A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
October 30, 2007
2. Supply
WATER RECYCLING:
Attempt at water recycling approved; Sanders threatens to veto pilot project - San Diego Union Tribune
ADDITIONAL WATER PURCHASING:
American Canyon aims to buy more water - Napa Valley Register
DESALINATION:
Editorial: Time for Desal opposition to evaporate - North
WATER RECYCLING:
Attempt at water recycling approved; Sanders threatens to veto pilot project
By Jennifer Vigil and Matthew T. Hall, staff writers
The council voted 5-2 to initiate a pilot program to purify sewage water and deliver it to residents for general use. The action came after the council was briefed on a long-awaited water reuse report.
The city already uses treated water for activities such as landscaping. Sanders, however, opposes allowing people to use the water more directly for such things as drinking and bathing. He threatened to veto the vote yesterday by the council.
The city has taken baby steps on water reuse before. A test in 2005 showed that purified water “easily” met drinking water standards.
The results have not convinced detractors, who call the proposal “toilet to tap.” Supporters call the plan, which has lingered in
Proponents say the plan could help to solve the city's water woes, which include expensive purchases of supplies from outside the region and increased vulnerability to droughts. Opponents say the water could be unsafe to drink and that cleansing it is too expensive.
Council President Scott Peters, along with members Toni Atkins, Donna Frye, Ben Hueso and Jim Madaffer voted in favor of the plan, while Kevin Faulconer and Tony Young opposed it. Councilman Brian Maienschein missed the meeting to aid fire victims.
Jim Barrett, the city's Water Department director, warned that such a project could cost up to $10 million, money that he does not have in his budget.
He said ratepayers would bear the expense, but Frye said the costs could be offset by grants or loans.
Sanders did not consider funding such a program when he secured a water rate increase this year. Barrett also said it would be nearly impossible to begin the project in 2008 because his department has yet to design or plan it.
The council's action calls for the mayor to launch a one-year pilot program by June and study the implications of proposals to boost the city's water supply. The council also wants a status report by January and for the mayor to begin a series of community forums on the topic that same month.
“Any progress is better than no progress,” Frye said. “I don't know that I'd call it significant, but I'd call it way better than nothing.”
The council also requested a study of the San Vicente Reservoir near
The council's entire plan may be moot if Sanders' threatened veto holds. Fred Sainz, Sanders' spokesman, called the potential project “a camel's nose under the tent kind of thing” that the mayor won't accept.
“We'd just rather cut this off now, before investing one dollar of ratepayer money in something that just shouldn't be launched,” Sainz said.
The City Council can override mayoral vetoes with a simple majority vote. If that happens, Sainz said Sanders will use “the bully pulpit” to oppose human consumption of recycled water.
Frye said the voting bloc that passed yesterday's measure would stand and that it should force the mayor to hold more public forums citywide to explain the science behind recycled water. #
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20071030/news_1m30tap.html
ADDITIONAL WATER PURCHASING:
By Kerana Todorov, staff writer
City officials say that they are looking for sources beyond the North Bay Aqueduct, the state Department of Water Resources facility that provides water to several cities in the region.
The city's concerns stem from a lack of rainfall and a recent federal court ruling that could limit the amount of water pumped from the San Joaquin Bay-Delta because pumping kills a protected fish species, the Delta smelt.
American Canyon Public Works Director Robert Weil said last week the city has agreed to pay a $22,500 deposit to the State Water Contractors Association, an association of 27
The city could be refunded $15,000 if it decides not to buy the extra water, Weil said.
The city is considering its first increase in water and sewer rates in seven years to address a long-standing financial imbalance in its delivery of those services.
Earlier this month, the Napa County Local Agency Formation Commission held that the city must provide water service to customers on a portion of unincorporated county land near the
The city is also considering a boost in the connection fees paid by new customers of its water and sewer service.
The city has begun a more detailed analysis of the water needs of proposed developments inside and outside the city limits, City Manager Rich Ramirez said Monday. #
http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2007/10/30/news/local/iq_4185839.txt
DESALINATION:
Editorial: Time for Desal opposition to evaporate
Our view: State commissions should approve Poseidon project to secure our water supply
In any survival-at-sea story, the moment when those adrift contemplate drinking the ocean's saltwater is a sure sign that times are truly desperate. The same can be said for the circumstances surrounding the
The key difference, of course, is that drinking seawater leads quickly to dehydrated death in those adventure tales. In our case, desalination promises to help nourish our coastal desert communities as other drinking water supplies dry up.
Under study since 2000, the idea of building a desalination plant capable of producing 50 million gallons of fresh water a day next to the Encina power station was certainly a neat idea. But the key question was always would desalination's considerable costs come down enough and regional water demand come up enough to pencil out.
Fast forward seven years and the idea doesn't seem like something from a futuristic Tomorrowland. Most of the Western United States has endured a multiyear drought, meaning much less water to be fought over by the thirsty states of the
After years of fits and starts, which included a failed courtship with the San Diego County Water Authority, the plant's fate now rests with a pair of state agencies, the State Lands Commission \ and the California Coastal Commission . The State Lands Commission manages the leasing of tidelands and submerged lands, while the Coastal Commission has sweeping powers over the state's coastal region.
Both agencies are expected to examine the plant's potentially significant impact on the environment, including the release of greenhouse gases.
There's little doubt that this kind of project will have some negative consequences for marine life. Proponents argue that since the power plant already uses large amounts of seawater for cooling ---- water that Poseidon will then desalinate ---- the plant's impacts will be minimal. Studies by both the Water Authority and city of
Those problems can't be glossed over, but to help compensate for them, Poseidon has offered to set aside $2.79 million for several coastal restoration projects in coastal
The Coastal Commission staff is set to make its recommendation public on Friday, and its concerns are expected to go beyond direct environmental effects. The commission could mull everything from the effect increased drinking water supplies may have on population growth and development to the privatization of public water supplies.
Clearly, the commission wants to saddle a straightforward, sensible project to increase our dwindling supply of drinkable water with ideological concerns far beyond its brief. This kind of mission creep is the same sort of fuzzy logic that convinced our state leaders to stop building roads for the better part of three decades.
We must better conserve the precious water we have, and we must recycle more of the water we use. But we also need the Poseidon desalination plant if we are to survive a dry future in this coastal desert. #
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/10/30/opinion/editorials/12_45_5210_30_07.txt
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