Department of Water Resources
California Water News
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
August 17, 2009
4. Water Quality –
New River cleanup would aid the region
The Desert Sun
Palmdale paying price for quality water
Antelope Valley Press
Mercedian researching Pacific's 'garbage patch'
Merced Sun-Star
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
New River cleanup would aid the region
The Desert Sun-8/16/09
Editorial
Motorists roll up their windows when they drive through Calexico and Mexicali as the road passes the New River.
It stinks.
It is the most polluted river of its size in North America, clogged with garbage, human waste and agricultural runoff. And it flows into the Salton Sea.
It's long past time that California, the United States and Mexico find a way to clean up the tributary.
It's great news that despite the morass of the California budget, the state committed $800,000 toward the cleanup.
The money comes from funds set aside for the California river parkway programs, not the general fund. It will help free up $4 million in federal money secured in 2005 by Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego.
The white foamy expanse of water south of Mexicali looks like something out of a scary science fiction movie. It's called the New River because it was created in the same breach of a levee in 1905 that created the Salton Sea.
The river flows from about 15 miles south of Mexicali and 60 miles through Imperial County into the state's largest lake. It was recognized as a major pollution problem in the 1940s, but it wasn't until the 1980s that the U.S. and Mexico started looking for solutions.
While sewage plants now treat much of the human waste in the area, about 10 percent of the New River flow is still raw sewage. Much work remains to be done.
Assemblyman V. Manuel Pérez, D-Coachella, is sponsoring legislation that would give the California-Mexico Border Relations Council authority to coordinate a restoration plan for the New River.
Pérez speculated that if the New River were in a different part of the state — say Santa Monica or San Diego — it would have been cleaned up years ago. There's little doubt he's right about that.
His bill goes to the state Senate's appropriations committee Monday. We hope it passes this hurdle.
While should the Coachella Valley care? For one, it would be a significant step toward the ultimate restoration of the Salton Sea. That would not only help prevent an environmental catastrophe, it could help turn the lake into an attraction instead of a place to avoid.
Also, Imperial County has some of the highest rates of unemployment in the country — 27.5 percent as of June. New business is not likely to flock to a place with such a massive pollution problem.
Economic activity there is good for the entire region.
Filner said he has secured federal funds for the area before, only to see them languish when matching money is not found. But he is dauntless.
“I'm determined that we do clean it up,” he told The Desert Sun. “This has to be a partnership at all levels of government.”
We admire that determination and wish Assemblyman Pérez success in this quest.#
http://www.mydesert.com/article/20090816/OPINION01/908150358/1026/news12
Palmdale paying price for quality water
Antelope Valley Press-8/16/09
By Alisha Semchuck
Although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hasn't set a timetable to regulate allowable levels of pharmaceuticals and herbicides in drinking water, the Palmdale Water District recently conducted tests to check water quality after adding granular activated carbon into the treatment process.
Granular activated carbon cost the water district $7.1 million for the initial fill plus replacement for an additional two years, according to a contract the district entered in mid-2008 with Calgon Carbon Corp.
Granular activated carbon is a porous material usually made from crushed coal, but it can also come from compressed wood or coconut shells.
Based on the contract terms, Calgon will provide the material and related services for Phase II of the water treatment plant, which can process up to 35 million gallons of water a day.
Granular activated carbon absorbs organic matter such as decaying plant sediment and organic compounds, which include certain medications, health care products and herbicides. When Greg Dluzak, the water district production manager, reported the test results to the water board during its July meeting, he estimated the EPA would establish a standard for maximum contaminant levels sometime in the next 10 years.
Currently, there's "no specified (EPA) standard methods of analysis in place," Dluzak said.
Analysis requires highly specialized equipment he stated in his report, adding that few labs are capable of performing the analysis.
Therefore, Dluzak said, "analysis is kind of sketchy at this time. We can get a general idea."
Water samples in May were drawn from three testing points - where the water enters Lake Palmdale from the California Aqueduct; where the water leaves the lake and goes to the treatment plant; and a site where the water travels after leaving the treatment plant.
Of the 78 contaminants tested for, Dluzak said, nine were found in the aqueduct and 11 were detected in Lake Palmdale.
When asked why there were more contaminants in the lake than in the aqueduct, Dluzak said that it's "unknown why at this time."
"Water entering the lake can be quite different (from) water leaving the lake," Dluzak said.
Possible factors he cited included homes on septic systems in close proximity to the lake. He said the septic systems can be leaching sewage into the water supply.
Also, the lake is used for recreational activities, he noted.
None of the contaminants that appeared in the aqueduct or the lake samples were present once the water left the treatment facility, according to Dluzak.
Neal Weisenberger, a former director of the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency and a professor of agriculture and landscape at Antelope Valley College, researched various water treatment methods for removing contaminants when AVEK was considering switching from chlorine to comply with EPA rulings to lower trihalomethanes, which form when chlorine comes in contact with decaying plant matter.
THMs have been linked to low birth weight, miscarriages and correlated with a higher rate of certain types of cancer.
The AVEK board, in a split vote, eventually opted to go with chloramines - a compound formed by adding ammonia to chlorine - rather than granular activated carbon, a more costly treatment method. At present, AVEK has not implemented the use of chloramines because of public concerns about potential health issues.
Weisenberger said his research did not focus on pharmaceuticals, because he was concentrating on trihalomethanes. But because granular activated carbon is known to remove organic matter, "all organic components," it should work on many pharmaceuticals, he said.
"A lot of pharmaceuticals are organic in compound, so I think it would help," Weisenberger said. "But, not all of them are organic."
Former water district board member Gordon Dexter agreed with Weisenberger and Dluzak about the use of granular activated carbon to rid the drinking water supplies of pharmaceuticals.
Dexter, a water treatment plant operator at Metropolitan Water Districts of Southern California, said, "speaking as a water treatment professional, (granular activated carbon) is the certified best available technology for the removal of pesticides and pharmaceuticals." However, he added, "PWD did it for (trihalomethanes). Pesticides are synthetic organic compounds. Therefore, (granular activated carbon) is equally effective."
"There are other treatment techniques that work, but maybe not on the scale you need."
Dexter explained that it varies from agency to agency depending on the volume of water they treat on a daily basis. "(Granular activated carbon) has a broad range."
Water district officials actually began their research on new water treatment methods in the early '90s when testing was done on ozone as a disinfectant, former General Manager Dennis LaMoreaux recalled. At that time, the agency conducted a pilot project to test the effectiveness of ozone, he noted.
The use of chloramines also was being explored back then.
At that time, board members Ron Cunningham, Les Carter, Nolan Negaard, John Sidwell and Jay Freeman decided on a policy of "no chloramines."
But, LaMoreaux said, "the final decision to go with (granular activated carbon) didn't happen until some different options had been studied."
In March of 2001, the Antelope Valley Press reported on a new health standard mandated by the EPA, requiring water suppliers to lower the trihalomethanes in drinking water from 100 to 80 parts per billion - the current 12-month running average, according to LaMoreaux.
PWD's water supply already met those standards, with an average trihalomethanes level of 39.6 parts per billion, although the range varied from well to well, with some sites measuring nondetectable and others locations reading at 96.6 parts per billion, according to the Valley Press story.
Because the district had already met the standard, LaMoreaux said, "we're looking ahead to the next potential regulations."
Carollo Engineers, which had been studying the plant operations since 2003, recommended a series of improvements, including the use of plate settlers that slow the flow of water to give it more time in the settlement basins.
They also recommended expanding the mixing area from two to three flocculation basins, structures in which chemical mixing occurs, and covering the sediment basins with buildings, LaMoreaux said.
Other suggestions from Carollo, included recommending use of a different chemical in the treatment process, concepts that would improve the treatment process without adding a specific means of dealing with trihalomethane regulations.
"We were preparing for future standards," LaMoreaux said Friday.
"Based on that initial set of recommendations, Phase I improvements to the treatment plant were designed and bid in 2004. Certificates of participation were issued in the amount of $40 million to fund the design and construction of Phase I, and an estimated amount for Phase II of the water treatment plant improvements," he explained.
The construction contract on Phase I cost about $15 million, and construction for Phase II was about $34 million, he said.
"There were additional costs for construction management, design and materials testing" for Phase II, LaMoreaux noted, adding that those additional costs beyond the initial $40 million bond issue were estimated at roughly $15 million in 2006.
Other anticipated needs for bond funding included the purchase of additional water resources and participation in water storage projects.
LaMoreaux said those needs were discussed in the Finance Committee meetings "in the last half of 2007, with the recommendation being made for a $40 million (bond) issue to be done in 2008."
Dexter, who sat on the district Finance Committee with Dave Gomez, recalled the discussions, which were confirmed in the Aug. 20, 2007 committee minutes.
The item also appeared for discussion and action on the agenda for the second regular board meeting in November 2007, a meeting the board majority cancelled to attend an Association of California Water Agencies conference in Indian Wells.
By the December 2007 board meeting, Dexter was off the board, having lost his seat to Director Jeff Storm in the November election.
Still, LaMoreaux included that second $40 million bond in the 2008 approved by the current board in December 2007, Dexter said.
But the board majority decided not to float a bond, and instead used up their reserve funds, bringing the water district to near bankruptcy by the end of July unless they hiked monthly water rates in mid-May, Valley Press reports noted.
For some customers that increase resulted in bills that jumped as much as 65% and for others 140% or more.
"The whole plan was to float a bond," Director Raul Figueroa said. "The financing of (the water treatment facility) was not supposed to affect the ratepayers like it is now. This current board dropped the ball."
LaMoreaux said the 2005 board, consisting of Figueroa, Storm, Cunningham, Negaard and Sheryl Sarna, decided to choose granular activated carbon. "The decision was in part due to increased competition from (granular activated carbon) suppliers and the ability of (granular activated carbon) to address future, as of yet unknown, water quality requirements," he said.
"Sheryl and I were on the committee," Figueroa recalled. "All these proposals came in front of us." Then they had to bring that information to the full board.
Cunningham said he doesn't remember any opposition to granular activated carbon despite the higher cost. "That was what we felt was the best method," he said.
After that, LaMoreaux said, the treatment plant improvements for upgrading to granular activated carbon use "was well under way."#
http://www.avpress.com/n/16/0816_s17.hts
Mercedian researching Pacific's 'garbage patch'
Merced Sun-Star-8/17/09
By Jonah Owen Lamb
In the late hours of Aug. 3, Darcy Taniguchi was trawling for plankton from a research vessel somewhere off the coast of San Diego.
The Merced native and doctoral student was collecting samples of phytoplankton as part of her study of how the organisms fit into the larger oceanic ecosystems.
Plankton are just one of the many species Taniguchi and a team of scientists have been collecting as they head farther into the Pacific. So far they have plucked from the waters crab, fish eggs, flying fish and a vampire squid.
And plastic. Lots of plastic.
Taniguchi, still at sea, is headed to a spot roughly halfway between Hawaii and California. Seventeen scientists, volunteers and technicians -- Taniguchi included -- are on the research vessel New Horizon for a three-week cruise to study a huge swale of garbage floating in the mid-Pacific, know as the The Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch.
A convergence of wind and currents pulls garbage into this still zone which acts like a black hole in the ocean's center.
The cruise, called the Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition or SEAPLEX, set out in the early morning hours of Aug. 2 and headed west. By Friday, the expedition should be complete and make landfall in Newport, Ore.
The $374,000, 1,360-mile cruise out of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego is the first extensive scientific study of the "garbage patch" and its impacts on life in the Pacific, said Alison Cawood, a doctoral student involved with the project.
For Taniguchi, this expedition is just one more phase in what has been a lifelong quest for all that's in the deep.
Taniguchi's curiosity about the ocean began when she was 4, said her mother, Nancy Taniguchi. A family trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium opened up the world of the ocean to Darcy. She's been drawn to it ever since, said her mother.
In a letter written by Taniguchi in 2006 when she began her doctoral program at Scripps, she described her first spark of wonder. "Starring, completely absorbed, at the striking exhibits of the Monterey Bay Aquarium and wetting my feet and hands in the tide pools of Asilomar Beach, instilled in me a lasting curiosity about the ocean," she wrote.
That curiosity has taken her to field work at low tide in the middle of the night in tide pools along the California coast, as well as frog-tracking and nocturnal animal spotlighting in Australia.
But her search for knowledge of the sea also reaches into computer modeling, where her current thesis work concentrates on the study of phytoplankton, a microorganism at the bottom of the oceanic food chain. Cawood said these organisms produce, through photo synthesis, most of the earth's oxygen. "So they are incredibly important," she said.
Taniguchi's goal, said Cawood, is to understand the system plankton are part of.
Back aboard New Horizon, the research team has been posting daily blogs about life and research at sea.
On Aug. 5, Jessie Dubler, a member of the team aboard the ship, wrote about pulling aboard a huge squid. "Earlier today the crew brought aboard what seems to be a very large colossal squid that was already dead and half-eaten," he wrote. "When I woke up, the only evidence left was a few plastic bags of its flesh and an eyeball staring out at me."
By Aug. 6 they had finally sailed into the edges of the gyre, which is what they call the garbage patch.
Jesse Powell, a graduate student at Scripps, wrote, "During the last day or so, as we've started to enter the gyre, we have begun to see more and more plastic debris floating in the water as we steam along at 10 knots."
Meanwhile, Taniguchi continues her own work. On Tuesday, she posted her first blog, which was mostly all business. "Everyone is working at various shifts around the clock to make sure all the jobs get done. So it's certainly a team effort, but it's what we have chosen to do to help determine how much plastic is out here and how it may be affecting the natural world."
A generation after "The Graduate," one of the movie's famous lines has assumed a scientific meaning for one Mercedian.
Mr. McGuire: "I want to say one word to you. Just one word."
Benjamin: "Yes, sir."
Mr. McGuire: "Are you listening?"
Benjamin: "Yes, I am."
Mr. McGuire: "Plastics."#
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/story/1006344.html
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
DWR’s California Water News is distributed to California Department of Water Resources management and staff, for information purposes, by the DWR Public Affairs Office. For reader’s services, including new subscriptions, temporary cancellations and address changes, please use the online page: http://listhost2.water.ca.gov/mailman/listinfo/water_news . DWR operates and maintains the State Water Project, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local water districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for future statewide water needs. Inclusion of materials is not to be construed as an endorsement of any programs, projects, or viewpoints by the Department or the State of California.
No comments:
Post a Comment