The South Yuba River has long been a fully paid up member on California's sad roster of Rivers of Constant Sorrow. It has been dammed, diverted, hydraulically mined, and used for a place to dump mountains of mine tailings, and later, streams of sewage effluent. Despite having a valiant and resolute defender, the South Yuba River Citizens League, who have successfully fought, and who continue to fight against seemingly overwhelming odds to protect it from further dams, and who have had bright victories, such as the designation of a portion of the South Yuba as a California Wild and Scenic River, it's nevertheless a river that has to take each day as it comes, for each new day can bring with it a whole load of troubles.
This past month's troubles arrived up at the headwaters, near the sewage effluent outfall for the Donner Summit Public Utilities District (DSPUD). DSPUD provides sewerage service for Nevada and Placer County's Donner Summit communities. For many months of the year, treated effluent is discharged into the South Yuba River. In fall and winter, DSPUD's treated discharge may represent as much as sixty percent of stream flow. Between July and October, no effluent is permitted in the river, but is instead sprayed on the nearby Soda Springs Ski Hill, above the headwaters, where it (hopefully) evaporates.
Great care is taken to comply with all discharge standards, but as of November, 2007 DSPUD had amassed a total of $204,000 in mandatory penalties for violations of effluent limitations. As the district fits small community-financial hardship guidelines, this sum has been applied towards upgrades to ensure compliance, and things seemed to be looking up for both DSPUD, and the health of the South Yuba River.
Recently, though, observers noticed excess algal growth and eutrophication downstream of DSPUD's outfall into the South Yuba River. They contacted the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board (CVRWQCB), who promptly sent out a unit to inspect the plant, and to take samples above and below the discharge point, and at the bridge downstream. The CVRWQCB team sampled for nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, phosphate, and orthophosphates, and field tested for pH. Hopefully the algal blooms will not turn out to be any of the blue-green algaes that produce cyanotoxins, as that would have severe implications for wildlife, water potability, and would present health risks for anyone splashing about in the water, particularly children and dogs. Wait, am I saying someone would let a child play about in the rocks and shallows of a river that might be 60% treated effluent, and maybe effluent that's a little short of treated enough?
Curiously, the CVRWQCB team wasn't the only group mucking about in the South Yuba River's murky waters; a spokesperson for the water quality board said that Royal Gorge, LLC would be having their own water consultants, Eco:Logic, conduct an analysis of the algae. Royal Gorge LLC is a firm owned by Kirk Syme, Woodstock Development, Todd and Mark Foster, Foster Enterprises, and unknown investors.
What concern, you might ask, would Royal Gorge LLC have with the nature and source of algae in the South Yuba River? Well, the South Yuba's troubles have, as mentioned above, historically included dams, diversions, and dumping, but as of late those troubles have been eclipsed by the threat of a huge bloom of development up at Donner Summit. Royal Gorge LLC has, for more than a year, been in discussions with Placer County about remaking the cross country resort into a condo/hotel/housing/commercial development of up to 1000 units, which would at least double the load of effluent that is currently dumped into the South Yuba River. Many citizens fear that the South Yuba cannot shoulder the burden of additional effluent- if the river at times is now 60% effluent, how can it be made to be 120% effluent? (yes, I know...)
Back when the communities that sit astride Donner Summit were developed, a patchy system of sewage disposal was used. Septic tanks were tried in many areas, and, were by and large, woeful failures, as granite was not designed to be an adequate leach field. The South Yuba River still has many leach fields in its watershed, including those at the Sugar Bowl Ski Resort, and not all of them are working well, a subject that is generally not broached in polite company. " I know where your leach field is buried," won't get you invited to a lot of parties.... Perhaps the latest algal bloom is the product of yet another failing leach field, which will mean someone else will have to hook up to DSPUD, which will mean...
It all means that maybe the South Yuba River and Donner Summit are well past saturation point, concerning what's directly dumped into the South Yuba River, what oozes in from leach fields that follow the course of the river down the mountain, and what doesn't evaporate from the Ski Hill that's also a mere parking-lot away from the point the river gurgles down from its headwaters in Van Norden Meadow. Perhaps it's time for someone to step in and put a halt to any new development, until the glaring problems of the South Yuba River, a stunningly beautiful, seriously impaired river that also eventually ends delivering water to someone's tap downstream, are addressed.
If the ongoing effluent disposal problems of DSPUD and the issues of failing leach fields at Donner Summit are not addressed, and large developments are permitted without serious upgrades, we certainly won't be meeting on the 'golden shore.' Or will we?*
*Hey, it's a great folk song - and it's past time for California to take a hard look at water supplies/water quality, from the top of the watershed all the way down, especially as what goes in at the top of the watershed, comes out at the bottom. Your tap or mine?
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