[Water_news] 4. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATER QUALITY -10/11/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

October 11, 2007

 

4. Water Quality

 

WATER TREATMENT PLANT:

Mayor supports pollution-law waiver for facility; Report: Plant shows no 'adverse impacts' - San Diego Union Tribune

 

WASTEWATER PLANT:

Consultants say Fortuna area southern reach of Eel's estuary - Eureka Times Standard

 

 

WATER TREATMENT PLANT:

Mayor supports pollution-law waiver for facility; Report: Plant shows no 'adverse impacts'

San Diego Union Tribune – 10/11/07

By Mike Lee, staff writer

 

POINT LOMA – San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders announced yesterday that he supports a third waiver from federal water pollution laws for the city's Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant.

 

If federal and state regulators grant the exemption, San Diego wouldn't have to begin upgrading the facility for at least five more years. That would save the city and 15 other wastewater agencies as much as $1.5 billion.

 

Sanders' decision launches San Diego into months of hearings and administrative appeals, perhaps followed by lawsuits.

 

Business leaders are leaning toward Sanders' stance, while some environmentalists have vowed to fight the waiver request.

 

In a report released by Sanders yesterday, a panel of scientists hired by the city said existing data on wastewater discharged from the Point Loma plant show “no evidence of significant adverse impacts.” The researchers, from the University of California San Diego and San Diego State University, spent three months compiling the report at a cost of about $200,000.

 

Their document noted several uncertainties.

 

Some of those unknowns, such as how far the Point Loma sewage plume travels and the region's population growth, led panel member Richard Gersberg to say in an interview that “it would be prudent to move toward upgrades.” Gersberg is a professor at SDSU.

 

The Point Loma plant is the largest in the country that doesn't at least have a plan to meet the Clean Water Act's standard of giving wastewater a secondary level of treatment to reduce solids and other pollutants.

 

The facility treats wastewater from San Diego and several other cities to the advanced primary level, then pipes it about 4.5 miles offshore.

 

Sanders said seeking a waiver was the “most prudent course of action” for the city's ratepayers, who are riding a treadmill of utility-bill increases to pay for other infrastructure upgrades.

 

Members of Sanders' staff said the mayor intends to discuss the waiver request with the City Council in coming weeks. But they said he doesn't need council approval to file for an exemption with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board.

 

Councilwoman Donna Frye, a longtime clean water activist, said the report didn't change the city's sewage dilemma.

 

“We still don't know what we don't know,” Frye said. “We need to start looking at ways to meet the secondary standard or reduce the amount of wastewater that we are dumping into the ocean.”

 

The San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce hasn't finalized its stance on the waiver, but spokesman Scott Alevy said he expects the organization to back the mayor's position.

 

“Due diligence has definitely been met” by Sanders, Alevy said.

 

Environmentalists hope to persuade city leaders to change course before the waiver application leads to litigation.

 

“For San Diego to stake out the position as a poor environmental performer on water issues is not in the interest of the region or its citizens or its visitors,” said David Beckman, senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Santa Monica.

 

The EPA has not signaled whether it would approve another waiver. Alexis Strauss, head of water programs at the agency's office in San Francisco, said regulators won't rely on the city's science panel for answers.

 

“We'll be reviewing all the data to ensure the Clean Water Act requirements are met,” Strauss said.  #

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20071011/news_7m11loma.html

 

 

WASTEWATER PLANT:

Consultants say Fortuna area southern reach of Eel's estuary

Eureka Times Standard – 10/11/07

By Jessie Faulkner, staff writer

 

FERNDALE -- A city consultant has pinpointed the southern boundary of Eel River's estuary as closer to Fortuna than Ferndale, a determination that may impact Ferndale's wastewater disposal aspirations.

 

After the projected cost to rebuild the city's wastewater treatment plan soared well above expectations, discussion turned to the Eel River. The thought was to pipe treated wastewater to the river during the high-water season.

 

The bottom line was to ease out from under the North Coast Regional Water Quality Board's 2003 cease-and-desist order. The board issued the order because Francis Creek's flow rate -- where treated wastewater is dispersed during the winter -- is too low to meet the required 100-to-1 dilution rate. During dry weather, the treated wastewater is used for irrigation.

 

However, the state prohibits new discharge into estuaries, although existing systems may be grandfathered in, according to the city's consultant.

 

City Manager Jay Parrish said Wednesday that the City Council will meet on Oct. 23 at 2 p.m. to figure out what this means to the city's plans. One of the factors, Parrish said, will be contrasting the cost of piping treated wastewater to land-based disposal.

 

Initially, the North Coast Regional Water Quality Board offered to research and determine the boundaries of the estuary, but later backed off due to time constraints.

 

The consultant determined the boundary through a formula involving review of historical tide levels and river levels. Basically, water doesn't flow uphill. Following the bottom of the river from the mouth upstream there comes a point where the surface height of the ocean equals the surface height of the river at the highest tide.

 

Based on a water-leveling principle, the ocean water would not proceed further upstream hence that is the estuary boundary.

Parrish likened the process to holding up both ends of a water-filled garden hose. With the two ends held at the same height, the water level at each end is at the same elevation.

 

Meanwhile, her said its likely that the council will have enough information to settle on a preferred alternative following the Oct. 23 meeting.

 

”That will be a special meeting dedicated to the engineering company going over the remaining options,” Parrish said. “Doing that with the belief the council may be able to reach a decision on what it wants to do.” #

http://www.times-standard.com//ci_7146679?IADID=Search-www.times-standard.com-www.times-standard.com

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