A House hearing on Lower Colorado River water quality, held on May 27 in Tucson, explored what committee member Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) described in his opening remarks as an attempt to help spur the attention that we need to focus on this issue before a crisis does it for us.

The hearing was held by the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power to explore what federal measures can help preserve and prevent the degradation of river water quality. Much of the testimony agreed on the seriousness of a variety of pollution threats to the river, source of drinking water for 30 million residents of the Southwest, and a scattershot series of Congressional and Executive interventions were proposed.

Lake Havasu City Mayor Mark Nexsen spoke on behalf of Havasu and Bullhead City, as well as chairman of the regional Colorado River Regional Sewer Coalition (CRRSco) whose members include a wide range of tribes, cities and towns including Tucson.

Nexsen said that, economically, the costs of reducing nitrate and other sewage-based pollution from the Havasu and Bullhead areas into the river are close to $700 million with 92 percent of the cost debt weighing heavily on a population he described as retired or on a fixed income or earning an average of $12 per hour. Nexsen repeated the recommendation of the Clean Colorado River Alliance that the Arizona Congressional delegation should support the effort of CRRSCo to obtain federal funding for wastewater infrastructure in communities along the river. It is evident that the river cannot be protected by local governments alone.

He added that CRRSco believes that there, are at least four sources of pollution that are at the heart of the contamination crisis confronting both the upper and lower Colorado River basins: nitrates and other nutrients, uranium, pharmaceuticals and heavy metals such as chromium along with proliferation of the Quagga mussel which has invaded Lake Havasu with a vengeance. The impact of a drought, which is all but a foregone conclusion will exacerbate the aforementioned threats to the river.

It is not yet known how to economically technologically remove pharmaceuticals that have passed through the human body as part of wastewater treatment from the growing population along the river. Uncontrolled septic tanks aggravate the problem. Pharmaceuticals are endocrine-disrupting compounds that have caused probable mutations and birth defects in fish and animals. The Southern Nevada Water Authority has detected the compounds in Lake Havasu.

In addition to funding for sewage infrastructure, Nexsen called for legislation with adequate appropriations to research how to best eliminate pharmaceuticals from effluent, eliminate the Quagga mussel, and to expedite the clean up of Moab, Utah, uranium tailings and hexavalent chromium from the old PG&E Topock natural gas compressor north of Havasu.

Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Assistant General Manager Roger Patterson called for an end to the Department of the Interior (DOI) approving exploration of uranium near the Grand Canyon. He also asked EPA to intervene to ensure that the cleanup of perchlorate, a human hormonal disrupter, from old rocket fuel at the Tronox plant near Henderson, Nev., is ensured since Tronox is probably entering bankruptcy. Perchlorate levels in the river have been reduced but continue to show up in potable water in Southern California, however below drinking water standards.

Congressionally, Patterson suggested approval of appropriations to expedite cleanup of hexavalent chromium and of proposed DOI funding to reduce salinity in the river, as well as funding to create a protective berm around, and speed up the cleaning of, Moab uranium tailings.

University of Arizona climate expert Jonathan Overpeck suggested that a mix of over allocation of water, drought that will reduce flow, and climate change and more heat would aggravate existing pollution problems. More sediment from floods, more concentration of pollutants as cities grow, and a need to recycle what rainfall and sewage they would have would also negatively impact river water quality. He proposed a science and services program to avoid future water conflicts among states, Native Nations and Mexico that would address local stakeholder concerns and integrate greenhouse gas control as part of their mandate.

Overpeck said that a model exists created by the National Oceans and Aeronautics Administration and that it should include the entire Colorado River Basin, funded by Congress for 10 years at $20 million per year.

EPA Region 9 Water Division Director Alexis Strauss testified on how the appropriations process works to create funding for wastewater and water systems under the Clean Water Act, stating that Lake Havasu had received $207.5 million in loans between 2003 and 2008 and another $46.05 million low-interest loan in 2009 for wastewater with an increase expected under Obama’s proposed budget for 2010 for its Wastewater System Expansion project.

(Editor’s note: Kamp is an environmental liaison for Wick Communications, which owns the Nogales International/Weekly Bulletin.)