Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
January 16, 2008
4. Water Quality
BOEING LAB SUPERFUND CLEANUP:
Schwarzenegger vows state control of Santa Susana Field Laboratory - LA Daily News
Time to study Boeing lab is sought; State is considering whether to back bid for Superfund status - Los Angeles Times
PERCHLORATE:
Will rains dilute or increase perchlorate? -
RUNOFF ISSUES:
Car-wash ban goes down the drain; After listening to outrage from residents in unincorporated areas, the board amends a storm-water ordinance to allow ‘incidental’ uses - San Luis Obispo
WASTEWATER ISSUES:
Riverbank OKs fixing leaky pipe at wastewater plant without delay - Modesto Bee
REGULATION:
Seeno firm to pay $3 million for destruction of habitat in
Editorial: Seeno slapped again - Contra Costa Times
LOS OSOS:
Editorial: Compromise on time for Osos updates; Supervisors should scale back sewer sessions, but, at this phase, once a month isn’t enough — biweekly comment periods would work better - San Luis Obispo
BOEING LAB SUPERFUND CLEANUP:
Schwarzenegger vows state control of Santa Susana Field Laboratory
LA Daily News – 1/16/08
By Harrison Sheppard and Kerry Cavanaugh, staff writers
Vowing to conduct a strict cleanup of the long-troubled Santa Susana Field Laboratory, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday said the state wants to maintain authority over the site and won't seek federal Superfund status for the area.
State officials said they do not believe Superfund status is needed because they are already negotiating with property owner Boeing Co. to clean up the site to the highest standards.
The decision came as the governor also backed off an earlier plan to weaken the standards under which the contaminated rocket lab site near Chatsworth will be cleaned.
"Recent state actions, we think, create an unprecedented opportunity to achieve an expedited cleanup of this site with full liability and costs to be assumed by the Boeing Company," said Linda Adams, secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency.
The state actions were widely cheered Tuesday by neighbors and environmentalists, who said they believe the site is now finally headed for decontamination under the highest possible standards.
"There was joy today in the long-suffering community surrounding this very contaminated site," said Dan Hirsch of the activist group Committee to Bridge the Gap.
Under a tentative deal announced in October, Boeing has agreed to pay for the cleanup and then turn the 2,850-acre property over to the state to be maintained as open space.
In December, the federal EPA recommended that the site be included on the National Priorities List of contaminated sites that receive the highest level of attention, also known as Superfund. That listing requires the governor's approval.
But rather than fully rejecting the idea of listing the site on the National Priorities List, the state has asked for a six-month delay in the decision. That allows state officials to study the issue further, while also retaining leverage in talks with Boeing.
Activists praised the governor's decision and neighbors and environmental activists, who have faced years of frustration in trying to force a strict cleanup of the site, said they would rather have the state maintain jurisdiction over the cleanup.
"The governor was unbelievably brave in reversing his decision and putting the interest of citizens first," said Elizabeth Crawford of RocketdyneWatch.
The activists were also glad to hear that the governor no longer wants to weaken the cleanup standards contained in Senate Bill 990, authored last year by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles.
Revising standards
When Schwarzenegger first announced his tentative deal with Boeing in October, he also asked Kuehl to prepare follow-up legislation to her bill that would hold the site to slightly lower cleanup standards.
Kuehl's initial standard was to clean the land to the equivalent of agricultural or rural residential land.
"Today an agreement has been reached with the Schwarzenegger administration that the strictest cleanup standards, those contained in SB 990, will remain in force," said Hirsch.
"... and that any threat to SB 990 being revoked or weakened is now eliminated."
Boeing officials said they are still negotiating with the state on the final agreement to turn over the lab for parkland.
State officials believe the site will not be clean until at least 2017.
"At this point, we continue to be committed to a thorough cleanup of the site," said Blythe Jameson, spokeswoman for Boeing.
"This decision does not change our decision to do that. We will continue to work with the governor, state and the regulatory agencies."
Kuehl said she is happy to hear she will no longer be held to her agreement with the governor to weaken the standards. She also is glad that the state will retain authority over the cleanup.
"I think what we gain is our ability to do oversight in the state, rather than abdicating that to the feds," Kuehl said.
The field lab was developed in the late 1940s as a site for the government and its contractors to conduct nuclear-reactor research and test rocket engines.
But years of toxic and radiological contamination of the soil and groundwater have led neighbors to believe that the site is responsible for a high concentration of health problems, including cancer clusters.
Cleanup of the site has been a long, contentious battle, with neighbors contending that Boeing and the federal Department of Energy were not planning to fully remove all the contamination.
Many initially felt that Superfund status would allow the federal EPA to take over the process and conduct a more thorough decontamination.
Department of Energy officials were reviewing the governor's decision and said they didn't know how it would impact a court-ordered environmental study of the 90 acres once used for nuclear research.
"We planned on working with the state all along," DOE spokesman William Taylor said. "We will abide by the law and abide by what happens to the outcome."
Even with the state seeking the lead role,
And
The survey, which could cost $10 million, is considered crucial by community activists to ensure that the Department of Energy thoroughly decontaminates the former nuclear research site.
The EPA had planned on surveying the site, but the Department of Energy refused to pay for the work.
Still, EPA officials on Tuesday questioned whether they can do the radiation survey without the site being on the Superfund list.
"We are concerned about the state's request that EPA take the lead role in a radiological characterization survey of SSFL," said Keith Takata, Superfund division director.
"One of the primary reasons that we sought NPL (National Priorities List) listing was to deal with the radiological portions of the site. Without NPL listing, we are uncertain about the authority and resources to do the work, but we will work with the state on finding the best way to meet its request."
Lab neighbors said they were pleased to see the state pushing for the strongest cleanup standards, and said the EPA will help oversee the decontamination of the former nuclear operation.
"This sounds like the best news we've had for a very long time," said Barbara Johnson, a longtime lab activist who lives downhill from the site.
"SB 990 takes more care of the chemical cleanup and we do need the EPA more for radiation. If we get the combination, we'll be fairly well assured that the site will be cleaned up," Johnson said.
And after 20 years of meetings and hearings on the site, Johnson said she's relieved to have the attention of the governor and state legislators.
"I really feel that people have sat up and taken notice and realized the seriousness of doing a thorough cleanup." #
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_7982105
Time to study Boeing lab is sought; State is considering whether to back bid for Superfund status
By Gregory W. Griggs, staff writer
The state's top environmental officer Tuesday asked federal officials for more time to decide if California should back an effort to make Boeing's Santa Susana Field Laboratory a Superfund cleanup site.
Linda S. Adams, secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, said the state might be better positioned to make Boeing more quickly remove the rocket fuel and nuclear test contamination that was left at the site near
"We want a little more time to determine if [a Superfund] listing will be advantageous or not," Adams said during a conference call that included leaders from the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
"We think it's very important to partner with federal EPA but . . . we are concerned that [a Superfund] listing at this time might actually slow down the process."
Cleanup efforts at several Superfund sites across the nation have been plagued by years of delay.
Soil and water poisoned with the industrial solvent trichloroethylene forced the closure of on-site drinking wells at the former Rocketdyne field lab in 1980. And 32 years of nuclear testing at the lab produced radioactive pollutants that have tainted water at the site.
Unless removed, officials fear that the contamination could affect municipal drinking water supplies in the future.
State officials had asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take the lead in evaluating radioactive contamination at the lab, a process that until recently had been overseen by the Department of Energy.
However, Lisa Fasano, a spokeswoman for the federal EPA's regional office, said it was unclear whether that evaluation could be made without a Superfund designation.
"We are uncertain about the authority and resources to do the work, but we will work with the state on finding the best way to meet its request," Fasano said.
Daniel Hirsch, president of the nuclear watchdog group Committee to Bridge the Gap, said Tuesday that his group had pushed to get federal EPA officials to consider the site for Superfund status, which if approved could mean tens of millions of dollars in future funding.
The federal agency then asked state officials for their opinion.
Hirsch acknowledged that a Superfund designation also would require a multitude of legal steps that could delay getting the hilltop property sufficiently clean to protect public health.
Six months gives state officials "enough time for the resolution of any issues with Boeing, and also a chance to see if there is any downside to a Superfund listing," Hirsch said.
In September, Boeing pledged that it would clean up its portion of the land -- 2,400 acres -- to acceptable community standards and turn it over to the state. NASA owns the remaining 450 acres.
Boeing spokeswoman Blythe Jameson said that the company, which is primarily responsible for cleaning the laboratory it purchased from Rockwell International in the summer of 1996, has not altered its pledge to decontaminate the property.
"Even though it's going to be parkland, we're still going to clean up to residential standards. That has not changed," Jameson said. "We'll continue to work with the governor's office, the various regulatory agencies as well as [state] Sen. [Sheila] Kuehl to make sure this remains on track."
After failing to get enough support to put pressure on Boeing for more than a decade, Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) got the Legislature to pass a law last year to force the company to return the land to the cleanest possible levels.
"I'm delighted," Kuehl said Tuesday from
PERCHLORATE:
Will rains dilute or increase perchlorate?
By Jason Pesick, staff writer
An underground plume of the chemical perchlorate is flowing through
"There are too many factors to give a simple `yes' or `no' answer," said Kevin Mayer, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's regional perchlorate coordinator.
Already this year,
Rain could have positive effects on the contamination by diluting it, Mayer said, but rain also could worsen the contamination problem in a number of ways.
Rain could flush perchlorate into the water table.
And even if it doesn't rain much in
The water table also could tilt as water flows in from the mountains, Mayer said, which could speed up growth of the plume of contamination through the underground basin.
Three major water purveyors -
The wells near the source area that tend to spike after rain are being monitored, said Anthony "Butch" Araiza, general manager of West Valley, which serves water to about half of Rialto.
The wells that pump drinking water out of the aquifer are deeper - often twice as deep or more - and don't react as quickly, he said.
"It will not affect the wells that we're talking about," he said.
Araiza said he was concerned the rain could cause contamination levels to spike higher down the road.
In 2006, Environment California, a statewide, citizen-based environmental advocacy organization, reported that perchlorate contamination levels had spiked 200 times over the year before in some locations. The report attributed the spike to heavy rains.
After the rains in the 2004-2005 season, there was a delay before perchlorate levels started to tick up, said Kurt Berchtold, assistant executive officer of the Riverside-based Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board.
Rainfall this year remains well below totals for the 2004-05 rainy season, according to the Flood Control District figures.
Berchtold said the water table started to move up in June and July of 2005, leading to the contamination spikes near the source of the perchlorate a year later.
Berchtold said he doesn't expect the wells that pump drinking water to customers to see major spikes in contamination.
"I don't think it would have an effect on the wells that they're using," he said.
Perchlorate has been shown to cause an underactive thyroid. The thyroid is needed for metabolism, and physical and mental development. #
http://www.dailybulletin.com/search/ci_7982225?IADID=Search-www.dailybulletin.com-www.dailybulletin.com
RUNOFF ISSUES:
Car-wash ban goes down the drain; After listening to outrage from residents in unincorporated areas, the board amends a storm-water ordinance to allow ‘incidental’ uses
San Luis Obispo
By Bob Cuddy, staff writer
It’s all right to wash your car in your driveway after all, the
Supervisors, who endured bellows of outrage from residents about car washing after announcing a proposed storm-water protection law in November, amended the law to allow exemptions for “incidental” or relatively harmless uses in the county’s unincorporated areas.
The Stormwater Pollution Prevention and Discharge Control Ordinance is designed to ensure that impure substances don’t end up in streams and aquifers. It is required by the state and federal governments.
The board approved the new law Tuesday on a 4-0 vote (with Supervisor Katcho Achadjian abstaining, because he owns and operates gas stations).
The law will take effect in 30 days.
After the November hearing, angry residents interpreted the law to mean they could not soap down their automobiles on their property.
The county says the law did not ban the practice. But it did outlaw harmful runoff from a car wash going into storm drains and thus into creeks and eventually the ocean.
On Tuesday, supervisors heard from more upset residents.
“What am I supposed to do, collect the water (from a car washing) and put it down the sink?” asked Robert Olson.
“It’s bureaucratic hair-splitting to say this isn’t a ban on car washing.”
But Mark Hutchinson, environmental program manager for the county Department of Public Works, told supervisors they could carve out exceptions for “incidental” noncommercial and non-industrial discharges.
Some of the exceptions, in addition to washing cars, are water-line flushing, landscape irrigation, uncontaminated pumped groundwater, springs and water from crawlspace pumps.
The ordinance would apply to all county-owned storm drain systems and all natural streams within most developed lands in the unincorporated areas.
There are more than 1,300 miles of roads in unincorporated areas of
Some residents said they want to avoid polluting and wash their cars at home, but they weren’t sure how to do it.
Supervisor Jerry Lenthall said constituents say to him, “Just tell me what soap to buy.” While the county cannot legally recommend a particular product, Lenthall asked
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/story/247574.html
WASTEWATER ISSUES:
Riverbank OKs fixing leaky pipe at wastewater plant without delay
By Eve Hightower, staff writer
RIVERBANK -- In a rare emergency action, the City Council voted this week to fix a leaking wastewater treatment plant pipeline. City officials aren't certain how long the pipe has been bad.
By declaring an emergency, the city bypasses lengthy requirements, said Public Works Director David Melilli.
Instead, staff will ask companies for estimates and choose one to take care of the problem as soon as possible.
The traditional open-bid process takes months, which the city cannot afford because the state has ordered the city to clean the sludge out of its treatment ponds.
Because the pipe runs through one of the ponds and is leaking liquid, the sludge cannot dry enough for a crew to clean it out, said Darin Smallen, waste- water treatment plant supervisor.
Melilli said the sludge has to dry soon to remove it by May, which is when the money for the work runs out. If the city can start removing the sludge by April, it should be able to complete the project on time, he said.
Melilli estimated that replacing a 1,400-foot section of the pipe that's leaking from its joints will cost about $243,000.
It does not pose a health threat, Smallen said.
The issue was a no-brainer for council members, who all supported declaring the situation an emergency.
"If it's leaking, it's got to be fixed," Councilwoman Sandra Benitez said at the Monday night meeting.
Treatment plant workers discovered the leaks a month and a half ago, Smallen said. But no one realized then the time crunch they were under to use the funding for the project.
Melilli, who has been Riverbank's public works director since December, realized the financial urgency last week and asked that council members address it at the next meeting, which was Monday.
"It's the first time the pond has been drained (since the pipe was installed in 1973), so we don't know how long it's been leaking," Smallen said.
The pipe, which is 36 inches in diameter, transfers raw and treated sewage from one pond to another. While the pipe is not directly related to a 2001 state order to clean up the sludge and install lined ponds, the city cannot fully respond to the order until it replaces the pipe, Smallen said.
The city has spent $3.6 million addressing state concerns that date back seven years, when state inspectors said an unlined sludge pond may have been contaminating groundwater. After draining and cleaning the pond, inspectors said they were most concerned because it was unlined. The city and state staff determined that it was not contaminating groundwater. #
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/181653.html
REGULATION:
Seeno firm to pay $3 million for destruction of habitat in
San Francisco Chronicle – 1/16/08
By John Koopman, staff writer
The Albert D. Seeno Construction Co. has agreed to pay $3 million for destroying four ponds and three creeks during construction of the Mira Vista housing development in
Under terms of the settlement, the company also must donate a 60-acre parcel in
"This is a win-win situation for the environment," said Liz Kanter, spokeswoman for the State Water Resources Control Board.
The damage to the wetlands was discovered in 2005, when officials with the state Department of Fish and Game and others inspected the area as part of the certification process for the construction, Kanter said.
"We discovered that they were stockpiling (dirt) where fish are," Kanter said.
A press release written by the public relations firm representing Seeno said that a 1979 environmental impact report "failed to identify any water features on the property, and the city of
Additionally, the press release said, "an environmental consultant in 2006 failed to find one of the alleged water features and could not conclusively determine the existence of the other."
Kanter said Seeno construction crews filled in the creeks and ponds with dirt, destroying habitat for a variety of plant and animal life.
This was not the first time Seeno has run afoul of state environmental laws. The company had to pay $1 million in 2002 for destroying habitat of the red-legged frog at a construction site in
The settlement amount in this case was much higher, she said, because Seeno is considered a repeat offender, and the previous fine and apology apparently were not enough to persuade the company to follow the law and protect the environment. #
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/16/BAOSUFPLO.DTL&hw=water&sn=010&sc=416
Editorial: Seeno slapped again
Contra Costa Times – 1/16/08
WILL $3 MILLION in payments to the state make Seeno Construction Co. more environmentally sensitive in the future? The answer is anyone's guess, but there is some hope that the fourth run-in Seeno has had with government officials over environmental problems will be the last.
The first was in 1996, when Greenwood Homes Inc., part of Albert Seeno's construction empire, was ordered by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board to pay $138,600 for erosion in a
Three years later, Seeno was fined $300 because his crew removed a dozen protected trees on
Three years after that fine, in July 2002, Seeno agreed to pay $1 million in fines for violating the federal Endangered Species Act for killing threatened red-legged frogs and ruining habitat in his San Marco subdivision in
The latest charges, leveled by the state Department of Fish and Game, concern allegations of environmental damage at the Mira Vista Hills subdivision in
The state water board said it found that three creeks and four seasonal ponds had been filled in during home construction.
Although the Seeno company has admitted no wrongdoing, it has agreed to pay millions in penalties and grant a 60-acre parcel to the East Bay Regional Park District for preservation.
Payments by Seeno include:
$500,000 to the
$250,000 to the state Fish and Game Preservation Fund.
$250,000 to the
$250,000 to the state Department of Justice to pay for future environmental enforcement.
$250,000 to the
So in the end, the Seeno company will be making contributions to the environmental quality of the region. But that is hardly the best way to achieve environmental benefits.
There is no good reason why Seeno, or any other developer, cannot thrive without threatening or harming the environment.
We hope that the increasing severity of the costs to Seeno will make the company proceed in a more environmentally responsible manner in the future. But if that doesn't work, perhaps criminal prosecution may be necessary. #
LOS OSOS:
Editorial: Compromise on time for Osos updates; Supervisors should scale back sewer sessions, but, at this phase, once a month isn’t enough — biweekly comment periods would work better
San Luis Obispo
It’s no surprise that Jim Patterson, new chairman of the
Nearly every time a new chairman takes the reins, he comes up with a plan to streamline meetings to avoid grueling, marathon sessions and to reduce the amount of time that county staff members have to spend waiting—on the taxpayers’ dime—for an item to be heard.
Those are commendable goals, and we think most of Patterson’s proposals make sense — including his suggestion that board meetings start 30 minutes earlier, at 8:30 a.m.
We’re not so sure, though, about his proposal to scale back weekly updates/comment periods on the Los Osos sewer project. He proposes to hold them once a month, because he doesn’t think weekly updates are necessary at this phase in the project.
Some Los Osos leaders disagree, saying this is still a crucial time for the community.
We say split the difference, and hold the sessions every other week. Here’s why:
There still are some important milestones coming up for the project, including selection of a site.
Also, giving Los Osos residents their own comment period for the sewer project is as much a convenience for others in the audience as it is for them.
Before Los Osos residents had their own time slot, they showed up en masse for public comment, and dominated a section of the regular meeting that’s supposed to give all residents the opportunity to speak about a range of issues. Scale back the sewer updates to once a month, and that’s likely to happen again.
We know—many of the comments about the sewer are repetitive, argumentative and not particularly constructive.
But if the Board of Supervisors is going to open the floor to public comment, then these same individuals who appear week after week have a right to speak their minds—as tedious as that might be for the rest of us.
We hope the day comes, in the not-too-distant future, when all Los Osos residents can put the sewer issue behind them.
But we’re not there yet, and until we’re closer to that point, it makes sense to gradually phase out the once-a-week sessions devoted to all things sewer. Every other week seems a good place to start. #
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/editorial/story/246393.html
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