And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Submitted by Ruth Lopez "Inform" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> This following article was found today at the address below. Note = Needles City Manager Tom Parry's reaction. The complaint states that = the water board could fine $10. per gallon or $2,720,000. almost 3 = million dollars, but is suggesting only $10,000. = http://www.havasunews.com/Todaysnews.html Sewage spill goes untold; officials concerned By LINDY LEIN Today's News-Herald=20 The alleged accidental release of nearly 300,000 gallons of effluent = into the Colorado River from a Needles, Calif., sewage treatment plant = has Lake Havasu City and Mohave County officials scratching their heads. = They're wondering why Needles authorities didn't notify river = communities downstream that wastewater dumped in two separate incidents = was headed their way. "The not knowing is what hurts, especially since = it occurred just prior to the July Fourth weekend," said Supervisor = Buster Johnson. Under California law, Needles was required to report the = sewage treatment failures, which occurred on the first weekend in July = and again on July 26, to the California Regional Water Quality Control = Board and not to any downstream water users.=20 "The State of California is under no obligation to notify us when there = is this type discharge," said Amy Rezzonico, public information officer = for the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. "Likewise, the = State of Arizona is not under obligation to notify the State of = California." Although the City of Needles was not required to tell its = Arizona neighbors about the accidents, "It wouldn't have hurt them to = call us," said Bruce Williams, Lake Havasu City manager. "There probably = was no impact to the lower river communities, but it would have been a = nice courtesy." Needles City Manager Tom Parry claims that the spills = were of little consequence and posed no danger to water users = downstream. "We don't want to send the wrong message and cause = commercial businesses to lose money because of a meaningless spill in = Needles," Parry said. "By this not being front page news when it = happened it shows the minimal impact. Our regulatory commission would = have warned everyone down river to get out of the water if this had been = a health hazard."=20 Parry said the first release of about 260,000 gallons occurred sometime = late Friday night or early Saturday morning, July 2-3, when sanitation = workers failed to monitor chlorination levels in treatment tanks." "It = did happen. Our workers got very busy and didn't check the chlorination = tanks," Parry said. "It was clean effluent sewage that had not been = through the final process of disinfection." N.J. Khilnani, sanitary = engineering associate for California's water quality board, called the = spill "an operational error." "The water had a high bacteria level," = Khilnani said. "The chlorination system ran out of chlorine because the = system wasn't checked for a couple of days." A second failure of the = chlorination system occurred on July 26, around 5:45 a.m., when an = estimated 10,000 gallons of effluent was dumped. The release was blamed = on a defective scale, according to information supplied by the state of = California.=20 Both incidents were reported to the California Regional Water Quality = Control Board, which responded by issuing an administrative civil = liability complaint and imposing a fine of $10,000 on the City of = Needles. Parry said the city, which will have a new wastewater treatment = plant on line in about four months, plans to pay the fine imposed by the = board. Meanwhile, in Mohave County, Supervisor Johnson plans to bring = the issue before the board on Sept. 21 by proposing an intergovernmental = agreement that would require cross-county and cross-state notification = should sewage spills occur in the future. "You would naturally think = that, for the health of everyone, something like this would have already = been in place," Johnson said of his proposal. "Once a discharge like = this happens, there's not much you can do about it, but at least you can = plan accordingly."=20 Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
