[Water_news] 4. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS -WATER QUALITY- 5/07/09

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

May 7, 2009

 

4. Water Quality –

 

Symposium tackles Malibu's water quality issues

The Malibu Times

 

Op-Ed: SYRCL: A Victory for the South Yuba on Donner Summit
Yuba-Net.com

 

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Symposium tackles Malibu's water quality issues

The Malibu Times – 5/6/09

By Olivia Damavandi

After recently issuing notices of wastewater discharge permit violations to more than 30 Malibu businesses and public facilities in the Civic Center area, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board took park in the Malibu Water Quality Symposium last Thursday to discuss the latest in septic system regulations and water quality technology in Southern California.

Facilitated by City Councilmember John Sibert and held at Pepperdine University, the symposium also featured several scientific experts who explained how the latest regulations and technologies would affect Malibu, a city chronically cited and sued for polluted waterways.

 

"In general, beaches in Malibu are more contaminated than sewered beaches," Rebecca Chou, chief of the Los Angeles water board's groundwater permitting unit, told the audience. "We need a long-term solution to clean up contamination in the Civic Center.

"The Malibu Lagoon and beaches are not yet safe for human contact and marine life," Chou continued. "Businesses [in the Civic Center] already generate more wastewater than can be percolated. We may evaluate the rest of Malibu in the future, including over 300 residential septic systems."

Sibert clarified that the City of Malibu is not responsible for ensuring that local businesses comply with wastewater discharge requirements because the businesses obtained the discharge permits from the water board.

"This is not a place to point fingers, this is a place to figure out what do we do and how do we do it," Sibert said.

The effectiveness of septic systems in Malibu has been long disputed. Several environmental groups have filed an onslaught of lawsuits accusing the city of water pollution and urging the implementation of a centralized wastewater treatment facility. However, some residents say septic systems, which are utilized by approximately 80 percent of Malibu, are not the cause of pollution in local waterways.

Dick Otis, president-elect of the National Onsite Wastewater Recycling Association, said upgraded septic systems could be used in concert with conventional sewerage to achieve optimum wastewater treatment.

Sewers are believed to be superior because they are professionally managed, publicly financed and are perceived to achieve "adequate" environmental protection, Otis said. But this isn't always the case.

"Twenty percent of all the energy expended in California is spent on moving water from one place to another," Otis said. "We think bigger sewerages are better because they're easier to control, but small scale [wastewater treatments] are less stressful to their receiving environment and there are less strict treatment requirements needed."

Otis advised against a one-size-fits-all approach to wastewater regulation and said the decision of whether to use septic or sewer to comply with wastewater discharge requirements should be based on individual watersheds because each one is "significantly" different.

AB 885 under revision

For this reason the regional water board has decided to direct its staff to revise Assembly Bill 885, a law that would have employed uniform septic regulations throughout the State of California by July 2010, regardless of the different topographies of its many regions. Jonathan Bishop of the State Water Resources Control Board said he expects to see progress of the revised bill during the summer.

The majority of Malibu residents were most concerned about the affordability of adhering to the bill, which would require a possible $35,000 to $45,000 for septic system upgrades and a mandatory $325 or higher for septic tests every five years. Those with domestic wells on their properties would also have to pay $325 for inspections.

"California doesn't have any regulations against septics," Bishop said. "We've changed our general approach from everything being the same across the state to looking at local conditions and having local health officers play bigger role in the process."

Ocean water at Surfrider Beach examined

Local conditions include the results of an epidemiology study that is currently being conducted at Surfrider Beach by the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project to assess the risk of swimming-related illnesses.

This study, which has also been conducted at Doheny Beach in Dana Point and at Avalon Bay Beach on Santa Catalina Island, consists of recruiting swimmers at Surfrider and interviewing them 10 to 14 days later to compare swimmer illness rates with water quality measurements.

Last year, environmental group Heal the Bay ranked Surfrider Beach the fourth most contaminated beach in California. A study released in July by UCLA and Stanford University researchers states that bacteria pollution at many Southern California beaches causes illnesses in up to 1.5 million swimmers every year, as well as "tens of millions of dollars" in healthcare and other related costs.

The need to curb pollution was also voiced by a group of fifth graders from the Environmental Science Commission of Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School who showcased the many ways they are working to improve the environment.

Among the school's "green" measures are the creation of a compost site for leftover cafeteria food; the installation of 33 solar panels on the school's roof; and the replacement of plastic foam cafeteria trays with those made from biodegradable corn starch and cardboard.

"We really have to think about our trash and where it goes," fifth grade commissioner Bodhi Schulz told the audience. "As a kid, it's important for me to know my friends and I will have a safe environment when we're grown up."#

 

http://www.malibutimes.com/articles/2009/05/06/news/news4.txt

 

 

Op-Ed: SYRCL: A Victory for the South Yuba on Donner Summit
Yuba-Net.com – 5/6/09

By: Jason Rainey, South Yuba River Citizens League

 

NEVADA CITY, Calif. May 6, 2009 - We recently had a victory for the South Yuba River thanks to the efforts of Jerry Bloom, Karen Cox, Katie and Joe Gray, Don Harkin, John Leonard, Evelyn Soltero, John Timmer, Linda Waddle, James Wofford, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), and Olivia Diaz, Barbara Rivenes and the Sierra Nevada Group (Mother Lode Chapter) of the Sierra Club, and Peter Van Zant of Sierra Watch.

For the past year, the South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL) has been actively following Donner Summit Public Utility District's NPDES permit renewal process. This permit allows the wastewater treatment plant to discharge treated effluent into the river at times when there is often little flow in the headwaters region of the South Yuba. Donner Summit PUD was asking the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board (CVRWQCB) for allowances to discharge treated effluent with higher levels of constituents like nitrates and dichlorobromethane.

DSPUD based their request on the presumption there is enough water in the river for dilution of these constituents. SYRCL and the public argued that Donner Summit's flow assumptions were based on flawed data taken from a gauge ten miles downstream of the discharge location. At the April 24th public hearing the regional waterboard agreed with us and approved a permit that did not grant dilution credits to the wastewater treatment plant.

We at SYRCL want to thank all these citizens and groups who not only spoke out by writing comments on the tentative permit but also attended the public hearing in Rancho Cordova at the offices of the CVRWQCB. This victory could not have been accomplished without their support!#

 

http://yubanet.com/regional/Op-Ed-SYRCL-A-Victory-for-the-South-Yuba-on-Donner-Summit.php

 

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