This week's NEWS

What can be done about the most troubled water systems? What indicator can best be used to measure progress in the world of drinking water and the environment? It is a good thing to exceed all of the drinking water standards... at least when exceed means "to be better than." Research projects will be reported on at ACE in Toronto. Water treatment plant updates range in $$$ from thousands to billion plus.

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Federal Updates

• USEPA's draft of its 2007 updated Science Report on the Environment
  Commentary: Chapter 3 deals with health impacts from drinking water (p. 3-87 to 3-95).  An interesting aspect is that the CDC cooperative reports on Waterborne Disease Outbreaks (p. 9) are not considered a reliable "indicator" by the standards developed for the report (p. 8).
• USEPA partners with water associations (AMWA, AWWA, NAWC, et al) to promote recommended performance measures for utilities (USEPA News Release, May 9)

State Updates

• Ohio proposes significant changes to its microbiological rules; draft MCLs, Coliform monitoring, and Public notification (PDF files, 18K, 20K, 30K, and 94K)
• Special edition of Nebraska's Water Spout celebrates National Drinking Water Week (PDF file, 148 K)
  Commentary: You learn something new everyday, especially from the various state drinking water newsletters, to wit: On p. 2, we learn that Nebraska employs a "psychometrician" to evaluate OpCert exams. However, the suggestion that the Milwaukee cryptosporidiosis outbreak should be attributed to untrained operators is a bit of a surprise... follow-up investigations focused on outdated facilities and unusual raw water conditions as the causative factors. Also, a summary of the historical, gradual increase in the number of federal MCLs is on p. 3.
• Idaho proposes guidance for determining yield of new public water system wells; the draft guidance document (PDF, 193 K)
• States hold hearings on SRF Priority Lists and Intended Use Plans:
  • Connecticut sets public hearing (and open forum!) on its 2007 Plan (PDF file, 1.39 MB) and project Priority List (PDF file, 9 K)
  • Missouri's Safe Drinking Water Commission will meet May 24 to approve grants and SRF IUP
  • New Mexico's Drinking Water Advisory Group meets on May 24 with SRF and rule implementation on agenda

Water Treatment

• New York City's Croton filtration plant is back on track; $1.3 billion contract for four-story underground facility (Skanska press release; PDF file, 23 K)
• Iowa city becomes first in the U.S. to have its "electrolytic" chlorination facility certified by NSF (NSF news release, May 9)
• Massachusetts well treatment project for wells with manganese and iron is delayed; complicated by perchlorate and positive coliform with use of phosphate (Republican, May 10)
• Three Minnesota towns will share water from proposed water treatment plant that will treat "quarry" water (Minnesota This Week Newspapers, May 11)
• Modesto, CA's proposed 36-MGD membrane water treatment plant will now cost $77 million... and double the rates to pay for it (Modesto Bee, May 13)
• Indiana town studies water treatment plant issue: Build a new one or expand the old one? (Princeton Daily Clarion, May 15)

Chloramines

• San Francisco PUC website on chloramines has been updated

Compliance... or lack thereof!

• Owner of small, privately owned Georgia water system remains in jail (Macon Telegraph, May 12)
  Commentary: This system is the poster child of what state primacy agencies (when in polite company!) variously call "basket cases" or "train wrecks." They are most often very small, privately owned, for-profit (although there may be none!), "Mom-and-Pop" type systems and frequently were built to support some type of land development project. EPA's SRF strategy involves requiring TMF (technical, managerial, financial) capacity, which is good, except none of these derelict systems ever apply for funding for system improvements. The answer might be for a cognizant, reliable water utility to "take over" and operate the system but, as the Enforcement Officer for one southern state says, "it is hard to get public systems or utilities to do that kind of missionary work."
• Nogales, AZ, requests state help as private water company apparently "goes AWOL" (Nogales International, May 11)
  Commentary: Not unusual in this type of situation, attorneys for the deceased owner "...said they have had to undergo a 'crash course' in water systems after the death of... owner Frank Randall. They say that Randall took all the institutional and infrastructure knowledge to his grave."

Arsenic

• New York county officials asks United Water to pay for arsenic-related testing and issues notice of 27 sampling violations (White Plains Journal News, May 15)
  Commentary: It is not clear from this article as to what violations occurred! United Water's CCR for 2005 (PDF file, 121 K) shows the range of arsenic values from well sampling to be 0-9 ppb.
• New Mexico town initiates coagulation-filtration treatment to remove arsenic from two wells (KOB New Mexico, May 15)

Annual Water Quality Reports

• Kansas City, KS, reports that it "exceeds" all drinking water standards... in a good way! (Kansas City Kansan, May 12); the 2006 Report (PDF file, 735 K) is one of the first issued; all are due by July 1, 2007

Fluoridation

• Shortage of supply of fluoride for water treatment impacts Indiana city for three months (Evansville Courier and Press, May 11)
• Wisconsin town's vote on beginning fluoridation will wait until the November '08 "Presidential" elections to maximize turnout (La Crosse Tribune, May 12)
• Massachusetts town's health board schedules meeting to hear fluoridation pros and cons (Yarmouthport Register, May 14)

PCE

• Trace amounts of PCE found in Queens area of New York City system; flushing and notification underway (New York Newsday, May 10); car wash suspected as source with private well and illegal connection; testing continues (New York Newsday, May 11) 
  Commentary: The city's website includes up-to-date info on the PCE situation and indicates that all of the most recent samples were negative. There is an excellent Q&A on PCE (PDF file, 63 K) and all sampling results are listed. It is noted that the car wash may not be the primary source of the PCE found in the system.

Lead and Copper

• Dunkirk, NY's water department is looking for "high-risk" resident-volunteers for LCR testing (Dunkirk Evening Observer, May 14)
• Federal study of environmental pollution on USMC base touches on copper exceedances and plan to treat Camp Pendleton's water for corrosion; the ATSDR report (PDF file, 1.5 MB)

NEWS CONTINUES BELOW

Malcolm Pirnie Water Resources and Water Rate-Setting Services Malcolm Pirnie offers clients assistance in developing strategies to protect, enhance, and secure water resources. Malcolm Pirnie's staff has extensive practical experience in the development of groundwater storage and conjunctive use programs, water management and incentive programs, and water rates. Our staff also has a wide range of experience as facilitators in helping utilities to develop strategic and water resources plans through consensus-based decision-making processes. For questions regarding any of these services, please feel free to contact Nina Jazmadarian, or Ed Means in our Orange County office at (949) 450-7921, or visit www.mcguireinc.com/waterresources.

Private Wells

• Debate about private well-testing bill in New York continues (White Plains Journal News, May 11)

Water Reuse

• Indian state proposes to increase reuse of treated wastewater (The Hindu, May 14)
• Victoria, AU, manufacturing plant will invest in water recycling (Australian News, May 15)

Source Water Protection

• Phosphorus control (and, consequently, algae growth and T&O problems) are focus of TMDLs for two key New Jersey drinking water watersheds (NJDEP news release, May 10)

Aesthetics

• Best-tasting water on Long Island, NY, selected (Long Island Press, May 11)

Perfluorochemicals

• Minnesota and 3M enter consent agreement for clean-up of PFCs in landfills and other sites (Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 15)
• Citizens' group wants PFOA levels checked in New Jersey township's water (Gloucester County Times, May 14)

Desalination

• New $640 million, 45-gigalitre desalination plant planned in Western Australia (Sydney Morning Herald, May 15)

Conferences

• AwwaRF announces research presentations at the AWWA ACE in Toronto in June (PDF file, 673 K)

Water System Recognition

• Honolulu, HI, gets USEPA safe drinking water award (Honolulu Advertiser, May 15)
• Massachusetts honors 46 systems for going "above and beyond" minimum requirements

International

• Health Canada study finds that drinking water advisories on First Nation reserves are not effective (CBC News Canada, May 11)
  Commentary: Chief David General of Six Nations in Ontario captures his people's mood by saying: "...many aboriginal communities would rather have a new water plant instead of a new communications strategy."

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