This week's NEWS

Proposed Senate bill would do mischief in the interest of giving small systems a break. Is the Massachusetts report that $8 billion in drinking water infrastructure improvements are needed representative of the national problem? Lots of lessons learned from Louisiana city's precautionary boil water advisory. It's the bottle... and a lot more! Will anti-fluoridationists meet their Waterloo... for the fourth time in 40 years? Are you looking at your "footprints?"

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• Proposed federal legislation (S. 2509) would assist small systems with SDWA compliance via dramatic changes (PDF file, 51 K)
  Commentary: The senators would defer compliance by SWS with a number of primary DWS rules, require that federal funding be available as a condition of enforcement and fund a "study" by a diverse panel. The study might be a full-time job, as it is supposed to review a myriad of treatment options (including bottling of water by PWS) and would require an updated health-effects assessment of various rules, including DBPs and arsenic.

State Updates

• Ohio provides detailed guidance re: TOC removal for "non-conventional" surface water treatment

Perchlorate

• FDA releases study on perchlorate in food; EPA expected to use the report in assessing where to go on setting drinking water MCL (Abstract, Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, January 2)
  Commentary: "The estimated smallest lower bound to the largest upper bound average perchlorate intakes by the 14 age/sex groups range from 0.08 to 0.39 micrograms per kilogram body weight per day (µg/kg bw/day), compared with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reference dose (RfD) of 0.7 µg/kg bw/day."
• Water agencies in Southern California region assure consumers that their actions have resulted in low or no perchlorate levels in delivered water (San Bernardino County Sun, January 11)

Water Treatment

• Wisconsin city's new water treatment plant features UV, GAC, new filters, and a unique source water recycling operation (Appleton Post-Crescent, January 10)

Infrastructure

• Environmental group issues a report calling for $8 billion to fix Massachusetts drinking water infrastructure (Cape Cod Times, January 12); the full report from Clean Water Action

Microbiological

• UK's Royal Institute of Public Health conference: "Cryptosporidiosis–Are we winning the battle?" April 14-15 in London (PDF file, 665 K)
• Texas city explains its total coliform violation (Pegasus News, January 11)
  Commentary: The newspaper article correctly indicates that discussing drinking water quality is usually not a "sexy" issue until something goes wrong. So, it sticks in a sidebar and photo to spice up the subject. (Editor's note: Since the NEWS is a family newsletter, we can't show you the photo indicating "a threat to source water quality" ...but we can't keep you from peeking.)
• Transmission main break causes Louisiana city pressure drop and voluntary BWA (Shreveport Times, January 11); Shreveport's first-in-fifteen-years BWA lifted as officials look for cause and lessons learned (Shreveport Times, January 12); some examples of the impacts of a BWA (Shreveport Times, January 12); the city's water quality team was hard at work! (Shreveport Times, January 12)

Iron and Manganese

• Indiana city opts for drilling new wells rather than treatment to remove Fe and Mn; distribution system deposits will still have to be dealt with (New Albany Tribune, January 8)

Bottled Water

• New sports bottle promotes New York City tap water and itself... urges reducing carbon footprint (Newswire, January 10); "Tap Into The City!
• Bottled water: Cost, taste, convenience, choice, environmental ethics... which will govern? (Green Bay Press-Gazette, January 13)
  Commentary: It isn't just the carbon footprint... how about the "water footprint"?

MTBE Legal Matters

• New York water district's $2 BILLION MTBE lawsuit dismissed for "lack of imminence" (NY Newsday, January 11) (Editor's note: The NEWS is checking to see if this Newsday reporter is double-dipping!)

Arsenic

• New, simple water filter touted as effective answer to address arsenic-laden well water in Bangladesh (Reuters, January 10)
• Different filters appear to have solved Michigan school's arsenic problem (Flint Journal, January 14)

NEWS CONTINUES BELOW

Malcolm Pirnie Water Resources Management 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 ground water storage and conjunctive use programs, water management, and incentive programs. 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 Jim Scholl, or visit our website.

Radioactivity

• Softer water will be a side benefit of Illinois city's new RADIUM-removal plant (Beacon News, January 10)
• Michigan city's sampling confirms that no TRITIUM from nuclear plant leak is in city's source water (Kalamazoo Gazette, January 10)

Fluoridation

• Will fourth time be the charm? There will be another vote on taking fluoride out of the water in Waterloo... Canada (The Record, January 15)

Desalination

• Critic of Adelaide, AU, desalination plant asks: Why does it take longer to build in AU than in United Arab Emirates? (Adelaide Advertiser, January 11)
• Victoria, AU, will get seawater sampling facility to help with $3.1 billion desalination plant design (Melbourne Herald Sun, January 15)

Private Wells

• State officials tell Pennsylvania residents that lead in their well water is from corrosion (Citizens Voice, January 15)
• Wisconsin residents urged to test their wells for contaminants (Fond Du Lac Reporter, January 9)
• Private well owners in New York area have options for home treatment (Poughkeepsie Journal, January 13)
• Polluting corporation will pay for California private residents' hookups to public water supply (Chico Enterprise Record, January 11)

Source Water Protection

• USEPA's January Watershed News

Perfluorochemicals

• A year in the life of a Minnesota community... where PFCs were found (Woodbury Bulletin, January 9)

Water Reuse

• Federal BLM doesn't like the reuse alternative for Colorado city (Colorado Springs Gazette, January 14)

Conferences

• NWRI co-sponsors workshop on UV for Wastewater and Reuse, March 18 in Orlando, FL

International

• Small Australian town's "new" water treatment plant breaks down; consumers warned water is undrinkable (ABC News, January 9)
• Israeli company has early-warning biological test for toxics in drinking water (Israel 21C, January 13)
• UK report: Pharmaceuticals found in drinking water sources (UK Telegraph, January 13)
• Government report says many small Australian aboriginal community systems are contaminated with chemicals (Sydney Australian, January 15)

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