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    GrokSurf's San Diego by George J. Janczyn is produced under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Anything on this blog copied and used elsewhere online must include attribution and a link to the original on this blog, or a citation with the URL if reprinted on hard copy.

     

     

Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category

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Legal challenge continues over SDSU’s Master Plan and Adobe Falls development

Posted by George J. Janczyn on June 21, 2011

This is to catch up on the multi-year legal maneuvers that involve the Adobe Falls area — undeveloped open space adjacent to Alvarado Creek just north of the I-8 freeeway across from San Diego State University, west of College Avenue. San Diego State University’s Master Plan intends to develop that land with up to 348 residential housing units for faculty and staff.

Alvarado Creek (the green tree belt) crosses to the north side of Interstate 8 near College Avenue. The Adobe Falls cascades wrap to the north and then the creek turns westward.

Beginning with the 2005 Master Plan and then the 2007 Master Plan revision, California State University’s certification of the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) was challenged in lawsuits by the City of San Diego, Del Cerro Action Council, and other entities.

February 2010: after years in court during which the cases were consolidated into one, the Superior Court entered a judgment in favor of SDSU (for history up to that point click here).

Subsequently, the City of San Diego and its Redevelopment Agency, the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), and the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) decided to appeal the decision (due to lack of funds, Del Cerro Action Council was unable to join the appeal).

December 2010: City of San Diego and other parties filed opening briefs in their appeal of the Superior Court judgment.

February 2011: CSU filed its brief.

March 17-18, 2011: San Diego [et al.] filed reply briefs.

April 26, 2011: Amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs were filed by California Department of Transportation, League of California Cities, and California State Association.

May 26, 2011: CSU filed responses to the amicus curiae briefs.

Del Cerro is in the background. Alvarado Creek's Adobe Falls, which flows year-round although sometimes at a trickle, is hidden at top right

The issues discussed in the various briefs go into considerable detail. Note that SDSU’s Master Plan includes other development projects in addition to the Adobe Falls proposal, so the mitigation issues discussed in the appeal are much broader. I would characterize the arguments very generally as going back and forth over the following:

1. The City asserts that CSU abused its discretion under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) by claiming its financial obligation to ensure mitigation for traffic is limited to requesting funds from the Legislature. If funds were to be denied, CSU would assume no further responsibility.

2. SANDAG and MTS argue that CSU failed to address the impacts that will result from SDSU’s massive increased use of public transit systems to transport additional students, faculty, staff and visitors to and from the SDSU campus” and that CSU should have considered alternate potentially feasible mitigation measures.

CSU argues that it cannot make funding requests for highway traffic improvements, because only Caltrans can do that. CSU says the Master Plan project traffic impacts are just one part of the overall traffic growth picture that Caltrans must plan for. However, CalTrans presently has no plans for highway improvements in the vicinity of the project, so without such a plan, it would be impossible to determine what CSU’s fair share should be. CSU says it can only commit to pay a fair share for traffic improvements when Caltrans develops a plan.

Further, CSU argues that it prepared a traffic analysis that studied impacts to the transportation network surrounding SDSU as required by CEQA; identified significantly impacted intersections, roads, and road segments; negotiated extensively with the City of San Diego and other agencies over the fair-share mitigation amounts; made final fair-share determinations; adopted fair-share mitigation measures specific to both the City of San Diego and Caltrans; and requested fair-share mitigation funds from the Legislature. CSU says it changed its capital outlay budget process to include mitigation of off-campus impacts. CSU also argues that there is nothing in CEQA that requires “alternate potentially feasible mitigation measures” not required by statute or implementing regulations.

Naturally, everybody involved with the case declines to comment because it is ongoing litigation.

What’s next: a clerk at the Court of Appeals indicates that no further hearings have been scheduled, but guesses that it could be September or later before the next hearing.

One of several cascades at Adobe Falls.

 

Posted in Environment, Government, Land use | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Chollas Park groundwater study: pictures tell the story

Posted by George J. Janczyn on June 21, 2011

Here’s the latest from Wes Danskin’s log on the USGS groundwater study at San Diego Chollas Park (previous log entries on this study are here).

WHAT’S NEW
Done drilling, chose depths for wells (piezometers–pressure sensing wells), installed 2-inch PVC piezometers, and are developing of them as I write this. Decided to include photos of each activity so you don’t have to read all this, just view the photos.

CORING TELLS THE STORY
Hit bedrock (Santiago Peak volcanics at 877 feet). Core at 895 feet is shown below. Many fractures are present

PICKING THE DEPTHS OF PIEZOMETERS
Based on geophysical logs, drill cuttings, cores, pore water chemistry, geologic mapping, evolving concepts of groundwater flow, likely constraints to developing a water supply, defining the yuck factor of Chollas water, taking advantage of evaporating Chollas Lake water … one of the more difficult things I do. You definitely get your money’s worth from the Chief Scientist on the project (me).

Well #1: 1040′-1060′, 980′-1000′, & 920′-940′
Well #2: 760′-780′
Well #3: 520′-540′
Well #4: 330′-350′
Well #5: 140′-160′
Well #6: 30′-50′

DEVELOPING WELLS
Send air down the wells to force water and left-over drilling fluid up and out. In the photo you’ll see water being ejected from one of the wells.

As we extract water/drilling fluid, the aquifer replenishes the well water, which eventually ends up cleaning the well of our drilling effects. We monitor clarity of the water, pH, conductance, and temperature to known when we have removed drilling-related water and fluids and when we have native ground water. Great news is that the fractured well shown in the photo above makes water, not much, but makes water via those fractures.

NEXT STEPS
Sampling the wells for water quality.
Installing a vault to protect the wells.
Installing water-level monitoring equipment, and satellite link.
Putting the information on our website.

Whew, I’m exhausted; almost done.

–wes

 

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Site visit: USGS groundwater study at San Diego Chollas Park

Posted by George J. Janczyn on June 7, 2011

Recently Wes Danskin, Project Chief for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) San Diego Hydrogeology Project, shared notes from his log (here and here) regarding installation of a monitoring well at Chollas Park that will be used as part of a study to learn about water quality, quantity, and flow characteristics in the San Diego Formation aquifer. Funding for the well comes from the City of San Diego.

Last Thursday I received an email from Danskin: “Stop by if you’d like, we’ll be on site for about another week completing the piezometer installation.” No need for a second invitation; the next morning I grabbed my camera and headed over to the project site.

The well is just west of Chollas Lake which itself is just west of the College Grove shopping center near the SR-94 freeway at College Avenue.

Several other visitors were already there, including a few members of the San Diego Association of Geologists (SDAG). 10News reporter Joe Little was there, preparing to interview Danskin for the evening news.

(all photos can be clicked for enlargement)

10News reporter Joe Little (left) prepares for the interview with Wes Danskin.

Wes animatedly talked about a new three-dimensional geologic map of the region that he’s been working on. No previous geologic studies in the San Diego/Tijuana area have produced such a map. According to the SDAG website (“Mapping the San Diego Underground”):

“A total of 91 wells, which showed stratigraphy older than Quaternary age, helped provide depth information to produce this 3D hydrogeologic framework model. This study relied on pre-existing GIS (geographic information systems) datasets including DEM (digital elevation model), surface geologic maps, drilling and e-logs, and literature references to wells or outcrops. Direct examination of USGS multi-depth wells provided the most reliable “ground truth” for geologic boundaries used in the model.”

Danskin explained there are three types of wells: 1) monitoring wells to identify water levels and quality and geology of the groundwater basin; 2) pilot production wells to determine the quantity of water flowing through the ground; 3) full scale production wells. For the San Diego study, the first two types are being used.

Continuing, Danskin said the San Diego Formation extends north-south from La Jolla to south of the border, and west-east from the ocean to the vicinity of the I-805 freeway. Groundwater has been extracted from the San Diego Formation for over 50 years. Sweetwater Authority has been distributing it to National City and Chula Vista.

“The important part about this well is that we’re actually able to get down into the hard rock,” said Danskin. “None of the other wells, with the exception of one near Qualcomm Stadium, were we able to identify this important part of the geologic story,” he said, noting that “the critical part of what we’re doing is defining how the geologic layers are arranged and that allows us to understand how the water moves through them.”

An interesting fact: using carbon dating they found that it could be up to 30,000 years since that groundwater was last in the atmosphere.

Little asked whether pumping and treating groundwater can be cost-effective. Danskin replied that Sweetwater Authority’s pumping of groundwater shows it is already cost-effective. It will gradually become even more competitive because the price of imported water continues to increase. It is becoming more attractive from a reliability point of view too, because we import up to 90% of our water from the Colorado River and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and both of those sources are climatologically, environmentally, and politically at risk.

Danskin said chances are that most of the water in the Formation will be salty and require reverse osmosis treatment…not as salty as the ocean but it may contain the same salt level as V-8 juice. Still he has an optimistic outlook about the project finding a reliable groundwater flow. “It’s taken about ten years,” he said, “but things are finally starting to make sense.”

A typical tricone drill bit.

Numerous soil samples are taken at regular checkpoints as the drill goes deeper.

Danskin discussing the various well locations in San Diego.

 

Here’s video I shot while Danskin discussed the project:

 

See also Joe Little’s report on Channel 10 News:

 

Posted in Environment, Water | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »

A rocky search for water beneath San Diego

Posted by George J. Janczyn on May 26, 2011

Last week Wes Danskin treated us to news (What’s percolating beneath San Diego?) on the new USGS deep monitoring well at San Diego Chollas Park (SDCP), part of a study of the geology and groundwater resources in the coastal San Diego area.

Here’s the latest from Wes’s log:

 

May 17: Every picture tells a story

Picture of our core at 580 feet depth

May 20: Sounds of silence

Drill rig broke yesterday; frayed the cable supporting the kelly head; dangerous not to replace; so we will.

A core we obtained from 665 feet; looks like Friars Formation to me

May 23: 875 feet, no, not yet

We all underestimated the depth to bedrock, even the drillers.

STATUS
Sunday night, at 875 feet deep. Maybe in the top of the weathered bedrock. Cuttings appear to be ground-up rock; drill times are longer, but not so long to indicate hard rock, I think. Taken cores along the way, every 150 feet or so, most recent: 440, 580, 665, 860 feet.

FUTURE
Will continue drilling, until we once again think we are in hard rock, probably the Santiago Peak Volcanics, then take a core, to make sure it is what we think.

I’d like to get 1 or 2 piezometers deeper than the production zone of National City well field, which has been producing fresh water for 50+ years. Bottom of those wells is about 700 feet below sea level; presently we are at 550 feet below sea level. Good news is we have covered the majority of the production zone, so if groundwater is flowing roughly horizontally to the coast, we will be able to sample the upgradient side of the flow field, or at least a similar flow field a bit north of the National City wells. Bad news is that drilling another 450 feet (150 to bottom of zone + 300 feet) will not be easy. But our drilling is about patience and flexibility. So we’ll see how it goes.

May 25: Bedrock and beyond

STATUS
Yes, we hit bedrock, finally, at 877 feet. And we have proof, as shown in the photo below (core of the Santiago Peak Volcanics, … same rock as what the coastal dams are anchored in). Note the fractures and related water deposits, such as calcite shown at the point of the pen. This deposit demonstrates water flow through the fractures, albeit, we don’t know when.

In the process of squeezing the sediment that we obtained via coring. Short answer I think is that the pore water is more saline (ec = 1800; tds = 1000) than I would have thought/hoped. A bit confused by why we are not seeing any 600 tds water like National City wellfield. Darn. Answer may change a bit when we install the piezometers in the more transmissive zones.

FUTURE
We’ll continue drilling in the bedrock with the goal of getting deep enough (200+ feet) to install a well, hopefully with sufficient fractures to yield water. I have a plan for 5 piezometers: 3 inch to the bottom to monitor changes in salinity and temperature; 2-inch for the other 4. Estimated completion without geophyscial logs, etc are:

	          5. Water table at 50+ feet,
	          4. Below water table at maybe 250 foot depth in stadium conglomerate,
	          3. Something in middle 400-500 foot zone,
	          2. One in Friars formation at 700 feet, and
	          1. One at bottom in Santiago Peak Volcanics at 1000+ feet.

Core of the Santiago Peak Volcanics, same rock as what the coastal dams are anchored in

PHOTO BELOW. Bill Elliott, SDSU professor and local gravity/geology guru; and Adam Kjos, our local USGS man on the spot, supervising the drilling. Both are trying to figure out from the drill cuttings what might be going on, e.g.,

  1. What formation are we in, where
  2. Why the 600 feet thickness of stadium-like coarse deposits are present
  3. Whether sand at 700 feet might be the Friars formation, or something like it
  4. The weathered zone above the volcanics appears to be about 60 feet thick
  5. Do any of these geologic units really correspond to geologic units mapped at the land surface?

Thanks to Bill Elliott for coming to the drill site and sharing his expertise in local rocks to help us understand what we might have been drilling through, and to Dave Schug from URS for similarly stopping by, though I was not on site then to take photos and quiz him.

 

Postscript May 31, 2011

STATUS
Reached the end of the line, 1100 foot depth. Every well sort of tells you when it is done giving up secrets. When drilling took more than 3 hours 20 minutes for each 20 feet, we decided to call it a good effort. We have obtained much new information, and whatever else we could gain from drilling deeper into the Santiago Peak Volcanics, probably is better done at another location, starting in bedrock and using air rotary technique.

GEOPHYSICAL LOGS
After reaching 1100 feet, based on my request to get a good 100+ feet into the Santiago Peak Volcanics so that we can complete a well that will reliably yield water, we stopped, cleaned the well, and called in our geophysical logging experts over the weekend (never a holiday for anyone associated with drilling; got done logging at 3 am; thanks Tony and Mike).

The geophysical logs are attached so that you can see for yourself the variation in material. Don’t worry; you don’t have to understand the logs or what they mean to get the basic idea. When the squiggly line changes, that means the earth or the water quality has changed. So at a first level, big picture analysis, look to see where the lines change once or twice or three times in the span of 1100 feet. Bet you can pick out where the bedrock starts. Say 877 feet. Another package of material is from about 440 to 600; I’m guessing alluvial fan based on cuttings and drilling notes; and another unit, mostly sand, from 600 to the weathered bedrock at about 800. But the SP log shows two zones within that last zone, so again this is not so precise as to become boring, or a single answer wins. Will know more, or think we do, after several hours of analysis by several of us.

NEXT STEP
We’ll be starring at the geophysical logs, the cuttings, the drilling notes, the locations of core samples, and using our Ouija board to divine where to place the piezometers. Let you know in the next couple of days the precise well design.

In the meantime we are reeming the 7 7/8-inch pilot hole, first with a 13-inch bit down to about 350 feet to accommodate two piezometers above that level; then with a 10-inch bit down to 820 feet to accommodate 2 more piezometers above that depth, then with the 7 7/8 inch bit to clean out the debris that fell in the hole down to the total depth of 1100 feet.

The rationale for drilling a pilot hole first is that a smaller diameter hole can be drilled faster, circulation time is faster, the geophysical logs will be better, and there may be fewer problems with caving. The bad part is we will spend 4-6 days redrilling the well to make it the size needed to install piezometers. If we knew the geology ahead of time, then perhaps we could design the general size of the well bore ahead of time and only drill the well once. But in San Diego that knowledge does not yet exist. Getting there though. The geologic framework model that Carolyn and Claudia are preparing shows that we are getting to where drilling will be less wild-catting and more predictable engineering.

 

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What’s percolating beneath San Diego?

Posted by George J. Janczyn on May 17, 2011

Wes Danskin, the Project Chief for the USGS San Diego Hydrogeology Project has been busy studying what’s going on underneath San Diego. Late last year he updated us with work underway at that time. Now he’s working on a new project with a deep USGS monitoring well:

———————————

May 15, 2011:

That time again. Another deep USGS monitoring well is being installed. This is the first in a series of updates.

WHO
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) is partnering with the City of San Diego. Many thanks to Greg Cross, George Adrian, and Marsi Steirer of the City Water Department and to Keith Selby and Mike Morrow of the City Park Department for their critically important help in getting this project going.

WHAT
A deep multiple-completion well is being installed to help define the geology and groundwater resources in the coastal San Diego area. This and prior USGS wells are described on the project website, http://ca.water.usgs.gov/sandiego. This well is referred to SDCP (San Diego Chollas Park).

WHEN
Started May 10, will continue through about June 10.

WHERE
Chollas Community Park, toward the westernmost end, just east of 54th Street. Drilling in the North Chollas Community Park parking lot, in a median between parking stalls, about 50 feet from a drainage from Chollas Lake.

WHY
To define the groundwater flow paths from the eastern part of San Diego County, to the western part where additional groundwater extraction likely would occur. The geochemical water samples that we have collected previously from coastal wells (stable isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen) suggest that the source of the groundwater is recharge from precipitation not on the alluvial plain of the coast, but further east, such as near El Cajon, or further east. This means that the groundwater would need to flow through hard rock (granites, and Santiago Peak Volcanics) in order to reach the coastal sediments west of about Interstate 805.

This well site in Chollas Park (SDCP) was chosen to be east of the La Nacion fault which is approximately 54th street. This site means the drilling will penetrate some unconsolidated sediment (maybe 500 feet), and then penetrate the hard rock. Ideally, the total depth of the drilling will be about 1500 feet. Completion of the well with about five 2-inch PVC piezometers will allow us to sample groundwater from different depths and better understand the groundwater flow system.

Another well site, referred to as SDHF is located at the intersection of Home Avenue and Federal Blvd, and is on the down-dropped west side of the La Nacion fault. These paired wells (SDCP and SDHF) will aid us in understanding groundwater flow from east to west across this major structural feature in San Diego.

SITE VISITS
Are possible by contacting me.

PROGRESS TO DATE
Will give more details in a subsequent email, but the short answer is that at about 2 pm on Sunday, we were at 410 feet in a sandy, clay, ready to take another core.

Rough stratigraphy, from my memory:

Depth – Geologic characteristics

10 feet – Sandy fill.

20 feet – Santiago Peak gravel. Scared us, thinking we maybe already hit bedrock, but it probably was gravel eroded from a construction project upslope.

40 feet – Stadium Conglomerate, or redeposited San Diego Formation. Hard drilling

100 feet – Really hard and slow drilling, scared us again; thought we’d hit bedrock, was just a hard boulder and a worn out bit.

150 feet — Stadium Conglomerate, wore out two bits so far (button carbide and tipped iron).

234 feet – Formational change to sand; obtained cores. Friar’s formation? Seaward facies of Stadium?

280 feet – Still in oxidized (red streaks) of sand with variably clay.

410 feet – Sandy clay, preparing to obtain another core. I lost my Depth to Bedrock pool; thought we’d hit bedrock by 312 feet. Monte’s gravity suggests about 480 feet.

May 16, 2011:

GOOD NEWS
We hit bedrock. We’re through the sediment, and drilling into bedrock (Santiago Peak Volcanics). Hit bedrock below 398 feet though admittedly it is a bit of a blur between zones of weathered bedrock and hard rock. We are down to 578 feet. We’ll take a core Tuesday morning to see what the material actually looks like. Water flowing into the well is limited so we are not finding highly pressurized bedrock, yet, with too much water to readily get rid of.

BAD NEWS
I may never live this depth-to-bedrock-predicted-by-gravity thing down.

DEPTH TO BEDROCK
Seems we found bedrock at roughly the depth predicted by Monte Marshall’s gravity map processed by Carolyn Glockhoff in our office. While I agree that gravity measurements are helpful at defining the general shape of a basin, which why I was eager to use Monte’s work, I’ve never been under the geophysists’ illusion that the gravity measurements are sufficiently precise to predict anything particular, much less depth to bedrock at a particular drill site.

But then when you have no alternatives, gravity makes sense to use; so we did. And it worked.

Wesley R. Danskin
Research Hydrologist
United States Geological Survey (USGS)
California Water Science Center
4165 Spruance Road, Suite 200
San Diego, CA 92101 USA
619-225-6100 office
wdanskin@usgs.gov

 

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San Diego-Sweetwater intertie could boost local reservoir storage by 100,000 acre-feet of water

Posted by George J. Janczyn on April 18, 2011

Since the end of California’s severe 1987-92 drought it has taken a 1993 Army Corps of Engineers reconnaissance study, U.S. Senate and House legislative support from Rep. Duncan Hunter (Sr.), Rep. Susan Davis, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Proposition 50 grant via the Integrated Regional Water Management Plan, and negotiations between Sweetwater Authority, the City of San Diego, and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation — plus another major drought — just to reach this stage.

This stage is a proposal for a pre-feasibility study of a four-reservoir intertie between the City of San Diego and Sweetwater Authority systems.

The proposal will be presented today (Apr 18) at the Independent Rates Oversight Committee (IROC) [agenda] and Wednesday (April 20) at the Natural Resources and Culture Committee [agenda] where support will be sought in bringing it to the San Diego City Council. If full Council approval is obtained an agreement will then be executed by the City of San Diego, Sweetwater Authority, and the Bureau of Reclamation.

As described in a San Diego Integrated Regional Water Management document:

“Connecting the San Vicente, El Capitan, Loveland, and Murray Reservoirs would create an enhanced and integrated reservoir system to more efficiently use the reservoirs and increase accessibility to approximately 100,000 acre-feet of surface storage without creating new reservoirs or new storage capacity. The environmental effects of the future conveyance system would be minimal because each reservoir has been in place since the 1940s or earlier, and reservoir footprints would not increase. The Sweetwater Authority is serving as the lead agency for the regional intertie project.”

[Update: at the IROC presentation it was announced that the lead agency has been changed from Sweetwater to San Diego]

Since that report was written, of course, one reservoir footprint is increasing due to the San Vicente Dam Raise Project currently underway that will give it a more significant role within the potential intertie system.

Source: http://www.sweetwater.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=1451

As things are now, overall reservoir capacity is underutilized. To give one example, San Diego’s El Capitan reservoir (110,120 AF) is rarely full because its small imported water supply connection has very limited ability to supplement local runoff. An intertie connection would facilitate more optimal reservoir levels.

Further south, Sweetwater’s Loveland Reservoir (25,225 AF) relies solely on watershed runoff which is usually not enough to keep it filled. An intertie would allow adding more water during drier times. On the rare occasions that very wet seasons such as we recently experienced result in spillway overflow, excess runoff at Loveland could be diverted to the larger El Capitan or San Vicente reservoirs instead of being lost.

A bay in the San Vicente Reservoir. Water cascades down the fill chute from the San Diego Aqueduct tunnel portal. Water level has been drawn down while the dam raise project is underway.

San Diego’s much smaller Murray reservoir (4684 AF) was included because of its Alvarado Water Treatment Plant supplying a large part of the city.

The shared connections would permit more water overall to be stored in local reservoirs. That translates into increased reliability in the event of a cutoff of imported supplies due to disaster or other problem. The 1993 Army Corps of Engineers reconnaissance study of San Diego’s water supply (not available online*) also estimates that 23% of the total benefits from an intertie system would be from increased flood control.

Because an intertie system would be an immensely expensive and complicated undertaking, the pre-feasibility study would carry out “an appraisal investigation to determine the prudence of a full-scale feasibility study for the proposed intertie system” according to the Army Corps study.

(A subsequent Army Corps Executive Summary of Lessons Learned from the California Drought (1987-92) says one confirmed lesson is that “local and regional interconnections between water supply systems are effective and flexible options against severe water shortages.”)

If the pre-feasibility study recommends it, then a full feasibility study could be performed as a phase 2 project.

Funding for the pre-feasibility study will be shared between the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation ($344,332), state grant funding from Proposition 50 ($112,832), the City of San Diego ($171,500), and the Sweetwater Authority ($60,000) for a total of $688,664.

Background:

* Thanks to Marguerite S. Strand, Assistant General Manager of Sweetwater Authority for allowing me to examine the Army Corps reconnaissance study and answering my questions.

 

Posted in Environment, Water | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

Sand mining dominates EIR public hearing on Helix recycled water project

Posted by George J. Janczyn on March 30, 2011

The Helix Water District held a public meeting last night on the final day that comments could be submitted on the scope of an environmental impact report (EIR) for its El Monte Valley project. [correction: today is the final day for comments]

The project involves a sand mining operation to generate income and reshape the valley floor to accept a series of percolation ponds using purified recycled water to augment the groundwater supply and to restore the land with a variety of environmental and recreational improvements.

The meeting, held at the Lakeside Christian Church on El Monte Road, follows the notice of preparation for the EIR held March 8 at the water district’s headquarters in La Mesa. Last year there had been three stakeholders meetings at the church and other community presentations to gather public input on the project prior to the announcement of the EIR preparation.

Many of the comments made at the earlier stakeholders meetings expressed worries about “toilet to tap” water quality issues as well as about the sand mining operation, but this time the number one issue was overwhelmingly sand mining.

It seemed that the Helix district staff already sensed that would be the case because their standard project overview included a new segment with additional slides and descriptions of what the sand mining operation would look like.

After the brief presentation, person after person from the assembly of 25-30 people complained that the sand mining operation would destroy the valley; meanwhile one woman was soliciting people to add their names to a signup sheet for an opposition group that is organizing.

Although the purpose of the meeting was to gather more suggestions for issues that should be covered by the EIR, most people appeared to consider the meeting a forum for protesting the project. Many complained about the negative effect the project would have on the quality of life for valley residents and neighboring areas. Several people sharply criticized the water district saying that it was ramming the project through without allowing sufficient input from stakeholders. Someone from East County Magazine also asked some pointed questions implying that public input had been inadequate.

One man disputed the district’s estimate regarding income flow from the sand operation, saying that in today’s market existing sand businesses in the county can’t find enough customers. He also suggested that imported water is so much less expensive than the purified water that he couldn’t see the justification for it.

There were some variant points raised. One gentleman wondered if water in the percolation ponds would even be able to penetrate into the aquifer since the nearby El Monte Dam and reservoir contains so much water that it probably percolates into the aquifer and creates hydraulic pressure that would prevent any water on the valley surface from penetrating downward.

Another individual raised a related concern, saying that water from the percolation ponds (and injection wells) constantly supplying the aquifer could disrupt or stop the natural flow of groundwater coming into the valley so that the portion of the aquifer that is upstream from the operation would cease its natural flow into the valley and become stagnant and less usable.

One man claimed that a Golden Eagle nest had been discovered near a dairy in the valley which meant that mining operations would not be permissible within at least 4000 feet of that place, at least during nesting season.

Another concern was that power lines for the various support facilities would not only cause aesthetic problems but could be a safety hazard as well, with a request that underground lines be used instead. Also mentioned was the possible negative effect on neighboring homes by wildlife displaced by the project.

Jim Peugh from the Audubon Society spoke briefly to commend the effort to expand recycled water use. Disclaimer: I also spoke briefly about possible misconceptions about water quality and purified recycled water.

While public perception about indirect potable reuse and water quality will no doubt continue to be a delicate topic to address in the future (as it is with the City of San Diego’s recycled water purification project), it would seem that the most difficulty in bringing the El Monte Valley project to fruition will be in satisfactorily addressing the widespread dissatisfaction over sand mining.

 

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Ecologically integrated water management: the Da Vinci challenge

Posted by George J. Janczyn on March 21, 2011

(Norman Allenby wrote this guest column)

Leonardo Da Vinci had a relevant thought on this subject. His Ideal City postulate #6 states, “ Require that each house have its own sewerage system and be built on aesthetic and environmental principles with access at ground level.” The Da Vinci challenge is to design such a system, not just for homes, but buildings, subdivisions, shopping centers and micro watersheds that comprise greater San Diego. Homes, buildings, subdivisions, shopping centers are all parts of our urban water shed. They each take in water and give back wastewater. With each having its “own sewerage system,” the Da Vinci challenge would be met and the opportunity for onsite recycling created.

Under our present integrated water management system there is insufficient recognition of the potential for on site reuse of water. We have done a great job in corralling water from Imperial County to augment waters received from the Metropolitan Water District. We largely ignore storm water allowing it to contaminate our beaches. We discharge 180 MGD of wastewater into the Pacific Ocean at our Point Loma treatment facility. We continue to delay the intended use of the North County reclamation plant’s reclaimed water, augmenting San Vicente reservoir. We do distribute a modest amount of reclaimed water for irrigation through our purple pipe system, but our wastewater is largely wasted. That waste can be avoided through an ecological approach to water management.

Ecologically integrated water management utilizes process water, storm water and “waste water”. It first calculates how much water a facility needs, how much storm water is site available and how much “waste water” is site available. Any deficit between site available water and needs is met by process water purchased from the local provider. The focus of ecological water management is conservation and reuse and, yes, more reuse.

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Helix Water District holds public scoping meeting for groundwater recharge IPR project in El Monte Valley

Posted by George J. Janczyn on March 9, 2011

El Monte Valley. El Capitan Dam is around the bend a couple of miles.

The Helix Water District held a public meeting yesterday to give notice that it is beginning preparation of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the proposed El Monte Valley Project (or more completely, the El Monte Valley Mining, Reclamation, and Groundwater Recharge Project).

El Monte Valley lies just west of El Capitan Reservoir and dam, with the San Diego River channel running through its length. Beneath the valley is a groundwater aquifer that provides water to the Helix district and many valley residents with wells on their property. The project aims to recharge the aquifer with purified recycled water (aka indirect potable reuse, or IPR) that would be piped in from a facility in Santee and emptied into recharge basins to percolate into the ground. Some injection wells might also be used for the recharge process, which would raise the water table for the slowly depleting aquifer and provide the district with an additional 5 million gallons of water per day.

Other components of the project are a temporary (8-10 years) sand-mining operation that would help pay the cost of the project. Parts of the valley and river channel would then be graded, contoured, and restored for riparian habitat with native plants and trees and recreational features including hiking and equestrian trails.

Yesterday’s “Scoping Meeting” was held as an adjourned board meeting at the district’s La Mesa offices at 7811 University Avenue at 7pm. The primary reason for the meeting was to get feedback from stakeholders and interested persons about topics of concern they would like to have addressed by the EIR.

About 75 people attended this meeting. After a brief overview of the project by Tim Smith, Project Manager, about 14 people spoke on a variety of viewpoints.

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A day at the Salton Sea; a visit to Feather River Canyon

Posted by George J. Janczyn on February 6, 2011

Chris Austin has some photographs she took during trips she made to Northern California and the Imperial Valley and is now sharing them on her Maven’s Photoblog (Chris is the Aqua Blog Maven for the Water Education Foundation’s Aquafornia California water news website).

Chris has been working on a history of the Imperial Valley that will include a technical presentation on the Imperial Dam, a look at geothermal power and agriculture in Imperial Valley, and a study of the Salton Sea. I guess we can consider these Salton Sea photos a teaser for her project.

Up north, Chris drove Highway 70 through the Feather River Canyon which is considered one of the most scenic driving routes in the state. The Feather River rises in four forks that drain the upper basin and join together at Lake Oroville Reservoir. Here in SoCal we know Oroville as a major source of the water we receive via the California Aqueduct.

I think you’ll enjoy seeing the photographs. Just click on the picture below to connect to the whole series. After you view the pictures you might also like to see Chris’s Maven’s Manor, her personal blog that contains a selection of articles and slideshows on California’s Water, a “visual primer” on electricity, slideshows from Eastern California including Death Valley and the Los Angeles Aqueduct, and a link to her Maven’s Photoblog.

 

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