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Saturday, July 19 and Sunday, July 20, 2008
Colorado's $3 billion water expansion builds worries for some
Nearly $3 billion of ambitious new water projects along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains are in various stages of launching - from completing a lengthy federal permitting process to actually breaking ground. The pending boom includes seven new or expanded reservoirs and at least one major pipeline. Barely recovered from the 2002 drought and with projected shortages looming, the water districts and cities involved say it is imperative that the projects be built now. When completed, the combined projects will make for one of the largest water development eras in Colorado history. State water officials and analysts, however, worry that the fragmented nature of the plans constitutes a $3 billion free-for-all, and that the lack of a coherent regional or statewide plan will prove costly for both the consumer and the environment. Rocky Mountain News_ 7/18/08
A report released Sunday on the state of the nation's largest river system said the situation was critical in the Murray-Darling system, which provides water to Australia's "food bowl", a vast expanse of land almost twice as big as France that runs down the continent's east coast. Australia is in the grip of the worst drought in a century, which has stretched for more than seven years in some areas and has forced restrictions on water usage in the country''s major cities. The report said the Murray-Darling system, accounting for more than 40 percent of the gross value of Australia's agricultural production, should provide enough drinking water for 2008-09. But the report from senior federal and state government officials warned there could be problems supplying drinking water after that if rains did not come. The Murray-Darling Basin stretches from Queensland in the north, through New South Wales to Victoria in the south and South Australia. AFP_ 7/20/08
Around the U.S.
Canal plan may solve California water distribution issues
A public policy group suggested California should no longer rely on the troubled Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to supply water to most of the state, and should instead build a canal around the delta. A study by the Public Policy Institute of California recommends that cities in Southern California and the San Francisco Bay area stop drawing water from the delta, saying it's an increasingly unstable source. Instead, institute officials believe a canal that would draw fresh water from the Sacramento River would deliver better quality water to more than 25 million Californians and farmers in the Central Valley because it would bypass the salty mixture found in the delta. A canal also could help native fish that are now being killed when they are sucked into the delta's massive water pumps. AP_7/17/08
Fresno Irrigation District to stop water deliveries
The Fresno (Calif.) Irrigation District will cease water deliveries July 31 after a five-month season because of dry spring conditions. The district covers about 245,000 acres and operates about 800 miles of canals and pipelines. In a normal year, Fresno Irrigation District handles about 500,000 acre-feet of water and delivers most of it to agricultural users. By season's end, the district will have delivered about 432,000 acre-feet of water. Deliveries started March 1. Growers will need to rely upon groundwater for any late summer or fall irrigations. The district will offer hardship water deliveries to the east side of the district beginning Aug. 1 and continuing through September. In addition, reclaimed water will continue to be delivered on the Houghton and Dry Creek systems. Fresno Bee_7/17/08
Bottled Water
India's BPCL to enter bottled water market to boost profits
Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL), the country's second largest oil marketing company, plans to diversify into bottled water and direct to home (DTH) services in an attempt to boost its profits. The company reported a 91 per cent decline in its fourth quarter net profit as it was forced to sell fuel below the prevailing market price. The company is seeking the approval of shareholders, through a postal ballot, for the new line of business. The result of the postal ballot would be known by August 22. The bottled industry is witnessing increased competition, with global cola giants, Pepsico and Coca-Cola Company slugging it out with local players including industralist Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher. The size of the bottled market in India has, however, not been estimated. Business Standard_ 7/19/08
Fiji Islands water bottlers may shut down after government delays lifting tax
The interim Cabinet decided to delay revisiting the bottled water tax in their meeting on Thursday. Bottled water spokesman Jaya Dayal said the decision by the interim Cabinet would leave them no choice but to shut down their operations completely. He said all bottled water companies spent dozens of hours last week providing information to FIRCA and the interim Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry. “We believe the Government has sufficient information to determine that these onerous taxes, if left in place, will effectively shut down Fiji’s bottled water industry for good,” Dayal said. Fiji Daily Post_ 7/19/08
In a split decision, Maine's Supreme Court affirmed a County Superior Court's decision to uphold state land regulators' permitting of a permit to allow Poland Spring's parent company Nestle Waters North America Inc. to develop a pumping station on about 1,000 acres the company owns off Redington Road in Dallas Plantation. The permit allows Poland Spring to extract up to 184 million gallons of water annually from Rangeley Water District's aquifers and to use 100 tanker trucks a day in and out of the station. The facility went on-line more than a year ago. Two justices, Chief Justice Leigh Ingalls Saufley and Jon D. Levy, dissented. Saufley wrote that rezoning, with its inherent public airing and thorough review of the newly proposed uses, should be undertaken before Nestle is allowed to engage in the extraction and transportation of the Rangeley Lakes Region's valuable water resources. Cathryn Thorup, co-founder of the Rangeley coalition said, "The community of Rangeley is obviously deeply disappointed with the split decision. We are pleased that two justices, including the chief justice, came down on our side, but obviously we wish we could have prevailed. To anyone who asks in five or 10 years, 'How could you let this happen?' We can say we took this fight just as far as we could." SunJournal.com_7/18/08
Desalination
Everyone in Bahrain to have safe tap drinking water within a few months: Water Authority
Tap water received now by more than 80 per cent of Bahrain's population can be used for drinking. The entire country will be covered by potable water within a few months, said Electricity and Water Authority (EWA) production and transmission deputy chief executive Batool Abdul A'al. The EWA has abandoned the policy of blending ground water with the desalinated water and has started converting desalinated water into potable water. Gulf Daily News_ 7/19/08
Nine arrested in Australian desalination plant protest
Nine protesters were arrested in an angry confrontation with police near the site of Victoria's $3 billion desalination project yesterday. About 20 police officers confronted 50 locals with orders to remove their information caravan from an unsealed road 500m from the site near Wonthaggi. Local Liberal MP Ken Smith was among the protesters and slammed the Brumby Government for picking a fight with a community group. Your Water Your Say spokeswoman Andrea Bolch said protesters would do whatever they could to stop the desalination project. Environment Minister Gavin Jennings had been hoping to avoid a repeat of last week's protests when three people were arrested. Herald Sun_ 7/15/08
Environmental News
EPA sued over fertilizer runoff standards
Environmental groups have sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hoping to force stricter regulation of water pollution in Florida and nationally. The federal lawsuit filed Thursday in Tallahassee claims the agency is violating the Clean Water Act by not setting standards for fertilizer runoff and other farm waste in Florida's waterways. Earthjustice attorney David Guest says he hopes a favorable ruling will force the EPA to set national standards. Guest is representing the plaintiffs. The groups say rain washes the runoff into rivers and lakes, contaminating waterways and nourishing algae blooms that poison the ecosystems. The EPA says it will review the lawsuit. Florida says the state is still studying ways to set such limits. AP_7/17/08
New water-saving technique gives oil and gas a greener look
Two companies working together announced they have perfected a method of turning wastewater from oil and gas wells into distilled water that can be used for agriculture, or to vastly reduce the environmental footprint the oil and gas industry has on the land. Across the western United States alone, more than five billion gallons per day of brackish wastewater, known as produced water, is brought to the surface during oil and gas production. This wastewater has historically been re-injected deep back into the ground where it came from, never to be used again, or it must be hauled away at great cost over long trucking distances. The new water-saving technique developed by Altela, Inc and Laramie Energy II, LLC purports to purify the brackish water on site. The companies claim turning this wastewater into usable water will benefit farmers, ranchers, and communities across the water-starved western United States and will help address the country's water and energy security. MarketWatch_7/17/08
White House rejects conclusion that global warming is a threat to public welfare
It launched a comment period that will delay action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at least until the next president takes office. The Environmental Protection Agency published a 588-page examination of the issues surrounding greenhouse gases but refused to adopt its staff's finding that such gases could cause disastrous flooding and drought and affect food and water supplies. Environmentalists angrily denounced the White House for what they said was political interference with government experts' proposed rules. An EPA official who worked on the rejected reports said Friday's announcement was unprecedented because agency staffers did not have a chance to respond to other agencies' criticism. Los Angeles Times_ 7/12/08 (logon required)
download the report .pdf
Great Lakes
Scientists: $200 million loss from Great Lakes invasives; Close the St. Lawrence Seaway?
Foreign species that slipped into the Great Lakes in ballast tanks of oceangoing cargo ships cost the regional economy at least $200 million a year, according to a University of Notre Dame study released Wednesday, July 16. A separate report issued by the National Research Council rejects calls to stem the species invasion by closing the St. Lawrence Seaway or declaring it off-limits to oceangoing freighters. Instead, the U.S. and Canada should work together to make sure that saltwater ships exchange their ballast water _ or rinse their tanks if empty _ while still at sea, the council's report said. Both reports come as environmentalists are prodding the U.S. Senate to approve a bill ordering ships to install systems for killing invasive fish, mussels and other critters that can disrupt the Great Lakes' ecosystem. The measure has cleared the House but supporters say its prospects will be dim unless the Senate acts before its August recess. Sport fishing has taken the biggest hit: $123.5 million in 2006, the year on which the data are based, the report said. Participation is 11 to 35 percent lower on the lakes than it would have been if fish populations hadn't fallen because of the invasive species. Other damaged sectors of the economy include wildlife viewing ($47.6 million loss); raw water use by municipalities, power plants and industry ($27 million); and commercial fishing ($2.1 million). FoxNews_7/17/08
International News
2.5 billion live with poor sanitation facilities
More people using drinking water from safe sources:UN report
Every day, over 2.5 billion people suffer from a lack of access to improved sanitation and nearly 1.2 billion practise open defecation, the riskiest sanitary practice of all, according to a report issued today by the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation. The programme is the official UN mechanism tasked with monitoring progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Target 7c on drinking water supply and sanitation. The report titled "Progress on drinking water and sanitation - special focus on sanitation," comes halfway through the International Year of Sanitation. The report assesses -- for the first time -- global, regional and country progress using an innovative "ladder" concept. This shows sanitation practices in greater detail, enabling experts to highlight trends in using improved, shared and unimproved sanitation facilities and the trend in open defecation. "Improved sanitation” refers to any facility that hygienically separates human waste from the environment. Similarly, the 'drinking water ladder' shows the percentage of the world population that uses water piped into a dwelling, plot or yard, and other improved water sources such as hand pumps, and unimproved sources. Worldwide, the number of people who lack access to an improved drinking water source (protected from faecal and chemical contamination) has fallen below one billion for the first time since data were first compiled in 1990. At present 87% of the world population has access to improved drinking water sources, with current trends suggesting that more than 90% will do so by 2015. Click here to download the full report (note: large,16Mb PDF file) World Health Organization 7/17/08
Northern Cyprus to get water pipeline from Turkey
A 70-mile pipeline will carry drinking water from Turkey to northern Cyprus under a plan announced Saturday by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday. He said construction would begin in June 2009 and the project should be completed within three years. Cyprus is suffering one of its worst droughts in modern history. AFP_ 7/19/08
Greek tanker with much-needed drinking water for Cyprus discards it due to contamination
The ship pumped 40,000 cubic metres of water into the ground rather than a reservoir because delays had made the water unsuitable for consumption. After four years with no substantial winter rainfall, Cypriot water reserves are at their lowest since 1908. The tanker arrived at an offshore pumping station near the port of Limassol at the end of last month, but as it took two weeks to complete pipes to the reservoir, it was deemed unsafe for drinking. BBC News_ 7/16/08
Mars Water
Water 'widespread' on early Mars
Water was once widespread on Mars, data from a Nasa spacecraft shows, raising the prospect that the Red Planet could have supported life.
Researchers found evidence of vast lakes, flowing rivers and deltas on early Mars, all of which were potential habitats for microbes. They also discovered that wet conditions probably persisted for a long time on the Red Planet. Details appear in the journals Nature and Nature Geoscience. BBC_7/17/08
Regional Water Issues
Las Vegas urges early hearing on importing more water from Utah-Nevada border area
The main water supplier for Las Vegas, already allowed to pump more than 19 billion gallons of water a year from rural Nevada, pressed Tuesday for a January hearing on its bid for another 16 billion gallons from a valley on the state's border with Utah.
But opponents of the Southern Nevada Water Authority pumping plan for Snake Valley said they need more time to prepare, and asked state Engineer Tracy Taylor for a hearing delay until late 2009. SNWA's application for the Snake Valley water is a key element in its efforts to start delivering rural groundwater through a 200-mile-long pipeline network to Las Vegas by 2015. AP/Salt Lake Tribune_ 7/15/08
Technology
Swiss research group Eawag tackles arsenic in drinking water
The contamination of groundwater with arsenic poses a risk to the health of millions of people, especially in the densely populated river deltas of Southeast Asia. To date, no method has been available for identifying high-risk areas without conducting costly sampling campaigns. In an article published in the journal Nature Geoscience, Eawag researchers have now described a method that allows high-risk areas to be identified relatively easily, without the need for expensive and time-consuming groundwater analysis. For this purpose, the team, led by geologist Lenny Winkel and environmental chemist Michael Berg, compiled existing geological data from Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Sumatra (Indonesia) to produce a uniformly classified map. Science Daily_ 7/12/08
In a study published today in Nature, researchers led by Brown University geologist Alberto Saal found evidence of water molecules in pebbles retrieved by NASA's Apollo missions. The findings point to the existence of water deep beneath the moon's surface, transforming scientific understanding of our nearest neighbor's formation and, perhaps, our own. There may also be a more immediately practical application. "Is there water there? That's important for lunar missions. People could get the water. They could use the hydrogen for energy," said Saal. A high-powered imaging technique known as secondary ion mass spectrometry revealed a wealth of so-called volatile compounds, among them fluorine, chlorine, sulfur, carbon dioxide -- and water. If that water in fact came from the Earth, then planetary geologists can be certain that our planet contained water 4.5 billion years ago. That would change the dynamics of models of Earth's formations. ABC News_ 7/10/08
Wastewater
European Investment Bank lends 200 million euros to finance water and wastewater projects in Rome
The European Investment Bank is lending EUR 200 million to ACEA to finance water and wastewater investments in the Province of Rome. ACEA is one of the largest Italian water sector operators, with a population served in excess of 8 million. finchannel.com_ 7/19/08
Two steps completed in repair of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, waste treatment plant; one more step to go
Cedar Rapids' wastewater treatment plant won't be back to pre-flood operation until the end of September, but officials at the plant announced Friday that major progress has been made. Of the three steps in treatment, 100 percent of the city's wastewater is going through the first two steps as of Friday, Environmental Manager Steve Hershner said. The plant, which is along the Cedar River on Bertram Road southeast of Cedar Rapids, was severely damaged in the flood. Bids will be received Thursday on restoring the third step of the process, and whichever contractor is chosen will be expected to have the job done by Sept. 30. Cedar Rapids Gazette_ 7/18/08
And Finally
Continental Airlines to cut the amount of drinking water on board
Continental Airlines is reducing the amount of drinkable water and magazines on its flights. And planes are switching to a lighter, more durable life vest. The Houston-based carrier on Thursday reported those and other cost-saving measures aimed at the soaring cost of fuel. Continental said a combination of record high fuel prices, weakening economic conditions and a weak dollar resulted in the worst financial statement for the airline since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Cleveland Plain Dealer_ 7/17/08
