Don't blame Tracy for fouling the Delta

When it comes to the push and pull over who is doing more damage to our state's most important waterway — those water-sucking dudes in the Central Valley and SoCal or the Delta residents polluting it with waste and runoff — consider Tracy expunged. At least from the latter category.

While Tank Town does draw some of its water from the Delta-Mendota Canal, which is filled with huge pumps that actually make some Delta waterways flow backwards, Tracy's doing a great job of not fouling that water in the first place. Or so says Steve Bayley of the city's Public Works Department.

The city discharges treated wastewater into Old River, but Bayley explained the city's new treatment plant takes out all the ammonia in the waste — chemically turning it into nitrogen that's released into the air, which is 70-something percent nitrogen to begin with. That means cleaner effluent, and a cleaner Delta.

If we could only get those other cities and fertilizer users on the same page.