June 29, 2009
4. Water Quality –
Volunteers clean up Piru Creek
Santa Clarita Valley Signal
Superfund cleanup begins near
Culligan lobbies hard as water softeners become a drought issue
Ultrasound Cleans Polluted Water, Makes Catfish Tastier
CleanTechnica.com
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Volunteers clean up Piru Creek
Santa Clarita Valley Signal-6/28/09
By Aleksandra Gajewski
Anglers, hikers and other river enthusiasts awoke early Sunday to celebrate a new milestone for
"We're celebrating Piru Creek becoming wild and scenic thanks in part to the Wilderness Bill," said Dianne Erskine-Hellrigel, president of the Community Hiking Club based in Santa Clarita.
The Wilderness Bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, and signed into law by President Obama, sets aside vast expanses of land for preservation.
Piru Creek is the first creek in
According to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System Web site, a national wild and scenic river is a "free-flowing river with outstanding natural, cultural, scenic or recreational values, that has been designated by an act of Congress."
The system also protects the river and conserves the area's important resources, the Web site said.
Piru Creek is located north of the Santa Clarita Valley and flows from the Sespe Wilderness into the
"It's amazing how quickly you are in the wilderness," said Newhall resident Annette Stiefbold, of the 20-minute drive up Interstate 5 that brought her to Frenchman's Flat.
She recently joined the Community Hiking Club. This was her first event with the group.
"I joined because I believe in giving back, in volunteering ... and I love nature," she said.
The rising sun found volunteers at Frenchman's Flat from a variety of outdoor clubs: the Community Hiking Club, the Santa Clarita Casting Club, Sierra Pacific Fly Fishers, Conejo Valley Fly Fishers, Fisheries Resource Volunteer Corps, Federation Fly Fishers Southwest Council and Friends of the River.
Volunteers tied the laces of their hiking boots, rubbed in sunscreen, donned protective gloves, picked up a few trash bags and went to work before celebrating the creek's newly recognized status.
In addition to picking up broken glass, cigarette butts, shoes, diapers, an abandoned flannel sleeping bag and other trash, the volunteers also "busted dams" that slowed the water's free-flowing condition.
Previous campers created dams out of rocks in the creek so they could step across to the other side. But the man-nade dams slow the current of the creek, making it difficult for fish and other river-dwellers to travel down stream.
"We're changing the face of the earth, one rock at a time," quipped Suzette Marechal of Newhall.
Marechal has been a member of the Community Hiking Club for about six months.
"I wanted to get my son out, teach him about nature and to get some exercise," she said. "And I didn't want to go alone. Hiking in groups is much safer."
Linda Castro, of Granada Hills brought her husband, her son, and her son's girlfriend.
"It's not the easiest to get two 15-year-olds up early on a Sunday," she said. "But they wanted to come."
Harpy Simon from the Fisheries Resource Volunteer Corps said he visits the site twice a month to check on the area.
"Two weeks ago, this place was clean," he said. "We need to get up signs that say ‘No open fires' and ‘Pick up your trash."
After cleaning the area of trash and "busting dams," the volunteers gathered under a shady tree to eat lunch and toast each club's contribution to Piru Creek's new recognition as a national wild and scenic river.
"Now with Obama's signature, this whole area - from the start of the Pyramid Dam all the way to the
"It is the first step in a long strategy to protect the creek."#
http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/14944/
Superfund cleanup begins near
The cleanup of a Superfund site next to
A crew has begun removing contaminated soil from the 29-acre site of the former McCormick and Baxter Creosoting Co. The soil will be compacted and capped with asphalt.
From 1942 to 1990, the now-bankrupt company treated telephone poles and railroad ties with rot-prevention chemicals at the site. Two years after it closed, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared it a Superfund site.
EPA officials say the $7.1 million cleanup is being paid for by Union Pacific Railroad Co., which owns part of the property. Crews expect to complete the soil project by September.#
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/348/story/767811.html
Culligan lobbies hard as water softeners become a drought issue
By Marc Lifsher
Government bureaucrats want your water softener.
The Culligan Man is fighting back.
Using salt to soften water Culligan lobbying spendingThe company behind the renowned "Hey Culligan Man!" advertising campaign of the 1950s has launched a political and public relations offensive to kill a bill targeting its signature product.
That proposal would allow regulators to ban conventional water softeners that discharge salt into municipal sewer lines. The mineral makes it tough for sanitation districts to clean and reuse their sewage, which is an increasingly crucial source of irrigation water in drought-plagued
The bill pits giant Culligan International Co. and smaller water-softener manufacturers and their dealers against a broad coalition of interests that includes
"It's a water-quality issue," said Mike McCullough, the director of environment and water resources for the Northern California Golf Assn. "If you have better-quality recycled water, obviously the turf can respond accordingly."
But Culligan, based in
It's "an unprecedented step to take something from your home that you legally purchased to better the quality of your life," said Culligan General Counsel Susan Bennett. The privately held firm, which does not divulge sales figures, is by far the largest player in the
The industry is running ads, including a recent full page in the Sacramento Bee, showing a man in a business suit wielding a plumber's wrench and a briefcase, ostensibly to rip the water softener from the utility closet of a hapless homeowner.
"The Sacramento Politicians are at it again. They're back to try and take your water softener away," the ad warns ominously, directing readers to visit www.savemysoftener.com.
Industry officials said they hoped the campaign would help customers avoid what happened to Vern Crawford, a retired Santa Clarita carpenter, who had to yank out his water softener after a local ordinance made it illegal.
"I do think it's a little unfair to target just the soft-water people," he said.
Water softening is a $500-million annual business in
The industry has made $117,000 in political campaign contributions since 2000. It gave $1,000 to one of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's committees in April 2008. The governor last year vetoed legislation seeking to regulate water softeners.
Proponents of the current bill aren't amused by the industry's cheeky campaign. They say decommissioning of existing units would be a last resort and that homeowners would be compensated. Consumers, they note, still have access to alternative water-softening systems that do not pollute rivers with salt.
"It's hyperbole. Clearly, it's a very reckless and irresponsible attempt to engender fear at the expense of . . . a very important issue," said Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-
The matter has been bubbling for years as
Water districts across
But water treatment is expensive. Water softeners are adding to the burden.
The appliances remove the calcium and magnesium that cause much of the state's tap water to be "hard." Softening reduces the mineral scale that can clog pipes, damage water heaters and leave soap scum in showers and on glassware. Soft-water users say their skin feels smoother and their hair silkier.
Conventional softeners, however, flush the minerals from the tank using a salt- water solution. Statewide, those units annually discharge hundreds of thousands of pounds of salt into wastewater that must be treated at the expense of municipal utility ratepayers.
Using salt to soften water Culligan lobbying spendingIf Feuer's bill becomes law,
Some communities have already imposed a ban. Faced with the prospect of higher sewer rates to build a new water treatment facility, residents of the Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District, which includes Santa Clarita, Valencia, Newhall and several other communities in northern Los Angeles County, voted last year to outlaw salt-discharging water softeners starting Jan. 1 of this year, with a six-month grace period to comply.
Officials used lists provided by water-softener companies to track down and remove an estimated 6,500 water softeners, whose owners were compensated for the "reasonable" value of the appliances. Scofflaws could be hit with a $1,000 fine and up to 30 days in prison starting July 1.
Salinity has been increasing in
But water experts said removing residential water softeners could cut salinity by as much as 20% in some areas of the state.
It's "the only controllable factor we have" to keep salt levels down, said Paul Martin of the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts.
The bill's backers include the League of California Cities, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the Western Growers agricultural organization, the California Poultry Federation and the California Alliance for Golf.
The bill authorizes operators of sanitation systems to control salinity caused by common water softeners. Local authorities would have the power to require all water softeners to meet strict efficiency standards, to require that they be hooked up only to hot water supplies, to ask homeowners to voluntarily give up softeners with "buy-back" enticements and to order the removal of previously installed units.
They could order the removal of existing units only after a regional water board concluded that such an action would improve water quality. Owners of seized water softeners would be compensated out of ratepayer funds for their lost property, the bill specifies.
The Feuer bill would not ban water softeners or treatment systems being sold commercially that do not flush salts to sewers.
Mike Mecca, president of the Pacific Water Quality Assn., an industry group, acknowledged that softeners do increase salinity "a little bit." But he said that banning them wouldn't do much to improve water quality. Industry officials stress that alternatives, such as water-softening units with closed containers that are replaced regularly so that the salts can be treated at a central plant, can be more environmentally friendly but are not practical in all areas.
Those arguments persuaded Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last year to veto a predecessor of Feuer's bill because it "could unduly limit choices for consumers."
But this year the governor, who has made improving the state's water supply a top priority, has not taken a stance on the Feuer bill, said spokeswoman Lisa Page.
Santa Clarita homeowner Esther Romero said she didn't have any qualms about giving up her water softener. "I decided to get rid of it," she said. "If it's something that's not good for the city and not good for the environment; why should I have it?"
In its place, Romero began renting a nonpolluting water softener from the same local Culligan dealer that sold her the old unit years ago.#
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-culligan26-2009jun26,0,73558.story?page=1
Ultrasound Cleans Polluted Water, Makes Catfish Tastier
CleanTechnica.com-6/29/09
By Tina Casey
One solution to the world’s water pollution problems could be something you can’t taste, touch, see, smell, or hear. Especially hear. Ultrasound, the range of frequencies beyond the limits of human hearing, is starting to emerge as an effective water treatment that is more sustainable than chemical dosing. Researchers are discovering that ultrasound performs well on algae, and that’s only the beginning. Ultrasound can remove a variety of pollutants in water, including those that affect the taste of
For a number of years now, companies like LG Sound have been promoting ultrasound as a sustainable, energy efficient, chemical-free way to reduce and manage algae in stored water settings, from ornamental ponds up to large industrial water storage facilities. The right frequency simply breaks up the cellular structure of the algae without harming other aquatic life. In practice, it’s somewhat more complicated.
According to Duddy Heviandi Oyib, special projects manager and chief biologist of LG Sound, responses to ultrasound depend on the unique properties of each body of water. That includes the water’s current condition in terms of pollutants, as well as its size and depth. Still, the results are impressive.
The USDA has been focusing on reducing off-flavor in catfish, caused by their unique tendency to absorb and express pollutants in their environment. It’s part of a broader program to improve marketability, which also includes reducing mortality rates in farmed catfish. Conventional treatment of tanks and ponds consists of substances like diuron, sodium chloride, hydrogen peroxide, titanium dioxide, and copper, but aside from their expense any one of these can lead to a cycle of greater dependency.
So far, the results of ultrasound promise a more sustainable approach. Researchers at the UDSA’s
Catfish aren’t the only happy campers when it comes to the ultrasound treatment. Ultrasound can also remove mercury from sediment, and it could help get rid of pharmaceutical pollution in water supplies. Choosing Ibuprofen as a test case, an international team of ultrasonics researchers based in
Researchers at
Ultrasound could keep ceramic water filters clean while they are in operation, eliminating the expense and complications of off-line cleaning.
According to the
Researchers at Harvard have found that ultrasound can reduce the presence of heavy metals in sewage sludge. LG Sound’s work on the Chem-Free wastewater treatment project in
Water and wastewater treatment can both require enormous amounts of energy, and ultrasound offers a means to reduce that load. With economists are debating whether some breakthrough technology is needed to solve our energy problems, it won’t be long before ultrasound makes itself heard.#
http://cleantechnica.com/2009/06/29/ultrasound-cleans-polluted-water-makes-catfish-tastier/
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