on the front page of the Journal because of the water resources this inept agency controls. Anyway, it now seems that all District actions over the last three months have probably been illegal because they did not advertise the time and place of the Board meetings as required by the Open Meetings Act. This is basic stuff and it really is symbolic of the total meltdown in credibility for this important agency.Once again, I am a former General Manager of the District, as well as a taxpayer and irrigator, and know too well the potential for the District. It is time that the Board insist on new management and give them the ability to operate as a modern water agency that will recognize reality. This won't happen until state legislators start seriously looking at this agency. Perhaps an interim committee should be formed to see how the District can be reformed, politically and administratively. The best thing might be to have a new form of governance with a newly constituted Board made up of regional interests that could represent the taxpayers. Certainly, the Governor and State Engineer would like to be in the position of not having to be in litigation on a constant basis with this anachronistic agency.
Now doesn't this photo just say it all? It reminds me of President Ford's "Whip Inflation Now" campaign.
1 comment:
Thanks for posting that. I've been following this issue as best I can but info is hard to come by. Here are some questions I'd like to hear the city council answer
1. How frequently will the city monitor/test the levels in the water?
(Remember, this is something new, something Albuquerque has never done before. It seems that at a minimum, the tests should be done monthly. Why not push for daily? This is what they do in the Netherlands. Certain things, surely, will be tested daily, like turbidity and PH.)
2. Will Albuquerque be testing the influent (water coming into the treatment plants) and effluent (water exiting the treatment plants)? This will provide a measure of efficacy. They do this for their waste treatment plants. It seems that it would be wise to do this for the drinking water treatment sites as well.
3. Will they respond immediately or wait for an average? (With certain contaminants it is legal to take several readings and use the average. If there are 3 readings over 9 months that exceed limits, will we wait for the 4th reading before doing something? Smaller water systems authorities usually do this.)
4. Will they share information with community groups? (At the end of the year the public gets a summary - nothing really about location, when and where - and that is all. Why not have the lab results posted on a city website?)
5. Does Albuquerque have a plan for when an accident does occur with the water?
6. Has the city considered using ozone instead of chlorine? We now have an answer to this question: Yes, it will be the city's primary method of disinfection. Chlorine will be used for post-treatment disinfection to prevent
the growth of microorganisms after the water is treated with ozone. Ozone is an oxidizer as well as chlorine, but ozone oxidizes with minimal disinfection by-products (bromate) when it is used in concert with ultraviolet light.
Ozone is not an inert gas, which means it is not completely harmless, but it is preferable to chlorines. Ozone comes out of tailpipes and does affect air quality. Ozone that off-gases is destroyed easily. Bromate is a by-product of ozone, the one contaminant that ozone creates. 10 parts per billion is the allowable limit by the EPA.
Chlorine will be used for post-treatment so there will be some amount of disinfection by-products, but these will be in a lesser amount than if we were primarily treating the water with chlorine.
7. Why are you asking for an exemption (extension) on the new water arsenic standards? (Is it about money? Is it a lack of viable options for decontamination?) (Also: a public hearing process is required. The public hearing is NOT a factor into the input of the exception application. Rather it is intended to inform the public that their water system is receiving an extension.)
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