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AB 2398 now back as AB 803: Irrigated Wastewater Legislation
Last year’s controversial legislation, AB 2398, proposed loosening State requirements for wastewater irrigation in order to greatly expand reuse. Now it’s returned as AB 803, and still maximizes opportunities for over-irrigating wastewater that can pollute our waterways with concentrated nutrients, toxic pesticides, and other endocrine disrupting chemicals during low stream flows when pollutants are least likely to be assimilated. This is also the time when recreational use is highest and the potential for human contact is great.
The person who helped write both pieces of legislation, Dr. Dave Smith, is head of California WateReuse, and also the prime wastewater consultant for the City of Santa Rosa for the last 27 years. During that time, and with Santa Rosa’s support, Dr. Smith advocated greater discharges into the Russian River, argued vociferously for mixing zones (areas allowing pollutant discharges), assisted in lawsuits against the State Water Board to avoid regulation of nutrient discharges into the severely impaired Laguna, and much more. For years he advocated significant capacity increases in the City’s discharge permit over what was needed for projected growth, and is currently lobbying to minimize regulatory oversight in the City’s revised discharge permit.
Nutrient Reduction Programs Currently Center Stage
Laguna & Russian River are loaded with nutrients….
In August, 2009, when the lower Russian River was running at less than 50 cubic feet per second (125 cfs is normal) as measured at the Hacienda Bridge, algae and invasive Ludwigia were visible almost everywhere. Clumps resembling turds floated on the water’s surface, and snaky plants with long arms branched out from the bottom where they were attached and felt slimy to the feet, as chartreuse moss clung to pebbles and stones, and invasive Ludwigia hugged the river’s shore for miles on end. (See 2009 Photo Project at www.rrwpc.org.)
Excessive nutrients, in this case mainly nitrogen and phosphorus, significantly stimulate algal growth and have the potential to enormously degrade water quality, especially during hot, low flow conditions. These nutrients can bind with sediments and travel great distances downstream to be later deposited and released in other environments.