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Seeking Cleaner Sips from Delta
While policy debate focuses on how much water California's booming population takes out of the Delta, the state's urban water suppliers are increasingly worried about what Central Valley sprawl puts back in. An association of urban water agencies (CUWA) is asking the Central Valley Regional Board to develop a drinking water protection policy that could impose stringent new requirements on sewage and other dischargers and lead the Board into new regulatory territory. What's more, CUWA is willing to help foot the bill to develop such a policy.
"We don't feel that the current basin plan adequately protects drinking water beneficial uses," says CUWA consultant Peter MacLaggan. CUWA is asking the Board to incorporate water quality objectives for three major types of contaminants into its Basin Plan for the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers as part of the triennial review process now underway. All three types - total organic carbon (TOC), pathogens (such as giardia and cryptosporidium) and salt - flow into Central Valley waterways and the Delta from wastewater discharge plants, urban and agricultural runoff and other sources.
The basic problem is a disconnect between laws regulating discharge and those regulating drinking water. "The federal drinking water regulations have gotten way out in front of the state and federal water quality laws that the Board enforces," says MacLaggan. "They need better coordination."
"The TOC problem is our clearest concern in that there is a direct link to serious public health issues," says McLaggan. TOC, a naturally occurring element found in all organic matter, is a precursor to carcinogenic by-products of the drinking water treatment and disinfection process, such as trihalomethanes (THMs). New rules promulgated last year under the 1996 reauthorization of the Safe Drinking Water Act trigger additional treatment requirements when TOC in source water exceeds 4.0 milligrams per liter (mg/L) and set a THM standard of 80 micrograms per liter (ug/L) in treated water. The next round of rulemaking, due in 2002, may cut the THM standard to 40 ug/L.
Municipal, industrial, agricultural and non-point discharges all add TOC to the Delta. "The more TOC in source water, the more THMs in treated water, the more difficulty with compliance and the greater the health risk to the public," says MacLaggan. At present the Board does not regulate TOC and pathogens - historically the purview of the Health Department - in drinking water.
Delta TOC levels currently average 3.7 mg/L, but vary widely, sometimes exceeding 6.0 mg/L, "and things are only going to get worse with higher density population in the watershed," adds MacLaggan, since more people mean more discharges and runoff. In the meantime, CALFED - the joint state and federal effort to improve Delta water supplies and quality - seems to be backing up the utilities: the Phase II report (see Now in Print) identifies a long-term goal for the Delta of 3.0 mg/L average TOC.
Despite the concerns surrounding TOCs, MacLaggan and others say salt may be the biggest unaddressed water quality problem in the state, in part because of its potential to limit the feasibility of water recycling. Industrial and municipal discharges add salts to the already salty Delta water; the salts remain even after the water is treated for recycling. "We want to recycle water so we can take less overall from the Delta, but we're finding that it's too salty to be used for landscaping and agriculture." says CUWA's Byron Buck. "We need a higher quality supply, but 5-7 million more people in the Central Valley is just going to add more salt to the system."
Buck and MacLaggan say the solution to the salt problem lies largely with the use of best management practices by industries and individuals, but as with TOCs, the Regional Board's role as a discharge regulator is also important. "We feel very strongly that as treatment plants and storm drains continue to produce greater loads of wastewater and urban runoff, the utilities that are responsible for those discharges need to mitigate the impacts on the Delta," says MacLaggan.
Although generally supportive of CUWA's proposal, some environmentalists are wary with regard to TOCs. "Carbon is crucial to primary production," says Deltakeeper Bill Jennings. "You don't want to remove too much of it, and some people feel the water treatment operators want to place the bar too high." For their part, dischargers are non-committal. "Whatever comes out of the Basin Plan review process is what we will implement," says Mary James of the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District."
According to the Regional Board's Jerry Bruns, a staff report on Basin Plan stakeholder priority issues is being prepared for an upcoming Board meeting, (the Board is currently without a quorum, pending Governor Davis' appointment of new members). He cautions, however, that even if the Board agrees that a drinking water policy is a priority, developing such a policy may take several years, in part because of staffing limitations. To help move the process along, MacLaggan says CUWA is offering to provide $80,000 for staffing and consulting. "We hope that other agencies will be equally invested in helping the Regional Board," he says.
In the meantime, CUWA is commenting on individual discharge permit applications submitted to the Board in an effort to ensure consideration of drinking water impacts. To some extent the Board seems to be listening, for example requiring a higher level of treatment for discharge from a new development near Tracy. But MacLaggan says a case-by-case approach is not really adequate. "We need to adopt a fundamental policy so that the rules of the road are clear to all participants," he says.
Contact: Peter MacLaggan (619)523-4661
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