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Las Vegas Reduces Perchlorate in Colorado River
The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP) recently installed a new remediation system to intercept perchlorate contaminated groundwater now entering the Colorado River. Perchlorate is an oxygen rich salt that in high concentrations can affect the thyroid gland.
Trace levels of perchlorate detected in the Colorado River and Lake Mead in 1997 were traced to the Las Vegas Wash, a tributary that carries runoff from Southern Nevada’s urban areas. Las Vegas Wash empties into Lake Mead, a major water reservoir for Nevada, Arizona and California.
The chemical was found to be seeping into the Las Vegas wash from nearby manufacturing sites through the shallow groundwater aquifer. Preliminary estimates indicate that the system will remove a large portion of the perchlorate now entering the wash.
Perchlorate levels in Lake Mead averaged 10 parts per billion during 2001, with levels downstream in Arizona and California at about half that level. Jeff Stuck of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality Drinking Water Program says, “We found through a couple of different monitoring efforts perchlorate ranging from non-detection up to 9 parts per billion along the Colorado River stem stretching along the Arizona border. And we also found some low levels of perchlorate in the CAP canal.”
The Environment Protection Agency has only recently begun the process of determining whether a drinking water standard should be set for perchlorate. With the adoption of any official standards likely years away, Las Vegas is taking a proactive stance on the issue.
“We began aggressively addressing this issue as soon as perchlorate was discovered in the Colorado River,” says Patricia Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. “Removing perchlorate from Lake Mead is among our top priorities. However, we recognize that this problem isn’t going to disappear overnight. That’s why we decided to become actively involved in remediation efforts, rather than waiting for regulations to be developed.”
Texaco Penalized for Navajo Oil Spills
Texaco Inc. has agreed to pay penalties for alleged violations of the U.S. Clean Water Act on the Navajo Reservation in Utah. The company admitted no fault in the settlement.
The settlement includes nearly $850,000 for 88 oil spills and other environmental violations at an oil-and-gas field. As part of the settlement Texaco Exploration and Production, Inc will pay a $369,922 penalty. In addition, Texaco agreed to spend about $1.2 million over three years to ensure that spills are less likely to happen at the oil field
Texaco will pay another $478,700 to provide drinking water systems and sanitation facilities for some reservation areas. The Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency recommended projects for funding. NNEPA says some local residents now drive 50 miles to get drinking water.
EPA faulted Texaco for oil spills occurring between Dec. 1991 and January 1998 that reached the Montezuma Creek and other tributaries of the San Juan River. The agency also charged that Texaco failed to have an adequate prevention or response plan and did not notify EPA of the spills.
“Companies not in compliance with environmental regulations not only pollute the environment, but gain an unfair competitive advantage,” said Wayne Nastri, an EPA regional administrator in San Francisco. “This settlement levels the playing field, ensures that Texaco will operate its field in an environmentally responsible manner, and also provides clean, accessible drinking water for families who have gone for much too long without,” he said.
The EPA and NNEPA began investigating the spills in 1995, and the EPA took administrative enforcement in 1996. The EPA sued Texaco in March 1998.
Texaco leases reservation land for its oil fields. The oil production fields are in the vicinity of the San Juan River in southeast Utah. Montezuma Creek, a tributary to the San Juan River, flows through Texaco’s oil fields.
BuRec Says System OK Despite Dryness
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation only confirmed what is evident to many people when it recently stated that spring and summer snowmelt runoffs will be below average in most areas of the West.
The information was included in a recently released BuRec report that also stated that reservoir storage levels are generally near to below average. Most projects’ storage levels, however, are expected to be adequate to meet this years’ water supply needs. Precipitation in March was generally below normal throughout the West. Most of Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado reported less than 50 percent of normal precipitation.
“While we are very concerned about some areas that remain in critical drought, in general we believe there will be adequate supplies for agriculture and municipal water users, wildlife, boaters and anglers, and all who rely on the hydropower power produced by the Bureau of Reclamation,” said John Keys, commissioner of reclamation.
“We are closely monitoring the drought situation in the West,” Keys continued. “Even though we have some areas that are in better shape than last year, we still see heavy demands continuing to be applied on our reservoir systems throughout the West.”
Keys said the Southwest has received less than 50 percent of normal precipitation since October 2001. Current Colorado River reservoir storage levels are adequate to provide a full water supply. Lake Mead is 74 percent full.
Throughout the Lower Colorado region, seasonal precipitation is well below normal. Current Colorado Basin snowpack is only 51 percent of average. Although the forecast for April-July inflow to Lake Powell is only 38 percent of average, Lake Powell remains at 70 percent of capacity..
ADEQ Requests NPDES Authority
The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality is seeking authority to administer a stormwater runoff permit program currently under the control of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
ADEQ submitted a request to the regional EPA office to allow the state agency to issue permits and manage compliance with the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System program.
The Arizona Legislature provided legal groundwork for the request when it passed H2426 that established the Arizona Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. The bill, which was passed during the 2001 regular session, required ADEQ to seek regulatory authority to replace NPDES with AZPDES.
Arizona was within a small minority of six states without this authority when the bill was passed. ADEQ needed statutory authority before submitted a request to EPA to administer the storm-runoff permit program. H2426 provided the state agency with this authority.
The stormwater runoff permit process evaluates compliance with federal Clean Water Act rules.
Some environmentalists perceive an ulterior motive in the request. They say federal control of the program ensures better protection of endangered species. In Pima County, the federal program resulted in building delays in pygmy owl habitat, and they say this level of protection will not be provided by the state. State officials deny that the application is any way an intent to skirt species protection.
EPA is currently reviewing the state’s application. Once the agency makes it determination it will publish a notice in the Federal Register and the public will have 45 days to comment. ADEQ expects an EPA decision in early July.
In Arizona, the Navajo Tribe also has submitted an application to EPA requesting tribal authority to administer the reservation NPDES program.
New IBWC Citizen Forums to Discuss Border Issues
Often criticized as unresponsive to public interest, the United States Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission is forming a Southeast Arizona Citizens Forum. The intent of the forum is to better inform citizens of Santa Cruz and Cochise counties about commission activities in their areas. A two-way exchange of information is sought, with the commission providing timely information and receiving input about ongoing and future commission projects in the area.
The Southeast Arizona organization will be part of a series of citizen forums IBWC is establishing along the U.S.-Mexican border at locations where commission projects operate. Forums have been organized in the Los Cruces-El Paso area and in San Diego, with another scheduled later for the Lower Rio Grande region.
Sally Spener of IWBC says, “We also expect to be establishing a citizen forum for our Colorado River project in Yuma. We don’t know yet if it will be a combined Yuma-Imperial County forum or two separate ones.”
IBWC Commissioner Carlos M. Ramirez, who was appointed to the position last summer, has made public outreach a priority of his administration.
The Southeast Arizona forum is expected to be made up of about ten members representing various interests including the general public, environmentalists, officials from various levels of government and other interested parties. Meetings will be conducted about four times per year, alternating between Santa Cruz and Cochise counties, with all meetings open to the public.
Plans call for the members to be appointed in time to participate in a June meeting. Persons interested in serving on the board should contact Sally Spener. 915-832-4175; email: sallyspener@ibwc.state.gov
U.N. Warns of State of World’s Water
The United Nations marked World Water Day, March 22, by calling attention to some of the world’s most critical water problems. In its World Water Day statement the United Nations warned of dire consequences if the world continues to consume water at its present rate. This will result in more than 2.7 billion people facing severe shortages of fresh water by 2025. Efforts were urged to conserve supplies and develop new ones.
The World Health Organization used the occasion to note that waterborne diseases kill at least 3.4 million people every year. Collectively these diseases are more lethal than AIDS. WHO called for a greater international effort to improve the water hygiene and sanitation conditions of the world’s poor.
The UN report said about 5 billion people around the globe will be living in areas with conditions making it difficult or impossible to meet all fresh water needs. This looming crisis could touch nearly two-thirds of the Earth’s population the report warned.
Further contributing to the report’s bleak outlook is its estimate that even now 1.1 billion people have no access to safe drinking water, 2.5 billion lack proper sanitation and more than 5 million people die from waterborne diseases each year — ten times the number of casualties killed in wars around the globe.
“Water is in the top rank of hazards to human health,” said Jamie Bartram, coordinator of the WHO’s Water, Sanitation and Health Program. “This is a big health problem and the people who are really suffering are the poor in developing countries, especially children.”
Even if not termed waterborne diseases, certain disabilities and incapacitating illnesses that are in part caused by contaminated water ruin the lives of many in the developing world, WHO said. With better water management and sanitation the transmission of diseases like schistosomiasis and malaria can be reduced.
Bartram said many other threats exist such as excessive fluoride in the water supply in China, India and the Rift Valley in Africa. In China alone, 30 million people suffer crippling skeletal fluorosis. Trachoma, an eye infection caused by dirty water and poor hygiene conditions, has inflicted irreversible blindness on six million of the world’s population.
“Without adequate clean water, there can be no escape from poverty,” said Klaus Toepfer, director of the UN Environment Program. “Water is the basis for good health and food production. Mankind is always at its mercy.”
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Will Solar Panels Replace Windmills on Western Lands?
Grundfos, a Danish manufacturer, chose SunBelt Pump & Supply
Ltd. in Amarillo as one of its marketing test sites for its pump,
called the SQ Flex. Other sites are located in Australia and South
Africa. Grundfos sells more than 10 million pumps worldwide each
year. |
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