Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
August 9, 2007
4. Water Quality
WELL TESTING:
Paso tests wells after a report of toxins surfaces; City officials say they were blindsided by the news from the county suggesting a manufacturing firm’s chemicals may have reached groundwater in 2002 - San Luis Obispo Tribune
GROUNDWATER ISSUES:
Next step taken to solve groundwater contamination - Chico Enterprise Record
BEACH POLLUTION:
Half Moon Bay's Venice Beach deemed a health hazard - San Francisco Chronicle
Humboldt County's beaches comparatively clean - Eureka Times Standard
STORMWATER:
Calaveras to crack down on stormwater polluters - Stockton Record
WELL TESTING:
Paso tests wells after a report of toxins surfaces; City officials say they were blindsided by the news from the county suggesting a manufacturing firm’s chemicals may have reached groundwater in 2002
San Luis Obispo
By Leah Etling, staff writer
Paso Robles is testing all of its wells for toxic contaminants after information released Tuesday by the county Public Health Department suggested a local industrial company may have discharged chemicals that reached soil and groundwater five years ago.
The city hasn’t issued any warnings to residents about their water quality, and Public Works Director Doug Monn doesn’t expect the tests to reveal any contaminants.
It’s unclear why the information about the toxins, found at Joslyn Sunbank LLC at
Monn said Wednesday that the city was blindsided by the county’s release of the information and hadn’t received any notice or report of the problem.
Neither representatives of the company nor the
The city has three wells in the vicinity of Joslyn Sunbank that contribute to the water supply, Monn said. Tests for contaminants were ordered for those wells — known as Sherwood 9, Sherwood 11 and Royal Oaks — on Friday. Fast-tracked results will take about five days.
“When we found out there was something floating around out there, we wanted to find out what,” Monn said.
However, he emphasized that environmental health officials and geologists have assured him that the city’s water supply should be OK.
As a precaution, tests were ordered Wednesday for the city’s additional 14 wells. City water is tested for water quality monthly, but the tests needed to detect the sort of chemicals reportedly found at the company are mandated by the state only every three years.
“Based on my conversations with environmental health and some geologists, I am not worried,” Monn said.
“The geologists tell me, supported by environmental health, that the ground strata, where they found these traces, is like a small wall. It’s highly unlikely, in their opinion, that there would be any type of transportation.”
The contaminants discovered at Joslyn Sunbank, which was fined by the state for improper hazardous waste disposal in 2005, include acetone, chloromethane, perchloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE) in the soil, and PCE and TCE in a nearby groundwater test well.
PCE and TCE are commonly used in dry-cleaning and metal degreasing. Exposure to high concentrations of the chemicals can cause liver and kidney damage. The amounts of compounds and concentrations found in the soil and groundwater in Paso Robles were very small, with the highest being 0.170 milligrams per liter of PCE in the groundwater, according to the county Office of Public Health.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s allowable level for TCE or PCE in drinking water is 0.005 milligrams per liter.
A release about the contaminants from the county Public Health Department, issued Tuesday evening, stated that PCE was found in the city’s Sherwood 6 well in June 2002. However, that well has not been used for city water for 20 years, Monn said, because it was not producing much water.
Sandy Friedman, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, which found the chemicals at Joslyn Sunbank in July 2002, said an investigation is ongoing.
Friedman said she did not know why so much time had lapsed between discovery of the chemicals and the county being notified.
Joslyn Sunbank was ordered to pay $495,000 to the state for the 2005 improper waste disposal. The company did not publicly comment on that incident, but state officials said at the time that the company cooperated with their investigation and fixed the violations.
The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Washington, D.C.-based Danaher Corp., has about 270 local employees and makes conduits and thermoplastics for military, aerospace and industrial customers. #
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/story/113298.html
GROUNDWATER ISSUES:
Next step taken to solve groundwater contamination
By Chris Gullick, staff writer
The first step is being taken to start cleaning up a plume of toxic chemicals lurking underground in a south
TCE and PCE, chlorinated solvents commonly used for dry cleaning and metal degreasing, were discovered almost four years ago in the wells of homes in the
Further investigation revealed that the chemicals were released some time before 1976, by Combustion Engineering, which operated at a location on
An unrelated juice bottling plant currently operates where aluminum shower enclosures were manufactured in the 1960s and 1970s.
The plume, found to extend for about two miles, is believed to run from its origin on
Now, state agencies and a corporation being held responsible are designing a clean-up plan, beginning with an outreach effort to assess the community's concerns.
Consultants from the state Department of Toxic Substances Control have been conducting interviews with residents, city officials, state representatives and others — talking to about 20 residents during a visit to
Most of the people they polled this time are residents of the affected neighborhood.
Skyway Avenue resident Wanda Long said she was sent a questionnaire that she filled out and returned. Some of her neighbors met with the state representatives, she said, so she sent her questionnaire along with them.
Long said she didn't know a responsible party had been found for the contamination.
Long and her husband, long-time residents in the neighborhood, used bottled water when they first learned about the toxins in their water. Then they installed a heavy-duty filter system, the cost of which was reimbursed by the state.
But she commented she'd rather have her home connected to city water than worry about replacing filters or waiting out a lengthy cleanup process.
The contamination was found accidentally in December 2003, when neighbors of the tank farm near the corner of
Residents were advised to use bottled water for drinking and at least use precautions when bathing or washing clothes in their well water, since the chemicals can be inhaled in steam or absorbed through the skin.
In October 2004, funds from the federal Environmental Protection Agency were allocated to investigate the origin of the chemicals and help homeowners install filter systems to remove the harmful chemicals from household water.
The Department of Toxic Substances Control contracted for filters to be installed in 63 residences, funding the cost until the source of the contaminant was identified.
Eventually, the origin was found, and in 2006, ABB Inc. was notified it would be held responsible for cleanup costs.
ABB purchased Combustion Engineering in 1990, 13 years after the company sold its
"They've ID'd us as the successor of interest," said Ronald Kurtz, ABB's director of media relations. "And we're going to clean up the environment for the community."
ABB is an industrial technology business that employs about 11,500 people in North America, headquartered in
Although his company acquired Combustion Engineering long after it quit manufacturing in
Gathering input from the residents this week is just the first step in a process that most likely will take several years, Kurtz said.
More testing will have to be done, he said, to measure the exact location and concentration of the contamination. Then a range of possible remedies will be examined and public input gathered again, before any measures are taken to remove the chemicals.
Every site is unique, he said, and the removal method will depend on variables such as geology, pollutant amounts, gradients and other things.
When Department of Toxic Substances Control project manager Don Mandel described a typical process of removing TCE, he indicated the process could take much longer than a few years — maybe 30 years or longer.
A system of varied-depth wells are positioned to draw water through the contaminated soil and run it through filter systems to remove toxins.
For example, the system of wells and filters in place for the Chico central plume cleanup have removed about 1,300 pounds of dry cleaner solvent since 1995, he said, and monitor wells show a steady decline in contaminant concentration.
Although the levels of TCE in some of the
"We were concerned that the people had had an extended exposure," said Mandel. #
http://www.chicoer.com//ci_6578638?IADID=Search-www.chicoer.com-www.chicoer.com
BEACH POLLUTION:
Half Moon Bay's
San Francisco Chronicle – 8/9/07
By john
A
Venice Beach, one of several beaches that make up Half Moon Bay State Beach, was designated a "Beach Bum" by the council after contaminants in its water violated public health standards in 57 percent of the 35 tests conducted in 2006, according to the report, which relied on data collected from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The report cited faulty sewage systems, contaminated runoff and urban development in coastal areas as the main sources for fouled water.
Some of those factors are in play at Half Moon Bay's
The water off
San Mateo County officials have been aware of the problems at Venice Beach for several years - county test data were supplied to the EPA - and are working to resolve them, said county Supervisor Richard Gordon, whose district includes the beach.
"We're not happy with the state of this beach, no question about that," Gordon said. "It's something that's been on our minds for some time, and we're going to keep working at it until we can get it as clean as we can."
He said the quality readings and number of beach closures there had improved this year, but exact data were not immediately available.
Gordon attributed much of the problem to runoff from ranches, farms and urban areas, and droppings from what he called "the incredible number of seagulls that make their home" at the beach.
"There are spots up there that can look like a Hitchcock movie," Gordon said, referring to Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 thriller "The Birds," in which avian creatures terrify a town.
Seagulls are attracted to the area by easy pickings from the county's landfill, located about a mile inland from
The county also has adopted regulations designed to reduce the contaminants in runoff, including keeping manure on farms away from streambeds and restricting the amount of impermeable surface - such as rooftops and concrete driveways - that is allowed under new construction, Gordon said. #
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/09/BAGBRFANO.DTL
By James Faulk, staff writer
The council puts out a report listing county beaches, the total number of samples taken from those beaches, and how often the water exceeded state standards.
Figures collected by the Humboldt County Environmental Health Department's testing of total coliform, fecal coliform and enterococcus levels, were used for the local ratings.
According to the report, 38 samples were taken at
40 samples were taken at Clam Beach County Park, with results exceeding standards 10 percent of the time; Luffenholtz Beach exceeded standards 8 percent of the time in 38 samples; Clam Beach County Park North exceeded standards 5 percent of the time in 38 samples; and Trinidad State Beach exceeded standards 3 percent of the time out of the 38 samples.
Compared with other counties in the state, those are good numbers --
But
”
But Harriet Hill of the county's Environmental Health Department said
If
But because the county has a lot of winter surfers, they view it as a public service to provide them with a snapshot of water quality every two weeks, she said.
There are a number of potential sources for pollution in the ocean water, Hill said, including storm water, pet waste, boat waste, poorly maintained septic systems, livestock, fertilizers, pesticides and others.
To improve local water quality, people should try to preserve green space around their homes and properties, which serves as a natural filter for water, Hill said.
”We live in a relatively unpaved environment, so that helps,” Hill said.
Members of the public should also clean up after their animals, properly maintain their septic systems, keep cattle and horses out of waterways, and refrain from overfertilizing their gardens, she said. #
http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_6581376
STORMWATER:
Calaveras to crack down on stormwater polluters
By Dana Nichols, staff writer
SAN ANDREAS -
County residents can get their first look at how the county proposes to gear up to regulate everything from bulldozers to carwashes in the stormwater management plan posted on the county's Web site.
As a small rural county, Calaveras had been depending on state water pollution officials to police the stormwater laws. But after finding illegal quantities of sediment flowing off construction sites in the Copperopolis area, officials with the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board ordered
Robert Houghton, director of
Houghton repeatedly told supervisors that the plan is designed to meet state requirements. For example, parts of it would set standards for pollution control in new neighborhoods in the county's fastest-growing areas, from Valley Springs and Copperopolis to
That prompted a question from Supervisor Steve Wilensky, whose district includes
"We have problems in
Houghton said the board has the option of adopting the policies countywide.
Among other things, the plan would require the county to adopt regulations for grading, something already in the works, and to hire a new inspector who would visit construction sites, businesses and other locations with the potential for creating polluted runoff.
Fees from grading permits would pay the cost of the new position as well as for a permit technician, Houghton said.
The county would also establish a telephone hot line for reporting stormwater pollution.
Several residents praised the plan and said they've seen too much muddy water flowing into rivers from construction sites.
"We've been complaining for years about what happens in construction," said Alice Raine, who lives in the Rancho Calaveras subdivision southwest of Valley Springs. #
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070809/A_NEWS/708090346
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