LAS VIRGENES MWD MAY POUR TREATED WASTE INTO L.A. RIVER.Byline: Lisa Mascaro Daily News Staff Writer After being fined for violating regulations that ban discharging wastewater into Malibu Creek Malibu Creek is a year-round stream in western Los Angeles County, California. It drains the southern Simi Hills and the westernmost San Fernando Valley, flows south through the Santa Monica Mountains, and enters Santa Monica Bay at Malibu Lagoon, in Malibu. , officials of the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District have proposed dumping it into the troubled Los Angeles River The Los Angeles River is an intermittent river flowing through Los Angeles County, California, from Canoga Park in the west end of the San Fernando Valley, 51 miles (82 km) southeast to its mouth in Long Beach. . They hope the new plan will help them comply with state rules, but environmentalists say the treated sewage should not be poured into the Los Angeles River. ``This isn't the only alternative. This is just part of the total solution,'' said Norm Buehring, director of resource conservation for the Las Virgenes district. ``It doesn't get us everything we need, but it's a crucial element when combined with all the other programs.'' But members of the Friends of the Los Angeles River say that sending the treated sewage into the urban waterway waterway, natural or artificial navigable inland body of water, or system of interconnected bodies of water, used for transportation, may include a lake, river, canal, or any combination of these. will further threaten the fragile system they are trying to mend. They say Las Virgenes' proposal runs counter to plans to reduce the flow of nitrites and nitrates to the river, which winds through the region before emptying into the Pacific. ``It's not so much the water quantity issue,'' said Jacqueline Lambrichts, FOLAR's water quality expert. ``It's the water quality, the impact.'' The proposal calls for sending up to 2 million gallons of wastewater a day from the Tapia Water Reclamation Facility near Malibu Canyon Road and Mulhollad Drive over the hill to Calabasas, where it would empty into the Calabasas Arroyo. An environmental impact report, released in late November, will be open for comments through Jan. 13. After that, the plan will be presented to the state's Regional Water Quality Control Board, which will decide whether to issue the district a permit for its plan. Of main concern is the concentration of nitrates and nitrite-nitrogens in the Las Virgenes wastewater. The report says it would raise levels in the Los Angeles River to 13.6 milligrams per liter, exceeding the regional board's objective of 8 milligrams or less per liter. Environmentalists also are worried about ammonia ammonia, chemical compound, NH3, colorless gas that is about one half as dense as air at ordinary temperatures and pressures. It has a characteristic pungent, penetrating odor. and phosphate levels, which they say add up to a flow of nutrients too high for the river. Las Virgenes officials contend that while the nitrate nitrate, chemical compound containing the nitrate (NO3) radical. Nitrates are salts or esters of nitric acid, HNO3, formed by replacing the hydrogen with a metal (e.g., sodium or potassium) or a radical (e.g., ammonium or ethyl). and nitrite nitrite Any salt or ester of nitrous acid (HNO2). The salts are inorganic compounds with ionic bonds, containing the nitrite ion (NO2−) and any cation. levels are high at the discharge point, they will become diluted di·lute tr.v. di·lut·ed, di·lut·ing, di·lutes 1. To make thinner or less concentrated by adding a liquid such as water. 2. To lessen the force, strength, purity, or brilliance of, especially by admixture. to acceptable levels as the wastewater makes its way through the system. ``I think everyone is aware there is an 8 milligram-per-liter standard,'' Buehring said. ``We're going to be asked to meet that standard. If we do, we feel we have a right to discharge.'' FOLAR members argue, however, that the condition of the river is too sensitive to take risks. ``If the water body was not impaired, that argument could hold,'' Lambrichts said. ``The Los Angeles River is listed as an impaired waterway. . . . Can you truly add high nutrients to a water body already listed as an impaired water body?'' Other short-term options considered in the environmental review include sending the wastewater to the Hyperion Waste Water Treatment Plant in El Segundo El Segundo (ĕl sēgŭn`dō), industrial city (1990 pop. 15,223), Los Angeles co., S Calif., on Santa Monica Bay; inc. 1917. Its products include navigation and computer systems, aircraft parts, office machines, telephone apparatus, and , discharging at a location in Thousand Oaks Thousand Oaks, residential city (1990 pop. 104,352), Ventura co., S Calif., in a farm area; inc. 1964. Avocados, citrus, vegetables, strawberries, and nursery products are grown. that drains to Calleguas Creek in the Oxnard Plain The Oxnard Plain is a large coastal plain in southwest Ventura County, California bounded by the Santa Monica Mountains, the Santa Susana Mountains, and Oak Ridge (beyond which lies the Conejo Valley) to the east, the Topatopa Mountains to the north, the Santa Clara River Valley , or storing the water in groundwater basins in Westlake Village. The proposal comes as Las Virgenes is scrambling to figure out a way to handle excess wastewater, which was dumped for years into Malibu Creek. But the state's regional board voted in 1997 to prohibit discharges from May 1 to Oct. 31 to help improve the health of Malibu Lagoon lagoon Area of relatively shallow, quiet water with access to the sea but separated from it by sandbars, barrier islands, or coral reefs. Coastal lagoons have low to moderate tides and constitute about 13% of the world's coastline. . With no alternative route, Las Virgenes officials said they were forced to dump excess wastewater into the creek in September and October, resulting in the $187,000 fine that was lowered to $38,000 on appeal. Las Virgenes is conducting an $850,000 study, scheduled for completion late next year, but needs a temporary solution for the coming prohibition period that will resume May 1. The Tapia plant produces about 10 million gallons of treated wastewater a day. During the summer, most is sold to parks, schools and homeowner associations that use the water for landscaping. But in the cooler months of the prohibition, Las Virgenes has been unable to find buyers, even after slashing slash·ing adj. 1. Bitingly critical or satiric: slashing wit. 2. Dashing; pelting: a slashing hailstorm. 3. prices, and is left with millions of gallons of excess. When it was fined, Las Virgenes had dumped 19.5 million gallons over 13 days in September and 59.5 million gallons during October. ``The amount that would end up in the Los Angeles River is that amount that would not be utilized by our recycled-water customers,'' said Buehring. ``We're going to look very carefully in that area and see if there is an opportunity for other uses,'' he said. ``It certainly is not going to solve the problem. You're not going to find a massive user over there that we're not aware of.'' Lambrichts argues that Las Virgenes had advance notice of the prohibitions and should have been making preparations sooner. She says the district could upgrade its treatment plant to lower the levels of nutrients in the discharge. That might require asking the voters to authorize To empower another with the legal right to perform an action. The Constitution authorizes Congress to regulate interstate commerce. authorize v. to officially empower someone to act. (See: authority) a bond issue, she acknowledged. ``For them, I think the Los Angeles River is the quick fix, the easy solution,'' she said. ``What they should be doing is getting support from the community and educating the community that it's going to cost money to do this.'' |
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