[Water_news] 4. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATER QUALITY -10/30/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

October 30, 2007

 

4. Water Quality

 

WATER DISCHARGE ISSUES:

San Francisco court rules EPA must follow water requirements - San Francisco Chronicle

 

WASTEWATER PLANT PERMIT GRANTED:

YC’s treated water gets OK; City saves more than $50 million - Marysville Appeal Democrat

 

SEWER MANAGEMENT PLAN:

Agoura Hills working to create a sewer management program - Ventura County Star

 

FLUORIDE:

Southwest Riverside County's water gets fluoridated - Riverside Press Enterprise

 

 

WATER DISCHARGE ISSUES:

San Francisco court rules EPA must follow water requirements

San Francisco Chronicle – 10/30/07

By Bob Egelko, staff writer

 

Federal water-quality regulators must annually review developments in pollution-control technology and require industries to meet discharge limits they could achieve with the best available equipment, a federal appeals court in San Francisco said Monday in a nationwide ruling against the Bush administration.

 

In a 2-1 decision, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Environmental Protection Agency must take new technology into account when it updates pollution limits for each industry under the Clean Water Act.

 

The EPA denied it has any obligation to incorporate the latest technology in its water-pollution guidelines, but also said it has done so voluntarily. The appeals court said a lower-court judge should evaluate that assertion and decide whether to order changes.

 

The ruling "will force the EPA to re-regulate an area that it essentially decided it wasn't going to regulate," said Christopher Sproul, lawyer for Our Children's Earth Foundation and the Ecological Rights Foundation, which sued the agency in 2004. "The EPA has fundamentally abandoned the central teaching of the Clean Water Act under the Bush administration."

 

The EPA said it is reviewing the ruling and had no immediate comment. Fred Andes, lawyer for the Effluent Guidelines Industry Coalition, which entered the case on the agency's side, said he expects the EPA to prevail in its defense of its policy.

 

"I think it's pretty clear that they did not completely ignore technology" in setting guidelines for pollution discharges, Andes said. If the lower-court judge disagrees and orders major changes in EPA policy, he said, the results could be time-consuming and expensive.

 

The EPA and Andes' clients could also ask the full appeals court to order a new hearing or appeal to the Supreme Court.

 

The Clean Water Act, passed in 1972, requires anyone seeking to discharge pollutants into navigable waters to obtain a permit from the EPA or a state agency operating under federal approval.

 

The court said the law, and amendments in 1985, showed Congress' "commitment to a technology-based approach to water-quality regulation." Instead of merely monitoring pollution of each waterway and trying to determine who was responsible, the court said, Congress decided it would be more effective to require all industries to use the best available technology.

 

The EPA itself interpreted the law that way as recently as 2003, the court said. The agency's current position - that a regular review of pollution-control technology is not legally required - "strains credulity to the breaking point," Judge Margaret McKeown wrote in the majority opinion.

 

Sproul said the EPA had never fully complied with the law's requirement to bring its discharge standards in line with the latest technology, and had repudiated the requirement in 2003.

 

The lawsuit had been dismissed by U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton, who said the law left such decisions entirely up to the agency. The appeals court said Hamilton must now review the EPA's practices and decide whether they comply with the law. #

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/30/MN2LT2TJI.DTL&hw=water&sn=005&sc=522

 

 

WASTEWATER PLANT PERMIT GRANTED:

YC’s treated water gets OK; City saves more than $50 million

Marysville Appeal Democrat – 10/30/07

By John Dickey, staff writer

 

Four years of battles with state water quality regulators over a wastewater treatment plant have finally ended for Yuba City – ending an impasse that threatened to halt development.

The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board granted a new discharge permit last week that increases the Yuba City plant’s discharge capacity from 7 million to 10.5 million gallons per day, according to a city press release.

But there’s more at stake than sewage – the increased capacity will allow Yuba City growth to continue. Without the capacity, the city faced a possible building moratorium once the plant reached its 7 million gallons per day limit – several years from now at current growth rates.

The board action also saves the city more than $50 million that city officials said would be required for a reverse osmosis treatment plant. The costs would have been passed on to city wastewater customers, including Sunsweet Growers, a move that city officials feared would prompt one of the city’s major employers to move to a cheaper place to do business.

City officials could not be reached for comment Monday.

The city argued that the Central Valley board should have considered dilution of the treated wastewater with the Feather River water when it determined water quality standards. But the board had first proposed measuring the wastewater quality where it comes out of the pipe rather than the city’s proposed “mixing zone” farther from the outlet.

Treated wastewater will continue to be discharged to the Feather River near Shanghai Bend or to existing disposal ponds.

One group that may not be happy with the increase is the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, which objected to the dilution credits and mixing zone because of fish that congregate at Shanghai Bend at the falls just below the discharge point. The alliance could not be reached for comment Monday. #

http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/city_55899___article.html/wastewater_water.html

 

 

SEWER MANAGEMENT PLAN:

Agoura Hills working to create a sewer management program

Ventura County Star – 10/30/07

By Daniel Gelman, Correspondent

 

Agoura Hills city officials are taking steps to develop a sewer management plan to comply with state regulations.

 

The city expects the work to continue over the next two years, officials said.

 

To address a growing concern with the impact of sewer overflows throughout California, the State Water Resources Control Board adopted an order in May that established General Waste Discharge Requirements for all sewage systems that are publicly owned or publicly operated.

 

"We are not aware of any deficiencies in our current system, but that's not to say there aren't any," said Agoura Hills City Engineer Ramiro Adeva.

 

There are 286,242 linear feet in the city's sewage collection system, Adeva said.

 

The city's Sewer System Management Plan must be completed by August 2, 2009.

 

In response to the state requirement, the Agoura Hills City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to approve a development schedule for the plan.

 

The state order outlined certain elements that must be included in the city's plan. Those include establishing an Overflow Emergency Response Plan; a Fats, Oil, and Grease Plan; and implementation of monitoring, measurement and program modifications.

 

The city will work with municipal engineering services company Willdan to execute the plan. Willdan is based in Anaheim and has an office in Ventura.

 

City staff members said they also expect to work closely with the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District and the Los Angeles County Sewer Maintenance District, both of which provide related services to the local sewer collection system. #

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007/oct/30/agoura-hills-working-to-create-a-sewer-program/

 

 

FLUORIDE:

Southwest Riverside County's water gets fluoridated

Riverside Press Enterprise – 10/29/07

By Amanda Strindberg, staff writer

 

A good portion of residents in southwestern Riverside County can look forward to fewer cavities and healthier teeth, water officials say.

 

Metropolitan Water District of Southern California on Monday began adding fluoride to its water supply at a Riverside treatment plant that provides water to most of western Riverside County. This is the first of the district's five plants to supplement the trace amounts of fluoride that are naturally in the water.

 

Customers won't notice a difference in the water, MWD officials say.

 

The move is bringing the system up to par, the MWD said. Nationally, 43 of the 50 largest cities in the country already fluoridate their water and 67 percent of the population drinks fluoridated water, said Tim Collins, chairman of the California Dental Association's Fluoridation Advisory Council. The $5.5 million chemical injection system, paid for with a grant from a private health foundation, will raise the level of fluoride from 0.1 to 0.4 part per million to the recommended range of 0.7 to 0.8 part per million, water officials said.

 

'A Significant Step'

 

"This is a significant step toward catching up with the rest of the nation," Collins said. "... The most important thing the community can do to ensure the oral health of residents is to fluoridate the water supply."

 

California's water districts and city utilities with more than 10,000 connections have been required to add fluoride since a 1995 state law went into effect. MWD, as a wholesaler, was not part of that.

 

But MWD's board approved adding fluoride after health officers from the six Southern California counties it serves asked MWD to do so, said district spokesman Bob Muir.

 

The additional fluoride will help reduce tooth decay by 20 percent to 40 percent, Collins said.

 

But not everyone is in favor of adding fluoride.

 

Oakland-based Environmental Working Group petitioned MWD to reconsider. The group's concerns follow emerging research about possible health risks since MWD approved the move in 2003, said Bill Walker, vice president of the environmental group.

 

Concerns

 

"The research is emerging, but it's enough that makes us concerned," Walker said. "We think with all this new evidence, Metropolitan Water District should wait."

 

Walker said threats include fluorosis, a pitting and staining of the teeth, and the possibility that ingesting fluoride as a child might put teenage boys at greater risk of bone cancer. It isn't that fluoride itself is harmful, but it should be applied rather than ingested, Walker said.

 

"It's like drinking a bottle of sunscreen," he said.

 

In the Inland area, the level of fluoride in the water will vary in different areas because some cities and water agencies blend Metropolitan's water with their own supply, others do not use MWD water, and some water, including that in Riverside, already has enough natural fluoride that none has to be added.

 

The fluoridated tap water should not be used to mix powdered infant formula, which already contains fluoride, Collins said. Physicians, dentists and pharmacists in MWD's service area have also been told to recommend that patients suspend fluoride supplements for the next year while the fluoridation system is established, Collins said.

 

The added cost will be $1 per family per year, Muir said.

 

The American Dental Association estimates that for every $1 spent, fluoridated water saves $38 in dental bills.

 

"Fluoride is conditioner for the tooth," said Mary Hayes, a Chicago pediatric dentist and a spokeswoman for the American Dental Association. "If you choose not to use fluoridated water, you are removing that chance for prevention and success." #

http://www.pe.com/localnews/environment/stories/PE_News_Local_D_fluoride30.3eb6f5f.html

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