Monthly Archive for May, 2010

Page 2 of 5

Lake in Pakistan begins to overflow

Published on 05/29/2010 in floods and rivers. 0 Comments

“A lake in northern Pakistan formed when landslides blocked a river four months ago has begun to overflow, Al Jazeera’s correspondent says.

“Levels are now critical and it is feared that the spillage on Saturday could weaken the wall of rocks and earth preventing it from engulfing dozens of villages.

“Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from the town of Gilgit, 100km downstream from Hunza lake, said thousands of villagers from the area have been forced to move to higher ground.

“The armed forces started an emergency helicopter service on Thursday to evacuate some villages amid fears a potential burst could affect about 50,000 people downstream and sever a road serving as an important trade link with China.”

The killing season

Published on 05/29/2010 in contaminated water and waterborne diseases. 0 Comments

“Malaria is a global problem. As much as half the world’s population is at risk of catching the mosquito-born disease; it infects more than 500 million people a year and kills more than one million.

“Uganda has one of the highest malaria mortality rates in the world, with around 120,000 people dying every year, almost all of them needlessly.

“Why are so many people still dying despite all the apparent efforts of governments, NGOs and public health experts to distribute nets and drugs?

“Filmmaker Mark Honigsbaum went to Uganda looking for answers and uncovered a troubling story of corruption and neglect that may undermine Africa’s – and the world’s – best defence against the disease.”

How California’s Oil and Water Policies Are Bankrupting Higher Education

Published on 05/29/2010 in uncategorized. 0 Comments

“California oil and water policies reap windfall profits for banking institutions, land developers and agribusiness, but are undermining the state’s higher education plan.

“Oil and water don’t usually mix — except in California politics. Over the last couple of decades, interests representing offshore oil extraction and inland water infrastructure have teamed up, using their muscle to de-fund a once-famous system of public higher education.

“On the gubernatorial watches of governors Edmund “Pat” Brown, Sr., a Democrat (1959-1967), and Ronald W. Reagan, a Republican (1967-1975), a bipartisan siphoning of tax dollars earmarked initially for higher education began to flow to the State Water Project (SWP), one of the largest water and power systems in the world. It conveys an average annual 2.4 million acre-feet of water in California through its 17 pumping plants, eight hydroelectric power plants, three pumping-generating plants, 29 dams and reservoirs, and about 675 miles of aqueducts and pipelines.”

Quality of Water from Public-Supply Wells in the United States

Published on 05/28/2010 in contaminated water and groundwater. 0 Comments

“About 105 million people—more than one-third of the Nation’s population—receive their drinking water from one of the 140,000 public water systems across the United States that use groundwater as their source.

“Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) assessed water-quality conditions in source (untreated) groundwater from 932 public wells, and in source and finished (treated) water from a subset of 94 wells. A greater number of chemical contaminants (as many as 337), both naturally occurring and man-made, were assessed in this study than in any previous national study of public wells.

“The objectives of this study were to evaluate (1) the occurrence of contaminants in source water from public wells and their potential significance to human health, (2) whether contaminants that occur in source water also occur in finished water after treatment, and (3) the occurrence and characteristics of contaminant mixtures.”

Scientists Offer Solutions to Arsenic Groundwater Poisoning in Southern Asia

Published on 05/28/2010 in contaminated water, groundwater and water technology. 0 Comments

“An estimated 60 million people in Bangladesh are exposed to unsafe levels of arsenic in their drinking water, dramatically raising their risk for cancer and other serious diseases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

“Because most of the contaminated water is near the surface, many people in Bangladesh have installed deep wells to tap into groundwater that’s relatively free of arsenic.

“In recent years, farmers have begun using the deep, uncontaminated aquifers for irrigation — a practice that could compromise access to clean drinking water across the country, according to a report in the May 27 issue of journal Science.

“The report is co-authored by groundwater experts Scott Fendorf (Stanford University), Holly A. Michael (University of Delaware) and Alexander van Geen (Columbia University).”

Water officials address conservation concerns in public panel

Published on 05/28/2010 in desalination. 0 Comments

Desalination Plant in Carlsbad, CA, Retrieved from: treehugger.com

“City, county and Soquel Creek water district officials addressed growing concerns Thursday that conservation alone won’t be enough to prepare for a major drought.

“This is a supply problem not a demand problem,” said Toby Goddard, Santa Cruz water conservation manager.

“In a packed room of more than 50 people at the Simpkins Swim Center Thursday night, Goddard reviewed tables and charts of average water use for the city over the past 20 years.

“In that time span he said, “our annual water consumption went from about 4 billion gallons to 3.5 billion.”

“With the demand remaining at a relatively steady amount, the primary problem is that there is a lack of adequate water supply during a drought, he said.

“The city, which serves 95,000 to 100,000 customers, receives nearly 90 percent of its water supply from surface water, Goddard said. To address the challenge of balancing supplies for all of the customers, Goddard said two things need to happen: Demand needs to be reduced through conservation and supply needs to be increased.”

No Asian carp found in latest fish kill

Published on 05/27/2010 in rivers. 0 Comments

Asian Carp, Retrieved from mlive.com

“Six days. One hundred thousand pounds of dead fish. No Asian carp.

“Now what?

“Biologists wrapped up another exhaustive search for Asian carp in Chicago’s waterways Tuesday, an orchestrated massive fish kill designed to test the validity of DNA results that had indicated the presence of the fish in the Calumet-Sag Channel.

“Failing to find even a single Asian carp was good news for those who feared the aggressive invasive species was within striking distance of Lake Michigan. But the results further complicate an already divisive political issue and raise new questions about what may have triggered positive DNA samples in the first place.”

Lompico water district could merge with SLV water

Published on 05/27/2010 in uncategorized. 0 Comments

“The leaders of Lompico’s beleaguered water district have asked San Lorenzo Valley Water District to look into taking over the small agency’s operations permanently.

“We were approached by the board of directors of Lompico County Water District to examine possible alternatives for Lompico County Water District,” said Jim Mueller, director of San Lorenzo Valley Water District. “We’re in the process of looking at those alternatives right now.”

“Mueller said he does not know when his water district might begin working with Lompico, saying that decision is up to the smaller agency’s board of directors. Instead, he said, he was asked to explore either contracting operations of the Lompico district or assuming it as part of the greater valley district, in which case the Lompico agency would dissolve.”

Discovery May Lead to Safer Drinking Water, Cheaper Medicine

Published on 05/27/2010 in uncategorized. 0 Comments

“A discovery that may pave the way to helping reduce health hazards such as E. coli in water could also make chemicals and drugs such as insulin cheaper to produce and their production more environmentally friendly.

“By creating a three-dimensional model, Queen’s University biochemistry professor Zongchao Jia and post-doctoral student Jimin Zheng discovered exactly how the AceK protein acts as a switch in some bacteria to bypass the energy-producing cycle that allows bacteria like E. coli and salmonella to go into a survival mode and adapt to low-nutrient environments, such as water.

“The unique feature of this discovery is that the switching on and off take place in the same location of the protein. Normally these two opposing activities would happen in two different ‘active sites’.”

Household Detergents, Shampoos May Form Harmful Substance in Wastewater

Published on 05/27/2010 in contaminated water and wastewater. 0 Comments

“Scientists are reporting evidence that certain ingredients in shampoo, detergents and other household cleaning agents may be a source of precursor materials for formation of a suspected cancer-causing contaminant in water supplies that receive water from sewage treatment plants. The study sheds new light on possible environmental sources of this poorly understood water contaminant, called NDMA, which is of ongoing concern to health officials.

“Their study is in the American Chemical Society’s Environmental Science & Technology, a semi-monthly journal.

“William Mitch and colleagues note that scientists have known that NDMA and other nitrosamines can form in small amounts during the disinfection of wastewater and water with chloramine. Although nitrosamines are found in a wide variety of sources — including processed meats and tobacco smoke — scientists know little about their precursors in water. Past studies with cosmetics have found that substances called quaternary amines, which are also ingredients in household cleaning agents, may play a role in the formation of nitrosamines.”