Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
December 2, 2008
4. Water Quality –
California
The Mustang Daily
Land owners say garbage in gulch could be a factor
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California
The Mustang Daily – 12/2/2008
By: Marlize van Romburgh
Looks like not all plumbers are simply average Joes (sorry, couldn't help myself). You don't need to be a licensed pipe technician to learn how to save thousands of gallons of water a year and hundreds of dollars in the process. According to an article by Matthew Green of the East Bay Express, a league of "plumbing activists" are putting their technical skills to work combating California state codes that inhibit the widespread use of water-saving greywater systems.
Greywater, also known as sullage, is non-industrial wastewater generated from domestic processes such as dish washing, laundry and bathing. Greywater comprises 50 to 80 percent of residential wastewater and is generated from all of the house's sanitation equipment except for the toilets (water from toilets being blackwater). In recent years, concerns over dwindling reserves of groundwater and overloaded or costly sewage treatment plants has generated much interest in the reuse or recycling of greywater, both domestically and for use in commercial irrigation.
The Uniform Plumbing Code, adopted in some
Drawn up in 1995 by
"
Allen is a co-founder of Greywater Guerrillas, a group devoted to distributing the plans and information that residents and experts need to install effective, low-cost, safe but mostly very low-tech greywater solutions that will help them conserve and re-use water around their homes. The group's Web site offers instructions for building systems that require only a few hundred dollars' investment and minimal time compared to the thousands of dollars and months of permitting work required for code-compliant systems.
Concerns over potential health and environmental risks means that many jurisdictions demand such intensive treatment systems for legal reuse of greywater that the commercial cost is higher than for fresh water. However, with water conservation now becoming a necessity, business, political and community pressure has made regulators seriously reconsider the actual risks against actual benefits. It is now recognized and accepted by an increasing number of regulators that the microbiological risks of greywater reuse at the single dwelling level are in reality an insignificant risk, when properly managed without the need for complex and expensive red tape approval processes. If collected using a separate plumbing system to blackwater, domestic greywater can be recycled directly within the home, garden or agricultural company and used either immediately or processed and stored.
Because greywater use, especially domestically, reduces demand on conventional water supplies and pressure on sewage treatment systems, its use is very beneficial. In times of drought, especially in urban areas, greywater use on gardens or in toilet systems helps to achieve more sustainable development.
According to the article, quite a few professionals and policy makers in the state are critical of the code. And although those who earn their living as plumbers may be reluctant to risk breaking state rules, it seems that few officials are truly interested in cracking down on H2O conservationists. But changing laws is a slow and frustrating process, and none of the relevant departments seems willing to shoulder the responsibility of changing the status quo.
"I understand the mindset of formal training about following the code, but in this case it is more important to be reusing the water." With reasonable standards, she added, local utility districts could educate their clients on how to safely recycle greywater. "This precious thing, clean potable water at our tap, that much of the world wished they had, we use it once and dump it. We need to rethink our whole relationship to water."
It takes courage to challenge the system, particularly when doing so could threaten your professional license, but it's important to do so. Throughout history, groups of concerned and passionate citizens like the Greywater Guerrillas have often provided slow-moving governments with the momentum necessary to create real change.#
Land owners say garbage in gulch could be a factor By Janine Zúñiga and Leslie Berestein UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS In the But Border Patrol Agent Mark Endicott said the flooding at “Every time we get heavy rain in that area, it floods, even before the construction project,” Endicott said. The water flows from the high mesas that line the border toward about five large properties that sit in the valley below. A number of those properties host multiple families, individual ranches and numerous horse stables. Those who live there say last week's rains – about 1.14 inches over three days – brought more flooding and trouble than normal. And they don't just blame the federal government. They say local agencies have failed to clean up debris-filled channels that carry the runoff. After spending the long holiday weekend raking and clearing mud and debris from their land, property and business owners want answers. Some locals, as well as environmentalists, are blaming the heavy flooding on an earth-moving project that began in August at a canyon known as Smuggler's Gulch. The canyon is being filled in with dirt cut from surrounding hills to create a 150-foot-tall earthen berm that will eventually allow a second border fence and patrol roads. “You always get sediment coming off the hills, but this was different,” said Dick Tynan, who owns about 20 acres on The fill project is near complete, with more than 1.2 million cubic yards of earth in the canyon. Another half-million cubic yards will soon be added to finish the berm. The $48.6 million project is due for completion in May, and though erosion-control measures have been taken near the top of the canyon, the sides of the berm have yet to be reseeded with vegetation to prevent sediment runoff. Oscar Romo, a professor of urban studies and planning at the Some river valley residents also blame the flooding on Darren Pudgil, a spokesman for the Mayor's Office, could not confirm yesterday whether the problem was the city's. Tynan's neighbor Jesse Garcia, who owns J&K Earthworks off “I had the bulldozer out here, and I was trying to build up the wall of the channel with topsoil,” Garcia said. “This is the first time this has happened.” Garcia, who has been farming there 11 years, estimated he lost $10,000 of watermelons because of the flooding. Romo said he also noticed mud at the bottom of a sediment basin near “It was designed to catch only sediment from Environmental advocate Mike McCoy of the Southwest Wetlands Interpretive Association, who was part of a 2004 lawsuit to stop the Smuggler's Gulch project, said he was alarmed by the reports of flooding. “It's coming down off that bare construction area. Wait for another rain or so, and it could really become a problem,” he said. “We'll just have to track it closely.” Tynan, who has owned his property since 1978, had to pump water off his property, where horses and goats in rented stables stood in wall-to-wall mud. “I haven't seen it like this since 2005,” Tynan said. Yesterday, http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20081202-9999-1m2smuggle.html ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ DWR’s California Water News is distributed to California Department of Water Resources management and staff, for information purposes, by the SWR Public Affairs Office. For reader’s services, including new subscriptions, temporary cancellations and address changes, please use the online page: http://listhost2.water.ca.gov/mailman/listinfo/water_news . DWR operates and maintains the State Water Project, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local water districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for future statewide water needs. Inclusion of materials is not to be construed as an endorsement of any programs, projects, or viewpoints by the Department or the State of California |
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