From Hugh Logan, CWEA SWRCB Advisory Committee Representative

The State Water Resources Control Board’s Advisory Committee, comprised of nine members from various stakeholder and industry groups, provides feedback to the Office of Operator Certification on regulation updates, reviews operator exams, and gives suggestions for continuing improvement.  Hugh Logan, of the South Bayside System Authority, and Chris Berch, of the Inland Empire Utilities Agency, represent CWEA.

The State Office of Operator Certification (OOC) Staff hosted the Advisory Committee July 21^st in Sacramento and presented numerous items for discussion. Read more

From Sophia Skoda, CWEA Government Affairs Committee

After nearly two years of workshops, stakeholder input and multiple drafts, on November 17, 2009, the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) has adopted a new Water Quality Enforcement Policy (WQEP).  The below is an edited summary of notes and comments on the policy originally drafted by Roberta Larsen, an attorney at Somach, Simmons, and Dunn with extensive experience with water quality issues.

The WQEP governs the manner in which the State and Regional Water Boards prioritize and pursue enforcement of violations of permits and water quality laws.  The policy replaces the current version, which has been in effect since February 2002.  Tri-TAC (comprising CWEA, the League of Cities, and CASA), CASA itself, and the Clean Water Summit Partners were active participants in the WQEP update process, and many of the changes requested were reflected in the WQEP.
Read more

The California Legislature seems close to a deal on a massive water infrastructure package, but history is lurking in the background as distrust, compromise and old nagging issues rear up to prevent a final deal. It appears they have agreed a $9.4-billion bond should go to a public vote next November.

From the LA Times…

In some ways, the split over the bill represents two competing philosophies.

One believes California can build its way out of its water troubles with a delta re-plumbing and new dams and reservoirs. “We need to be sure that any money we spend actually stimulates the economy, creates jobs and brings water. That has to be our top priority,” Assembly Republican Leader Sam Blakeslee of San Luis Obispo said Monday.

The other camp, represented largely by Democrats, argues that the answer is more sweeping than infrastructure: The state should start monitoring groundwater use, do a better job of enforcing water rights and crack down on illegal water diversions in the all-important delta watershed. It needs to mandate urban water conservation and force agriculture — the state’s biggest user of water — to do a better job of measuring and pricing its supplies to promote efficient irrigation.

“It’s a fight as old as statehood,” said Richard Frank, executive director of the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment at UC Berkeley Law School.

Times article is here.

San Jose Mercury News article here.

Tri-TAC and several additional clean water Associations jointly called upon the SWRCB for equitable and reasonable standards in their SSO abatement program…

From the letter…

The Associations believe that the program is at a point where the State Water Board could most positively focus its resources on achieving compliance with the existing program, which has not yet been completely implemented. The slide show presented by State Water Board staff at the September workshops indicated that nearly forty percent of agencies are not reporting on a regular basis. Fifteen percent of agencies have not even completed the CIWQS questionnaire.

Only half of the agencies have certified completion of their SSMPs. The lack of reporting by the non-compliant agencies is unfair to the agencies that are reporting, and the map of spills shown on the Water Board’s website is misleading to any viewer of the website because of the agencies that are not yet included in the program or are not reporting appropriately.

 Read the letter here.

(hat tip: Elizabeth Allen!)

A New York Times series that has been running over the past few weeks has highlighted issues such as agricultural runoff, an apparent increase in the rate of water pollution violations, and pesticides contaminating our drinking water.  In the next part of the series the Times will cover how power plants affect public water.

As part of the series the Times has compiled data on more than 200,000 facilities that have permits to discharge pollutants and has also collected responses from states regarding compliance (the Times published this response from California’s SWRCB). According to the Times, the information about facilities contained in the database comes from two sources: the Environmental Protection Agency and the California State Water Resources Control Board. 

Read more at the NY Times web site:
Toxic Waters series
Database of water pollution violations compiled by the New York Times 

Tell us what you think about the “Toxic Waters” series. You can comment by logging on to the E-Bulletin and posting a comment. If you are not a registered user, you can sign-up here (registering helps us control spam, and is fast and easy).

SAN FRANCISCO – On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The U.S. EPA manages more than $7 billion in projects and programs that will invest in environmental protection and provide long-term economic benefits to aide recovery efforts across the nation. More than $517 million in Recovery Act Funds have already been obligated to California, including: Read more