Archive for the 'water filtering' Category

Valley water agencies look at farming contamination

Published on 05/05/2012 in agriculture, bottled water, contaminated water, groundwater and water filtering. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Retrieved from: carbon-based-ghg.blogspot.com

“California failed to protect the San Joaquin Valley from fertilizer, dairy and septic contamination now threatening drinking water from thousands of wells, says the leader of the responsible state agency.

“But Pamela Creedon, executive officer of the Central Valley Regional Water Control Board, says her agency is working on ways to make up for the past.

” ‘We have more than 50% of our resources focused in groundwater programs, and we’re expanding our efforts,’ said Creedon.

“Creedon spoke in Clovis on Thursday after a University of California at Davis researcher described his study on the Valley’s vast water contamination from nitrates, which he linked mostly to farm fertilizing and dairy practices in the past.

“The study says the problem coming from millions of farming acres is getting worse. It suggests many changes, including added fertilizer fees to raise money for water cleanups in many communities. Most rural Valley towns are completely dependent on wells for tap water.

“Many people in small Tulare County towns and other places in the Valley buy bottled water, fearing the nitrate-laced water from their taps will harm their children.”

Read More: Chicago Tribune

Chippie Kislik

Could the Erin Brockovich Chemical Be in Your Water?

Published on 04/28/2012 in clean water act, contaminated water and water filtering. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

polluted-water-iStock-640x480_20120427143117_JPG

“If you’ve seen the movie Erin Brockovich, you’re likely familiar with hexavalent chromium. Also known as chromium-6, hexavalent chromium is a chemical that comes from chromium, a naturally occurring metal used for things like steel manufacturing and leather tanning.

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has classified chromium-6 as a likely carcinogen. Many experts believe the chemical can do serious damage if it is ingested.

“Dr. Sutton recently led a study of chromium-6 in U.S. public water supplies. EWG tested 35 cities across America and found the chemical in 31 of them. EWG conducted the study because, more than a decade after Erin Brockovich, the EPA only requires utilities to test for total chromium, not chromium-6. Earlier this month, the EPA delayed adopting a drinking water standard for chromium-6 until it completes an additional study.

“The lawsuit on which Erin Brockovich was based was settled in 1996, with Pacific Gas and Electric paying out $333 million to residents of Hinkley, California, many of whom claimed groundwater contaminated with chromium-6 gave them cancer.”

Read More: abc

Chippie Kislik

Fight not over for chlorine-free water

Published on 04/15/2012 in contaminated water, hydrology, management, tap water and water filtering. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

“For decades, Busselton has been the only major city in Australia to drink chemical-free water but yesterday that changed when the Water Board began the process of phasing in chlorine.

Busselton's water treatment

“The board says the decision was made to protect residents from harmful bacteria but local resident Margaret Farquharson says it is an archaic method which has been overtaken internationally by safer water management strategies.

” ‘We really intend to continue fighting because we feel that chlorine is not the best method of disinfecting our water,’ she said.

” ‘Busselton Water’s had little units built to house the chlorine disinfection process and they can simply remove the chlorine stuff and put in the other one.’”

Read More: ABC News

Chippie Kislik

India’s Water Desalination Business to Triple to $1.2 Billion

Published on 02/25/2012 in desalination, water conservation, water filtering, water shortage, water technology and world water supply. 0 Comments

 

Retrieved from: Blog.cifor.org

“India’s water desalination business is set to triple to $1.2 billion by 2017 as rising demand from industry spurs the South Asian country to build more purification plants, according to a research report.

“The number of units that process sea water in India will reach 500 in five years from 180 now, with more than 300 plants being built in the states of Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Saudi Arabia leads the global desalination market worth $14.3 billion, according to Karan Chechi, TechSci’s research director.

“More than 85 percent of India’s villages and half of its cities rely on wells for water in the country where farming accounts for 90 percent of total water withdrawals. Checki said, ‘Improved hybrid technologies and reverse osmosis have cut production costs and initial investment in water desalination industry compared with traditional methods.’ ”

Read more: Bloomberg Businessweek

Chippie Kislik

Reclaimed Wastewater for Drinking: Safe but Still a Tough Sell

Published on 02/07/2012 in contaminated water, peak water, solutions and outreach, tap water, wastewater, water conservation and water filtering. 0 Comments

Photo retrieved from: www.nationalgeographic.com

“Water filtration technology has advanced to the point where wastewater can be rendered safe for drinking, according to a new report, but legislative and psychological hurdles will need to be overcome before widespread adoption can happen.

“Expanding water reuse could significantly increase the nation’s water resource, particularly in coastal communities,” said Rhodes Trussell, president of Trussell Technologies in Pasadena, California, and chair of the committee that wrote the report.

Treated wastewater, also known as reclaimed water, is commonly used for irrigation and industry. And many towns already rely on reused water simply because they draw water downstream from other municipalities’ wastewater release pipes.

“De facto reuse takes place throughout the country,” Trussell said.

But getting the public to knowingly drink treated wastewater has been a tough sell.”

Read more: National Geographic

 

lily victoria

Giving an invasive water pest the bullet

Published on 02/03/2012 in invasive species, policy, water filtering and water technology. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

David Aldridge and a handful of zebra mussels

Photo retrieved from: BBC News

“An invasive species, the zebra mussel clogs up water works and systems across the UK, costing millions of pounds each year to remove.

“With each female zebra mussel able to produce up to a million eggs per year, serious infestations can quickly form.

“Thankfully a Cambridge-based company called Biobullets has come up with a much easier – and cheaper – means of removing them. A method that owes much to the ancient Greeks and their Trojan horse.

“The toxin in question, potassium chloride, is safe to use in the water supply system as anything that is not eaten by the zebra mussels degrades in less than three hours.”

Read more: BBC News

Sami Oueida

Chronic violators of water testing

Published on 12/03/2011 in contaminated water, management and water filtering. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Retrieved from: sedalia newsj

“The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has identified 23 drinking water systems in Missouri that have chronically failed to complete drinking water testing required by the department to ensure a safe water supply.

“The systems listed have at least three major monitoring violations in a 12-month period, with the most recent violations occurring in the third quarter of 2011. While failing to monitor does not necessarily mean the water is unsafe, routine testing by a facility is a crucial part of maintaining a safe water supply.

“The department requires all public water systems to test for bacteria at least once a month to verify these systems are providing safe drinking water to the public.  The vast majority of community and non-community public water systems in Missouri complies with all monitoring requirements and meets all drinking water standards.  Chronic violators are the exception rather than the rule. This current list of 23 systems represents less than one percent of the approximately 2,800 public drinking water systems in Missouri.

“Bacteriological testing can be the first step in identifying and correcting a problem. The next step is to investigate the cause of any bad samples and perform corrective action, such as disinfecting and flushing the system. When a public water system has a record of both failing to monitor and a history of exceeding contaminant levels, this may raise concerns about the unknown quality of the drinking water.”

Read more: lead journal

sammykayed

The best wastewater treatment plants can’t filter out superbug fragments

Published on 11/25/2011 in contaminated water, tap water, wastewater, water filtering and water technology. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

The best wastewater treatment plants can't filter out superbug fragments

Retrieved from: MedicalXpress

“The implications are unclear — researchers did not look for whole living , just for dead fragments of their  — but experts are concerned. Superbugs have developed resistance to almost every kind of antibiotic. They are building resistance faster than science can create . Many of them are deadly.

“Timothy LaPara and a team of researchers at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities, testing water pouring from a modern water treatment facility in Duluth, found genes of  in the discharge. Most American cities do not have facilities as good as Duluth’s, but no one knows for sure how much worse the situation may be at those facilities because it has not been measured.

“This is not a trivial thing to miss,” said Ellen Silbergeld, professor and editor-in-chief of Environmental Research at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Silbergeld said LaPara shows the situation is more troubling than many had thought.

“The best-known superbug is MRSA, , which even has been found in the locker room of a  team but usually picked up in hospitals. It is sometimes defeated by massive doses of multiple , but not always.

“A new superbug, Clostridium difficile, which can cause a fatal colon inflammation, now is on the rise. Two antibiotics work for that bug most — but not all — of the time. A quarter of patients relapse and some will die.”

Read more: MedicalXpress

 

chrismorrow

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: , .

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.”

Read more: seattle pi

 

lily victoria

Desalination: Little Oversight of California Water Boards

Published on 09/23/2011 in desalination, groundwater, management, oceans, policy, privatization and water filtering. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Indide Doheny Beach pilot desal plant. Retrieved from: DC Bureau

“Dana Point, California –When it comes to pushing for energy-intensive ocean desalination projects along the coast of California, the motivation of some water board members is being questioned.

“The wife of the pro-desalination chairman of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a consultant to the Orange County water district, and she helped permit the Doheny Beach pilot desalination plant. She is also vocal in encouraging CalDesal, a nonprofit pro-desalination lobbying group supported by public water agencies.

“I think there’s a problem there,” says Debbie Cook, a former Huntington Beach City Council member who has been looking for conflicts of interest among the region’s often overlooked water boards.

“Kevin Hunt, district manager, says the fact Foley’s wife, Mary Jane, is paid by the district does not violate any law or regulation because Foley is not a board member, but rather an appointed representative to the regional water board.

“Reached during a tour of the Doheny Beach desalination pilot project, Foley denies that his wife’s involvement with desalination poses any conflict. “She believes in desal,” Foley, a retired Army colonel, says. “That’s the fundamental problem.”

“Asked about his own position on desalination, Foley says he is in complete support.

“But we have a difficult time with a lot of opposition that’s not really sustainable,” Foley says. “It will fade as we develop more need. Unfortunately, we have an abundance of water right now. In the long run we’re going to need desalination. We’ve probably pushed conservation as far as we can, quite frankly. Any more money poured into it is not going to return that much.”

Read more: DC Bureau

chrismorrow