Westlands Water District funds water treatment pilot project utilizing New Sky Energy’s salt/CO2 conversion process
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 19, 2010 at 7:03 amFrom Marketwire via Yahoo Finance:
“BOULDER, CO–(Marketwire – 03/18/10) – Westlands Water District and Ag-Water New Sky, LLC, (AGNS) announced today they will develop an integrated drainage water treatment facility in California’s Central Valley. The project combines conventional desalination technology with award winning salt conversion technology developed by New Sky Energy of Boulder, Colorado. The project will design and build a demonstration water treatment facility that converts high salinity drainage water into fresh water for irrigation and financially valuable CO2 negative products derived from the waste salts.
The first phase of the project is projected to break ground in the Central Valley in the second half of 2010. When fully deployed, the $3.2 million project will desalinate approximately 240,000 gallons of drainage water per day and convert approximately five tons of waste brine salts into carbon neutral and carbon negative chemicals such as acid, caustic soda and solid carbonates like limestone and soda ash. In addition, the project will trap approximately 2.8 tons of CO2 daily.
“Westlands is the largest agricultural water district in the country, and all of our farmers are dealing with urgent water-supply issues,” said Tom Birmingham, WWD’s Executive Director. “New Sky Energy’s salt conversion technology is a top priority for our district and we are extremely excited about the prospects for cost-effective water treatment they may create.”
“This project opens up an entirely new path to cost-effective water treatment in the Central Valley,” said Dr. Deane Little, founder of New Sky Energy. “By converting drainage water into fresh water and clean chemicals we can help solve freshwater shortages and drainage water pollution while creating clean tech jobs at the same time. We are excited to be putting our clean technology to work for California farmers and helping to transform waste into revenues.” … “
Continue reading this article from Yahoo Finance by clicking here.
Aging sewers add up to a big challenge in California
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 18, 2010 at 6:39 amFrom California Water Boards, posted at YouTube:
Commentary: Water quality – an exploration of the myths, lies and misperceptions
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 11, 2010 at 5:29 amFrom www.Salem-News.com, this commentary by Roger von Bütow:
“This is going to be a two part series, so sit down, buckle up and get good and depressed! It’s about some disturbing technical aspects the public knows little about, concerns I’d like to share, and some unpleasant things I’ve learned about the world of water on my (now) 13-year journey. Hope your food is settled.
I always drank it, surfed in and on it, went diving in it, paddled on it, bathed in it, took fish and crab or lobster from it, whatever, but didn’t realize what a beautifully complex yet fragile thing water is. My German immigrant father was a tugboat captain for decades in the LA Harbor, so I’ve ridden around on it a lot too. At 15, I even got Hepatitis A from swimming in an illegal sewage discharge from a ship moored inside the breakwater at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro. As always in life, the more you learn about a particular subject the more fascinated, and in some cases like this one, the more horrified you may become.
No, this series doesn’t have a happy ending, so though there are some very bright and motivated people looking into the reversal of water quality impairments, addressing the scarcity of water itself, the future looks pretty much dystopian. Earth is like a big life raft, and due to global consumerism and increased population, our water-related problems are going to increase, not decrease as time goes by. … “
Continue reading this commentary from www.Salem-News.com by clicking here.
Commentary: The Clean Water Act and the economics of ambiguity: If the Supreme Court narrows the ambiguous definitions in the Clean Water Act, will companies create new domestic pollution havens?
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 6, 2010 at 5:38 amFrom Matthew E. Kahn, guest blogger at the Christian Science Monitor:
“The New York Times wants the United States to have clean water . But, does Justice Scalia want you to have such an amenity? The original Clean Water Act has a sloppy definition of its geographical scope. To remind you young environmental lawyers out there: the core issue is a clear, consistent definition of “navigable waters”. I have no idea what these words mean but English is not my first language.
From the Times: [T]he Clean Water Act that limited it to “the discharge of pollutants into the navigable waters” of the United States. For decades, “navigable waters” was broadly interpreted by regulators to include many large wetlands and streams that connected to major rivers.”
The economics of this ambiguity issue are fascinating … “
Continue reading this blog post at the Christian Science Monitor by clicking here.
Farm Bureaus join forces to address water quality
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 3, 2010 at 8:03 amFrom the California Farm Bureau Federation:
“Concern has switched to action for farmers and ranchers on California’s Central Coast. Faced with what they see as an inflexible and flawed proposal from the regional water board related to renewing the area’s irrigated lands waste discharge management program, the agricultural community now is preparing alternative measures for the board to consider.
Seven county Farm Bureaus have joined forces to develop and present more workable measures. The joint Farm Bureau effort is aimed at highlighting methods that will help improve water quality in watersheds throughout the region while also supporting food and floral production in one of the state’s most productive agricultural regions.
California Farm Bureau Federation water policy and legal experts are supporting the effort to develop new, farm-led water quality improvement alternatives to present to the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board.
“We advised the regional water board that the current staff proposal is unworkable and that the agricultural community would develop their own proposal by April,” said Kevin Merrill, Santa Barbara County Farm Bureau president. … “
Continue reading this article from the California Farm Bureau Federation by clicking here.
Pacific Legal Foundation’s Liberty Blog: Clean Water Act point-counterpoint
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 2, 2010 at 7:42 amFrom Damien Schiff at the Pacific Legal Foundation’s Liberty Blog:
“Today’s New York Times has this article contending that, at least from the US Environmental Protection Agency’s perspective, that agency’s ability to enforce the Clean Water Act and prevent the Nation’s waters from becoming polluted has been seriously constrained by recent federal court rulings. The article’s general contention, as well as its several subordinate assertions, are demonstrably false.
Point: “Thousands of the nation’s largest water polluters are outside the Clean Water Act’s reach because the Supreme Court has left uncertain which waterways are protected by that law, according to interviews with regulators.”
Counterpoint: The observation is vacuous: uncertainty can cut either way, i.e., if nothing is regulated, then that state of affairs is as certain as if everything were regulated. … “
Continue reading this post from the Pacific Legal Foundation’s Liberty Blog by clicking here.
Manure becomes pollutant as its volume grows unmanageable
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 2, 2010 at 7:20 amFrom the Washington Post:
“Nearly 40 years after the first Earth Day, this is irony: The United States has reduced the manmade pollutants that left its waterways dead, discolored and occasionally flammable. But now, it has managed to smother the same waters with the most natural stuff in the world.
Animal manure, a byproduct as old as agriculture, has become an unlikely modern pollution problem, scientists and environmentalists say. The country simply has more dung than it can handle: Crowded together at a new breed of megafarms, livestock produce three times as much waste as people, more than can be recycled as fertilizer for nearby fields.
That excess manure gives off air pollutants, and it is the country’s fastest-growing large source of methane, a greenhouse gas.
And it washes down with the rain, helping to cause the 230 oxygen-deprived “dead zones” that have proliferated along the U.S. coast. In the Chesapeake Bay, about one-fourth of the pollution that leads to dead zones can be traced to the back ends of cows, pigs, chickens and turkeys. … “
Continue reading this story from the Washington Post by clicking here.
Supreme Court rulings restrict Clean Water Act, hampering E.P.A.
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 1, 2010 at 6:32 am
From the New York Times:
“Thousands of the nation’s largest water polluters are outside the Clean Water Act’s reach because the Supreme Court has left uncertain which waterways are protected by that law, according to interviews with regulators.
As a result, some businesses are declaring that the law no longer applies to them. And pollution rates are rising.
Companies that have spilled oil, carcinogens and dangerous bacteria into lakes, rivers and other waters are not being prosecuted, according to Environmental Protection Agency regulators working on those cases, who estimate that more than 1,500 major pollution investigations have been discontinued or shelved in the last four years.
The Clean Water Act was intended to end dangerous water pollution by regulating every major polluter. But today, regulators may be unable to prosecute as many as half of the nation’s largest known polluters because officials lack jurisdiction or because proving jurisdiction would be overwhelmingly difficult or time consuming, according to midlevel officials. … “
Continue reading this article from the New York Times by clicking here.
Local and watershed land use controls: A turning point for agriculture and water quality, says commentary
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 19, 2010 at 7:41 amFrom Water World:
“Domestic food production and the conservation of limited agricultural resources, such as prime farmland soils, are of critical importance to both the short- and long-term health and welfare of Americans. Typical farming practices today require many inputs, such as fertilizers, pesticides, and mechanized cultivation. Our nation’s industrialized agricultural systems produce essential food products, but also environmental externalities, including excess nutrient runoff from fertilizers and livestock wastes, pesticide runoff, soil erosion and sedimentation, greenhouse gas emissions from farm machinery and livestock manure, and human enteric or intestinal pathogens. These outputs affect not only fish, wildlife, and other ecologically beneficial species, but also human use of water resources, including ground and surface waters, for domestic use and consumption, recreation, and commercial activities.
With few exceptions, there has been limited effective local, state, or federal land use planning, management, and regulation for the long-term conservation of limited agricultural natural resources or regulation of the environmental externalities of industrialized agriculture production. Given the lack of voluntary land stewardship by landowners in general, and farmers in particular, and the lack of a culturally accepted “land ethic,” a new approach is desperately required that blends existing voluntary coordination efforts with public coercion (e.g., police-powerbased regulatory controls).
This commentary recommends that state and local governments, supported by federal guidance, technical assistance, and funding, create and implement a comprehensive and holistic approach to agricultural natural resource conservation, land use planning, and land management, which incorporates watershed-based land use controls and regulation of the effects of agricultural land use on other critical natural resources, specifically water. … “
Continue reading this commentary from Water World by clicking here.
California farmers say proposed water rules will cost too much; The state says the regulations are needed because polluted water endangers health
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 13, 2010 at 7:25 amFrom the San Luis Obispo Tribune:
“State water officials have proposed a new set of rules aimed at reducing polluted runoff from farmland, but farmers say they will be too expensive to implement.
The rules are necessary because polluted farm runoff endangers people’s health, aquatic life and the ability to enjoy water recreation such as swimming and kayaking, said Angela Schroeter, manager of the agricultural program for the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board.
“The impacts on water quality from irrigated agriculture are severe,” she said. “For example, many of our creeks and streams are toxic to aquatic life, and data shows that toxicity is directly related to the runoff of pesticides from farming operations.”
Under the rules, farmers would be required to enroll in a monitoring program to demonstrate that their operations are either not discharging water during dry weather or, if they are, the discharge does not exceed limits for a variety of pollutants such as nitrates, ammonia, temperature and turbidity. … “
Read more from the San Luis Obispo by clicking here.
Federal agency knew of Mothball Fleet pollution in 1997, documents show
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 8, 2010 at 8:21 am
From the Vallejo Times-Herald:
“The U.S. Maritime Administration knew in 1997 that paint falling off its obsolete ships anchored in Suisun Bay could cause toxic pollution, yet took no action for more than a decade while denying a problem existed, according to federal documents.
Cleanup was called “essential” in a 1997 memo that stated, “Environmental precautions must be recognized to the fullest extent.”
“Exfoliating paint on (Maritime Administration) ships is an issue that must be addressed,” the August 1997 internal memo states. “The discharge of lead and tributyltin, commonly found in marine paints, are prohibited by federal, state and local environmental regulations — there may be some impacts on water and biotic resources.”
But the Maritime Administration undertook no cleanup as the so-called Mothball Fleet anchored off Benicia continued to deteriorate for another decade. A 2007 study found that 21 tons of paint flakes laden with lead and other toxic metals had fallen into local waters and that 66 more tons remained on the vessels. … “
Read more from the Times-Herald by clicking here.
Picture of mothball fleet by flickr photographer telstar (Creative Commons).
Chasing Water: Upper Feather River Watershed Group addresses new state water quality regulations
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 6, 2010 at 7:07 amFrom UC Davis:
“Carol Dobbas, the executive director of the Upper Feather River Watershed Group, explains that the organization was founded by Sierra Valley, Calif., ranchers to address new state regulations aimed at monitoring water quality in areas that may be impacted by irrigated agriculture. ”
Give Hilmar Cheese the time it needs, says editorial
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 28, 2010 at 7:56 amFrom the Merced Sun-Star, this editorial:
“The Sun-Star firmly supports Hilmar Cheese Co.’s request Friday to the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, Central Valley Region, in Sacramento for more time to meet a regulatory requirement.
We think the homegrown company that’s become a global competitor deserves more time to evaluate the long-term operating costs and the economic sustainability of several technologies.
Hilmar Cheese experts are studying at least three ways to increase the production of high-quality reclaimed water at its plant in our county.
The water-quality board has laid out a rigorous timetable for Hilmar Cheese to comply with its demands to clean up the water it uses and reuses to make cheese and whey products for the world market. … “
Read more of this editorial by clicking here.
Petition seeks ESA transparency
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 21, 2010 at 2:15 pmFrom the Western Farm Press:
“Dow AgroSciences and two other crop protection product manufacturers – Makhteshim-Agan of North America and Cheminova – have filed a petition calling on EPA to adopt transparent procedures allowing public notice and comment on Endangered Species Act decisions. The petition asks EPA to notify the public and solicit stakeholder input instead of seeking to amend pesticide labels unilaterally. If EPA were to put its current approach into effect, users would be directed by the amended labels to follow new, local restrictions on pest control products in bulletins that the agency is preparing to post on the Internet.
The petition is prompted by the essentially ad hoc process that EPA is currently using to impose label amendments and county-specific restrictions related to salmon in key agricultural and timber production areas of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and California. While EPA’s immediate actions concern only chlorpyrifos, diazinon and malathion, the process now being used by the agency will set a precedent for establishing similar restrictions on hundreds of products in the Western U.S. over the next few years. It will also likely set a precedent for future EPA restrictions addressing hundreds of threatened and endangered species across the U.S. … “
Read more from the Western Farm Press by clicking here.
Commentary: Regulators must balance environmental and economic sustainability
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 19, 2010 at 2:36 pmFrom the California Farm Bureau Federation, this commentary by Corny Gallagher of the California Bankers Association Agricultural Lending Committee:
“Wineries, cheese plants, olive processors and other food production companies are increasingly facing more stringent water quality regulation for salt and other minerals in their wastewater. Their pending permits have been singled out by environmental activists and unfairly criticized in the media. Regulators, attempting to balance environmental and economic concerns, have also been unjustly criticized. Finding and maintaining the appropriate balance between environmental and economic sustainability will be critical as the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board continues its management and regulation of salts.
California’s food production and processing industry is critical to the state’s overall economy and is the driving economic engine in the Central Valley. Food production companies face unprecedented global competition and must remain cost competitive to stay in business. Low dairy prices and court-imposed water pumping restrictions have already wreaked havoc on farm families and their employees throughout the San Joaquin Valley. Farm employees in these areas have been hit especially hard. Unemployment in some rural communities now exceeds 40 percent. … “
Read more of this commentary by clicking here.
C-WIN blog: State Water Board learns Delta fish populations continue to decline
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 5, 2010 at 8:09 amFrom Tim Stroshane and the C-WIN blog:
“The State Water Resources Control Board held a special “organizational issues” meeting on December 8, 2009, at the 6th floor conference room of the Solano County Administrative Center in Fairfield’s ultra-modern Solano County Administrative Center.
The most alarming thing I learned at the meeting was that the decline of the Delta’s open water fish populations continues. Pelagic (”open water”) Organism Decline (POD) species abundance indices for the first two months of the Fall midwater trawl (FMWT) are complete and found that abundance indices for Delta smelt, American shad, and striped bass are the lowest in history. The index for longfin smelt is the third lowest in history.
Stay tuned on that one. Another year of dry weather and another year of dismal Delta ecosystem news? … “
An Overhaul for Water Rules Enforcement: EPA looks at three-prong approach to more effective regulation
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 5, 2010 at 7:45 amFrom Water World:
“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency intends to compel greater compliance with Clean Water Act (CWA) regulations.
In testimony Oct. 15 before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said, “The time is long overdue for EPA to reexamine its approach to Clean Water Act enforcement.” She was testifying before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
She said the agency is considering enforcement changes that would improve water quality, build stronger ties between the agency and the states, and provide citizens better data on the quality of their water.
Jackson ordered EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance to begin developing the plan last, after she had seen data showing that water quality was low in many parts of the nation. She said another challenge was that EPA’s regulated universe has expanded from 100,000 pollution sources to include over a million non-point sources – such as animal feed lots and stormwater runoff. … “
Read more from Water World by clicking here.
Lloyd G. Carter: How about enforcing current water laws?
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 25, 2009 at 9:17 amFrom Lloyd G. Carter at the Chronicles of the Hydraulic Brotherhood blog, this commentary:
“Seventeen years ago, Patrick Porgans and I co-authored an article that ran at length in the Forum section of the Sacramento Bee. We argued then that new and proposed state and federal water marketing changes would enrich some people “by turning [publicly-owned] water into a freely transferable commodity.”
Sadly, as proven by a recent below-the-rader $73 million water transfer from a small irrigation district in the western San Joaquin Valley to an urban district in the Mojave Desert, time has proven us right. Profiteering by buying cheap water from the public and selling it to the highest bidder is now making small groups of people enormously rich, to the detriment of farming, the Delta, and the state treasury.Patrick and I remain deeply concerned about an equally serious problem: the inability or unwillingness of the State Water Resources Control Board to catch and punish water rustlers, including the two most powerful water agencies in California: The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) and the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). … “
Continue reading this post from Lloyd G. Carter by clicking here.
San Clemente: New water quality regulations passed
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 25, 2009 at 8:39 amFrom the San Clemente Times:
“Environmentalists are celebrating new water quality regulations passed by the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board on Dec. 16, but elements of the new Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (known as MS4) leave unclear how cities are to regulate certain elements of the permit.
“The permit was adopted and is effective immediately, although a number of specific requirements in the permit have phased-in deadlines by which certain actions must be completed or started,” said Tom Bonigut, San Clemente’s assistant city engineer and head of the city’s environmental programs.
“The Board did amend what was the most troubling proposed requirement regarding Numeric Effluent Limits, and changed this to a plan for Numeric Action levels that was agreed to between Board staff, the regulated cities, EPA, and environmental organizations. In short, instead of requiring strict compliance with numeric limits for storm drain discharges (which is not in any other MS4 permit, not required by or consistent with the Clean Water Act, and would have put the cities in a situation of automatic non-compliance), the permit was changed to have action levels, which if exceeded would trigger certain follow up actions.” … “
Read more the San Clemente Times by clicking here.
NRDC Switchboard: Philadelphia has ambitious plan to solve the sewage problems described by the New York Times
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 25, 2009 at 5:52 amFrom Nancy Stoner at the NRDC Switchboard blog:
“On Monday, the New York Times ran an excellent article about the amount of raw sewage that flows into the city’s waterways during rainstorms. I welcome the piece; like the other articles in the paper’s series on water pollution, it will draw attention to a major urban hazard.
But I have one problem with the article: it could leave the reader thinking that little can be done to address this costly challenge. It gives the sense that sewage is flowing, and no one can stop it.
That simply isn’t true, and as the article mentions, Philadelphia is one of the cities working to prove it. .
Philadelphia is undertaking one of the most ambitious stormwater plans in the nation. Instead of simply building more storage pipes to hold runoff during rainstorms, Philadelphia is investing $1.6 billion in green infrastructure–things like urban forestry, street-edge gardens, and pervious pavement– to prevent most of the runoff from hitting the pipes in the first place. … “
Read more from the NRDC Switchboard blog by clicking here.
Cigarette butts toxic to fish, say researchers
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 21, 2009 at 8:18 am
From CBC News:
“Cigarette butts are toxic to fish and should be labeled as toxic hazardous waste, U.S. researchers say.
Scientists at San Diego State University say that a single cigarette butt containing a small amount of unburnt tobacco is enough to contaminate a litre of water and kill half of the fish swimming in it.
“Based on this new research, we believe that cigarettes should be considered toxic waste and new requirements need to be established for how they are disposed,” Tom Novotny, a public health professor at San Diego State University, said in a statement.
The researchers tested the toxicity of the tobacco on fresh and saltwater fish: fathead minnows and top smelt — two species that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency typically uses in pollution studies. … “
Read more from the CBC News by clicking here.
Picture of cigarette butts by flickr photographer Axolot (Creative Commons).
Clean Water Act ‘fix’ has major ramifications for Nevada: Dropping one word could unleash the federal bureaucracy
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 16, 2009 at 4:37 pmFrom the Las Vegas Review-Journal, this commentary by Liz Arnold, a natural resources policy advocate involved in Western land and water issues:
“Can Nevada water wars get any worse? Unfortunately, yes.
We don’t have endless streams, rivers and estuaries across the desert plain, so our water wars are legendary. At least, though, the fights are within our own borders given that Nevada is the sole authority over how our water is managed, allocated and distributed.
But that may not last.
The Clean Water Restoration Act pending in Congress right now would institute sweeping new changes to the federal Clean Water Act. Proponents say the changes are needed to “clarify the intent” of the law, but in removing just a single word from the text of the act, advocates of this plan will effectively force the Environmental Protection Agency to claim jurisdiction over every pond, tributary and ditch (that’s dry ditches to us) nationwide.
As we know, controlling water is controlling land in Nevada. …”
Read more from the Las Vegas Review-Journal by clicking here.
CSPA to Sue El Dorado Irrigation District for illegal sewage
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 30, 2009 at 6:19 amFrom the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, this press release:
“The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) today gave formal notice, pursuant to the federal Clean Water Act (CWA), of its intent to sue the El Dorado Irrigation District’s (EID) sewage collection and treatment systems serving the communities of Cameron Park, Deer Creek and Motherlode for illegal sewage spills, overflows and discharges to creeks tributary to the Consumes River and thence the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The CWA requires that citizens enforcing the Act must provide a discharger 60 days notice prior to filing the lawsuit. CSPA’s letter puts EID on notice that its municipal sanitary sewer collection and treatment system has violated effluent, monitoring and reporting requirements of its wastewater permits and illegally allowed egregious quantities of raw sewage to overflow into city streets and the storm water collection system and thence to local creeks, the Cosumnes River and Delta.
“EID’s sewage collection and wastewater treatment system is a public health and environmental hazard,” said CSPA Executive Director Bill Jennings. “The District’s failure to provide adequate facilities and acceptable levels of maintenance for wastewater control indicates an outrageous and egregious disregard for the health of area residents and poses a clear threat to the integrity and survival of local creeks, the Cosumnes River and the Delta’s fish and wildlife resources,” Jennings observed, adding that, “the spills and effluent violations evidence poor environmental management.”
Hold the salt: Woodland launches salinity minimization effort
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 29, 2009 at 10:28 pmFrom the Woodland Record:
“The City of Woodland is conducting a survey to learn more about sources of salinity in the community’s wastewater. Participants will be entered in a drawing for a Garmin GPS unit.
We all know that too much salt in our diet can lead to high blood pressure. High salinity can also harm the environment. Excess salt in the environment can lower crop yields and harm fish and other aquatic species. It can also increase the cost of drinking water and wastewater treatment.
Woodland’s potable water is pumped from a system of groundwater wells located throughout the City. It comes from rainwater that seeps down through the soil and is filtered naturally by sand and gravel as it passes through the soil to the aquifer. As water travels through the ground, it dissolves naturally occurring minerals, which remain in the water. The result is water with a high mineral content, commonly referred to as “hard water.” …”
Read more from the Woodland Record by clicking here.
Salinity in the Central Valley: A critical problem
Posted by: Gary Pitzer on October 19, 2009 at 8:10 amBy Gary Pitzer, Water Education Foundation:
Salt. In the right amount, it’s a gift from nature. Our bodies need some salt to absorb water and, basically, to survive. But any doctor will tell you, if you take in too much salt, you’ll start to have health problems. 
A similar negative effect is happening in California and is particularly obvious in the Central Valley.
Excess salinity poses a growing threat to food production, drinking water quality and public health. Salts increase the cost of urban drinking water and wastewater treatment, which are paid for by residents and businesses.
Excess salinity – that which is greater than the standard set to protect beneficial uses – poses a growing threat to food production and drinking water quality. Salts increase the cost of urban drinking water and wastewater treatment, which are paid for by residents and businesses.
Unlike most coastal communities where salt has direct outlets to the ocean, in parts of the Central Valley there’s inadequate outlets, or even no way out, and salt accumulates. 
That is dire news for the crops. The excess salinity squeezes the productive life out of some of the most fertile soils in the world. On the municipal side, communities are spending increasing amounts of money to comply with water quality discharge standards designed to limit salinity.
Increasing salinity is likely the largest long-term chronic water quality impairment to surface and groundwater in the Central Valley. Salinity, including nitrate, from past and current sources impair beneficial uses of waters throughout the Valley landscape and result in pollution of drinking water sources for some communities in the Central Valley. While there are some salinity regulatory controls in place, it is generally agreed that a much more comprehensive approach is needed, one that involves the many users of Central Valley waters. The implications of failing to solve the problem means that California will lose significant portions of prime agricultural land that provides so much food for the state, the nation and throughout the world.
Read more
E.P.A. vows better effort on Clean Water Act enforcement
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 16, 2009 at 7:11 amFrom the New York Times:
“The Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday that it would overhaul enforcement of the Clean Water Act, as lawmakers sharply criticized the agency’s decade-long lapses in punishing polluters.
At a daylong hearing before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, the E.P.A. administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, said that agency officials “are falling short of this administration’s expectations for the effectiveness of our clean water enforcement programs.”
“The time is long overdue for E.P.A. to re-examine its approach to Clean Water Act enforcement,” said Ms. Jackson, who was confirmed to her position in January. She added that the agency would set strict benchmarks for state regulators, eventually compel companies to submit electronic pollution records so violations could be detected and punished more easily, and “develop more innovative approaches to target enforcement to the most serious violations and the most significant sources.” …”
Read more from the New York Times by clicking here.
Cleansing the air at the expense of waterways
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 13, 2009 at 8:01 amThe New York Times continues it’s coverage of worsening pollution in the country’s waterways in this article:
“MASONTOWN, Pa. — For years, residents here complained about the yellow smoke pouring from the tall chimneys of the nearby coal-fired power plant, which left a film on their cars and pebbles of coal waste in their yards. Five states — including New York and New Jersey — sued the plant’s owner, Allegheny Energy, claiming the air pollution was causing respiratory diseases and acid rain.
So three years ago, when Allegheny Energy decided to install scrubbers to clean the plant’s air emissions, environmentalists were overjoyed. The technology would spray water and chemicals through the plant’s chimneys, trapping more than 150,000 tons of pollutants each year before they escaped into the sky.
But the cleaner air has come at a cost. Each day since the equipment was switched on in June, the company has dumped tens of thousands of gallons of wastewater containing chemicals from the scrubbing process into the Monongahela River, which provides drinking water to 350,000 people and flows into Pittsburgh, 40 miles to the north.
“It’s like they decided to spare us having to breathe in these poisons, but now we have to drink them instead,” said Philip Coleman, who lives about 15 miles from the plant and has asked a state judge to toughen the facility’s pollution regulations. “We can’t escape.” …”
Read more from the New York Times by clicking here.
Paso Robles imposes restraints on salt in water; Businesses are to cut back on their discharge in an effort to reduce state penalties
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 12, 2009 at 5:50 amFrom the San Luis Obispo Tribune:
“Every day the city of Paso Robles releases 14,000 pounds of salt into the Salinas River, enough to fill a small dump truck. The salt is dissolved in water discharged by the city’s wastewater treatment plant and is the result of widespread use of water softeners.
The water is so salty that it is causing the city to pay $9,000 a month in state water quality penalties and is a major stumbling block in plans to start a citywide water-reuse plan.
“Inland communities throughout California are struggling to manage salt,” said Matt Thompson, Paso Robles’ wastewater manager. “We are essentially degrading our water supply for future generations.”
In an effort to get a handle on the problem, the City Council last week adopted a set of rules regulating how much salt businesses and industries can discharge. The new rules have some business owners in town crying foul because the rules apply only to businesses, not residences. …”
Read more from the San Luis Obispo Tribune by clicking here.
Environmentalists unhappy over what they consider over-relaxed water permits
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 6, 2009 at 7:35 amFrom Stockton’s Record:
“Angels Creek is a tree-lined stream, about 6 yards wide, where it passes the Angels Camp municipal wastewater treatment plant. It is narrower in places downstream, cascading through rock channels before it flows into New Melones Lake.
Despite its bucolic appearance, Angels Creek is on the front line of a statewide battle over water pollution regulations. A pollution discharge permit that the City of Angels received in 2007 and amended this year is one of dozens of permits issued in California in the past two years that give legal permission to degrade the quality of waterways and to discharge into those waterways higher levels of pollutants than were allowed under earlier permits.
Representatives of environmental groups say the recently issued permits are reversing progress made since the late 1960s in cleaning up California’s rivers.
“They are looking to just move permits out the door as fast as they can,” said James Wheaton, president of the Oakland-based Environmental Law Foundation. “It is shameful.” …”
Read more from the Record by clicking here.
Salinity discharges & water treatment: Could your state be the next California?
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 3, 2009 at 6:56 amFrom Water Tech Online:
“It always starts in California. That’s true of many of society’s trends.
But those involved in water treatment also look to the Golden State as a leader, foretelling what could happen in other places. People in the industry say regulators in many other states have continued to get their cues from California’s state and local regulatory activity.
Could what happens in California also affect your state?
California matters, because it’s the most populous state, with more than 37 million people, or 12 percent of the US total. It has three of the nation’s 10 most-populous cities (Los Angeles, San Diego and San Jose). It also has a diverse natural landscape, one of the world’s largest economies and very active environmental and consumer watchdog groups.
One of the most-watched California issues is salinity. As this issue of Water Technology® went to press, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was considering signing a new state law, known as AB 1366, that would give local water and wastewater agencies more power to ban salt-regenerated residential water softeners.
Multiple issues
Salinity is not the only issue there. California is also known for its aggressive regulatory approach in other areas that affect — pro and con — water treatment dealers, distributors and manufacturers. …”
Click here to read the rest of this article at Water Tech Online.
Water board tightens Delta discharge rules for polluters
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 3, 2009 at 6:23 amFrom the Tracy Press:
“A Delta watchdog group celebrated a recent move by a regional water board to tighten up standards about how much salt water cities are permitted to discharge into the ailing estuary.
The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance applauded the decision by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board to bring its policies in line with federal and state law by giving the cities less time to bring salt water discharges into compliance. Before, according to the nonprofit alliance, the water board allowed Tracy and Lodi, for example, several more years than the legally mandated 5-year deadline to comply. …”
Read more from the Tracy Press by clicking here.
CSPA forces Regional Board to withdraw illegal underground regulation
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 2, 2009 at 6:29 amFrom Bill Jennings at the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance:
“In response to a petition by the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) to California’s Office of Administrative Law (OAL), the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board’s (Regional Board) has withdrawn its illegal “underground regulation” that allowed dischargers to discharge salt to waterways at levels far exceeding water quality standards.
On 28 September 2009, the Regional Board’s Executive Officer issued a “Certification” to OAL that the “Management Guidance for Salinity in Waste Discharge Requirements” has been withdrawn. The action means that cities and industrial facilities will no longer be able to continue discharging concentrations of salt exceeding water quality standards far into the future but will have to begin efforts to achieve compliance within defined compliance schedules.
It’s a huge victory for clean water and the law but unfortunately only an initial step in holding accountable a Regional Board that seems more intent on protecting polluters than the environment. CSPA still has more than 50 wastewater permits on appeal and is preparing another petition to OAL regarding yet another underground regulation.
Salt (or salinity) is a pervasive pollutant prevalent in wastewater effluent. Numerous waterways, including the San Joaquin River and San Joaquin Delta, are identified as “impaired” and incapable of supporting identified beneficial uses because of salinity. Groundwater basins throughout the Central Valley are impaired because of salinity. Excessive salinity is damaging to irrigated agriculture, sources of drinking water and freshwater aquatic life.
Regulation of residential water softeners is critical issue, says commentary
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 13, 2009 at 7:46 amFrom the Capitol Weekly:
“Recently Capitol Weekly ran an opinion piece regarding AB 1366 (Feuer/Caballero/Strickland) – bipartisan legislation supported by an extraordinary coalition of business, agriculture, environmental, water and local governments. But that piece, written by the director of one of the few special interest groups opposing the bill, so misstates the facts that I am compelled to set the record straight.
California needs to tackle all aspects of our water crisis. For years, however, state law has unduly constrained local water agencies from determining how best to address one significant water supply and quality issue–excess salinity in some surface and groundwater supplies caused, in part, by residential self-regenerating water softeners. Following the recommendations of a 2003 Department of Water Resources task force to “reduce the restrictions on local ability to impose bans on, or more stringent standards for residential water softeners,” AB 1366 takes a measured approach to this problem.
Current law gives local and regional agencies wide latitude to regulate salinity inputs from every other source — agricultural, commercial and industrial. In southern California, the Metropolitan Water District adopted a comprehensive plan over a decade ago to control all sources of salinity to increase the local groundwater supplies and to expand water recycling. Water softener sources of salinity were identified as a critical water pollution source. When it comes to residential water softeners, however, our laws take a unique tack, imposing burdensome restrictions and explicitly limiting what local agencies can do. Never mind that one typical self-regenerating water softener can dump up to 30 pounds of salt into the sewer system each month, contributing salinity that can make water recycling cost-prohibitive. Ignore that this salinity can lead a local water agency to be out of compliance with water quality requirements, resulting in unnecessarily costly upgrades to treatment facilities that ratepayers must fund. Pay no attention to the diverse array of salt-free alternatives that are available to residents to remove the hardness from tap water without creating water quality problems. …”
Read more from the Capitol Weekly by clicking here.
State Water Resources Control Board directs new approach to application of land disposal regulations to wastewater facilities
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 5, 2009 at 8:57 amFrom Theresa A. Dunham of Somach Simmons & Dunn:
“On July 7, 2009, the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) adopted a precedential order interpreting regulations that govern waste disposal to land, and construing exemptions in these regulations as they pertain to wastewater treatment facilities and the disposal of treated effluent. (In the Matter of Own Motion Review of City of Lodi Waste Discharge Requirements and Master Reclamation Permit, Order WQ 2009-0005.) More specifically, the State Water Board’s order evaluates the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board’s (Central Valley Water Board) application of exemptions contained in title 27 of the California Code of Regulations at section 20090 to the discharge of treated effluent and food processing waste by the City of Lodi (Lodi) at its White Slough Water Pollution Control Facility. The State Water Board’s decision narrows the application of the exemptions in title 27 to wastewater facilities and activities, which may result in higher costs to wastewater treatment facilities.
Background
On September 14, 2007, the Central Valley Water Board reissued waste discharge requirements for Lodi’s White Slough Water Pollution Control Facility (otherwise referred to as the permit or Lodi permit). In addition to regulating Lodi’s surface water discharge, the permit also included requirements specific to Lodi’s land disposal activities: land discharge specifications, groundwater limitations and special study requirements. The land application facilities at Lodi consist of 49 acres of unlined ponds and approximately 790 acres of agricultural fields. Through land application, Lodi disposes a mixture of waste streams including secondary-treated municipal wastewater, industrial wastewater, biosolids and stormwater. …”
Read more about this case from Somach Simmons & Dunn by clicking here.
California Water Quality Monitoring Council unveils internet portals to connect decision makers and the public with water quality information
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 2, 2009 at 7:25 amFrom the California State Water Resources Control Board, this press release:
Sacramento- The California Water Quality Monitoring Council (Monitoring Council) is unveiling the first of several new internet portals addressing different water quality themes. The first is Is it Safe to Swim in Our Waters? The site includes interactive maps and monitoring data that focus on swimming safety. The goal is to make this information as timely and user-friendly, as possible.
The California legislature mandated in 2006 that water quality monitoring and assessment activities be coordinated among organizations inside and outside California government, and that this information be made available to decision makers and the public via the internet. The Monitoring Council was formed in 2007 by a cooperative agreement between the California Environmental Protection Agency and the Natural Resources Agency for this purpose.
In conjunction with expert stakeholder work groups, the Monitoring Council is bringing together water quality information from a wide variety of organizations with special expertise in swimming safety, coordinated through the Beach Water Quality Workgroup (Southern California) and the Central/Northern California Ocean and Bay Water Quality Monitoring Group. Local, state and federal agencies and non-governmental organizations have all pitched in to answer your water quality questions.
California’s waters are generally open and available for recreational uses. But, there are times when those uses are unsafe because of bacterial contamination from sewage spills, urban runoff, malfunctioning septic systems, discharges from boats, and waste from other swimmers, domestic animals, marine mammals and birds. Timely and accurate beach water quality monitoring and strong pollution prevention measures are critical for protecting beachgoers from waterborne diseases.
The new internet portal brings this information together in a single location and in an easy to understand manner for the public, environmental organizations, and water quality professionals. View the new portal at www.waterboards.ca.gov/monitoringcouncil/.
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