Department of Water Resources California Water News: Water Quality 1/4/10

Valley water clean enough for humans - but not fish

Pasadena Star-News-1/3/10

By Rebecca Kimitch

 

A $100 million plan to clean up groundwater contaminated by the aerospace industry faces setbacks as officials struggle to contain remnants of toxic waste.

 

The plan was to clean water contaminated with perchlorates and other chemicals and discharge it into the San Gabriel River. But, while federal and state laws say the water is good enough for drinking, it's not safe for fish.

 

"Although they meet drinking water standards, they don't meet water quality standards," said Ray Chavira, a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency. "It affects freshwater fish and microorganisms and their ability to reproduce. It doesn't affect humans."

 

So now, officials are scrambling to come up with a place to send the clean water.

 

"We need to contain this plume before it reaches drinking water wells," Chavira said. "So we have to worry about time."

 

The problem is that there's already $5 million worth of pipes and wells in place, ready to pump contaminated water into a treatment facility that would send it to the river, officials said.

 

A possible solution is taking the newly cleaned water and using it to recharge the aquifer beneath the San Gabriel Valley. Another solution is simply recycling it.

 

Representatives of San Gabriel Valley cities, water districts and officials from the EPA plan to meet Jan. 7 to discuss a variety of proposals.

 

Though the project will clean up some 4 million gallons of water a day, finding a use for it is complicated. To be used as drinking water, health officials require it to be blended with water that was never contaminated. Other solutions could require different pipes to be laid, additional treatments, and large fees from various water agencies.

 

Whatever the option, it will add millions of dollars to the cleanup's price tag, already estimated to cost $100 million over the 30 years it is expected it will take to clean up the contamination.

 

The companies responsible for the contamination - today part of Northrop Grumman and United Technologies Corporation - will be responsible for the added cost, according to the EPA.

 

"Are they going to challenge it? They would always like to minimize their cost. They could challenge it, and we would hear them out," Chavira said. "But ... they are the ones responsible for this contamination."

 

Northrop Grumman spokesman Gus Gulmert said the company is working with the EPA to find a "reasonable solution to this new problem."

 

"The company remains committed to solving this problem as quickly as possible and getting the remedy back on track," he said.

 

Finding a solution quickly is key, Chavira said.

 

The contamination plume is growing by about 300 feet a year. Already some drinking water wells have been shut down.

 

"It's about time. How long has it been contaminated? Decades," she said.

 

The EPA and the responsible parties thought they had their fix - about a quarter of the treated water would be blended with other water and used for drinking, the rest of it would be flushed down the river into the ocean.

 

"Until this summer, everyone thought it was all good. Then, all of a sudden, it was `no, you can't do this,"' said Dan Colby, project resource manager for the San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority.

 

But county officials discovered that the treated water would exceed the EPA's own allowed levels for selenium - a naturally occurring chemical element in the aquifer - for discharge into the river.

 

"The quality requirements for stormwater and for drinking water don't match up," said Mark Pestrella, deputy director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works.

 

"Once we discovered there was a conflict, we pushed very hard to get EPA together, to resolve this conflict," Pestrella said.

 

Other projects throughout the county could face similar fates.

 

The county's heightened concern is in part due to a lawsuit by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Baykeeper over pollutants it discharges into the ocean. They have been in litigation for the past year and a half.

 

Even if it is an upstream user that is putting the questionable water into the county's water system, the county can still be held liable, Pestrella explained.

 

"Even though it is a combination of everyone's discharges, the claim by NRDC says that the county alone is responsible for those exceedences," Pestrella said. "So if we are going to be held liable, we get very sensitive about what is being put into the system."#

 

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/rds_search/ci_14115739?IADID=Search-www.pasadenastarnews.com-www.pasadenastarnews.com

 

 

Will to build water treatment project springs leaks

Modesto Bee-1/3/10

Editorial

 

Off and on for nearly 30 years, there have been discussions about building a plant to treat Tuolumne River water so it can be used for drinking, washing and other domestic purposes by people in Turlock, Ceres and other communities within the Turlock Irrigation District.

 

A plant location has been identified — northeast of Hughson, near Geer Road — and the land purchased. An environmental impact report was completed in 2006. And as recently as 2008, it appeared that the project could be under construction by now and operating by 2011.

 

Obviously, that hasn't happened.

 

In fact, the four potential partners in the treatment plant — Turlock, Ceres, Modesto and Hughson — have yet to make firm commitments to proceed. And in recent months, some of the council members have shown varying degrees of cold feet. The reluctance is especially acute in Turlock and Hughson — both with divided councils and with council elections next fall.

 

The obstacles for this project are the same ones that plague many expensive, long-term investments, especially those whose benefits aren't readily visible to the citizens who will have to pay for them:

 

The rising price tag. The project cost has gone from $30 million in 1997 to almost $200 million today, counting all the pipelines needed to move the water into the four cities. The cost would be borne by users, which means there will have to be significant increases in water rates.

 

Doubts about the need. Ceres, Turlock and Hughson continue to rely entirely on wells for their drinking water. While arsenic and other contaminants have taken some wells out of service, and while it is getting harder to successfully drill wells that provide top-quality water, it isn't impossible. Most local elected officials aren't fully attuned to the prognosis for groundwater overdraft — or the risk of getting all your water from one source.

 

Leadership turnover. Council members and city managers come and go, which makes it critical to educate the newcomers on water issues in general and this project in particular.

 

A lack of political will. Especially in this economy, elected officials are reluctant — scared might be a better word — to call for significantly higher water rates, especially when ample water is still flowing through the taps and when many valley residents are still adjusting to water meters. The prevailing attitude remains that water is, and should be, plentiful and cheap.

 

The complexity of negotiating and keeping the deal. Over the years, Delhi and Keyes both dropped out of this proposal. Some council members in the four cities seem to be in full retreat, more so because some people view water rate increases as tax hikes.

 

The TID is no longer interested in building or owning the treatment plant, in part because the other partners have shown such reluctance. TID leaders were worried than one or more cities might pull out or be unable to pay up, leaving TID's ratepayers on the hook for an expensive water project.

 

The TID, however, does want this project to go forward, for reasons that tie to the larger challenges of California water.

 

Jeff Barton, TID assistant general manager for civil engineering and water operations, said there are a dozen independent processes under way that could result in more Tuolumne River water being diverted elsewhere, most likely to improve the health of the San Joaquin River and delta and to make more water available for fish flows.

 

An attractive aspect of the TID water plant location is that it is far enough downstream that it preserves a crucial spawning area for salmon between La Grange and Hughson.

 

The MID's water treatment plant — currently being expanded — is located off the main river, at Modesto Reservoir, and that water is diverted above the spawning area.

 

Under the TID proposal, the river water could benefit the salmon and then could be pulled out for urban uses.

 

In other words, it looks to be one of those proverbial win-win scenarios.

 

Another key aspect: Building the water-treatment plant reaffirms the Turlock area's prudent use of Tuolumne River water and helps preserve its historic right to the water. Conversely, if the TID doesn't want or document its need for Tuolumne water, there are plenty of outside entities that would like it.

 

By mid-2010, the four cities are expected to decide whether to continue with this plant.

 

We recognize that it will mean higher water rates but hope that the city leaders can look past the current economy — and beyond their own political careers — to see how important it is to make the most of Tuolumne River water.

 

If they don't, we can envision a time — maybe 30 years from now — when residents will ask why 2010-era leaders showed neither the vision nor political will to secure the area's water supply.#

 

http://www.modbee.com/editorials/story/993416.html

 

 

Don’t break the bank on selenium

Costa Mesa Daily Pilot-1/2/10

Editorial

 

The high levels of selenium found in the Upper Newport Bay watershed are troubling indeed. State water quality officials earlier this month ordered Orange County, Newport Beach and several other cities, public agencies and private entities whose lands lie upstream from the estuary to pay perhaps hundreds of millions to fix the problem.

 

This natural chemical is an essential nutrient for living species and organisms. But large concentrations can be poisonous to birds, mammals and humans, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center.

 

Selenium can cause deformities in avian embryos when birds ingest food like fish that contain toxic traces of the chemical. During the 1980s, high levels of selenium in the wetlands of Kesterton National Wildlife Refuge in the San Joaquin Valley killed many migratory birds.

 

The state’s Regional Water Quality Control Board has ordered the city of Newport Beach to lower the levels of selenium found in San Diego Creek, a tributary that flows into the Upper Bay, said City Manager Dave Kiff. He said high levels of selenium also have been discovered in Big Canyon Creek, located elsewhere in the watershed. The state hasn’t ordered the city to decontaminate that tributary, but Newport Beach has some relatively inexpensive ideas for reducing selenium levels along both creeks, Kiff said.

 

Selenium becomes a problem when large concentrations of it convert into its toxic form, known as selenate, he said. As Kiff sees it, a solution for the selenium problem — particularly along San Diego Creek — would be to install a pipe that would channel the contaminated water into the Santa Ana River. He thinks it would be more simple and practical than a range of possible solutions that the state wants Newport Beach to explore.

 

We urge the city to take measures such as the one Kiff outlined to safeguard the endangered bird species that flock to Upper Newport Bay. At the same time, however, we call on the state not to force Newport Beach into dealing with the selenium issue in a way that would strain the city’s budget even more in these tough economic times.#

 

http://www.dailypilot.com/articles/2010/01/03/opinion/dpt-editorialb010310.txt

 

 

China diesel spill prompts water use alert

S.F. Chronicle-1/4/10

By Christopher Bodeen (Associated Press)

 

Hundreds of thousands of Chinese were told Monday to stop using water from the Yellow River after an upstream pipeline leaked 100 tons of diesel fuel into a tributary.

 

The leak is the latest environmental disaster to strike China's waterways, considered the world's most heavily polluted.

 

The diesel spilled from a broken pipeline on Wednesday into the Wei River which feeds into the Yellow River, a water source for millions of Chinese.

 

Three counties and an industrial zone in western Shanxi province have been ordered to halt their use of river water, according to a notice issued by the local government. The areas have a combined population of about 850,000 people.

 

The warning contradicted earlier reports that the contaminated water had been contained after workers dug diversion channels and used floating dams and solidifying agents to try to stop the diesel spill.

 

"Relevant departments remind those living along the river that for the sake of safety, both people and livestock should suspend use of Yellow River water for drinking," said the notice from the region's Yuncheng city government publicity office.

 

Yucheng is an industrial center 720 miles (1,160 kilometers) southwest of China's capital, Beijing.

 

The notice did not say how much of the slick had made it into the river, saying only that tests showed the leak "could create an impact on the water quality of the Yellow River."

 

China's second-longest river has already seen its water quality deteriorate rapidly in recent years as discharge from factories has increased and water levels have dropped because of diversion for booming cities.

 

The pipeline's owner, China National Petroleum Corp., said last week it had plugged the leak in the pipeline and had removed a "large amount" of contaminated water, mud and sand.

 

There was no immediate word on disruption of supplies from the pipeline, a key fuel conduit which links the capitals of northwest Gansu province and central Henan province. CNPC is China's largest producer of oil and gas.

 

China's Environmental Ministry has tried to shut down polluting factories along China's main waterways, but its power is limited because local environmental protection bureaus are under the control of local governments.

 

In 2005 carcinogenic chemicals, including benzene, spilled into the Songhua River, forcing the northeastern city of Harbin to sever water supplies to 3.8 million people for five days. The accident also strained relations with Russia, into which the poisoned waters flowed.#

 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/01/02/international/i083303S98.DTL

 

 

 

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