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February 28, 2005
"Running Dry" Paints Bleak Picture of World Water Supply
As reported by US Water News, the new documentary, "Running Dry" has premiered in Washington, D.C. to an audience of government officials, dignitaries and representatives of aid organizations, all of whom were deeply affected by the movie.
The movie focuses on the present or developing scarcity of water in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the American southwest. The causes vary, ranging from rapid urbanization in India to waste and over-consumption in the United States.
"By the end of this year, I want every decision-maker in the world to put water as the number one priority," said James Thebaut, who wrote, produced and directed the film.
The film is filled with images of environmental devastation, disease and poverty caused by the unavailability of clean water -- children drink from water sources contaminated by untreated sewage and fights break out at wells.
But those fights pale in comparison to the armed conflict the film says will occur when nations are unable to provide enough potable water. "Nations fight over oil, but as valuable as it is, there are substitutes for oil," Seymour says in the film. "However, there are no substitutes for water."
The movie was inspired by the book "Tapped Out", written by the late Senator Paul Simon.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 06:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 25, 2005
Health Experts Confirm Thousands Die Daily From Dirty Water
As reported by ABC News from a Reuters, London report, that unsafe drinking water and poor sanitation kill 4,000 children every day, global health experts said.
"There should be an outcry, from the health community above all, for immediate, concerted efforts to confront the reality that sanitation coverage rates in the developing world barely keep pace with population growth," said Dr Jamie Bartram, of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Four out of 10 people around the globe do not have access to a simple pit latrine and one-fifth have no source of safe drinking water.
"Far more people endure the largely preventable effects of poor sanitation and water supply than are affected by war, terrorism and weapons of mass destruction," Bartram said in an article in The Lancet medical journal.
The report calls for action by all nations on this global problem, of what has been called the "silent humanitarian crisis".
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 03:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 24, 2005
National Water Infrastructure Security Probed in New Study
As published by the Water Quality and Health Council, a new report released by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) states that the nation's water supply and water quality infrastructure remains vulnerable to terrorism. In the wake of the Sept. 2001 terrorist attacks, Congress and other policymakers are considering a number of options in this area.
According to the report, a relatively small number of large drinking water and wastewater utilities (15 percent of all systems) are located in primarily urban areas and provide water services to more than 75 percent of the U.S. population.
Efforts to develop voluntary protocols have been ongoing since the terrorist attacks, but have failed to produce a solution, the CRS report found.
There is no doubt that our water systems do need some manner of protection from terrorist attack.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 11:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 22, 2005
Toledo Well Users Sickend by Polluted Water
As
The Ohio State Health Department said that some 1,400 people were sickened visiting the resort area last summer due to wells being tainted when porous soil allowed sewage from septic systems and runoff containing bird droppings and lawn fertilizer to infiltrate groundwater.
While most vacation homes and businesses catering to tourists draw their drinking water from the municipal system - which tested negative for contamination after the outbreak - about 400 draw water from wells.
As I have always said, your most healthy water is municipal water, straight or filtered, even beyond bottled water.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 09:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 21, 2005
Cubans Urged to Conserve Water
As reported in the San Jose Mercury News, from the Associated Press, dateline Havana, Cuba urged its citizens to cut back on water use, saying that new measures will be necessary to fight a long-lasting dry spell.
Last year, the island received only 69 percent of average rainfall, making 2004 the worst year for rain since 1901, according to Granma, the Communist Party daily newspaper.
Jorge Aspiolea, president of Cuba's National Institute of Hydraulic Resources said of 235 reservoirs across the island, 114 contain less than 25 percent of their capacity and 41 of the 114 have dried up completely.
More than 100,000 residents of Havana, the hardest hit area of the water emergency, receive their supply via water trucks known locally as "pipas."
This is a real crisis.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 07:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 18, 2005
Camp Lejeune Haunted by Past Water Contamination
As reported by ABC News, and the Associated Press, seven scientists are deciding whether more study is needed of past water contamination at Camp Lejeune.
The two day meeting in Atlanta was hailed by former Lejeune residents who say their health has been affected by contamination but their cases aren't covered by a recent study released by the Marine Corps.
The meeting was formed to further investigate the contamination of Camp Lejeune's water systems between 1968 and 1985. The chemicals trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethlyene (PCE) leaked from a dry cleaning business on Lejeune Boulevard and into the drinking water for the Tarawa Terrace residential area and other areas of the base.
Some topics that might get further study include adult cancers and mortality, heart defects, frequency of hospital visits, neurological affects and autoimmune diseases.
Seems to me that there are residents with serious health concerns in the Camp Lejeune area.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 11:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 17, 2005
The Deep Sea May be the Best Source for Clean Water
As reported in the Taipei Journal, at a mid-January meeting of the Council for Economic Planning and Development, a special task force was set up to research and develop economic activity in deep-sea water industries, those which pump water from below 200 meters.
Japan, starting their research in 1976, and with scientists in Hawaii following, both found that the icy deep ocean waters to be rich in calcium, iron, nitrogen and phosphorus, which are all beneficial to the human body. The freezing temperatures and high pressure of deep-sea water makes is naturally clean and germ-free.
The desalination and marketing of deep-sea water has led to Hawaii, Koyo USA Corp. selling bottles of it under their MaHaLo brand in Japan at high prices.
Sounds like a cleaner source of bottled water than any of the brands marketed here in the USA.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 06:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 14, 2005
Phoenix Water Problems Case of Passing the Buck
Well it turns out both The Arizona Republic and I got it wrong when I published "Phoenix's Water Crisis Ended" on January 26th. The bad water in Phoenix was blamed by the city's Water Services Department on bad weather.
It turns out, as now reported once again in The Arizona Republic, from its own investigation that shows that the chaos surrounding the water scare was indicative of deeper, more pervasive problems that have plagued the city's Water Services Department for more than a decade. The investigation uncovered documents indicating an agency that chronically violated state and federal water laws.
Moreover, the Department also hid problems with the water system and lied about them to the city's top officials and state and federal regulators since 1988.
This is truly a passing of the buck to weather problems when systemic mishandling of the water system has been to blame for years.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 06:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 10, 2005
Washington's Water Supply in Trouble
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Washington State is facing major shortage of water this summer due record warm temperatures resulting in closed less than snowy mountains, and in many communities, unusually low rain fall levels.
The Natural Resources Conservation Service reported this week that the state's snow pack remains dismal, with little hope of improving.
Warm temperatures and near-record low snowfall have combined to "rob Washington's snow pack of its liquid assets," said Scott Pattee, water supply specialist for the agency.
Pattee and others are cautious about predicting a drought year.
The legal definition of draught is when there is less than 75 percent of a normal water supply, including snow pack, stream flows and ground water, and when hardships result from the low water conditions.
The state Department of Ecology called together its Water Supply Availability Committee for a joint meeting with the governor's Water Emergency Committee early last week. Ecology spokesman Curt Hart said, "The conclusion we came to is, it's still too early to tell. We're still in the middle of winter."
Sounds like a serious global warming problem to me.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 11:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 08, 2005
Water Warnings Scare Vallejo Residents
As reported in the Times-Herald, Vallejo, CA, which owns the Green Valley water treatment plant, sent out warnings to 2,800 customers telling of the long term dangers, including liver, kidney, and nervous system damage and even cancer.
The municipal water supply apparently failed the new Federal standards, tightened in 2004. Now, water providers serving fewer than 10,000 residents must monitor their water quality just as those over that level.
Vallejo officials are spending $820,000 on a new water treatment process to reduce the level of organic materials. Those materials can combine with chlorine used to treat the water to form disinfection byproducts that may cause health problems. They expect to have the new process in place in Green Valley by year's end and meet the new water standards by summer 2006.
It is wonderful that the Federal water quality standards have been strengthened to include our smallest water treatment facilities and protect those residents.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 09:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 07, 2005
Flare Maker Produces Perchlorate Water Pollution
The San Jose Mercury News reports that Olin, a Norwalk, CT based company has to solidify plans by next year to clean up the perchlorate pollution from its now closed flare manufacturing plant in Morgan Hill, CA.
The state Regional Water Quality Control Board has told Olin that it must produce a report recommending which cleanup level is most feasible of the peculate, a chemical used in flare and rocket manufacture.
Olin has spent $13 million over the past two years on bottled water, cleanup work around the flare plant and installing perchlorate removal systems on three public wells in San Martin that together serve 500 homes, Rick McClure of Olin said.
I am please to see a manufacturer like Olin, not only admitting their complicity in drinking water pollution, but also working towards a remedy.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 09:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 04, 2005
Proposed Bottled Water Site Opposed as Polluter
Channels 5 WPTZ and Channel 31 WNNE report that Nottingham, NH residents have successfully rebuffed the construction of a bottled water plant near sensitive wetlands.
The state granted USA Springs a permit in July to draw up to 307,000 gallons of groundwater per day from three wells, but local permission for construction still is needed.
The proposed plant has drawn criticism from neighboring communities. Some opponents have appealed the state's approval of a large groundwater withdrawal permit to state Supreme Court.
Some residents worry the plant would drain drinking water wells or spread contamination through increased groundwater flow.
Not surprising to me, another spring water company, not only want so disturb a wetlands area, but also will not be getting any of its product from a spring, but three wells instead.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 07:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 03, 2005
Chlorinate or Not to Chlorinate
Seems it is now more than the scientific community, but now consumers are voicing their concerns about chlorination of their drinking water.
According to the The Olympian, Lacey, WA, a community of some 50,000, has been told that their drinking water. The City Council recently agreed to permanently disinfect the system following a 16-month effort to kill bacteria in the water that are generally harmless but might indicate the presence of dangerous bacteria.
Questions concerning the health risks of chlorination have been raised by some of Lacey’s residents. The scientific evidence to back up such concerns, however, is limited, and based on high exposure to chlorination's byproducts.
Some studies suggest drinking chlorinated water increases the risk of cancer, while other studies show no increased risk, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
For now, the EPA doesn't think there is enough evidence to state conclusively that drinking chlorinated water causes health risks.
While the concerns are based on the byproducts, trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids, public water systems now must test for these byproducts four times a year.
All alternative disinfection methods apparently produce some undesirable byproducts. The residents of Lacey should find some solace in the long term track record of the use of Chlorine in municipal water systems.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 11:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 02, 2005
Yet Another Source Concerning the Lack of Purity in Bottled Water
In "Business in a Bottle" the San Diego Union-Tribune comes to the same conclusions so many have in the past.
An examination by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in 1999 found that bottled water is not necessarily cleaner or safer than tap water.
Eric Olson of the NRDC complained that bottled water labels don't give consumers enough information to make informed choices. "For most water, you'd be hard pressed to tell where that water comes from because there is no labeling," he said.
As I have often said, if any of the major brands of bottle water disclosed just where the water was sourced, consumers would be shocked.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 07:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 01, 2005
Brita Executive in Denial
HFN, a trade publication, in the January 31 issue, featured an article concerning water filtration entitled "The Trickle-Down Effect".
In the article, Marc Umsheid, the marketing manger for Brita said "The basics of filtration haven't changed in centuries" from carbon.
The fact is that as I have said before, Brita, as with other filtration manufacturers, do not acknowledge the contribution to water filtration offered by KDF starting in 1984.
Why should they after all? The use of KDF would mean that Brita could not sell the consumer replacement cartridges every six weeks.
Mr. Umsheild, with his statement, simply proves that Brita is in denial concerning KDF.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 04:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack