Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
August 8, 2007
4. Water Quality
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BEACHES:
State beaches continue on bum record; At least 4,600 incidents of closings or advisories occurred in
Beaches cleaner, but still flawed; L.A. County shores keep title of most polluted in state - Los Angeles Daily News
WASTEWATER ISSUES:
Ruling puts pressure on wastewater quality; Appeals court says city's disposal methods subject to Clean Water Act - Santa Rosa Press Democrat
SEWER USE APPROVAL:
OK for full sewer use sought; The approval is being sought to be ready for future growth - Monterey Herald
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BEACHES:
State beaches continue on bum record; At least 4,600 incidents of closings or advisories occurred in
By Alison Williams, staff writer
Beach closures and advisories in
Across
"
Beach closings and advisories also increased 5% in
Two beaches in
Trouble spots in Los Angeles County include Long Beach areas B-69 and B-70; Colorado Lagoon-South, Center and North; Santa Monica State Beach at the Pier; and Long Beach-Alamitos Bay Beach at 2nd Street Bridge and Bay Shore Avenue.
Beach closings can occur when a sewage pipe leaks or a waste water treatment plant is overwhelmed and releases untreated water. The vast majority of unhealthy conditions, though, are caused by polluted urban runoff, particularly in
William Rukeyser, spokesman for the State Water Resources Control Board, said everything from animal droppings on the street to other bacterial sources from trash or food waste could wind up in the ocean.
"Whatever is there is going to get washed into the storm sewers and then into the ocean," he said.
Most sewage and storm drain systems are completely separate, so nothing that goes into a storm drain is treated before it exits a pipe into the ocean. The state of
In dry weather diversion, storm sewers would be connected to sanitary sewers so that flow would be diverted to the treatment plant instead of going straight into the ocean. Since beach season corresponds with dry season, this approach is designed to protect public health.
"In an ideal world, obviously the desired objective and long-term objective is to have a year-round solution," Rukeyser said. "Curing the wet-weather pollution of an ocean is a much more ambitious project" because storm flows during rainy season would overwhelm existing sewage treatment plants, he said.
The council suggests in the report that low-impact development should be part of the solution to beach pollution. That type of building keeps rainwater on-site so it won't carry pollution to the ocean, Beckman said, and helps to recharge groundwater basins.
In another step toward improving the beaches, a U.S. District Court judge in
"Beach-goers need to know current conditions," he said. Francine Diamond, chairwoman of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, said that the board supports research to find real-time indicators and to identify sources of pollution. The board has some of the highest bacterial standards in the nation and extensive monitoring requirements.
Rukeyser noted that
Beckman said that because
Nationally, there were more than 25,000 days of beach closings and advisories in 2006, which was more than double the amount in 2000 and 28% more than in 2005. The increase in the last year is largely due to additional polluted runoff.
But Beckman pointed out that before 2005, the number of samples increased every year because of stepped-up pollution monitoring.
"The more you look, the more you find," he said. #
Beaches cleaner, but still flawed;
By Dana Bartholomew, staff writer
Light rainfall made
Thanks to fewer pollutants draining into the ocean, county beach closures or bacterial advisories dropped 6 percent in 2006 and many popular beaches fell off the worst waters list.
"The bottom line is that the beaches are still dirty and people are at risk of getting sick when they get into the water," said Michelle Mehta, an attorney for the New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council, author of the report.
"But there is a wide variety of water quality - and some beaches are cleaner."
In its annual "Testing the Waters" guide, the group tallied 2,072 county beach closures or advisories for dangerous bacteria or sewage spills, the first decrease in six years.
But nationwide, beaches were dirtier and posted a record number of unhealthy days, according to the report. No-swim days due to sewage spills doubled in the
Beach closures mean that water is dirty enough to cause gastroenteritis, dysentery, hepatitis, respiratory ailments and other serious health problems.
For the fourth year running, local beaches ranked as the most contaminated in the state, with only 1 percent suffering no pollution.
The worst beach in Southern California was
Contenders for the state's two bum beaches included the popular beach at Santa Monica Pier and some beaches around
The NRDC study, based on federal Environmental Protection Agency data, documented 4,644 closing and health advisory days last year in
But storm-water runoff, a major source of ocean pollution, decreased in the Southland last year, leading to vast improvements at some beaches, with the worst "beach bums" of 2005 falling off the list.
Will
The fabled Rincon Beach in Santa Barbara County, which once exceeded health standards by 50 percent, dropped to just 4 percent.
And once highly polluted beaches at
"Right now, we've been remarking how clean the water is, with 20- to 25-foot visibility," said Chuck Moore, a county lifeguard at
"If Malibu Creek is closed, everything is good. But when it's open, the water is suspect."
The Natural Resources Defense Council blamed a general rise in polluted beaches to urban sprawl and to aging or poorly designed sewage and storm-water systems.
Mehta recommended that, before going swimming, beachgoers research the best and worst beaches and consult the county health department advisories.
"People should choose their beach wisely," warned Mehta, whose office is in
http://www.dailynews.com/ci_6568566
WASTEWATER ISSUES:
Ruling puts pressure on wastewater quality; Appeals court says city's disposal methods subject to Clean Water Act
Santa Rosa Press Democrat – 8/8/07
By Clark Mason, staff writer
For the second time in as many years, a federal appeals court has ruled that Healdsburg's method of disposing its wastewater affects the
The ruling, announced Monday, requires the city to have a federal permit, which it has obtained, but also keeps pressure on Healdsburg to upgrade the quality of its wastewater, and meet the deadline for constructing its new $32 million sewage plant.
"This case will give further protection to the
Healdsburg officials said they are well on their way to upgrading their system, but are still considering appealing the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
City Attorney Mike Gogna said "if we get the court to side with us, it takes us out from under deadline pressure" to complete the new plant by January 2008.
He noted that under its federal discharge permit, the city could be subject to penalties for every day it is late in completing the plant and the upgrade of its system.
Gogna said City Council members have not yet been briefed on the latest court decision and it will be up the council whether to appeal.
He said the case also potentially affects other public and private wastewater operators whose ponds are near rivers and streams.
Healdsburg's court battle centers on a rock quarry pit next to the
The city received a state water permit to use the so-called Basalt Pond, which contains 58 acres of surface water.
Gogna said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers declined to assert jurisdiction, saying that Healdsburg was not subject to the Clean Water Act.
The water in the pond seeps into the aquifer and into the river. It's cleaned as it passes through the bottom and sides of the pond, but the filtration is not perfect.
The pond also ruptured during winter floods in 1995 and 1997, spilling wastewater into the nearby river.
The court case began in 2001 when the U.S. District Court in
The district court found that chloride reaches the river in higher concentrations as a direct result of Healdsburg's discharge into the pond.
In its ruling published Monday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed the pond waters "significantly affect the physical, biological and chemical integrity of the River."
The ruling essentially was the same as a year ago, but both sides had asked for a rehearing to clarify some of the legal issues.
Healdsburg's new sewage plant will add a third level of treatment to the current system, producing ultraviolet disinfected, micro-filtered wastewater that will be used for summer landscaping and agricultural irrigation.
By 2009, a pipeline network is expected to be in place to carry the treated effluent to parks, schools and golf courses.
The city still plans to use Basalt Pond as a reservoir, but only at limited times of the year when discharges into the
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20070808/NEWS/708080342/1033/NEWS01
SEWER USE APPROVAL:
OK for full sewer use sought; The approval is being sought to be ready for future growth
By Larry Parsons, staff writer
It's a matter of the permit finally matching what this baby could always do.
That's why operators of the
The regional plant serves most of the
The agency's request, which will go before county planning commissioners Aug. 29, isn't a harbinger of the plant edging close to capacity. Daily flows actually have dropped since the mid-1990s because of the increased use of water-saving plumbing fixtures, officials say.
Keith Israel, manager of the Monterey Regional Water Pollution Control Agency, said modifying the permit is something agency officials want to finish before projected major growth in
"Our flows have declined, but we think we have reached bottom ... Now flows will be going up dramatically with growth in
The proposed permit would allow the sewage agency to operate the treatment plant up to its design capacity of 29.6 million gallons per day. Under it current 1992 permit, the plant is limited to processing 27 million gallons per day.
The plant now handles about 21 million gallons of raw sewage a day, serving a population of 264,000 and about 85,300 residences. That flow has been relatively stable over the past decade as water-conserving toilets have balanced new connections to the system,
Since 1997, when the $75 million Salinas Valley Reclamation Plant began delivering reclaimed wastewater to Castroville-area farms to reduce groundwater pumping, about 60 percent of the plant's treated wastewater is recycled. Last year, the plant delivered a record amount of recycled water, totaling about 14,000 acre feet,
The plant discharges treated wastewater into
About 60 percent of the wastewater is recycled, and that percentage should move up, as plans to deliver recycled water for irrigation to
Using the plant's design capacity would allow hookups for another 10,500 homes. Approval of that kind of growth is up to each city and the county,
Because of the sewage plant's water-treatment ability, increased flows from growth will allow more recycled water to be produced. "The more hookups, the more recycled water. There will be hardly any net impact,"
The agency already has obtained permits for the plant's full capacity from the Regional Water Quality Control Board, state Coastal Commission and the regional air pollution district.
"We've been working on it for a few years. We just want get it wrapped up,"
Increasing the permitted capacity won't require physical work at the plant. #
http://www.montereyherald.com/local/ci_6562020?nclick_check=1
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