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Water Use, Pollution, Treatment & Reuse  

Lecture 25.0: Is it good enough to drink?
Lecture 25.1: Environmental Qualities of Water.
Lecture 26.0: The Politics of Water.

This weeks studies are arguably the most important section of the Environmental Science course. Water is the critical ingredient for all aspects of the biosphere. The biosphere is made up of four interlocking domains which independently cannot function as a habitat for life. The lithosphere is of course the rock, eroded and degraded to make soil, the atmosphere which provides the gases necessary for life and the medium which makes mitigates the radiation, insolation, emanating from the sun and through the energy of the sun evaporates water which is transported globally through the atmosphere. The water part of the global system, the hydrosphere is the main mechanism by which the solar insolation is converted to a form of energy, which distributes energy totally around the globe. The hydrologic cycle is perhaps the most important concept you will take with you from this course (Figure 19.4).

In consideration of the quantity and distribution of water on Earth. It should be no surprise that the oceans account for most of the earthly water (97.2%). Fresh water (non saline) represents less than three percent of the Earth water. Of the 2.7% of the fresh water, more than 2% is locked up in the Ice caps and glaciers. The remaining 0.31% of water on Earth is the only water available for most of the activities of all of the terrestrial organisms. This includes the activities of technological humans such as agriculture, industrial cooling and the fresh waters used for recreation.

Many folks fail to realize just how much water is used in the production of food for humans. In the Table below, which was prepared by the Water Education Foundation, responds to the question: How Much Water Do We Use?  

             Obviously because of life style differences we will individually find variations in these figures. A really startling set of figures for me is the Amount of Water It Takes to Produce One Serving of:  

In agriculture and western water management the unit of measure is an Acre Foot of water. One acre-foot equals approximately 325,900gallons, which is enough to fill a football field to a depth of one foot or the water needs of a family of five for a year. In California the amount of water in million acre-feet per year (AFY: 1acre-foot = ca 325,000gallons) that:  

(data from The Water-Education Foundation)

A comment about “Desalination as a Water Source.”  In addition to the high cost for energy to effect the desalinization of seawater there is a cost of the “salts” removed from the saline or brackish water. The salts are considered a human made (anthropogenic) hazardous material because of the concentration and nature of some of the salts. In the USA the salts removed from sea-water cannot be returned to the ocean because it is considered a point source discharge under the water quality regulations of the EPA. This cost for disposal of the “man made pollutants” adds tremendously to the cost of desalinization.

Most urban water supplies are derived from ground water pumping or from surface waters such as streams and lakes. In terms of the Colorado River, California has been taking more than its allocation since the 1940’s because there was no other state that had the pipelines or canals to transport the water from the River to the agricultural fields or urban centers where the water is needed. The regulation of riparian habitats has become a contentious issue in California as the regulators attempt to eliminate cattle and fishermen from the streams because of the alleged damage done to the riparian habitat.

Pay particular attention to the conservation measures listed for agricultural and domestic use. Most of the conservation measures I have seen, greatly increase the cost of water because of the belief that cost will force people to conserve water. In agriculture the cost of water is a cost of doing business and the less water used to produce your crop, the greater the profit realized from that crop. Domestic use continues to be a problem, especially if the users do not trust the purveyors of water. In Los Angeles during the early 1990’s the citizens responded to the statewide drought by reducing their water consumption by 38% over the previous year; the only city to do so. However, because the income to the LA Department of Water and Power declined, because folks used less water, the City petitioned the Public Utilities Commission for a rate increase to make up for the shortfall. You can be sure the next time the Governor calls for a voluntary reduction the ratepayers will be very reluctant to comply.

Recently, the trend toward sustainability reaches all aspects of the American environmental scene. The wetland issue is one that has become a contentious issue. A few years ago (ca. 1997) Mono County articulated a management plan that permitted the development of home sites and small parcels without obtaining a wetlands mitigation permit from the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. This was considered to be a landmark case in as much as agreements among all parties eliminated the need for litigation and work toward wetlands improvement could proceed without costly and lengthy legal actions, while allowing reasonable small parcel development. National Resources Defense Council, a not for profit environmental organization of attorneys,  sued the EPA and the U.S. Corps of Engineers for not discharging their duty in requiring a permit for all development in wetland classified property. In November 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the wetlands of Mono County, and all other jurisdictions, were not navigable waters of the United States and that the U.S. Corps of Engineers had no business regulating the use of such waters.

Many home site lots in the Mammonth CA ski area are considered wetlands and building will become more and more difficult as the enviro agenda to stop development, especially in National Forests is articulated. The “Environmental Issue: How Wet Is a Wetland?" has been the subject of lawsuits and anti-development litigation for nearly 20 years at a cost of untold millions of dollars. There is a belief by the enviros that “constructed wetlands” (new wetlands or even rehabilitated wetlands) are not as good as “natural wetlands.” It is ironic that the best places to see geese and pelicans around desert communities are on the waste water treatment ponds, and in irrigated fields including parks, baseball fields and school lawns.

California completed, in 1999, a 20 year Leaking Underground Storage Tank program (LUST) which probably is responsible for a ten to twenty percent rise in the cost of gasoline to the consumers. Many small operators were forced to go out of business, even though the State provided low interest loans to purchase new triple walled, imbedded monitor fuel tanks. No motor vehicle fuel was delivered to any fuel dispensing facility that had not removed its old single walled fuel tank and cleaned up the soil under the tank, including the ground water if it was contaminated. This program was started in 1978 and was completed on December 20, 1998. There are a few independent stations that are not in compliance, but they are not receiving fuel. Much of the regulatory work undertaken by Lahontan RWQCB and the other regional water quality control boards for the past 20 years has been doing the inspections and managing the cleanup from the LUST program.

The articles about the Erin Brockovich movie are presented as a means to recognize that the media and entertainment world often sensationalizes issues, which are being mitigated in an appropriate and timely manner. The Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) “spill” near Barstow CA, was a subject of discussion for most of the 12 years I was on the Regional Board. The problem started long before there was a CA Water Quality Control Board, and it is noteworthy that the early years of the Regional Boards there was little legislation with which to undertake the clean up and mitigation of these types of industrial spills. The practice of allowing contaminated water to percolate into the ground water is now illegal and severely dealt with if a facility is guilty of an unlicensed discharge into the environment. 

PG&E lined the ponds and stopped the discharge of cooling water to ground water in 1969 three years prior to the 1972 federal Clean Water Act. The ground water plume has been monitored since that time and there has been no movement of the contaminated water plume. When I first joined the Board in 1988 one of the Board Members Father lived in Hinckley and thus the board was highly focused on this issue. The Regional Boards were created through the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act of 1964. PG&E was directed to stop the discharge of cooling tower water at all natural gas pumping stations in the State in 1968.

By the way the comment about the Exxon Valdez tanker having a single bottom, which was punctured and resulted in the fuel spill, was an exception to International Maritime Law that requires double bottoms on oceangoing oil tankers. The Exxon fleet bringing oil down from Alaska was given a Congressional exemption from that international treaty because the ships were mostly operating within the territorial waters (200 miles offshore) of the USA. Had the Exxon Valdez been fitted with a double walled bottom like all ocean going tankers the spill would not have happened. It is a matter of scientific study that the rapidity of the recovery of the wildlife has surprised even the most ardent critter oriented scientists. All of the tankers in the Exxon fleet are now fitted with internal puncture proof bladders (flexible tanks) as they should have been in the first place.

Search out the website for the city of Arcata tidal stream wastewater treatment system restoration project. This site is an excellent example of bioremediation and the use of natural protocols in the treatment of domestic and industrial waste.

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