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More business, environment, regional and international news
2008 Hurricanes
Bertha, season's second tropical storm, forms in the eastern Atlantic
The second named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season formed off the coast of Africa and is moving toward the west-northwest at about 14 mph, but forecasters said it's too early to say if or where Bertha will hit land. The first named storm this year, Arthur, formed in the Atlantic the day before the season officially started June 1 and soaked the Yucatan Peninsula. AP/CNN_ 7/3/08
Around the U.S.
Alaska ballot contains clean-water initiative
The Alaska Supreme Court has ruled that an initiative to regulate or restrict pollution from mining can be placed on the ballot in August for voters to consider. The initiative is aimed at stemming the discharge of toxic materials from large metallic mineral mines in Alaska, that may compromise water sources according to court documents. Mining advocates oppose the measure, saying it would put a damper on industry. Late last year, they asked a superior court judge to declare the initiative unconstitutional. In February, Superior Court Judge Douglas Blankenship issued a decision saying the initiative could appear on the ballot. It's known as "Ballot Measure 4." The Council of Alaska Producers and other mining supporters then appealed to the state Supreme Court, which upheld Blankenship's ruling. Forbes_7/3/08
San Francisco Bay Area starts $1 million water-conservation campaign
Elected officials from around the Bay Area hope a new public awareness campaign called "Water Saving Hero" spurs people to voluntarily cut their water use by 10 percent - enough perhaps to avoid the mandatory water rationing already imposed on some East Bay cities. The $1 million campaign - a partnership among 11 Bay Area water agencies and funded by a grant from the California Department of Water Resources - comes as the state grapples with its first drought in 16 years. SF Gate_7/3/08
Sacramento couple who let lawn die to save water face $746 fine
When California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought June 4, Anne Hartridge decided it was only right to let her Sacramento front lawn die to save water. "The whole water conservation ethic is very important to me," said Hartridge, a state employee who bikes or rides the bus to work. But that ethic didn't agree with her neighbors, or with the city. Before Hartridge could plan new landscaping, a neighbor complained to the city about her brown lawn, and the Code Enforcement Department slapped the family with a citation. A $746 fine will be next unless they correct the violation. "In order to make the lawn go, I would have had to keep watering it intensely, and since the drought was declared, I decided that wasn't a good idea," said Hartridge. "Honestly, I think there's a disconnect within the city about priorities." Sacramenton Bee_7/2/08
Update: Fine dropped for Sacramento water savers
Sacramento city officials on Wednesday admitted their code enforcement policies may not be drought-friendly, and said they won't fine the couple who let their front lawn die to save water. The story in the Sacramento Bee prompted a torrent of outrage from the public, who overwhelmingly supported Anne Hartridge and Matt George, the east Sacramento couple cited by city code enforcers after they stopped watering their lawn. Sacramento Bee_7/3/08
Wisconsin's Holmen Rotary Club aide water clean up in Peru
The efforts of the Holmen Rotary Club will mean clean, safe drinking water for hundreds — maybe even thousands — of people in a poor section of Lima, Peru. Last winter, the club, which is only about a year old, decided to take on its first international project. Dean McHugh, chairman of the club’s international committee, went online looking for causes that would work and came across a proposed project from a Rotary Club in Lima that sought help getting water filters to an extremely poor section of the city of 10 million. The project entailed created and distributing 250 biosand water filters, which can filter almost 10 gallons of water per hour. In Lima, 10 percent of the residents (a million people) don’t have safe drinking water. Almost half of the children in Lima younger than 5 suffer from chronic diarrhea contracted from contaminated drinking water, and a third of Lima’s children have intestinal parasites from bad water. Holmen Courier_ 6/30/08
Detroit City Council investigated by FBI over sewage contract
The Detroit City Council voted 5-4 last November to award Synagro Technologies, Inc. a contract to handle the city's processed sewage for close to $47 million a year. The FBI has been investigating allegations of corruption in connection with the contract, two persons familiar with the investigation said. The investigation of the waste contract is part of a broader investigation involving several City Hall contracts that has been active in the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office for several years. The contract involves hauling of sewage and also provides for the construction of a plant that would incinerate part of the sludge and convert part of it into a crop fertilizer. Detroit News_ 6/28/08
Bottled Water
Local opposition stalls Poland Spring water sale
Citizens want input and answers to costs and water usage
Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Wells Water district officials postponed approval of a contract to sell water to Nestle Waters North America, owner of the Poland Spring label, to July 30 due to public opposition over the sale. Local citizens and activists claim the water district is exceeding its authority to sell off water assets to Nestle and denying public input into the process. Seacoastonline_7/3/08 See editorials at Water customers should look at facts, not spin and Water district answers questions
Dirty pipes keep Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania city workers drinking bottled water
Mayor Luke Ravenstahl would love to reduce the city's reliance on bottled water, but as long as the plumbing in the City-County Building remains in its current condition, city employees will quench their thirsts at the water cooler. The U.S. Conference of Mayors passed a resolution Monday encouraging cities to stop using taxpayer money to buy bottled water because it is expensive and generates substantial waste. The mayor's spokeswoman, Joanna Doven, said pipes in the 91-year-old building turn some tap water a nasty shade of orange and that it's not very tasty. Pittsburgh pays Atlanta-based Crystal Springs about $26,000 a year to keep its office coolers stocked with five-gallon bottles of purified water, according to the controller's office. Ms. Doven said that sometime in the future, the mayor would like to upgrade the City-County Building to a LEED-certified green structure, but that until then, the water situation would probably remain the same. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette_ 6/28/08
Business
Deals worth more than US$270 million reached at Singapore's International Water Week
More than US$270 million worth of deals were signed during the first Singapore International Water Week, which ended on June 27. There were 27 agreements in all, between governments, utilities providers and water companies. Describing the figures as encouraging, Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim said the aim is to grow the meeting into a platform for global water solutions. The meeting last week saw several firsts, among them the launch of a water fund to attract US$320 million in investments for Asian water projects and a consortium comprising PUB and CPG Consultants as well as Pico Art International secured a contract to design the King Abdullah Water Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Channel News Asia/Yahoo_ 7/1/08
The firm, which has eight million customers, had faced an unlimited fine. The Serious Fraud Office had reportedly hoped for a £70m penalty in line with fines imposed by water regulator Ofwat. Judge Jeremy Roberts was asked to make an example of Severn Trent to deter others. But he was restricted by legal precedents, particularly health and safety offences which involved loss of life. Severn Trent Water, which covers an area from the Bristol Channel to the Midlands, was the first company to be prosecuted for lying about its leaks. It pleaded guilty to two offences under the Water Industry Act of making false returns to Ofwat concerning 2001 and 2002. The court was told the company reported an estimated yearly water loss of 340 million litres per day to meet targets, while the true figure was around 514 million litres. This was to stave off having to carry out millions of pounds-worth of repairs until they could be covered by future water bills, and to avoid bad publicity Sky News_ 7/1/08
Pentair and GE's Water & Process Technologies form joint water filtration venture
GE Water & Process Technologies and Pentair Inc. Monday announced a joint venture that combines their global water softener and residential water filtration businesses. The venture is called Pentair Residential Filtration. Minnesota-based Pentair will own 80 percent, GE Water 20 percent. The combined businesses had sales of about $540 million last year. Pentair Residential Filtration will employ about 1,100 people in 15 plants across the United States, Europe and China. Philadelphia Business Journal_ 6/30/08
Water sector corruption threatens lives, environment
Corruption has made the cost of water more expensive in some developing countries than in cities like New York, London or Rome, threatening billions of lives, watchdog Transparency International said on Wednesday. The Berlin-based non-governmental organization found in its latest global corruption report that bribes, graft and other forms of wrongdoing are the main reasons for a "global water crisis" that is speeding the pace of environmental degradation. The report, released in Berlin and New York on Wednesday, said water sector corruption ranges from petty bribery in water delivery to the looting of irrigation and hydropower funding. Such corruption -- seen in rich countries as well as poor -- threatens to exacerbate a global food shortage. Reuters_6/25/08
Desalination News
Qatar and Texas A&M to test innovative desalination project
Qatar Science & Technology Park and Texas A&M University at Qatar will launch next month a $400,000 project to overcome a major environmental impact of water desalination, it was announced yesterday. Known as ‘Zero Liquid Discharge’, the technology promises to replace the salty brine that normally remains from desalination plants with easily-disposable solids. The ZLD technology could solve both problems of increasing groundwater salinity and brine disposal. The current method of dealing with brine is to evaporate it in ponds or with petroleum-fired vaporisers. This typically accounts for 70% of the system cost and consumes either land or fuel. Instead of vaporating the brine, TAMUQ’s innovation would remove the salt chemically via a lime-aluminium process. Gulf Times_ 6/30/08
Rising energy prices cause Veolia's desalination costs to triple
Veolia Environnement SA, the world's biggest water company, said the cost of purifying seawater has tripled because of higher energy prices, squeezing profit margins. The cost of producing water from desalination plants may have risen to as much as $1.60 per cubic meter from as low as 50 cents ``in the last few years,'' Jean-Michel Herrewyn, chief executive officer of Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies, said in an interview in Singapore yesterday. Power is the largest cost at a desalination plant, which filters millions of gallons of seawater into drinking water by straining out salt, bacteria and minerals. Industry margins at desalination plants, typically between 10 and 15 percent, are shrinking as fuel costs increase. Bloomberg_ 6/26/08
Environment
Making the Negev Desert bloom once seemed like a good idea, but it's killing the Dead Sea
Water has long been a deeply political issue in the Levant; wars are waged over it. Aquifers and other sources of water tend to straddle political boundaries. Levi Eshkol, Israel's prime minister during the Six Day War, was a water-company executive who spent long hours poring over maps of potential sources. According to "The Iron Wall," a history by Avi Shlaim, Eshkol believed that "without control over the sources of water the Zionist dream could not be realized." In 1964 Israel completed the National Water Carrier, designed to pipe drinking water from the Sea of Galilee, in Israel's north, to the Negev in the south. Syria and other Arab states then moved to divert the headwaters of the Jordan, igniting fierce clashes that included Syrian-sponsored Palestinian guerrilla attacks. The water wars were one of the key factors in the establishment of the PLO in 1964. Diverting water from the Galilee has contributed to another devastating environmental consequence: the drying of the Dead Sea. The Negev is the laboratory for new technologies Israelis hope may solve their water troubles. Experts, though, wonder how far technology can boost supply. Drip irrigation and desalination can only do so much. Making the desert bloom was a good idea "in its time," says David Brooks, a Canadian water expert and environmentalistbut now "the very idea of developing the Negev is wrong." The day to rethink Israel's romance with desert farming may be here. Newsweek_ 6/28/08
Plans uncertain for use of $1.75 billion "missing link" in Florida Everglades water supply
Officials say much of the farmland that the state plans to buy from the U.S. Sugar Corp. for $1.75 billion would become the Everglades' missing storage tank -- a massive patchwork of dammed reservoirs, pollution treatment marshes and diesel-burning pumps. It's hardly a picture postcard, but it's the only way engineers will be able to solve the biggest problem they have -- how to catch enough water, clean it and get it to the Everglades. Last year -- only months before Gov. Charlie Crist first floated the idea of a U.S. Sugar buyout -- conservation groups once again urged the South Florida Water Management District to consider making a natural ''flow-way'' of water through Big Sugar's land. No one can say exactly how the 187,000 acres will be used or how much any future plans may ultimately cost. Also unknown: how long the deal may delay the already backlogged restoration effort. Miami Herald_ 6/28/08
Singapore scientist discovers dragonflies may be water pollution detectors
Researcher Nanthinee Jeevanandam, at the National University of Singapore, said she hopes to use their genetic fingerprint to help national water agencies like Singapore's Public Utilities Board to determine the level of cleanliness in reservoir water. Different dragonfly species that live at the reservoirs have varied tolerance to pollutants such as lead and sulphate, the report said. Some require cleaner water or more oxygen. Studying the species would be a quick and chemical-free method of evaluating water quality, Jeevanandam said. Times of India_ 6/29/08
Source of cryptosporidium in UK's Northamptonshire water supply located
Anglian Water said the bug was found in treatment works at Pitsford Reservoir. The firm had advised 250,000 customers in the Northampton and Daventry area to boil tap water after the discovery of the bacteria in supplies on Wednesday. A spokesman said half of the customers will be able to use tap water as normal by the end of next week, with the remainder back within three weeks. Ultra-violet light is being used at the treatment works to make the bug harmless. BBC News_ 6/27/08
Great Lakes
Great Lakes states start planning for Congressional approval of water compact
Backers of a plan by Great Lakes states and Canada to protect the region's water from large-scale diversion projects are looking ahead to Congress now that it appears the proposal will win approval from all affected states. The need to protect the Great Lakes was driven home to border states in the 1990s when the Ontario government gave a Canadian shipping company permission to send tankers of Lake Superior water to Asia. That plan died, but it spurred state governments and Canadian authorities to agree on a plan to protect the lakes from similar diversions. Now that most states have approved the compact, backers are deciding how to win Congressional and White House approval. AP_ 6/29/08
International News
African Development Bank extends loans and grants to Malawi for water infrastructure
Efforts by Malawi to achieve sustainable development and poverty reduction received a boost on Wednesday in Tunis, where the Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group approved a loan and two grants for about US$ 47.24 million, to finance the country's National Water Development Program (NWDP). The money will be used to provide the country with urban and rural water supply as well as promote resource management and capacity building in the water sector. The objective of the programme is to ensure the sustainable provision of adequate water and sanitation services to the people of Malawi. All Africa_7/3/08
Children in China school ill after water poisoned
More than 60 children fell ill after drinking water that may have been deliberately poisoned at a primary school in southern China, state media reported on Tuesday. Thirty-four were still in hospital, suffering from headaches and nausea, and the rest were under observation at their rural school in Guangxi province after drinking the water in their school canteen, the official Xinhua news agency reported. The water in the school's storage tank smelled of pesticide and police found an empty bottle that they suspected of containing the poison, Xinhua said. While the investigation is continuing, local education officials have already accused the school of mismanagement, it added. Reuters_ 7/1/08
Drought-stricken Cyprus gets its first water delivery from Greece
Parched Cyprus took its first delivery of water by ship from Greece on Monday to stave off a drought which has sapped water reserves to critically low levels and triggered emergency rationing. A tanker containing some 40,000 cubic metres of drinking water -- more than double the quantity held in all of the Mediterranean island's 17 main reservoirs -- anchored off Cyprus's southern coast close to midnight (2200 GMT). Its discharge into the island's main water network was expected to commence later this week, contingent on the results of tests for its quality. Cyprus is suffering one of the worst droughts on record, triggering emergency rationing to households, expediting plans for desalination units and sending devout Christians into churches to pray for rain. Reuters_ 6/30/08
Wastewater
Abu Dhabi to build 25-mile sewage tunnel
The Abu Dhabi Sewerage Services Company (ADSSC) is stepping up efforts to implement the Strategic Tunnel Enhancement Programme (STEP) during the next six years to establish a tunnel that will cater to the immediate, short and long-term needs of Abu Dhabi's wastewater and drainage issues. The STEP project comprises 40 kilometres of deep sewerage tunnel and two new large pumping stations. Omur Akay, Senior Vice President of CH2M Hill Company, said in an interview for Khaleej Times that the company is keen to support Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA) and ADSSC. Business Intelligence Middle East_ 6/30/08
Indiana reviewing wastewater release from Pfizer
State and federal officials are working to assess environmental impacts related to a release of water and the possible release of sediments containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from a wastewater lagoon at the Pfizer facility in Terre Haute. Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) staff began investigating the potential release of PCB-contaminated sediments on June 7, when Pfizer personnel reported a dam break at the Pfizer lagoon during heavy rains and flooding. No immediate public health risk has been identified related to the release of wastewater and possible release of sediments from the lagoon. In 1977, the manufacture of PCBs was stopped in the United States due to studies showing a number of serious health effects related to exposure to PCBs. News Release/Inside INdiana Business_ 6/30/08
Water Rates
California town hikes water rates to encourage conservation
The cost of turning on the water tap is going up in Watsonville. And people who use more than the average household will find their water will get even more expensive as part of a three-tier rate structure designed to encourage conservation. "Unfortunately money does make a difference, and if we have an incentive to reduce our water use, we really need to consider that," said Mayor Kimberly Petersen in support of adding a third tier to the city's rate structure. The rate changes will take place in two phases. Rates will increase 2.9 percent July 1, from an average of $19.63 to $20.15 per month to keep pace with rising operating costs, officials said. A third tier to the city's current two-tier system will go into effect in April 2009 to allow time to educate residents on water conservation. San Jose Mercury News_ 6/25/08
And Finally
Portland, Oregon reservoir nearly loses millions of gallons of water because of skinny dippers
Two people caught skinny dipping in a Portland reservoir that is a main source of water for the city nearly caused officials to dump millions of gallons of water and close the facility. But the two were swimming in a section of the reservoir that was not being used. Had that section been in use, water bureau officials say they would have had to dump millions of gallons of water from that pool and possibly shut off the reservoir. AP/ABC News_ 6/30/08
