Greenies Court Action May Require Southern California to Obtain Pollution Discharge Permits for Drinking Water from California Aqueduct and Colorado River Aqueduct
Could Southern California be required to have a pollution discharge permit costing billions of dollars to get its customary entitlement of drinking water from the California Aqueduct and/or from the Colorado River Aqueduct? As bizarre as this may sound, a court ruling in New York City requiring a pollutant discharge permit for the City to receive water from upstate New York may threaten domestic water supplies in the Western United States.
A discharge permit is what you need to get if you're discharging pollutants into the environment. The original intent of such permits was to prevent industry and government from dumping harmful substances into our water, such as happened when industrial waste was dumped in the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1970's which were flammable and caught fire. But such notorious pollution is now under control.
If New York City buys water from upstate New York and puts it into its pipeline, environmentalists want New York to have to consider that a water pollutant and get a discharge permit. The ruling specifically relates to water transfers, something that literally happens all the time in the Western United States, especially shipments of water to Southern California. Irrigation canals and ditches are specifically exempt under the Clean Water Act, but that may change if the court ruling stands.
The ruling could cost New York millions of dollars and Southern California mega millions or billions to treat the water to a level that would be tantamount to buying purified water (which coincidentally would eat through steel pipes rapidly resulting in even more damages).
Southern California could quickly find itself in a similar situation as New York given the massive water hydraulic system that moves water from hundreds of miles away. Moreover, the Colorado River Aqueduct conveys water with about 6 parts per billion of perchlorate from natural sources. Some local water wells in Pasadena are shut down with as little as 10 parts per billion of perchlorate. The entire sources of imported water to Southern California could be lost overnight if this ruling prevails.
Sources:
1. http://aquafornia.com/archives/5033
2. http://www.capitalpress.com/main.asp?SectionID=67&SubSectionID=617&ArticleID=45177&TM=52570.33
Could Southern California be required to have a pollution discharge permit costing billions of dollars to get its customary entitlement of drinking water from the California Aqueduct and/or from the Colorado River Aqueduct? As bizarre as this may sound, a court ruling in New York City requiring a pollutant discharge permit for the City to receive water from upstate New York may threaten domestic water supplies in the Western United States.
A discharge permit is what you need to get if you're discharging pollutants into the environment. The original intent of such permits was to prevent industry and government from dumping harmful substances into our water, such as happened when industrial waste was dumped in the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1970's which were flammable and caught fire. But such notorious pollution is now under control.
If New York City buys water from upstate New York and puts it into its pipeline, environmentalists want New York to have to consider that a water pollutant and get a discharge permit. The ruling specifically relates to water transfers, something that literally happens all the time in the Western United States, especially shipments of water to Southern California. Irrigation canals and ditches are specifically exempt under the Clean Water Act, but that may change if the court ruling stands.
The ruling could cost New York millions of dollars and Southern California mega millions or billions to treat the water to a level that would be tantamount to buying purified water (which coincidentally would eat through steel pipes rapidly resulting in even more damages).
Southern California could quickly find itself in a similar situation as New York given the massive water hydraulic system that moves water from hundreds of miles away. Moreover, the Colorado River Aqueduct conveys water with about 6 parts per billion of perchlorate from natural sources. Some local water wells in Pasadena are shut down with as little as 10 parts per billion of perchlorate. The entire sources of imported water to Southern California could be lost overnight if this ruling prevails.
Sources:
1. http://aquafornia.com/archives/5033
2. http://www.capitalpress.com/main.asp?SectionID=67&SubSectionID=617&ArticleID=45177&TM=52570.33
Maybe I'm missing something, but don't over-the-top environmentalists and bad judges who make absurd court rulings use water too?
Posted by: Susan | October 15, 2008 at 09:56 AM