Water-The Third Rail Part XXI

A while back this blog talked about the expiration of the USEPA waiver
coming up July 31, 2015. The waiver allows San Diego to violate the 1972
Clean Water Act. How? By sending from the Pt. Loma WWTP over two hundred
million gallons per day of imported water, treated to drinking water
standards, used once, having had the chunks taken out and dumping the rest
into the ocean.

If a new waiver is issued by the USEPA, San Diego will put off designing and
implementing their Pure Water San Diego Program (potable recycling) for
another five years. A request was sent two months ago to Mayor Faulconer
asking about his position on applying for a new waiver. A letter arrived
yesterday (7-26-2014), enclosing a San Diego City Council resolution lauding
the effects of producing recycled potable water, but buried in the verbiage
is the decision to apply for a new waiver.

Quoting part of the response to Mayor Faulconer’s letter:” In my experience
there are three options to address a thorny issue like water, one is to
ignore it; the second is to spin it and the third way (always the best) is
to meet it head on. Obviously you and most of the City Council have chosen
to spin it with the hope the drought will end early so people will forget
another waiver has been issued by the USEPA and five more years can go by
without having to deal with potable recycling.

Crystal balls are scarce and you may win this bet, however don’t be fooled
by the past successes squeaking by as the only city of this size in
California to dump partially treated sewage in the ocean. As the drought
deepens, the over-allocated Colorado River fails and we head into what may
be the driest century in California history, when the reservoirs reach panic
level, the first two options go away.”

We get sixty percent of our water from the Colorado River that is so
over-allocated, and suffering from a much longer drought than California, it
is dying. A new study confirms that relying on imported water from the
Colorado is a fool’s errand. Already Lake Mead is at an historic low level
that has not been seen since it was filling originally in 1939.
There is always the possibility this coming winter a strong La Nina will
drench San Diego (and California), filling the reservoirs to end the
drought. Is this wise water policy? The mayor and city council are playing
fast and loose with the socio-economic health of San Diego. The first
“Whereas” in Resolution 308906 says, “.nearly 80 percent of the City of San
Diego’s water supply is imported, and vulnerable to supply interruptions due
to drought, natural disasters, and allocation reductions.”

But buried in the legal-speak of the resolution is this statement: “BE IT
FURTHER RESOLVED, that the implementation strategy should include, but not
limited to…develop a modified NPDES permit renewal application..”. The
acronym NPDES is a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System.
Translated: We are seeking another five year waiver, and will attempt to
convince the Feds we’re working on actually doing something. San Diego has
been working on doing something for decades, and little has been
accomplished. The resolution is a masterpiece of spin. So the answer to
whether or not the Mayor is in favor of a new waiver is “yes, but don’t hold
your breath San Diego, we’re working on it.” Haven’t we heard this before?

Milt Burgess