Too much salt into the drinking water or food would cause the problem for our Kidney & blood circulations, also increase the risk of stroke...
LOS OSOS, Calif. (AP) - Saltwater seeping into the groundwater
LOS OSOS, Calif. (AP) - Saltwater seeping into the groundwater is threatening the town's drinking water supplies, posing a danger to future development, authorities said.
A study by Cleath and Associates, a hired geology firm, showed saltwater is creeping into groundwater at nearly 150 feet per year in some parts of Los Osos. Saltwater intrusion is common in coastal communities.
Company hydrologist Spencer Harris said saltwater seep is a result of pumping operations.
The Los Osos aquifer is 20,000 feet across, but to divide the numbers out would be misleading, Harris said, because the rate of movement depends on whether saltwater enters a well or passes it.
Los Osos' $200,000 state-funded study began in June and is expected to be finished in May. The goal of the study is to discover how much, how fast and where seawater is intruding in the Los Osos groundwater basin, as well as options to refill the lower aquifer.
"As far as a customer and their water at this point, no, it's not something they need to worry about immediately," Harris said. But he added that "it's a serious problem that needs to be addressed."
News briefs from California's Central Coast
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
EPA issues water quality guidance for lead and copper
The Lead is no good for our body, but copper is needed in certain extend, however, too much of any metal's are no good for us...
EPA issues water quality guidance for lead and copper
WASHINGTON � In an effort to control safety standards in drinking water, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is issuing a guidance format to help clarify how the collection and management of lead and copper samples is conducted, according to an EPA news release.
"This guidance is the direct result of working with our national drinking water partners to provide clarity on critical elements in implementing our regulations that help safeguard the public's drinking water," Ben Grumbles, acting assistant administrator for water, said in the release. "Early next year, we will determine if the lead rule needs additional guidance or some targeted changes."
Read More...
News
EPA issues water quality guidance for lead and copper
WASHINGTON � In an effort to control safety standards in drinking water, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is issuing a guidance format to help clarify how the collection and management of lead and copper samples is conducted, according to an EPA news release.
"This guidance is the direct result of working with our national drinking water partners to provide clarity on critical elements in implementing our regulations that help safeguard the public's drinking water," Ben Grumbles, acting assistant administrator for water, said in the release. "Early next year, we will determine if the lead rule needs additional guidance or some targeted changes."
Read More...
News
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Sheep Creek Water Co. eyeing L.A. County for relief
This is the kind of help L.A. have to provide as a neighbor....
Sheep Creek Water Co. eyeing L.A. County for relief
Shareholders vote on constructing a 9.5-mile pipeline to relieve drought conditions in Phelan
By LEROY STANDISH/Staff Writer
PHELAN — Sheep Creek Water Co. shareholders voted on Saturday to construct a 9.5-mile-long pipeline to draw water from across the Los Angeles County line.
More than 300 shareholders in the company attended the emergency meeting to discuss the community's water crisis and vote on one of four possible solutions.
Lack of water has forced this small community to initiate a building moratorium since August and has reduced shareholders' draw of water from 4,000 cubic feet of water a share to just 1,000 cubic feet.
"Our main source of water is too dependent on Mother Nature," said David Nilsen, secretary of the water company. "So we need to find a secondary source that we can afford."
After nearly three hours of debate and discussion, shareholders decided it best to initiate phase one of a three-phase project to construct the pipeline to Los Angeles County. Read More....
Sheep Creek Water Co. eyeing L.A. County for relief
Sheep Creek Water Co. eyeing L.A. County for relief
Shareholders vote on constructing a 9.5-mile pipeline to relieve drought conditions in Phelan
By LEROY STANDISH/Staff Writer
PHELAN — Sheep Creek Water Co. shareholders voted on Saturday to construct a 9.5-mile-long pipeline to draw water from across the Los Angeles County line.
More than 300 shareholders in the company attended the emergency meeting to discuss the community's water crisis and vote on one of four possible solutions.
Lack of water has forced this small community to initiate a building moratorium since August and has reduced shareholders' draw of water from 4,000 cubic feet of water a share to just 1,000 cubic feet.
"Our main source of water is too dependent on Mother Nature," said David Nilsen, secretary of the water company. "So we need to find a secondary source that we can afford."
After nearly three hours of debate and discussion, shareholders decided it best to initiate phase one of a three-phase project to construct the pipeline to Los Angeles County. Read More....
Sheep Creek Water Co. eyeing L.A. County for relief
Water Quality Monitoring Target of Fed Funds -- The Times Herald
This is good news for people in St. Clair River - MI.
Water quality monitoring target of federal funds
By CHRIS SEBASTIAN
Times Herald
The federal government’s spending bill approved over the weekend will send more than a half-million dollars to the Blue Water Area for a long-awaited water quality monitoring system on the St. Clair River.
U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Township, on Monday announced that St. Clair and Macomb counties will split $650,000 to develop a system to monitor the river for chemical spills that originate on either side of the international border.
This is the first time the federal government has allotted money for a monitoring system. No such system now exists.
The money will require a 45% match from the two counties, bringing the total amount to about $1.2 million.
The counties are already working on deciding what type of system would best benefit the millions of people who receive their drinking water from the river and Lake St. Clair.
News - The Times Herald - www.thetimesherald.com
Water quality monitoring target of federal funds
By CHRIS SEBASTIAN
Times Herald
The federal government’s spending bill approved over the weekend will send more than a half-million dollars to the Blue Water Area for a long-awaited water quality monitoring system on the St. Clair River.
U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Township, on Monday announced that St. Clair and Macomb counties will split $650,000 to develop a system to monitor the river for chemical spills that originate on either side of the international border.
This is the first time the federal government has allotted money for a monitoring system. No such system now exists.
The money will require a 45% match from the two counties, bringing the total amount to about $1.2 million.
The counties are already working on deciding what type of system would best benefit the millions of people who receive their drinking water from the river and Lake St. Clair.
News - The Times Herald - www.thetimesherald.com
Congress OKs funds for area flood control - The Sacramento Bee
Congress is putting the tax money to the right place...
Congress OKs funds for area flood control
By David Whitney -- Bee Washington Bureau
Published 2:15 am PST Sunday, November 21, 2004
WASHINGTON - Sacramento flood control was at the top of the congressional agenda Saturday as both houses approved a compromise 2005 spending bill that includes more than $54 million for energy and water projects for the Sacramento region.
The Senate passed the measure on a 65-30 vote late Saturday after a 344-51 House vote.
Rep. John Doolittle, R-Roseville, and Sacramento Democratic Rep. Robert Matsui applauded inclusion of the money in the year-end measure.
Matsui said the $24.7 million appropriated for area flood control projects would keep on schedule work by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to add gates to the face of Folsom Dam, and eventually to add seven feet to its top to improve capacity.
"We're very happy with this level of spending, especially given the federal budget constraints," Matsui said. He said the money should be ample to meet the work schedule of the corps for 2005, though it was $3 million less than the House initially approved.
The measure includes $5 million for continued rush work to build a new bridge over the American River below the dam. A road over the dam, used by thousands of commuters, was closed last year because of national security concerns.
Authorization for the work came last year under a deal worked out by Matsui and Doolittle, a member of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee. Read More
Congress OKs funds for area flood control - The Sacramento Bee
Congress OKs funds for area flood control
By David Whitney -- Bee Washington Bureau
Published 2:15 am PST Sunday, November 21, 2004
WASHINGTON - Sacramento flood control was at the top of the congressional agenda Saturday as both houses approved a compromise 2005 spending bill that includes more than $54 million for energy and water projects for the Sacramento region.
The Senate passed the measure on a 65-30 vote late Saturday after a 344-51 House vote.
Rep. John Doolittle, R-Roseville, and Sacramento Democratic Rep. Robert Matsui applauded inclusion of the money in the year-end measure.
Matsui said the $24.7 million appropriated for area flood control projects would keep on schedule work by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to add gates to the face of Folsom Dam, and eventually to add seven feet to its top to improve capacity.
"We're very happy with this level of spending, especially given the federal budget constraints," Matsui said. He said the money should be ample to meet the work schedule of the corps for 2005, though it was $3 million less than the House initially approved.
The measure includes $5 million for continued rush work to build a new bridge over the American River below the dam. A road over the dam, used by thousands of commuters, was closed last year because of national security concerns.
Authorization for the work came last year under a deal worked out by Matsui and Doolittle, a member of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee. Read More
Congress OKs funds for area flood control - The Sacramento Bee
Monday, November 22, 2004
Marlboro - $24.3M and still toxic -- APP.COM -
This is alarming...
$24.3M and still toxic
Published in the Asbury Park Press 11/22/04
SPECIAL REPORT: This is the second part of a three-day series on the Superfund program, examining eight Superfund sites in Monmouth and Ocean counties and cleanup plans that are in most cases not getting the job done despite millions of dollars spent over more than two decades.
By JAMES A. QUIRK
and TODD B. BATES
STAFF WRITERS
MARLBORO -- More than 50 years ago, workers at the chemical refining facility now known as Imperial Oil began to discharge toxic waste oil and other contaminants into the environs at the 15-acre site, creating an ecological horror that poisoned soil and water miles away from the plant.
Today, after 20 years of cleanup work and roughly $24.3 million earmarked or spent, a large amount of that contamination still remains -- directly und Imperial Oil's biggest customer: the U.S. Department of Defense, which has given the company millions of dollars in contracts over the past decade for its oil-blending work.
Since few devices are in place to contain the toxic pollution, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classifies the groundwater contamination at Imperial Oil as not under human control. A 3-foot layer of viscous "free product" -- waste oil -- still floats like a huge lens atop the water table beneath the site.
"They've got to get that under control," said Jessie Arlt, 72, a 44-year Marlboro resident who lives a mile away from Imperial Oil. "There is more and more building going on, and you don't know how that contamination is going to affect people."
The Imperial Oil site is one of four Superfund waste sites in Monmouth and Ocean counties where ground water polluted with toxic chemicals is not under control, even though it's been more than 20 years since the waste was found at the sites. Making matters worse, the EPA's Superfund program has a backlog of sites awaiting cleanup because of a shortfall in federal funding. Read More.....
APP.COM - $24.3M and still toxic
$24.3M and still toxic
Published in the Asbury Park Press 11/22/04
SPECIAL REPORT: This is the second part of a three-day series on the Superfund program, examining eight Superfund sites in Monmouth and Ocean counties and cleanup plans that are in most cases not getting the job done despite millions of dollars spent over more than two decades.
By JAMES A. QUIRK
and TODD B. BATES
STAFF WRITERS
MARLBORO -- More than 50 years ago, workers at the chemical refining facility now known as Imperial Oil began to discharge toxic waste oil and other contaminants into the environs at the 15-acre site, creating an ecological horror that poisoned soil and water miles away from the plant.
Today, after 20 years of cleanup work and roughly $24.3 million earmarked or spent, a large amount of that contamination still remains -- directly und Imperial Oil's biggest customer: the U.S. Department of Defense, which has given the company millions of dollars in contracts over the past decade for its oil-blending work.
Since few devices are in place to contain the toxic pollution, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classifies the groundwater contamination at Imperial Oil as not under human control. A 3-foot layer of viscous "free product" -- waste oil -- still floats like a huge lens atop the water table beneath the site.
"They've got to get that under control," said Jessie Arlt, 72, a 44-year Marlboro resident who lives a mile away from Imperial Oil. "There is more and more building going on, and you don't know how that contamination is going to affect people."
The Imperial Oil site is one of four Superfund waste sites in Monmouth and Ocean counties where ground water polluted with toxic chemicals is not under control, even though it's been more than 20 years since the waste was found at the sites. Making matters worse, the EPA's Superfund program has a backlog of sites awaiting cleanup because of a shortfall in federal funding. Read More.....
APP.COM - $24.3M and still toxic
Source of water contamination eludes agencies - Monterey County Herald | 11/20/2004 |
MTBE is a gasoline additive used since 1990...is found contaminating drinking water supplies across US...
Source of water contamination eludes agencies
By VIRGINIA HENNESSEY
Herald Staff Writer
Contamination of two Salinas water wells has become the center of a perplexing mystery baffling two Central Coast water agencies.
For more than two years, the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board and the California Water Service Co. have been searching for the source of MTBE contamination in two of the company's water wells at Pajaro and Bridge streets in Salinas.
Typically, sources of the carcinogenic gasoline additive are tracked down quickly once the contamination is identified, said John Goni, water resource control engineer for the regional board. But in this case, both Goni and officials at California Water are stumped.
About 50 potential leak sites have been tested in a one-mile radius around the wells. While several MTBE leaks were detected, Goni said, none was significant enough to account for the contamination at the company's wells.
None of the contaminated water was or is being delivered to customers without being treated, he stressed. But somewhere out there, a gasoline storage tank is leaking a significant amount of the suspected cancer-causing agent, and authorities have been unable to find it.
MTBE, or methyl tertiary butyl ether, is a gasoline additive used since 1990 to meet requirements of the federal Clean Air Act. It was outlawed last year after it was found to be contaminating drinking water supplies across the country.
On Friday, the Associated Press reported that hundreds of MTBE-tainted wells had been found in Maryland. In California, serious contamination cases have been reported from Sacramento and South Lake Tahoe to Cambria and Santa Monica.
In addition to fouling the taste of water, the chemical has been shown to cause cancer in laboratory rats at high doses, though the health effects of low levels in humans are unknown.
California Water detected low levels of MTBE in the two wells in early 2002. By June 2003, the levels had jumped from an acceptable but worrisome level of 3.9 parts per billion to 39.9 ppb in one well and 120 ppb in the other. The maximum allowable concentration is 12 ppb in drinking water. Read More....
Monterey County Herald | 11/20/2004 | Source of water contamination eludes agencies
Source of water contamination eludes agencies
By VIRGINIA HENNESSEY
Herald Staff Writer
Contamination of two Salinas water wells has become the center of a perplexing mystery baffling two Central Coast water agencies.
For more than two years, the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board and the California Water Service Co. have been searching for the source of MTBE contamination in two of the company's water wells at Pajaro and Bridge streets in Salinas.
Typically, sources of the carcinogenic gasoline additive are tracked down quickly once the contamination is identified, said John Goni, water resource control engineer for the regional board. But in this case, both Goni and officials at California Water are stumped.
About 50 potential leak sites have been tested in a one-mile radius around the wells. While several MTBE leaks were detected, Goni said, none was significant enough to account for the contamination at the company's wells.
None of the contaminated water was or is being delivered to customers without being treated, he stressed. But somewhere out there, a gasoline storage tank is leaking a significant amount of the suspected cancer-causing agent, and authorities have been unable to find it.
MTBE, or methyl tertiary butyl ether, is a gasoline additive used since 1990 to meet requirements of the federal Clean Air Act. It was outlawed last year after it was found to be contaminating drinking water supplies across the country.
On Friday, the Associated Press reported that hundreds of MTBE-tainted wells had been found in Maryland. In California, serious contamination cases have been reported from Sacramento and South Lake Tahoe to Cambria and Santa Monica.
In addition to fouling the taste of water, the chemical has been shown to cause cancer in laboratory rats at high doses, though the health effects of low levels in humans are unknown.
California Water detected low levels of MTBE in the two wells in early 2002. By June 2003, the levels had jumped from an acceptable but worrisome level of 3.9 parts per billion to 39.9 ppb in one well and 120 ppb in the other. The maximum allowable concentration is 12 ppb in drinking water. Read More....
Monterey County Herald | 11/20/2004 | Source of water contamination eludes agencies
Sydney, other Australian cities could run dry by 2006 - USATODAY.com -
You see The Water issue is concerning almost every countries on earth, these is really a major concern for Australia......
Sydney, other Australian cities could run dry by 2006
By Janaki Kremmer, The Christian Science Monitor
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — In the town of Goulburn, three hours south of Sydney, nightly baths are a thing of the past. Dishes are allowed to pile up. Hoses no longer douse dirty cars and thirsty plants.
The 22,000 people in town haven't suddenly grown slovenly. A change in habits is being forced by a dry spell stretching back to the 1970s that is squeezing much of Australia.
To conserve, dishwashing is done in batches, plants are watered with runoff from showers, and cars are cleaned with gray water from washing machines.
Barring monsoon-like rains, such adjustments will need to happen on a massive scale if Australia's biggest cities — including Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, and Adelaide — hope to continue having drinking water in just two years' time, experts say. (Related: Australia weather and climate)
"Too long we have been living like we might live in Europe and not in accordance with dry climate conditions," says Leigh Martin of the Total Environment Center in Sydney. "Most people who balk at reusing sewage water should be educated about recycling."
Australia is not only the driest inhabited continent on earth, but also the greatest consumer of water per capita, experts say.
Australians use more than 260,000 gallons of fresh water per person per year, or 24,000 gigaliters — that's enough to fill Sydney harbor, 48 times over. About 70% goes to agricultural irrigation, 9% to other rural uses, 9% to industry, and 12% to domestic use.
Read More....
USATODAY.com - Sydney, other Australian cities could run dry by 2006
Sydney, other Australian cities could run dry by 2006
By Janaki Kremmer, The Christian Science Monitor
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — In the town of Goulburn, three hours south of Sydney, nightly baths are a thing of the past. Dishes are allowed to pile up. Hoses no longer douse dirty cars and thirsty plants.
The 22,000 people in town haven't suddenly grown slovenly. A change in habits is being forced by a dry spell stretching back to the 1970s that is squeezing much of Australia.
To conserve, dishwashing is done in batches, plants are watered with runoff from showers, and cars are cleaned with gray water from washing machines.
Barring monsoon-like rains, such adjustments will need to happen on a massive scale if Australia's biggest cities — including Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, and Adelaide — hope to continue having drinking water in just two years' time, experts say. (Related: Australia weather and climate)
"Too long we have been living like we might live in Europe and not in accordance with dry climate conditions," says Leigh Martin of the Total Environment Center in Sydney. "Most people who balk at reusing sewage water should be educated about recycling."
Australia is not only the driest inhabited continent on earth, but also the greatest consumer of water per capita, experts say.
Australians use more than 260,000 gallons of fresh water per person per year, or 24,000 gigaliters — that's enough to fill Sydney harbor, 48 times over. About 70% goes to agricultural irrigation, 9% to other rural uses, 9% to industry, and 12% to domestic use.
Read More....
USATODAY.com - Sydney, other Australian cities could run dry by 2006
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