The Delta Toilet Bowl
Submitted by lgc_admin on Thu, 06/03/2010 - 22:27.
More on the Delta toilet bowl
By Boutris Wittfogel
It is disappointing to watch the Sacramento County Regional Sanitation District (Sac Regional) tirelessly refute all claims that its ammonia-laden wastewater might be harming fish. Why not solve the problem instead?
Concerns about ammonia are not without merit. Way back in 1986, the Environmental Protection Agency identified ammonia as being toxic to fish, both in the short term (acute) and through periods of long exposure (chronic). In its benchmark manual, known as the Gold Book, EPA makes it clear that toxic acute concentrations of ammonia “may cause loss of equilibrium, hyperexcitability, increased breathing, cardiac output and oxygen uptake, and, in extreme cases, convulsions, coma, and death.” This makes sense. Think about how you feel when you get a little too close to the Windex.
At lower concentrations (chronic), according to the Gold Book, “ammonia has many effects on fishes, including a reduction in hatching success, reduction in growth rate and morphological development, and pathologic changes in tissues of gills, livers, and kidneys.” Think about how you might feel after washing windows all day taking a little bit of the Windex in with each breath.
As with those who attempt to downplay the extent of climate change, Sac Regional is not completely off-base in insisting that ammonia work be based upon “sound science.” The Gold Book is clear that the science of ammonia can be tricky and involves other parts of chemistry such temperature, pH, river flow, and other complicated scientific principles.
We know ammonia kills fish, and most other things that live in rivers. We know the northern part of the Delta, just downstream of Sac Regional’s outfall is prime delta smelt rearing habitat. Anyone who has used Windex knows that stuff cannot be good for you.
I recognize Sac Regional is caught up in a larger debate about Delta management, and it is well known that other interests look to scapegoat others in hopes of advancing their own agendas. That is basic politics. But this is not an “either/or” situation, everyone must live up to their responsibilities. Exports from the Delta continue to cause tremendous damage to the fisheries and pesticides continue to wreak havoc on the ecosystem, the Army Corps continues to dredge up legacy mercury in river beds. But none of these or other issues absolve Sac Regional of its ethical responsibility and imperative duty to solve its problems.
Most disappointing is Sac Regional’s short-sighted interpretation of its own mission to “...protect public health and the environment through reliable and safe ... treatment and disposal of wastewater in the most cost-effective manner possible, now and into the future.” We know how to remove ammonia from wastewater. In order to graduate, engineering schools across the nation require students to understand the basics of ‘nutrient removal.’
Sac Regional officials are often quoted as saying the required changes would coast one billion dollars to implement. It is possible it might take one billion dollars to remove the nutrients. But what I would really like to know is since 1986, how much Sac Regional has spent on lobbyists, politicians, trade group memberships, public relations, and consultants resisting doing what all of this year’s graduating engineering students know they should be doing -- removing nutrients.
Hope
Why.. Mr. Carter... I believe there is HOPE for you yet. It is time for us to be responsible. For those that love this planet the current system of dumping of human waste in our waterways with the grand scheme of flushing it out to the ocean is criminal. ONE BILLION GALLONS of human waste EVERY DAY. It has to STOP! If we are such a very cosmopolitian and intelligent society...Truely concerned for the enviornment, we should be able to come up with a better way to dispose of our filth than to dump it the water that the fish have to634 live in and PEOPLE have to drink.
Wow, I thought The Hydraulic
Wow, I thought The Hydraulic Brotherhood was only able to point their finger at the export pumps and Westlands. Is the whole world turning upside down?
Where were you guys 2 years ago?
Clean It Up!
Of course this is a problem. Years of foot-dragging won't help Delta fishery recovery. I grow weary of the Sacramento region's insistance that they're "not part of the problem" and that they "provide a net addition to Delta inflows". Denying reality is never helpful.
Post new comment