This week's NEWS

It is World Water Day... but will New York diners pay! Are two plants better than one? How would you decide on which contaminants should be considered for SDWA regulation? RFPs from AwwaRF include eight on desalination and a lot more. Legal arguments about covering open reservoirs under the LT2ESWTR continue. Who needs a consumer confidence report when you have a city manager?

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Federal Updates

• Alternative method for developing Contaminant Candidate List is proposed (JAWWA, March)
• USEPA finalizes modifications previously proposed for analyses under CWA and SDWA (Federal Register, March 12)
  Commentary: WARNING! Reading these detailed clean-up, add-on, update, and minor modifications may be hazardous to the health and well-being of any who are laboratorially challenged! Those who are not will want to pore over these details (after they pour themselves a test tube or two of an appropriate libation) to make sure their labs are up to speed!
• USEPA provides two more STEP guides for small entities:  LT2ESWTR (PDF file, 660 K) and Stage 2 D/DBP (PDF file, 513 K)

State Updates

• Connecticut celebrates Drinking Water Week with workshop on careers in the drinking water field (PDF file, 49.6 K)
• Vermont seeks comment on proposed revisions to wastewater and potable water rules (PDF file, 13.7 K); the draft revisions (PDF file, 1.13 MB)
• Ohio issues guidance for pandemic influenza outbreak to water/wastewater operators (PDF file, 65.5 K)

Legal Issues

• DOJ files rebuttal to Portland, OR's LT2ESWTR arguments (AWWA WaterWeek, March 19)

Microbiological/UV

• Finding better nonpathogenic surrogates for verifying UV disinfection (JAWWA, March)

Water Treatment

• Fort Lauderdale will switch to free chlorine briefly in late March (South Florida Sun Sentinel, March 14); the water treatment process normally includes chloramination (PDF file, 831 K)
• Alabama water treatment plant gets emergency generators ahead of next storm season (South Alabamian, March 15)
• Missouri city will switch from the mighty Mississippi to wells to improve quality at lower cost (Southeast Missourian, March 18)
• Colorado city considers its own water treatment plant (Greenley Tribune, March 19)
• Two Arizona water providers propose "dueling" water treatment plants (Arizona Republic, March 20)
  Commentary: Maricopa County, home of Phoenix, The Suns, and Diamondbacks, is the fourth most populous county in the nation. The two west-county providers, one a public agency grounded in landowner service and the other an investor-owned utility, were cooperating on building ONE plant to meet growth demands until their fundamental differences in financing and how users pay unraveled the deal. The difference in the cost of the one-plant/two-plant scenarios was not provided. 
• Using spores to monitor for Cryptosporidium removal (JAWWA, March)

Water Violations

• Connecticut water district gets 99% discount on its failure-to-report fine (Waterbury Republican American, March 14)
• Small California system cited for delivering "stagnant" water (Amador Ledger Dispatch, March 16)

Nitrate

• Reaction to slightly elevated nitrate test of California city well appears to have been six days slow (Modesto Bee, March 20)

Trihalomethanes

• Small West Virginia city notifies customers of elevated THM levels (WBOY, March 14)
  Commentary: Consumer confidence in this water system probably took a hit after reading a city official's comments (if reported accurately!): "City officials said Wednesday the water could have been contaminated for at least five years.  'What do you want me to do? Lie to them?' said Frank Robinette, the city manager. 'We can't fix it!'  But Robinette said there's little to worry about.  'You could drink this water with this violation for up to 70 years before it could have an effect,' he said."

TCE and Dioxane

• Pennsylvania town will get replacement well as 1,4-dioxane resists air stripping treatment (Pottstown Mercury, March 18)
• Tennessee family says racism involved in inaction by authorities re: TCE in family's well (Washington Post, March 20)

Fluoridation

• One Maine town's anti-fluoridation vote stirs debate:
  • Small town becomes first in Maine to vote for stopping fluoridation (Boston Herald, March 14)
  • Editorial: Vote is misguided and not well informed (Bangor Daily News, March 19)
  • Maine health groups unite to combat misinformation on fluoridation (WCSH6, March 19)
• Wisconsin town ponders referendum or survey to get public's input on fluoridation of water supply (Holmen Courier, March 15)
• Ontario, Canada, considers establishing provincial water fluoridation office to provide public with accurate information (Canoe News, March 17)

NEWS CONTINUES BELOW

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Desalination

• Public vs. private ownership issue surfaces after California county issues permit for desalination plant (Monterey County Herald, March 19)
• Eight desalination research projects included in new AwwaRF RFPs

Radium

• Fond du Lac, WI, sees $31.5 million tab for proposed radium removal; hopes that progress will avoid state enforcement action (Oshkosh Northwestern, March 15)

Water Research

• AwwaRF issues RFPs for 2007 solicited projects

World Water Day

• United Nations' World Water Day is March 22
• Help make a difference! Official website for World Water Day
• CDC provides insights on World Water Day
• UNICEF: Tapping the Power of Water; New York diners asked to give a little... to help a lot! (Business Week, March 20)
• Related news: European Commission makes a television video on the world's drinking water problems (EUX.TV, March 19)

Perfluorochemicals

• Questions raised about state's handling of results of West Virginia study on cancer occurrence

Bottled Water

• Is Mars the next source of unique bottled water? (Knowledge News, March 19)

Source Water Protection

• Proceedings of CSREES 2007 National Water Quality Conference (abstracts)
• Hoosiers urged to take steps to protect ground water
• Rhode Island town takes steps to provide ground water protection (Woonsocket Call, March 13)
• Cooperative effort needed to clean up Montana watershed (Helena Independent Record, March 18)
• Montana provides public workshops on water wells/septic systems (PDF file, 606 K)

Private Wells

• It's springtime in South Dakota: Well testing is in the air! (Sioux City Journal, March 20)
• Free well testing for Minnesota county (Austin Daily Journal, March 19)
• Oregon private well testing program shows 25% of wells above arsenic MCL (Sweet Home News, March 14)

Water Reuse

• Construction starts on Australia's largest "sustainable water resource" planned community; this diagram illustrates how homes will have multiple water sources

International

• Study of 25 systems suggests Greek drinking water network is outdated (Ekathimerini News, March 6)
  Commentary: Along with chemical contaminants and inadequate disinfection, the report says, "The most pressing problem, however, is that old-fashioned asbestos-lined pipes have not been replaced with more modern technology and it is estimated that there are 44,000 kilometers of these dated systems running through Greece and carrying drinking water. It is not known whether this water has traces of asbestos or whether it carries corrosive effects."  In other words, it is not known if the AC pipes are any problem at all?
• China spends big $$$$ to upgrade drinking water system prior to 2008 Olympics (Game Bids, March 16)
• WHO's "rolling revision" process; background documents for review and comment:
  • Pirimiphos-methyl
  • Cyanogen chloride
  • Dicofol
  • Novaluron
  • Methoprene
  • Nickel

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