This week's NEWS

What is already two in one state, on the way to being six in another, and maybe it will be something, sometime elsewhere in the nation? Could it be an MCL for perchlorate? Lead gets back in the news in D.C. as EPA-WASA disagree. Proposed California legislation would lower allowable lead limits in fittings and fixtures. Let's unshackle our EPA friends and free them from their chains of oppressive low-tech public notice procedures! Nevada's small systems line up to get their arsenic compliance time extensions.

Quick Links Navigation:

Federal Update

• USEPA's Region 3 announces first-ever operator award (USEPA news release, August 24); City of Staunton, VA, is very proud of their man!
  Commentary: Chris DeWald is obviously a class act and deserving of the award, having been selected from thousands of candidates in the Mid-Atlantic states. His story is unique but the same high quality of service and technical competence is repeated thousands of times over across the country in the O&M personnel of the nation's utilities. It is nice to shine the spotlight on the positive example which is the norm rather than the occasional headline-grabbing bad actor.
• USEPA proposes to provide required public notice of SDWA and CWA penalties via the internet (Federal Register, August 29)
  Commentary: Some law clerk got carried away with elegant legalese, making it sound like someone was actively keeping the feds from entering the 21st century:"In proper circumstances, this broad constitutional principle [i.e., that the selected method of service must be reasonably calculated to provide notice and an opportunity to respond] unshackles the federal courts from anachronistic methods of service and permits them entry into the technological renaissance.'' Rio Properties, Inc. v. Rio International Interlink. 284 F.3d 1007, 1017 (9th Cir. 2002)"

State Updates

• Alaska finalizes its Long Term 1 ESWTR
• Hawaii's September Water Spot newsletter (PDF file, 94.1 K)
• USEPA approves Utah's arsenic and filter backwash recycling rules (Federal Register, August 24)

Minerals in Water

• $31 million groundwater demineralization plant gets California water district go-ahead (Contra Costa Times, August 23)
• Tucson, AZ, wants public involvement in taste tests to get input on the amount of minerals in their water (Tucson Citizen, August 26)

Perchlorate

• Perchlorate happenings in California:
  • MCL of 0.006 mg/l is proposed by state health agency with comments due by November 3. The actual text of revised sections (PDF file, 216 K) and the state's rationale for setting the MCL at the same level as the PHG, including a detailed cost-benefit analysis. (PDF, 183 K)
  • News media: State limit is more stringent than national and enforceable (Los Angeles Times, August 29; free registration required)
  • Water agencies want state to take stronger action to make Olin cleanup the basin (Gilroy Dispatch, August 25)
  • Parties to Southern California perchlorate lawsuits continue talks to find common ground (or common enemy?) (Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, August 27)
• Perchlorate and fireworks
  • Harwich, MA: CranberryFest fireworks cancelled, even if they don't contain perchlorate (Worcester Telegram, August 23)
  • Northborough, MA: AppleFest may lose its fireworks (Metro West Daily News, August 25)
  • San Diego, CA: Perchlorate is one potential bay water contaminant leading SeaWorld to suspend fireworks (San Diego Union Tribune, August 24)
• Massachusetts shopping mall developer "voluntarily" agrees to pay water utility's cleanup costs (Worchester Telegram and Gazette News, August 23)
  Commentary: Whether it's a shrewd corporate calculation to cut its losses or an example of social responsibility, it is a breath of fresh air to read about quick, positive reactions to findings of a contaminant in groundwater, as opposed to the dozens of years of studies, foot-dragging and legal wrangling observed so often in the world of "superfund-like" situations.("...DEP has not issued us a notice of responsibility, our initial investigations indicated that perchlorate could have originated on the mall property... We have a strong corporate social responsibility policy, and in the spirit of being a good corporate neighbor..."
  

Security/Bottled Water

• New security restrictions on liquids bring concern about quantity and quality of drinking water on airplane flights (New York Times, August 26; free registration required)
  Commentary: Talk about your "rock and hard place"! Frequent fliers are facing hard choices concerning chug-a-lugging down large volumes of H2O before boarding, facing extra trips to the loo with longer lines of fellow chuggers, and/or drinking aircraft tap water, for some, against the advice of health authorities.

Arsenic

• Nevada district is one of 36 likely to get three-year compliance extension (Nevada Appeal, August 27); the State Environment Commission agenda (PDF file, 38.3 K) has this issue as a consent item. Background: 26 other water systems had incomplete applications; extensions are based on "no unreasonable risk to health" (PDF file, 18.9 K)
• The tip of the "arsenic treatment residuals" issue: Michigan school needs waste discharge permit (County Press, August 28)
• Research: Bangladeshi study indicates men more susceptible than women to skin lesions from arsenic exposure via well water (Environmental Health Perspectives, August 24; PDF, 251 K)

Microbiological

• Follow-up on North Carolina BWA: Restaurants lose millions of dollars (Greensboro News Record, August 22)
• Chlorination of small Michigan system's well will not remove the "do not drink" signs (Monroe News, August 26)
• An optimistic viewpoint? Consigning waterborne infectious diseases to history? (Abstract, Science, August 25)
  Commentary: It is noted that none of the diseases mentioned are much of an issue in developed countries, but are a big deal in parts of Africa and some other places.

Lead

• Washington, D.C., lead flare-up:
  • USEPA fines WASA for errors in lead sampling and reporting (USEPA news release, August 23)
  • D.C. Water and Sewer Authority will "aggressively and vigorously challenge" EPA's complaint (WASA news release, August 23) and provides public with lead-copper sample results
  • D.C. congressional rep will ask for answers (Washington Post, August 23)
• Editorial: Proposed California law is needed to "get the lead out" (Sacramento Bee, August 26); August 28 version of SB 1953 as amended
  Commentary: The bill, described as having "an uncertain fate... (because) young children are not campaign contributors," is supported by some of California's largest drinking water suppliers, including those in Oakland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. It would change the meaning of "lead-free" from 8 percent lead for pipes or pipe fittings, and 4 percent lead for plumbing fittings and fixtures, to .25 percent.
• North Carolina issues:
  • Some Durham, NC, schools shut down fountains after elevated levels of lead detected (Charlotte Observer, August 25)
  • State orders 217 non-responsive systems to test for lead and copper more frequently (Charlotte Observer, August 28)
• Corrosion-control works in troubled South Carolina system, but it took a long 20-year history and, according to some, the change came only after damage was done (The State, August 27)

Manganese and Iron

• Treatment proposed for Madison, WI's well with manganese and iron problems (Madison Capital Times, August 26)

NEWS CONTINUES BELOW

Malcolm Pirnie DBP Control Services Malcolm Pirnie Environmental Consultants is a leader in assisting utilities with disinfection by-product (DBP) control efforts, including evaluating alternative strategies for DBP compliance, predicting DBP occurrence in distribution systems, and assessing trade-offs in DBP control with other water quality objectives. Malcolm Pirnie has also provided technical leadership in the development of the Stage 1 and 2 Disinfectants and Disinfection By-Products Rules (D/DBPR), and has a profound knowledge of the regulatory and treatment arena. For more information on these services, please contact Nicole Graziano at either ngraziano@pirnie.com or visit mcguireinc.com/dbpcontrol.

Source Water Protection 

• Wisconsin city regulates private wells to protect its groundwater sources (Barron News-Shield, August 29)
• Updates on USEPA's Targeted Watershed Grants Program
  • Iowa encourages applications
  • As does Pennsylvania

Chromium

• Hexavalent chromium plume moving "uphill" toward school wells in California desert (Desert Dispatch, August 24)

PCE

• Monitoring of PCE plume shows no movement toward Salt Lake City's drinking water wells (Salt Lake Tribune, August 25)

Radiological

• No tritium in city well near San Onofre nuclear plant; well stays off (Los Angeles Times, August 23; free registration required)
• Washington State's fact sheet on uranium and radon in drinking water (PDF file, 82.8 K)
• Radon levels in Colorado homes are high (Colorado Springs Gazette, August 27) (NOTE: Not drinking-water related!)

Water Alternatives

• Tea Council-funded research: Tea is healthier than water! (BBC News, August 24)
• Tap vs. bottled: More of the same old debate (Lafayette Journal and Courier, August 28)

Research

• Chlorine dioxide and surrogate disinfection parameters are featured (Journal of Water Supply: Research and Technology, 55:6)

Desalination

• Report finds desalination proposals in California are premature (Environmental Science and Technology, August 23); Pacific Institute report: "Desalination, with a grain of salt"

Private Wells

• Wisconsin:
  • State stops bottled water and lifts BWA started when coliform suspected from manure runoff, but not all private well owners happy (Duluth News Tribune, August 26)
  • Legislative panel nixes proposed tighter alachlor standard for groundwater (Madison Capital Times, August 23)
  North Carolina well driller supports law regulating construction and monitoring of private wells (Kinston Free Press, August 24)
• Ontario, Canada, agriculture group supports "Well Wise Centre" concept as opposed to regulations of private wells (Orangeville Citizen, August 24)

International

• Taiwanese apartment dwellers think dead body in rooftop tank gives water a bad taste? (China Post, August 27); 25-ton caustic soda spill gets in China drinking water source (CNN, August 26)
• New Zealand area's alert on nitrate in wells fuels requests for more testing (Stuff New Zealand, August 29)

Relevant Links

To post a job on Job Reservoir, please visit the following address:
http://www.jobreservoir.com/postajob.html

For feedback or a news story suggestion, please visit the following address:
http://www.safedrinkingwater.com/contact/feedback.htm

To recommend safedrinkingwater.com NEWS to a colleague, please visit the following address:
http://www.safedrinkingwater.com/contact/sharenewsletter.htm

For e-mail delivery problems, please send an e-mail to info@safedrinkingwater.com.

To view the staff for safedrinkingwater.com NEWS, please visit the following address:
http://www.safedrinkingwater.com/about/staff.htm

To subscribe to safedrinkingwater.com NEWS, please visit the following address:
http://www.safedrinkingwater.com/subscribe/subscribe.htm