| From
Associated Press Walnut Creek,
Calif.—
Growth along the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta could
drive up the cost of drinking water while reducing its quality for residents from the East
Bay to San Diego, some water officials say.
State and local officials are trying to agree on how
to save California’s largest source of drinking water, which supplies 22 million
people. The fight has focused on how to ensure that water supplies are divided fairly
among farmers, cities and aquatic wildlife.
With much of the development around pumping stations,
a coalition of 12 municipal water suppliers is pressing the California Regional Board to
impose stricter treatment standards on new wastewater dischargers. And if the federal
government tightens standards further, water suppliers could see huge costs for treating
water.
"The more stringent standards ultimately will
have consumer costs," said Al Donner, a spokesman for the Contra Costs Water
District, which has already spent $40 million to switch from a chlorine to an ozone
disinfectant. |
The
DeltaKeeper environmental group is alarmed by the rapid growth, which it says threatens to
overwhelm the delta’s fragile ecosystem. The group has said it will sue unless the
federal Environmental Protection Agency assesses the sources of pollution and develops a
plan to set waste discharge limits at levels that would improve water quality. The group also believes that "the state needs to put a
moratorium on new development until we can apportion these (contaminant) loads and begin
ratcheting them down," said Bill Jennings, a member of the group.
But Greg Vaughn, a senior engineer with the state
Regional Water Quality Control Board, said that although federal law requires that
assessment, the state lacks the funds to do it.
Cities planning to expand waste water discharges
include Brentwood, Discovery Bay, Sacramento. Isleton and Tracy, according to the Delta
Protection Commission, a regional land use planning agency. |
