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Colorado River takes national stage at hearing; Pollution on forefront of topics

Posted by: Maven on May 28, 2009 at 6:16 am

From Lake Havasu’s Today’s News Herald:

A House hearing on Lower Colorado River water quality, May 27 in Tucson, explored what committee member Representative Raul Grijalva described in his opening remarks as an attempt to “help spur the attention that we need to focus on this issue before a crisis does it for us.”

The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power to explore what federal measures can help preserve and prevent the degradation of river water quality held the hearing. Much of the testimony agreed on the seriousness of a variety of pollution threats to the river — the source of drinking water for 30 million residents of the Southwest, and a scattershot series of Congressional and Executive interventions were proposed.

It is not yet known how to economically technologically remove pharmaceuticals that have passed through the human body as part of wastewater treatment from the growing population along the river. Uncontrolled septic tanks aggravate the problem. Pharmaceuticals are endocrine disrupting compounds that have caused probable mutations and birth defects in fish and animals. The Southern Nevada Water Authority has detected the compounds in Lake Havasu.

Lake Havasu City Mayor Mark Nexsen appeared before the committee Wednesday.

In addition to funding for sewage infrastructure, Nexsen called for legislation with adequate appropriations to research how to best eliminate pharmaceuticals from effluent, eliminate the quagga mussel, and to expedite the clean up of Moab, Utah, uranium tailings and hexavalent chromium from the old PG&E Topock natural gas compressor north of Lake Havasu City.

Read more from Today’s News-Herald by clicking here.

May 28, 2009 · Filed Under Colorado River & the Southwest

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