Nuns argue fracking is a habit we can’t afford

By Nicole Hasham

”It’s not sensible to exploit the resources now and not bother what effect that might have for future generations.”

Theirs is a cloistered, holy life far from the whirl of Sydney, where the only sound some mornings is the flap of habits and the squawk of cockatoos.

And if nothing is more God-like than silence, what do the Discalced Carmelite nuns and friars of Varroville, near Camden, think of the prospect of coal seam gas drilling across NSW?

”To me it appears to be a slash and grab approach, get rich quick and – pardon this use of language – but to hell with the consequences,” Sister Jocelyn Kramer said.

”It’s not sensible to exploit the resources now and not bother what effect that might have for future generations.”

New state government rules on coal seam gas, including a two kilometre no-go zone around residential areas, came into force this month, thwarting moves by gas company AGL to drill for coal seam gas near thousands of homes in south-west Sydney, including a property next to the Carmelites’ monastery. But the new rules do not affect approved projects – including an AGL gasfield near Gloucester, bringing wells 300 metres from homes, and Santos’ Pilliga venture in the state’s north-west.

Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane last month moved to accelerate the industry in NSW and break the deadlock between the state government, farmers and gas companies, saying a gas shortage was looming and he wanted drill rigs going ”before Christmas”.

Sister Jocelyn, who has spent hours trawling through scientific reports and planning documents, said the effects of coal seam gas activity may extend further than two kilometres and the science behind the exclusion zones should be made public.

”When you are drilling underground, you really don’t know what effects you’re having in terms of subsidence, vibration, groundwater, soil … those are significant issues which our faith has something to say about,” Sister Jocelyn said.

”God created the world with integrity and beauty so that each part is interconnected. A little effect here will have another effect there.”

The Carmelites’ concerns are shared by North Sydney’s Sisters of St Joseph, who say the government should protect sensitive water catchments – a view backed by the Sydney Catchment Authority.

With its new rules in place, the state government will ”fully support mining proposals which are in the right places” and pass a ”rigorous” assessment. AGL argues that coal seam gas is a low-impact, low-risk industry which can ”comfortably coexist with other land uses” – but the love-thy-neighbour sentiment is not always returned.

”You’d have to love the people but not the operation,” Sister Jocelyn said.

”The institutions are human, and flawed in various ways. You have to uphold values that some people don’t pay a lot of attention to, and question the pursuit of wealth at all cost.”

Rethinking Big Water:

Is it time for a new approach to municipal water infrastructure?

By Erica Gies

October 21, 2013 — Las Vegas has long served as a stereotype of human excess: gambling, drinking, sex, all-you-can-eat buffets. But the latest chapter is playing out away from the Strip, in the part of the valley where two decades of booming development have swelled the population to 2 million residents who rely on a dwindling water supply.

Ninety percent of the southwestern U.S. city’s drinking water comes from the Colorado River, impounded behind Hoover Dam in Lake Mead. An extended drought has sucked the lake’s water levels down more than 100 feet since 2000, and the pipes that convey the lake’s water to the city may soon protrude into open air.

If Las Vegas’ excess in trying to support the water needs of millions in a sere valley marks an extreme, its proposed solution — boosting supply through megaprojects — is all too common. To ensure continued water delivery, the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which manages Las Vegas’ water supply, has spent the past five years boring a lower feed pipe through rock at a cost of $817 million. And to diversify supply, the SNWA also plans to spend another $3 billion to $15 billion (depending upon who’s counting) to build a 263-mile-long pipeline to bring in groundwater from rural northeastern Nevada.

Other massive water supply projects are being planned elsewhere in the U.S. Seventeen desalination plants have been proposed in California alone, according to the Pacific Institute, a non-governmental organization that conducts research and policy analysis. And Dallas–Fort Worth water authorities recently proposed a series of supply-boosting infrastructure projects that could cost $21.5 billion by 2060, according to Sharlene Leurig, senior manager of the water program at Ceres, an NGO that advocates for sustainable business.

The irony is that all this expense and financial risk may not even be necessary.

Water analysts such as Leurig say the persistent impulse to boost supply is an anachronism. Many utilities’ water supply managers believe they need to build new water supply infrastructure because they are using demand forecasts based upon historic use or tied to population growth, or don’t forecast demand at all.

Yet in some places, including southern California, Seattle, Dallas–Fort Worth, and even, yes, Las Vegas, water demand has either plateaued or declined even as population has expanded. “It’s mythology that population growth means increase in water use,” says Leurig. In fact, per capita demand has been decreasing throughout the United States since the 1980s.

Megaproject Mania

Historically humans tended to settle near fresh water; civilizations that relied instead upon extensive engineering to supply water usually faded away or moved on when they used up their supply or a changing environment made their precarious system unstable. Such examples are legion: The Khmer’s Angkor Wat in Cambodia. The Anasazi in New Mexico. The Maya in Central America.

Yet extensively engineered megaprojects such as the Los Angeles Aqueduct and the immense federal dams that clog rivers across the American West have built the contours of the country we know today. Thanks to water megaprojects, U.S. populations are booming in the driest areas, whereas water-rich communities such as Milwaukee, Wis., on the shores of Lake Michigan are losing people. Without Hoover Dam, Las Vegas would still be a tiny desert oasis. Without the LA Aqueduct, the City of Angels would remain a dusty outpost overshadowed by San Francisco. Millions of people live and thrive in places that are naturally inhospitable to humans.

In many cases, megaprojects aren’t sustainable from an environmental perspective. And they can quickly become financially unsustainable. Utilities that pursue water supply megaprojects do so at some risk because they can have unintended consequences, says Leurig. For one thing, even if a city genuinely needs new supply, megaprojects can stimulate new population growth and further exacerbate supply tensions — much as new highways beget more traffic.

Ironically, megaprojects can also reduce demand and thereby undermine the fiscal integrity of the utilities building them. This occurs when the rate hikes required to pay off the project become an economic driver that encourages water consumers to conserve.

The Las Vegas water utility has already run into trouble with its new pipe from Lake Mead — known locally as “the third straw.” Ratings agencies downgraded nearly $2 billion of debt in 2011 amid declining water revenues, according to a December 2012 report from Ceres. Similarly, Moody’s put Colorado Springs’ water utility on watch for a possible downgrade for awhile in 2012, thanks in part to a nearly $1.5 billion capital program to funnel water from the Arkansas River, a tributary of the Mississippi.

Desalination plants are at risk of fueling this cycle because they produce particularly expensive water. A $158 million plant in Tampa Bay, Fla., completed in 2008 at $40 million over budget, is being undermined by lower-than-projected demand and cheaper alternative water sources, according to a November 2012 Pacific Institute report on desalination plant financing. As a result the plant often operates below capacity, yet water customers must still pay for it on their bills.

Another desalination plant permitted for Carlsbad, Calif., may never get built for the same reasons. High costs — ballooning from $300 million in 2002 to nearly $1 billion in late 2011 — and the availability of less-expensive alternatives have brought into question the wisdom of project financing, according to a recent report by the local San Diego County Water Authority.

So, what are those less expensive alternatives? Chief among them are conservation and reuse.

Cheapest by Far

Conservation is actually a source of water — and it’s the cheapest by far. An analysis in San Diego County [PDF] found water conservation and efficiency cost from $150 to $1,000 per acre-foot, whereas desalination costs $1,800 to $2,800 per acre-foot. And there’s plenty of water available in the conservation bucket: The average American uses more than twice as much water [PDF] as the average Frenchman, Austrian, Dane or German, according to a 2006 U.N. report.

More efficient technologies and policies that require their use are already causing demand to decline. For example, plumbing codes throughout the U.S. now require 1.6-gallon or dual-flush toilets rather than the old 6-gallon standard. Front-loading washing machines use less water than their predecessors. The economic shift from manufacturing toward services is also cutting water use across the country.

Many utilities are pushing consumption further downward with maintenance and conservation programs. The U.S. General Accounting Office found that U.S. cities lose one-fifth of their water to leaks, so utilities can gain a lot of water — and reduce the need for megaprojects — just by repairing infrastructure and replacing leaking pipes and faulty meters. These projects are doubly smart because the longer infrastructure repair is deferred, the more it will ultimately cost.

On the consumer side, enticements or regulations can stop people from cleaning their sidewalks with a hose, limit car washing or nudge them to swap out lawns for drought-tolerant plants.

 

Many utilities are pushing consumption further downward with maintenance and conservation programs. The U.S. General Accounting Office found that U.S. cities lose one-fifth of their water to leaks, so utilities can gain a lot of water — and reduce the need for megaprojects — just by repairing infrastructure and replacing leaking pipes and faulty meters. These projects are doubly smart because the longer infrastructure repair is deferred, the more it will ultimately cost.

On the consumer side, enticements or regulations can stop people from cleaning their sidewalks with a hose, limit car washing or nudge them to swap out lawns for drought-tolerant plants.

The paradox facing water districts is how to create a rate structure that continues to incentivize conservation but also covers costs.More utilities are also using tiered pricing to encourage conservation, charging customers increasingly more per unit of water as their water use increases. The first, say, 5,000 gallons are inexpensive. But the next 5,000 gallons will cost more, and so on.

The paradox facing water districts is how to create a rate structure that continues to incentivize conservation but also covers costs. A typical water bill addresses both fixed costs, for infrastructure investments, and variable costs, which depend upon the amount of water used. One way to increase revenue security is to hike the percentage of the bill that goes to fixed costs. Tilt too far toward fixed costs, however, and utilities lose their power to influence demand. Finding that elusive balance is critical.

Utilities that plan longer term will understand that conservation ultimately benefits their balance sheets, says Mary Ann Dickinson, president and CEO of the Chicago-based Alliance for Water Efficiency.

The San Antonio Water System operates with this understanding. Conservation rises to the top of project choices because “our models presume that water conservation is a supply,” says Karen Guz, SAWS’ director of conservation. The utility compares costs for water conservation programs with new supply costs, which illustrates the fiscal advantage of conservation programs. San Antonio’s per capita consumption was 143 gallons last year; SAWS’ goal is to decrease per capita by 2 gallons per year between now and 2020.

Las Vegas, too, is seeing the wisdom in conservation. Residents currently use 219 gallons per capita per day; Las Vegas Valley Water District’s goal is to reduce that figure to 199 by 2035.

Recycled Water

A second alternative to new supply is reuse. Wastewater from one use may be clean enough to use for another purpose. Or water may be treated to less than drinking water standards and then put to another purpose, reducing the need to bring new water into the system.

San Antonio has perhaps the largest such direct-use water recycling program in the United States. Treated wastewater is discharged into the San Antonio River that wends through downtown along the famous Riverwalk. It’s then used to water golf courses and a local park and to supply local manufacturers.

Industry, businesses and homes can also capture and reuse their own water. Such “distributed water” supply became possible as technological improvements shrank the physical footprint of water treatment plants as well as their energy consumption and cost, says David Henderson, a founding partner of XPV Capital, a Toronto-based venture capital firm that invests exclusively in water projects.

“We can now build wastewater plants in a manufacturing facility and then ship them,” says Henderson, who says that such plants can serve off-grid users.

Some distributed users still draw water from utilities but get more than one use before sending it into the wastewater stream. For example, office buildings that use water cooling towers for climate control are starting to recycle the cooling water on site, says Henderson, periodically cleaning it so it can be run through further cycles.

San Francisco residents are installing simple “gray water” systems to route waste streams from, say, dishwasher drainage to gardens, where they can be used to water plants. A training program for residents sponsored by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission teaches people how to install these systems. New construction in San Francisco; Irvine, Calif.; and other cities is beginning to use “purple pipes,” essentially a second plumbing system that transports nonpotable water from, say, shower drainage to the toilet for flushes.

Cultural Shift

Specific usage innovations and efficient technologies are important in increasing conservation and reuse and reducing the need for megaprojects. But more critical is the cultural shift currently underway among water utilities, away from heavy engineering and toward soft path management.

By adopting xeriscaping and other water conservation strategies, Tucson, Ariz., residents have reduced their daily water draw from 200 gallons per person in the 1980s to 130 gallons today.

Water utilities are an engineering-dominated world, points out Juliet Christian-Smith, a senior research associate with the Pacific Institute. “They know how to build pipelines, canals and water treatment plants.” However, a huge generational turnover is on the cusp, she says. “It’s a great opportunity because we have a whole different series of knowledge areas coming in. Most people who are recent college graduates will have some kind of environmental science or ecology exposure and maybe even some sustainable management training,” she says.

Also critical to the culture shift is more accurate demand management and more effective utility rate structures. The Alliance for Water Efficiency is writing a handbook, due out in June 2014, about how to design a conservation-oriented rate structure and stabilize revenue at the same time. Ceres and Pacific Institute are also working on this problem.

“If they’re panicked about declining sales and feel they’re not meeting their operational costs, they’ll cut conservation out of fear that they can’t afford it,” says Dickinson, “but it’s the most affordable solution.”

The alliance is already working with 300 utilities and plans an extensive outreach campaign after the publication of the new handbook.

Dickinson points to Australia as an example of a western country that, in response to major drought, dramatically improved the sustainability of its water management.

“There’s a lot more we can do to free up water supply from waste,” she said.

Source: Ensia.com.

Pure Water Gazette Fair Use Statement

With Great Lakes stuck at historic lows, talk turns to adapting

By Nick Manes and Joe Boomgaard

Adsorption of Water Contaminants: How Filter Carbon Works

According to the Wikipedia,  “Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms, ions, or molecules from a gas, liquid, or dissolved solid to a surface.  This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the surface of the adsorbent. This process differs from absorption, in which a fluid (the absorbate) permeates or is dissolved by a liquid or solid (the absorbent).  Note that adsorption is a surface-based process while absorption involves the whole volume of the material.”

Explained more graphically:

This man has adsorbed a pie.

This man is absorbing a pie.

In water treatment, activated carbon is the main adsorbing agent.  This is true because filter carbon has an amazing amount of surface area and a strong ability to attract and hold organic chemicals.  Most of the surface area is internal.

Enlargement of granular carbon shows countless pores that adsorb contaminants. The surface area of the pores is exceptional. A single pound of activated carbon has more surface area in its pores than 100 football fields. 

Carbon’s amazing ability to adsorb organic chemicals varies according to the chemical in question and conditions of the water. In general, chemicals of high molecular weight and low solubility are most easily adsorbed.  The lower the concentration of the chemical, the higher the adsorption rate by carbon.  Also, the fewer the interfering organic compounds present in the water the better.  The pH of the water is also significant, with acidic compounds being most readily adsorbed at low pH.  And, as with most other aspects of water filtration, rate of flow of the water being treated is extremely important with carbon adsorption. The more residence time the better.

In regard to specific chemicals, one source lists dozens of common chemicals and ranks them according to the likelihood that they will be removed by carbon adsorption.  Here are a few of the more common items from the list:

Very High Probability of Adsorption: Atrazine, Malathion, 1, 3-dichlorobenzene,  DDT, Lindade.

High Probability of Adsorption: Toluene, styrene, benzene, carbon tetrachloride, vinyl acetate,  phenol.

Moderate Probability of Adsorption: Chloroform, vinyl chloride, acetic acid.

Unlikely to be adsorbed by carbon:  Isopropyl alcohol, dimethylformaldehyde, propylene.

It should be remembered that although carbon has great chemical reduction capacity because of its ability to attract and hold chemicals on its surface,  it acts in other ways as well.  Chlorine, for example, is reduced mainly by catalytic reaction with the carbon, not by the “grab and hold” process of adsorption.

Old bathtubs found to pose lead exposure risks for children

   by Valerie Wigglesworth

Eric and Laura Rudeseal had already started tearing out the baseboards and door frames in their Arlington home when they realized there might be lead-based paint.

With two young children and a third on the way, they recognized the need for safety while remodeling the 1964 home Eric Rudeseal grew up in.

They tried a home test kit but still weren’t sure whether they were dealing with lead. So they ordered blood tests for 2-year-old Trevor and 6-year-old Kassidy. Results indicated both had been exposed to the toxic heavy metal. But to their surprise, paint wasn’t the source.

A  lead testing kit can show spots where lead is present in bathtubs.

After a lot of expense and help from an expert, they found the problem: their bathtubs.

Dean Lovvorn, a Plano-based lead risk assessor, specializes in finding the source of low-level lead exposure in children. He said the No. 1 source today is still lead-based paint, even though it has been banned since 1978. But he’s finding through his work in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that bathtubs are the second most common culprit.

The lead comes from cast iron or steel tubs coated with a porcelain glaze. As the glaze wears down from age and use, the lead in the glaze can leach into bath water. Young children who drink bathwater or put their wet hands or toys in their mouths during bath time are at greatest risk.

There is no safe level of lead exposure in children. Even a small amount can cause damage that lasts a lifetime.

Exposure is measured through a blood test. A blood lead level of less than 5 in children can cause decreased academic achievement and a lowered IQ as well as problem behaviors and attention deficit disorders. Blood lead levels less than 10 in children have been linked to delayed puberty, decreased IQ and decreased hearing.

Tests in August showed Trevor and Kassidy had lead levels of 4.4 and 4.5. They had been taking baths when they stayed overnight at the home while their parents did the remodeling. A separate test also showed lead leaching from the bathtub in their existing Arlington home.

“It was kind of a surprise,” said Laura Rudeseal, who is familiar with lead poisoning because of her training as a registered nurse. She said she’d never heard of the dangers from old bathtubs.

Her children only take showers now. The couple hope to eventually replace the tubs in their home to remove any risk from lead.

“It’s infuriating to me that it’s still an issue,” Eric Rudeseal said.

Tamara Rubin knows well the dangers of lead. Two of her sons have brain damage from lead poisoning suffered in 2005 due to unsafe practices by a painting contractor. She has since founded the nonprofit Lead Safe America Foundation and is putting the finishing touches on a documentary, MisLEAD: America’s Secret Epidemic, which will be released next year.

She said she often finds bathtubs tainted with lead — they are everywhere. Yet people don’t know about the risks.

“It’s always tested as a last resort in a family that has an exposed child,” she said.

The use of porcelain glazes containing lead is not regulated, although many American companies have voluntarily stopped using them. The Healthy Homes and Lead Safety group, which is based in North Carolina, states that some manufacturers were using lead in the glaze of certain bathtubs as recently as 1995.

Adding to the problem is the number of building supply centers that recycle old bathtubs for installation in newer homes, Rubin said.

Lovvorn’s 1992 Plano home has a tub that leaches lead. The 1977 home in Dallas’ Lake Highlands area where his daughter and grandchildren live also has a lead-glazed tub.

Officials with the Texas Department of State Health Services say lead found in the glazes of bathtubs is a potential hazard, but it’s unclear how much of a hazard.

A home test kit available in the paint section of most hardware stores can detect the presence of lead. Lovvorn is quick to point out that the chemicals in the test kit may permanently stain the bathtub. He recently covered his daughter’s tub with pink and red blotches while sampling for lead. It serves as a reminder, he said, to keep the kids out.

National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, which starts Sunday, aims to raise awareness about lead poisoning and the risks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers it the most preventable environmental disease among young children.

Rubin said what’s most surprising is how uneducated people are about the risks from lead poisoning. Most of the lead hazard information is directed at low-income families, but lead poisoning strikes at every income level, she said.

“Education needs to have a broader base,” Rubin said. “That’s why I made the film, because I wanted to reach out to the whole country and not just limit it to low-income families.”

Many children exposed to lead will not show any obvious symptoms. That’s why some health experts recommend that all children be tested.

The state of Texas requires lead testing only for children on Medicaid and those living in targeted neighborhoods with a large number of older homes. But even those children aren’t always tested.

“If all children had their blood tested, they would see a big outcry,” Lovvorn said.

Pure Water Gazette Fair Use Statement

Source: Dallas Morning News

Not far from Lake Michigan, city yearns for water

By JOHN FLESHER, AP Environmental Writer

WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — Lake Michigan is just 15 miles from this city of 70,000 in the Milwaukee suburbs. But these days it seems like a gigantic, shimmering mirage, tantalizingly out of reach.

The aquifer that has provided most of Waukesha’s drinking water for the last century has dropped so far that what’s left has unhealthy levels of radium and salt. The city would like to draw from the Great Lakes, just as more than 40 million people in eight states — from Minnesota to New York — and two Canadian provinces do every day.

If only it were that simple.

This photo taken Sept. 13, 2013, shows Hobo Spring, located in a park in Waukesha, Wis. It was among many springs in Waukesha, which once was famous for its mineral-rich waters, but the city is now seeking permission to draw from Lake Michigan to meet its needs. The aquifer that has provided most of Waukesha’s drinking water for the last century has dropped so far that what’s left has unhealthy levels of radium and salt. The city would like to draw from the Great Lakes, but the states with rights to it have always guarded them jealously and aren’t in a generous mood after more than a decade of abnormally low levels. Their permission is required to tap in from outside the watershed, and approval for Waukesha _ which lies barely on the wrong side of the line _ is far from certain

Though the lakes are so vast they hold one-fifth of all the fresh water on the earth’s surface, the states with rights to it have always guarded them jealously and aren’t in a generous mood after more than a decade of abnormally low levels. Their permission is required to tap in from outside the watershed, and approval for Waukesha — which lies barely on the wrong side of the line — is far from certain.

The ban on piping Great Lakes water beyond the boundary was established five years ago to keep the drought-stricken Sun Belt from siphoning off the region’s greatest resource. But it’s also creating winners and losers in the economically strained states around the lakes.

Waukesha’s request is a test case of whether the ban will cause neighbor-versus-neighbor clashes as cities in the Midwest fight for any advantage in luring jobs and people. Many hope to build economies around water-based technology, even as heightened demand and climate change create shortages.

A recent report identified at least seven other cities in Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio that are in the same predicament as Waukesha and may come calling for lake water.

“The Great Lakes aren’t a cooler full of water to parcel out,” said Joel Brammeier, president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, which produced it. “They’re a globally unique ecosystem.”

Waukesha’s leaders say the city’s future depends on tapping the lake.

“It doesn’t make sense to locate a business in a place that doesn’t have safe drinking water,” said Brian Nemoir of the Waukesha County Business Alliance.

What separates the haves from the have-nots is a curving watershed boundary that encircles the five inland seas, edging almost to their shores in some places and more than 100 miles away in others. Hard-luck Waukesha is a scant 1.5 miles west of it, in the Mississippi River drainage basin.

But because it’s in a county that straddles the line, Waukesha could qualify for an exception, according to the region’s water use rules. The challenge is convincing the states.

Waukesha is a bustling community that’s home to several small colleges and large manufacturers including medical equipment maker GE Healthcare. Its tree-lined downtown sidewalks run past a pleasant mix of restaurants, taverns and shops, some with painted murals celebrating electric guitar pioneer and native son Les Paul.

Years ago, its mineral-rich springs drew streams of visitors — former President Ulysses Grant and Mary Todd Lincoln among them — in search of their reputed healing powers. A plot to pipe Waukesha water to Chicago for the 1893 world’s fair was foiled when outraged locals repelled a trainload of laborers.

But development and pumping took their toll.

Under a federal order to find a new source, the city is applying to use 10.1 million gallons a day from Lake Michigan. A veto by just one of the eight states would scuttle the request.

Waukesha also could draw from the Fox River, which flows through town, but that would damage wetlands, and the river’s flow is unreliable, said Dan Duchniak, general manager of the Waukesha Water Utility. Other options, including desalination, would be hugely expensive.

The request is the equivalent of “a teaspoon out of an Olympic-sized swimming pool,” said Duchniak, which no one disputes.

But some skeptics suggest Waukesha wants a license to sprawl and others fear setting a precedent for countless other communities.

“If you do it for one, why shouldn’t you do it for another?” said Keith Hobbs, mayor of Thunder Bay, Ontario, a city on Lake Superior.

The resistance illustrates how attitudes about water differ between regions, said Noah Hall, a Wayne State University law professor who helped draft the water use compact.

In the Southwest, people believe in hauling resources where they’re needed. In the Great Lakes, he said. “Our culture and our legal system are based on keeping the water where it naturally occurs and using it where it’s found.”

There is also the economic rivalry between Milwaukee and its suburbs, which some feel have siphoned off jobs from the city.

The lake states are mostly noncommittal now, said Tim Eder of the Great Lakes Commission.

“They will be very cautious about tipping their hand until they have to.”

Article Source:  SF Gate.

Pure Water Gazette Fair Use Statement

Chlorination of Water–History and Practice  

by Pure Water Annie

A new instalment in Gazette Technical Writer Pure Water Annie’s Water Treatment 101 Series

Not all micro-organisms found in water are harmful to human health.  In fact, most are not.  There are, however, disease-causing micro-organisms that we have learned to protect ourselves against.  These are called pathogens.

Pathogens in raw water from rivers, lakes and wells can be transmitted to humans who consume the water causing waterborne diseases. Today some 80% of the developing world’s illness can be attributed to waterborne pathogens and poor sanitation.

In municipal water treatment, chlorination can and often does take place at various points in the treatment process. Chlorine can be added at the very beginning of the treatment process  to eliminate algae and other forms of aquatic life so that they will not interfere with the equipment in later stages of the treatment.

If chlorine is added in the next stage when water is in sedimentation tanks, where solids are allowed to settle from the raw water,  it  will also oxidize any iron, manganese and/or hydrogen sulfide that are present, so that they, too, can be removed in the sedimentation and filtration stages.

Disinfection with chlorine can also be done just after the sedimentation phase but before filtration.   This accomplishes the same goal but does not protect equipment during sedimentation.

The most common point of chlorination, however,  is at the final stage of treatment so that the chlorine can disinfect the treated water and keep it pathogen-free as it travels through the distribution system.  Chlorine can also be added along the way to the final user to maintain the proper chlorine residual.  Chlorinating water that is already treated is more economical because less chlorine is required after unwanted organisms have been removed by sedimentation and filtration.

Chlorine had been in use for several decades before it was learned that when chlorine combines with organics in water a large number of spin-off chemicals are formed.  These unwanted by-products of chlorination are called THMs, which stands for trihalomethanes, or sometimes DBPs, which stands for disinfection by-products. Many are cancer causers and are monitored by the EPA.  Many municipal water supplies are now switching from chlorine to chloramine as their disinfectant in an effort to meet EPA standards for trihalomethanes.

Lake Roosevelt: The dam-made lake holding a century of pollution

 Editor’s Note:  The story of Lake Roosevelt illustrates the power that large business interests have in avoiding their obligations.  In this case, slag containing zinc, mercury, and arsenic has been dumped for decades into the Columbia River in spite of repeated efforts by natives to stop the pollution.  The polluter has profited hundreds of millions of dollars while paying a pittance for cleaning up its mess. –Hardly Waite.

INCHELIUM — Imagine bringing your kids to the lake and wondering if they’d be better off at home, watching TV.

Or washing your garden-grown vegetables and wondering if it would be healthier to eat canned ones.

Or digging for clams and mussels and wondering if they’re laden with lead and zinc, mercury and arsenic.

These are the worries of some who live along the upper Columbia River, especially Lake Roosevelt, a 150-mile-long stretch of the Columbia River, and the repository for much of the 10 million tons of slag that a Canadian smelter just north of the border dumped into the river for decades.

Over the last 20 years, several studies have been done to find out if Lake Roosevelt’s water is safe to swim in, its beaches are safe to play on, and its fish are safe to eat. So far, only a fish advisory warns people to limit the number of fish they eat. But additional risk assessments are needed before the issues to human health are known.

Studies are now under way to test the toxins in river sediment. More studies are planned to test for heavy metals in upland soils polluted from years of fallout from the smelter’s smokestacks.

 Black Sand Beach on Lake Roosevelt.  Officials look at new slag that had gathered there since the beach was cleaned up in 2010.

So far, everyone agrees that visitors on this popular camping lake have little to worry about.

But officials from the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation say that doesn’t mean it’s safe — day in and day out for years on end — to eat food grown in nearby soils, create steam with its water for a sweat lodge, or let children play in its sand every day, as if this were just any sand.

“We just want to see the river cleaned up, and I would like to think this is the vision of everybody that’s close to this,” said Michael Finley, chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.

Last December, a federal judge ruled that Teck Metals Inc., which has operated a smelter in Trail, B.C., for more than a century, is is liable under U.S. law for assessing pollutants in the lake. But with the court process still incomplete, tribal officials worry Teck will continue to fight the ruling, and it will be years before any real cleanup begins.

“We haven’t really begun to wrap our arms around how big this is,” Finley said of the looming cleanup. He said the Colvilles have taken the lead to push for action out of a concern for future generations. “My kids, my grandkids and everybody else who’s going to make use of the river” will benefit.

Finley said despite lean budgets, the Colville Business Council has always voted to continue to fund the studies and legal battle to restore Lake Roosevelt. “We are up to tens of millions of dollars since it started. We’re going to continue to fund it until we get the resolution we think we’re going to get.”

The push for cleanup

It’s been 14 years since the Colville Tribes petitioned the federal government to clean up Lake Roosevelt.

After an initial investigation, the Environmental Protection Agency issued an order in 2003 to Teck Cominco Metals under the U.S. Superfund law requiring it to fund studies and clean up the river. Now called Teck Metals Ltd., the Canadian company’s zinc and lead smelter in Trail, B.C., is among the world’s largest.

When the company didn’t respond to EPA’s order, Colville Tribal leaders filed a lawsuit against Teck for failing to comply with the federal order.

Last year — nine years after the lawsuit was filed — U.S. District Court Judge Lonny Suko found that for 65 years, Teck intentionally polluted the Columbia River, and that company officials knew that heavy metals from their smelter and refining operation would settle out in this dam-made lake in the United States.

Suko also found that Teck knew its actions would likely cause harm, and determined that the company is liable to the Colville Tribes and to Washington state for assessing, and — if necessary — cleaning up the pollution.

Even by the early 1990s, when Washington state and EPA officials started pressuring Teck to stop dumping slag into the river, Teck did not stop, Suko wrote. “Profits were ‘excellent’ — $100 million per year — and it continued to discard slag at a rate of 400 tons per day and sewer effluent flowed from its facility 24 hours a day,” his findings state.

Company officials, he wrote, “recognized that Trail had, essentially, been using Lake Roosevelt as a ‘free’ ‘convenient disposal facility’ for its wastes.”

The slag dumping came to an end in 1995. “Teck was forced to cease slag river discharge when the government of Canada investigated the toxicity of its slag and demanded that it stop,” Suko wrote.

David Godlewski, vice president of environment and public affairs for Teck American Inc., said the company has spent over $55 million on studies and cleanup efforts since a 2006 agreement with the EPA to work on reclaiming Lake Roosevelt under Superfund laws, without admitting liability.

He said the studies have been thorough and complex, and numerous parties have been involved, adding to the length of time it’s taken. “As a company, we’ve never missed a deadline on anything we’ve submitted,” he said, adding, “My goal is to make sure we fulfill the settlement agreement.”

Finley said that agreement was made without input from the Colville Tribes, and is taking the bite out of their ability to force compliance through their recent court victory. Nearly a year after Suko’s decision, he and other tribal officials remain frustrated that cleanup still seems like a distant dream.

The magnitude of pollution

Suko’s ruling confirmed that Teck dumped at least 9.97 million tons of slag into the Columbia River between 1930 and 1995.

At least 8.7 million tons of it traveled into Washington. The other 1 million tons is still in Canada, and continues to make its way south. After years of disputing it, Teck admitted that the slag is not inert, but continues to leach toxins into the water.

State and federal officials say it’s hard to describe the magnitude of pollution from the smelter.

“I think the facts speak for themselves,” said Mary Sue Wilson, a senior assistant for the state Attorney General. “We’re talking about such high volumes, over a long period of time, and it all ended up in the upper Columbia River, and Lake Roosevelt. Just given the nature of the substances and the high volume, it is of significant concern to the state,” she said.

The state joined the Colvilles early in the case. It has taken longer than most, Wilson said, largely because the pollution originated in Canada, so they had to convince a federal judge that the company is still liable under U.S. law.

“It’s been a priority for the state, and I think, worth the effort,” she added.

Studies so far have focused largely on human health issues.

In 2009, the state Department of Health conducted what it called “the most extensive and thorough chemical monitoring effort in Washington state to date,” evaluating data on 385 chemicals from some 2,300 fish samples, including nine species taken from six areas on Lake Roosevelt. The advisory found that mercury and PCBs were found in high enough levels to recommend limited meals, ranging from 2 meals of large-scale suckers per month, to three Kokanee per week. Those levels are slightly higher than levels seen in other fished waters in the northeastern part of the state, the agency says.

In other studies, the state Department of Health concluded that people can touch, breath or accidentally eat sand from its beaches, assuming they are exposed only two days a week for four months, or 35 days a year. Dust in the air when lake levels are low, and the wind picks up slag dust has not yet been evaluated.

Water from three water systems around the lake were deemed safe for drinking, cooking, and showering or bathing.

Brook Beeler, spokeswoman for the state Department of Ecology, said even if no human health issues are identified, Lake Roosevelt and its shores are polluted, and need to be cleaned up.

“There’s been damage to the environment, and it’s our job to protect that, and make sure it gets restored, the best it can be,” she said.

Beeler said that the issue impacts more than just the Colville Tribes. “It’s part of a larger watershed,” she said. The Columbia River basin, she said, “is a huge state resource.”

If it’s polluted, people won’t go there to fish or recreate. “It’s not just for the people who live around there,” she said. “It impacts our economy.”

At Black Sand Beach, just three miles south of Canada, Teck paid to have 9,100 tons of sand removed and replaced with clean sand in 2010. Although the site was never deemed a public hazard, its black sand is the result of decades of slag deposits. Tribal officials say it’s the only place on the 150-mile long lake where any cleanup has occurred. And already three years later, evidence of continued slag deposits can be seen in the water and along the shoreline.

Lake Roosevelt is not a Superfund site, but due to a 2006 agreement between Teck and theEPA, it is being assessed under Superfund laws.

But there are still many studies to conduct, including an in-depth look at heavy metals in surrounding soils that is now underway, said Laura Buelow, EPA’s project manager for the site.

A study on metal concentrations in mussels and crayfish may occur in 2015, she said. There may also be follow-up studies to conduct. “By the time we have a document out with a risk assessment, we’re looking at another five-plus years,” she said.

She said 10 million tons of slag that Teck dumped into the Columbia River system is certainly a lot by any standards. “The big question is, really, how hazardous is that? That is what we’re working on.”

Source: The Wenatchee World.

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Argentina Blindly Exploiting Groundwater, Scientists Warn

Reprinted from TierraAmerica.

BUENOS AIRES, Oct 10 2013 (IPS) – Half of Argentina is supplied with water by invisible underground aquifers, which are crucial in the country’s arid and semi-arid regions, experts say. But Tierramérica discovered that nobody – not even the government – has any accurate scientific data on these groundwater reserves.

Beyond the Guaraní Aquifer, the vast underground body of fresh water shared by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, little is known about the groundwater reserves of this country with a wealth of highly visible water resources, including the rivers of the Rio de la Plata Basin, Iguazú Falls, and the majestic glaciers of Patagonia.

The Guaraní Aquifer became well known due to a monitoring planfunded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), “but in Argentina there are other aquifers that are exploited much more intensively” and support regional economies, said Ofelia Tujchneider, a geologist from the National University of the Littoral.

In arid places like Tilcara, in the Quebrada de Humahuaca, Jujuy, groundwater reserves play a crucial role.

In terms of the quantity and quality of its water, the most important is the Puelches aquifer, which lies beneath part of the province of Buenos Aires, in eastern Argentina, Córdoba in the centre of the country, and Santa Fe in the northeast.

According to the Environmental Atlas of Buenos Aires, the depth of the Puelches aquifer ranges from 40 to 120 metres, and it supplies 9,900 cubic metres of water a day. It is located between the Pampeano aquifer, which is closer to the surface, and the deeper Paraná aquifer, whose water is salty and used primarily by industry.

In the eastern region of the country are the Ituzaingó, Salto and Salto Chico aquifers. And in the province of Neuquén, in the western part of the southern region of Patagonia, groundwater reserves provide water for the oil, gas and mining industries, explained Mario Hernández, a hydrogeologist from the National University of La Plata.

There are also aquifers in the southern province of Santa Cruz. And in the northwest, an arid region with little rainfall, these groundwater deposits are recharged by river water.

In the western provinces of Mendoza and San Juan, water is supplied primarily by underground reserves. As a result, the aquifers here are studied and protected, and subject to regular monitoring, because the local wine industry depends on the water they provide.

“Groundwater resources play a key role in arid and semi-arid regions. If it weren’t for the aquifers, massive engineering works would be needed to supply water for irrigation or residential use,” Tujchneider told Tierramérica.

Groundwater is abundant, of good quality, tends to be better protected from pollution, and can be found in large volumes even beneath arid, desertified or desert areas.

The Rio de la Plata Basin encompasses 85 percent of the country’s surface water resources, according to the book “Agua: Panorama general en Argentina” (Water: A general overview in Argentina), published by the non-governmental organisation Green Cross. But this network of rivers only extends to 33 percent of the country, in the northeast, and flows into the large estuary that gives the basin its name and empties into the Atlantic Ocean.

Much of the rest of the country is arid or semi-arid, with areas where the available water supply is less than 1,000 cubic metres per person per year, the measure used to define water scarcity by the United Nations Development Programme.

In 2010, 82.6 percent of the population, currently estimated at 41 million, was served by the drinking water supply system.

According to Hernández, half of the country is supplied with water by aquifers, which provide water for the irrigation of cereal and grain crops as well as the industrial and mining sectors and a large share of household consumption.

However, he stressed to Tierramérica, there are no accurate measurements or statistics on Argentina’s groundwater reserves.

The only available data is from a 2000 World Bank report, which estimated that groundwater resources account for 35 percent of the water used for irrigation, livestock farming, industry and household consumption.

Tujchneider believes that the current level of groundwater use is “quite a lot higher than 35 percent,” particularly because of an increase in irrigation and in rice production in recent years.

However, because of the lack of recognition of the immense value of this resource, there is a danger that groundwater reserves can become contaminated with agrochemicals, industrial waste or wastewater, or that they will be exploited beyond their recharge capacity.

The water stored in an aquifer may have been there for a very long time. If it is extracted without limits, it could run out, as is already happening in Mendoza, warned Tujchneider.

Hernández noted that aquifers are “more protected from contamination than surface water” but they are also “more fragile, and once they are contaminated, they are much more difficult to clean up than rivers.”

“There is a lack of knowledge. They are not valued, and they don’t teach about them in schools. Children think that water comes from a tap,” he commented.

The Federal National Groundwater Plan aims to put an end to this lack of visibility, said its coordinator, Jorge Santa Cruz, who has a PhD in natural sciences and headed up the studies on the Guaraní Aquifer. The first step will be the organisation of diagnostic workshops in the country’s different provinces, he told Tierramérica.

The objectives of the plan, which is being overseen by the Undersecretariat of Water Resources, include the development of a database of hydrogeological data so that aquifers are viewed as reserves of a resource that is “known, predictable and reliable,” even if it cannot be seen.

* This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network.

Source:  TierraAmerica.

Pure Water Gazette Fair Use Statement

High Nitrate Levels Found in Groundwater

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Nitrate was detected at high concentrations in 10 percent of the aquifer system used for public supply in coastal areas of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey report. Trace elements, such as naturally occurring arsenic and molybdenum, were found at high concentrations in 27 percent of the aquifer system. In comparison, elsewhere in California high concentrations of nitrate have generally been found in less than 1 to 8 percent of the groundwater used for public supply, and trace elements in 6 to 28 percent.

As part of a statewide study assessing groundwater quality, scientists analyzed untreated groundwater from wells — not treated tap water. Groundwater is typically treated by water distributors prior to delivering it to customers to ensure compliance with water quality standards.

For this study, “high” concentrations are defined as being above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s or California Department of Public Health’s established Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs), or above other nonregulatory health-based levels for chemicals without MCLs.

“High nitrate concentrations have been detected in eight to 15 percent of the aquifer system used for public supply in other groundwater basins located in the South Coast and Transverse Ranges, so it was not surprising that high nitrate was prevalent in this area,” said Carmen Burton, a USGS hydrologist and author of the report prepared in collaboration with the California State Water Resources Control Board.

The trace elements most commonly detected at high concentrations were arsenic and molybdenum. Arsenic was detected at concentrations greater than the MCL in 7 percent of the aquifer system. Molybdenum was detected at concentrations greater than the nonregulatory EPA health advisory level in 25 percent.

Elevated concentrations of nitrate generally occur as a result of human activities, such as applying fertilizer to crops or landscaping. Septic systems, as well as livestock in concentrated numbers, also produce nitrogenous waste that can leach into groundwater. Arsenic and molybdenum are naturally present in rocks and soils and in the water that comes in contact with those materials. The Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment Priority Basin Project has found that high molybdenum concentrations are more prevalent in the southern part of the South Coast Ranges than in most other parts of the state.

“The South Coast Range–Coastal study is important because we are providing a quantitative assessment of the type and amount of natural and human-made constituents that occur in the deeper groundwater that is used for public-drinking water supplies,” said Dr. Miranda Fram, chief of the USGS Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment Program. “This information can be used by managers to ensure that our drinking water supply remains safe.”

The study was part of the statewide GAMA Program’s Priority Basin Project, which was designed to assess groundwater quality in aquifers that may be used for public water supply, and to better understand the natural and human factors affecting groundwater quality. USGS scientists drew samples from wells in 2008, looking for as many as 289 chemical constituents in areas including the Santa Ynez River Valley, San Antonio Creek Valley, Santa Maria River Valley, Los Osos Valley, and San Luis Obispo Valley groundwater basins, and also in parts of the surrounding upland areas in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

The USGS California Water Science Center is the technical lead for the State Water Resources Control Board GAMA Program’s Priority Basin Project. The USGS is monitoring and assessing water quality in 120 priority groundwater basins, and groundwater outside of basins, across California over a 10-year period. The main goals of the State Water Board’s GAMA Program Priority Basin Project are to improve comprehensive statewide groundwater monitoring and to increase the availability of groundwater-quality information to the public.

The full report and the accompanying nontechnical Fact Sheet are available online.

Source: USGS

Reprinted from Stormwater.

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