| 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. |
