Reducing Polluted Runoff Is a Much Better Strategy Than Accepting and Trying to Treat Ever Increasing Amounts of Runoff

"Instead of engineering the stormwater system to deal with increasingly large amounts of stormwater, these low impact development approaches utilize technologies that aim to reduce the amount of stormwater that even enters the system. This is achieved through processes that encourage enhanced infiltration and evaporation processes. Simple approaches such as green roofs, increased tree cover, disconnecting downspouts, and adding more green space can go a long way to reducing the amount of stormwater that enters sewers. [don't forget storm drain systems] And in some circumstances, these technologies can realize significant cost savings for municipalities and building owners." - quote by Subcommittee Chair Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas.

Click Here for the full story from www.ens-newswire.com

Breaking News - Obama Backhands Toilet to Tap Delegates

15 March 2009, Washington DC.

In February, President Obama issued an official backhander to Toilet to Tap Agitators. This slap came in the form of Title IV of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act via a $1 billion allocation to Water Resources, with at least $126 million going to reclamation and reuse projects.



See below for the page of the bill that describes the allocation, and CLICK HERE if you 1) Like to Read Bills, 2) Suffer from Insomnia.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
BUREAU OF RECLAMATION
WATER AND RELATED RESOURCES
For an additional amount for ‘‘Water and Related Resources’’, $1,000,000,000: Provided, That of the amount appropriated under this heading, not less than $126,000,000 shall be used for water reclamation and reuse projects authorized under title XVI of Public Law 102–575: Provided further, That funds provided in this Act shall be used for elements of projects, programs or activities that can be completed within these funding amounts and not create budgetary obligations in future fiscal years: Provided further, That $50,000,000 of the funds provided under this heading may be transferred to the Department of the Interior for programs, projects and activities authorized by the Central Utah Project Completion Act (titles II–V of Public Law 102–575): Provided further, That $50,000,000 of the funds provided under this heading may be used for programs, projects, and activities authorized by the California Bay-Delta Restoration Act (Public Law 108–361): Provided further, That not less than $60,000,000 of the funds provided under this heading shall be used for rural water projects and shall be expended primarily on water intake and treatment facilities of such projects: Provided further, That not less than $10,000,000 of the funds provided under this heading shall be used for a bureau-wide inspection of canals program in urbanized areas: Provided further, That the costs of extraordinary maintenance and replacement activities carried out with funds provided in this Act shall be repaid pursuant to existing authority, except the length of repayment period shall be as determined by the Commissioner, but in no case shall the repayment period exceed 50 years and the repayment shall include interest, at a rate determined by the Secretary of the Treasury as of the beginning of the fiscal year in which the work is commenced, on the basis of average market yields on outstanding marketable obligations of the United States with the remaining periods of maturity comparable to the applicable reimbursement period of the project adjusted to the nearest one-eighth of 1 percent on the unamortized balance of any portion of the loan: Provided further, That for projects that are being completed with funds appropriated in this Act that would otherwise be expired for obligation, expired funds appropriated in this Act may be used to pay the cost of associated supervision, inspection, overhead, engineering and design on those projects and on subsequent claims, if any: Provided further, That the Secretary of the Interior shall submit a quarterly report to the Committees on Appropriations of the
House of Representatives and the Senate detailing the allocation, obligation and expenditures of these funds, beginning not later than 45 days after enactment of this Act: Provided further, That the Secretary shall have unlimited reprogramming authority for these funds provided under this heading.

Extra! Extra! Read all About it! Parched Disney Visitors Slurp Sewer Water!

Visitors to Disneyland likely don't know that when they sip from Disney water fountains that the great tasting aqua treat was once streaming through a public sewer. Not to worry though. That sewer water is actually substantially cleaner and more carefully filtered than the water consumed in the average American household. Moreover, the new system providing Disney's water could be the most viable means of drought proofing a state that faces some potentially serious water issues in the coming years.

Read the Article!

Energy and Water Connection? VERY NICE!!

Our leaders are making the connection in legislation - it takes energy to move water, and it might be a good idea to consider that in how our federal policy directs water conveyance. See press release below and links.



Energy-water use connection sought

Friday, March 13, 2009

WASHINGTON — The US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on March 10 held a hearing on a recently introduced bill that aims to integrate the relationship between energy and water use into national policy decisions.

The bill, known as the Energy and Water Integration Act of 2009, or S 531, was introduced March 5 by Sens. Jeff Bingaman, D-NM, and Lisa Murkowski, R-AK. S 531 would direct the US Department of Energy to develop a framework for the energy-water use study. The Energy Department would be required to consult with the US Department of the Interior and the US Environmental Protection Agency, and then to enter into an arrangement with the National Academy of Sciences under which the Academy analyzes the impact of energy development and production on US water resources.

Dr. Peter Gleick, president of the Oakland, CA-based think tank Pacific Institute, on March 10 testified before the committee in support of the bill. According to a March 10 Pacific Institute press release, Gleick explained how water and energy are linked, how limits to the availability of both resources are beginning to affect one another, and how recognizing this link when developing national energy and water policies can lead to many substantial economic and environmental benefits.

To access the Pacific Institute press release, click here.

To access information about the bill, click here or here.

For related information, click here.

Student Perspective

I am a junior in high school who cares about my future. I try to do my part when it comes to conserving resources and protecting our environment. I do this because I feel that as human beings we are responsible for keeping the planet clean and healthy. We don’t have another planet to live on after we trash this one, so we all collectively need to help keep our planet clean.

Water is a resource that is taken advantage of by students my age every day. I see kids throwing bottles of water on each other for their birthdays and kids who drink half a bottle of water and then throw it away. I am always aware and conscious of how much water I use and I try to conserve as much as possible everyday. I drink filtered tap water from my reusable water bottle and I never buy single use plastic bottles. My showers are usually five minutes or less, and while I lather, I turn off the water. I never keep the water on while I brush my teeth or while I wash the dishes.

Although I do these small things, I can’t say that I see my fellow classmates and friends do the same. An example is my best friend who takes twenty minute showers and keeps the water running while he brushes his teeth. I try to help give him tips on how to work on conserving water, but he finds it to difficult or pointless. That is the kind of attitude most kids at my age have. Unfortunately they feel that recycling and picking up trash isn’t a true solution to anything.

If every kid at my age grew up with the ideas of conservation and ways to help the planet then we would have a much cleaner and different world. Educating kids about where their water comes from and why it is so important to conserve water would benefit them so much. The key is for kids to understand why they are doing something, because if an authority figure wants them to change then odds are they won’t. The reason why water is such a valuable resource in San Diego in particular is because of our climate and location. We only get 10-20 % of our water from rainfall and we rely on the Colorado River and Northern California for the rest. Our weather in San Diego is sunny and dry about 264 days a year. Our climate and location makes us as residents very reliant on the 480 million gallons of water we import each day.

The simplest things a high school student can do are taking short showers, turning off the faucet when they don’t need it on, and to never waste water. I cringe when I see people over watering their lawns or washing down their driveways. It is the equivalent to pouring money down the drain in my eyes. My neighbor is a person who totally overuses water every single day. She washes down her driveway three to four times a week and fills her trash can to the brim and then flushes it into the storm drain every week. I have never understood why she does this but I have asked her before why she does and she responded with, “Because this is a free country!” I couldn’t believe it! I am very wary about my future and my children’s future because our valuable resources are being washed down people’s driveways like my neighbor everyday. So make sure to get the word out to your friends and family about little things they can do to help conserve and reuse water in their everyday lives.

Written by Evan S., a student at High Tech High in San Diego

Know Your H2O in the Driveway

Guess what the yellow is....

So, it's not exactly dinner table conversation, but having a conversation about it is important because it's affecting the health of our oceans. What are we talking about? We're talking about keeping sewage, even treated sewage, out of our oceans.

The NY Times has a great op-ed piece by Rose George, entitled "Yellow Is The New Green" and you can guess what the yellow is.... It's a great article because it brings up so many things about what to do with sewage, including re-thinking the way we think about. It turns out, it's not so disgusting after all - in fact, it has a lot of great uses!

If San Diego wants to be a leader amongst California cities, we need go down a greener (or yellower) path, and keep our oceans clean so that the tourist dollars we depend on, keep flowing in.

Free Car Wash!

I got a free car wash last week. No, not with a coupon from the local wash-n-dry but, a gift from mother nature in the form of rain. I used to avoid washing my truck because I was lazy. Now I can mask that laziness and say that I am being a good environmentalist by conserving water.

Right now Southern California is facing a critical point in dealing with our freshwater supply as drought conditions continue in spite of the recent rains. Where does our water come from, how will we use it and what will we do with it after? These issues have direct impacts on the ocean as the ill-planned desalination plant in Carlsbad moves forward and municipalities continue to dump treated wastewater in the ocean. According to the City of San Diego:

“During a normal year about 10-20 percent of the City's water supply is made up of local rainfall and is captured in one of our reservoirs. The remaining 80-90 percent is imported … from two separate sources. A 242 mile-long aqueduct brings Colorado River water from Lake Havasu to the southland. This water may have originated as snow melt on the mountain slopes of Utah, Wyoming, or Colorado and traveled more than 1,000 miles before being diverted to Southern California.

San Diego also receives water which originates in Northern California from the State Water Project. This water is captured in reservoirs north of Sacramento and released through natural rivers and streams into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The 444 mile-long California Aqueduct then carries the water from south of the Delta to (Southern California).”

Wrap your head around that for a moment. Most of the water in San Diego comes from hundreds of miles away and some of it can travel over 1000 miles from the source before it reaches our taps. That alone should speak volumes on how precious our freshwater really is. Unfortunately, developers and planners have not historically treated water as a limited renewable resource in our semi-arid climate. Excessive sprawl and water intensive non-native landscaping have over-burdened the water supply.

The Surfrider Foundation has worked with policy makers to mandate low-impact development and strengthen over-watering ordinances but the solution goes much further than that. The Surfrider Foundation San Diego Chapter has launched a campaign titled Know Your H2O to educate the public about the three most common options proposed to increase our water supply: conservation, Indirect Potable Reuse (IPR), and ocean desalination.

Water conservation takes many forms; from turning off the faucet while you brush your teeth to the local mobile home park that reduced their water usage by one million gallons last year through a community effort. Most people have done a good job conserving water indoors with low-flow showerheads, more efficient toilets, etc. but lots of work still needs to be done conserving outdoors.

Ocean Friendly Gardens (OFG) is an ongoing campaign that covers the outdoor water conservation aspect. OFG is all about CPR, which stands for Conservation, Permeability, and Retention. Whenever water leaves a property it has the ability to take pollutants with it. Fertilizers, pesticides, and oil are easily picked up by the power of water and transferred directly to our storm drains and into our rivers and oceans. While this runoff is greatest during rainstorms, urban runoff occurs all year round as a result of improper irrigation, washing cars on pavement, and hosing down driveways. In addition to conserving water by using native plants, requiring little to no fertilizers, and reducing or eliminating pesticide use, Ocean Friendly Garden’s have the added benefit or reducing urban runoff.

Imagine if we could stop sending treated wastewater out to the ocean and reuse this water to increase our local water supply. Indirect Potable Reuse (IPR), which is a funky name for water recycling, would help achieve that goal. Instead of spending time, built-in energy and money to send secondary or tertiary treated water to the ocean, we could take a couple of extra steps to treat the water further than health standards and mix it back in with our water supply. Sounds far-fetched to some, but the reverse osmosis and UV light treatments remove all bacteria and endocrine disruptors from pharmaceuticals and the resulting water is much purer than what is currently being delivered to Southern California. Reclamation for potable uses is the future; it has lower costs and is less energy intensive compared to desalination. Reclamation should be considered as the first choice in Southern California’s sustainable fresh water plan. Our current paradigm for reclaimed water – using it for irrigation – does nothing to promote conservation or the use of drought tolerant plants. Instead, it subsidizes golf courses and inappropriately planted public spaces such as highway medians.

Ocean desalination has received the most press and publicity lately as the largest ocean desal plant in the western hemisphere is planned for Carlsbad. Surfrider does not oppose desalination. We oppose desalination done poorly, and when it is prioritized over reclamation and conservation. Responsible desalination requires alternative intakes, unlike what is being proposed in Carlsbad. The Carlsbad proposal uses antiquated once-through-cooling infrastructure as the primary intake source for ocean water. This 30+ year-old dinosaur technology that has direct and unmitigatable impacts on marine life has been found to be illegal by federal courts. Mitigation of marine life impacts from impingement and entrainment through the use of the intake system by offering offsite wetland restoration misses the point – the law requires the use of new technologies to avoid the impacts in the first place. To continue to threaten marine life continually and indefinitely is short-sited and inexcusable while better technologies are available. Finally, the Carlsbad desalination plant sets a bad example for the issue statewide. The fact that we are in a drought condition does not justify ignoring our environmental laws.

We spend so much energy and effort to get water here that we must use it wisely. Visit www.surfriderSD.org to check out some great Know Your H2O videos, find more info on the issues along with links to great blogs and various ways to get involved. Share the videos with your friends and stay tuned for our action alert to let the decision makers know that you demand responsible ocean desalination.

The Need.

We wash our hands, wash our dishes, take long hot showers, wash our whites and colors separately, boil water for pasta, water our lawns, make slip n' slides.......

When the world is running short on water.

"Today, one-third of the world's population has to contend with water scarcity, and there are ominous signs that this proportion could quickly increase.

Up to twice as much water will be required to provide enough food to eliminate hunger and feed the additional 2.5 billion people that will soon join our ranks."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7881382.stm

The United States has every ability to be a leader in the push for conservation. If sub-Saharan Africa can prioritize environmentalism and create environmentally sustainable infrastructure, why can't the US? Why can't California?

We can. Whether we will is yet to be seen.

Poseidon's interpretation

Poseidon received a unanimous vote to postpone the final permit of their project in Carlsbad until they can produce an acceptable mitigation project for the damages their plant will cause. Here is an example of how they view it:

Dear ,

The Regional Water Quality Control Board met last week to consider approving the final condition of the discharge permit that they issued for the Carlsbad Desalination Project last April. The Board voted unanimously to consider final approval of the outstanding permit requirements at their hearing April 8, 2009 in Dana Point. This will draw the permitting process that began in 2003 to a close, clearing a path to begin construction later this year.

We will keep you updated on the Project developments,

Poseidon Resources

New Desalination Company Claims Better Methods

Oasys Water, a Massachusetts based desalination start-up company, has recently received $10 million in funding. By using what they called "Engineered Osmosis", rather than reverse osmosis, their method of desalination claims to reduce electricity and fuel costs by more than 90%. In effect, while reverse osmosis produces water at a cost of about $0.68 to $0.90 per cubic meter, Oasys estimates that engineered osmosis will cost about $0.37 to $0.44 per cubic meter.

For the Oasys Press Release Click Here.

Know Your H2O Stats - The Numbers Behind Your Use

Some Numbers
The average household in San Diego uses 10,500 gallons of water each month, or 350 gallons per day. By installing more efficient water fixtures, households can reduce daily water use by about 30%.

If every household in the U.S. installed these water-saving features, we would save an estimated 5.4 billion gallons of water per day, which results in a savings of $11.3 million per day or more than $4 billion per year.

How Small Changes Can Make Big Differences
Replacing your showerhead with a low-flow model can save up to 230 gallons a week.

Catching the water that comes through your pipes while waiting for hot water can save up to 50 gallons a week per person. Save the water in a bucket and water your plants or run your garbage disposal.

Hand-washing dishes just once a day using the least amount of detergent possible and a sprayer to rinse can save up to 100 gallons a week.

Water your lawn before dawn or after sunsets when there’s less evaporation. Adjusting your sprinklers so they don’t spray on sidewalks, driveway or street can save up to 250 gallons a week.

For more tips Click Here.

Coming Soon to a Beach Near You! Why Desalination is BAD.

While these images are not from Tampa Bay, they are engineering photos used to demonstrate what open ocean intake really looks like.

The following text was added to Wikipedia's Desalination page to lend some balance to the discussion. It is a summary of the Tampa Bay Desal project as adapted from the Tampa Bay Water website.

"The Tampa Bay Water Desalination project was originally a private venture led by Poseidon Resources. This project was delayed by the bankruptcy of Poseidon Resources successive partners in the venture, Stone & Webster, then Covanta (formerly Ogden) and its principle subcontractor Hydranautics. Poseidon's relationship with Stone & Webster through S & W Water LLC ended in June 2000 when Stone & Webster declared bankruptcy and Poseidon Resources purchased Stone & Webster's stake in S & W Water LLC. Poseidon Resources partnered with Covanta and Hydranautics in 2001, changing the consortium name to Tampa Bay Desal. Through the inability of Covanta to complete construction bonding of the project, the Tampa Bay Water agency was forced to purchase the project from Poseidon on May 15, 2002 and underwrite the project financing under its own credit rating. Tampa Bay Water then contracted with Covanta Tampa Construction, who produced a project that did not meet required performance tests, and Covanta Tampa Construction filed bankruptcy in October 2003 to prevent losing the contract with Tampa Bay Water, which resulted in nearly 6 months of litigation between Covanta Tampa Construction and Tampa Bay Water. The plant was not fully operational until 2007."

Click Here for the whole history.

Calculating your "Water Footprint" - Does conserving mean more beer and less clothing?

A journalist at the Wall Street Journal, Alexandra Alter, recently wrote an article titled "Yet Another 'Footprint' to Worry About: Water". Companies concerned about water rationing (and who have been burned by it in the past) are now tracking water use patterns to find more efficient ways of using this resource vital to life, manufacturing and production, and so can you! (see below)

In the article, Alex writes "It takes roughly 20 gallons of water to make a pint of beer, as much as 132 gallons of water to make a 2-liter bottle of soda, and about 500 gallons, including water used to grow, dye and process the cotton, to make a pair of Levi's stonewashed jeans. Though much of that water is replenished through natural cycles, a handful of companies have started tracking such "water footprints" as a growing threat of fresh-water shortages looms. Some are measuring not just the water used to make beverages and cool factories, but also the gallons used to grow ingredients such as cotton, sugar, wheat, tea and tomatoes. The drive, modeled partly on carbon footprinting, a widely used measurement of carbon-dioxide emissions, comes as groundwater reserves are being depleted and polluted at unsustainable rates in many regions."

I guess it reasons to follow that if we are serious about conservation, we ought to drink more beer and wear fewer clothes.

Click Here to read the whole article and view interactive graphics.
Water Footprint Calculator for your own customized water footprint!

And finally, a novel way to conserve water.

Is it time to stick a straw into the Pacific Ocean?

About 20 water agencies up and down the California coast seem to think so.

From Marin County to San Diego, small and large projects that turn seawater into tap water are gaining favor, propelled by events unprecedented in California's history: worsening drought, dwindling species of freshwater fish, crumbling plumbing systems and unyielding demand.

"People are worried about water supply," said Michael Carlin, assistant general manager of water at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. "Desalination is for drought supply, for an emergency, and it augments existing supply - it's another tool in our toolbox."

But critics argue that desalination is an expensive, environmentally questionable last resort in a sprawling state that misuses one of its greatest assets.

"People are looking for an easy solution, and they look to the ocean," said Linda Sheehan, executive director of the California Coastkeeper Alliance, a watchdog group. "They're ignoring the opportunities we have for conservation, storm water reuse and water recycling."

This is not the first time the desalination debate has surfaced in California. Dry spells and government funds for infrastructure often prompt new studies and investment in the process, which strips salt, debris, bacteria and other substances from saltwater and funnels it to local taps.

But climate change, rising water costs and threats to wildlife have increased the stakes.

CLICK HERE for the full story from the San Fran Chronicle/www.SFgate.com

Desalination Timetable Delayed (hopefully permanently)

Poseidon Resources was dealt a blow in their quest to build a desalination plant in Carlsbad today.

Under their scheme, to produce 1 acre foot of drinking water, 5 acre feet of sea water must be pulled directly from the ocean. That same 1 acre foot of sea water requires approximately 4700 kilowatt hours of electricity to remove the brine and other pollutants.

In contrast, by recycling wastewater to drinking water quality the same 1 acre foot of drinking water can be rendered using only 1.17 acre feet of wastewater, and would only require 2200 kilowatt hours of electricity. I believe the old adage "more bang for your buck" applies here.

Doing the math, it is far more economical to render wastewater into drinking water than render sea water into drinking water. Yet the battle for common sense rages on. See the article below for an update.

Carlsbad Desalination Plant Timetable Delayed
Poseidon's project output is 10% of region's daily water needs
By GENE CUBBISON

While drought-stricken San Diegans brace for water rationing, a desalination project that could meet 10 percent of the region's water needs has been delayed for two more months. While drought-stricken San Diegans brace for water rationing, a desalination project that could meet 10 percent of the region's water needs has been delayed...
The $300 million proposal by Poseidon Resources Corp. needs approval from one more state regulatory agency, the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, to break ground on the project later this year, working toward a completion date in 2011.
"Every regulatory agency that has reviewed this project has determined that it's environmentally benign," said Scott Maloni, a Poseidon vice president. "Let's build this project. We need the water."

But the board voted unanimously Wednesday to withhold final permits at least until April, to allow the agency's staff and Poseidon to work out what Poseidon officials called "minor issues" relating to environmental concerns that already have prompted lawsuits against Poseidon and the state's Lands and Coastal Commissions, which have granted approvals.

Click Here for the full article from MSNBC.com

Shrinking Water Supplies Imperil Farmers

From today's Wall Street Journal:

"If the water situation doesn't ease soon, industry experts expect numerous farmers to go out of business in a year or so. Particularly vulnerable are farmers who have loans tied to being able to secure water supplies, said Richard Howitt, a professor of agriculture economics at the University of California at Davis. In essence, these farmers use their water rights as collateral for loans that go toward crops and equipment."

Water and water rights are big business in a desert. Lots of good pics and comments by readers too. This whole issue is so complex, but as a simple solution, why are our leaders not screaming for more conservation efforts?

Read the entire article.

Toilet to Mouth

Ever wonder just how much feces we ingest by swimming or surfing in polluted water in San Diego? Recycling wastewater will prevent this kind of life-killing filth from entering the water.

The following link is a graphic representation of raw untreated sewage flowing from the Tijuana River north to Coronado Island and Point Loma in the Pacific. The issue is not ought we consider recycling our wastewater, but it is one of need. We need to lead the world on this.

Enough quibbling.

Jared

Make Your Voice be HEARD!

Mayor Sanders will be blessing us with access to his staff to discuss immediate cutbacks and water rationing in San Diego. Come out one of the three nights and ask why the city is structuring cutbacks the way they are, why this wont be fair to people who tore up their grass and planted drought tolerant gardens, who benefits and who loses, why new developments continue to pop up and why the city continues to be anticompetitive by subsidizing rates and won't charge a fair price for water!

Meetings are February 9th in Otay, February 10th in Rancho Penesquitos, and February 12th in Balboa Park. Click the link for locations, and BE THERE!

http://www.sandiego.gov/mayor/pdf/090127allocation.pdf

Special Report: Our Water Supply

The Voice of San Diego has compiled a special report on our water supply that includes recent articles highlighting the issue as it increases in importance.

"The arid San Diego region is struggling to come to terms with a diminished water supply. Ideas abound about how to do so: implement mandatory water conservation, build a desalination plant, recycle sewage into drinking water -- but finding agreeance about which ideas to implement is slightly more difficult."

CLICK HERE to check out the special report for some great articles such as "Who uses the most water?", "What is killing the Delta", "How sewage gets recycled" and much more.

Desalination: A Gift or a Myth?

In a version of one founding Greek Myth, Athena competed with Poseidon to be the patron deity of Athens, which was yet unnamed. They agreed that each would give the Athenians one gift and that the Athenians would choose the gift they preferred.

Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and a spring sprang up; this gave them a means of trade and water —Athens at its height was a significant sea power, defeating the Persian fleet at the Battle of Salamis— but the water was salty and not very good for drinking. (In an alternate version, Poseidon offered the first horse to the citizens, but horses also are associated with Athena in some myths.)

Athena, however, offered them the first domesticated olive tree. The Athenians (or their king, Cecrops) accepted the olive tree and with it the patronage of Athena, for the olive tree brought wood, oil, and food. (taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athena)

That said, we await for our Athena to come bringing a gift that will allow sustainable growth in San Diego.

Check out the following KPBS report:
http://www.kpbs.org/news/local;id=13770

So fresh and so clean...

Right on N County Times! Go Go Escondido!

EDITORIAL: Most natural thing to do: Recycle water
OUR VIEW: Colorado River water far from pristine

By North County Times Opinion staff | Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Recycling water may well serve Escondido residents for decades to come.

Thus, we support city officials in their efforts to explore the feasibility of transforming sewage water into a reliable secondary source for Escondido's drinking water needs. Indeed, we encourage all regional water agencies to do the same.

(However, we also believe the region has yet to fully exploit cheaper ways to meet the growing need for water, including strong, serious attempts to improve conservation of our existing supply.)

Californians have led the nation in various recycling areas. It just clearly makes sense for us to lead in being more aggressive about recycling one of the key essentials for life.

Those squeamish about the prospects of recycling water (often referred to derisively as "toilet to tap") ought to reconsider the reality of what now flows from their taps.

Approximately 90 percent of all San Diego County's water is imported, most of it from the Colorado River. Think that river water is fresh from the proverbial mountain spring? Think again.

Space does not permit us to list all that is routinely dumped directly into the Colorado or indirectly into its watershed. However, that list does include water from sewage wastewater plants and toxic, heavy-metal and chemical waste that has leached into the Colorado's watershed. And yet for decades, we have been cleaning that water up for "recycling."

An extensive review of the expenses involved with recycling sewage water may show that the process, using current technology, is cost-prohibitive at this time.

But the facts remain that for generation upon untold generation, life on this planet has been thriving on water that has been "recycled" in one form or another, over and over again: It is the natural thing to do.

Additional information:

ESCONDIDO: City ponders converting sewage to drinking water

More 301(h) Details:

Last week Surfrider, Coastkeeper and Sierra Club entered into a cooperative agreement with City of San Diego for non-opposition to Clean Water Act 301(h) Waiver. All groups have received numerous inquiries regarding the San Diego environmental community’s decision not to oppose EPA’s tentative order to grant a CWA section 301(h) waiver for discharges from the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant in San Diego.

Local Surfrider activists know that this is an integral part of the Know Your H2O campaign. To explain the history and process of this groundbreaking agreement Marco Gonzalez compiled a great document, CLICK HERE to read it.

Here are some of the recent news stories regarding the agreement:

Voice of San Diego / San Diego Tribune / San Diego 6

When will people take water conservation seriously?

The Sierra snow pack is at 61% of its normal level and there are talks of water rationing in San Diego by summer yet I still see fresh, clean drinking water going down the street. No, people are not dumping water bottles down the street but there is still lots of over watering of lawns and landscaping, water lines busting because of old age along with some random incidents like me neighbors laundry room which randomly overflows.

Below are some recent articles highlighting the issue:

With Water Cuts Near, Freeways Still Get Showered

California Water Supply Drying Up

Water Could be Rationed Here as Soon as Summer

And Escondido Steps up to the Plate!!!

Escondido City Council members have the right idea, consider implementing IPR as a SOLUTION! This helps them with their water supply concerns, as this article indicates, the could provide up to 13 million gallons per day of potable drinking water by recycling their wastewater. How about this? Their outfall pipe is currently through the San Elijo Joint Powers Authority, which dumps their current sewage into the Pacific Ocean (like it or not, standard practice). Escondido (unlike San Elijo) has a tumultuous track record of overflows and other sewage related problems. IPR would be an excellent solution, as it would decrease the amount of pipe space needed to move Escondido's sewage to the Pacific, it would decrease the amount of sewage dumped into the Pacific (ergo cleaner oceans), it would provide a source of drinking water that is cleaner that what is currently in the public water supply (in Fairfax VA where IPR via surface water augmentation has been the norm since 1978, the quality of the sewage water that undergoes IPR treatment is actually reduced by being added to the public drinking water supply), and it would decrease infrastructure upgrade demands on the public.

IPR (indirect potable reuse), or simply, recycling wastewater for drinking purposes merely mimics the natural cycle, without the concern of contamination from fouled groundwaters. GO ESCONDIDO!!!

CLICK HERE for the story in the North County Times.

Water reuse moves forward in the City of San Diego!

San Diego City Council Approves Agreement with Environmental Groups Over Point Loma Sewage Treatment Exemption

City to Undertake Assessment of Sewage System to Identify Reclamation Opportunities

January 27, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT: Bruce Reznik, 619-851-9997 (cell); 619-758-7743 ext. 102
Marco Gonzalez, 760-942-8505 ext. 102

On Tuesday, the San Diego City Council voted 6-1 to approve a Cooperative Agreement with San Diego Coastkeeper and Surfrider Foundation that obligates the City to undertake a comprehensive assessment of its entire sewage collection and treatment infrastructure to identify opportunities to maximize recycling and reclamation of wastewater for potable and non-potable uses. The agreement, which resulted from negotiations between the environmental groups and the offices of Mayor Sanders and City Attorney Goldsmith, had been presented in draft form to the City’s Natural Resources & Culture Committee on December 3. While Coastkeeper and Surfrider are the only environmental groups initially signing onto the agreement, other groups including Sierra Club and San Diego Audubon Society have been part of negotiations with the City and may join the agreement.

With the City’s commitment to undertake this study, the environmental groups have agreed to not oppose a final five-year waiver from secondary treatment standards at the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment facility, currently the nation’s largest sewage agency exempt from secondary standards. The United States Environmental Protection Agency and San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board held a joint hearing on the City’s waiver application on Wednesday, January 21, with a final decision by these agencies expected in March. The U.S. EPA issued a tentative ruling in support of the waiver application on December 4, indicating at that time that the City should not expect future exemptions. The two environmental groups had sued over approval of the last exemption in 2002.

“A comprehensive assessment of reclamation opportunities that will reduce or even potentially eliminate sewage discharges to the ocean provides the best long-term solution for San Diego’s water and sewage issues,” noted Coastkeeper’s Executive Director Bruce Reznik. “Since the last waiver was granted there is a growing body of evidence that even secondary sewage treatment may not be sufficient to protect of ocean environment; meanwhile San Diego now faces worsening water shortages.”
The San Diego region imports nearly 90% of its water, primarily from the Colorado River and the San Joaquin Delta. The region is experiencing a growing water crisis as imports these sources are declining due to overconsumption, climate change and legal decisions, while the San Diego region is in an eight-year drought that has reduced even the little local water the region usually relies on.

The new study will examine opportunities to build new reclamation facilities to expand the City’s overall reuse capacity. If successful, the City could identify a long-term strategy to reclaim some or even all of the 180+ million gallons of wastewater that is currently discharged to the Pacific via the Point Loma facility, providing San Diego with much needed local supplies of water while reducing sewage discharges that threaten our ocean environment.

According to Marco Gonzalez of Coast Law Group, which represents Coastkeeper and Surfrider on this issue, “In the past, the environmental community could have been accused of a charge we sometimes make against the City – being reactive rather than visionary in terms of our environmental policy. We are proud to be looking forward towards a solution that could alter the region’s water policy for decades to come.”

This study, which will be undertaken by the City with oversight of an expert appointed by the environmental community and peer reviewed by national wastewater experts, is intended to build upon the work of the City’s 2005 Water Reuse Study. That study, which was undertaken as part of the legal settlement resulting from the 2002 waiver, explored six alternatives to maximize the reuse of wastewater treated at the City’s two existing reclamation facilities and provided the impetus for the pilot Indirect Potable Reuse (IPR) project the City is currently undertaking that could result in the beneficial reuse of up to 16 million gallons of highly treated wastewater every day. “We are pleased to have reached this agreement with the City that allows us to be able to move forward cooperatively on this critically important issue.” added Reznik.

# # #

Stimulus Package - SANDAG water and sewage spending

Check out this list for lots of proposals in the hopper for sewage and water spending.

EPA Information on Potable Reuse

Check out this link has valuable official information from the US Environmental Protection Agency on water recycling and reuse:

http://www.epa.gov/region09/water/recycling/

POTABLE REUSE!! PURPLE PIPE IS WASTEFUL!!

CLICK HERE for a great story on the Orange County Water District's GroundWater Replenishment System, from the Public Broadcast Service (PBS).

Northern California Increases Water Recycling a Bit

And with about 500 turns of a big T-wrench, a valve opened into a new pipe and Petaluma’s sewage headed east to flow through a new $110 million treatment plant. As of today, the city is operating the Ellis Creek Wastewater Recycling Facility, pumping 5 million gallons of sewage.

Click Here for the full story.

Once Through Cooling - Killing For Water??

Coastal power plants could face tougher rules by Jane Kay, San Francisco Chronicle Environment Writer on Wednesday, January 14, 2009:

San Francisco's Mirant Corp. power plant, under fire from the city attorney and environmental groups, is one of 19 power plants in California that could face tougher regulation under the Obama administration for killing billions of fish.

For now, state water regulators are allowing the Mirant plant in the city's Dogpatch neighborhood and the other power plants in California, including the huge Diablo Canyon Power Plant, to continue using a cooling system that sucks and grinds fish, flattens them on screens or boils them in hot water.

The coastal power plants withdraw cold water and discharge hot water at a rate of about 16.7 billion gallons per day, according to reports. The Mirant Potrero plant is blamed for killing hundreds of millions of fish larvae, including goby, northern anchovy, Pacific herring, California halibut and rockfishes....

California regulators could require the electric power plants to upgrade to fish-safe systems now under existing laws, environmental lawyers say, but instead are using legal questions over a 2004 U.S. EPA regulation to delay replacing the World War II-era technology, known as once-through cooling systems.

Two state agencies have objected to extending permits to operate the old systems, citing studies showing that 88 billion organisms are killed a year. Several of the state's power plants are moving ahead with projects to replace old systems - one on Humboldt Bay and others in Southern California. The technology at new power plants uses towers to cool boiling water and does not require cold seawater.

CLICK HERE for the full story from www.sfgate.com

Ignorance is Bliss

Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009 | Rob Davis' article on recycled sewage is interesting but a bit short on fact. First, when San Diego tried out their proposed system in the mid-1990s, there was much hype about the Virginia project, which had just started, and the Orange County program.

Click Here for the entire letter in the Voice of San Diego and reader comments.

Water water everywhere, where is it from?

The fight for clean water continues!  Keeping our oceans, rivers and beaches clean and freshwater coming out of our taps is a top priority.  To do so, it is important to keep track of who is doing what, so here is a little breakdown of where our water comes from.

Over 80% of our water in San Diego is imported.  It comes from the Colorado River and the State Water Project (far Northern California).  There is a little bit in the ground that can be used, and reservoirs that are available.  Here is how it gets here:

Its transient nature aside, water is owned by many people before and after it gets to our homes and businesses.  The Metropolitan Water District in LA is the first owner of the water imported from the Colorado River and State Water Project (SWP).  They then sell the water to agencies, such as the San Diego County Water Authority.  The San Diego County Water Authority has 24 member agencies broken into water districts.  The Water Authority sells water to the Water Agencies that are located in our communities.  The Water Agencies then sell the water to government agencies, businesses and homeowners.  We drink and use this water, and whatever gets flushed or goes down the drain then goes to the Wastewater Agencies.  The Wastewater Agencies then treat the water to various levels and either dump the treated wastewater into the ocean, or the more progressive wastewater agencies such as the San Elijo Joint Powers Authority and Leucadia Wastewater District, will highly treat the water and sell the highly treated water for irrigation use (purple pipe).

This is where you come into play.  We need YOU, friends and neighbors, to insist that the Water Agencies and Water Districts work together to treat our wastewater in the same manner that the Water Districts in Fountain Valley, CA, Fairfax, VA and El Paso, TX do: for DRINKING.  Below is a link to the returning board members of the San Diego County Water Authority.  Write, email or call them and demand that we STOP dumping our wastewater into the oceans, and that we join the handful of agencies that are international leaders in making the best use of water resources!  

Tastes like water because it is water

On Saturday January 10th SurfriderSD organized a tour of the Orange County Water District's (OCWD) Groundwater Replenishment System (GWR) in Fountain Valley. The GWR System takes highly treated sewer water from the OC Sanitation Dept. (next door) that would be sent to the ocean and purifies it to near-distilled quality water.

I was really impressed with the facility in general, the whole operation had a modern, clean and efficient feel to it. Shivaji Deshmukh is the GWR System Program Manager and lead us on the tour. Thanks for taking the time to host a Saturday tour, we had over a dozen people there and everyone seemed to walk away impressed. Thanks also to Jared for organizing everything.

The purification process is pretty simple in theory and the resulting water is so pure that minerals need to be added back so it does not corrode pipes. One concern has always been with endocrine disruptors/gender benders. The reverse osmosis process filters out just about every organic and inorganic compound. Anything small enough to slip through the RO membrane gets zapped away in the ultraviolet (UV) light process with hydrogen peroxide.

For more details on the purification process, info on the OCWD and the GWR System visit www.gwrsystem.com and Click Here for more photos from the tour.

Know Your H2O in the Shower

Where Water Reuse Isn't a Dirty Word

By Rob Davis on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009 in the Voice of San Diego

Centreville, Va. -- Tucked behind evergreens, down a long lane in an otherwise anonymous stretch of this Washington, D.C. suburb south of Dulles International Airport, sits a facility that provides San Diego with the best evidence that it's safe to fill drinking water reservoirs with purified sewage.

Here, a treatment plant has been purifying sewage and dumping the clean water into the Occoquan Reservoir, a source of drinking water for 1 million residents of Northern Virginia's densely populated suburbs in Fairfax and Prince William counties.

And they've been doing it 30 years.

The sewage arrives here at the Millard H. Robbins Jr. Water Reclamation Plant from the toilets of 275,000 nearby residents. A day-and-a-half later, after being disinfected and stripped of its contaminants, it washes down a wide concrete spillway into Bull Run, the Occoquan Reservoir tributary made famous by its Civil War battles.

In dry weather, that purified sewage spends three months meandering and mixing in the sprawling tree-lined reservoir, making its way 17 miles downstream to a dam, where a local water provider draws it out, treats it to be safe for human consumption -- it picks up contaminants along the way from urban runoff -- and pipes it to homes.

The facility's existence directly counters one of the talking points Mayor Jerry Sanders has frequently recited as a reason for objecting to the City Council's plan to recycle sewage as a drinking water source. Sanders has claimed that San Diego would be the first municipality anywhere to pipe purified sewage into a drinking water reservoir. He made that claim in October and again in December when articulating his opposition to the council's $11.8 million pilot study of recycled sewage.

"I want to make it very clear," Sanders said at a Dec. 4 press conference. "No one else has done what we're being asked to do. People confuse us with Orange County, people confuse it with a lot of other places. No one else has ever talked about putting recycled water into a reservoir and then using it for drinking water. That's what we'll be doing testing on to see if that can even work."

In Northern Virginia, that conversation happened in the 1970s. And the region found that recycling sewage is effective and safe, said Charles Boepple, executive director of the Upper Occoquan Service Authority, which operates the sewage recycling facility.

"We have been doing exactly what San Diego is exploring for 30 years," Boepple said.

CLICK HERE for the complete article.

Know Your H2O at the Laundromat

Recent rains have done little to improve California's water situation -- take it from an Aussie.

By Patrick Whyte. January 4, 2009 in the LA Times

That rain you've been having? It doesn't really help much. California is still in the midst of a serious drought. We Australians can empathize -- and we can also offer some advice.

Last year, the southeast corner of the northern Australian state of Queensland, where I live, entered its 10th year of drought -- officially the worst period on record. Australia is the driest inhabited continent on Earth, but until recently that was never a huge problem for the 90% of us who live in coastal cities and towns. We'd always thought of dry spells as the farmers' problem.

But as the recent drought dragged on, fruit and vegetable prices began to rise. Then public parks went from green to brown. Finally, even city folk began to talk about drought......

Officials developed a relatively cheap social marketing campaign, with the aim of getting people to think about individual water use. Ads promoted simple things, such as taking four-minute showers and turning off the tap while brushing your teeth.

Crucially, the program set targets, and for the first time put gallon figures on the amount of water used in car washing, toilet flushing and other activities.

Before the drought and Target 140, as the program was called, my wife, two sons (ages 8 and 11) and I routinely wasted water. Our faucets dripped, our sprinklers ran, we washed our cars and hosed our driveway without a second thought.

Now the radio was awash with talk of water and how to conserve it. Reservoir levels became the subject of everyday conversation.

CLICK HERE for the rest of the article.

Patrick Whyte is a freelance journalist in Brisbane, Australia.

Know Your H2O at the Car Wash

The world has a water shortage, not a food shortage

At the core of Know Your H2O is water. Simple, plain freshwater that flows freely from faucets in our home and all over town that so many people take for granted. In San Diego there is only enough local rainfall to satisfy the needs of 10-15% of our population on average. Most of the fresh water is imported from hundreds of miles away in Northern California or the Colorado River which is quite energy intensive and at the middle of many political battles.

The goal of this blog is to raise awareness of where our water comes from, where it goes and why it is such a precious resource that must be managed well. In addition to personal insights we will include links to articles and such that highlight fresh water issues on a local and global scale.

Here's an excerpt from an article on www.economist.com

MOST people may drink only two litres of water a day, but they consume about 3,000 if the water that goes into their food is taken into account. The rich gulp down far more, since they tend to eat more meat, which takes far more water to produce than grains. So as the world’s population grows and incomes rise, farmers will—if they use today’s methods—need a great deal more water to keep everyone fed: 2,000 more cubic kilometres a year by 2030, according to the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), a research centre, or over a quarter more than they use today. Yet in many farming regions, water is scarce and likely to get scarcer as global warming worsens. The world is facing not so much a food crisis as a water crisis, argues Colin Chartres, IWMI’s director-general.

The solution, Mr Chartres and others contend, is more efficient use of water or, as the sloganeers put it, “more crop per drop”.... CLICK HERE for the full story.