Department of Water Resources
California Water News
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
August 6, 2009
4. Water Quality –
$1.1 million granted to improve water in Gilsizer Slough
Marysville Appeal-Democrat
Agency ratchets up Rialto perchlorate probe
San Bernardino County Sun
Agency faulted for chlorine in creek
Stockton Record
Push to fluoridate water in San Jose
Mercury News
Officials: Water won't make swimmers ill
Costa Mesa Daily Pilot
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$1.1 million granted to improve water in Gilsizer Slough
Marysville Appeal-Democrat-8/5/09
By Howard Yune
A new federal program to fund water-quality projects will bolster efforts to protect Gilsizer Slough.
The $1.15 million grant will go to the Sutter County Resource Conservation District to pay for projects to control pesticide runoff into Gilsizer Slough west of Yuba City, which drains into the Feather River.
The district's funding comes from the Agricultural Water Enhancement Program, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture began this year to support restoration plans. About $58 million from the program will go toward 63 water-quality projects nationwide.
In Sutter County, district officials will partner with area landowners in irrigation and planting projects meant to limit the leaching of agricultural chemicals such as the insecticide diazinon, which the Environmental Protection Agency in 2004 banned for households but not farms. Gilsizer Slough is on the EPA's list of environmentally "impaired" waterways because of its diazinon levels.
"The whole idea is to prevent irrigation runoff from entering the drainage system, said Ryan Bonea, the district's executive director. "Even for those who aren't on irrigation, rainfall has a huge effect on water quality. You have a significant storm of two or three inches, and even fields that don't normally run off have water coming off the fields."
Local projects include experiments in replacing flood irrigation in orchards with piped sprinkler systems, as well as filter strips, cover crop planting, and pest management to limit pesticide use. Some funds will go to similar projects already under way in the Gilsizer Slough zone, which comprises about 25,000 acres.
The conservation district will accept applications to enter the project through Aug. 14. Applicants will be ranked according to their need for water and resource conservation.#
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/water-85152-projects-slough.html
Agency ratchets up Rialto perchlorate probe
San Bernardino County Sun-8/4/09
By Josh Dulaney
A state agency has stepped up its investigation into a demolished hazardous-waste-disposal facility buried on the north end of town that some say is contributing to water contamination flowing through the city.
In a July 15 letter to the West Valley Water District concerning the Broco Inc. site, Maziar Movassaghi, acting director of the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, said, "Our project team has been assessing and responding to issues at a pace that does not reflect the priority the facility represents."
Movassaghi's letter was written at the request of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in response to the district's concerns that the department was dragging its feet on an investigation into the county's activities at the site.
In an April 17 letter to Movassaghi, Anthony "Butch" Araiza, general manager of the Rialto-based district, upbraided the department because, he said, it did not respond in a timely manner to a January letter calling for clarification in regards to the department's investigation.
"The lack of any formal and timely response is inexcusable, especially given that the request for an immediate response was sent from a purveyor that is facing a severe groundwater pollution crisis," Araiza wrote.
The facility operated from the 1960s to the 1980s. San Bernardino County purchased the property in 1994 to expand the Mid-Valley Sanitary Landfill and demolished the operation in 1998 and 1999.
What happened to the debris and dirt remnants at the Broco site remains unclear, but Araiza contends the county illegally buried the facility and spread the debris across a wide area intended to be used one day to expand the landfill. A portion of the property now houses Robertson's Ready Mix.
Araiza says much of this hazardous debris was improperly used to construct noise berms on the perimeter of the county's property, and that the berms contain lead, arsenic, mercury, asbestos and perchlorate - the chemical contaminating groundwater and some drinking water wells.
Bob Page, 5th District Supervisor Josie Gonzales' chief of staff, said Tuesday some of the demolished material was left on the site for the berms, but disagrees with the water district that the material was illegally spread across the site.
Page said the material used for the berms provides a "protective cap," and by doing so, "we've protected contaminate from seeping down."
Perchlorate is a rocket fuel additive some scientists say can affect physical and neurological development by interfering with the thyroid gland.
The county is working with the department to clean up the Broco site, even as it joins other agencies as part of an effort with the State Water Resources Control Board to hammer out a "global" settlement to clean up perchlorate downgradient flowing from affected areas outside the county's property, Page said.
To the east of the county property, perchlorate is flowing from a 160-acre area where fireworks companies and defense contractors operated after World War II. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is working on a cleanup plan for perchlorate flowing from that site.
Meanwhile, the department says it will ratchet up its efforts to investigate what happened at the Broco site.
"To better reflect our priorities and commitment to resolving issues at the site, I have changed the (department's) project team and directed them to develop a more aggressive strategy regarding the Broco facility closure," Movassaghi wrote.
Regarding potential violations of the state's hazardous waste laws, Movassaghi wrote that "the (department) has recognized that the Broco facility failed to undergo legal closure procedures," and informed district officials that he has asked the department's enforcement deputy director to open the investigation and "determine appropriate enforcement response."
While officials at the department would not comment Tuesday on the enforcement investigation, the department's acting deputy director of the Cleanup Program said the issue has been languishing and that the department will indeed be more aggressive in its investigations.
And the changeover among the project team means senior staff is now investigating the site's soil, Stewart Black said.
"Sometimes when something has been brought to our attention ... what we do is put our most experienced people (on the project)," Black said.
Black said thus far the department hasn't confirmed if the berms contain hazardous chemicals.#
http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_12992932?source=rss
Agency faulted for chlorine in creek
Stockton Record-8/6/09
The State Water Resources Control Board says in a proposed order that the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board disregarded excessive chlorine being discharged into Woods Creek from a Sonora sewage treatment plant and also inappropriately increased the amount of chlorine that Sonora and Jamestown government agencies were allowed to discharge into the creek.
The proposed order the state board issued this week would require the regional board to revise its pollution permit for the treatment plant that serves the two cities to bring chlorine discharges within legal limits.
Woods Creek flows into Don Pedro Reservoir, a popular fishing area and a tributary to the Tuolumne River. The order points out that even extremely low concentrations of chlorine are damaging to fish populations.
The state board's proposed order is in response to a petition filed by the California Sport Fishing Protection Alliance, a Stockton-based organization that advocates to protect fish populations and water quality.
The state board will hold a hearing on the proposed order at 9 a.m. Sept. 15 in the Coastal hearing room of the Cal/EPA building, 1001 I St., Sacramento#
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090806/A_NEWS/908059975/-1/rss14
Push to fluoridate water in San Jose
Mercury News-8/5/09
By April Dembosky
So far, tooth fairies have had it great in San Jose: The city is the largest in the country that doesn't fluoridate its water. But now a major effort is under way to shed that title.
In a push toward better dental health in the valley, advocates have launched a campaign to raise the millions needed to upgrade the city's water infrastructure. Given the controversy that typically surrounds fluoridation efforts, they expect progress to be slow. So on Wednesday backers of the effort brought a top engineer from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention together with San Jose Water Co. officials to begin talking science and quelling myths.
"California is really behind," said Kip Duchon, the fluoridation engineer who presented the workshop. "So we're very excited at the CDC to know that the people of Santa Clara County are really ready to take this important health initiative."
About 70 percent of community water systems in the United States are treated with fluoride, recognized by international health experts as a key method in preventing tooth decay, particularly among children. In California, only 30 percent of water systems are fluoridated, Duchon said, partly because of the state's highly complex water systems.
San Jose's system, for instance, includes more than 100 wells at almost 30 sites. So the water company has been reluctant to take on the task and find the money for it.
"The health question is not really in our purview," said company spokesman John Tang. "We need to better define what technology is out there to help us fluoridate the water in the most cost-effective way."
San Jose Water Co., which provides water to the vast majority of the city, is a publicly traded company beholden to stockholders, not voters or county officials. So it has little motivation to help finance the treatment system. But a state law passed in 1995 mandates that if the money for equipment and initial maintenance costs are provided by sources other than the utility or its customers, water companies must build fluoridation systems.
The Health Trust, a Campbell-based foundation that funds health projects, is launching a capital fundraising campaign to cover those costs. Early estimates put the project's price tag at $18 million. But parties on both sides contest the number, so the trust, with support from Santa Clara County and the city, wants to commission an engineering study to find out exactly what needs to be done for exactly how much.
The Health Trust took on the issue of children's oral health six years ago, opening a dental clinic and buying a "tooth mobile" for screenings. But they found so many cavities, especially among children from low-income families, they wanted to focus more on prevention.
"We can never drill our way out of this issue if we don't spend time looking at the upstream solution of fluoride," said Fred Ferrer, CEO of the trust. "You're not serious about oral health if you're not using one of the best prevention methods you have." (Pockets of San Jose that aren't served by the water utility added fluoride to their water years ago.)
Numerous studies have shown that optimal levels of fluoride in water, about 1 milligram per liter, strengthen teeth and slow down bacteria that causes decay. Decay rates are reduced by 18 to 40 percent in communities with fluoridated water, according to the CDC. A California statewide study published in 1999 found that, on average, kids who lived in communities that did not have fluoridated water had one tooth more that was decayed or filled than kids in fluoridated areas.
In Santa Clara County, Health Trust officials found in 2001 that one in three kindergartners and third-graders had untreated tooth decay. Those numbers are higher than the statewide averages — about 28 percent of kindergartners and 29 percent of third-graders, according to a 2006 statewide survey by the Dental Health Foundation.
But fluoride opponents claim tooth decay is a result of too much sugar, not lack of fluoride. And they argue kids are getting plenty of fluoride as it is — maybe even too much.
"Kids are getting fluoride in juices, in processed sandwich meats, like bologna and hot dogs. Chicken sticks are loaded with fluoride," said Maureen Jones, an archivist for Fluoride Action Network and Citizens for Safe Drinking Water. "The real culprit of tooth decay in low income children is putting kids to bed with baby bottles and sippy cups filled with soda or juice."
Jones and others worry about kids overdosing on fluoride, which can cause a condition called fluorosis, where teeth become discolored or brittle. She cites other studies that link fluoridation chemicals to bone cancer, decreased thyroid function, and lowered IQ — studies that most scientists dismiss by pointing at the large body of peer-reviewed research indicating fluoridation is safe, healthy and effective.
With the recent, budget-driven elimination of the state's adult Denti-Cal program, and sweeping cuts to the Healthy Families program that provides dental insurance to kids from working-poor families, fluoride advocates emphasize the overall savings in health care costs. Fluoridation costs between 50 cents and $2 a person per year; the lifetime expense is less than the average cost to fill one cavity, about $150.
"I'm very anxious that San Jose gets fluoridated," said Dr. Donald Lyman, chief of chronic disease at the California Department of Public Health, "so I'm not embarrassed to have the largest city that is not fluoridated in my jurisdiction." #
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_13000563?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com
Officials: Water won't make swimmers ill
Costa Mesa Daily Pilot-8/5/09
By Brianna Bailey
A new study from a national environmental organization has found higher levels of bacteria in Newport Harbor and Upper Newport Bay than in the city's surrounding coastal waters, but city and county officials say the water in the bay isn't likely to make swimmers sick.
The report from the Natural Resources Defense Council analyzed water quality results from beaches around the country.
While the report found bacteria was a problem in some spots on Newport Bay, it probably isn't from human waste, which could make a person ill, said Newport Beach Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff.
"I can swim in an area with bird manure or fertilizer in it, but I'm not going to get sick because it's not something that comes from human waste," Kiff said.
The study found bacteria levels at the Newport Boulevard Bridge in Newport Harbor exceeded public health standards 30% of the time in 2008.
Bacteria levels from that area are bound to be high, because there's a storm drain that empties into the bay, said Larry Honeybourne, program manager for the Orange County Health Care Agency's water quality program, which oversees water testing in Newport Bay.
"Anything that you put in the curb and gutter goes toward the ocean," Honeybourne said. "These storm drains contain high levels of indicator bacteria, but there's no connection between storm drains and the sewers."
Although storm drains empty everything from lawn clippings to animal feces into Newport Bay, human waste from local sewers is piped to Huntington Beach, where it is treated and then sent more than four miles out into the ocean, making it unlikely that human fecal matter would contaminate beaches on Newport Bay, Kiff said.
The Natural Resources Defense Council report also found bacteria levels at other spots on Newport Bay exceeded public health standards anywhere from 8% to 20% of the time.
The report also found dozens of health advisories were issued for beaches on Newport Bay in 2008, including three for Newport Harbor at 33rd Street and three for North Star Beach on Upper Newport Bay. The majority of advisories were due to high bacteria levels in the water.
The number of Health Care Agency advisories for beaches each year on Newport Harbor is actually on the decline, Honeybourne said.
"The trends have all been positive," he said. "The city has taken an aggressive stance on water quality issues."
The number of times water tests revealed bacteria levels exceeded public health standards for beaches on Newport Harbor in 2008 was 39, down from 75 times in 2000, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency's annual water quality report.
Newport Beach Water Quality Facts:
The Orange County Health Care Agency tests the water quality at 31 stations across Newport Bay once a week.
The Health Care Agency reported bacteria levels at different locations in Newport Bay exceeded public health standards 39 times in 2008.
A newly released study by the Natural Resources Defense Council found bacteria levels at the Newport Boulevard Bridge in Newport Harbor exceeded public health standards 30% of the time in 2008.#
http://www.dailypilot.com/articles/2009/08/05/topstory/dpt-newportharbor080509.txt
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