"Although Cape Cod is particularly vulnerable to contamination due to the prevalence of septic systems and its shallow sandy aquifer, the study has national implications. A quarter of U.S. households use septic systems or small community systems to process wastewater, and about 40% of Americans rely on groundwater for drinking supplies."*Uhhhhh, that would be us!!
There are currently no regulations in the U.S. on the contaminants listed above (and so many others) as there is in Europe. The solution put forward to the problem in Cape Cod was to "(divert) treated water from septic systems and centralized plants away from drinking water supplies." Of course, we are doing just the opposite.
Today at the BOS, the first feelers were put forward on using the desalinated water from the Diablo Nuclear Power Plant, piping it both to South County and Los Osos. All five supervisors voted yes, let's pursue this.
Water fresh out of the ocean has a monumentally higher dilution rate from contaminants than does our confined aquifers into which we are returning our recycled sewer water.**
The usual naysayers were there at the podium for Public Comment on the issue, railing against even exploring the idea of importing Diablo's desal water to Los Osos. But then, they were key in stoping a sewer project, losing a $134 million low interest loan, delaying water conservation, and making the County come up with a second sewer idea for Los Osos at $29 million MORE than the LOCSD's project that they trashed.
How long will our drought be? What contaminants are in our drinking water? At what concentration are they? At what rate are they increasing? These are all important questions.
What solutions do the sewer nuts propose this time? Actually, all I have heard is a mumbled mouthing from the heads planted deep in our fine Baywood sands. It sounds like they think that we can live completely on the water from the aquifers directly beneath us—yet, yet, they complain that the Basin Plan—the plan that will manage this water supply of ours—does NOT take into account any plans for a prolonged drought!
So....who do you want to listen to this time around Los Osians? The sewer nuts of old, or more reasonable minds that know that one El Nino, should it be a water-plentiful one next year, will NOT fix our problem; that no amount of conservation will save us; that there is no possible way to know the timeline on the next drought or even how long the current one will last; that there is no way to predict exactly what global warming will do to both us and the animals and plants in the environment in which we all live. Do we want to be prepared or simply avoid thinking about it until we can't live here at all anymore?
Please read the report generated in 2006 by the LOCSD about the constituents already in our water, some of which are not regulated.
http://www.losososcsd.org/Library/Document%20Library/UPPER%20AQUIFER%20CHARACTERIZATION.pdf
* Please read this source article:
http://www.wateronline.com/doc/contaminants-cods-drinking-water-silent-spring-institute-finds-0001
** "The Institute found that treated water from both septic systems and sewage treatment plants contain similar levels of contaminants. The systems effectively remove some chemicals, such as caffeine and acetaminophen (Tylenol); others pass through largely unchanged, including sulfamethoxazole and TCEP, a chlorinated flame retardant."
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