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Department of Water Resources California Water News: Water Quality 1/5/10
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China shuts dam generators following diesel spill Oakland Tribune An Overhaul for Water Rules Enforcement Water World Reno agencies try to stem rodeo pollution S.F. Chronicle Tainted well water spurs property owner to action Contra Costa Times EPA drops objection to W.Va. surface mine S.F. Chronicle
China shuts dam generators following diesel spill
Oakland Tribune-1/5/10
China has suspended power generation at a major Yellow River dam to contain diesel fuel that leaked last week from a pipeline—the latest environmental disaster to affect China's waterways, considered among the world's most polluted.
Beginning Dec. 30, an estimated 100 tons of diesel fuel spilled into the Wei River, which feeds into the Yellow, a water source for millions of Chinese.
All six generators at the Sanmenxia power station were shut down on Saturday to hold contaminated water behind the dam and keep it from flowing toward major cities downstream that rely on the river for drinking water, said Yang Ming, a spokesman for the Sanmenxia Water Conservancy Bureau.
"We may suffer some economic loss for doing so, but we need to consider the overall situation," Yang said Tuesday by telephone from the bureau's headquarters in the northern province of Shaanxi.
Built in the 1960s, the Sanmenxia dam now generates 1.2 billion kilowatt hours per year—a fraction of the 19 billion kilowatt hours per year generated by Shaanxi's seven power generating dams along the Yellow.
Authorities have already told 850,000 people in riverside communities to avoid using the Yellow for drinking or watering livestock.
However, in a statement issued late Monday, the Shaanxi provincial government said cleanup measures, including diversion channels, floating dams, and absorbing agents, had so far proven effective in containing the spill.
As of Monday, no oil slick could be seen on the Wei and oil concentration in the river averaged just 0.79 part per million (0.79 milligrams per liter), well within acceptable limits, the statement said.
The Yellow, China's second-longest river, has seen its water quality deteriorate rapidly in recent years due to rising industrial discharge and dropping water levels due to the diversion of water to major cities downstream, including Luoyang, Kaifeng and Zhengzhou.#
An Overhaul for Water Rules Enforcement
Water World-1/5/10
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.
The agency’s latest approach would, one, focus enforcement on the greatest water-quality threats, including pollution from concentrated animal feeding operations, sewer overflows, and runoff from industrial facilities, construction sites, and urban streets.
Second, it plans to work with states to improve national enforcement consistency. In their permitting and enforcement actions, states would put more emphasis on removing economic incentives to violate the law.
And, third, federal and state regulators would use updated information technology to identify, analyze and react
to serious compliance problems quickly. Already posting compliance data online for public review, the agency eventually would require water quality reports to be filed electronically.
Committee chairman Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.) said, “Some states and EPA regions have abysmal records of significant noncompliance, and a lack of effective response to these.”
The New York Times quoted an agency official as saying where states fail to act, EPA may reverse permits and step in to enforce existing rules. It also reported the likely focus of increased federal oversight includes mining companies, large livestock farms, municipal wastewater treatment plants and construction companies operating sites where polluted stormwater runs off into nearby lakes and rivers.
Witnesses from the Government Accountability Office and EPA’s Inspector General Office agreed. They testified that inconsistent enforcement, disorganization, poor data, and poor planning had stymied regulatory efforts.
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Tex.), a committee member, said, “It is nearly impossible to determine the effectiveness of federal and state efforts to protect water quality from point sources of pollution. Federal and state data on these efforts are fragmented at best, and completely inadequate at worst.
Later, Environment America reported that industrial facilities dumped 232 million pounds of toxic chemicals into American waterways in 2007. The study, which drew from the government’s Toxic Release Inventory data, said 1.5 million pounds of the chemicals have been linked to cancer in humans.
The greatest amounts of cancer-causing chemical discharges went into the Ohio River, the Catawba River in the Carolinas, and the Tennessee River. Pulp and paper mills and coal-fired power plants were the largest dischargers of the chemicals.
Noting related studies and recent investigative reports, Rep. Oberstar responded, “The fact many industrial facilities are exploiting the system and using the nation’s waterways as toxic dumping grounds is nothing less than a public health crisis.”#
Reno agencies try to stem rodeo pollution
S.F. Chronicle-1/4/10
Officials in Reno are beginning to make plans to trap and treat animal waste from the annual Reno Rodeo in June.
The Truckee Meadows Water Authority is putting up $75,000 from its Truckee River Fund, while the Reno-Sparks Convention & Visitors Authority is chipping in $10,000. Reno city officials will put in $15,000 worth of staff time.
The event draws up to 1,000 horses and cattle. When the rodeo's in town, water treatment officials say there's a sudden spike of pollutants believed to be associated with animal waste.
"You don't want to see that in the river," said Ron Penrose of the Truckee Meadows Water Authority. "You really don't want to see that real bad stuff going into the storm drain that winds up in the river eventually."
Rodeo operators say cleanup of animal waste and other debris is a top priority, and loads of manure and straw are removed daily. But there's really no way to capture it all, and some inevitably reaches the river.
"At the rodeo, you've got an intense concentration of livestock fecal matter," Penrose said. "They do have some control measures, but they're probably not sufficient."
Water authority officials find high levels of organic carbon and coliform in the river near the Glendale water treatment plant during and immediately after the rodeo.
During last summer's rodeo, experts from the city of Reno were able to connect rodeo livestock to pollutants in the river, said Penrose and Terri Svetich, Reno's acting engineering manager.
Officials plan to build an on-site drainage treatment system that will direct the worst of the pollution into the sewer system, "where it belongs," Penrose said. It will then flow to the Truckee Meadows wastewater plant in Sparks for treatment.
The system also would help clean other storm water runoff, allowing sediments to settle and stay out of the river.
It's the best way to deal with waste from the rodeo's horses and cattle, Svetich said.
"I'm not going to put diapers on all of them," she said.#
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/01/04/state/n091226S03.DTL
Tainted well water spurs property owner to action
Contra Costa Times-1/4/10
A North Pole, Alaska, property owner hopes to create a "citizen action committee" in response to the discovery of tainted water in city wells.
Flint Hills Resources announced in November that wells near its North Pole refinery had tested positive for sulfolane, a chemical with largely unknown long-term health effects. Since then, expanded testing determined that private wells as far as 2 1/2 miles north of the refinery have been found with varying amounts of the chemical.
Sulfolane is used to make fuel and bonds easily with water. Flint Hills officials believe a sulfolane spill sometime before 2000 leached into the water table near the refinery.
Flint Hills officials have offered free testing and gone door to door to contact residents and provide them with bottled drinking water. Local and state officials have called the testing precautionary and Flint Hills' actions proactive.
Robert Bradley, however, is unimpressed. He hopes a grass roots movement can spur a better response.
"Giving us a water cooler and having a meeting is not cutting it," said Bradley, who lives in Fairbanks but owns nearly 70 acres of property affected by the tainted water.
He wants members of the still-forming citizens group to pool information while waiting for additional test results from the state's Department of Environmental Conservation and Division of Public Health.
Ann Farris, project manager with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said she has contacted Bradley and looks forward to working with a community group. "I certainly don't feel like there is anything to hide," Farris said. "We want to get as much information out there as possible as fast as possible."
The long-term effects of ingesting small amounts of sulfolane, a chemical used to make fuel, have not been proven. Serious health problems have been connected to the substance, but at much higher levels than any amount found in North Pole.
Farris said it takes weeks for accurate results to be obtained from tests. She hopes the lag time is not causing anxiety.
"I had hoped that we were getting information out to anyone who wanted it or needed it," Farris said.
Bradley's anxiety is up.
"It's pretty scary to me—with the health issue and now that your property becomes virtually worthless," he said.
Bradley recently started publicizing his effort to get the community group formed. On Saturday, he took out a newspaper ad that included his home phone number. He said he received dozens of responses, though most were from people reluctant to commit to any sort of group action.
"There's been a pretty good reaction, but most people don't want to get involved," Bradley said. "Not yet. They're kind of taking a wait-and-see type of approach."#
EPA drops objection to W.Va. surface mine
S.F. Chronicle-1/5/10
By Tim Huber (Associated Press)
The Environmental Protection Agency has dropped its objections to a permit that would allow a large West Virginia surface mining complex to continue operating, U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall said Monday.
The Democratic congressman said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson told him on New Years Eve that the agency will send Patriot Coal Corp.'s application for the Hobet 45 mine to the Army Corps of Engineers this week. The EPA reviews applications; it's up to the corps to issue Clean Water Act permits allowing operators to bury intermittent streams with excess material removed from surface mines.
Rahall said Patriot negotiated concessions including water-quality monitoring with the EPA to get the permit. A spokeswoman for the St. Louis-based coal company did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
"In my discussion with Lisa Jackson," Rahall said, "she was highly complimentary of Patriot, the efforts they've made to come in compliance and work with the EPA."
EPA spokeswoman Adora Andy said the agency expects to make a formal announcement about the Hobet permit "in the short term."
The application is one of 79 held up for extra scrutiny in September as part of the Obama administration's attempt to curb environmental damage from a mining practice known as mountaintop removal. The EPA said at the time that each permit likely would cause significant damage to water quality and the environment.
The permits would allow mine operators to bury intermittent streams with excess material removed to expose coal seams. Environmental groups including the Sierra Club and the Rainforest Action Committee want Obama to ban the practice, arguing it destroys ancient mountain peaks, fouls water and damages the culture of Appalachia.
The practice is most prevalent in West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee and involves scraping and blasting away mountaintops to expose multiple coal seams.
Hobet 45 is located in Boone and Lincoln counties. Patriot's operations there are among its largest. The Hobet 21 mine, for instance, employed 295 union miners and 30 office workers at the end of September. The mine produced 2.1 million tons of coal from three seams through the first three quarters of 2009 and typically yields up to 4 million tons annually.
The coal industry and other mining supporters argue the practice keeps electricity prices low for millions of Americans in the East and Southeast and provides 14,000 high-paying jobs in Appalachia.
EPA is working through the backlog of permit applications individually, but Rahall said the Patriot agreement may serve as a template for other surface mines.
During the same New Year's conversation, Rahall said Jackson repeated the agency's plan to revoke a permit issued in 2007 for another large West Virginia surface mine, Mingo Logan Coal's Spruce No. 1, which is owned by St. Louis-based Arch Coal Inc.
"I cannot in any stretch of the imagination and have never defended EPA in the revocation," Rahall said. "There is the possibility that some portions of that may, may, should negotiations be fruitful, be allowed to proceed."#
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/01/05/financial/f050011S16.DTL
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