Friday, November 19, 2004

Feds sue water facility over years of sewage violations - wjla-TV News

Fed is doing their jobs on the enforcement...

Feds sue water facility over years of sewage violations

LAUREL, MD � The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) is being sued by the federal government for failing to control its sewer overflows, according to a Nov. 19 Associated Press (AP) news report on WJLA-TV.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is claming that WSSC is allowing raw sewage to flow into area waterways causing a substantial risk to human health, the report said.

The news station reported that the WSSC provides drinking water and sewage service to about 1.6 million people in Montgomery and Prince George's counties.

State records indicate nearly 450 such incidents occurred over a 42-month period ending last July. The overflows allow millions of gallons of raw sewage to drain into the Anacostia and Patuxent rivers, ultimately increasing pollution in the Chesapeake Bay, the story said.

News

Melting Glaciers Threaten World Water Supply - Yahoo! News -

This is due to the Green house effects. We need to do more to ensure that our heirs & our environment is protected.........

Melting Glaciers Threaten World Water Supply
Wed Nov 17,11:20 PM ET By Ed Cropley

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Mountain glaciers, which act as the world's water towers, are shrinking at ever faster rates, threatening the livelihoods of millions of people and the future of countless species, a scientist said Thursday.


Around 75 percent of the world's fresh water is stored in glacial ice, much of it in mountain areas, allowing for heavy winter rain and snow-falls to be released gradually into river networks throughout summer or dry months.

"For some species and some people there are going to be big problems because mountain areas feed not just rural people but big cities, especially in Latin America," said Martin Price of the UK-based Center for Mountain Studies.

In dry countries, mountain glaciers can account for as much as 95 percent of water in river networks, while even in lowland areas of temperate countries such as Germany, around 40 percent of water comes from mountain ice-fields, Price said.

"It's a huge issue in the long run because once the glaciers go, you're down to whatever happens to fall out of the sky and come downstream," Price told Reuters on the sidelines of the IUCN World Conservation Congress in the Thai capital.

Due to factors such as global warming and air pollution, glaciers, like the polar ice caps, are getting smaller.

Studies show that Africa's highest peak, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, may lose its ice-cap by 2020, while the Glacier National Park in the northern United States could well be looking for a new name by 2030.

As well as threatening consistent, year-round water flows, climate change in mountains is threatening the vast variety of species.

Animals and plants in mountain areas, which officially cover 25 percent of the earth's surface, are under threat from the gradually changing climate, as well as loss of habitat on lower reaches which is pushing species to ever higher altitudes.

Eventually, they will run out of places to go.

"What can you do about it? You just have to try and adapt as things go along. You have to be as flexible as possible, but a lot of species are going to go extinct. In mountain areas many already have," Price said.



Yahoo! News - Melting Glaciers Threaten World Water Supply

Congress OKs Nevada Land Deal, Enabling Water Project -Salt Lake Tribune - Nation/World

This is a positive move...

Congress OKs Nevada land deal, enabling water project
Boon for Las Vegas: A huge area will be labeled wilderness in return for allowing development of formerly public land
Los Angeles Times

Congress gave final approval Wednesday to wide-ranging lands legislation that sells off federal holdings in one of Nevada's least populated counties, creates more than a dozen new wilderness areas in the state and eases the way for a controversial water project.
Returning this week after an election recess, the House passed a Senate-amended version of a public lands bill that rewards an array of Nevada interests, from water utilities to wilderness buffs to developers.
The legislation grants rent-free rights of way across federal land for a massive proposed pipeline system that would carry groundwater from rural Nevada to the Las Vegas area.
It authorizes the sale of 90,000 acres of public land - the equivalent of three San Franciscos - for private development in Lincoln County, a huge, lonely swath of southeastern Nevada that is almost entirely owned by the federal government.
It establishes 768,000 acres of new wilderness in Lincoln County, among the largest blocs of wilderness to be designated by Congress in the past decade.
And it eliminates a federal right of way that interferes with a big southern Nevada development proposed by a friend of one of the bill's sponsors, Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, the soon-to-be Senate minority leader.
''This bill is the epitome of compromise,'' said Nevada Republican Rep. Jim Gibbons. ''We succeed in raising the private property tax base a modest amount while protecting an unprecedented amount of land. I am especially pleased that it will specifically support economic development, increased recreation and new tourism opportunities in one of Nevada's most rural counties. Read More.....

''Salt Lake Tribune - Nation/World

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Waters at Center Stage in King/Drew Drama

Water...Water...Water Issues..This Time is in Los Angeles...

Waters at Center Stage in King/Drew Drama
* The congresswoman brings her organizing skills and trademark passion to the battle over whether the trauma unit will be closed.

By Jia-Rui Chong, Solomon Moore and Steve Hymon, Times Staff Writers

A day after she helped marshal more than 1,000 people to protest the proposed closure of Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center's trauma unit, Rep. Maxine Waters on Tuesday sat at the center aisle, second row, of the county Board of Supervisors meeting room, planning her next move.

She and other foes of the closure plan were there to voice their concerns to the supervisors. But it was Waters getting most of the attention. Every few minutes, a protester, a union leader, a policy analyst or an elected official would stop by for a quick huddle. Read More...

Waters at Center Stage in King/Drew Drama

Reservation ready for Mni Wiconi water hookup -- AP Wire | 11/15/2004

This hookup would benefits 55,000 people in South Darkota..

Reservation ready for Mni Wiconi water hookup

Associated Press

PINE RIDGE, S.D. - Planners are hoping to connect residents of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to Missouri River water sometime next year.

The core line of the Mni Wiconi water project is complete nearly to Kadoka, where it will connect next year to a pipeline to Wanblee on the northeast side of Pine Ridge, said Duane Brewer, director of the Oglala Sioux Rural Water Supply System.

But much of the project's completion hinges on Congress, which has yet to pass a joint water and energy bill for the 2005 fiscal year that began Oct. 1.

Mike Watson, head engineer for the Oglalas, said he's optimistic the completion of the Mid-Dakota project will help free up money for Mni Wiconi. He hopes Congress will act this month during its "lame duck" session.

"That should free up rural water budget across the country a little bit," Watson said. "Projects like Mni Wiconi that are well advanced should receive a part of that."

The Mni Wiconi project is designed to deliver water to about 55,000 people in nine West River counties, Pine Ridge and on the Lower Brule and Rosebud Indian reservations. Read More...

AP Wire | 11/15/2004 | Reservation ready for Mni Wiconi water hookup

Cooling the water wars - DenverPost.com - LOCAL NEWS

Shortage of Water is a major concern not only in Asia. If Colorado is facing these situation, that could be worst for California..

Cooling the water wars
Study urges compromise, state action

By Joey Bunch and Kim McGuire
Denver Post Staff Writers

Colorado cities will struggle to get the water they need as the population grows but may be able to lessen the harm to farms and mountain streams with compromise and stronger state involvement, according to a major study presented Tuesday to the Colorado Water Conservation Board.

The Statewide Water Supply Initiative, a $2.8 million study funded by the legislature in 2003, said the number of lost farms and costly battles for water could be minimized with cooperation and good information.

"We don't want to spawn the next generation of trans-basin fights," said Colorado Trout Unlimited executive director David Nickum, who participated in the study.

When competing water interests in the state's various river basins disagree, he said, "we should encourage dialogue to find win-win situations." Read More...

DenverPost.com - LOCAL NEWS

Site cleanup plan to advance to state

Site cleanup plan to advance to state: "Site cleanup plan to advance to state

11-17-04

By Sue Schultz, Staff Writer
News & Record

HIGH POINT -- The seven-year effort to clean up contamination near the Deep River will finally progress when city leaders and a business group submit initial cleanup plans to the state in December.

The river will flow directly into the Randleman Lake -- which will soon be a source of drinking water for the Triad. Tuesday night, city leaders met with Greensboro attorney Steve Earp about the plan to clean up the 163-acre site contaminated by chemicals from the former Seaboard Chemical Corp. and the city's old landfill. If approved, the cleanup would begin in 2006 -- when the Randleman Lake is scheduled to open.

'The goal is to have our system ready to go by the time the reservoir is ready to go,' Earp said. 'That will ensure the water heading to the lake will be treated.'" Read More....


Clean up site is going to use as the drinking water source, it is necessary to look into the quality of the Water Standard....

Environmentalists push bill to expand well monitoring

Well is a important source for water, as the ground water is getting polluted, it is neccesary to enforce the standard..

Environmentalists push bill to expand well monitoring
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
By TERRENCE DOPP
The Express-Times

TRENTON -- Lawmakers are examining a plan to mandate all homeowners relying on private wells to have them tested for contamination every five years.

The bill would expand the scope of New Jersey's Private Well Testing Act -- a 2002 law that mandates all wells be tested during real estate sales. Since that law took effect, 8 percent of wells tested statewide have been found to be contaminated, according to state officials.

The state Department of Environmental Protection estimates the law would affect an estimated 250,000 wells, as well as approximately 7,600 new ones installed annually.

"The success of the private well testing has shown that it should be expanded. This is a natural next step," said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.

Contaminated drinking water is not a new concern in the Garden State, where there are roughly 11,000 contaminated sites and 118 Superfund sites. Geology, industry and increasing population have contributed to the problem, according to officials. Read More..

Environmentalists push bill to expand well monitoring

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Chemicals Linger In Environment -- WCCO: Study

What happen if these Drugs have some side effects?? That may be too late...

Study: Chemicals Linger In Environment

Nov 14, 2004 1:53 pm US/Central
Minneapolis (AP) The chemicals go down the drain, but in the environment they remain.

Researchers have found that a complex brew of everyday compounds -- from products as ubiquitous as shampoo, bug spray and even that morning cup of coffee -- lingers in Minnesota waters even after they're showered off or dumped down the sink.

Those persistent chemicals include caffeine, synthetic musk used in personal-care products, a flame retardant, a herbicide, insect repellent and several medications, according to the most extensive study ever conducted of the state's waters.

Little is known about the risk of these compounds, especially at the low levels detected. But 13 of them are known to disrupt the hormones and sexual development of some fish or other animals, according to the study by three government agencies.

"Because they are a constant source, everyday aquatic organisms are bathed in these compounds, and I don't think anybody knows how that affects them," said Kathy Lee, a hydrologist for the United States Geological Survey and chief author of the study.

Scientists from the USGS, the Minnesota Department of Health and the state Pollution Control Agency found 74 chemicals at 65 sites across the state from late 2000 to 2002. The samples came from rivers and streams near municipal water supplies and sewage treatment plants, treated drinking water and water below landfills and livestock lagoons. The study did not attempt to identify the chemicals' sources.

The study, which cost $564,000, was presented at a conference here last month.

Many chemicals were found just downstream of sewage treatment plants at East Grand Forks, Rochester, Duluth and St. Paul.

At the main Twin Cities metro area plant in St. Paul, about 200 million gallons of wastewater are treated and released into the Mississippi River daily.

The treatment plants remove metals and several pollutants, but not many of the hormones, pharmaceuticals and other chemicals flushed from toilets or rinsed down drains.

"We're not designed to remove these chemicals," said Rebecca Flood, environmental manager for the plant.

Detecting those compounds at such low levels -- often in the parts per billion -- is cutting-edge research, Flood said.

Traces of some chemicals also were found in the intakes of municipal water-treatment plants at Moorhead, East Grand Forks, St. Cloud, Mankato, St. Paul and Minneapolis. But water after treatment at those plants showed either no contaminants or barely detectable levels, said Doug Mandy, manager of the drinking water protection section for the Health Department.

"From a health standpoint, we're fairly certain that this is not a problem at the levels that we found," Mandy said. "But our concern is that these numbers will continue to grow over time because people will continue to use these items or products and they will continue to enter the environment."

Drugs with sexual side effects eventually could become a problem for drinking water quality downstream, and antibiotics in the water may result in strains of bacteria that become resistant to antibiotic treatment, said Leroy Folmar, a retired research physiologist for the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Read More...

WCCO: Study: Chemicals Linger In Environment

- Algae Found In Neighborhood Drinking Water - NBC 4 - 4 Your Health

San Fernando Resident please read...

Algae Found In Neighborhood Drinking Water
DWP Making Adjustments To Minimize Taste, Odor In Water Supply
Think your drinking water has an unpleasant taste and odor?

If you live in the San Fernando Valley, West Los Angeles or Central Los Angeles, you're not imagining it.

The problem results from a bloom of blue-green algae called Anaebena in one of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's reservoirs north of Los Angeles. The algae produces a non-toxic, odorous compound known as geosmin.

While unpleasant, the taste and odor issues are naturally occurring and pose no health risks, according to the DWP.

To help improve the taste and odor, customers may want to refrigerate their drinking water until the problem diminishes.

James G. Yannotta, manager of operations for the DWP, said the algal bloom developed in the water stored in Bouquet Reservoir, located in the hills west of Palmdale. From there, water flows south through the Los Angeles Aqueduct to the Los Angeles Aqueduct Filtration Plant for purification prior to distribution.

The water level in the reservoir was being lowered to make needed repairs when the algal bloom occurred, necessitating the need to release the affected water into the aqueduct system, he said.

The DWP is making several operational adjustments to minimize the taste and odor in the water supply.

"We anticipate that the problems should start to subside by this weekend, and within the next few weeks the taste and odor should be back to normal," Yannotta said.
NBC 4 - 4 Your Health - Algae Found In Neighborhood Drinking Water

Modesto Runs Out of Water in 2018? - Modbee.com |

This is a big concern for Modesto People.

Modesto runs out of water in 2018?
The purpose of planning for the future is to identify needs, city official explains -- By Michael G. Mooney Bee Staff Writer

"Those planning to build their dream in or near Modesto, be it humble home or shopping mall, might want to draw a red circle on the calendar around the year 2018.

Why?

Because a recent study indicates that's the last year any new development could be accommodated in the city, assuming Modesto leaders don't find a way to expand the city's water supply.

But don't start tearing up those blueprints just yet. No one inside city government or the development community, for that matter, believes the city is about to go dry.

'The whole purpose of planning is to identify what the city's needs will be,' said Craig Scott, a city Public Works employee specializing in water issues. 'We have an idea of what we're going to do.'" Read More....

Modbee.com | The Modesto Bee:

Chlorine cylinder leaks at Fort Madison water treatment plant

Chlorine cylinder leaks at Fort Madison water treatment plant

FORT MADISON, Iowa A hazmat crew is responding to a chlorine leak at a water treatment plant in the southeast Iowa city of Fort Madison.
A one ton chlorine cylinder at the plant, which can produce as much as six million gallons of potable water each day, had a slow leak but didn't pose much of a threat.

That's according to City Manager Bill Kelly, who says the chlorine gas was contained inside the plant.

He didn't know how soon the cylinder would be fixed.

Fire Chief Mike Walker says no one was injured during the leak and crews were doing everything "by the books."

The plant is located near the Mississippi River.

Chlorine cylinder leaks at Fort Madison water treatment plant: "Chlorine cylinder leaks at Fort Madison water treatment plant"

Indonesia Pollution in Buyat Bay - The New York Times > Opinion > Editorial

Indonesia need to Gear up & do more to control & reduce the Pollutions not only in Water In the Air as well, there is too much Ignorance attitude about the environments...

Indonesia's natural resources are among the most bounteous in the world. They are also among the most abused. Desperate for foreign investment and plagued by corruption and weak regulation, Indonesian governments over the years have virtually invited multinational corporations - and, for that matter, their own citizens - to clear-cut the country's incomparable rain forests, foul the air and pollute the water. Now more than 80 percent of the country's 19,700-square-mile reef system, the world's largest, is at risk.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former general, became Indonesia's first directly elected president last month partly on the promise of a cleaner, more open government, free of entanglements with special interests. He now has an opportunity to begin redeeming that pledge. Before him and his ministers lies a hotly disputed government report that says the sediment in Buyat Bay, the equatorial bay where an American corporation, Newmont Mining, has been depositing mine waste for several years, is polluted with high levels of arsenic and mercury.

The report further asserts that the pollutants have worked their way up the food chain and that fish in the bay are now laced with enough arsenic to make them unfit for consumption. The report, which Jane Perlez of The New York Times described last week, is the most comprehensive of several studies on Buyat Bay and is sure to figure in a $543 million lawsuit that local villagers have filed against the company. The villagers have complained of rashes, lumps, breathing difficulties and dizziness.

In response, Newmont says it received official clearance to flush wastes into the bay under a system known as "submarine tailing disposal." The company also insists that the underlying data does not support the disturbing conclusions that have appeared in the press, and that other studies have shown no contamination of the fish or the water.

There is one way to resolve this. Mr. Yudhoyono must swiftly release the full report. The report was compiled by a dozen or so experts, including Indonesian and American scientists, and it deserves to see the light of day. The president's next obligation, assuming that he finds no unexpected and disabling flaws in the study, is to stick by it and to seek appropriate remedies from the company.

That is easier said than done. Newmont is capable of mounting a stout defense. And like large multinationals elsewhere, its tentacles reach deep into Indonesia, which, like most third-world societies, is eager for foreign capital. As Rachmat Witoelar, the environment minister, noted plaintively, "I don't want to be part of throwing investors out of Indonesia." But he also added, and rightly so, that "you have to give protection to the victims."




The New York Times > Opinion > Editorial: Pollution in Buyat Bay

Water On Knee -- Yahoo! Health

Water on the knee? All Miavita Fitness Tips

This is interesting! I would research into these!

Here's a tip for anyone whose exercise routine is hindered by sore knees. A water aerobics class is a perfect way to exercise while minimizing stress on your joints. The water provides a fair amount of resistance, yet at the same time it provides a vital protective cushion for sore joints.


Yahoo! Health: "Water on the knee? All Miavita Fitness Tips

Here's a tip for anyone whose exercise routine is hindered by sore knees. A water aerobics class is a perfect way to exercise while minimizing stress on your joints. The water provides a fair amount of resistance, yet at the same time it provides a vital protective cushion for sore joints."

Monday, November 15, 2004

WASA Gradually Replacing Lead Pipes in D.C. - ABC 7 News

The Replacement of Lead Pipe is positive action...


WASA Gradually Replacing Lead Pipes in D.C.
UPDATED - Friday November 12, 2004 2:44pm
Washington (AP) - The D.C. Water and Sewer Authority is gradually making progress as it works to replace thousands of lead service lines in the city.

The agency says 2,800 public pipes are targeted for replacement this fiscal year. Nearly 1,800 pipes were replaced last year.

Over the summer, WASA agreed to spend more than $300 million to replace 23,000 lead pipes by 2010. Those pipes have been leaching lead into the city's drinking water, despite ongoing efforts to reduce the problem by coating them with a chemical.

WASA says it has placed a priority on replacing lead pipes that connect to homes where pregnant women, elderly residents and multiple families live.

So far, WASA says only a small number of people have asked to have the portion of the pipe replaced that runs from the main waterlines to their homes.

ABC 7 News - WASA Gradually Replacing Lead Pipes in D.C.

WCCO: Study: Chemicals Linger In Environment

How our water get polluted is by our own doing....

Study: Chemicals Linger In Environment

Nov 14, 2004 1:53 pm US/Central
Minneapolis (AP) The chemicals go down the drain, but in the environment they remain.

Researchers have found that a complex brew of everyday compounds -- from products as ubiquitous as shampoo, bug spray and even that morning cup of coffee -- lingers in Minnesota waters even after they're showered off or dumped down the sink.

Those persistent chemicals include caffeine, synthetic musk used in personal-care products, a flame retardant, a herbicide, insect repellent and several medications, according to the most extensive study ever conducted of the state's waters.

Little is known about the risk of these compounds, especially at the low levels detected. But 13 of them are known to disrupt the hormones and sexual development of some fish or other animals, according to the study by three government agencies.

WCCO: Study: Chemicals Linger In Environment

Bacteria Levels Drop In D.C. Water

This is a good news for Washinton D.C. resident...

Bacteria Levels Drop in D.C. Water
Updated: Friday, Nov. 12, 2004 - 2:17 PM

WASHINGTON - Tests no longer indicate high bacteria levels in D.C.'s drinking water.

In September, the D.C. Health Department urged some residents to consult with a doctor before drinking the water following routine tests indicating an increase in coliforms. The common bacteria don't usually pose a risk but can indicate the potential for other problems.

Since then, the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority says high levels of coliforms have diminished. In October, positive readings of the bacteria were found in four percent of tested water samples down from more than seven percent in September.

The Environmental Protection Agency says water could have unsafe levels of bacteria when more than five percent of tests are positive.

Public health officials believe the elevated bacteria levels occurred because of a chemical used to coat the city's lead service lines.

WTOPNEWS.com

Feds Award Grants for Nanotech Projects

Nanotech is the new frontiers in technology, it is natural as thinkgs moving from micro to nano...

Feds award grants for nanotech projects

WASHINGTON � The US EPA recently awarded grants to 12 universities to investigate the potential health and environmental impacts of nanomaterials, and nanotechnology designed to protect the environment, including applications in the water treatment industry, according to a news release.

Currently, there is limited scientific information on the effects of nanomaterials on human health and the environment, the EPA said.

Nanotechnology, the release reported, allows scientists to work at the molecular level, atom by atom, to create materials and structures with fundamentally new functions and characteristics.

Read more...
News

EPA Strengthens Water Infrastructure Protection

This is good things that EPA is doing, EPA need to do more of these National wide...

EPA strengthens water infrastructure protection

CINCINNATI � The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established a permanent National Homeland Security Research Center (NHSRC) based in Cincinnati to increase federal drinking water security, according to a news release.

The NHSRC was initially authorized under a temporary charter to perform research and provide technical assistance for first responders and decision makers in a relatively short time frame, the EPA reported.

The EPA has been temporarily focusing on drinking water protection with the support of the Department of Homeland Security, and the agency reported in the release that these goals have become permanent through the NHSRC.

News



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