Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
January 7, 2008
4. Water Quality
REGIONAL WATER QUALITY PLANNING:
City pushes decision on water plan to Jan. 16
By Bob Wilson, staff writer
PALMDALE - The City Council voted unanimously and without discussion to delay consideration of a plan for the improved supervision of the region's water resources.
The delay will allow the council to participate in a Jan. 10 workshop to discuss the pros and cons of the Antelope Valley Integrated Water Management Plan.
The workshop will include the board of directors of the Palmdale Water District, the agency that supplies drinking water to the eastern half of Palmdale.
The joint meeting will be at 7 p.m. in the council of the City Chambers,
Los Angeles County Waterworks District 40, which supplies water to the western half of Palmdale and most of
Nine more government agencies, including Palmdale and the Palmdale Water District, must approve the document before water officials can apply for up to $25 million in state grant funds to implement the plan's components.
Consideration of the document by the Palmdale council has been rescheduled for Jan. 16. The state's deadline for approval is Jan. 28.
One member of the council, Mayor Jim Ledford, has voiced concern about an element in the plan that he contends would lead to adding reclaimed sewage water to the
Ledford said he is concerned about the inability to remove pharmaceuticals and heavy metals from water through existing reclamation processes.
Jeff Storm, a member of the Palmdale Water District's board, has voiced the same concern.
Though putting treated water into the Valley's aquifer is not permissible without state approval, "My opinion is that this Antelope Valley Integrated Water Management Plan is a policy document, and once it's approved, all agencies will work to implement those policies," Ledford said before Wednesday's council meeting.
"In this case, I would reserve making this kind of a policy (in support of injection) until I see an environmental impact report on what the impact to the aquifer would be," he said.
His goal is to have that part of the regional plan deleted so the rest of it can move forward, Ledford said.
As a whole, the plan "has a lot of elements that we should be doing," he said. #
http://www.avpress.com/n/05/0105_s14.hts
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