Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
September 11, 2007
4. Water Quality
RECYCLING WATER:
Column: Chance to be 'hydrohub' goes down drain -
Editorial: Recycle it; Proposed policy acknowledges future SR water shortages -
LOS OSOS:
Sewage-reclamation firm raises questions; Nevada company says homeowners would avoid fees or fines with Reclamator; officials doubt that - San Luis Obispo
Editorial: For Los Osos, the magic number is 218 - San Luis Obispo Tribune
WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT CONSTRUCTED:
Wastewater treatment plan outline released; Work to more than double plant's capacity will be expensive, officials say - Los Banos Enterprise
RECYCLING WATER:
Column: Chance to be 'hydrohub' goes down drain
By
Ten years, down the toilet.
What a terrible waste of wastewater.
We coulda been contenders, out on the cutting edge. The world could have looked up to us as champions.
We could have been a globally admired “hydrohub,” as befits a great biotech center.
Instead, we are wasteful stumblebums, flushing tens of millions of gallons of foul water into the ocean while relying on increasingly scarce water imported from the
Well, what did you expect?
Intelligence? Vision?
Expect again.
We're short-termers, if not short-timers.
Dumb R Us.
Ten years ago, our collective IQ looked higher. We had survived a drought. The city of
At the experimental plant in the San Pasqual Valley, I downed a glass of sewer water run through a high-tech still. Still thirsty, I enjoyed another.
We should bottle this stuff and market it as
Shortly thereafter, the sewage hit the fan.
A strange dormitory of bedfellows sounded the alarm. For example, this newspaper's editorial page found common cause with the bête noire of the Chargers, former Councilman Bruce Henderson. Ultimately, “toilet-to-tap,” the derisive name for the program, was sunk.
What should have been a debate about science and cost was reduced to bathroom humor and prophecies of doom.
As Abba Eban once said of the Palestinians,
The fully examined provenance of any water, including Evian, would make a cast-iron stomach turn somersaults.
“In every glass of water we drink, some of the water has already passed through fishes, trees, bacteria, worms in the soil and many other organisms, including people,” wrote marine biologist Elliott A. Norse. “Living systems cleanse water and make it fit . . . for human consumption.”
In reality, the
Last year, after another million bucks had been spent studying the recouping of ocean-bound wastewater, Mayor Jerry Sanders rejected various pleas to resurrect toilet-to-tap. Citing the yahoo yuck factor, Sanders declared it politically dead in the water.
“When the well's dry, we know the worth of water,” said Benjamin Franklin, the poet laureate of practicality.
If
Sensing an opportunity to seize an opportunity, City Attorney Michael Aguirre is pressing the San Diego City Council to resurrect toilet-to-tap.
Aguirre's astutely timed call follows widespread predictions of multiyear water shortages caused by expected climate change as well as a court ruling cutting water deliveries to Southern California.
As a quick aside, I prefer the brutal “toilet-to-tap” to mincing bureaucratese like “indirect potable reuse” or “reservoir augmentation.”
We are way beyond “1984” and Orwellian soft-pedaling. Big Brother can't fool us with indirect reuse of augmented words.
Nevertheless, science fiction is not irrelevant.
In Frank Herbert's novel “Dune,” guerrilla fighters wear high-tech “stillsuits” that convert their sweat and urine into drinking water, allowing the warriors to survive prolonged desert warfare.
Most of us have little trouble wrapping our minds around desalinated water. Negligible yuck factor. But in reality, it's the same thing. Bad stuff in, water out.
Like residents of a space station, we have to recycle hydrogen and oxygen molecules. If it's to survive systemic statewide drought, the
For the past several years,
The celebrated NEWater – a coinage with a cool PR stamp on it – is bottled and sent around the world to herald
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/jenkins/20070910-9999-1m10jenkins.html
Editorial: Recycle it; Proposed policy acknowledges future SR water shortages
Santa Rosa Press Democrat – 9/11/07
The Santa Rosa City Council should embrace a policy that would require some new businesses and homeowners to use recycled water instead of potable water for irrigation and other nonconsumption uses. The ordinance, which is targeted at growth in the southeast and southwest quadrants, recognizes two realities:
A growing population will stretch potable water supplies -- as will environmental regulations and changing weather conditions.
Highly treated wastewater (often called recycled water) is a safe substitute for potable water in many circumstances. A 2001 survey of
For these reasons, and because it must limit discharges into the
In regard to a proposed pricing structure that has recycled water costing 5 percent less than potable water, the council should consider the following: Do the prices reflect the costs of supplying the water? Would new residents who are unhappy about using recycled water be mollified by a deeper discount? Would a deeper discount encourage users in other areas of the city to request recycled water?
Questions over pricing aside, the ordinance is an important step in preventing future water shortages and deserves council support. #
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20070911/NEWS/709110320/1043/OPINION01
LOS OSOS:
Sewage-reclamation firm raises questions; Nevada
San Luis Obispo
By Sona Patel, staff writer
A pair of salesmen from Nevada has come to Los Osos to sell a piece of equipment they say will fix the town’s sewer woes, but others claim it’s nothing but false hope for a community weary from decades of wrangling.
The men claim their machine— the Reclamator—will turn sewage into drinking water.
Operating as AES Central Coast Discharge Elimination Co., the pair has made presentations in recent weeks to the county and the regional water board saying their machinery will eliminate the need for a sewer.
They are now beginning to go door to door and visit public gatherings to circulate contracts that tell residents they will exempt themselves from a sewer assessment or fines if they agree to use the device. Their sales pitch has prompted an urge for caution from state water-quality regulators who are pushing for Los Osos to build a sewer.
Regional Water Quality Control Board officials wrote to AES that many of its claims about the Reclamator are misleading or unsubstantiated.
AES owner Tom Murphy said a homeowner would pay $15,000 up front for the device and $46 a month after that for maintenance and operation.
Several financing options have already been secured, Murphy said, including loans through a local bank that he would not name.
Property owners would get rebates after AES secures state or other grants, reducing the cost to about $3,500, Murphy said.
County public works staff who are now crafting a sewer project, and the water board, caution that property owners still must pay for a project if one is built.
“Residents of Los Osos should know that using the Reclamator does not relieve anyone of the obligation to comply,” said a Sept. 6 letter from water board Executive Officer Roger Briggs.
State water quality regulators say the town’s septic systems are polluting the groundwater and
County officials said they will do an independent analysis of the AES proposal, because they’re obligated to evaluate all potential solutions.
An analysis is expected to be complete before December, said Paavo Ogren, county deputy public works director.
So far there is only one other private proposal being evaluated by the county.
In early July, a citizen group brought Massachusetts-based Pio Lombardo and Associates to Los Osos to talk to residents about a decentralized system, which uses several small components to treat sewage.
Murphy has introduced the Reclamator twice before to Los Osos.
He said he set up a meeting with Los Osos resident Frank Freiler in
Freiler and Semonsen — who both would later serve on the Los Osos Community Services District board — could not be reached for comment.
Then in December 2005, Murphy said he presented the Reclamator to the services district. He said the board rejected his idea.
But board President Chuck Cesena said he couldn’t recall if Murphy had a made a presentation to his agency.
In addition,
Murphy and his associate, Mark Low, claim their device does not discharge wastewater but rather purifies 100 percent of household water.
Murphy and Low said hundreds of property owners were prepared to sign the contract. However, the pair was unwilling to share details with The Tribune.
According to Murphy, a state-licensed professional engineer would approve the contracts that AES is asking property owners to sign. Murphy said his company has its own engineer who will sign the contract.
When asked to provide contact information for that engineer, Murphy declined, fearing he would be harassed.
A 2002 story in Today’s News-Herald, a daily newspaper in
In a telephone interview with The Tribune, Darlene Shaddox of
Officials say Los Osos residents signing up for the Reclamator would likely face the same situation.
After presentations last week to the regional water board, agency engineer Matt Thompson wrote an e-mail to Murphy and Low that any discharge from the Reclamator is subject to state regulation.
That’s because it would still be discharging waste, even if it reduces nitrate levels in treated sewage, Thompson wrote.
Murphy said threats from the water board and the county won’t stop AES from pitching the device.
He said he already started scoping commercial buildings in Los Osos for an office. For now, he said, they’ll use a motor home as their office. #
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/story/139287.html
Editorial: For Los Osos, the magic number is 218
No question about it, building a sewer in Los Osos is an expensive proposition. Property owners will be on the hook for $127 million, which works out to about $25,000 per homeowner.
Should Los Osos property owners agree to take on such a debt by approving the Proposition 218 assessment vote?
Unfortunately, the time is past for any debate. The residents of Los Osos must bite the bullet and pass this assessment.
We don’t mean to rattle off a litany of threats — no one wants to be bullied into a decision—but here’s how things stand:
Turning down the opportunity to have the county take over the project means that responsibility for building a sewer would revert to the Los Osos Community Services District.
And why would the bankrupt district be in any better of a position to take on the project now than it was a year ago, when the district board agreed by a near-unanimous vote (Julie Tacker was the lone dissenter) to legislation that allowed the county to take over the project?
Simply put, it’s not. Board member Joe Sparks said as much in a Viewpoint published in The Tribune.
His exact words: “Failure of the Proposition 218 assessment will result in financial and legal chaos and is asking for bounced checks from the district.”
We commend
Board President Chuck Cesena also has spoken in favor of passage, though in halfhearted terms: “I’d rather partner with the county than the water board,” he told Tribune reporter Sona Patel. “I don’t think we have a choice but to vote yes on the (assessment).”
That’s OK — but we’d like to hear a stronger commitment.
It’s time for community leaders — including district board members — to unequivocally urge a “yes” vote on the assessment.
If property owners don’t agree to pony up the funds to pay for a sewer, the Regional Water Quality Control Board will resume its tough enforcement action, which ordered 45 randomly selected property owners to stop using their septic thanks by 2011, or face fines of up to $5,000 per day.
Water board officials won’t say as much — they don’t want to be accused of electioneering — but make no mistake, they will follow through on enforcement. And this time, there will be no last-minute rescue like the one engineered by Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo.
We understand that some members of the community are concerned because they don’t know the type of system that will be built, or where it will be located. Those decisions will be made through a collaborative process that will include a public opinion survey.
Others are deathly afraid of the costs involved. However, here are three points to keep in mind:
• State and federal agencies will be more likely to approve grants and low-interest loans for the project if they see a commitment from Los Osos to solve its wastewater problems.
• Private contractors will be more apt to come forward with a variety of competitive proposals if they know that funding is secure —and that will keep costs down.
• Construction costs will only continue to rise in the future.
As difficult as it may be to face such a daunting task, the alternatives include massive fines, continuation of groundwater pollution and the increasing costs of construction. The community simply has no choice but to move forward with a successful Prop. 218 vote.
We urge Los Osos property owners to look at the big picture. The key issue isn’t how the balloting is conducted, or whether this or that technology is superior, or whether the monthly service will be $40 or $60 in addition to a $25,000 lien on their homes.
It’s deciding whether to commit to resolving a problem that’s plagued Los Osos far too long. As financially painful as that decision may be, it’s the right decision; indeed, it’s the only decision. #
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/editorial/story/139110.html
WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT CONSTRUCTED:
Wastewater treatment plan outline released; Work to more than double plant's capacity will be expensive, officials say
Los Banos
By Corey Pride, staff writer
The outline of the strategic plan for expanding Los Baños' wastewater treatment plant was released last week.
The project is going to be expensive and the city's top official is hoping to keep that impact to a minimum for current residents.
"My number one concern is to make sure that existing residents stay as low as possible and as much as we possibly can, without breaking the law, we charge new growth with everything that's coming," Jones said at last week's City Council meeting.
What is coming is an expansion done in three phases that will increase Los Baños' wastewater treatment capacity from 4 million gallons per day to 9.6 million gallons per day.
The first phase of the project will cost $13.1 million, the second phase is estimated at between $46 million and $76 million, and the third portion will be $69 million to $90 million. According to the strategic plan new residents will bear the entire cost of the third phase.
The funding sources for the first and second phases include a combination of current residents and people that will come to Los Baños in the future.
What is everyone getting for their money?
•Phase one will include expansion and upgrade items, a salt minimization study, rate study, impact fee study, treatment capacity and feasibility fee study and a water system master plan.
• Phase two will entail implementation of phase one's study recommendations, acquiring additional land for the wastewater plant and design and construction of the facility's expansion to 8 million gallons per day.
•Phase three allows for expansion to 9.6 million gallons per day -- the equivalent of service for 90,000 people - and reclamation of land.
Phase one of the project is scheduled for completion some time in the next 18 months despite the city only having about $6 million of the necessary $13.1 million, according to city staff.
Public Works Director Dwayne Chisam said state law does not allow cities to place the financial burden of such a project completely on new residents.
"There is going to be... a replacement of a worn out (part) or an undersized sewer line that exists today. Those facilities are an essential component of a financial plan," Chisam said. "There will be some increase in rates that the residents will experience to cover those costs."
Dan Rich, who is a project manager for the engineering consulting firm Eco:Logic, said phase two of the expansion could begin by the start of the next decade.
"It depends on how the city grows, but if the city were to have the growth it had a few years ago it might be as soon as 2010," Rich said.
He said Los Baños is currently processing 3.5 million of wastewater per day and there is about 1,300 acres of land surrounding the city's plant.
"If you use all that land you can treat about 8 million mgd of water, that's about the population equivalent of about 75,000 people. That doesn't quite take you to the build out of the general plan," Rich said. "The build out of the general plan is 9.6 mgd. That increment, 9.6 and further, would be a new treatment plant."
Los Baños' wastewater treatment plant is on the east side of town, off
The city has concerns about its wastewater and water system because of the naturally occurring salts that infiltrate both. The fear is that the state government will over regulate the amount of certain elements allowed in water, effectively forcing the city to switch to using more costly methods for its two systems.
If there is good news for residents, Rich said, the plant's location and the type of system the city uses helps Los Baños to have one of the lowest wastewater rates in
Councilman Joe Sousa said acquiring the land for the plant's expansion is essential.
"The longer we wait the more it's going to cost us," Sousa said. "There's a lot of investors waiting to come into our community.
The first thing they look at is sewer capacity." #
http://www.losbanosenterprise.com/local/story/13976077p-14534794c.html
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