Posted on 07/05/2015 7:04:25 AM PDT by Whenifhow
The mayor of Poway is defending the city's decision to dump more than 500,000 gallons of what appeared to be perfectly good drinking water.
"I think it's a shame," said resident Helen Shelden. "I think the city should've prepared better for it."
"It was a perfect storm of conservation and heat," said Poway Mayor Steve Vaus.
Vaus said Poway residents conserved so much water -- by 45 percent in May -- that the water just sat in the Blue Crystal Reservoir. Heat eventually got to it and there was a chemical imbalance of Chloramine. Because of state regulations, Vaus told 10News the water was not safe to drink.
The amount of water released is enough to supply about four households for an entire year.
Some may wonder: Why not put it back into a lake from where it came? The answer, in short, is it would cost too much.
"If you think about it, making those hundred tanker truck runs back and forth, it just doesn't pencil out," said Vaus.
The city says it couldn't send the water through the pipelines into homes for irrigation because there's a chance someone may drink it.
(Excerpt) Read more at 10news.com ...
Chloramine is a combination of ammonia and chlorine. Both are toxic. One is a gas, the other a liquid. The combination is the most lethal substance on earth. It is used in water supplies specifically to render it sterile. Lethal but sterile. Of course, sterility is anathema to health.
Local water companies typically recommend that their water not be given to pets. Baby humans is fine, just not gerbils and canaries.
Talk about mismanaging resources.....
It’s not too much conservation, it’s too small of a reservoir.
My parents lived in Fallbrook,CA 89'- 2013, avocado and citrus farming was being replaced by homes, if you had a well on your property they slapped a meter on it and charged you for your water that you pumped!
So instead of lifting water restrictions that could have been used for things other than drinking they just dump it?
Typical liberal thinking.
Too bad they don’t inject the chloramine into it in some type of holding tanks instead of nuking the whole reservoir with it.
I guess the water evaporated and concentrations increased.
What a waste.
“This makes me wonder the effect of chloramines on our intestinal flora. There are very few studies on this.”
It ain’t good.
Carbon filter time.
I’d believe it! In my case, since I live outside of the town limits, I have NO immediate ‘amenities’ such as fire or police protection - but I get to pay a ‘sewer fee’ for the Townies each year and pay for trash pick-up when those in-town get it for free.
My Tax Dollars at work!
Typical LIB government “worker”. How do these idiots get into positions of responsibility???? Mainly, they should be incessantly ridiculed.
Now the city will be forced to raise the price of water due to fixed costs and fewer gallons sold.
Well, I’d certainly be encouraged to continue conserving water.
Not.
A common problem in design of water systems ... the inability to recycle for treatment.
Most agencies don’t want to spend the money for looped diversion systems. It is not uncommon for unacceptable fresh water to be wasted.
Whereas with waste water treatment, there are almost always options for continued treatment, since unacceptable chemical or biological balance is a bar to discharge.
On the other hand ... this is a lot of hype that wouldn’t get noticed were it not for the drought. They say that volume of water could have fed 4 households for a year. In perspective Poway has a population of 49k people. That makes the water dump less than 1/100 of 1 percent of the home water use of the city, and this doesn’t count commercial use, which is likely twice to three times the domestic use.
The number sounds like a lot, and it looks like a big number, but in the overall scheme its not actually that bad and certainly not catastrophic. They treat over 4 billion gallons of water at their main plant every year in Poway, and that doesn’t include additional water sources such as wells that feed the system.
Sad? Yes.
Preventable? Probably.
Catastrophic? Not even close.
Consequential? Only if they let it happen continuously.
Verdict: media hype because the number sounds really big.
Why didn’t they make a deal with a farmer to run his tap to water crops?
They could have been paid for this water.
Funny how a state can run out of water when it hasn’t built any water infrastructure in 40 years and its population doubled in the same amount of time. The super-enviros said “No more construction of ANYTHING,” the people said “GREAT IDEA!” and here we are. Now we are building totally useless, unwarranted, and largely unwanted choo-choos for $100 BILLION that could have gone toward water works.
The big question is “Will the voters ever learn and throw the idiot pols out?”
You are being practical...but when people have let lawns and gardens die, it really does make you angry.
That’s that political failure. Propper tracking of their water quality trends could have resulted in a different outcome.
Imagine the story on the flip side of the coin.
*
Mayor announces Water Wednesday! The people of Poway have done such an amazing job at conservation that we actually have a short term surplus of water that needs to be used. For one day only water restrictions are lifted. Time to wash that dusty dirty car.
*
He could have been a hero. Instead they are left trying to explain something that sounds worse than it is and that most people won’t understand.
I don’t know of many farmers who are on a city distribution system for irrigation.
That volume is about an hour of free flow for the entire city network. Too large to put all in one place.
A city wide effort could have been made, and yes they could have been paid, but it would have required some thought.
Oh, well forget it then.
Well, doggone, Norm, how much do you got stored away?
(little Freepian slip there old FRiend lol)
No slip. The sheer volume of stupid around here lately rubs off on a guy. ;)
Shoulda been BE measurable...Drrrrr....
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