Hillview Water in Raymond, California will begin delivering clean drinking water with the installment of a Microvi MNE nitrate treatment system by Microvi Biotech. Hillview Water serves a rural community that has been plagued with high levels of nitrate contamination for years.
Nitrate is one of the most widespread contaminants in groundwater globally and can have significant human health impacts.
The precautionary boil-water advisory for the City of Poway continued into it’s third day on Monday afternoon, with the city reporting it has 400,000 bottles of water available for residents.
“The City of Poway is continuing to take corrective action, performing water quality monitoring, and working toward getting this advisory lifted,” the city said in a statement on its website at 11 a.m.
The advisory was issued at approximately 6 p.m. on Saturday after a day of reports of discolored water. The County of San Diego separately ordered restaurants and produce shelves to be closed.
Contamination of soil and groundwater takes a huge toll on California’s environment.
In 2017, the amount of untreated sewage and industrial waste dumped into Southern California rivers was equal to at least 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools. More than 100 million gallons of untreated sewage were dumped into the Tijuana River near Imperial Beach in September 2019.
The problem is getting worse.
Lomita has stopped using a 5 million-gallon emergency reservoir that blends local groundwater and more expensive imported water, another fallout from the discovery of cancer-causing chemicals in the water supply, prompting renewed criticism from some residents that the $13 million project doesn’t work as designed.
SCV Water Agency officials are expected to begin testing their wells for smaller amounts of a non-stick chemical suspected of being carcinogenic, after state officials announced Friday they were lowering the allowable levels set for that chemical. Over the last few months, the State Water Resources Control Board has been trying to figure out what constitutes a safe level for a chemical called PFAS (polyfluoroalkyl substances) in drinking water, since one of its component chemicals is a suspected carcinogen. Although there are many industrial uses for PFAS, it’s perhaps most commonly known as the non-stick component that went into making Teflon useful in non-stick pans.
Hemet has filed a federal lawsuit against Dow Chemical and Shell Oil seeking reimbursement for the cost of removing a cancer-causing chemical from the city’s water wells. According to its Sept. 21 suit, the contaminated wells have been tainted by TCP, a “highly toxic substance” used until the 1980s to fumigate soil where crops were grown. The solvent’s chemical name is “1,2,3-trichloropropane.” Hemet Mayor Michael Perciful said low levels of the chemical were discovered in two wells during routine tests at least six months ago.
In January of this year, a state law went into effect that requires public schools throughout California to test their drinking water for lead by July of 2019. Lawmakers enacted the regulation in an effort to improve water quality at schools. And while thousands of water districts have now tested their water for lead, a special report out of the education news website EdSource found many ways in which the law is lacking.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
