Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
March 23, 2009
4. Water Quality-
Finding ways to make the most of a precious but limited resource
Riverside Press
New watering source is surfacing
'Gray' users go with flow from bathtubs, washers
Scientists hoping to turn tide
Buoy will help researchers better understand toxic algae in Santa Monica Bay
Daily Breeze
Overrun by waste: Large agriculture operations add billions to our economy but what price are we paying?
Finding ways to make the most of a precious but limited resource
Riverside Press
As the price of imported water soars and availability shrinks,
They're pumping more groundwater, devising new ways to capture runoff after a rainstorm, and recycling wastewater.
Twenty percent of the energy in the state is used to move, treat and store water, water officials say.
"It's cheaper if you can deal with water as local as possible," said Peter Odencrans, spokesman for the Eastern Municipal Water District.
Some local water agencies are boosting their supplies by treating wastewater and using it to irrigate parks, school grounds, cemeteries, golf courses and median strips.
All recycled water flows through pipes painted purple, the universal color of recycled water.
"It doesn't make sense to use high-quality (drinking) water and put it on grass," said Celeste Cantú, general manager of the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority, which works with local water agencies in Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange and Los Angeles counties to improve water quality, bolster water supplies and secure funding.
About 9 percent of the water supply across the
Cantú wants to see that number go up to 15 percent.
Recycling
Some agencies are using recycled wastewater to recharge groundwater aquifers, which are sort of like giant underground bathtubs where water filters down from the surface and is caught in small spaces within layers of sand and gravel.
Wells then suck up the water like giant straws.
But more water is going out than in these days.
In the past, agencies relied on the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the region's largest water wholesaler, to send surpluses of water to recharge aquifers.
That's not happening these days.
Neither is natural recharge from rainfall.
Officials say it's like withdrawing more money from your bank account than you're putting in.
In the
As the water table drops, so must the wells, which means more energy -- and more money -- is needed to pump.
The Next Step
The Orange County Water District has taken the lead in using recycled water for groundwater recharge.
Last year, it unveiled a $485 million Groundwater Replenishment System in
Officials say the filtration process is more stringent than what is used by most water-bottling companies.
The plant generates about 64 million gallons of water a day, half of it pumped into the water district's seawater barrier that prevents salty ocean water from contaminating the groundwater supply.
The other half is piped to ponds in
Wells then pump the groundwater into half the homes in north and central
The concept of turning sewer water into drinking water isn't easy for some to swallow.
The city recently got funding to build a demonstration project, which they hope will change public attitudes.
"Psychologically, it's still difficult for people to accept," said Mehul Patel, the
That's why
Inland water agencies, including the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and Eastern Municipal Water District, have been using recycled water to replenish groundwater basins but on a much smaller scale.
Working Together
Local agencies are looking at other options for filling aquifers.
They are working with flood-control officials to divert runoff after a rainstorm into ponds that allow water to percolate into the ground.
They're also persuading flood-control officials not to release storm runoff captured in earthen basins, instead allowing it to soak in.
In the past, flood-control agencies viewed excess surface water as a "threat to get out of our communities as quickly as possible," Cantú said. "Now, it's a resource."
Groundwater that is close to the surface can be extremely salty, so several agencies are expanding the number of treatment facilities -- called desalters -- that purify such water.
One challenge agencies face is making sure that grabbing more runoff doesn't come at the expense of neighboring jurisdictions.
If a
The Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority has been pushing for greater collaboration among local agencies to prevent disputes, Cantú said.
At a recent water conference organized by the authority, the recurring theme was more collaboration -- "One Water, One Watershed," water leaders proclaimed.
Eric Garner, a
"Water rights are always an underlying tension because it's so valuable no one wants to give anything up," Garner said. "But in times of crisis public agencies have shown a great ability to work together without conflict." #
http://www.pe.com/reports/2009/water/stories/PE_News_Local_S_groundwater24.1976e32.html
New watering source is surfacing
'Gray' users go with flow from bathtubs, washers
San Diego
By Mike Lee
Across the county, people are taking shorter showers, fixing leaky faucets and planting drought-tolerant vegetation.
But it hasn't been enough. Water officials still plan to start rationing by summer.
Faced with having lawns wither and shrubs shrivel, more people are tapping their washing machines, bathtubs and other sources of “gray water” to irrigate landscaping.
Dadla Ponizil of Encinitas is one resident trying to squeeze the most out of every drop. In late February, he hosted a workshop where 15 people watched the Oakland-based group Greywater Guerrillas renovate his home so the washing machine drains to the blackberry patch in his front yard.
“Pretty soon, it will be the exception not to do this,” said Ponizil, a contractor and building consultant. “We can't keep using water once and dumping it.”
Anecdotal evidence suggests that interest in gray water is growing in
Gray water includes wastewater from showers, bathtubs, bathroom sinks, laundry tubs and washing machines, but not from toilets, kitchen sinks or dishwashers. The latter sources typically have high bacterial content, making them unsuitable for irrigation.
A typical home produces more than 45,000 gallons of gray water annually, according to ReWater Systems, a
The vast majority of gray water systems in
“You would be hard-pressed to find a law that is as widely flaunted,” said Art Ludwig, an ecology consultant in
Ludwig estimates that
The state's continued drought has prompted a new look at its gray water rules, which are administered by cities and counties.
“Obviously, we want to do things that are safe,” said Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, who pushed for updating California's rules in hopes of curbing the amount of potable water used for landscaping. “But we believe it's time to review those standards so that water can be recycled and go from shower to flower.”
Eventually, he said, gray water systems may be required for new homes and residents could choose whether to use them.
One question is whether
“(But) it's very expensive to build a system 9 inches underground, and it's not useful,” Lowenthal said. “You can't water your flower bed like that.”
Demand for potable water could drop by 50 percent for households using gray water, according to a 2006 study published by the Water Environment Research Foundation, a major scientific group in
The simplest type of gray water system connects to washing machines, which use 15 to 50 gallons per load. Typically, these appliances are located near an outside wall with drain hoses that can be easily removed from the sewage system.
“It's a very, very low risk and it's very high leverage in terms of conservation,” said Laura Allen of
County officials said it's illegal to divert washing-machine effluent for landscape irrigation without obtaining a permit, which involves filing detailed documents, submitting soil percolation data and completing an inspection.
“Gray water is untreated wastewater that has the potential to contain high levels of bacteria,” said Tom Lambert at the San Diego County Department of Environmental Health, which regulates gray water in the region. “Our first and foremost objective is to see that it is used in a way that will not create any public health risks.”
His database shows 41 permitted gray water systems countywide, but he acknowledges that unpermitted ones are widespread. Lambert said county agents don't go looking for renegade users.
Scientists said gray water's effects on human health and the environment are unclear. The product can contain a complex mixture of chemicals from soaps, detergents and other sources.
At
“Regulators have not had a good set of scientific data to make science-based decisions,” said Larry Roesner, one of the study's coordinators.
Lack of research hasn't dampened the enthusiasm of people like Thomas Weller, an auto mechanic from
Weller drains his washing machine into a 55-gallon plastic drum that's placed on a cart. Then he wheels the container around his yard and waters his plants.
Weller started the system about 10 years ago to conserve money and water.
“I am not paying for fresh water to water my grass and roses,” he said. “I am using the water I already paid for.”
Weller's operation isn't up to code, but he doesn't care.
Ponizil, the Encinitas resident, also has no qualms talking publicly about his two unpermitted systems.
“We are a step away from water rationing, so now I want to help people deal with it,” he said. By embracing gray water, Ponizil said, “I don't think you have to sacrifice at all to live with 20 percent less (potable) water.”
About eight years ago, Ponizil started using water from his shower – about 35 gallons every time he lathered up – to irrigate fruit and nut trees. Last month, he spent about $150 for the system that drains into his blackberry patch.
In La Jolla, gray water guru Steve Bilson is installing a high-end system for a sprawling property on
Bilson said his company, ReWater, is the only one in
“In this last year, I have been busier than I ever have been in my life times 10,” he said. “The average person is starting to understand that maybe we don't have enough water.” #
Scientists hoping to turn tide
Buoy will help researchers better understand toxic algae in Santa Monica Bay
Daily Breeze – 3/22/09
By Melissa Pamer Staff Writer
They can turn the ocean crimson, sicken marine animals and cause massive, putrid-smelling fish kills. They're happening more often, and scientists still aren't exactly sure why they occur.
So-called red tides - caused by large growths of toxic algae - have been on the rise in recent years. In spring 2005, one oxygen-robbing red tide was so noxious it chased lobsters out of the sea and kept diners out of
This year, since late February, scientists from USC have been monitoring a large algal "bloom" that's lurking underwater south of
"Maybe it's out here," Jones said last week, gesturing about
That will soon change.
In Thursday's foggy pre-dawn, Jones and his team took Sea Watch - a slow-moving research vessel owned by a consortium of local universities - from
Multiple sensors on the buoy will track ocean temperature, salinity and murkiness - also called turbidity. Biological and chemical sensors will look at nutrient levels and give scientists a sense of the potential toxicity of algal blooms and storm-water runoff.
The data will be sent in "real-time" from the buoy's antenna back to a computer at the AES power plant in
"For us, it's an early warning system. It's a kind of a floating chemistry lab," said Phil Lauri, principal engineer at Carson-based West Basin Municipal Water District, which is funding the project through a state grant.
The buoy, which will soon be joined by a twin to be launched off the coast near the
The desalination effort, which has been the subject of some concerns about effects on marine life, should be active at
The demonstration project is part of a broader effort by the district to reduce dependence on water imported from the Colorado River and
On Thursday, Jones directed as the crew of the Sea Watch undertook the dangerous operation of lowering the first of three 700-pound anchors from the boat's stern. Topped by three small solar panels, the buoy was next gingerly lowered into the water, about a half-mile from the shore.
The buoy listed to one side, wrapped in bright orange plastic to keep sea lions from climbing on board and damaging its sensors.
When the other two massive anchors were dropped to the ocean floor - about 50 feet below - the buoy turned and righted itself.
Two of Jones' graduate students donned wet suits and oxygen tanks, jumping into the chilly water. They inspected the work, hoping to attach additional sensors. Instead, they found one of the massive anchors had landed upside down on the ocean floor, diverting the rest of the day's efforts to fixing that problem.
Jones said they would be back out at the buoy - just west of
He and other local ocean scientists will benefit from the project buoys - enabling them to study red tides and other harmful algal blooms, such as those that cause domoic acid poisoning in marine mammals and birds.
The buoys "will help at least understand the circumstances under which it occurs," Jones said.
"If we can understand that, we may get a better handle on it." #
http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_11974957
Overrun by waste: Large agriculture operations add billions to our economy but what price are we paying?
A brown frothy mix of water tumbled from the mouth of a 42-inch pipeline to a cinderblock basin covered with slime, its rim shining with the gloss of accumulated muck.
The air smelled of boiled sour chicken.
Beyond the pit of churning water, 12 brown ponds spread across a patch of earth edged by dirt roads.
"Welcome to the chicken sewer," said Larry Parlin, as he looked at
Waste it might be, but it's no sewer. The 283 million gallons of water in the ponds came from the nearby Foster Farms chicken processing plant. The water that is used to clean chickens in the nearby plant ends up here.
Five days a week, roughly 4.4 million gallons of water empties into these ponds along the
But the ponds haven't been working as they should. They are leaching nitrates into the soil and groundwater -- nitrates that in some cases are high above the levels deemed safe by the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, which regulates wastewater discharges.
"That's what needs to be addressed and treated," said Parlin.
Welcome to one of the most serious tradeoffs of the 21st century: as
The cost of cleaning and greening has to come from somewhere. Increasingly, that cost is being paid by consumers in the form of higher prices passed along by businesses trying to meet ever-stricter environmental regulations.
Another factor is that residents of communities where some companies may pollute have to decide whether the jobs offered at those companies are enough to offset any environmental harm that may occur. With an unemployment rate pushing 20 percent, Mercedians have to ask themselves whether the fate of a fairy shrimp or more chicken guano in their soil matters more to them than a world-class research university or a decent-paying blue-collar job.
Hilmar Cheese Co., for instance, may well inject saltier water into surrounding soil. But no company in the county is engaged in more philanthropic outreach than the firm founded by local families a generation ago.
It's not an either-or choice, but as such, its resolution will affect both the environment and the economy in years ahead. It's all about value judgments, and there are no simple answers when the green of the environment conflicts with the green of a paycheck.
However Mercedians decide, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board hasn't been sitting on its hands. In 2006, after a series of violations and notices, the Foster Farms Livingston facility was issued a cease-and-desist order demanding the site clean up its act.
The order listed a series of violations: the unlined ponds allowed water with nitrate levels four to five times above the regulated levels to seep into the ground below. At least 190,000 cubic yards of sludge had accumulated in the ponds as well, which further contributed to high levels of nitrates in the soil.
Eventually, the water board reached a settlement with Foster Farms and the city of
Afterwards, Foster Farms will clean up the abandoned facility along the river. In the meantime, the river of waste from Foster Farms and the ponds' nitrates continue to pollute the groundwater below the site. In October 2008, two wells on the site registered nitrate levels two to four times above the levels the water board allows.
A Foster Farms representative could not be reached but the company's Web site noted their stance on waste and the environment: "At each stage of our operations, from poultry ranches to processing, packaging, shipping, distribution and corporate offices, we have implemented environmental initiatives that promote recycling and reuse, increase energy efficiency, reduce and eliminate waste, and improve air quality, while protecting our precious natural resources."
Bigger operations
After
Today, there are 45 poultry facilities in the county, according to the county agricultural department. In 2007, there were 91.6 million chickens processed for meat in the county and roughly seven million egg laying hens. In total they produced 471,326 tons of poultry manure.
Regulators refer to industrial farms with large numbers of animals living in close proximity as confined animal feeding operations (CAFO).
Their waste is only the first part of a chain that ends in finished products. In
Besides the second-highest population of bovines in the state,
The cumulative effects of these industries' pollutants haven't been good.
For cows, that has meant the effects from their massive manure output. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the proper management of dairy waste is "one of the state's most pressing environmental issues."
Chickens produce waste too, but much of it comes at the end of their lives. One of the byproducts from chicken processing, like that of Foster Farm's waste ponds, and cow manure is nitrate.
Nitrates, perhaps the most common and dangerous pollutant from these industries, can sicken and even kill infants if it gets into the water supply, according to Merced County's Department of Health.
To be sure, the economic benefits of these industries are undeniable. Hilmar Cheese employs 750 people at its plant, 40 of whom work at the water treatment plant. And according to David Sunding of the Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics for the
And, overall, the dairy industry that supplies the plant with milk and employs people across the county, has an economic impact in the region in the billions of dollars, according to the Western United Dairymen, an industry group.
Foster Farms equally influences the local economy. The company employs 3,500 people alone in
Foster Farms and Hilmar Cheese are at the tail end of a long process that begins in feedlots across the county and ends up as products on our dinner table and also as waste.
Waste is widespread
The fingerprint of waste from animal farming can be found across the county.
The county's nitrate pollution problem, for instance, is spread almost evenly. According to the county's Public Health Department, almost every city in the county and their environs have problems with nitrate pollution.
While there are many causes of nitrate pollution, from fertilizer to sewage, some research indicates that dairies play a role in this pollution.
Research by UC Davis groundwater hydrologist Thomas Harder found significant nitrate and salinity levels at five dairies in Stanislaus and
Part of the pollution from dairies has been a result of the industry consolidation, said David Sholes, a senior engineer for the water board's confined animal unit. "They did get way bigger in the last 20 years," he said. That consolidation has increased farm waste concentration levels "equivalent to that of a small city," points out the EPA.
In 1993, the state had 4,000 dairies that produced 2.7 million gallons of milk. By 1998, the number of dairies shrank to 2,700 but milk production was up by 20 percent, according to the EPA.
Until 2007 there was little or no direct regulation of the dairy industry's waste, said Sholes.
In 2007, that changed with the first regulations explicitly for dairy waste. The statewide effort, called the general order, has put into effect a series of waste management steps all dairies must live up to. "This is a huge new effort. It's the first time we have tried to regulate an industry this large," Sholes said.
The industry has until 2012 to become fully compliant with the new rules, said Michael Marsh of the Western United Dairymen. Until then there are efforts to educate dairymen on how to make these changes. "The biggest challenge that farmers have right now is financial," he said.
He blamed much of the industry's consolidation on the cost of complying with the state's environmental rules. He also dismisses the idea that there has been any direct connection between high nitrate levels and the dairy industry.
There may be new rules forcing farmers to clean up their act, but the regulators are not always on the ball, said Layne Friedrich with Lawyers for Clean Water, a group suing the regional water board over dairy regulations. "I think that people who are on the ground writing permits are concerned about water quality. I think that upper management and the board members are worried and working with the industry and not protecting water quality -- as their mandate says," she said. She also said regulators are short on personnel, limiting their ability to check on sites.
Mass waste
The towering operation that is Hilmar Cheese's plant in Hilmar spans more than 40 acres and stands above the flat Valley floor. Beyond the visitor center and cafe, trucks off-load milk from as many as 235 dairies.
Each day, the world's biggest cheese plant pumps out 1.4 million pounds of product.
At some point, all that cheese leads to waste. And in the case of Hilmar that means water -- salty water. About 2 million gallons of water a day passes through its $100 million wastewater plant. Some of the water is reused, the rest spread across nearby fields.
But not everyone has been happy with the plant's wastewater cleaning in recent years.
From 2002 to 2004, according to regional water board filings, Hilmar exceeded its allowed salt limits, dumping a total of 821 million gallons of high salt content water. In a report filed in 2003, the board noted that Hilmar had an "extensive violation history."
In 2006, the water board fined Hilmar Cheese $4 million for failing to reduce the salinity in its waste discharges. Eventually they came to a compromise. Hilmar paid a $1 million fine and limited the waste. The new agreement basically allowed Hilmar to discharge a limited amount of water above the recommended salt levels.
"In the last three years we have never filed a late or incomplete report and have never been out of compliance with the settlement agreement," said Burton Fleischer, Hilmar Cheese's environmental director.
In any case, for the last 18 months the permit has allowed Hilmar to dump 1.2 million gallons of salty water -- three times above the levels originally permitted.
Fleischer said that even though the permit allows them to discharge 1.2 million gallons of the saltier water, they release on average only 900,000 gallons of it a day.
That's not the end of Hilmar's wastewater woes. There's a cleanup order investigating to what extent surrounding groundwater was affected by Hilmar's discharges. It will be a few years yet before any result.
For the rest of the county events will unfold as they have, moving forward slowly one dairy at a time, one wastewater treatment plant at a time. Despite new regulations and private cleanup efforts, the costs of concentrated industrial farming in
It will be paid for in the higher cost of doing business to lessen the toll taken on the local environment.#
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/story/749067-p4.html
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