Monthly Archive for October, 2011

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Bangkok Becomes Medieval-Style Fortress Against Deadly Flood

Published on 10/21/2011 in contaminated water, floods, management, policy, rivers, wastewater and water diversions. 0 Comments

Retrieved from: www.bangkokpost.com

“Floods have smothered much of Thailand, killing at least 317 people and prompting Bangkok to surround itself with makeshift walls, leaving those outside the perimeter to suffer from diverted water, reminiscent of medieval times when people dug moats and sealed off their fortress cities against plague, war and other calamities.

“We have been doing everything we can, but this is a big national crisis,” Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said.

“I’m begging for mercy from the media here,” she said, after heavy criticism for her poorly coordinated response to the floods.

Bangkok is now a virtual island under siege from a relentless flow of brown water, strewn with garbage and chemicals, after three months of widespread monsoon rains and increasingly swollen rivers, all flushing alongside the capital and draining into the nearby Gulf of Thailand.

Many U.S. and other foreign companies — which were lured to this tropical Southeast Asian country to profit from workers’ low wages and other cheap costs — have found their modern factories and warehouses devastated because they are located outside Bangkok’s survival-of-the-fittest flood walls.

Distraught investors watched in dismay as swirling liquid drowned several sprawling, investor-friendly, low-lying “industrial parks” after breaching insufficient barriers.

The worst-affected industrial zones are 50 miles north of Bangkok where three rivers converge at Ayutthaya, which was founded in 1350 and became an opulent capital before it was abandoned in 1767 because elephant-riding troops from Burma invaded and destroyed it.

Multinationals which suspended or slowed operations due to the floods in Ayutthaya included Canon, Ford, Honda, Isuzu, Nikon, Seagate Technology, Sony, Toyota and Western Digital.”

Emanuel Ends Cheap Water’s Drain on Chicago Budget as Pipes Pop

Published on 10/20/2011 in management, policy and tap water. 0 Comments Tags: aging water infrastructure, chicago water rates, peak water, price of water, water infrastructure, water news, water rates.

Retrieved from: thewip.net

“Kenneth Coleman lives 2 1/2 blocks from Lake Michigan, one of the world’s largest, and struggles to understand why his water bill would more than double in the next four years.

“Chicago’s proposed rate increase, the centerpiece of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s push to create jobs while fixing a century-old utility, would end the long tradition of cheap water in the third-largest U.S. city. And it would force Coleman to pay up.

“I don’t like it, but there’s nothing I can do about it,” said Coleman, 49, a radiation therapist. “I see it irritating residents of Chicago, me included.”

“The water-rate increase amounts to an average of $120 per year, Emanuel said. Experts believe many residents have been spoiled.

“Chicago people are not paying for water,” said Robert Glennon, a professor at the University of Arizona law school and author of “Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What to do About It.”

“We have to look at the component of the water bill,” he said. “There is no commodity charge for water; the water is free. People really are paying for the system and all of the infrastructure concerns.”

“Some Chicago residents, like Jolly Campbell, 62, a registered nurse, said she can handle the increase. “He’s doing what he needs to do,” Campbell said of Emanuel.

Glennon said outrage over more expensive water is understandable because many Americans “think of it as air. However, air is inexhaustible, water is not.”

Wash. rules to spell out strategies to curb runoff

Published on 10/19/2011 in contaminated water, groundwater, hydrology, management, policy, rainwater harvesting, rivers, solutions and outreach and water filtering. 0 Comments Tags: rain gardens, storm runoff.

A "rain garden" is shown in a residential area of Puyallup, Wash., Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2011. Puyallup has installed more than 50 rain gardens to soak up rain and stormwater runoff as a strategy to keep rainwater from washing pollutants into rivers and Puget Sound. Retrieved from: www.seattlepi.com

“SEATTLE (AP) — The city of Puyallup has installed dozens of neighborhood rain gardens to prevent rain from washing pollutants into nearby waterways. Mount Vernon used a type of asphalt that allows rainwater to seep into the ground when it built a new walkway. And Seattle has used roofs planted with vegetation to reduce runoff.

Washington cities and counties have occasionally turned to eco-friendly strategies to keep rain from carrying grease, metals and other toxic pollutants into rivers, lakes and Puget Sound. But low-impact methods, such as using vegetation and cisterns to slow runoff, may soon be a requirement every time someone builds a new development or redevelops property in Western Washington.

State environmental regulators released draft rules Wednesday that spell out exactly how governments should incorporate the strategies to control polluted runoff that can harm fish and water quality.

The draft rules attempt to strike a balance between tackling stormwater pollution while recognizing that local governments are strapped for resources, Ecology Director Ted Sturdevant said Wednesday.

The state was ordered to consider greener strategies by the state Pollution Control Hearings Board after environmentalists sued. The board mandated low-impact methods for the most populous areas in Western Washington. The board also said the state needed to do more to ensure low-impact methods were used in smaller cities in the region.”

Hydro-control turning China into dreaded hydra?

Published on 10/18/2011 in dams, hydropower, policy, rivers, tap water and water wars. 1 Comment Tags: Mekong river.

The Mekong River, whose water level last March dropped to only 33 centimetres, the lowest in 50 years. People living downriver in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia attributed the fall in water level to newly constructed dams in China. Retrieved from: www.bangkokpost.com

“Asia’s water map fundamentally changed after the 1949 Communist victory in China. Most of Asia’s important international rivers originate in territories that were forcibly annexed to the People’s Republic of China. The Tibetan Plateau, for example, is the world’s largest freshwater repository and the source of Asia’s greatest rivers, including those that are the lifeblood for mainland China and South and Southeast Asia. Other such Chinese territories contain the headwaters of rivers like the Irtysh, Illy and Amur, which flow to Russia and Central Asia.

This makes China the source of cross-border water flows to the largest number of countries in the world. Yet China rejects the very notion of water sharing or institutionalised cooperation with downriver countries. Whereas riparian neighbours in Southeast and South Asia are bound by water pacts that they have negotiated between themselves, China does not have a single water treaty with any co-riparian country. Indeed, having its cake and eating it, China is a dialogue partner but not a member of the Mekong River Commission, underscoring its intent not to abide by the Mekong basin community’s rules or take on any legal obligations.

Worse, while promoting multilateralism on the world stage, China has given the cold shoulder to multilateral cooperation among river-basin states. The lower-Mekong countries, for example, view China’s strategy as an attempt to “divide and conquer”. Although China publicly favours bilateral initiatives over multilateral institutions in addressing water issues, it has not shown any real enthusiasm for meaningful bilateral action. As a result, water has increasingly become a new political divide in the country’s relations with neighbours like India, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Nepal.

China deflects attention from its refusal to share water, or to enter into institutionalised cooperation to manage common rivers sustainably, by flaunting the accords that it has signed on sharing flow statistics with riparian neighbours. These are not agreements to cooperate on shared resources, but rather commercial accords to sell hydrological data that other upstream countries provide free to downriver states.”

Fracking Issue Heating Up Here

Published on 10/18/2011 in contaminated water, fracking, lakes, policy, rivers, wastewater and water rights. 0 Comments Tags: Great Lakes, niagara river.

Photo retrieved from: www.canadians.org

“The Council of Canadians, a prestigious public advocacy group that has 12 chapters and tens of thousands of members in and around the Great Lakes, and has served as adviser to the United Nations, sent a Sept. 22 letter to Water Board commissioners Ted Janese, Thomas Vitello, Nicholas Marchellos, Peter Sinclair and Michael McNally, which stated the following:

“The treatment of fracking fluids in Niagara Falls’ wastewater treatment system would put the Niagara River as well as the Great Lakes at risk as it is one integrated watershed. The Great Lakes, specifically, and water, in general, are part of the global commons (a shared entity) and are a public trust. … The Great Lakes hold nearly 20 percent of the world’s freshwater and 95 percent of North America’s freshwater. They provide drinking water to 40 million people in surrounding areas. Last year the U.N. passed two resolutions recognizing water as a human right and this proposal to treat fracking fluids threatens people’s human right to safe and clean drinking water.”

The letter goes on to criticize NFWB Executive Director Paul Drof, who shrugs his shoulders and passes the buck to the state Department of Environmental Conservation when it comes to setting limits on the amounts of the 750 fracking additives — dozens of which are known carcinogens — and radioactive substances flushed up from deep rock layers that may be blended into our drinking water supply.”

Water additive chloramine causes controversy

Published on 10/17/2011 in clean water act, contaminated water, groundwater, policy, tap water and waterborne diseases. 0 Comments Tags: chloramine in water, EPA.

Photo retrieved from: www.freshwatersystems.com

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says chloramine has been used by water utilities for nearly 90 years, and 1 in 5 Americans uses drinking water treated with chloramine. The agency says its use is closely regulated, and it can reduce haloacetic acids in drinking water. Haloacetic acids are a cancer risk.

Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Joseph Ferson said just less than half the state’s population, 2.9 million of 6.5 million people, uses public water supplies disinfected by chloramines, most notably the 30 communities served by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. In addition 160,000 private and unregulated wells use chloramine to disinfect drinking water, said Mr. Ferson, who estimated this represents another 480,000 residents, or three people per well.

Worcester’s water supply does not use it, he said.

On Aug. 11, Southbridge was authorized by the state Department of Environmental Protection to use chloramine as of Sept. 28.

The change comes at the urging of the EPA, which has regulations taking effect in 2013 to reduce the levels of total trihalomethanes, or TTHM, the organic chlorine residualcq, to an average of 80 parts per billion throughout a water system.

The regulation is part of the amended federal Safe Drinking Water Act; TTHM can result in damage to the liver, kidney or central nervous system and carries increased risks of cancer, the government says. ”

China Invests Billions To Avert Water Crisis

Published on 10/16/2011 in agriculture, contaminated water, drought, hydropower, peak water, policy, rivers and water diversions. 0 Comments Tags: china's water supplies, economic growth, three gorges dam.

Retrieved from: www.google.com

“The vice minister of water resources said China’s unbridled economic growth had left up to 40 percent of its rivers badly polluted and the country faced “huge pressures” on supplies of water.

“Industrialisation and urbanisation, including ensuring grain and food security, are exerting higher demands on water supplies… while our water use remains crude and wasteful,” Jiao Yong said at a press briefing.

Over 46,000 reservoirs in China need to be rebuilt or reinforced to ensure that surrounding farmlands and communities are safe from flooding and have enough water for irrigation, he said.

More funding would also be needed to protect the reservoir of the $22.5 billion Three Gorges Dam — the world’s largest — from geological disasters and pollution, he said.

The government has long held up the world’s largest hydroelectric project as a symbol of its engineering prowess.

But the dam has created a reservoir stretching up to 600 kilometres (370 miles) through a region criss-crossed by geological faultlines and critics fear seismic disturbances such as a huge earthquake could cause a catastrophe.”

Water Wars Back On Legislative Agenda

Published on 10/16/2011 in desalination, groundwater, policy and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: florida's water supply.

Retrieved from: www.gainsville.com

“The water wars are back, but now Jacksonville is in the crosshairs of lawmakers aiming to protect the groundwater of North Central Florida.

Members of Alachua County’s legislative delegation said Wednesday that the region’s groundwater levels are declining because of water use in the Jacksonville area. State Rep. Elizabeth Porter, R-Lake City, said the Jacksonville-based utility JEA is contributing to the problem with a new permit allowing millions of gallons of water to be pumped each day to cool equipment.”

“Always in the past we’ve assumed that when someone came to get our water here in the center of the state that it would be South Florida, it would be Tampa, it would be Miami,” she said. “Be what we are now finding is that in actuality our water is shifting to the east. It’s shifting to Duval County and St. Johns County.”

Mexico’s newest export to US may be water

Published on 10/16/2011 in desalination, peak water, privatization, uncategorized and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: México, peakwater, U.S. water districts, USA imports, Water.

Retrieved from: AP

“Mexico ships televisions, cars, sugar and medical equipment to the United States. Soon, it may be sending water north.

“Western states are looking south of the border for water to fill drinking glasses, flush toilets and sprinkle lawns, as four major U.S. water districts help plan one of two huge desalination plant proposals in Playas de Rosarito, about 15 miles south of San Diego. Combined, they would produce 150 million gallons a day, enough to supply more than 300,000 homes on both sides of the border.

“The plants are one strategy by both countries to wean themselves from the drought-prone Colorado River, which flows 1,450 miles from the Rocky Mountains to the Sea of Cortez. Decades of friction over the Colorado, in fact, are said to be a hurdle to current desalination negotiations.

“The proposed plants have also sparked concerns that American water interests looking to Mexico are simply trying to dodge U.S. environmental reviews and legal challenges.

“Desalination plants can blight coastal landscapes, sucking in and killing fish eggs and larvae. They require massive amounts of electricity and dump millions of gallons of brine back into the ocean that can, if not properly disposed, also be harmful to fish.

“But desalination has helped quench demand in Australia, Saudi Arabia and other countries lacking fresh water.

“Dozens of proposals are on the drawing board in the United States to address water scarcity but the only big project to recently win regulators’ blessings would produce 50 million gallons a day in Carlsbad, near San Diego. A smaller plant was approved last year in Monterey, some 110 miles south of San Francisco.”

Water pipeline project slated for (San Francisco) East Bay

Published on 10/15/2011 in management, solutions and outreach and tap water. 0 Comments Tags: berkeley water projects, easy bay water infrastructure, EBMUD water pipes, el cerrito water projects, peak water, pinole water projects, Richmond water projects, san francisco water projects, San Pablo water projects, water news.

Retrieved from: Neogov.com

“Beginning in 2015 residents from several towns, including El Cerrito, Richmond, San Pablo, Berkeley and Pinole, will see the beginning of a long-term water pipeline replacement project.

“The East Bay Municipal Utility District plans to upgrade pipes in an eight-plus mile stretch in four phases, the first beginning in 2015 and continuing for a decade.

“The utility has dubbed the project West of Hills Northern Pipelines Project. Current cost projections come to $42 million. The project will improve operations, enhance system reliability, maintain water quality and meet projected water demands through 2040.

Charles Hardy of EBMUD said the size of the project makes it important for the utility to get the word out early and that neighborhood meetings will be scheduled for the public to review the plans. Hardy said the project will not affect customers e continuing to get their water supplies, but that it will entail digging up roads in residential neighborhoods. November and December meetings will be slated in Berkeley, El Cerrito and Richmond.

“He said some of the utilities’ pipes are more than 100 years old and that when the water utility district formed in 1923 there were several areas where pipelines already existed from previous water agencies.

“Whether or not this project would cause rates to rise, I don’t know,” Hardy said. “I don’t know how much water we’ll sell in the future or other circumstances that effect rates.”

“The utility’s website contains maps of the work to be done. To view them go to www.ebmud.com/about-ebmud/news/project-updates/west-hills-northern-pipelines-project.”