level has shown her the consequences of dental decay.
”I'm very in favor of fluoride and anything that can help these children,” Shepard said, “because they really don't have a voice here.”
Whatever course the district and its customers decide to take, nothing about the issue is simple. Even the workings of the regional water system poses problems.
Eureka resident Ken Skaggs said he gets his water through the Humboldt Community Services District, which is still weighing whether or not to ask for an analysis of regional fluoridation. But Skaggs said his water in part comes through
http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_5817141
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