Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
June 8, 2009
4. Water Quality –
Residents
The Signal
Court refuses to hear suit over
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Residents
The Signal-6/06/09
By Brian Charles
Residents from two counties are battling over salt levels in the
At stake are sewer fees, water quality and avocados.
The Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District is proposing increased sewer fees for SCV homeowners. Under the proposed plan, rates would increase from the current price of $14.92 per month for a homeowner to $47 per month by 2015.
Residents expressed heated opposition to the increase at the Sanitation Board during a May 26 meeting. Sanitation District board members Santa Clarita Mayor Frank Ferry and City Councilwoman Laurene Weste opted to delay any decision to adopt or reject the rate hike until more information on the chloride levels is available.
The proposed rate hike would pay for a $250-million upgrade to two Santa Clarita Valley sewer-treatment facilities that discharge wastewater into the
“Along the eastern edge of the Piru creek aquifer, the chloride levels are 120 milligrams per liter,” said Dan Detmer, United Water senior hydrogeologist. The Piru Creek aquifer is fed by the
One problem is that salt levels get a running start: The water entering the water systems in the SCV, from the State Water Project, can be as high as 75 milligrams per liter, according to Francisco Guerrero, civil engineer for the Sanitation District. After regular human use, the water sometimes leaves the SCV with a chloride level higher than 120 milligrams per liter.
The Clean Water Act, a federal law, requires that the Sanitation District put the water into the
That puts the law on the side of the downstream stakeholders, he added.
The currently levels aren’t what worries the Los Angeles County Regional Board, which set the chloride standard, said Steve Maguin, Sanitation District general manager.
The Regional Board’s concern is the increased salt levels caused by persistent drought conditions, he said.
“During drought years the water coming from the State Water Project is high in salt,” Maguin said. “In turn, that salt leads to high salt discharges into the
Those increased salt levels have two consequences for those living down river, Solomon said. The farmers down-river won’t be able to grow their preferred crops, and the salt intrusion along the eastern edge of the Piru Creek aquifer will spread west, he said.
For the farmers who use the water from the
The strawberries and avocados can grow in water with chloride levels up to 120 milligrams per liter, but levels higher than that would cause serious problems for the crops and the farmers,
“You can’t sell deformed fruit, or fruit that is smaller or less desirable to consumers,” he said.
During the May 26 meeting, SCV residents asked whether the farmer could just switch what they grow to crops that are less sensitive to salt.
But that isn’t realistic,
“That’s not something the farmers would entertain,”
More than agriculture is at-risk if nothing is done to remove salts from the
“If we don’t reduce the salt in the river, the degraded area of the Piru Creek basin will spread west,” he said. “And once you put that salt into the system, you can’t get it out.”
United Water has a long-standing problem with salt levels in its water. Overpumping in its wells near the
That overpumping continues, but Solomon said the problem is separate from the chloride problems in the Piru Creek aquifer.
Newhall County Water District General Manager Steve Cole is familiar with the overpumping of the
“The salt intrusion is in an isolated area on the beach,” he said.
The Sanitation District has until 2015 to comply with the Regional Board’s standards.
The Ventura Agricultural Water Coalition was one of many parties represented when the Regional Water Board negotiated the chloride levels during a three-year process that started in 2005 and ended in December 2008, Maguin said.
The city attended most of the stakeholder meetings and played a part in the process, but wasn’t at all the meetings, said Travis Lange, Santa Clarita environmental services manager.
“I wasn’t at all the chloride meetings, but the city definitely contributed to the process,” he said.
The three-year process to negotiate the chloride levels resulted in the chloride standard, which in turn resulted in the proposed rate hike in front of SCV residents.
The continuation of the Sanitation District meeting is not scheduled. But if the district decides against adopting the rate increase to pay for the sewer treatment plant, there could be penalties by the Regional Board totaling up to $10,000 per day, Maguin said.
Even if the Regional Board doesn’t impose penalties, the Sanitation District could be exposed to lawsuits by interests downstream.
“You’ll see a lawsuit by United Water against the Sanitation District,” Solomon said.
The farmers may also take legal action.
“I wouldn’t rule that out,”
http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/14107/
Court refuses to hear suit over
The Supreme Court refused Monday hear a Marine's lawsuit blaming the government's dumping of toxic chemicals at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina for his son's illnesses.
The high court declined to hear an appeal by Donal McLean Snyder Jr. of the lower courts' dismissal of his lawsuit.
Snyder lived at
Snyder said his son was born in 1971 with a congenital heart defect because his pregnant wife drank the water at
The lower courts said trichloroethylene was not regulated as a dangerous substance until the late 1970s. Because of that, the government cannot be faulted for the dumping at
The case is Snyder v.
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_12544986?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com
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