[Water_news] 4. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS -WATER QUALITY-2/10/09

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

February 10, 2009

 

4. Water Quality -

 

Nearly 1,700 people turn out in Santa Rosa to blast septic tank requirements

Santa Rosa Press Democrat

 

Pollution case settled for $7.59 million

San Francisco Chronicle

 

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Nearly 1,700 people turn out in Santa Rosa to blast septic tank requirements

Santa Rosa Press Democrat – 2/9/09

By Bleys Rose

One by one on Monday, rural landowners condemned the state’s proposed septic system rules during hearings in Santa Rosa and excoriated state officials for what they viewed as trespassing on their property rights.

 

 “The state deserves a beating on this one,” said Rich Middleton of rural Sebastopol. “This smells like a bad government idea that was created by city folks.”

About 1,100 people attended a 4-hour afternoon hearing of the state Water Resources Control Board at the Wells Fargo Center. An evening session drew another 550 people. Of 44 people who spoke during the first hearing, only one demonstrated any sympathy whatsoever for the proposed septic tank regulations. The pattern was similar the second time around.

 

Ted Walker, a retired Sonoma County environmental health official who now works as a private consultant on septic issues, chided state officials for engaging in regulatory overkill by requiring all 1.3 million homeowners in California to test their septic tanks, which would net them “a lot of worthless data.” Instead, Walker suggested state regulators focus their rules on the six counties in Southern California where testing has already determined that leaking septic tanks have contaminated surface water.

 

Others, like Gloria Ball, a leader of the Sonoma County Land Rights Coalition, criticized the state’s proposed rules for requiring landowners to report septic system test results without establishing public health standards. Ball said property rights advocates fear that reporting requirements will eventually lead to more intrusive government regulations on septic and water well usage.

 

“There will be situations in Monte Rio or Bodega Bay or Camp Meeker where you will just never be able to build on the property,” Ball said. “People will come to a brick wall where they will not be able to use their property and not be able to sell it.”

 

Monday’s hearing before board members and staff of the state Water Resources Control Board was a make-up session of a Jan. 27 hearing that had to be cancelled because too many people showed up at a venue that could seat 400 people.

 

This was the last opportunity for Californians to comment in person on proposed regulations brought about by the Legislature’s passage of AB 885 in 2000. The public written comment period closes on Feb. 23.

 

However, state water board officials have already said that the proposed rules will be modified and resubmitted for at least one more public hearing in Sacramento.

“We will take a crack at revising the regulations and send it out again,” said Tam Doduc, board chairwoman. “I can’t tell you how, but they will be revised.”

Doduc told the crowd that the board does not have a timetable for coming out with revised regulations.

 

Water board staffer James Giannopoulos encountered hostile catcalls from the audience when he attempted to explain that only six areas around Los Angeles contained streams, lakes or rivers that would meet the regulation’s definition of “impaired” surface water that would trigger requirements that property owners retrofit their leaking septic tanks.

 

“I am sorry to break the news to you, but septic systems pollute the groundwater,” he said.

 

In North Coast counties, he said, only the North Coast Water Quality Control Board could declare surface water “impaired,” thus requiring retrofits that could costs as much as $45,000.

 

Critics dismissed that provision of local control as being insufficient.

 

“You created an adversarial relationship with the property owners,” said Lynn Wheelwright, an electrical engineer who has septic and well service on his home on Porter Creek Road near Santa Rosa. “The problems caused by less than one percent of septic systems do not justify the cost of this regulation.”

 

The state’s draft environmental review estimates that septic system owners across the state would pay about $39 million annually to comply with the new regulations. Well and septic system companies would get most of that money to perform tests and inspections that would be required every five years at cost of about $325 each.

Several speakers criticized the proposed rules for focusing on the septic and leach field systems used by rural residents to handle human waste instead of aging sewage lines and treatment plants in urban areas that affect a higher density population.

 

“Singling out of rural areas is unconstitutional, why are we guilty (of polluting groundwater) until proven innocent and having to prove it again every five years?” asked John Lynch, who owns property in rural Santa Rosa. “That’s like saying every homeowner would have to undergo a search of their house for drugs or sex offenders every five years, along with leaky septic systems.”#

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090209/articles/902090241

 

Pollution case settled for $7.59 million

San Francisco Chronicle – 2/10/09

By Kelly Zito

 

(02-09) 18:52 PST AMERICAN CANYON -- A subsidiary of the Coca-Cola Co. has agreed to pay a $7.59 million settlement to American Canyon after city officials accused the bottling company of discharging polluted water since at least 2005.

• S.F. left-turn arrow is back on Market 02.10.09

 

Supervisors at the city's water treatment plant said in 2007 they noticed higher-than-normal levels of pollutants in the water released by AMCAN Beverages, Inc., which produces Arizona Iced Tea and other drinks. A city investigation indicated minerals and other substances may have been illegally discharged going back to 2005, city officials said.

 

Instead of litigation, the city and company elected to negotiate a settlement that was ultimately approved by the City Council on Friday.

The company, American Canyon's largest user of water, admitted no wrongdoing as part of the settlement.#

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/09/BA2B15QN9A.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea

 

 

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