This week's NEWS

EPA and CDC take a shot at answering the question: What does it cost society when there is a waterborne disease outbreak? (Boil Water Advisories are bad enough – just ask the Mayor of Rosalia, WA.) Fish are monitoring water safety in D.C. Holy Bluegills, Batman! Backflow incident increases focus on cross-connection control. There's just about everything in private wells somewhere: "Tall oil," perfluorochemicals, NDMA, etc. UK's water regulators issue new Crypto guidance. Set aside time in October and November for three great conferences.

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Federal Update

• USEPA seeks comment on waterborne disease report (Federal Register, September 15);   The full report: "Approaches to Estimating the Waterborne Disease Outbreak Burden in the United States: Uses and Limitations of the Waterborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System"  
  Commentary: The report covers 665 outbreaks over a 29-year period ending in 2000.  But the disclaimer in the FR notice makes clear that what is generally thought to be underreporting of waterborne incidents does not enter into this assessment: "Because not all WBDOs in the United States and associated cases of illness are reported, the WBDO database on which this draft document is based is not comprehensive. The extent to which WBDOs are not recognized is unknown and is not examined in this analysis."
• Leaked internal memo: EPA plans to close labs, drop scientists and reduce oversight (Kansas City Star, September 15)

State Updates

• Texas will hold stakeholder meeting on proposed "stage 2" DBP and ESWT rules on September 26 in Austin
• Washington's September Water Tap newsletter (PDF file, 1004 K)

Water Security

• Major water associations want changes to the federal chemical facility security legislation (PDF file, 72 K)
• D.C. water also using bluegill sentinels to give early warning against aqua-terrorism (Washington Post, September 18)

Disinfection Byproducts

• California water district explains its disinfection practices and rationale (Ridgecrest Daily Independent, September 12)
• Bromodichloromethane level in tiny Canadian town's treated water leads to public notice (Calgary Sun, September 16)
  Commentary: Unlike the U.S., Canada has a maximum level specified for BDCM.

NDMA

• New report on fate and transport of NDMA available from WateReuse Foundation

Perchlorate

• California city has no problem with proposed state perchlorate MCL (Redlands Daily Facts, September 15); City makes its situation re: perchlorate very clear on its website

Arsenic

• New Jersey school with "about 5 ppb" arsenic moves ahead with treatment to meet state's more stringent standard (Hillsborough Beacon, September 14)
• Navy and Nevada city agree to split costs for arsenic treatment (Nevada Appeal, September 18)
• USEPA orders California city to reduce arsenic levels in drinking water (USEPA News Release, September 18)

Microbiological

• The UK's Drinking Water Inspectorate has recommendations to minimize cryptosporidiosis outbreaks (DWI Information Letter, September 14)
  Commentary: The DWI attributes decreases in crypto cases to implementation of regulatory actions and new treatment facilities. The new guidance strikes a cautiously optimistic note and references the detailed guidance provided in December, 2005, after there had been an increase in the number of incidents.
• Multiple E. coliform positives: Small Washington town is boiling water for third time in 2 years (KXLY, September 17) and the town makes use of its website to spread the word. (Check out the video on the KXLY site!)
• University of Washington gets $600,000 grant for cutting-edge pathogen detection/enumeration research (USEPA, Reg. 10 news release, September 12)
• One positive coliform sample: What does it mean? Maybe not the same thing in Durham, NC, as it would everywhere else (Raleigh News and Observer, September 16)
  Commentary: Durham's recent lead woes apparently have raised the level of distrust by the media in the city's water affairs. The city's handling of the investigation into a consumer complaint appears to have been thorough and adequate. And... no! A media notice of every positive total coliform sample is not a service to the public! (The failure of the lab to do the E. Coli analysis, however, is not acceptable.)
• Water from spinach farms a "likely culprit" of E. coli contamination (San Jose Mercury News, September 19)

Water Violations

• New York City water employee guilty of falsifying water quality monitoring reports (New York Times, September 14; free registration required)

Carbon Tetrachloride

• Madison, WI, city well shut off because of increased carbon tetrachloride level (Madison State Journal, September 15)

TCE

• Huge TCE plume plagues Michigan well owners; money sought for community system expansion (Traverse City Record Eagle, September 13)

Water Treatment

• Canadian city plans $14 million water quality improvements; $8.5 million in government aid to meet Ontario's post-Walkerton rules (Orangeville Citizen, September 14)
• Massachusetts water district's new iron/manganese filter plant has residents hopeful about water quality (Taunton Gazette, September 18)

NEWS CONTINUES BELOW

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Cross-Connection Control

• Illinois city stresses the need for preventing backflow incidents (Beacon News, September 18)
  Commentary: While Illinois may have a higher-than-average rate of compliance by public water systems in the adoption of cross-connection control ordinances, the reporter way overreached with this statement: "Most towns require all residential and commercial buildings to have a backflow protection device that restricts water from inside the building getting back into the city's pipes, through one-way valves."  This might be true IF putting in a single check valve is considered a backflow prevention device... which it is, except that it cannot be tested and its effectiveness is forever unknown. And, in a related story: Illnesses from alleged cross-connections in industrial facility in Aurora, IL, lead to federal lawsuit (Beacon News, September 17)

Manganese

• AwwaRF study suggests lower level (0.02 ppm) more appropriate to limit consumer complaints

Lead

• Some of Oregon city's lead tests jump over action level after years of acceptable results (Salem News, September 14)

Nitrate

• California water district fined for inadequate nitrate monitoring (Riverside Press Enterprise, September 19)
• Modesto, CA, opens several wells after filters for nitrate and uranium are installed (Modesto Bee, September 19)

Source Water Protection 

• Lake managers will convene in Indianapolis for annual conference in November
• Rules to protect drinking water reservoirs near Fredericksburg, VA, vary widely (Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, September 14)
• Texas drinking water reservoir benefits from improved herbicide management; atrazine levels drop (USEPA)

Fluoride

• Texas city stops fluoridation of water supply (Del Rio Live, September 16)
• The great(?) fluoride debate goes on in New Zealand community (Ashburton Guardian, September 19)

Private Wells

• Minnesota health officials re-think health-based levels for perfluorochemicals impacting numerous private wells; 3M steps up to fund water hook-ups (St. Paul Pioneer Press, September 16)
• Wells near Vermont calcium carbonate plant found to contain "tall oil"; risk unclear (Rutland Herald, September 16)
• Washington well owners have TCE, perchlorate, and NDMA, compliments of old military Nike sites (Columbian, September 15)
• New York family sues town and county for MTBE contamination of their well (Times Herald Record, September 14)

Water Contamination

• USEPA says drinking water near a Pennsylvania superfund site is not tainted (Morning Call, September 15)
• VOCs from an old Southern California plastics plant found in groundwater; no municipal wells threatened  (LA Daily News, September 17)

Water Reuse

• WateReuse Foundation releases a number of new project reports (Abstracts)
• $1 billion project proposed to use recycled water to cool power generators in Victoria, AU (Sydney Australian, September 14)

Conferences

• AMWA's Annual Meeting October 15-18 in Charleston, SC, features Risk Communication and tour of state's largest water treatment plant (non-members welcome)
• AwwaRF's Technology Transfer Conference will be held October 26 in Chicago (Note: Important LCR issues will be covered)
• AWWA's WQTC (THE water quality conference!) is now WQTC&E;  November 5-9 in Denver

International

• Drinking water is trucked into small Australian town because of toxic algae bloom (Sydney Australian, September 14)

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