Monthly Archive for July, 2011

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AT&T fined over San Jose fuel spill

Published on 07/24/2011 in contaminated water, greenwashing, policy, products and wastewater. 0 Comments Tags: guadalupe river.

Photo retrieved from: www.electronlifer.com

“AT&T will pay $40,490 in fines for violating California water pollution and hazardous waste laws after an equipment failure at its San Jose facility caused 1,300 gallons of diesel fuel to spill into the Guadalupe River, officials announced Thursday.

The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said an automatic float valve at the company’s facility on South Almaden Boulevard failed on Oct. 2, leading diesel fuel to spill off the roof and eventually into the street’s storm drain that flowed into the river. Emergency response crews put absorbent booms across the river to prevent the fuel from flowing downstream, and then removed contaminated materials from the water.”

Super-foam Makes Contaminated Water Fit to Drink

Published on 07/23/2011 in contaminated water, tap water and water technology. 0 Comments

Retrieved from: www.myhappyhealthyliving.com

“It started as an experiment to create an absorbent material for the next generation of diapers, but it turned out to be so much more.

Using by-products from the lumber industry and crushed sea shells, a team of scientists at North Carolina State University came up with a foam substance with absorbent properties beyond anything they’d expected.

[Joel Pawlak, Researcher, North Carolina State University]:

“So we started looking at how this product work, how this product work in taking up saline or salt water. And through that process we found out that not only does it take up a whole lot of salt water, it also takes a lot of the salt out of the water. So it is actually sort of a salt sucker.”

The implications are significant.

In countries where fresh drinking water is in short supply, Pawlak says his foam could one day be used to extract salt from sea water before final purification in a desalination plant. This would increase the plant’s efficiency.

Seeing how effective the foam was in extracting salt, Pawlak was curious about what else the foam could do.”

Oklahoma Cattle Ranchers Pray For Rain

Published on 07/21/2011 in agriculture, climate change, drought and water shortage. 0 Comments

Photo retrieved from: www.aljazeera.net

“Extreme heat and drought are spreading across 14 states in the US. From Arizona all the way to Florida, it’s as if the entire South of the country were burning from below, adding pressure to states and towns already struggling to recover from the financial crisis and high unemployment.

We just traveled to Oklahoma, where 40 percent of the State is under exceptional drought. The pain began in October of 2010 and experts expect it to worsen.

Farmers and cattle ranchers are suffering the most in a state that has been hit hard in the past by exceptional waves of dry weather. Most famously in the 1930s, during the so called Dust Bowl, massive dust storms drove 2.5 million people out of America’s Plains states looking for relief out West.

Ted Tripp was a young Oklahoman boy during the Dust Bowl but says he’s never seen the small lake behind his house empty. “I came here when I was six or seven years old – he says – I’m now 88 and this is the first time that it’s been dry.”

What’s In the Water?

Published on 07/21/2011 in contaminated water, management, policy, tap water and waterborne diseases. 0 Comments Tags: safe drinking water act.

Photo retrieved from: www.motherjones.com

“We like to believe that most tap water is safe to drink and that our state and federal regulators are on the job when it comes to ensuring that’s the case. But a new report from the General Accountability Office suggests that a lack of data from the states is causing problems for the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to monitor the quality of drinking water. The GAO found that states failed to report 26 percent of violations of water quality health rules and 84 percent of violations of water quality monitoring rules.

At the behest of Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the government watchdogs at the GAO examined the records of 14 states from 2009, looking for violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act, the 1974 law aimed at protecting public health. The report dinged “inadequate training, staffing, and guidance, and inadequate funding to conduct those activities” for the lapses. The report also included this frightening example of why water quality monitoring is important:”

Congress Challenges Longstanding Clean Water Act

Published on 07/21/2011 in clean water act, hydrology and policy. 0 Comments Tags: EPA.

Photo retrieved from: www.care2.com

“The House of Representatives passed H.R.2018, the Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011, on July 13. [1] The bill lets states decide water quality actions and strips federal efforts in enforcing the Clean Water Act, including the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency EPA.

The Clean Water Act, formally known as The Federal Water Pollution Control Act and an important piece of environmental legislation that has guided the country since 1972, would essentially be dismantled on a national level. Each state would be left in charge of water quality actions and enforcement, which undoubtedly is raising a lot of eyebrows.

The House of Representatives pushed the bill as a way to increase jobs, without the so-called hassle of Washington politics, waiting for permits, and having to conduct countless studies to get local and regional economies kick-started.”

Water pollution and health awareness driving bottled water consumption in China

Published on 07/21/2011 in aquatic ecosystems, bottled water, contaminated water, greenwashing, peak water, products, rivers, tap water, wastewater and waterborne diseases. 0 Comments

Photo retrieved from: www.newsgd.com

“Bottled water plays a major role in solving water pollution problems and providing the public with safe and convenient drinking water. It is one of the fastest growing and competitive industries in China.

The report begins with an overview to the bottled water market in China covering the market size and growth. It also gives a brief introduction to the various bottled water segments widely used in the market. It further shows overall import and export of mineral and aerated water, as well as the segmented share for major countries.

An analysis of the drivers influencing the industry growth includes China’s rampant water pollution, increasing health awareness, poor quality tap water, huge population and increasing disposable income, panic water buying triggered by chemical spills and impact of natural calamities.”

Water Experts Warn of Conflict Over Mekong Dams

Published on 07/21/2011 in dams, hydropower, peak water, policy, rivers and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: Mekong river.

Photo retrieved from: www.voanews.com

“The race for hydropower development among Mekong countries could lead to conflicts or even war over water, regional security experts say.

Hydroelectric projects have begun to spring up across the Mekong River, with some already under way and other already creating tensions between Southeast Asian neighbors.

Experts on water security met in Siem Reap on Friday at a two-day conference of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific in an effort to address upcoming issues surrounding such projects and other water conflict.

“Some water-related conflicts will take place because some farmers or people who used to be living alongside the Mekong River basin, because of the dam construction, they need to be resettled, which means that there are refugees because of the dam construction, and then it will give some kinds of social impacts on particularly poor people and the marginalized,” Seungho Lee, a water expert from Korea University, based in Seoul, said on the sidelines of the conference Friday.”

Exposing the Environmental Risks at Los Alamos National Labs

Published on 07/20/2011 in contaminated water, groundwater, policy and wastewater. 0 Comments Tags: nuclear waste, plutonium.

Photo retrieved from: www.newmexicoindependent.com

“At LANL there are at least 21 million cubic feet of toxic, chemical and radioactive waste buried in unlined pits, trenches, and shafts, on mesa tops, and in the canyons, inside the lab property. During the 2011 Las Conchas Fire, the LANL Director informed the media that large amounts of LANL wastes are buried in unknown locations outside LANL property. Those pits inside and outside LANL are not lined. All that waste is moving towards our groundwater, and that’s why groundwater monitoring is so very important, but their monitoring methods are hiding the detection of contamination.”

Right now one of the great concerns is a 63 acre unlined dump, known as Area G. On the surface of Area G, there are an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 drums (each drum is 55 gallons) with plutonium–contaminated waste sitting three high inside fabric tents. If you think that is bad news, consider this. Underneath all those drums are enormous pits where LANL dumped waste starting in the late 50’s. Take a look at the Area G open pit photos here, and imagine it being filled with toxic and radioactive waste, and covered with soil. And also know that LANL has no detailed inventory of all that subsurface waste.”

North India Hydro Boom Leaves Communities High and Dry

Published on 07/19/2011 in dams, deforestation, hydropower, peak water, policy, privatization, rivers and species extinction. 0 Comments Tags: Parbati River, Sutlej River.

Forests destroyed by illegal debris dumping for Tidong I project. Retrieved from: www.internationalrivers.org

“Rivers and streams are being diverted from one valley into another, with serious impacts. The 800 MW Parbati-II Hydroelectric Project is one such example. The Parbati River is just one of a number of rivers and streams being diverted through a long tunnel from the Parbati valley into the Sainj valley. A part of the Great Himalayan National Park was de-listed to permit the project to go forward, despite the fact that the area was a prime nesting site for the rare Western Tragopan bird, for the conservation of which the park has been set up. Another project will devastate a local apple-growing community by drying up about 35 of their water springs.

Projects are being built and proposed at higher and higher altitudes and closer and closer to the snowline (and the Chinese border). The Kashang projects start around 3,000 m. (10,000 feet). If one is to go by the ecological devastation caused by projects at lower altitudes, the prospect of what will happen to the fragile Alpine ecosystem is frightening. Himanshu Thakkar, Coordinator of SANDRP, says that the projects will change the microclimate which will result in accelerated melting of the snow and glaciers. The strategic implications of having these projects so close to the border with China are not being discussed in the public domain.

Cascade dams do not leave any stretch of the river flowing free. Sutlej River originates from Lake Rakshastal in China. It enters India in Kinnaur District of the State. Within 7 kms (4.3 miles) of entering India it flows from one tunnel into another. All these projects are so-called run-of-river projects. It is funny (in a sad way) how these projects are proposed. It is said that the powerhouse of the proposed 261 MW Yangthang-Khab project will be submerged in the reservoir of the proposed 1020 MW Khab-Shaso project. Both project proponents are in a race to acquire all permissions and sanctions before the other to win the battle of the duelling dams.”

Seville pot farms linked to water woes

Published on 07/18/2011 in uncategorized and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: medical marijuana, peakwater, pot farms, seville, Water, water shortage.

Retrieved from: tobacco news

Seville’s 400 residents have lived years with tainted drinking water from their only well, but they say there is a new problem in town — water-hogging marijuana gardens.

The outdoor gardens planted in the last year are taking so much of the town’s water that it sometimes takes 45 minutes to fill the kitchen sink for dish washing, they say.

The marijuana gardens are the latest in a long run of water issues for this farmworker town.
But it appears little can be done to fix the problem in this Tulare County community north of Visalia.

Law enforcement authorities say the gardens are legal because the marijuana is for medicinal use, as allowed by state law. Sheriff’s deputies can take immediate action only if they see criminal activity, such as sales.

“These pot gardens are the talk of the town,” says resident Rebecca Quintana. “We already have problems, but the water pressure has really dropped. And we’re worried about our children.”