Sedona AZ (June 14, 2014) – The following is a letter to the SedonaEye.com editor:
Sedona’s Vice-Mayor hopes people drink sewer water – Information and Opinion by Warren Woodward, Sedona Arizona.
June 14, 2014
You just can’t make this stuff up!
Sedona City Council
I sent Sedona Council an article as a reminder that their vote to establish a sewer water injection well was a huge mistake. The article (reprinted below) is about Maui’s injection wells and how they ended up leaking out on the ocean floor causing environmental damage for which Maui county got sued and lost.
My point was that no one can know where sewer water will end up once it’s injected underground. That’s important because, even though treated, sewer water still contains all kinds of chemicals including estrogen mimickers, artificial sweeteners, drugs and medical drug-derived radioactive isotopes. It’s even more important in a state where many people rely on underground sources of drinking water. In my opinion, poisoning aquifers is criminal environmental vandalism.
Sedona’s vice-mayor, Mark DiNunzio, got back to me saying, “While we may not know exactly where it goes underground, we do hope that flows downhill to the communities below us to be reused by their citizens.”
Stunning.
Incredible.
And how magnanimous of Sedona Council to bestow a delicious chemically polluted swill to the “communities below us.”
I knew Sedona was exceptional but not to this degree. Let’s rename the waste water plant Toilet Vortex, bottle the sewer water and call it Vortex Nectar — The Essence of Sedona.
Note that Mark (whose email reply is below) mentions “potential” pharmaceuticals in the waste water. Uh, no, there are actual pharmaceuticals in sewer water. They are real. The problem is real, not a potential, imaginary or hypothetical one.
Here is just one of many pieces of information I provided Mark and the rest of Council 4 years ago. How unfortunate that Council member Barbara Litrell was the only one capable of grasping it.
Pharmaceutical Drugs Found in U.S. Water Supplies is a concise article that lays it all out. According to the article, “The drugs are carried by sewage systems to wastewater treatment plants that unfortunately do not remove pharmaceutical contaminants from the water. So these drugs are released into the environment and back into the water cycle.” http://www.pharmasc-e.com/faq/drugsinwater.htm
Also, someone should tell Mark that after voting for the Splashpad he no longer gets to use the word, “sustainable”.
—– Forwarded Message —–
Sedona City Council Vice Mayor Mark DiNunzio
From: Mark DiNunzio <MDiNunzio@sedonaaz.gov>
To: “w”
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2014 11:05 AM
Subject: Re: Injection well
Warren, thank you for your email.
are you suggesting that it is better to allow our precious water resource to evaporate into the atmosphere as we now do to be driven by winds to the distant Northeast to create rain there? is providing water to feed weeds around our duck ponds a sustainable use of our water resource?
While we may not know exactly where it goes underground, we do hope that flows downhill to the communities below us to be reused by their citizens.
I believe that councilor litrell’s vote was driven by certain
constitutients concerns over potential pharmaceuticals in the water.
What do you suggest as a better use of our water? The more sustainable the better.
mark
>>> Warren Woodward 06/07/14 12:13 PM >>>
When you inject waste water into the ground, you never know where it will end up. Sedona’s injection well is environmental vandalism. What a pity that only Barbara Litrell had sense enough to vote against it.
Federal Ruling: Maui County Is Violating Clean Water Act
MauiNow.com
June 2nd, 2014
By Wendy Osher
The county’s use of injection wells at the Lahaina Wastewater Reclamation Facility in West Maui violates the federal Clean Water Act according to a federal district court ruling on Friday, the environmental law firm Earthjustice announced.
Earthjustice reports that the court concluded that most of the three to five million gallons of wastewater that is injected into the wells each day flows through groundwater and emerges offshore of the popular Kahekili Beach Park.
County Communications Director Rod Antone responded to the news saying, “Although we respect the court’s decision we are still reviewing the court’s ruling and evaluating our options.”
The lawsuit, filed by Earthjustice in April of 2012 on behalf of the Hawai‘i Wildlife Fund, Surfrider Foundation, West Maui Preservation Association, and Sierra Club-Maui Group, claimed that “wastewater-laden groundwater” from the injection wells, “substantially affects the physical, chemical, and biological integrity of the ocean water.”
According to Earthjustice, the court noted that “the coral reefs near the submarine seeps have been subject to algal blooms that have led to a decline in coral cover from 55% to 33% between 1994 and 2006.”
Earthjustice attorney David Henkin said that under the Clean Water Act, “Maximum penalties in this case already exceed $100 million,” and he said, “the meter is ticking at a rate of over $100,000 per day. It’s time for the county to stop dragging its feet and fix this problem.”
Parties in the lawsuit issued statements via the Earthjustice press release saying the following:
• Lucienne de Naie, Conservation Chair of Sierra Club Maui: “For years before we went to court, the plaintiffs and other concerned Maui residents had meeting after meeting with the county and tried to convince our public officials to take seriously the threat to our marine environment and public health from the Lahaina injection wells. It’s frustrating that they refused to listen to us, forcing us to go to court, but we are happy the judge understands the gravity of the situation.”
• Hannah Bernard of Hawai‘i Wildlife Fund: “With elevated nutrients, acidity and temperature, combined with its low salinity and oxygen, the county’s wastewater is, sadly, a perfect recipe for destroying Kahekili’s coral reefs, the dramatic decline of this once pristine marine environment is just heartbreaking. The county needs to take immediate steps to save what’s left.”
• Angela Howe of Surfrider Foundation: “Destroying coral isn’t the only problem the injection wells cause. The county’s wastewater contains chemicals like pharmaceuticals and fire retardants that also travel from the injection wells into nearshore waters, threatening local residents and tourists swimming and surfing at Kahekili Beach.”
• Lance D. Collins of West MauiMaui in a near permanent drought, the county should be re-using the millions of gallons of wastewater from the Lahaina facility to meet the needs of golf courses, resorts, and other developments, not dumping it onto our reefs.”
According to information released by Earthjustice, the court will impose civil penalties for the county’s violations following a hearing set for March 17, 2015.
Federal Ruling: Maui County Is Violating Clean Water Act | Maui Now
Federal Ruling: Maui County Is Violating Clean Water Act…
The county’s use of injection wells at the Lahaina Wastewater Reclamation Facility in West Maui violates the federal Clean Water Act according to a federal district…
*View on www.mauinow.com with thanks to same for allowing the above article excerpt.
For the best Arizona news and views, read www.SedonaEye.com daily!
Norman Dye, Tree Menane and Shevy Heaney-Lee liked and shared this article on Facebook.
And what, this guy (Mark DiNunzio) has two more years on the city council (unless he decides to run again?) OMG it gets scarier by the day.
My question is :
What right does Sedona have to inject effluent into an area that will flow to other places and away from them? Does Cornville and Cottonwood know about this?
I can just just see the new branding design coming out of Cottonwood.
“The heart of Sedona’s wastewater”
I long for the old days when life was simple. I wish our kids could have known those times.
@ What’s next? — Morally of course they do not have a “right” to inject effluent but legally the EPA has been very slack about issuing permits. Here’s an article about that: http://www.propublica.org/series/injection-wells
In addition to being outraged at DiNunzio’s recent comments, I was also surprised because when Council was discussing the well the talk then was that the injected water would stay put and would be like a reserve supply. That was one of the reasons I gave them the Maui information, to show that it will not necessarily stay put.
I don’t know about Cornville but I did send my piece to both Clarkdale and Cottonwood Councils so they know about it now if they did not before.
People should know that current mayoral candidate, Cliff Hamilton, voted in favor of the initial funding for the well when he was on Council.
About 4 years ago when I was advocating against the well I called Sedona’s head of Public Works, Charles Mosely, to discuss the issue with him. Mosely said he knew about the estrogen mimickers but that they “only affected the lower life forms like amphibians.” Really. Again, you can’t make this stuff up. I can see him as foreman in a coal mine. ‘Hey, don’t worry about that dead canary, fellas. It’s just a lower life form.’
Speaking of Cliff Hamilton, when on City Council he was the one who argued against the wisdom for Sedona to be encumbered with the stupid idea of a Creek Walk/Park because of never-ending threat of flooding, liability, and related costs of keeping it operational. Yes, because of Cliff Hamilton Council voted against the concept after years of study after study after study. It was then resurrected by present Mayor Adams who is probably still attempting to ram it through prior to finally leaving office.
Sandy Moriarity, while serving on the former Sedona Housing Commission, was a strong arm in getting the ADU code approved in spite of substantial public opposition at every meeting that was held relating to that controversial topic. Yep, it was approved thanks to Moriarity and her gang, even when then Community Developer Director John O’Brien admitted the only way to enforce the code was neighbor “whistle blowing.”
Most recently Sandy Moriarity has been an avid supporter of the Chamber of Commerce, having spoken at council meetings in favor of the increased percentage of bed tax to be given to the Chamber for advertising. She is also involved in the Wine Festival (possibly Chair) another recipient of free money from the City which to my recollection did not provide documentation of how the funds were spent and at what profit or loss.
Moral of story: Two candidates for Mayor, one will be elected. Name your own poison.
KEEP YOUR (deleted by editor) (deleted by editor) $%T^&*()
subscribe to the VRBP & read important stuff @ vrbp.org
Fri, July 31, 2015 11:03 am Marianne Davis sent this out
Less Than Zero
Despite decades of accepted science, California and Arizona are still miscounting their water supplies.
Article excerpt from ProPublica
Deep beneath the bleached-out, dusty surface of the drought-stricken West is a stash of water sequestered between layers of rock and sometimes built up over centuries.
Officials in the Colorado River basin states have long treated this liquid treasure as a type of environmental retirement account — an additional supply of water they can raid to get through the driest years and make up for the chronic overuse of the rivers themselves.
In recent years, the withdrawals have taken on even more importance…
Read the full article @ vrbp.org July issue
Lonnie
Isn’t it ironic how prophetic this 2014 article and conversation was about the Lahaina fire result. Drought, water mismanagement, fire mismanagement, sewage pollution?