POLITICS--- Director of CA Water Board Robert Katerman ----YAP about water

IT ALL FLOWS BACK TO YOU!!!
http://www.wrd.org/

Q---Tell us what the Water Replenish District does and what's your responsibilities.
A---Our responsibility is the Southern Los Angeles County. We deal with ground water not imported water

Q---What’s the difference?
A---The strata in south la county are like clay layers separated by sand and gravel. Around the clay is the course water and further downhill part are the actual aquifers (An underground bed or layer of earth, gravel, or porous stone that yields water.) and the whole Los Angeles basin is basically soaked, The San Gabriel and Santa Monica mountains were uplifted by seismic activity. The whole Earths surface was uplifted so the aquifer flows downwards towards the southwest. Over the years before there was water development in the south Los Angles County you had the Los angles river, the San Gabriel River and the Rio Hondo River.

This is when Robert Katherman began his presentation on his laptop. He showed us the coast lines areas that the Water Replenish District is responsible for. (The coast line is indicated n the map in blue on the website www.wrd.org

Q---The water from the aquifers is that ocean water or is that water that flows from the mountain?
A---Its spring water. We get a third of our drinking water from the Sacramento Delta. Why is it that Southern California is using water from up North and the Colorado River? We don’t have enough rain water and we don’t have enough places where we can catch the water. Most of the water that falls from rain ends up going out to the ocean. Because of all the water pumping that happened in the 40’s and 50’s the ground water level dropped below our sea water level and the salt water started coming into our drinking water. There are four levels of aquifers. The upper level has been contaminated by man made chemicals hydro carbons and other organic compounds. The aquifers down 5, 6, 700 feet and this layer has some ground water in it. So we are trying to protect it by those two layers of clay but there not perfect they have cracks in them. We test every drinking well in our area every year and review reports to make sure there are no contaminants coming down in to the ground water.

Q---It’s only yearly that you do this?
A----We take samples throughout the year and then they do all the treating so were continue monitoring of each well over the course of the year.

Q---So along side the water that I would use to shower or brush my teeth with is also okay to drink?
A---Yup

Q---Do you distribute this water as well, how does that work?
A---We don’t distribute it; we have pumpers that have pumping rights.

Q---Does every city in Southern Los Angeles have their own pumps?
A---Some do and some don’t. Here in the west basin we have El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Inglewood, Los Angeles, Long Beach and the there is a whole slew of cities from the central basin. The central basins have more and have higher elevation.

Q---How much water is pumped through the ground water pumps?
A---They measure it in thousands of gallons per minute. So a big number---lol

Q---How many pumps are there in the west coast basin?
A----We have 500 operational now and about ¾ are in the central basin so I would estimate about 120 or 125 are in the west basin.

Q---As far as cost is concerned, does it cost more money for the people that live in the areas with more salt water?
A---They would just buy import water, but the cost of import water costs about $650 per acre foot. All of the storm drains and streets when it rains and the oil drips on the road and all tire particles all gets washed off goes in the storm drains and ends up back to the ocean.

Q---So IT ALL FLOWS TO ME! Would you say that water gets better as technology grows?
A---Yes ! The purest water you can get is ground water because its not only filtered by the man made system: the 3 levels of treatment but its also filtered by the soil and it was traveling slowly underground for years and years.

Q---So what about all that money and bottled water?
A---It’s a waste of money!

Q---What happens when you get a leak or a crack in one of the pipes that purefy the water?
A---We do all of the treatment above ground so everything is detectable. We have monitoring wells that monitor each level so were able to see what happening to the water.

Q---What is it that everyone can do on a daily basis to help eliminate the trash and contamination that goes to the ocean since it all flows back to us?
A---There are water purifiers, don’t pour anything down the storm drains, don’t litter. Don’t brush your teeth with the water on and continiously running. Take short showers. Preferably wash your car at a car wash instead of yourself because the car washes recycle the water about a dozen rimes before they dispose of it. For more tips you can go to www.bewaterwise.com. Southern California is almost like a desert, you either have too much water or not enough.

Here is some other great information Mr. Katherman shared with YAP CREW. It's all very informative.

West Basin MWD and WRD Working to be part of the Solution
The WRD is proposing a series of projects collectively called the Water Independence Network (WIN) Initiative that will allow south Los Angeles County groundwater replenishment to become completely independent from imported water from northern California and the Colorado River.

California’s Water Problems at a Glance
Californians and 2.5 million acres of farmland have leaky levees that desperately need repair. A natural disaster in the Delta could cripple water deliveries to Southern California up to 2 years.

• In late August, a federal court c
• The Delta, a natural estuary which provides water to 25 million at water supplies from the state’s two largest water delivery systems by up to one-third to protect an endangered fish.
• California’s statewide water storage and delivery system has not been significantly improved in 30 years.
• Our statewide water reserves are extremely low and we are facing severe drought conditions.
• Climate change is reducing our mountain snow pack – a critical source of natural water storage – and may usher in longer droughts and more severe floods.