We saw the 2008 Tony Award Best Play, "August: Osage County," a play lasting three hours with two intermissions, which keeps you so involved you want to see more. Needless to say, if you have the opportunity, this is a must see performance.

We also got to catch the JVC Jazz Festival, at Carnegie Hall, and a marvelous performance by Diana Reeves. Also performing, was Al Green, who put on a most unexpectedly enthusiastic and exciting performance.

We ate at the Carnegie Delicatessen, had Junior's Cheese Cake and shopped at Zabar's. All truly New York experiences.

We also got to visit our previous home in Clarksburg, NJ, and the upper west side of Broadway where my wife spent her childhood.

Still, it is good feeling to return to Oregon.

So, next week, I will resume posting about water issues, reported by Stephen Betheil, Water Secrets Blog.

"EPA is committed to taking action to bring aging sewer systems into compliance with the Clean Water Act," said Robert W. Varney, regional administrator for EPA's New England office. "This settlement will significantly improve water quality in the lower Housatonic River, helping to protect public health and the environment from the risks posed by sewer overflows."

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said, "Shelton's agreement is a victory for clean water and public health, halting sewage spills that have polluted the Housatonic River. This agreement means cleaner water, more fish and other wildlife and more people enjoying this scenic waterway."

Connecticut Dept. of Environmental Protection Commissioner Gina McCarthy said, "This case focuses our attention on the need for all levels of government to work together to protect water bodies and the public health. People expect that in this day and age, we will not have overflows of untreated raw sewage into one of this state's waterways. It is the responsibility of public officials at all levels of government to prevent this from occurring by seeking proper solutions to the management of storm water and sanitary sewer discharges."

Connecticut law allows for "penalties" to be used to fund environmental projects, the State's half of the penalty will be paid into a fund to be used to pay for environmentally beneficial projects, as reported by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Clay Johnson, a deputy director of the White House budget office, said, "We currently lack consistent information on the environment and natural resources to analyze national trends."

The Interior Department, Environmental Protection Agency, Forest Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were directed to develop the indicators.

"It would be nice if they put as much effort into protecting the environment as they are collecting the data to show how polluted it is," said Richard Wiles, executive director of the Environmental Working Group, which specializes in environmental databases. "There are plenty of data out there we can go to right now that will tell us everything we need to know to protect rivers and streams."

Interior, EPA, NOAA and other agencies have contributed $400,000 to $500,000 a year since 1997 to the private Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment to compile data for assessing ecosystems.

"This is such an infinitesimally small follow to such an ambitious 10-year endeavor," said Marty Spitzer, a senior fellow with the Heinz Center. Just yesterday, the center issued a report concluding that virtually all streams in the U.S. contain one or more contaminants, as reported by the Associated Press and published by the Washington Post.

The fuel for this revolutionary car is hydrogen mixed with air , uses no petroleum products, and the exhaust is water and heat. Over the next three years Honda will produce only 200 of the new cars, 150 of them to be sold in California. After this initial small production run the plan is to increase production when hydrogen filling stations became more common.

"Basically, we can mass produce these now," said Kazuaki Umezu, head of Honda's Automobile New Model Center, where the FCX Clarity is built. "We are waiting for the infrastructure to catch up."

"This is a must-have technology for the future of the earth," said Takeo Fukui, Honda's president. "Honda will work hard to mainstream fuel-cell cars."

Honda says its FCX Clarity can be filled easily at a pump, can drive 270 miles on a tank full. The FCX Clarity's fuel-cell unit can generate up to 100 kilowatts of electricity, enough to accelerate the car from zero to 60 miles an hour in less than nine seconds, and give it top speeds of 100 miles an hour, Honda says, as reported by the New York Times.

King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía opened the international exhibition, and it attracted 38,000 visitors on its first day.

Among the shows to have been grabbing the headlines is 'El Hombre Vertiente', a breathtaking 20-minute aerial theatre performance by Argentinian director, Pichon Baldinu. The performance depicts the "brutal battle for water," transporting the viewer to arid, desert lands that are the inevitable consequence of man's compulsion to control this vital resource.

The actress Belen Rueda performs in the 'Enjoyment of Water' show, which conveys the message that water provokes "emotions, joy, pleasure and life," according to joint artistic directors, Joan Lluis Bozzo and Cucki Pons.

The event has more than 5,000 cultural events in music, dance and theatre, as well as a Water Park with swimming pools, a sandy beach with palm trees, rapids, water chutes and a chill-out terrace, as reported by Think Spain.

When the drought first started, this largest beverage manufacturer, spent &1 million to construct two underground rainwater harvesting tanks, each capable of holding 1.75 million gallons of rainwater. The water is then used for production, for landscaping and toilet facilities, and for irrigating a neighborhood park and sports complex.

The company also replaced all water on production lines with Teflon or "dry-lube" coating to stop the bottles and cans from sticking to surfaces, which the company says saves more than 1.6 million gallons of water a year, as reported by the Environmental Leader.

The four settlements, which were filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia today, included that the four companies are to implement company-wide compliance programs that go beyond current regulatory requirements and put controls in place that will keep an estimated 1.2 billion pounds of sediment from polluting the nation's waterways each year.

The home builders included in the settlement are Centex Homes, based in Dallas; KB Home, based in Los Angeles; Pulte Homes, based in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.; and Richmond American Homes, based in Denver.

"EPA requires that construction sites obtain permits and take simple, basic steps to prevent pollutants from contaminating storm water and harming our nation's waterways," said Granta Y. Nakayama, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. "Today's settlement sets a new bar for the home building industry," as reported by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The claim is that the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has ignored the fact that sewage water is mixing with the drinking water pipes in a forty year old water supply system which needs replacing.

A resident of Federal Capital district, Mazhar Buttar said, "We have already been facing water shortage but now supply of contaminated water has further added to our worries." He said "We take drinking water from a filtration plant but some times due to load shedding we could not get water even from there." He questioned, "if CDA cannot replace or maintain the existing pipelines then why does it charge money from us on account of water bills."

When contacted, a CDA official said the water supply which comes from Simly Dam to the Federal Capital is filtered from two filtration plants, which he said are 25 to 30 years old. He said the broken or dilapidated pipelines are aggravating the situation, but CDA has installed water filtration plants in almost every sector of the Capital for provision of clean water to the citizens, as reported by the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP), and published by The Frontier Post.

"CDC is unwavering in its commitment to a green and sustainable environment and water conservation is an important component of such an environment," said CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding. "By signing thisagreement, CDC is saying we want to lead the way for others to follow and that's what we're going to continue to do."

The EPA launched the WaterSense Program in 2006 to stimulate more efficient use of water in homes and now, federal facilities. The voluntary partnership promotes water efficiency and market demand for water-efficient products and services that reduce stress on water systems and the environment. It was designed to be similar to the Energy Star Program, which promotes energy-efficient products.

"Every drop counts and every agency can do more to save water and energy," said EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Benjamin H. Grumbles. "EPA commends CDC for being such a strong partner of WaterSense and a national model for stewardship and sustainability," as reported by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Restaurants would only serve water when diners request a glass, and hotel guests would have the option of reusing towels.

Homeowners can water lawns only for 15 minutes a day, and never between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. They may not use a hose to wash down pavements or wash a car that does not have an automatic shut off. Failure to comply will result in fines ranging from $100 to $400.

This new proposal ammends the 1990 city ordinance, and includes the commonsense rule to ban watering when it is raining, is subject to approval by the LA city council, as reported by the Associated Press, and published by the San Francisco Chronicle.

"New Jersey and New York beaches are among the best and highest quality beaches in the world, and among the most extensively monitored," said Alan J. Steinberg, EPA Regional Administrator. "EPA's investments and year-round work with our federal, state and local partners has paid off, so that people who go to the beach can relax and enjoy all the beauty that New Jersey and New York's coastlines have to offer."

For example, working together with other federal, and state and local agencies, EPA's program to monitor for floating debris has been expanded to cover a wider area and will now operate seven days a week.

EPA's Coastal Water and Beach Program includes, floatables and surveillance overflights, rapid test method research, a shellfish bed monitoring program, dissolved oxygen monitoring, a beach monitoring & notification program, and total maximum daily loads and continuing assessment, as reported by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The study, led by Dr. Lorraine Backer of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that dogs are not susceptible to the chemicals, such as chlorine used to disinfect municipal water. Dogs don't gulp down a big glass of water like people often do, and their water usually sits in a bowl for hours, which allows the chemical concentrations to decrease over time. Also, dogs do not take long shower or baths, as reported by the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Taiwan's Economic Ministry's Water Resources Agency is forming a taskforce next week to study the proposal made by Kinmen County Commissioner Lee Chu-feng, according to Chen Shen-hsien, head of the agency, who supports the idea.

Kinmen, an island with 50,000 residents plus 50,000 troops, suffers with water shortages and poor water quality in its reservoirs, as a direct result of over-exploited groundwater.

China's official Xinhua News Agency quoted Ye Yinghui, manager of the Xiamen Tap Water Company, as saying that Xiamen was reiterating its offer to supply water to Kinmen, as reported by Deutsche Presse Agentur(DPA), and published by The Earth Times.

Iowa Department of Natural Resources Director Richard Leopold said," Much progress has been made to improve the state's water quality, but there's still more work to do."

"The grants will help communities build upon what has already been accomplished," he added.

The grants are from a partnership of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the Iowa Department of Agriculture, the USDA and the local Soil and Water Conservation Districts.

The water quality improvement projects are planned for Tama, Fayette, Poweshiek, Clinton, Shelby, Appanoose and Audubon counties, as reported by the Associated Press, and published by Business Week.

Expedited settlement agreements, which offer violators reduced penalties if they are able to quickly bring their facilities into compliance with federal regulations were used in this settlement.

The facilities sited are, in Riverside County, the Chuckawalla Valley State Prison Water Treatment Plant, and the Desert Water Agency Water Reclamation Facility, and in San Diego County, the Miramar Water Treatment Plant, and the Otay Water Treatment Plant, as reported by the Environmental Protection Agency.