I am writing you about the urgency of a few changes that must be made to a project in Irvine called the Irvine Desalter Project (IDP) There are a few major faults to the project that must be addressed, and we must get accurate answers and limits that are reasonable.
The first facility well call No.1 – this facility goes by the name Potable Treatment Plant (PTP) (Potable means drinking) This plant pumps water from potable wells in Irvine and cleans the water by Reverse Osmosis, and the salt brine is disposed of into the Pacific Ocean by a pipe running to Aliso Creek Ocean Outfall (two million gallons a day) We may be able to tolerate the extra salty water-burning eyes- itchy skin etc. but it remains to be seen how the kelp beds, shellfish, porpoises and whales adapt to this – it should be independently studied.
The second facility well call No. 2 - it is called the Central Treatment Plant (CTP) and it only involves non-potable (non-drinking) water. It pumps water from one edge of the principle aquifer of Orange County that has been tainted by TCE (Trichloroethylene) and is treated by using air stripping and captures the off gas using granular carbon. The treated water goes to a non-potable well and is used for non-drinking purposes like watering golf courses.
The third facility we will call No 3 - it is called the Shallow Groundwater Unit (SGU) It pumps water from a plume of TCE 1x3 miles in size and pre-treats it. It then pumps it into an injection well where it is re-injected into the principal aquifer – where it is diluted and then run through No. 2 - The CTP as I mentioned earlier, then to the non-potable well.
Now here is the crux of the issue, the flaws – the danger - and a reasonable, cost effective way to fix the problem:
Pay close attention! - If the injection well can not accept any more toxic water, or the No. 2 CTP is shut down, there is no where for the pre-treated No. 3 SGU water to go, so they have installed a diversion pipe coming out of No. 3 SGU to divert the No.3 pre-treated SGU water into the brine line that goes from No.1 PTP to Aliso Creek outfall and eventually to the Pacific Ocean, with no further treatment. What they have done instead is by-pass secondary treatment in the No. 2 by containing it in the now potable well.
I call for an immediate change in plans where the No. 3 SGU automatically shuts down under these circumstances so no No. 3 SGU pre-treated water is allowed to escape into the Pacific Ocean by being diverted out the brine line.
If for some technical reason the No.3 SGU must remain running at all times, then the only reasonable diversion of No.3 SGU pre-treated water would be into the TCE plume where it came from and it circulates it in a loop until the problem is solved and it can flow again.
This is the only sensible solution to this extremely dangerous situation and these changes costing much additional money, its just an automatic shut-off valve or short pipe from No. 3 SGU back down into the toxic plume.
The cost in twenty years or so from the chlorinated hydrocarbons like TCE and DDT being released into our ocean, even in microscopic quantities will be astronomical, and not to mention the lives lost and ruined the species lost, the tide pools dead, the kelp, dolphins, whales, etc.
We must do this cleanup- thats not the question, but we must do it properly with the utmost care the first time, theres no second chance. Once TCE is released into our ocean, its impossible to recapture. And, as every high school marine biology student knows, chlorinated hydrocarbons are 10,000,000 times more toxic after moving up the food chain to the fish the pelicans eat. So, if we take those microscopic quantities they plan to release into the ocean and multiply them all by 10,000,000 suddenly, instead of 1/1,000,000 of a gram we have 10 grams. Any amount of TCE can cause cancer, nerve damage, miscarriages, and birth defects.
Two kinds of TCE mixed together makes DDT, banned for forty years. The brown pelicans were almost extinguished and are just making a come back. I suggest everyone read or re-read Rachel Carlsons best selling, and critically acclaimed book, Silent Spring - Oh, how weve forgotten and become so disconnected from nature and so comfortably numb in these last 40 years.
All point source pollution was to be stopped by 1984 under EPA. It just slowly keeps creeping, higher and higher, year after year. Start Talking Ocean Protection - ITS TIME TO STOP IT!
It is up to us, were the keepers if the coast, we know how sensitive it is, and weve been bypassed completely on this project, because it is not in the coastal zone.
When I first spoke at the city counsel meeting back when Laguna Beach signed the Global Warming not one counsel member had even heard of The Irvine Desalter Project. When I ran to be on the environmental committee, I asked the women who got the position if shed heard of it. She said, It has all been cleaned up already, and anyway TCE just evaporates in the air you know. Well it does not, and the Dept of Navy EPA State County has invested well over 50 million dollars in the three treatment plants of the IDP.
They have been building and drilling wells and pipes, and just signed off on the completion of the final phase of the project. It is either online now, or is about to go online. We have been left in the dark on this whole project for over eight years. Start talking Ocean Protection. Stop the TCE from getting into our oceans.
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