Our thoughts are with the entire Virginia Tech University community but particularly the water and environmental engineering program staff, students, and graduates, including our friends and colleagues in the drinking water world.

This week's NEWS

EPA won't regulate eleven pending CCL2 chemicals plus perchlorate and MTBE, and some are not happy about that. Extension of filtration waiver proposed for New York City. "Message mapping" could help with crisis communications. Desalination is on the front burner... everywhere? Maybe it's OK to be shallow... when it comes to radium? Rainwater is great for washing sister's hair... but can you really bottle it?

Quick Links Navigation:

Federal Updates

• USEPA has made a preliminary determination not to regulate eleven contaminants on the CCL (PDF file, 37.8K)
  • Federal Register pre-pub notice (PDF file, 416K) (Note: Perchlorate occupies almost 1/4 of the FR doc; pp. 87-126)
  • Decision makes some unhappy:
    • Perchlorate and MTBE (Senator Boxer statement, April 12)
    • Perchlorate (NRDC news release, April 12)
  • EPA's CCL website with background documents 
• USEPA's cost-estimating tool for evaluating cost of using POU/POE devices for small systems' SDWA compliance (PDF file, 149K)
• Safe Drinking Water Hotline's quarterly report (PDF file, 179K)

State Updates

• Colorado legislature may raise fees on dischargers and drinking water systems to fund regulators (Environment Colorado, April 11); House Bill 1329 (Note: Drinking Water fees start on p. 26 right after swine-feeding operations!)
• Colorado proposes changes in OpCert rules including a new class of systems (PDF file, 179K)
• Vermont's proposed "universal jurisdiction" rule changes include special exemptions and reg rewrite (PDF file, 27.3K); draft rule (PDF file, 1.3MB)

Security

• Report: Effective Risk and Crisis Communication During Water Security Emergencies (PDF file, 1.43 MB)
  Commentary: It seems that message mapping could serve water utilities well in any kind of emergency, not just one involving security concerns. What is it? "Message mapping is a process by which users can predict 95 percent of questions likely to be asked by the media and others following an incident, prepare clear and concise answers to the questions along with supporting information ahead of time, and practice effective message delivery before a crisis occurs."

Water Treatment

• New York City filtration decisions:
  • USEPA proposes to grant New York City a new extended filtration waiver for its Catskill/Delaware source; city has invested more than $1 billion in watershed protection programs (USEPA Region 2 news release, April 12)
  • Top bidder on New York City's proposed $1B+ water treatment plant for Croton supply drops out (NY Post, April 15)
• Texas regional agency's new ozone system expected to improve taste and odor (Pegasus News, April 9)
• Richmond, VA, nears completion of switch from chlorine gas to hypochlorite at water treatment plant (Richmond Times Dispatch, April 12)
• Upgrades to Canadian city's water treatment plant includes UV (Standard Freeholder, April 14)
• Critics of Vermont water district's use of chloramines seek compensation (Vermont Guardian, April 12)
• Annual report on Ontario, Canada, town's membrane water treatment plant shows some disinfectant lapses (Parry Sound, April 11)
• Pipeline to relieve North Dakota town's longstanding water quality woes gets go-ahead pending judge's approval of river water treatment (Canadian Press, April 13)

Microbiological

• E. coli in a Mississippi system triggers BWA (Vicksburg Post, April 8)
• Finger pointing begins in Ireland city: Galway council told about UV system to control cryptosporidium months ago (RTE News, April 16)

Fluoridation

• The beat goes on! Fluoridation debated in:
  • The Cadillac of Michigan cities (Cadillac News, April 12) and
  • The capital of Oregon (Salem Statesman Journal, April 13)
    • Support and Oppose
  Commentary: Is it irony... satire... or foolishness when a New York chemist (opposed) complains that a dental expert (supports) has "...learned so little from the scientific evidence I presented" ...heavy on the "I."
• Wisconsin city council keeps fluoridation option alive; asks for cost information (La Crosse Tribune, April 13)
• Northern California wholesaler wants input from their retailers before deciding on regional fluoridation approach (Eureka Reporter, April 14)
• As state legislation to mandate fluoridation is debated, one Oregon city wonders about results from their 6 years (Salem Statesman Journal, April 15)

Arsenic

• Texas town looks at options to address slightly elevated arsenic levels: New well or reuse LNG plant's condensate? (The Facts, April 5)

Disinfection Byproducts

• Small Montana town notifies of HAA violation (Liberty County Times, April 11)
• Chloramines at new water treatment plant: Oklahoma city's likely solution to high DBPs (Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, April 15)
• California utility meets THM MCL, but customers complain about high sample results... and pending rate increase (Contra Costa Times, April 15); GSWC's water quality report for Bay Point

Lead

• Washington, DC, area high school student honored for report on lead contamination in school drinking water (PR Newswire, April 12)
• New York legislators' OpEd: Schools must test water for lead (Albany Times Union, April 15)
• Despite finding "very low lead levels," South Dakota city tells customers how to further reduce levels at tap (Sioux City Argus Leader, April 16)

Source Water Protection

• One-gallon oil spill near Massachusetts town's well is taken very seriously (Brockton Enterprise, April 12)
• U.S. Agricultural secretary touts increased funding and streamlining of proposed farm bill, including water quality protection incentives (USDA news release, April 10)
• Nebraska has funding available for source water protection projects (Southwest Nebraska News, April 12)

PPCPs

• EPA awards grants to two unique projects to collect unused medications (PDF file, 34.6K); description of the projects

Annual Water Quality Reports

• The drinking water is safe to drink! From Long Island (Plainview Herald, April 12) (here's the 2006 Plainview WD CCR) to the Big Sky country (Bigfork Eagle News, April 12)

NEWS CONTINUES BELOW

Malcolm Pirnie Perchlorate Services Malcolm Pirnie Environmental Consultants has been active in perchlorate issues since discovery of the contaminant in drinking water in 1997. Since then, we have been a consultant to numerous water systems, worked with both manufacturers of treatment technologies and potentially responsible parties (PRPs), and given expert witness testimony on perchlorate-related matters. For more information on these services, please contact Mike McGuire (mmcguire@pirnie.com), or visit mcguireinc.com/perchlorate.

Bottled Water

• Bottled rainwater? Where else but in Dripping Springs, TX (KXAN, April 4)
  Commentary: Okay, so it's not Heineken, but did it really take four years to convince the health department that rainfall could be an acceptable source for bottled water?

VOCs

• Nebraska city opposes Superfund designation: It will slow down ground water cleanup (North Platte Telegraph, April 15)

Radiological

• Deeper wells are not necessarily better when it comes to radium:
  • Illinois village well slightly above MCL; new well blending is proposed solution (WREX News, April 13)
  • Lakeside towns in Wisconsin try to stop neighboring towns from extracting low radium water from shallow wells (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 17)

Desalination

• New report forecasts the future of the global desalination market (Business Wire, April 17)
• Possible desalination plant on south coast of England ruled to be too costly (London Times, April 13)
• Desalination news from Australia
  • Desalination plant needed in Brisbane... even at $3 billion! (Courier Mail, April 11)
  • Expert panel may recommend desalination plant for Victoria (The Age, April 7)
  • Environmental group's report claims rainwater tanks better than desalination (ABC News, April 16)
• World Bank's Red Sea-Dead Sea Canal feasibility study will include look at desalination (Jordan Times, April 5)

PFCs

• Finding of low-level PFOS in Minnesota lake leads to fish-consumption advisory (Minneapolis Star Tribune, April 17)

Private Wells

• Maryland residents upset that the state knew of MTBE contamination but did not warn them (Frederick Post News, April 14)
• USEPA region recognizes Colorado area's private well testing program (Webwire, April 11)

Home Water Filters

• Consumer magazine looks at water filters (Earth Times, April 12); CR's May 2007 filter ratings

Unique Water Activities

• Water is focus of Minneapolis theater performances (MN Summer Waterline)
• Summer Water Camp at the beach in Orange County, CA... why is it just for kids?

Meetings

• 2007 Ground Water Summit will be April 29-May 3 in Albuquerque, NM
  Commentary: While water quality is not the primary focus of this conference, there are sessions on aqueous geochemistry, arsenic, desalting, road salt, water quality sampling, etc.
• International UN workshop "Improving Global Health through Safe Water" June 9-11, Hamilton, Canada

International

• Worldwide water crisis spurs water treatment, recycling, and desalting (Los Angeles Times, April 16; free registration required)

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