Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
August 3, 2007
4. Water Quality
PERCHLORATE:
New drinking water rule could bring $30 million tab - Riverside Press
LOS OSOS:
Federal money for Osos sewer gets closer; But the $35 million in the bill needs to pass the Senate and be signed by the president - San Luis Obispo
POLLUTION REGULATION:
Dairies must clean up manure - Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
WASTEWATER:
More SR wastewater may head to Geysers; Utilities board, Calpine want City Council to OK deal that would power homes by increasing amount pumped to steam fields - Santa Rosa Press Democrat
PERCHLORATE:
New drinking water rule could bring $30 million tab
Riverside Press
By David Danelski, staff writer
New state regulations setting a legal limit for the chemical perchlorate in public drinking- water supplies could cost a San Bernardino-area water district as much as $30 million.
The rules, expected to be imposed this fall, will allow no more than 6 parts per billion of perchlorate -- a component of rocket fuel and some fertilizers -- in drinking water.
The East Valley Water District, which provides water for about 70,000 people in the eastern area of San Bernardino, Highland and unincorporated areas, now averages slightly more than the new limit and has had a reading as high as 8.6 parts per billion at one well, said Ron Buchwald, the district's engineer.
"It's a huge hit, and we are scrambling," Buchwald said. "We looking at grants from federal and state sources, and we are definitely going to have to increase our rates."
A double-digit percent rate increase is being considered to help pay for costs related to the construction of one plant to treat supplies for the chemical.
Other major Inland water providers already meet the standard.
The state rules will require water districts to send out warnings to customers about the health effects and will outline monitoring and cleanup requirements.
Perchlorate disrupts the thyroid gland's ability to absorb iodide, which is needed to make the hormones that guide brain and nerve development of fetuses and babies.
These hormones also control metabolism. Women who are pregnant and those with already low iodide levels are more vulnerable to the chemical, studies have shown.
The state rules will go into the final phases of legal review Aug. 31 and could be effective as early as next month or October, say state officials. The rules will enforced by state Department of Public Health.
Rufus Howell, chief of the department's of drinking water and environmental management division, said the agency will help water providers over the limit seek grants for treatment facilities.
The agency also has the power to issue notices of violation, impose fines and take over a provider's operations.
Perchlorate has seeped into Inland ground water supplies from Cold War-era defense plants and from Chilean fertilizers used in the Inland area from 1800s to the 1950s.
The district has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on planning and treating one well and about $3 million laying new pipes that will bring water from several wells to one centralized treatment plant for perchlorate removal, Buchwald said.
The plant is expected to cost $25 million to $30 million and to be operating in about two to three years, said Bob Martin, the district's general manager.
The district is considering an 11 percent rate increase to cover plant design and other costs. It is now analyzing strategies on how to pay for the larger construction and equipment costs.
Several Inland water providers took action to remove perchlorate after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found in 2002 that trace amounts of the chemical may be harmful.
The company has estimated it has spent more $65 million to clean up the pollution.
Industry groups have argued that as much as 245 parts per billion is safe, while environmental groups have said no amount of perchlorate should be allowed in drinking water. #
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_perch03a.3cd3707.html
LOS OSOS:
Federal money for Osos sewer gets closer; But the $35 million in the bill needs to pass the Senate and be signed by the president
San Luis Obispo
By Sona Patel, staff writer
Hoping to reduce how much Los Osos residents would pay for building a sewer, local officials this week got a step closer to getting millions of federal dollars for the contentious project.
A bill with money for public works projects nationwide includes a $35 million authorization for the Los Osos sewer. It was passed by the House of Representatives late Wednesday.
But Los Osos is still a few major steps away from getting any federal money. The proposal now needs to be approved by the Senate and be signed into law by President Bush.
If the authorization is approved, the project would be eligible for up to $35 million in federal money, though there is no guarantee the full amount will be appropriated in a later spending bill. Local officials won’t know how much money they could get for a sewer until later this year.
It’s the latest win for local officials trying to bank money — especially from outside sources — for the Los Osos sewer.
Homes and businesses in the town of more than 14,000 people dispose of waste in individual septic tanks. State water quality regulators blame those septic systems for nitrate pollution in the local groundwater and
The Los Osos Community Services District had been pursuing a sewer project, which broke ground in August 2005 and was expected to cost more than $100 million.
Work on that project was halted just over a month later by a new district board that was elected in a recall election, in which local voters ousted a majority of that panel.
The county took over design and construction of a sewer under a plan brokered by Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo, and approved by the state Legislature last fall. After completion, the sewer would be turned over to the district for day-to-day operation.
Although the list of projects eligible for funding is long, it’s still too early to tell how much money Los Osos would get, according to Rep. Lois Capps’ press secretary, Emily Kryder.
The potential funding through the Water Resources Development Act is part of an effort by Capps, D-Santa Barbara, who has been pushing to secure federal money for the sewer.
In April, she arranged for Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind. — a highly influential member of the House Appropriations Committee— to tour the Morro Bay Estuary, where state and local officials took water samples to show the town’s plight.
The services district qualified for funding through a similar bill in 2000.
Capps asked for $7.8 million for the now-scrapped project the district was pursuing. Congress allocated $200,000, which the district put toward design, according to Kryder.
If Los Osos gets money for a sewer through this year’s bill, all of it would go toward construction costs, according to Kryder. #
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/story/108565.html
POLLUTION REGULATION:
Dairies must clean up manure
By Andrea Bennett, staff writer
Six local dairies cited for practices that would pollute the
A joint dairy inspection in March by the EPA and the California Water Quality Control Board found the six had numerous violations related to manure management and containment practices.
The dairies cited were: Legend Dairy No. 1, Legend Dairy No. 3, Sun Valley Jersey Dairy, and Miersma Dairy in
"As much as we all hope for rain, I'm hopeful we can get all these dairies complying before the next rain," said Alexis Strauss, director of the water division of the EPA.
Strauss said each dairy has 90 days to draft a plan to come back into compliance.
Then, a timeline will be established to put the plans into practice, she said.
Failure to comply could cost each dairy up to $32,000 per day, Strauss said.
"These were some of the larger dairies, and they were ones we'd expected to find issues," said Gary Stewart, chief of compliance for the state water board.
Stewart said each dairy is required to develop and fully implement an engineered waste management plan under the federal Clean Water Act.
Officials decided to inspect the dairies before a stormwater permit that covers 238 dairies in the region goes before the state water board for renewal on Sept. 7.
"They haven't put up sufficient protection to contain stormwater runoff from their dairies," Stewart said. "At this point, they are threatening to adversely affect the river."
The
After a rainfall, polluted runoff from just about every urban, industrial and agricultural part of the region can end up flowing into the river, he said.
"Water containing manure could flow into the river and impact aquatic life and decrease dissolved oxygen, causing fish to die," Stewart said.
Bacteria from manure can threaten people who swim in the river, and salts and nitrates from pollution can affect its quality as drinking water, he said.
The
The state water board has a plan in place to address the bacteria and clean up the river, Stewart said, adding the compliance of dairies is critical to the success of that plan.
Stewart said he hopes other noncompliant dairies in the region find the citations motivation enough to clean up their acts as well.
Rob Vanderheuvel, general manager for the Milk Producers Council, said most dairies meet the requirements, but his organization will assist those that have fallen short.
"The dairy industry is committed to fully complying with all state, local and federal environmental regulations," Vanderheuvel said.
Tom Alger, 52, the only dairy owner of the six who could be reached Thursday for comment, said he discovered his Mira Loma dairy was in violation along with everybody else.
"We've been here 15 years and never had a problem before, so this is all news to me," Alger said Thursday. "Two gentlemen came by months ago and said something about our stockpile of manure. We had that removed, and that seemed to be OK.
"I didn't think more about it, until this morning I read it in the paper," he said.
Alger said he plans to cooperate, but it's likely EPA officials will grant him an exception.
He's moving his operation along with his 900 dairy cows to
The dairyland Alger has been renting for the past decade and a half has already been sold for a housing development, he said. #
http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_6532241
WASTEWATER:
More SR wastewater may head to Geysers; Utilities board, Calpine want City Council to OK deal that would power homes by increasing amount pumped to steam fields
Santa Rosa Press Democrat – 8/3/07
By Mike McCoy, staff writer
Santa Rosa's Board of Public Utilities recommended Thursday the city approve a deal that would reduce its wastewater discharges into the Laguna de Santa Rosa while converting that wastewater into energy to power 17,000 homes.
"It's pretty amazing," board member Amy Bolten said of the deal that would allow the city to dramatically increase the amount of wastewater it now pumps daily to The Geysers steam fields.
Since 2003, the city has pumped an average of 11 million gallons a day, or 4 billion gallons a year, from its regional sewage treatment plant west of
Once there, it is injected 1½ miles underground by Calpine, which operates the steam fields. The water is converted into steam and electricity for the city's power-generating partner in the $250 million wastewater-to-electricity project.
Officials for both the city, which is facing increasingly stringent state-imposed discharge standards for its wastewater into the laguna, and Calpine, which has been in bankruptcy proceedings since 2005, say the deal can help both sides and the environment as well.
That would help the city avoid spending $200 million on programs it had planned to implement to deal with its wastewater disposal problems, he said.
In addition, the agreement calls for Calpine to pay the city $300,000 a year, which would cover the city's cost to pump the extra wastewater to The Geysers.
On Calpine's side, company officials said they plan to spend $40 million to develop a network of pipelines and injection wells to handle the extra wastewater if the deal is ultimately approved by the City Council and the bankruptcy court.
The council will consider the agreement Aug. 14.
The proposal will be before the bankruptcy court Sept. 11, said Dennis Giles, Calpine senior vice president.
The Geysers is one of Calpine's most profitable assets, and company officials expect it will be even more so should the deal proceed.
Company officials have said the wastewater
The extra wastewater should boost total production to 85 megawatts, or enough to power 85,000 homes. That's roughly enough energy to power the household needs of
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20070803/NEWS/708030377/1033/NEWS01
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