Millions meant to pay for water cleanup spent by cities in other ways
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 22, 2009 at 7:24 amFrom the Merced Sun-Star:
A handful of San Joaquin Valley cities and public agencies have used millions of dollars meant for filtering contaminated water for entirely unrelated purposes, records and interviews show.
At least 16 cities, school districts and water districts in the region received a total of nearly $7 million in the 1990s from legal settlements with oil and chemical companies that produced a toxic pesticide called DBCP. The oily substance was used by farmers for decades and seeped into underground water sources before it was banned.
But at least five of those agencies, collectively, have spent or loaned out $6 million or more from the settlements on projects unrelated to water quality. Some can’t account for how all of the money was spent.
Peter Molligan, a Bay Area attorney who helped some of the cities reach settlements in the DBCP cases, said that despite the fact that many of the settlement agreements said the money was meant for filters and new wells, there were no legal restrictions on how funds could be spent.
Read more from the Merced Sun-Star by clicking here.
Santa Susana Field Lab pollution hazards endure
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 22, 2009 at 7:11 amFrom the Daily News:
Before they learned words like dioxin and perchlorate, mothers let sons and daughters play near streams that trickled down from hills that hid some of the government’s biggest secrets. Families who settled in neighborhoods blooming in Chatsworth, West Hills and Simi Valley led idyllic lives, even when their bedroom and kitchen windows rattled from the roar of rocket engines being tested at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in the Simi Hills.
But in May 1989, surveys from the Department of Energy - reported exclusively in the Daily News - revealed that radioactive and toxic contamination from decades of nuclear experiments and rocket tests had leaked into soil, groundwater and bedrock at the hilltop site.
Now, 20 years after the 210-page report became public, a full-scale, government-ordered cleanup has yet to start. Community activists worry that if the cleanup doesn’t begin soon under the land’s current ownership, part of the property may be sold, leading to an inadequate cleanup under new owners and possibly clearing the way for construction of an undesirable prison or Indian casino.
“The story that has evolved in 20 years is from coverup to a dribble of information about the real situation there,” said former state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, who authored a 2007 law that prohibits the sale or transfer of the site until the state certifies it has been properly decontaminated. “There was a realization among residents around the site that their health may have been seriously compromised by both emissions of air and groundwater and the fact that there was no serious intention by the government to clean the site,” Kuehl said. “It started a consciousness but there has been nothing but roadblocks all the way.”
Read more from the Daily News by clicking here.
Digging deep: Red Bluff’s Antelope area wells drying up, redrilled
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 20, 2009 at 6:58 amFrom the Tehama Daily News:
When Lawanna Ross and her husband bought property in east Red Bluff, they assumed they would never have to drill another well. “We’ll have plenty of water always, because it’ll never go dry as long as it’s with the river,” Ross recalled her husband saying.
For 30 years, they were right. Ross, whose husband has since passed on, estimates she is spending $10,000 for each new well she has to have drilled to keep water flowing on her properties. She was able to save costs on two properties by connecting them to an agricultural well used by Crown Nursery, which Ross also rents to.
With wells she thought would go on forever suddenly drying up, Ross reasoned Lake Red Bluff’s late appearance this year could have reduced recharge to the aquifer her wells draw from from.
Because of a July 2008 court ruling that states the dam poses a hazard to some species of endangered fish, the gates at the Red Bluff Diversion Dam were kept up past May this year. Recently, a federal biological opinion that recommends the gates continue to be lowered on an abbreviated schedule for the next three years was released, and Lake Red Bluff returned Monday.
But county officials say the Antelope area’s dry wells have more to do with when they were built than the seasonal lake.
Read more from the Tehama Daily News by clicking here.
Coachella begins groundwater recharge; New facility can recharge Valley’s aquifer with up to 40,000 acre-feet annually
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 19, 2009 at 6:53 amFrom the California Farmer:
The same amount of water used by approximately 40,000 desert households each year will be pumped back into the ground over the next 12 months thanks to a new project by the Coachella Valley Water District.
CVWD recently began replenishing groundwater in the east valley at its newest recharge facility in south La Quinta. The new facility can recharge the Coachella Valley’s aquifer with up to 40,000 acre-feet of water annually. One acre-foot is 325,851 gallons. “With this latest project, CVWD responds to the statewide water crisis and takes another step towards protecting our local water resources,” says General Manager-Chief Engineer Steve Robbins.
Every year, the Coachella Valley uses almost 400,000 acre-feet of groundwater, but on average only 63,000 acre-feet is replenished naturally through rain or snow melt. Over time excess pumping depletes the aquifer, threatens water supplies to the local population and compromises future growth in the valley.
To replenish groundwater, the new facility uses Colorado River water delivered to the valley via the Coachella Canal, across 120 miles to Lake Cahuilla in La Quinta. The water then travels along existing irrigation pipes, is pumped into 39 recharge basins and left to percolate into the ground.
Read more from California Farmer by clicking here.
From pollution problem to scientific breakthrough: How a poisoned groundwater plume led to a key finding by a Chico State prof
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 18, 2009 at 7:21 amFrom the Chico News & Review:
Todd Greene is an assistant professor of geology and environmental sciences at Chico State University. His campus office is filled with images of rock formations in the Sacramento Valley—along with preschool drawings by his daughter. These days he’s unusually excited. A breakthrough in Chico’s geological history is being made, he says enthusiastically.
Greene is now in possession of a set of intact core rock samples from the three geologic formations that underlie this part of the Sacramento Valley—the first samples of such high quality ever to be extracted. They promise to contribute greatly to better understanding of the exact boundaries of those formations—the Red Bluff, the Modesto and the Tuscan.
What makes the story especially interesting is the way the samples were obtained. The breakthrough is linked to a plume of toxic groundwater in south Chico known as the Skyway subdivision plume, after the small neighborhood along two streets off Hegan Lane whose drinking-water wells were contaminated by it.
After the plume was discovered in 2003, scientists from the state Department of Toxic Substances Control traced it back to the Smuckers juice plant on Southgate Avenue. That company also had been using water from the plume, but had been filtering out the toxins.
Read more from the Chico News & Review by clicking here.
State budget delays Salinas Valley groundwater contamination study
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 18, 2009 at 7:08 amFrom the Salinas Californian:
State water officials took the first formal step Tuesday toward a study of nitrate contamination of groundwater in the Salinas Valley and the Tulare Lake Basin. But the $2 million for the project is tied up in the state’s financial problems and likely won’t be available until a budget is adopted to close the $24 billion shortfall.
The pilot program was authorized in 2008 legislation that targeted the Salinas Valley and the Tulare Lake Basin for the study of nitrates that contaminate groundwater supplies in various areas of these regions.
Nitrates are a chemical that can interfere with the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood, which can causes serious illness and death, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Sources of the contamination can range from septic tanks to fertilizers. The proposed study is supposed to identify the sources of contamination and how much they contribute and then determine ways to reduce it, including possible alternative water supplies, and the cost of solutions.
Read more from the Salinas Californian by clicking here.
Sacramento, Yolo county DAs join suit against Target
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 16, 2009 at 3:29 pmFrom the Sacramento Bee:
Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. and 20 district attorneys, including DAs in Sacramento and Yolo counties, have filed suit against Target Corp. to stop the retailer from allegedly dumping hazardous waste in landfills.
“Target has shown a willful disregard for California’s hazardous waste laws by dumping flammable liquids and toxic chemicals in local landfills over a period of eight years,” Brown states in a news release.
Target spokeswoman Bethany Zucco said the company has been following all state environmental laws.
The lawsuit is intended to force Target to comply with state laws governing handling and disposal of toxic and corrosive waste, Brown said. The retailer carries bleach, paints, pesticides and other products that sometimes are damaged during shipping, returned to stores by customers or past expiration date.
Read more from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.
Illnesses come to light in claims against Disney; Residents cite cancer, diseases in animals as proof of chromium 6 contamination
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 16, 2009 at 3:27 pmFrom the Glendale News Press:
As their attorneys shuffle between four similar lawsuits that allege the Walt Disney Co. has for decades contaminated groundwater with cancer-causing chromium 6 and other toxic chemicals, stories of ill health from the plaintiffs are beginning to emerge.
In the latest lawsuit, filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court by the Sacramento-based firm Kershaw Cutter & Ratinoff LLP on behalf of 16 people with strong ties to the Rancho District, the plaintiffs claim Disney dumped wastewater contaminated with hexavalent chromium from its on-site cooling systems down the centerline of Parkside Avenue, toward Parish Place and across Riverside Drive into the so-called Polliwog, an 11-acre parcel near the studio’s Imagineering facilities.
“The water, without warning, would rush down like a flood,” said resident Bob Bell, who in 1945 paid $25,000 for his home at the corner of Parkside Avenue. “Water hopped the curb and flooded the streets for hours on end.”
While Bell is not part of the lawsuit, plaintiffs first became aware of the alleged toxic contaminants, including chromium 6, trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene, in February, after a representative of Environmental World Watch revealed results of an ongoing soil investigation. Plaintiff Sue Panuska said she has long suspected contamination.
Read more from the Glendale News Press by clicking here.
Target targeted in waste-dumping lawsuit
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 16, 2009 at 6:58 amFrom the Contra Costa Times:
Target stores across the state have been dumping hazardous wastes in landfills illegally, state Attorney General Jerry Brown and 20 district attorneys alleged in a lawsuit filed Monday in Alameda County.
At the same time, Brown and three district attorneys — including San Joaquin County’s — have reached a settlement with Kmart over similar allegations, requiring the company to stop the dumping, retrain its workers and pay more than $8.65 million in civil penalties, costs and funding for projects to improve environmental protection.
“Target has shown a willful disregard for California’s hazardous-waste laws by dumping flammable liquids and toxic chemicals in local landfills over a period of eight years,” Brown said in a statement. “If successful, this lawsuit would force Target to comply with state laws governing the lawful handling and disposal of toxic and corrosive waste.”
Brown said Kmart has cooperated and “agreed to live up to its obligations under the law and will train its employees to properly handle and dispose of hazardous waste.”
Among district attorneys who signed onto the Target suit are those for Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, San Joaquin, Santa Clara and Solano counties.
Read more from the San Jose Mercury News by clicking here.
EPA investigating parcel neighboring Disney: Agency to examine allegation that Disney dumped cooling fluid into adjacent site’s soil
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 14, 2009 at 10:20 amFrom the Glendale News Press:
The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday confirmed it is evaluating the so-called Polliwog site, an 11-acre parcel at the center of two recent lawsuits that allege the Walt Disney Co. has for decades contaminated groundwater with toxic chemicals, including cancer-causing chromium 6.
“The EPA has supported and will continue to support the state’s efforts to determine what if any action to take at this site,” said Francisco Arcaute, spokesman for the agency’s Los Angeles field office.
Disney officials this week denied all of the charges levied in the lawsuits, citing a soil investigation by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control conducted in October 2006 that found chromium levels in the area “below levels of concern” and well within California and EPA regulations.
“In light of this, we believe these lawsuits are grossly inaccurate and meritless,” Disney spokesman Jonathan Friedland said. “Disney and its employees have been proud members of the Burbank community for nearly 70 years. The health and safety of employees and residents are among our highest priorities.”
Read more from the Glendale News Press by clicking here.
Disney dumped illegally, suit says; Plaintiffs accuse studio of dumping contaminants from cooling systems
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 11, 2009 at 12:39 pmFrom the Glendale News Press:
The Walt Disney Co. for decades has contaminated groundwater with toxic chemicals, including cancer-causing chromium 6, according to a lawsuit filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court. The lawsuit, brought by the watchdog group Environmental World Watch Inc. and Burbank homeowner Dennis Jackson, alleges that Disney had been dumping wastewater contaminated with hexavalent chromium from its on-site cooling systems since 1998.
On Tuesday, the same Sacramento-based law firm representing Jackson and Environmental World Watch, Kershaw Cutter & Ratinoff LLP, filed another lawsuit in Superior Court expanding the number of plaintiffs against Disney for similar allegations by 16 people. The lead plaintiff listed in the lawsuit is also a Burbank resident.
According to the June 3 lawsuit, contaminated runoff flowed down the centerline of Parkside Avenue, toward Parish Place and across Riverside Drive into the Polliwog, an 11-acre parcel next to the studio’s Imagineering facilities.
The dumping has since changed to flow through an underground pipeline that flows into the Los Angeles River and curbside drains, according to the claim.
Read more from the Glendale News Press by clicking here.
Jury awards farming family $8.5 million in groundwater pollution case
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 8, 2009 at 6:33 amFrom Bakersfield.com:
A jury awarded Starrh and Starrh Cotton Growers $8.5 million in its groundwater pollution lawsuit against Aera Energy LLC Friday, Starrh’s lawyer said.
That’s about $1.5 million more than a jury previously awarded the company. The award was re-tried.
“We had obviously sought a much larger number commensurate with the actual ‘benefit’ obtained by Aera by reason of its wrongful use of the subsurface beneath SSCG property for storage and disposal of produced water,” Starrh attorney Michael Stump said in an e-mail.
Aera’s spokeswoman couldn’t be reached Friday evening.
Read more from Bakersfield.com by clicking here.
Cadiz the biggest price gainer on the Nasdaq after announcing major water storage project
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 6, 2009 at 6:39 amFrom the Los Angeles Business Journal:
Cadiz Inc. was the biggest price gainer Friday on the Nasdaq after announcing it signed letters of intent with five Southern California water providers to partner on a $200 million underground water storage project. The proposal resurrects a water-banking project that the Metropolitan Water District killed in 2002 after opposition from environmentalists and questions that arose about the finances of the Los Angeles natural resources company.
The project would involve pumping Colorado River water into an aquifer beneath 35,000 acres Cadiz owns near the U.S. Marine Corps base at Twentynine Palms. The water would then be stored and piped to Los Angeles and other Southern California counties.
The prior effort died when environmentalists argued that pumping the aquifer would harm the desert’s delicate ecology. Other critics questioned Cadiz’s ability to carry out the project, given the company’s high debt load. Cadiz is seeking to overcome that opposition by partnering this time with water agencies to share in the costs of producing environmental studies and any measures that need to be taken to lessen environmental damage. The project includes construction of a 44-mile underground pipeline.
Read more from the Los Angeles Business Journal by clicking here. More on Cadiz by clicking here.
Trial opens in tainting of homes’ well water; Santa Rosa residents blame railroad, OCLI; companies blame dry cleaners
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 6, 2009 at 6:10 amFrom the Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Several Santa Rosa residents faced off in court this week against Union Pacific Railroad and JDS Uniphase, companies they contend tainted their wells with potentially cancer-causing chemicals. “The evidence will show how their business practices contaminated the environment, how it contaminated the ground water and how it entered the defendants’ wells,” attorney Joseph Gonzalez of Westlake Village said in opening statements Tuesday in a civil trial in Sonoma County Superior Court.
Gonzalez linked at least part of the pollution to land owned by Union Pacific on Frances Avenue and to chemical barrels from Optical Coating Laboratories Inc. found at that property and an adjacent parcel. The property was owned by Southern Pacific, which was taken over by Union Pacific in 1996, and OCLI became part of JDS Uniphase in 2000.
Defense attorneys, however, contended the problem was caused by two dry cleaning establishments in the immediate neighborhood, which is a half mile from the Frances Avenue site. “The plaintiffs’ drinking water wells were contaminated; it’s just that they were contaminated by the dry cleaners,” said attorney John Barg of San Francisco, who was representing Union Pacific.
Read more from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat by clicking here.
Cadiz signs Letters of Intent with five California water providers serving over 3 million Southern California residents
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 5, 2009 at 6:39 amFrom Cadiz, Inc., this press release:
-Today Cadiz Inc. (NASDAQ:CDZI) announced that it has executed Letters of Intent (LOI) with a broad collection of Southern California water providers to develop a cost-sharing agreement, finalize terms of pricing, design and capital allocation and work towards implementation of its water conservation and storage project. These providers together serve more than 3 million water customers across the region.
Signing the LOIs are four public municipal water agencies and Golden State Water Company, California’s second largest publicly-traded water utility. These providers serve customers in California’s San Bernardino, Riverside, Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura Counties. The Company expects to add additional participants for other aspects of the project.
Specifically, Cadiz and the interested water providers have agreed to undertake a mutual project evaluation and seek an agreement identifying and apportioning expected environmental review costs, including the preparation and submittal of a Project description for review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The environmental review process is expected to begin shortly following the submittal of the Project description.
Under the LOIs, water purchase options will tentatively be made available to participants on a 50-year term based on the cost of comparable alternative sources of supply. Participants will be subject to fees for administration, management and maintenance of storage, puts and takes, and power costs. Discounts will be provided to participants meeting agreed-upon environmental stewardship objectives.
In a statement to the participating water providers, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger applauded their decisions to join the project:
“I applaud the leadership of these Southern California water agencies who are helping address the state’s water supply challenges by exploring a path-breaking, new, sustainable groundwater conservation and storage project. This innovative project, utilizing sophisticated water conservation practices, will sustainably recover more than one million acre feet of water that would otherwise be lost to evaporation and make it available to help provide a reliable source of water for Southern California. All Californians who care about our state’s economic future and job creation should follow the lead of these water suppliers and examine smart and sustainable ways to conserve every last drop of water.”
California toxic waste regulators target automobile recycling ‘fluff’
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 27, 2009 at 6:42 am
From the Los Angeles Times:
At a recycling plant in San Pedro and five other similar operations around California, giant shredding machines annually reduce 1.3 million junk cars, refrigerators and other appliances into fist-sized chunks of metal.
Valuable scrap that contains iron is separated so it can be turned back into steel. Hunks of aluminum, copper and other alloys are pulled out for reprocessing.
But the leftovers — bits of glass, fiber, rubber, engine fluids, dirt and plastics — are getting new attention from state toxic substance regulators, and the $500-million-a-year shredding industry is fighting back.
For years, auto-shredding companies have been hauling tons of these treated leftovers, known in the industry as fluff, to municipal landfills under a state variance granted more than 20 years ago. State officials now say they are concerned that residue from heavy metals in the fluff could seep from landfills into groundwater, while airborne metal-laden particles could endanger workers at recycling plants and dumps and people living in neighborhoods near such facilities.
Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Dry year spurs message for Butte County residents: conserve water - and know your well
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 26, 2009 at 7:57 amFrom the Paradise Post:
With the Butte County Department of Water and Resource Conservation spring 2009 groundwater monitoring results reflecting continuing drought conditions, the department reminded residents about the importance of knowing their wells. The results showed almost half of Butte’s wells achieved less than desirable groundwater levels.
The data is consistent with last spring which was the driest year on record since 1921, according to a Butte County press release.
“The data shows the impact of the drought on the basin. People should take practical steps to conserve water and be prepared for potential problems with their wells,” water department director Paul Gosselin stated in the release.
Kristen McKillop, the department’s program manager, said most of the region’s wells hit alert stages last year. This year with drought continuing the department is focusing on educating the public about water shortage issues, including well maintenance.
Part of the education includes a couple of presentations explaining the difference between Ridge residents’ fractured rock supplies of water and the valley’s aquifer wells. Though much of the Ridge relies on the Paradise Irrigation District’s surface water storage, deep wells tap into fractured rock water supplies in many areas outside the district.
Read more from the Paradise Post by clicking here.
Santa Clara court invalidates Groundwater Extraction Fee on the grounds that it violates Proposition 218
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 22, 2009 at 8:24 amFrom Jonathan R. Schutz of Somach, Simmons & Dunn:
On April 23, 2009, the Santa Clara Superior Court ruled that the Santa Clara Valley Water District’s (District) groundwater extraction fee violates the provisions of the California Constitution added by Proposition 218. The fee applied to approximately 4,000 well owners, and the Court’s ruling could require that the District refund up to $250,000,000. The case continues a recent trend of rulings where a local agency’s fee program has been invalidated under Proposition 218.
Background on the Fee and Proposition 218
Proposition 218 intended to limit the methods by which local government can exact revenue from taxpayers. Since it was passed, only the following levies may be imposed on property or persons as a result of property ownership: (1) ad valorem property tax; (2) special taxes; (3) assessments; (4) fees and charges for property-related services. (Cal. Const., art. XIII D, § 3(a).) In this case, fees were at issue. A “fee” or “charge” is “any levy other than an ad valorem tax, special tax, or an assessment, imposed by an agency upon a parcel or upon a person as an incident of property ownership, including a user fee or charge for a property related service.” (Id. at XIII D, § 2(e).) Revenue generated from the fee may not exceed the funds required to provide the service and the amount of a fee imposed upon any parcel may “not exceed the proportional cost of the service attributable to the parcel.” (Id. at §§ 9(a), (b).) A property related fee may only be imposed or increased after a specified voter approval process.
Read more background and analysis from Somach Simmons & Dunn by clicking here.
Well survey shows drought persists through Sacramento Valley
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 21, 2009 at 8:10 amFrom the Chico Enterprise Record:
Water is a big problem in California. With the state in its third year of drought, the lack of rain has affected groundwater levels in Northern California.
In a recent report of the Butte County Department of Water and Resource Conservation, nearly half of the wells surveyed failed to reach desirable groundwater levels, according to a press release. The state Department of Water Resources took the measurements for spring groundwater levels from March 23-27. In Butte County, more than 212 wells are monitored four times a year. Of the 81 used for Basin Management Objective tracking, 37 have reached “Alert Stage,” triggering calls for increased awareness and irrigation coordination.
Paul Gosselin, manager of the county department, said the results show the drought’s impact on the Sacramento Valley Groundwater Basin. “People should take practical steps to conserve water and be prepared for potential problems with their wells,” he stated.
Read more from the Chico Enterprise Record by clicking here.
Rising calls to regulate California groundwater
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 14, 2009 at 8:57 amFrom the New York Times:
For the third year in a row, Mark Watte plans to rely on the aquifer beneath his family farm for three-quarters of the water he needs to keep his cotton, corn and alfalfa growing, his young pistachio trees healthy and his 900 dairy cows cool. That is 50 percent more than he used to take, because the water that once flowed to the farm from snow in the Sierra Nevada has been reduced by a long dry spell and diversions to benefit endangered fish.
Since 2006 the surface of the aquifer, in the Kaweah subbasin of the San Joaquin basin, has dropped 50 feet as farmers pumped deeper, Mr. Watte says. Some of his pumps no longer reach far enough to bring any water to the surface.
If he lived in almost any other state in the arid Southwest, Mr. Watte could be required to report his withdrawals of groundwater or even reduce them. But to California’s farmers and developers, that is anathema. “I don’t want the government to come in and dictate to us, ‘This is all the water you can use on your own land,’ ” said Mr. Watte, 57. “We would resist that to our dying day.”
Although California has been a pathbreaker in some environmental arenas, like embracing renewable energy and recycling, groundwater rights remain sacrosanct. But the state government is facing growing pressure to embrace regulation.
Recent scientific studies indicate that in the long term, climate change is diminishing the potential for the Sierra snowpack to generate enough runoff. Aquifers are thus a crucial insurance policy for water users.
Critics argue that refusing to monitor and regulate groundwater could prove catastrophic to the state’s real estate sector and its $36 billion agricultural economy. “We really have reached the limit of surface water in California,” said Tony Rossman, a San Francisco lawyer specializing in water rights. “The answer so far has been to drill deeper,” he said. “This can’t continue.”
Read more from the New York Times by clicking here.
Cadiz signs “green compact” with Natural Heritage Institute
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 14, 2009 at 8:35 amFrom Cadiz, Inc., this press release:
Today Cadiz Inc. (NASDAQ:CDZI) and the Natural Heritage Institute (NHI) announced a wide-ranging “Green Compact” designed to ensure the sustainable management of the largest privately owned portion of the Mojave Desert. Founded in 1989, NHI is a leading global environmental organization dedicated to restoring and protecting water-dependent ecosystems.
Under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Cadiz and NHI, the company will pursue a series of model environmental initiatives, including the permanent preservation of its lands, dedication of a portion for solar power development, stringent plans for groundwater management and habitat conservation, and the creation of a water bank that will be used in part to restore one or more endangered aquatic ecosystems in California and the Colorado River basin.
“This agreement reflects our clear vision for Cadiz’s future as a green company,” said Cadiz General Counsel Scott Slater. “We are in the business of sustainable resource management, and we believe our growth must occur in partnership with the environment.”
“We see the Green Compact as a potential model for how the private sector and the environmental community can work together to achieve environmental betterment,” said NHI President Greg Thomas. “This agreement will potentially yield a variety of significant environmental benefits, from wild land preservation to clean energy to the restoration of threatened water systems. Our mutual goal is not just to avoid environmental harm but to actually provide a net environmental improvement.”
To ensure that the Compact’s Stewardship Principles are followed, the MOU assigns NHI the role of auditing Cadiz’s performance. NHI will also have a consultative role in developing a set of land-management standards applicable to the design, planning, construction, and operation of Cadiz projects. Provisions include:
* The Sustainability Pledge. Cadiz agrees to manage its property holistically, providing due regard for the long-term sustainability of the land and its natural resources.
* Solar Energy Commitment. Cadiz will make up to 20,000 acres of land available and provide a reliable water supply for the development of photovoltaic and solar thermal technologies.
* Species Protection Plan. Cadiz will institute a habitat conservation plan and/or natural community conservation plan developed and approved under the federal and state Endangered Species Acts.
* Permanent Conservation of Lands. Cadiz will arrange for the irrevocable dedication of land surface conservation easements on a project-by-project basis on a ratio to be determined.
* Groundwater Bank. Cadiz will seek to develop a groundwater banking operation for irrigation, solar, municipal water supply, environmental restoration, and other beneficial uses.
* Groundwater Management Principles. Cadiz will promote the optimal, long-term, and sustainable use of its water resources and manage the groundwater supply in a manner that will not result in environmental harm. Through its water bank, the company will promote restoration of unrelated aquatic ecosystems currently impaired by water development.
* Independent Resource Evaluation Study. Cadiz will complete a study of available water resources including precipitation, aquifer recharge, total quantities of groundwater in storage, and the safe quantity of dewatered storage that may be made available for a conjunctive use project without harming the underlying aquifer system or ecosystems that depend upon it.
* Local Priority of Water Use. The highest priority of water use will be given to reasonable and beneficial uses on the overlying property, including but not limited to agriculture, domestic, environmental or solar power uses.
* Audits. NHI will evaluate, audit, and report on the development and management of the property and the adherence to the stewardship principles.Over the years, NHI has sought to ensure that major water projects – both infrastructure and transfers – incorporate “a net environmental restoration component.” The group’s path-breaking work includes working with diverse partners to improve the environmental performance of major irrigation, hydropower and flood control systems in California, the United States and globally. NHI has played a leading role in designing plans to operate groundwater banks in conjunction with surface storage projects, which can simultaneously increase water supply, restore more natural flow patterns in developed rivers, reduce flood risks, and buffer the anticipated effects of climate change. NHI is a non-profit, non-governmental environmental conservation organization. Its role in this partnership is purely advisory, and is subject to attracting the necessary funding to support its efforts. It has no financial stake in any of the development projects proposed by Cadiz.
Founded in 1983, Cadiz is a publicly held renewable resources company that owns 70 square miles of property with significant groundwater resources in eastern San Bernardino County, California. The company is engaged in a combination of organic farming, solar energy, and water supply projects.
Further information about Cadiz and NHI can be obtained by visiting www.cadizinc.com and www.n-h-i.org.
U. S. Supreme Court absolves Shell of Arvin pesticide spills
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 6, 2009 at 7:45 amFrom the Environment News Service:
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that Shell is not liable for the contamination at an agricultural chemical distribution center in the Kern County city of Arvin, California. But the justices left in place a lower court determination that two railroads must bear their share of the cleanup costs.
Seeking reimbursement for remediation activities already done at the contaminated site, the California and U.S. governments had sued Shell and two railroads.
They were using the authority of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, CERCLA, which is designed to promote the cleanup of hazardous waste sites and to ensure that cleanup costs are borne by those responsible for the contamination.
The soil and groundwater on the five-acre site at issue, located 21 miles southeast of Bakersfield, are both contaminated with numerous hazardous chemicals.
Formerly the Brown & Bryant agricultural chemical distribution center, the deserted site now is on the nation’s Superfund List of abandoned hazardous waste sites.
Yet the Arvin-Edison Water District maintains six municipal groundwater wells within one mile of the site. The public water system supplies drinking water to about 7,800 people and irrigates about 19,600 acres of cropland. The area surrounding the site is industrial, agricultural, and residential.
Read more from the Environment News Service by clicking here.
Business wins in California pollution case
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 5, 2009 at 8:52 amFrom McClatchy Newspapers:
California will pay more and companies pay less to clean up a polluted San Joaquin Valley site under a closely watched Supreme Court decision Monday.
Capping an excruciatingly long legal battle, the court by an 8-1 margin limited the liability of Shell and two major railroads for chemical spills in the Kern County town of Arvin. The ruling could help restrict corporate liability in other future pollution cases as well.
“It’s a hugely significant case,” said Baker & Botts’ attorney Daniel Steinway, who wrote a legal brief on behalf of the National Association of Manufacturers and other business groups. “It will have enormous financial consequences for industry.”
The five-acre site in question, located about 21 miles southeast of Bakersfield, is laden with contaminated soil and groundwater. Formerly the Brown & Bryant agricultural chemical distribution center, the now-abandoned site is on the nation’s Superfund list of most-polluted sites.
Read more from McClatchy Newspapers by clicking here.
New toxins found in wildfires that burn pines; Research could lead to changes on how blazes are dealt with
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 1, 2009 at 6:43 amFrom MSNBC:
Scientists have discovered a new class of chemicals emitted from burning pine trees. From a family of compounds known for their ability to alter human DNA, the findings could change the way we look at the impact of forest fires on public health.
Alkaloids are commonly found in nature; plants produce them to help bolster the structure of leaves and pine needles, and they can be key nutrients to the right organisms. Many are prized for their beneficial effects on humans, while a select few, like morphine and caffeine are downright addictive.
But in high enough doses, alkaloids can be potent toxins.
Now Alexander Liskin and a team of researchers from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington have discovered close to 100 different alkaloids in microscopic smoke particles lofting up from laboratory-simulated forest fires. “When roots, leaves and needles get burned, these chemicals can be released without modification into the atmosphere,” Liskin said. “They can be translated as aerosol particles hundreds or thousands of miles. It is possible that there is an impact on humans, animals, and that they get into the groundwater.”
Read more from MSNBC by clicking here.
Water issues addressed at proposed Gregory Canyon workshop; Opponents still unconvinced that high-tech liner would prevent leaks
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 30, 2009 at 6:20 amFrom the North County Times:
About 100 people attended a workshop Wednesday at Escondido City Hall focusing on the proposed Gregory Canyon landfill and how it may affect a river that provides drinking water for thousands of North County residents.
The Regional Water Quality Control Board was in Escondido to gather public comments on the first draft of a technical document released three weeks ago called “Tentative Waste Discharge Requirements.” The latest in a long history of public forums to address the dump proposal, Wednesday’s meeting gave opponents of the project another chance to sound off against the idea of placing a landfill adjacent to the San Luis Rey River. The board is scheduled to vote on the list of requirements —- essentially a permit —- in August. If approved, one of the last major hurdles delaying the project would be removed.
Gregory Canyon Ltd., the company behind the proposed 183-acre solid waste landfill, has said it will build a 6-foot-thick liner beneath the dump, and staff members with the water quality board confirmed Wednesday that the liner would be the most advanced and “conservative” in the state.
But Ruth Harber, a member of RiverWatch and long-time landfill opponent, wasn’t convinced. Holding up a household light bulb, she said the mercury inside such bulbs would make its way into the landfill, which would eventually leak toxic chemicals into the river. “We will all be glowing, all the way to Oceanside,” Harber said. “This thing is a time bomb.”
Read more from the North County Times by clicking here.
San Mateo County issues long-awaited report on Midcoast groundwater
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 29, 2009 at 7:42 amFrom the Silicon Valley Mercury News:
Groundwater is so scarce in parts of San Mateo County’s unincorporated Midcoast region that in a dry year, water levels can fall far enough to endanger local homes and the environment.
That was one conclusion of a report submitted to the county last week by a consultant that measured the long-term sustainability of water supplies alongside projected development in the scenic hamlets of Montara, Moss Beach, El Granada and Miramar, all north of Half Moon Bay. The county is asking for public comments on the report until June 22, after which the county’s Environmental Quality Subcommittee will meet to discuss policy implications.
The report focuses on the private wells that supply water to about 25 percent of the region’s 3,700 homes and compete for groundwater with one another and with the public wells that serve the rest of the area and are maintained by the Montara Water and Sanitary District.
The district imposed a moratorium on any new public water connections years ago, forcing anyone who wants to build a home on the Midcoast to dig a new well in their own backyard. Families across the Midcoast will be at risk if those new wells are joined by too many more, according to the report — especially in parts of Montara where the aquifer is made of shallow granite rock deposits and doesn’t hold water very well.
The results could hold major implications for the county’s long-term vision for development on the Midcoast, which envisions a doubling of the population over the next 30 years.
Read more from the Silicon Valley Mercury News by clicking here.
Proposed Gregory Canyon landfill a threat to clean water, says commentary
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 29, 2009 at 6:29 amFrom the North County Times, this commentary by San Diego County supervisor Pam Slater-Price:
Anyone in San Diego County who depends upon imported water —- and that’s most of us —- should see the proposed Gregory Canyon landfill for what it is: a threat to water quality and supplies.
Now the Regional Water Quality Control Board will gather comments related to its 56-page tentative order for Gregory Canyon. The agency is hosting a public hearing from 2:30 to 5 p.m. today at Escondido City Hall as it decides whether to issue a permit for the landfill. That decision is expected this summer.
Water reliability for the entire region is at stake.
North of Escondido and east of Interstate 15, the landfill site straddles an aquifer and hugs the banks of San Luis Rey River. Oceanside residents depend on these rare and prized local sources of water. So do households and orchards in the Pauma Valley, which tap the aquifer with 17 domestic wells and 31 irrigation wells. All of them are within one mile of the landfill site.
It’s no secret that we’re in a drought. Earlier this month, water wholesalers voted to reduce water deliveries to San Diego County by 13 percent. That means the more that local supplies meet our needs, the more imported water is left for all of us.
Gregory Canyon also threatens our lifeline to that faraway water. Flanking the dump site is the San Diego County Water Authority’s aqueduct.
Read more of this commentary in the North County Times by clicking here.
20% of private water wells contaminated, research shows
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 27, 2009 at 7:51 amFrom Stockton’s Record:
One out of five private drinking-water wells in the United States contains at least one contaminant that exceeds public health standards, and wells in the San Joaquin Valley are no exception, according to new research from the U.S. Geological Survey.
Private wells that typically provide water for homes in rural areas are not regulated as strictly as public water systems, leaving the responsibility for clean water to the property owner.
The far-reaching study, which included sampling of 2,100 wells over a period of 13 years, shows that “a large number of people may be unknowingly affected” by contamination, said Matt Larsen, USGS associate director for water.
“Certainly, if you have a private well, … you should be concerned about the quality of the water from your well, and you should have it tested,” added Leslie DeSimone, who headed the study. “Contaminants can occur even if your well is in an area that doesn’t seem vulnerable” to pollution.
Read more from the Record by clicking here.
Central Valley to clean up after dry cleaners
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 23, 2009 at 7:37 amFrom the Fresno Bee:
Cities around the Valley are wrestling with a legacy of environmental contamination: a chemical used for decades by dry cleaners.
Now suspected of causing cancer, the chemical has permeated underground water and soil. Cleanup is necessary, but expensive, and there’s no easy way to pay for it.
In Visalia, federal and state environmental agencies, alerted by high levels of the chemical in drinking water wells, dug six test wells last month near existing and former dry-cleaning businesses. The Environmental Protection Agency and California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control were hunting for a plume of perchlorethylene — called PCE — used as dry-cleaning fluid since 1934 that started turning up in Valley water wells in the 1970s.
Results are due this summer, but it’s a foregone conclusion that any PCE found will be blamed on dry cleaners. A 1992 state study found that virtually all contaminated drinking water wells in the Valley had been fouled by dry cleaning fluid, including three in Visalia, two of which are now hooked to filters.
Visalia officials are watching with concern, fearing the city will get snared in a blame game and then be forced to launch expensive lawsuits against property owners, dry-cleaning businesses and others to collect money for cleanups — also known as remediation.
Read more from the Fresno Bee by clicking here.
Deeper wells weaken water table; Regulators ask state to start monitoring groundwater
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 17, 2009 at 8:30 amFrom the Capital Press:
Near Denair, where the foothills begin rising from the San Joaquin Valley, the water table is showing its weaknesses.
The owners of Sperry Farms have recently deepened their well. Despite that, the orchards produced smaller almonds last year, a sign of a receding aquifer, says co-owner Brian Wahlbrink. “We’ve been starting to see, in the past few years, the water table dropping earlier in the season,” Wahlbrink said.
Before sprinkler technology came along in the 1950s, this area saw only limited dry farming. Then came the microjet sprinkler in the mid-’80s, and now it’s a region strong in orchards and vineyards, where everything runs on well water. And over the years, the growers have deepened their wells.
While recent groundwater-storage projects have helped stabilize the declining Turlock basin, heavy pumping still shows the aquifer’s vulnerability. “What we’ve been seeing is there are pumps pumping harder, and not adding acreage out here,” Wahlbrink said. “We’re seeing guys dropping very deep wells. I think our concern lies four or five years in the future.”
Read more from the Capital Press by clicking here.
Long Beach scores possible victory in water wars
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 16, 2009 at 6:19 amFrom the Long Beach Business Journal:
A battle over access to local underground aquifers may have reached a resolution allowing the city to store portions of its water supply underground to reduce reliance on imported water.
Long Beach Water Department General Manager Kevin L. Wattier says after years of wrangling over jurisdictional boundaries, a legal resolution was scheduled to be filed in court last week that outlines rules for groundwater storage, also known as Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR), and will give the city access to the coveted underground space.
“We’ve been in the middle of negotiations for many years to reach a compromise with regards to how we can store water in the aquifers,” says Wattier, one of the chief negotiators of the deal. “We’ve reached that compromise. It was a huge negotiation; it went on for two years. . . . It basically puts to use a reservoir beneath [the city] that’s about half the size of the reservoir that the MWD (Metropolitan Water District of Southern California) built out in Diamond Valley Lake. It’ll create a framework and a governance structure and all the rules and everything to actually use that vacant underground aquifer that’s been going [unused] for decades.”
Read more from the Long Beach Business Journal by clicking here.
State joins Riverside County environmental lawsuit against TravelCenters of America
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 15, 2009 at 7:52 amFrom Riverside’s Press Enterprise:
California Attorney General Jerry Brown is suing a national gas station and truck-stop chain for failing to comply with underground fuel storage laws at a Riverside County location.
Brown’s office made the announcement Monday that it had joined in a lawsuit that Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco filed in July. The lawsuit contends that TravelCenters of America disregarded California’s fuel storage laws and failed to have proper containment and detection equipment for hazardous-material storage and improperly disabled sensors that detect leaks.
The company operates the Coachella Travel Center off Interstate 10 at the Dillon Road exit.
According to the attorney general’s office, the Riverside County Department of Environmental Health conducted inspections of the travel center and found longstanding violations of the state’s underground storage tank law. The company failed to correct many of the violations despite warnings, the attorney general’s office said.
Read more from Riverside’s Press Enterprise by clicking here.
Southern California’s Big Gulp: a refreshing change, says editorial
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 13, 2009 at 5:45 amFrom the Pasadena Star News:
Water is something people mostly fight about in the West, but a group of water suppliers serving 4 million customers in Southern California has put aside their differences and come up with a storage plan that makes great sense. They call it the Big Gulp.
That’s not how they described it when they petitioned the court last week to create a new framework for making better use of underground storage capacity that is the equivalent to a billion dollars worth of reservoir. But despite the support of most water suppliers, the plan is not without controversy.
Many cities in the basin support the plan, as well water agencies, including Metropolitan Water District, and the Department of Water Resources, but there are a few holdouts:
Politics has a lot to do with reasons this agreement wasn’t reached decades ago. Some water agencies still are sitting on the fence. Two cities, Downey and Cerritos, have been opposed, at least up to now. The reasons have little to do with concerns of the average water consumer, and a lot to do with years-old mistrust of the Water Replenishment District and a passionate desire to hold onto local control.
But it’s time for those ideas to dry up and blow away in the face of a prolonged drought, development that has outstripped water supplies, resultant rate increases and, we’ve got to say, good judgment. The Central and West Coast Groundwater Basin Judgment Amendments, as they are known, would expand on existing rules in a change that some say history will judge as second in importance only to the recent compact that assured Southern California continued access to Colorado River water.
Read more of this editorial from the Pasadena Star News by clicking here.
Plenty of twists in water fight: Groundwater pumping fees focus of contentious drama
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 11, 2009 at 6:25 amFrom Stockton’s Record:
Forced by a citizen’s petition, a small San Joaquin County water district had placed a measure on November’s ballot that would reverse its own fee for pumping groundwater. Measure V won. And the district lost $42,262 in election fees. Now it plans to open its pocketbook once more in an attempt to reverse that reversal in a 2010 election.
And oh, by the way, the man who led the fight against the fee now sits on the district’s Board of Directors.
While the North San Joaquin Water Conservation District’s clunky name invites a yawn, the district’s ongoing groundwater saga is a drama worth watching.
Volatile tempers, courtroom clashes and one key fundamental issue - whether a landowner should have to pay to pump the groundwater beneath his home - fuel a fight that by all appearances will go on at least one more year.
Read more from The Record by clicking here.
A Big Gulp for water users: Local agencies have the best sharing idea in 40 years, says editorial
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 7, 2009 at 6:11 amFrom the Long Beach Press Telegram, this editorial:
Water is something people mostly fight about in the West, but a group of water suppliers serving 4 million customers in Southern California has put aside their differences and come up with a storage plan that makes great sense. They call it the Big Gulp.
That’s not likely the term they will be using Friday, when they petition L.A. County Superior Court to create a new framework for making better use of underground storage capacity that is the equivalent to a billion dollars worth of reservoirs. But despite the support of most water suppliers, the plan is not without controversy.
The agreement would affect an area known as the Central Basin and West Coast Basin, encompassing 43 cities and more than 4 million people. Support for the plan comes from the cities of L.A., Long Beach, Lakewood, Torrance, Compton and others; the Golden State Water Co. and other regulated water utilities; the Water Replenishment District that oversees underground water replenishment for the region; the Metropolitan Water District, which imports water for all of Southern California; and, most important from a policy and political point of view, the state Water Resources Department.
Politics has a lot to do with reasons this agreement wasn’t reached decades ago. Some water agencies still are sitting on the fence and two cities, Downey and Cerritos, have been opposed, at least up to now. The reasons have little to do with concerns of the average water consumer, and a lot to do with years-old mistrust of the Water Replenishment District and a passionate desire to hold onto local control.
Read more of this editorial from the Long Beach Press Telegram by clicking here.
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