The design phase for the Advanced Water Treatment (AWT)
demonstration facility, part of the Palmdale Water District’s
Pure Water Antelope Valley programme in the US, has been
finalised. Stantec, the lead designer, announced
that construction is scheduled to commence in the upcoming
mid-year period, following a ground-breaking ceremony held in
June. The demonstration facility will function as a hub for
public education, treatment assessment, data acquisition, and
regulatory compliance. Over a 12-month period, the data
collected will guide the design of a larger 5 MGD AWT facility,
which is poised to become a component of the Pure Water
Antelope Valley initiative. This full-scale facility aims
to generate around five million gallons per day of drinking
water by treating tertiary effluent from the Los Angeles County
Sanitation Districts’ Palmdale Water Reclamation Plant.
Toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” are widely added to pesticides,
and are increasingly used in the products in recent years, new
research finds, a practice that creates a health threat by
spreading the dangerous compounds directly into the US’s food
and water supply. The analysis of active and inert ingredients
that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved for
use in pesticides proves recent agency claims that the
chemicals aren’t used in pesticides are
false. … Among chemicals in pesticides are PFOA and
PFOS, two of the most dangerous PFAS compounds. The EPA has
found virtually no level of exposure to the two chemicals in
drinking water is safe.
In November, California voters will decide whether to approve
of a bond that would fund state climate initiatives.
Legislators announced the $10 billion bond will appear on the
November ballot as Proposition 4 earlier this month. Dozens of
environmental groups advocated for it, especially in light of
state budget cuts made earlier in the year that impacted
climate programs. Many advocates are optimistic
voters will approve of the bond, citing a PPIC survey
published earlier this month that found 59% of California
voters would likely vote “yes.” … The bond would fund a
wide range of the state’s climate efforts. Its main focus areas
include state water projects (like those aimed at ensuring safe
drinking water for all Californians), reducing wildfire risks,
coastal resilience, extreme heat mitigation, sustainable
agriculture, protection of biodiversity, air quality and
equitable access to outdoor spaces.
Five years after its launch, the state of California’s landmark
Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience (SAFER)
drinking water program has made significant progress in
advancing the human right to water. In the five years since the
program was established, the State Water Resources Control
Board has distributed more than $1 billion in grants to
disadvantaged communities – over two-and-a-half times the
amount of grants provided during the five years prior. During
this time, the number of people served by failing water systems
has fallen from 1.6 million to 700,000 – a net gain of 900,000
more Californians who now have safe and affordable drinking
water.
The legacy of a public health achievement in Oroville — adding
fluoride in drinking water — is now on its way to being
reversed as Oroville councilors pleaded for personal choice
over its widely-researched public health benefits, leaving
health experts worried on dental care costs likely increasing
for rural children. The City Council voted 6-1 Tuesday and
passed an ordinance to begin working with the California Public
Utilities Commission on lifting its fluoride requirement with
Cal Water. The requirement has been in place since 1957, thanks
to a grassroots movement of citizens in the late 1940s and
1950s which pushed the City Council at that time to directly
request the CPUC to order Cal Water to add fluoride; tension
between the city and the utility ran deep at the time.
With Sacramento County facing backlash for ending water
delivery to about three dozen homeless camps amid a
record-breaking heat wave, the city of Sacramento will resume
delivery to at least one camp. Mayor Darrell Steinberg
announced Thursday the city will pay for water delivery to
resume for the rest of the summer at Camp Resolution in North
Sacramento, where about 50 people live in city-issued trailers.
“It’s the right thing to do,” Steinberg wrote in a statement on
X Thursday. “We made our first two deliveries last week and
this morning, and will continue regular drop-offs of water for
every resident.”
One in 3 households on the Navajo Nation lacks access to safe
drinking water, but a $5 billion deal reached in May could
change that by giving the sprawling reservation’s 175,000
residents rights to the highly prized Colorado River. The
agreement needs Congress’ blessing, though. And there are
plenty of reasons for pessimism. Those include the eye-popping
price tag, as well as controversial provisions granting the
tribe the right to move water across legal boundaries and lease
its supplies to cities or farms. Those issues inject the
settlement squarely into the heated negotiations over how to
parcel out the Colorado River’s diminishing flows among the
seven states that rely on it.
For years, scientists have worried about “forever chemicals,”
substances used to make hundreds of household items that have
been linked by research to a wide range of health problems. In
response, a growing number of companies have pledged not to use
the chemicals, and regulators have increasingly taken aim at
them. But even as work continues to phase out the
substances, scientists are beginning to focus on new types that
are far more widespread than earlier realized — prompting
worries about undetected health risks. A growing body of
research has raised concerns about a forever chemical known as
TFA, which is short for trifluoroacetic acid and has been found
in increasing amounts in rainwater, groundwater and drinking
water. The chemical has a composition that scientists say may
make it especially hard to filter, although scientists lack
consensus on whether it poses a human health risk.
Rising water prices are forcing many households in the United
States to choose between rationing water or risking shutoff by
leaving bills unpaid. A new study in Environmental Research
Letters shows government agencies and water utilities may be
underestimating the true number of households at risk of losing
affordable access to basic water service – and offers a
solution. … Accurate assessments of water affordability are
important because they inform decisions about utility rates,
assistance programs, and eligibility for government financing
for infrastructure improvements.
Just as one of the worst heat waves in recorded history was
beginning, Sacramento County decided to stop delivering water
to homeless encampments. A source of federal funds had run dry.
Keeping the homeless alive simply wasn’t a county priority.
That is an unfair hand to deal to the unhoused Sacramentans who
had been relying on this water supply to survive. Water for any
human being is not an option. It is a requirement to exist.
This is a black eye to county supervisors who say they do a
good job managing homelessness and don’t get credit for it. And
now that the county has failed to meet this most basic of
needs, the city should be prepared to step in and do the
county’s job for them. Neither thirst nor the sun are going
away. It’s quite ironic that the county stopped delivering
water just about when the U.S. Supreme Court gave the county
and local jurisdictions throughout the West more power to
criminalize homelessness. At least in jail, the county provides
water.
Thanks to Hetch Hetchy, [San Francisco] has some of the
cleanest tap water across California. But for nearly 1 million
people statewide, healthy drinking water remains out of
reach. … Experts and advocates who spoke to The
Examiner unanimously used one word to describe the most
pertinent solution to address the water issues plaguing the
state: consolidation. In other words, getting big
municipalities with access to dense water resources to absorb
smaller, struggling water systems. … There are currently more
than 7,000 water systems throughout the state, which is, in
itself, a major part of the problem, the experts said, and why
2% of the population lacks clean drinking water access. … San
Francisco is, in some ways, the poster child for the difference
it makes when a large population is served by a consolidated
water system. The City’s water is managed by a single public
utility, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.
… And, for nearly 100 years, San Franciscans have
received their drinking water almost exclusively from Hetch
Hetchy Reservoir, a rich snowmelt-fed body of water in the
Yosemite Valley. … San Francisco is one of just five
water systems that has not received a failing report since the
state began evaluating them in 2017.
The Biden administration pushed out a flurry of major
environmental rules early this year under a looming threat of
rollbacks if former President Donald Trump clinches the White
House in November’s election. But some significant rules won’t
get out the door in time to shield them from being reversed if
Trump wins, a reality that was on stark display last week when
the Biden administration released its plans for upcoming
regulations. … Earlier this year, Biden’s agencies
finished a series of significant regulations, including a
high-stakes power plant rule on climate pollution, a policy
governing conservation of public lands and drinking water
standards for some members of the “forever chemicals” family
known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. … EPA
is expected to roll out a revised lead and copper rule for
drinking water systems, which would trigger action sooner to
reduce lead exposure and require lead pipes to be replaced
within 10 years. That rule isn’t expected to be
completed until October.
Three water systems in Santa Barbara County failed the state’s
annual assessment of drinking water systems, with another 12
falling into the “at-risk” category. Serving a population
of more than 6,000 individuals and more than one million
tourists annually, the Solvang Water Division was the largest
of the three failures. However, upon receiving the State Water
Resources Control Board’s notice, Solvang immediately took the
perchlorate-contaminated well offline. This resulted in no
service interruptions and brought the number of current failing
systems in the county down to two as of this Monday.
The Miramar Reservoir is once again open to motorboats, canoes,
kayaks and float tubes. … [San Diego] closed the
reservoir to boats last September to install a mile-long
underwater pipeline. It’s part of the city’s effort to reduce
San Diego’s dependence on imported water by purifying recycled
water. Right now, most of the water in the Miramar Reservoir
comes from the Colorado River. … The cost of that imported
water has tripled in the last 15 years.
To continue providing safe, clean, reliable tap water to
customers across the communities it serves, Cal Water yesterday
submitted Infrastructure Improvement Plans for its California
districts from 2025-2027 in its General Rate Case (GRC) filing
with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). The
application also proposes a Low-Use Water Equity Program, which
would decouple revenue from water sales, to assist
low-water-using, lower-income customers. … Associated
rates set by the CPUC would become effective no sooner than
January 2026. In the plans, Cal Water proposes to invest more
than $1.6 billion in its districts from 2025-2027, including
approximately $1.3 billion of newly proposed capital
investments.
Christina Hecht remembers how water made its way into school
lunch law because the process was unusually easy. Back in the
mid-2000s, a researcher toured school cafeterias in California
and wondered, “What are these kids to do if they want a drink
of water?” said Hecht, a policy adviser at the University of
California’s Nutrition Policy Institute. At the time, 40% of
the state’s schools failed to offer free water in their
cafeterias. That fact eventually reached the then governor and
former bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger, who moved to pass SB
1413 requiring schools to offer free, fresh water during
mealtimes. Advocates then used California’s example to convince
US senators working on 2010’s Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act
(HHFKA) – a federal package setting nutrition standards and
food funding for public schools and childcare centers – to add
drinking water to that legislation, too. … Yet experts
say that 14 years after the passage of the HHFKA, many schools
are still falling short of its potable water requirement.
A Southern California environmental group is suing the U.S.
Forest Service for allowing bottled water company BlueTriton
Brands to pipe water out of the San Bernardino National Forest.
The nonprofit group Save Our Forest Assn. filed the lawsuit in
federal court, arguing the Forest Service violated federal laws
by allowing the company to continue piping water from boreholes
and water tunnels in the San Bernardino Mountains. The
environmental group said the extraction of water, which is
bottled and sold as Arrowhead 100% Mountain Spring Water, has
dramatically reduced the flow of Strawberry Creek and is
causing significant environmental harm.
Water bubbles up in streets, pooling in neighborhoods for weeks
or months. Homes burn to the ground if firefighters can’t draw
enough water from hydrants. Utility crews struggle to fix
broken pipes while water flows through shut-off valves that
don’t work. … Across the U.S., trillions of gallons of
drinking water are lost every year, especially from decrepit
systems in communities struggling with significant population
loss and industrial decline that leave behind poorer residents,
vacant neighborhoods and too-large water systems that are
difficult to maintain.
Water regulation in Arizona has devolved into a game of
chicken. The governor and farmers are rivals revving their
engines, hoping their opponent will flinch first. Caught
in the middle is Gila Bend, a groundwater basin south of
Buckeye, where the state could decide to impose its most
stringent form of regulation, whether folks like it or not.
Both sides are using Gila Bend as a bargaining chip to win
support for competing legislative proposals. But to what
end? - Written by Joanna Allhands, Arizona Republic digital
opinions editor
The U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee is holding an
important hearing Thursday on S. 2385, a bill to
refine the tools needed to help Tribal communities gain access
to something that most non-Indian communities in the western
United States have long taken for granted: federally subsidized
systems to deliver safe, clean drinking water to our homes.
… This is the sort of bill (there’s a companion on the
House side) that makes a huge amount of sense, but could easily
get sidetracked in the chaos of Congress. The ideal path is for
the crucial vetting to happen in a process such as Thursday’s
hearing, and then to attach it to one of those omnibus things
that Congress uses these days to get non-controversial stuff
done. Clean water for Native communities should pretty clearly
be non-controversial.
State health officials know that extreme heat can cost lives
and send people to the hospital, just like wildfire smoke. Now,
new research finds that when people are exposed to both hazards
simultaneously — as is increasingly the case in California —
heart and respiratory crises outpace the expected sum of
hospitalizations compared to when the conditions occur
separately. … The study joins a growing body of research
about the intersection of different climate risks. Last month,
California-based think-tank the Pacific
Institute published a report about how converging
hazards — including wildfires, drought, flooding, sea level
rise and intensifying storms — are harming access to drinking
water and sanitation in California and other parts of the
world. The deadly 2018 Camp fire in Butte
County impacted an estimated 2,438 private wells, the
report said.
After more than two decades of
drought, water utilities serving the largest urban regions in the
arid Southwest are embracing a drought-proof source of drinking
water long considered a supply of last resort: purified sewage.
Water supplies have tightened to the point that Phoenix and the
water supplier for 19 million Southern California residents are
racing to adopt an expensive technology called “direct potable
reuse” or “advanced purification” to reduce their reliance on
imported water from the dwindling Colorado River.
… A state audit from the California Water Resources Control
Board released last year found that over 920,000 residents
faced an increased risk of illness–including cancer, liver and
kidney problems–due to consuming unsafe drinking water. A
majority of these unsafe water systems are in the Central
Valley. The matter has prompted community leaders to mobilize
residents around water quality as politicians confront
imperfect solutions for the region’s supply. Advocates point
out that impacted areas, including those in Tulare County, tend
to be majority Latino with low median incomes. … This
year’s extreme weather has only worsened the valley’s problems.
The storms that hit California at the start of this year caused
stormwater tainted with farm industry fertilizer, manure and
nitrates to flow into valley aquifers.
Tiny pieces of plastic waste shed
from food wrappers, grocery bags, clothing, cigarette butts,
tires and paint are invading the environment and every facet of
daily life. Researchers know the plastic particles have even made
it into municipal water supplies, but very little data exists
about the scope of microplastic contamination in drinking
water.
After years of planning, California this year is embarking on a
first-of-its-kind data-gathering mission to illuminate how
prevalent microplastics are in the state’s largest drinking water
sources and help regulators determine whether they are a public
health threat.
A pilot program in the Salinas Valley run remotely out of Los Angeles is offering a test case for how California could provide clean drinking water for isolated rural communities plagued by contaminated groundwater that lack the financial means or expertise to connect to a larger water system.
Martha Guzman recalls those awful
days working on water and other issues as a deputy legislative
secretary for then-Gov. Jerry Brown. California was mired in a
recession and the state’s finances were deep in the red. Parks
were cut, schools were cut, programs were cut to try to balance a
troubled state budget in what she remembers as “that terrible
time.”
She now finds herself in a strikingly different position: As
administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
Region 9, she has a mandate to address water challenges across
California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii and $1 billion to help pay
for it. It is the kind of funding, she said, that is usually
spread out over a decade. Guzman called it the “absolutely
greatest opportunity.”
Across a sprawling corner of southern Tulare County snug against the Sierra Nevada, a bounty of navel oranges, grapes, pistachios, hay and other crops sprout from the loam and clay of the San Joaquin Valley. Groundwater helps keep these orchards, vineyards and fields vibrant and supports a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy across the valley. But that bounty has come at a price. Overpumping of groundwater has depleted aquifers, dried up household wells and degraded ecosystems.
Shortly after taking office in 2019,
Gov. Gavin Newsom called on state agencies to deliver a Water
Resilience Portfolio to meet California’s urgent challenges —
unsafe drinking water, flood and drought risks from a changing
climate, severely depleted groundwater aquifers and native fish
populations threatened with extinction.
Within days, he appointed Nancy Vogel, a former journalist and
veteran water communicator, as director of the Governor’s Water
Portfolio Program to help shepherd the monumental task of
compiling all the information necessary for the portfolio. The
three state agencies tasked with preparing the document delivered
the draft Water Resilience Portfolio Jan. 3. The document, which
Vogel said will help guide policy and investment decisions
related to water resilience, is nearing the end of its comment
period, which goes through Friday, Feb. 7.
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
It’s been a year since two devastating wildfires on opposite ends
of California underscored the harsh new realities facing water
districts and cities serving communities in or adjacent to the
state’s fire-prone wildlands. Fire doesn’t just level homes, it
can contaminate water, scorch watersheds, damage delivery systems
and upend an agency’s finances.
Summer is a good time to take a
break, relax and enjoy some of the great beaches, waterways and
watersheds around California and the West. We hope you’re getting
a chance to do plenty of that this July.
But in the weekly sprint through work, it’s easy to miss
some interesting nuggets you might want to read. So while we’re
taking a publishing break to work on other water articles planned
for later this year, we want to help you catch up on
Western Water stories from the first half of this year
that you might have missed.
Each day, people living on the streets and camping along waterways across California face the same struggle – finding clean drinking water and a place to wash and go to the bathroom.
Some find friendly businesses willing to help, or public restrooms and drinking water fountains. Yet for many homeless people, accessing the water and sanitation that most people take for granted remains a daily struggle.
Californians have been doing an
exceptional job
reducing their indoor water use, helping the state survive
the most recent drought when water districts were required to
meet conservation targets. With more droughts inevitable,
Californians are likely to face even greater calls to save water
in the future.
One of California Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade
Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within
weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that
Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing.
That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach”
on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded
floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.
Although Santa Monica may be the most aggressive Southern California water provider to wean itself from imported supplies, it is hardly the only one looking to remake its water portfolio.
In Los Angeles, a city of about 4 million people, efforts are underway to dramatically slash purchases of imported water while boosting the amount from recycling, stormwater capture, groundwater cleanup and conservation. Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2014 announced a plan to reduce the city’s purchase of imported water from Metropolitan Water District by one-half by 2025 and to provide one-half of the city’s supply from local sources by 2035. (The city considers its Eastern Sierra supplies as imported water.)
Low-income Californians can get help with their phone bills, their natural gas bills and their electric bills. But there’s only limited help available when it comes to water bills.
That could change if the recommendations of a new report are implemented into law. Drafted by the State Water Resources Control Board, the report outlines the possible components of a program to assist low-income households facing rising water bills.
More than a decade in the making, an
ambitious plan to deal with the vexing problem of salt and
nitrates in the soils that seep into key groundwater basins of
the Central Valley is moving toward implementation. But its
authors are not who you might expect.
An unusual collaboration of agricultural interests, cities, water
agencies and environmental justice advocates collaborated for
years to find common ground to address a set of problems that
have rendered family wells undrinkable and some soil virtually
unusable for farming.
Joaquin Esquivel learned that life is
what happens when you make plans. Esquivel, who holds the public
member slot at the State Water Resources Control Board in
Sacramento, had just closed purchase on a house in Washington
D.C. with his partner when he was tapped by Gov. Jerry Brown a
year ago to fill the Board vacancy.
Esquivel, 35, had spent a decade in Washington, first in several
capacities with then Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and then as
assistant secretary for federal water policy at the California
Natural Resources Agency. As a member of the State Water Board,
he shares with four other members the difficult task of
ensuring balance to all the uses of California’s water.
A new study could help water
agencies find solutions to the vexing challenges the homeless
face in gaining access to clean water for drinking and
sanitation.
The Santa Ana Watershed Project
Authority (SAWPA) in Southern California has embarked on a
comprehensive and collaborative effort aimed at assessing
strengths and needs as it relates to water services for people
(including the homeless) within its 2,840 square-mile area that
extends from the San Bernardino Mountains to the Orange County
coast.
A statewide program that began under a 2015 law to help
low-income people with their water bills would cost about $600
million annually, a public policy expert told the California
State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) at a
meeting last week.
Potable water, also known as
drinking water, comes from surface and ground sources and is
treated to levels that that meet state and federal standards for
consumption.
Water from natural sources is treated for microorganisms,
bacteria, toxic chemicals, viruses and fecal matter. Drinking
raw, untreated water can cause gastrointestinal problems such as
diarrhea, vomiting or fever.
Directly detecting harmful pathogens in water can be expensive,
unreliable and incredibly complicated. Fortunately, certain
organisms are known to consistently coexist with these harmful
microbes which are substantially easier to detect and culture:
coliform bacteria. These generally non-toxic organisms are
frequently used as “indicator
species,” or organisms whose presence demonstrates a
particular feature of its surrounding environment.
This card includes information about the Colorado River, who uses
the river, how the river’s water is divided and other pertinent
facts about this vital resource for the Southwest. Beautifully
illustrated with color photographs.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
20-minute DVD that explains the problem with polluted stormwater,
and steps that can be taken to help prevent such pollution and
turn what is often viewed as a “nuisance” into a water resource
through various activities.
Many Californians don’t realize that when they turn on the
faucet, the water that flows out could come from a source close
to home or one hundreds of miles away. Most people take their
water for granted; not thinking about the elaborate systems and
testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state. Where drinking water comes from,
how it’s treated, and what people can do to protect its quality
are highlighted in this 2007 PBS documentary narrated by actress
Wendie Malick.
A 30-minute version of the 2007 PBS documentary Drinking Water:
Quenching the Public Thirst. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues surrounding the elaborate systems
and testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state.
This 30-minute DVD explains the importance of developing a source
water assessment program (SWAP) for tribal lands and by profiling
three tribes that have created SWAPs. Funded by a grant from the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the video complements the
Foundation’s 109-page workbook, Protecting Drinking Water: A
Workbook for Tribes, which includes a step-by-step work plan for
Tribes interested in developing a protection plan for their
drinking water.
A companion to the Truckee River Basin Map poster, this
24×36-inch poster, suitable for framing, explores the Carson
River, and its link to the Truckee River. The map includes the
Lahontan Dam and reservoir, the Carson Sink, and the farming
areas in the basin. Map text discusses the region’s hydrology and
geography, the Newlands Project, land and water use within the
basin and wetlands. Development of the map was funded by a grant
from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region, Lahontan
Basin Area Office.
This beautiful 24×36-inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Truckee River Basin, including
the Newlands Project, Pyramid Lake and Lake Tahoe. Map text
explains the issues surrounding the use of the Truckee-Carson
rivers, Lake Tahoe water quality improvement efforts, fishery
restoration and the effort to reach compromise solutions to many
of these issues.
This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, illustrates the
water resources available for Nevada cities, agriculture and the
environment. It features natural and manmade water resources
throughout the state, including the Truckee and Carson rivers,
Lake Tahoe, Pyramid Lake and the course of the Colorado River
that forms the state’s eastern boundary.
Water as a renewable resource is depicted in this 18×24 inch
poster. Water is renewed again and again by the natural
hydrologic cycle where water evaporates, transpires from plants,
rises to form clouds, and returns to the earth as precipitation.
Excellent for elementary school classroom use.
As the state’s population continues to grow and traditional water
supplies grow tighter, there is increased interest in reusing
treated wastewater for a variety of activities, including
irrigation of crops, parks and golf courses, groundwater recharge
and industrial uses.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Integrated Regional Water
Management (IRWM) is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the principles of IRWM,
its funding history and how it differs from the traditional water
management approach.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Groundwater is an in-depth,
easy-to-understand publication that provides background and
perspective on groundwater. The guide explains what groundwater
is – not an underground network of rivers and lakes! – and the
history of its use in California.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to California Water provides an
excellent overview of the history of water development and use in
California. It includes sections on flood management; the state,
federal and Colorado River delivery systems; Delta issues; water
rights; environmental issues; water quality; and options for
stretching the water supply such as water marketing and
conjunctive use. New in this 10th edition of the guide is a
section on the human need for water.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Delta explores the competing
uses and demands on California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Included in the guide are sections on the history of the Delta,
its role in the state’s water system, and its many complex issues
with sections on water quality, levees, salinity and agricultural
drainage, fish and wildlife, and water distribution.
Finding and maintaining a clean
water supply for drinking and other uses has been a constant
challenge throughout human history.
Today, significant technological developments in water treatment,
including monitoring and assessment, help ensure a drinking water
supply of high quality in California and the West.
The source of water and its initial condition prior to being
treated usually determines the water treatment process. [See also
Water Recycling.]
A tremendous amount of time and technology is expended to make
surface water safe to drink. Surface water undergoes many
processes before it reaches a consumer’s tap.
The federal Safe Drinking Water Act sets standards for drinking
water quality in the United States.
Launched in 1974 and administered by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, the Safe Drinking Water Act oversees states,
communities, and water suppliers who implement the drinking water
standards at the local level.
The act’s regulations apply to every public water system in the
United States but do not include private wells serving less than
25 people.
According to the EPA, there are more than 160,000 public water
systems in the United States.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
groundwater management and the extent to which stakeholders
believe more efforts are needed to preserve and restore the
resource.
This printed issue of Western Water, based on presentations
at the November 3-4, 2010 Water Quality Conference in Ontario,
Calif., looks at constituents of emerging concerns (CECs) – what
is known, what is yet to be determined and the potential
regulatory impacts on drinking water quality.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
desalination – an issue that is marked by great optimism and
controversy – and the expected role it might play as an
alternative water supply strategy.
This printed copy of Western Water examines the challenges facing
small water systems, including drought preparedness, limited
operating expenses and the hurdles of complying with costlier
regulations. Much of the article is based on presentations at the
November 2007 Small Systems Conference sponsored by the Water
Education Foundation and the California Department of Water
Resources.
This issue of Western Water looks at some of the issues
facing drinking water providers, such as compliance with
increasingly stringent treatment requirements, the need to
improve source water quality and the mission of continually
informing consumers about the quality of water they receive.
This issue of Western Water examines PPCPs – what they are, where
they come from and whether the potential exists for them to
become a water quality problem. With the continued emphasis on
water quality and the fact that many water systems in the West
are characterized by flows dominated by effluent contributions,
PPCPs seem likely to capture interest for the foreseeable future.
This issue of Western Water examines the problem of perchlorate
contamination and its ramifications on all facets of water
delivery, from the extensive cleanup costs to the search for
alternative water supplies. In addition to discussing the threat
posed by high levels of perchlorate in drinking water, the
article presents examples of areas hard hit by contamination and
analyzes the potential impacts of forthcoming drinking water
standards for perchlorate.
Drawn from a special stakeholder symposium held in September 1999
in Keystone, Colorado, this issue explores how we got to where we
are today on the Colorado River; an era in which the traditional
water development of the past has given way to a more
collaborative approach that tries to protect the environment
while stretching available water supplies.
