Water Quality

"Plan Designed to Bring Delta Foes Together Inflames Debate Instead" (Sept. 16) misstates the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California's position regarding the controversial peripheral canal while obscuring the agency's real focus on drinking-water quality. Improved drinking-water quality has been a lost component of the Calfed process and Metropolitan has taken the position that it is a paramount priority. Every 100 milligrams of added salt per liter in our water supplies from the Bay-Delta and other sources add $100 million in associated costs to Southern Californians.

Health testing at beaches in California and across the nation is at risk of being cut under a plan to eliminate federal funds for monitoring whether the water is too contaminated to swim in. Citing the "difficult financial climate," the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in its budget request this week that it would do away with $10 million in grants it gives each year to state and local agencies in coastal and Great Lakes states to...

Thank you for helping to raise the awareness of the plight of the San Gabriel River. "The River That L.A. Forgot" (Dec. 23) correctly highlights the water quantity issues of the upper river and the barriers to restoring the San Gabriel to a free-flowing river. But it neglects to mention that the section of the river just below San Jose Creek flows year-round, even in the worst drought. Fed by sewage treatment plant effluent and urban runoff, this section of the river provides an oasis of green trees and flowing water to the densely urban and industrialized core of the San Gabriel Valley.

Proposed new beach pollution regulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, meant to protect public health, instead would continue to allow lots of people to get sick, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, or NRDC. The EPA proposal, released in December, would allow 1 in 28 beachgoers to experience some gastrointestinal illness after swimming, rather than the 8 in 1,000 that were previously acknowledged. It's mostly a tale of numbers, but the NRDC is trying to force the EPA to better the odds.

Health testing at beaches in California and across the nation is at risk of being cut under a plan to eliminate federal funds for monitoring whether the water is too contaminated to swim in. Citing the "difficult financial climate," the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in its budget request this week that it would do away with $10 million in grants it gives each year to state and local agencies in coastal and Great Lakes states to...

Los Angeles County water officials on Wednesday called off their warning for Malibu residents to boil their water before drinking it. The advisory went into effect for the 5,000 water customers on Saturday, after the capacity in local water storage tanks--which hold 12 million gallons--became extremely low following a water main break.

Water quality at California beaches has continued to show improvement, even as the future of monitoring programs remains uncertain because of state budget shortfalls, according to a report released Wednesday by Heal the Bay. This summer was one of the cleanest on record for California beaches and the fourth straight summer of excellent water quality grades statewide. Of the beaches tested, 92% received A or B grades during the high-traffic beachgoing season, according to the environmental group's End of Summer Beach Report Card . But if money isn't found to continue funding the $1-million-a-year beach testing program next year, the state and coastal counties may be forced to discontinue water-quality monitoring, ending public alerts when the ocean poses a health risk to swimmers and surfers, according to the report.

Mesa Consolidated Water District is releasing its annual water quality report, which provides information about the safety of tap water. The state-mandated report, showing the results of water tests conducted in 1996, will be mailed with May and June bills to Mesa customers and is also available at the district office, 1965 Placentia Ave., Costa Mesa. Renters who live in residences where the property owner pays the water bills can call the district and have a report sent to them.

Concern over water quality has climbed higher on the radar screen of Orange County coastal communities. One city's nightmarish experience with aging sewer lines resulted this week in the embarrassment of its mayor pleading guilty in Superior Court to violating state water laws. With many coastal cities saddled with old and deteriorating infrastructure, the problems of Huntington Beach are instructive.

Glendale Mayor Larry Zarian has been elected chairman of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, the lead agency for monitoring water quality and pollution in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, officials said this week. Zarian was promoted Monday by the eight other board members from vice chairman to chairman. He was appointed to the board in October, 1986, by former Gov. George Deukmejian, who reappointed him in October, said Robert Ghirelli, the board's executive officer.

Work crews have finished scooping tons of chemical-laden sediment from the historic Rhine Channel in Newport Harbor, completing a $4-million project ahead of time. The channel, once a bustling home to fishing fleets and cannery operations, has long been contaminated by mercury, pesticides and other toxic chemicals. The city's contractor, Dutra Dredging, beat the year-end deadline to dredge the channel and haul the contaminated sediment to Long Beach, where it will be used as fill dirt for a construction project.

The doctor is in -- or weighing in with the best beaches in the United States for 2011. Siesta Key Beach in Sarasota, Fla., was the big winner. And, like last year, only one California beach made the list: Coronado Beach near San Diego , the No. 2 spot in the 2011 lineup. It moved up from No. 3 last year. Dr. Beach, a.k.a. Stephen Leatherman, director of the Laboratory for Coastal Research at Florida International University, says on his website that beaches are evaluated on 50 criteria, from sand softness and turbidity to how much debris is floating in the water.

Water quality at Los Angeles County beaches has worsened over the last year in a decline that may be linked to heavy rainfall, according to an annual report by the environmental group Heal the Bay. Only 76% of county beaches earned an A or a B in the annual beach report card released Wednesday, down from 79% the year before. Water quality statewide dipped by 2% but remained "very good to excellent," with 88% beaches earning A or B grades. Some of the county's most chronically polluted beaches saw the gains made in recent years slip away.

Water regulators have voted to require pollution permits for coastal fireworks displays in southern Orange County and San Diego County, in what they said was the first such regulation in the nation. Operators of seaside fireworks shows from Laguna Beach to the U.S.-Mexico border will have to pay a $1,500 annual fee, minimize the discharge of pollutants into the water and clean up shells, cardboard, fuses and other debris under the rules approved Wednesday by the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board.

State water quality regulators may douse the annual Fourth of July fireworks display in Laguna Beach if City Manager Ken Frank can't get an exemption. The San Diego region of the state Regional Water Quality Control Board recently announced its intention to regulate fireworks over ocean water in San Diego County and parts of Orange County, including Laguna Beach. The shows won't be banned, but a permit from the board will require the cleaning up of debris, which must be monitored for pollutants.

A drilling rig bit into the bed of California's biggest river, hauling up sage-green tubes of clay and sand the consistency of uncooked fudge. The rig workers rolled the muck into strips, dried it in sugar-sized cubes and crushed them under their palms. They packed slices into carefully labeled canning jars for testing at an engineering lab. They were taking the river bottom samples for a $13-billion project that would shunt water around ? or under ? the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the big aqueducts that ferry supplies south.

Regional water officials are conducting tests to determine whether to build a $1.1-million plant to treat polluted water at five wells in Monrovia. The state Department of Toxic Substances Control has awarded a $634,447 grant to the Main San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority for the plant. The city of Monrovia has pledged $500,000.

The beige notice appeared on Becky Quintana's doorstep one recent morning here in Seville, a century-old settlement nestled amid fruit and almond groves in the Central Valley. "Boil your water," it warned in bold, capital letters. Alarming as that was, the blue "unsafe water alert" that came the next day was more worrisome: Don't drink, cook or even wash dishes with the water ? and don't boil it, because that just concentrates the nitrates. But, a day later, more pastel-colored circulars arrived.