Water containing wastes – aka wastewater – from residential,
commercial and industrial processes requires treatment to remove
pollutants prior to discharge. After treatment, the water is
suitable for nonconsumption (nonpotable) and even potable use.
In California, water recycling is a critical component of the
state’s efforts to use water supplies more efficiently. The state
presently recycling about 669,000 acre-feet of water per year and
has the potential to reuse an additional two million acre-feet
per year.
Non-potable uses include:
landscape and crop irrigation
stream and wetlands enhancement
industrial processes
recreational lakes, fountains and decorative ponds
toilet flushing and gray water applications
as a barrier to protect groundwater supplies
from seawater intrusion
wetland habitat creation, restoration, and maintenance
Wastewater agencies are playing a crucial role in shaping a
sustainable water future by increasingly reusing highly treated
water. Since the 1980s, the use of recycled water in California
has nearly tripled, highlighting its growing importance in
addressing the water needs of an expanding population. Governor
Newsom’s August 2022 Water Supply Strategy sets ambitious
targets for the recycling of water, aiming to recycle at least
800,000 acre-feet per year by 2030 and 1.8 million acre-feet by
2040. This vision primarily involves redirecting wastewater
that would otherwise be discharged into oceans.
Phillips 66, which last month announced plans to close its
Los Angeles-area refineries by the end of 2025, was indicted
Wednesday for allegedly discharging hundreds of thousands of
gallons of industrial waste from its Carson oil refinery into
the Los Angeles County sewer system during the pandemic, the
U.S. Attorney’s Office said Thursday. The oil refiner, which
federal attorneys claim failed to report violations to
authorities, is charged with two counts of negligently
violating the Clean Water Act and four counts of knowingly
violating the 52-year-old federal law designed to regulate
pollution in US waterways, according to documents filed in
federal court in Los Angeles.
How do you find, maintain and preserve water in the desert?
Cooperation. This was the most important strategy used by the
seven municipalities in southwestern San Bernardino County,
Calif., as they successively joined the Inland Empire Utility
Agency (IEUA) after it was founded in 1950. They had to band
together because water resources are so limited in southern
California that its residents had to create IEUA as a special,
independently elected district, which could import water from
the state’s northern regions, and eventually collaborate on
solving a variety of wastewater treatment issues to make them
more efficient, too. —Written by Jim Montague, executive editor of
Control.
A lawsuit was announced Monday on behalf of a group of South
Bay residents affected by raw sewage allegedly discharged from
the South Bay International Water Treatment Plant and flowing
into the waters of southern San Diego County. The complaint
filed Friday in San Diego Superior Court alleges Veolia, which
was contracted by the International Boundary and Water
Commission to operate, manage and maintain the plant, has
failed to prevent hundreds of such sewage discharges over the
years.
The city of Oceanside has agreed to pay $1.5 million for
illegally discharging almost 2 million gallons of sewage during
what water regulators called a record-breaking storm in 2020
that overwhelmed a sewage lift station and a water reclamation
facility. The city released the sewage into several
creeks, one of which flows into the Buena Vista Lagoon, a
wildlife refuge home to a number of endangered species,
eventually reaching the Pacific Ocean. The spill affected
waters also used for recreational and fishing purposes. The
fine is part of a settlement with the San Diego Regional Water
Quality Control Board. The spill is one of several sewage
system failures brought on by the increasing intensity of
weather events affecting the region more broadly.
The public has until Dec. 16 to comment on a proposed
settlement that requires Arkansas-based Denali Water Solutions
LLC of Russellville to pay a $610,000 civil penalty due to
alleged violations of the Clean Water Act. According to a press
release from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the
organic residuals recycling company has agreed to pay the sum
to settle with the federal government over violations that
allegedly occurred in Arizona and California. Among its work,
Denali provides land application services of sewage sludge,
also known as biosolids, derived from wastewater treatment
facilities, according to the EPA.
On Thursday, California’s main coastal protection agency
approved a $175 million climate-related project that will
transform the southern portion of San Francisco’s Ocean Beach
despite fierce opposition from some members of the public. A
sticking point is a massive seawall that some surfers fear
could make the beach disappear. The California Coastal
Commission unanimously approved the city’s Ocean Beach Climate
Change Adaptation Project, which will be funded by the city.
Created by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and
other agencies, the plan includes a 3,200-foot-long buried
seawall designed to protect a sewage tunnel located along the
coast south of Sloat Boulevard. A wastewater treatment plant is
right nearby.
On Thursday, the California Coastal Commission will vote on the
approval of a $175 million climate-related project that would
transform the southern portion of San Francisco’s Ocean Beach.
… Created by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
and other agencies, the plan includes a 3,200-foot-long buried
seawall designed to protect a sewage tunnel and wastewater
treatment plant located along the coast south of Sloat
Boulevard. The 14-foot diameter Lake Merced Tunnel is used to
store combined stormwater and wastewater during big storms when
the plant is at capacity. It’s particularly vulnerable because
that part of the beach is projected to erode by more than 100
feet between now and 2100 because of sea level rise and larger
storms that come with climate change, according to a recent
study by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Leaders of San Diego County’s second-largest city unanimously
voted Tuesday to declare a local state of emergency due to the
impacts of the Tijuana River sewage crisis reaching Chula
Vista. The resolution is largely symbolic, calling on the White
House, especially with a forthcoming change in administration,
and other top government officials to fast-track more spending
for solutions. Chula Vista officials are directed to “explore
any and all options to improve conditions in the Tijuana
River,” the proclamation reads. The council’s vote marked the
first, official acknowledgment that the rampant pollution was
no longer just affecting the communities closest to the river.
Its effects, such as noxious sewer gas odors, are impacting
people several miles away in Chula Vista.
Los Angeles will soon begin building a $740-million project to
transform wastewater into purified drinking water in the San
Fernando Valley, expanding the city’s local water supply in an
effort to prepare for worsening droughts compounded by climate
change. … When completed, the facilities will purify treated
wastewater and produce 20 million gallons of drinking water per
day, enough to supply about 250,000 people. The drinking water
that the plant produces will be piped 10 miles northeast to
L.A. County’s Hansen Spreading Grounds, where it will flow into
basins and percolate into the groundwater aquifer for storage.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power will later pump
the water from wells, and after additional testing and
treatment, the water will enter pipes and be delivered to taps.
As urgency grows to develop climate solutions, a new UCLA
report confirms that the wastewater recycling plans for the
nation’s second-largest city would make Los Angeles more
resilient and self-reliant during droughts or disasters that
cut off outside water supplies. Using a new methodology to
evaluate hundreds of thousands of scenarios, the UCLA research
team, led by the Luskin Center for Innovation (LCI), found that
the Los Angeles city plan would significantly boost local water
resilience, minimize risks of aging infrastructure and
uncertain water imports, and dramatically reduce drought- and
earthquake-driven water shortages.
Chula Vista now joins a growing list of cities in the South Bay
and San Diego County to declare a state of emergency over the
Tijuana River sewage crisis. A resolution brought forward
by Mayor John McCann was unanimously approved by city council.
It comes after McCann joined other mayors from the region to
lobby for more funds in Washington D.C. While millions of
dollars have been secured for improvements and upgrades to a
wastewater treatment plant north of the border, McCann
acknowledged more funding is still needed. “We know the
estimate is probably a billion dollars,” McCann said.
… The estuary at the southern edge of California, which
borders Mexico, has been too polluted with untreated wastewater
and sedimentation spilling over from Tijuana. … But
then, something unexpected happened. They found an opaleye
inside one of the traps. That was an exciting moment for
researchers at the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research
Reserve who have been monitoring the estuary’s health for years
and are part of multi-agency efforts to restore the coastal
wetland. “Opaleyes are more marine fish,” said [Researcher Jeff
Crooks]. “So, this is showing that the species is coming in and
using it as a nursery. ”There’s a connection, he added, between
the small fish’s presence and the Reserve’s new preliminary
findings about alarming dissolved oxygen levels in the water.
Dissolved oxygen is the amount of oxygen present in water. The
higher it is, the better the water quality and the more oxygen
available for fish and other aquatic organisms.
The Diablo Water District is considering using treated
wastewater from the Ironhouse Sanitation District to replenish
local groundwater supplies, according to officials from both
agencies. If implemented, both agencies said they hope that
replenished groundwater aquifers would strengthen East County’s
resilience to water supply changes and meet water reuse goals
directed by the state government. Reports from the California
Department of Water Resources advise that such an operation can
produce safe drinking water provided that significant water
quality tests are done before distributing the treated
water. The Diablo Water District provides water for
residents, parks, and businesses in a 21-square-mile area
consisting of Oakley, Cypress Corridor, Hotchkiss Tract, Summer
Lakes, and portions of Bethel Island and Knightsen. The
Ironhouse Sanitation District provides wastewater treatment for
Oakley and Bethel Island.
Over in the South Bay, the sewage crisis has been impacting the
community for years on end. We’ve heard complaints about the
smell and the pollution and all the heartache it has caused. To
help alleviate the pain, one local group, Wildcoast, is working
hard to at least stop thousands of pounds of trash from flowing
in. Watch the video in the player at the top of this page to
see how ABC 10News reporter Madison Weil follows through with
those volunteers.
A California landfill has been illegally dumping toxic waste
into the Napa River for years, polluting waters that feed a
valley known around the world for the quality of its vineyards,
according to a federal lawsuit filed by landfill employees.
Fifteen workers from Clover Flat Landfill and Upper Valley
Disposal Service (UVDS) in Napa County, California, allege that
operators of the landfill intentionally diverted what is called
“leachate” – untreated liquid wastewater often containing heavy
metals, nitrates, bacteria and pathogens – into the Napa River
and other area waterways for decades. The actions were done to
“avoid the costs of properly trucking out the toxic leachate”
to facilities designated for safe disposal, the lawsuit
alleges.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom visited the U.S.-Mexico border on
Monday — but not for the reason you’d expect. The border crisis
that drew the Democrat wasn’t immigration, but sewage. For
nearly a century, billions of gallons of sewage have been
pouring into Southern California from Mexico, making coastal
communities near San Diego the victim of a crisis few people
know about. The problems have disrupted daily life around
America’s eighth-largest city, affected military operations and
exposed how generations of politicians in Mexico and the U.S.
have failed to provide sanitation on both sides of the world’s
busiest border.
The U.S. Supreme Court won’t take up an Arizona tribe’s
petition that looks to overturn a ruling that sides with a
state environmental agency’s decision to let a copper mining
company discharge untreated wastewater into a creek that’s
considered sacred to the Indigenous community.
The Martinez Refining Company has agreed to pay $4.482 million
to settle allegations of federal Clean Water Act violations at
its refinery, the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality
Control Board said Thursday. The refinery allegedly discharged
millions of gallons of wastewater from oil refinery processes,
which harmed water quality and threatened aquatic life in
marshes linked to the Carquinez Strait. … The water
board found three cases of unauthorized discharges into nearby
marshes.
… Commissioner Maria-Elena Giner, head of the IBWC, told
[Matt] Henry and others gathered at the meeting that a
long-awaited project to repair and expand the dilapidated
[South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant] broke
ground earlier Tuesday. … But it will be several years before
the benefits of construction projects on both sides of the
border are felt and data yet to be collected reveals other
possible solutions. …Together with the overhaul of a
wastewater plant in Baja California, [the] expansion
should eliminate about 90 percent of untreated wastewater
reaching South County shorelines.
San Diegans across the political spectrum worry a changing of
the guard at the White House could bring major upheaval to the
federal agency on the frontlines of the Tijuana River sewage
crisis: The International Boundary and Water Commission or
IBWC. The president of the United States appoints the IBWC
leader and a post-election shake up could add uncertainty to
the already precarious state of one of San Diego’s largest
pollution problems. Treating millions of gallons of sewage
spilling from Tijuana into San Diego is just one among myriad
IBWC water management responsibilities along 1,255-miles of the
U.S.-Mexico border. … With little recourse to hold
Mexico responsible for the contamination, San Diegans
historically pinned blame on the IBWC. But since President Joe
Biden appointed Maria-Elena Giner to the top post in August of
2021, most agree she’s done a good job – despite a very low bar
– and don’t want to see her go.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday toured wastewater treatment
facilities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, marking his
first in-person visit to the sites undergoing critical upgrades
to reduce rampant sewage polluting Tijuana and south San Diego
County communities. The California leader started his tour at
the San Ysidro-based South Bay International Wastewater
Treatment Plant, which on Tuesday will begin a yearslong effort
to repair and expand its capacity, which has long been
insufficient for treating Mexico’s sewage. He then traveled to
the San Antonio de los Buenos plant in Baja California, which
also is being overhauled after at least a decade of dumping
millions of gallons of untreated wastewater into the Pacific
Ocean. Years of negligence and underinvestment in wastewater
treatment plants in both countries have resulted in sewage and
toxic chemicals pouring over the border, leaving people ill
with headaches, nausea, respiratory issues and other symptoms.
The South Tahoe Public Utilities Department (STPUD) held a
stakeholders advisory group and public information meeting
regarding how they deal with recycled water. The plan is open
for comment from October 24 to November 11. STPUD was
established in 1950 to provide drinking water and provide
sewage collection, treatment, and export for the South Tahoe
community. Since California has limited water supplies, the
entire state has recycled wastewater for decades through
chemical and microbiological treatment. STPUD is no different
and currently recycles 100% of its wastewater. Because of
the Porter Cologne Act, which protects water quality and water
use in the state, the STPUD began exporting its wastewater to
facilities in Alpine County in 1967, a response to
environmentally protect the watershed of Lake Tahoe. Since
then, STPUD has worked with Alpine County and Harvey Place
Reservoir to store and distribute wastewater—a costly endeavor,
as the water must be pumped over 26 miles over major elevation
changes.
Seats at the Monte Rio Community Center were full Thursday
night for what residents thought was the final step before
county supervisors forced them into an unpopular and expensive
plan to replace their septic systems. Clarity only came
late in the meeting, when Deputy County Administrator Barbara
Lee attempted to calm frustrated residents. Until then, the
prevailing assumption was the Sonoma County board of
supervisors would decide in January whether every household in
Monte Rio and Villa Grande had to connect to a new sewer line
or create community leach fields, all at a cost of tens of
thousands of dollars per home.
San Francisco has long used the Pacific Ocean as its toilet. In
heavy rains, the city on the hill cannot store all the storm
runoff and sewage that flows toward an oceanside treatment
plant in a single old pipe, so some heads out to sea. Now, in a
case with national implications, San Francisco is hoping that
the U.S. Supreme Court will allow it to pollute the ocean on
occasion without violating the federal Clean Water Act.
Although San Francisco has lived under this regulatory
construct for decades, it has now decided to test the limits of
federal regulations with a right-leaning high court known for
restricting environmental laws. —Written by Tom Philp, columnist with The
Sacramento Bee
San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer is teaming up
with several local officials in an attempt to get the
Environmental Protection Agency to take action against the
sewage crisis in the South Bay. On Thursday morning in
Coronado, Lawson-Remer is slated to speak alongside those
officials and some South Bay residents, submitting a petition
to the EPA to designate parts of the Tijuana River Valley as a
“superfund site.” A superfund site is part of a 1980 law
that the EPA can use to free up federal funding to clean up
hazardous waste sites around the country. Those sites are meant
to target toxic waste, not raw sewage — which normally falls
under the Clean Water Act. But Lawson-Remer wants the EPA to
designate a six-mile stretch of the Lower Tijuana River Valley
as a superfund site after decades of exposure to toxic
chemicals, heavy metals, and pesticides.
San Diego County leaders are weighing whether to take legal
action aimed at holding the company managing a federal
wastewater plant along the U.S. border accountable for
pollution. The County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously
Tuesday to “explore litigation options” against Veolia, the
French transnational company managing the federal wastewater
plant on the U.S. side of the border with Mexico. The
options on the table are to start their own case against Veolia
for failing to curb Tijuana River pollution, or join one of the
other lawsuits already filed this year against the company on
behalf of Imperial Beach residents. Supervisor Terra
Lawson-Remer also said they may consider taking action against
other responsible parties, including Mexico.
New groundbreaking research aims to evaluate potential human
health risks from bacteria in surface water systems across four
U.S. states. The project involving the University of Hawaiʻi at
Mānoa will assess the environmental spread of
antimicrobial-resistant pathogens—disease-causing
microorganisms that have evolved to withstand the effects of
antibiotics and other medicines designed to kill them—through
wastewater discharge and agricultural runoff. The three-year
study recently received a $2.4 million grant from the
Environmental Protection Agency. … UH Mānoa
researchers will focus on Kauaʻi’s Hanalei River, where
they will examine how cesspools and animal agriculture
contribute to the spread of antimicrobial resistance. The river
system in Hawaiʻi, along with waterways in Nebraska, New
Jersey and California, were selected to represent diverse
environmental conditions and pollution sources.
New research released today by the Pacific Institute and the
Center for Water Security and Cooperation (CWSC) reveals
existing laws and policies fail to protect water and sanitation
systems from climate change impacts in frontline communities
across the United States. The report, “Law and Policies that
Address Equitable, Climate-Resilient Water and Sanitation,”
examines federal, Tribal, state, and local laws and policies
governing centralized drinking water and wastewater systems, as
well as decentralized onsite drinking water and sanitation
systems. The research demonstrates that most existing US water
laws and policies were developed assuming historical climate
trends that determine water availability would be constant and
that communities’ vulnerability to climate events would be the
same over time. The research specifically outlines how laws and
policies often do not anticipate or help to proactively manage
the impacts of climate change on water and wastewater systems
in frontline communities.
Families in the South Bay are being asked to share their
concerns regarding sewage pollution along the Tijuana River
Valley for a health assessment being conducted by the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC arrived to the
region Thursday to begin the assessment intended to gather
information about the needs arising due to concerns about toxic
air pollution in the South Bay stemming from sewage overflow in
the Tijuana River Valley. Over the last few weeks, more than
6,000 homes were expected to receive flyers informing them of
the Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response,
or CASPER, Volunteers wearing reflective vests will begin
distributing the flyers door-to-door on Oct. 3.
Residents of Imperial Beach in southern San Diego County filed
a lawsuit Tuesday against the operators of an international
wastewater treatment plant — alleging that the site has failed
to contain a cross-border crisis that has long contaminated
their community. The plaintiffs said they are seeking to hold
the plant’s managers accountable for severe environmental and
public health effects that have resulted from an influx of
untreated sewage, heavy metals and other toxic chemicals.
Imperial Beach, which sits just a few miles north of the
U.S.-Mexico border, has long been the recipient of untreated
wastewater that comes from the Tijuana metropolitan region and
ends up on the beaches of San Diego County.
County, state, and federal officials held Wednesday morning a
groundbreaking ceremony near this unincorporated town for the
$11.7 million Niland Sanitation District Wastewater Treatment
Plant and Collection System Improvements Project. “The county
today conducted a groundbreaking ceremony on the much expected
Niland wastewater treatment plant,” Imperial County Executive
Officer Miguel Figueroa said in an interview. “This plant will
not only help us serve better the community of Niland, but also
grow and expand future capacity needs as Niland and its region
grows, obviously considering renewable energy development
coming down.” According to the county official, the wastewater
treatment plant will help better serve local residents and the
future growth of the Lithium Valley and the additional
expansion of the geothermal energy plants.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared to side with the City
of San Francisco in its unusual challenge of federal water
regulations that it said were too vague and could be
interpreted too strictly. The outcome could have sweeping
implications for curtailing water pollution offshore and would
deal another blow to the Environmental Protection Agency, which
has faced a string of losses at the court over its efforts to
protect the environment. The case has given rise to unusual
alliances, with the city joining oil companies and business
groups in siding against the E.P.A. In arguments on Wednesday,
it was the conservative justices who seemed the most aligned
with a city best known as a liberal bastion. At its core, the
case is about human waste and how San Francisco disposes of it
— specifically, whether the Clean Water Act of 1972 allowed the
E.P.A. to impose generic prohibitions on wastewater released
into the Pacific Ocean and to penalize the city.
Decades of neglect by a French company operating a federally
funded wastewater treatment plant on the U.S.-Mexico border has
led to billions of gallons of sewage and toxic chemicals in the
Tijuana River, according to nearby residents who in a lawsuit
decried the serious ecological and human health devastation.
The plant is supposed to treat wastewater from Tijuana and then
dump it into the Pacific Ocean at Imperial Beach, California.
But according to the residents, [Veolia Water West Operating
Services has by virtue of ] misconduct, reckless behavior and
negligence — including not investing in or maintaining the
sewage plant’s infrastructure — discharged fecal bacteria,
heavy metals and chemicals banned in the U.S. like DDT,
benzidine, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the
Tijuana River.
Following last week’s vote by the San Diego County Board of
Supervisors to delay any formal decision on pursuing a
Superfund designation for the Tijuana River Valley, Supervisor
Terra Lawson-Remer Monday decided to get public support.
Lawson-Remer put out a call on Monday for San Diego County
residents impacted by the Tijuana River sewage crisis to sign
her petition to the Environmental Protection Agency. “The
Tijuana River sewage crisis affects all of our coastal
neighborhoods,” she said. … The board voted 3-2 on Oct.
9 to wait on pursuing the Superfund distinction under the 1980
law which lets the EPA clean up contaminated areas, such as the
infamous Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York.
Momentum is building for a unique
interstate deal that aims to transform wastewater from Southern
California homes and business into relief for the stressed
Colorado River. The collaborative effort to add resiliency to a
river suffering from overuse, drought and climate change is being
shaped across state lines by some of the West’s largest water
agencies.
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.”
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.
The southern part of California’s Central Coast from San Luis Obispo County to Ventura County, home to about 1.5 million people, is blessed with a pleasing Mediterranean climate and a picturesque terrain. Yet while its unique geography abounds in beauty, the area perpetually struggles with drought.
Indeed, while the rest of California breathed a sigh of relief with the return of wet weather after the severe drought of 2012–2016, places such as Santa Barbara still grappled with dry conditions.
Blasted by sun and beaten by waves,
plastic bottles and bags shed fibers and tiny flecks of
microplastic debris that litter the San Francisco Bay where they
can choke the marine life that inadvertently consumes it.
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.
For the bulk of her career, Jayne
Harkins has devoted her energy to issues associated with the
management of the Colorado River, both with the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and with the Colorado River Commission of Nevada.
Now her career is taking a different direction. Harkins, 58, was
appointed by President Trump last August to take the helm of the
United States section of the U.S.-Mexico agency that oversees
myriad water matters between the two countries as they seek to
sustainably manage the supply and water quality of the Colorado
River, including its once-thriving Delta in Mexico, and other
rivers the two countries share. She is the first woman to be
named the U.S. Commissioner of the International Boundary and
Water Commission for either the United States or Mexico in the
commission’s 129-year history.
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.)
Imported water from the Sierra
Nevada and the Colorado River built Southern California. Yet as
drought, climate change and environmental concerns render those
supplies increasingly at risk, the Southland’s cities have ramped
up their efforts to rely more on local sources and less on
imported water.
Far and away the most ambitious goal has been set by the city of
Santa Monica, which in 2014 embarked on a course to be virtually
water independent through local sources by 2023. In the 1990s,
Santa Monica was completely dependent on imported water. Now, it
derives more than 70 percent of its water locally.
In rural areas with widely dispersed houses, reliance upon a
centralized
sewer system is not practical compared to individual
wastewater treatment methods. These on-site management facilities
– or septic systems – are more commonplace given their simpler
structure, efficiency and easy maintenance.
Microplastics – plastic debris
measuring less than 5 millimeters – are an
increasing water quality concern. They enter waterways and
oceans as industrial microbeads from various consumer
products or larger plastic litter that degrades into small bits.
Microbeads have been used in exfoliating agents, cosmetic washes
and large-scale cleaning processes. Microplastics are used
pharmaceutically for efficient drug delivery to affected sites in
patients’ bodies and by textile companies to create artificial
fibers.
Microplastics disperse easily and widely throughout surface waters and sediments. UV
light, microbes and erosion degrade the tiny fragments, making
them even smaller and more difficult for wastewater treatment
plants to remove.
The particles, usually made of polyethylene or polypropylene
plastic, take thousands of years to biodegrade
naturally. It takes prohibitively high temperatures to
break microplastics down fully. Consequently, most water treatment plants cannot remove
them.
The health effects of consumption are currently under
investigation.
Responses
Many advocacy groups have published lists of products containing
microbeads to curb their purchase and pollution.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulates microbeads in
industrial, but not domestic, wastewater.
Federal
law required microbeads to be phased out of rinse-off
cosmetics beginning in July 2017. Dozens of states also
regulate microbeads in products. California has the strictest
limitation, prohibiting even the use of biodegradable microbeads.
Microplastics in California Water
In 2019, the San Francisco Estuary Institute published a
study estimating that 7 trillion pieces of microplastic
enter San Francisco
Bay annually from stormwater runoff, about 300
times the amount in all wastewater treatment effluent entering
the bay.
California lawmakers in 2018 passed a package of bills to raise
awareness of the risks of microplastics and microfibers in the
marine environment and drinking water. As
directed by the legislation, the State Water Resources Control
Board in 2020 adopted an official
definition of microplastics in drinking water and in 2022
developed the world’s standardized methods for testing drinking
water for microplastics.
The water board was expected by late 2023 to begin testing
for microplastics in untreated drinking water sources tapped by
30 of the state’s largest water utilities. After two years, the
testing was expected to extend to treated tap water served
to consumers. A progress report and recommendations for
policy changes or additional research are required by the end of
2025.
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.
The biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) of water determines the
impact of decaying matter on species in a specific ecosystem.
Sampling for BOD tests how much oxygen is needed by bacteria to
break down the organic matter.
Point sources release pollutants from discrete conveyances, such
as a discharge pipe, and are regulated by federal and state
agencies. The main point source dischargers are factories and
sewage treatment plants, which release treated
wastewater.
This 30-minute documentary-style DVD on the history and current
state of the San Joaquin River Restoration Program includes an
overview of the geography and history of the river, historical
and current water delivery and uses, the genesis and timeline of
the 1988 lawsuit, how the settlement was reached and what was
agreed to.
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.
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.
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 28-page Layperson’s Guide to California
Wastewater is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the history of wastewater
treatment and how wastewater is collected, conveyed, treated and
disposed of today. The guide also offers case studies of
different treatment plants and their treatment processes.
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.
Wastewater management in California centers on the collection,
conveyance,
treatment, reuse and disposal of wastewater. This process is
conducted largely by public agencies, though there are also
private systems in places where a publicly owned treatment plant
is not feasible.
In California, wastewater treatment takes place through 100,000
miles of sanitary sewer lines and at more than 900 wastewater
treatment plants that manage the roughly 4 billion gallons of
wastewater generated in the state each day.
