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January 31, 2006
San Francisco spends millions on bottled water
In truly an embarressment, the city of San Francisco, which owns a pristine reservoir in the Sierra Nevada with a reputation for producing some of the country's best-tasting tap water, has spent more than two million dollars of taxpayers' money in the past 4 1/2 years on bottled water.
The mayor's office in City Hall, the Department of Public Health , the Municipal Railway, and the San Francisco International Airport are all among the public spenders on bottled water, with tap water readily available.
It is really ironic that the Public Utilities Commission, which performed a blind taste test on the street during National Drinking Water Week last May to convince people that tap water from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park is at least as good as the stuff at the store, even spent funds on bottled water.
Jake McGoldrick, a member of the Board of Supervisors who does not have city-funded bottled water delivered to his City Hall office said, "People have come to assume that even though we have the best water in the entire U.S., they still need bottled water. It's become the chic thing," as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 10:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 30, 2006
Prime Minister of India announces plan for safe drinking water
Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister announced in New Delhi today, a five point plan to assure the availablity of safe drinking water in the nation.
"First, we must eliminate the backlog and provide safe water to all remaining habitations which are either uncovered or have slipped back from full coverage. Secondly, we must address problems of water quality," he said, inaugurating the two-day conference of State and Union Territory Ministers in-charge of rural drinking water supply and rural sanitation.
Three other aspects of the plan were entrusting the responsibility of water supply management to local institutions; strengthening management of the environment; and spreading awareness of the link between good health and safe water supply.
The Prime Minister also assured that funding would not present an impediment to the implementation of the plan, as reported by The Hindu.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 11:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 27, 2006
GAO criticizes EPA on lead in US drinking water
The GAO in a critical report has called for greater concern over lead in US drink water by the EPA.
According to the report, there were "significant and longstanding gaps in the amount of information available" over lead content. These gaps impaired the EPA's ability to both ensure that levels of lead in water supplies were acceptable and to set a limit on the level of lead that makes drinking water unfit for consumption.
The report recommends updating plumbing standards, saying some products currently classified as "lead-free" were in fact capable of leaching high levels of lead into drinking water.
Senator James Jeffords, the ranking member of the Senate environment and public works committee, who requested the report, said "Safe drinking water is not a privilege, it is a right. This GAO report confirms that there are large holes in federal safe drinking water regulations...It is time to get the lead out," as reported by MSNBC.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 01:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 25, 2006
Tennessee experts discuss water quality
John McFadden, director of science and restoration programs at the nonprofit Harpeth River Watershed Association, says the major threat to water quality in Middle Tennessee is the region's rapid development and the sediment it puts into rivers and streams.
David Draughon, director of the division of water supply at the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, says that water utilities in Tennessee adjust factors such as pH and alkalinity to reduce the corrosiveness of water to minimize lead and that over time the lead in pipes leeches out to leave a protective lead-free layer.
Steve Patch, director of the Environmental Quality Institute at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, suggests that homes contaminanted by lead should get water filters bearing the NSF (National Sanitation Foundation) seal.
As for bottled water, Fred Guengerich, who directs the Center in Molecular Toxicology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center said, "It's actually tested less than the tap water is," as reported by the Robertson County Times.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 01:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 24, 2006
News of the day illustrates global water crises
In putting together this blog, I usually make an effort to write about the most current water crises somewhere in the world. Today, however it struck me that the drinking water news just today, should lead us all to wonder how we will deal with the growing potable water shortage.
In Mumbai, India today, where the city runs short of 900 million litres of water every day, water tanker deliver trucks have almost doubled their rate, taking advantage of the crises, as reported by the Times of India.
Irrigation farmers from the Burdekin region in north Queensland, Australia must repay more than $4 million in unpaid water charges, after a legal test case failed in the Supreme Court in Brisbane, as reported by ABC News, Australia.
Yemen is one of the most water scarce countries in the world, where the average per capita share of renewable water resources is 125 cubic metres per year, according to government estimates. This represents one-tenth of the average in most countries of the Middle East and North Africa, and one-fiftieth of the world average, as reported by Reuters.
All over the world the latest news reports always reflect the growing water crises.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 06:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 23, 2006
Halliburton supplied contaminated water to U.S. troops
Kellogg Brown and Root(KBR), a subsidiary of Haliburton, provided water to U.S. troops in Iraq which was twice as contaminated as water from the Euphrates River, and blocked employees' attempts to tell the U.S. military at Camp Junction City in Ramadi that the water was foul or that it should immediately be chlorinated.
Ben Carter, a water purification specialist who worked for KBR at Junction City, told Senate Democrats during hearnings in Washington, that KBR officials had assured him the water was being treated.
When Carter discovered a problem, he started tests and learned that the water drawn from the Euphrates and polluted with sewage and other contaminates, was not being chlorinated, as reported by Reuters.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 04:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 12, 2006
No Surprise - Contaminated Bottled Water
This blog has been saying to be careful about bottled water and where it comes from for a long time. Here is yet another example of why.
In Marrieta, OH, the tap water for some 1,000 residents was recently found to contain high quantities of C-8, a chemical used in the manufacture of Teflon. Dupont, which operates a plant in nearby Parkersburg, W. VA, has been ordered to install filters to control the contamination as the result of a class action suit.
Meanwhile, Dupont has supplied Crystal Spring Water as a bottled water the residents could use until the filters are in place. It turns out that the Crystal Spring bottled water also tests positive for the same carcinogen, C-8!, as reported by the Associated Press, and published by the Houston Chronicle.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 09:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 11, 2006
Now the Chinese get water pollution news out fast.
The domestic media coverage of the two recent spills suggests that the Songhua River scandal has created pressure on local China governments to stop concealing such potentially dangerous incidents and get the news out quickly.
Two new spills were reported in the past week along the Yellow River in northern China and on a tributary of the Yangtze River in southern China's Hunan Province.
"These things happen all the time, all over the place, probably on a weekly basis," said Elizabeth Economy, the author of "The River Runs Black," a recent book on China's environmental issues.
Local officials responding to the two new spills say neither has forced shutdowns of municipal water systems, as reported by The New York Times and published by the International Herald Tribune.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 05:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 05, 2006
Environmental author praises the use of shower filters
Linda Mason Hunter's new book, "Creating a Safe & Healthy Home", which is a guide to household health, has explained the need for shower filters.
Many homeowners filter drinking water, but Hunter said," it's just as important to remove any chlorine from water you shower in. The steam from a hot shower will contain chlorine if the water does," as reported by the DesMoines Register.
Water Filters R Us, Inc. offers two models of shower filters, the 2201 and the deluxe 2301C (pictured).
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 06:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 04, 2006
NW storms cause boil water order in Gold Beach, OR
Winter coastal rain and wind storms have caused Curry County Public Health officials to issue a boil water order to minimize possible health problems in Gold Beach, OR.
Due to the storms, the Rouge River, which reaches the Pacific Ocean at Gold Beach, is the source of drinking water for the costal community of 2,500 residents, has flooded. The flooding has caused an unacceptable level of turbidity, or cloudiness.
"This water condition has the potential to cause vomiting and diarrhea, so it is imperative that we are all particularly vigilant about boiling the water and protecting ourselves from illness," said Georganne Greene, Curry County Public Health Admistrator, as reported in the Curry County Reporter, Gold Beach, OR.
Water Filters R Us,Inc., based in Gold Beach, OR offers the models, 2900ctla, P3000sc, carbon block water filters, and the P3500ro, reverse osmosis system, all of which would eliminate the need to boil the water at this time.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 09:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack