Wastewater treatment plant expansion examined

A draft study on the potential environmental impacts of a proposed expansion of the campus's wastewater treatment plant is available for public review and comment until Nov. 22.

Also, a public hearing on the project is set for 7 p.m. Monday in the University Club Main Conference Room.

The plant expansion would accommodate projected campus demands for wastewater treatment through 2013, increasing treatment capacity from 2.5 million gallons per day to 3.8 million. It also would improve UC Davis' ability to meet current and future regulatory requirements. Once completed, the project would increase the amount of treated water discharged to the south fork of Putah Creek. It would use the existing discharge site and maintain current water quality.

Most construction associated with the project would occur on the site of the existing plant, located south of Interstate 80 and the railroad tracks and east of Old Davis Road. Other construction would take place at the central campus influent pump station, located south of LaRue Road and north of the Arboretum Waterway.

The draft environmental impact report (EIR) evaluated these potential impact areas: increased emissions of certain air pollutants; impacts on certain plant and animal species of concern and their habitats; water quality impacts on surface water and groundwater resources; hydrologic impacts (such as erosion and flooding); and possible discharges of treated wastewater that exceed regulatory limits.

The report concludes that there are very few potentially significant project-specific impacts, which can be mitigated to less-than-significant levels. The report describes those proposed mitigation measures, which include ongoing monitoring and implementation of source controls if problems are found in the future.

Copies of the report are available at the Office of Resource Management and Planning in local libraries and on the Web at http://www.ormp.ucdavis.edu/environreview/.

Signs on Davis Tower to be illuminated for testing

Exterior signs atop the Davis Tower at the medical center will be illuminated temporarily at least one day next week as part of a study to evaluate the environmental impact of the signs.

The signs, located on the northern and western sides of the Davis Tower, will be illuminated on Monday, Oct. 25, and possibly on Wednesday, Oct. 27. The signs originally were installed in the summer of 2003 and illuminated at night. After neighbors of the medical center said they were disturbed by the signs' blue light, medical center officials decided to keep the signs off at night while it conducts an environmental impact study of the signs.

The firm that is conducting the study will be performing tests on the signs next week when they are illuminated.

After it is completed, the draft environmental impact report will be released and a public meeting to discuss its findings will be scheduled. Information about the report and meeting will be released later this fall.

NOW honors bestowed

Former UC Davis administrator M.R.C. Greenwood, the first female UC provost, on Oct. 13 was given an Award for Excellence in Edu- cation by the California chapter of the National Organization for Women. She was one of three women with UC Davis ties to earn the honor.

UC Davis professors Yvette Flores-Ortiz of Chicana/o studies and Gyongy Laky of textiles and clothing also were honored by NOW.

Greenwood is provost and senior vice president for academic affairs for UC. She was chancellor of UC Santa Cruz and dean of graduate stu-dies, vice provost for academic outreach and professor of biology and internal medicine at Davis.

UC gets three Nobels

Three UC researchers earned Nobel prizes from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences this month. The $1.3 million Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences went to Finn Kydland of UC Santa Barbara for his contributions to dynamic macroeconomics and the time consistency of economic policy and the driving forces behind business cycles.

On Oct. 5, David Gross of UC Santa Barbara earned a 2004 Nobel for physics. Additionally, on Oct. 6, Irwin Rose, a researcher in the UC Irvine College of Medicine won the Nobel in chemistry. In total, 49 researchers affiliated with UC have won Nobel Prizes.