Perhaps the biggest development in water over the last three decades has been the change in attitude among consumers about their liquid assets. After repeated droughts punctuated by history-making deluges, Californians appear more open than ever to embracing reuse of stormwater, wastewater and seawater — as long as we can be certain that it is clean and safe to drink.
A tiny, shuttered wastewater treatment facility in north Phoenix that the City Council voted to bring back online Wednesday will be the city’s first to use advanced water purification technology that officials hope to make widespread within a decade.
The Chino Basin Program (CBP), a program led by the Inland Empire Utilities Agency (IEUA) and partners, has reached a significant milestone as environmental engineering firm Brown and Caldwell completes the preliminary design of a new 13.4 million gallons per day Advanced Water Purification Facility (AWPF), a vital component of the innovative water program.
The state’s money problems are taking a $200 million bite out of funding for drinking and wastewater projects.
The state Water Resources Control Board voted Tuesday to approve the cuts as part of a statewide belt tightening effort.
Thunderstorms high in the Cascades recently stirred up a lot of dirt in a central Washington river, causing problems for people on its banks.
All the dirt in the Naches River was too much for the city of Yakima’s water treatment plant to handle. Cities and towns could see situations like this happen more often as the climate continues to change.
Climate change will cause more storm runoff, change when snowpack melts and lead to more severe wildfires and harmful algal blooms, said Amanda Hohner. She studies how post-wildfire runoff affects drinking water treatment plants.
“At least in the Western U.S., the effects of wildfire and also climate change are really starting to challenge drinking water treatment plants, resulting in different water quality than maybe those water treatment plants were designed for,” Hohner said.
An algae bloom prompted city officials to post caution signs at its Lower Otay Reservoir.
The City of San Diego advises the public to not expose their skin to the water while the cautionary alert is in effect.
A new water pipeline project recently finished construction in Encinitas. On Tuesday local and congressional leaders held a ribbon cutting to mark the opening of the pipeline.
The Manchester Avenue Recycled Water Pipeline Project involved the construction of approximately 1.4 miles of six-inch diameter recycled water pipeline. According to a press release, customers connecting to this new pipeline will now irrigate with recycled water, reducing the demand for imported drinking water by more than 27 million gallons per year.
After two decades of drier conditions in the west, the concern for the Federal Government is how to keep the Colorado River flowing in the long term.
Kimberly Hunt is live in Oceanside at the Pure Water Facility.
The facility opened last year and is a first of its kind water treatment plant that turns waste water into drinking water.
The power and technology behind the Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant, which turns seawater into drinking water, is described in this video report from Reporter Trason Bragg.
The Carlsbad Desalination Plant is the largest, most technologically advanced and energy-efficient desalination plant in the nation, and it has produced more than 100 billion gallons of drinking water for San Diego County since operations began in December 2015.
Camp Pendleton leaders on Monday sent a public notice to thousands of service members and civilians who live and work on the base’s north end alerting them that recent testing revealed their drinking water contained a higher-than-desired level of PFAS, a potentially carcinogenic chemical that has been found in much of Southern California’s groundwater supply.
PFAS, or per- and polyfluorinated substances, can be found in cleaning products, water-resistant fabrics, grease-resistant paper and non-stick cookware, as well as in products such as shampoo, dental floss and nail polish.
