This week's NEWS

New Ohio water treatment plant is recognized for innovation. When nature gave an Illinois water utility lemons (low-level radioactive filter media), the utility staff made lemonade (or, at least, concrete blocks). Is NSF Standard 61 the answer to indirect additive issues? How many water treatment plant operators does it take to run your facility? Minnesota raises its "health-based value" for PFBA.

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Federal Updates

• New York Congressman introduces bill to tighten TCE standards (Press Release, March 3) as companion for Senator Clinton proposal last year

State Updates

• New Mexico's March 11 hearing on new OpCert rule amendments focuses on... how many is enough? (PDF file, 202 K)
  Commentary: It is one thing for a regulatory agency to adopt very specific rules as to what level or grade or qualifications the operators of various types and sizes of water treatment plants must have. It is quite another when it comes to specifying "how many" certified operators each type and size of plant must have. There are at least two distinct camps on this issue: Automation vs. human hands on the controls! What is the balance? Is there a one-size-fits-all answer?
• Missouri's list of chronic bacteriological monitoring violators are small systems

Invasive Species

• AwwaRF co-sponsors Workshop on Quagga and Zebra Mussel Control Strategies for Western U.S. Water Utilities, April 3-4 in Las Vegas; workshop has a full agenda (PDF file, 8.66 K) and is part of the first project under AwwaRF's Rapid Response Research Program

Legal Matters

• Illinois town's water superintendent guilty of falsification of water sampling data in 2006; fine and probation (Princeton Journal Star, March 4)
• Massachusetts town sues state over 65 gallons-per-person-per-day limit on water production (Cape Cod Chronicle, February 28)

Water Treatment

• Ohio town's new award-winning water treatment plant combines lime-soda ash, GAC, and UV for.... softening, trace organics removal, and disinfection (Times Bulletin, March 3); Delphos' website
• Canadian city's aging water treatment plant gets high marks (Brantford Expositor, February 28)
  Commentary: Is this bad timing, or what? Just as the city gets around to asking for funding help, the regulators say the plant is the best thing since sliced bread. Hopefully, the good efforts of the plant operators and managers to make an older water treatment plant function well will not lower the city's priority for receiving financial assistance to make the needed improvements.  
• Series of problems delay launch of Illinois city's new reverse osmosis radium-removal plant (Kane County Chronicle, February 29)
• Reverse osmosis research on membrane fouling (NWRI)

Indirect Additives

• Failure to provide adequate curing time for tank-repair coating results in small California mutual water system customers getting bad T&O water (Santa Rosa Press Democrat, February 28)
  Commentary: California has just amended their Waterworks Standards (Word document, 233 K; p. 65-66), including adoption of NSF 61 for indirect additives which applies to all materials that drinking water contacts. But NSF 61 will not prevent this type of situation where manufacturer's recommended procedures are not followed.

Disinfection Byproducts

• Tennessee "consecutive" water system blames slightly high TTHMs on "aging water pipes" (Clarksville Leaf Chronicle, March 1)

Lead

• Editorial supports outside, independent testing for Washington, D.C., water agency to restore public trust (Washington Post, March 3)
• Unusual school lead-monitoring program finds elevated lead tests; it's the fixtures, not the pipes (Billerica Minuteman, March 2)
  Commentary: The monitoring program is part of an SEP (Supplemental Environmental Project) funded by the city in lieu of fines for an unrelated violation of waste discharge requirements from the city water treatment plant.

Arsenic

• Prescott, AZ, takes another step toward getting arsenic treatment installed... in neighboring city (Prescott Daily Courier, March 2)

Microbiological

• Over a third of 200,000 private Irish "water schemes" contaminated by "some form" of E. coli (Irish Independent, March 3)
• Tiny California town gets BWA after positive E. coli test (Fresno Bee, March 4)

Pharmaceuticals/Personal Care Products (PPCPs)

• Report on the third Canadian national workshop on PPCPs focuses on research, monitoring, and regulation

NEWS CONTINUES BELOW

UV Disinfection Services With finalization of the Long-Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule (LT2ESWTR), ultraviolet (UV) disinfection can be one of the most cost-effective treatment methods to ensure continued regulatory compliance. To help you decide if UV disinfection is right for your water system, Malcolm Pirnie, Inc. can provide assistance throughout the design process, from technology evaluation to construction and startup assistance. Because of our long-time involvement with regulatory agencies, Malcolm Pirnie offers in-depth understanding and expertise in research projects, regulatory compliance, and design of UV disinfection facilities for drinking water and wastewater facilities. We recognize that resources are limited and can help you find alternative sources of funding, the right equipment procurement strategy, and innovative approaches for retrofitting or upgrading existing facilities. For more information, visit our website to meet the UV disinfection experts: Christine Cotton and Sam Jeyanayagam.

Radium

• Illinois city fined by state and ordered to reduce radium levels (Ottawa Times, March 1)
• Sixteen years of operation turns Illinois city's filter media into radioactive waste (Morris Daily Herald, March 3)
  Commentary: One of the early radium-removal facilities has reached a critical point. New filter media is needed to enable the water treatment plant to continue to remove radium... but what to do with the old media? The city's staff came up with a unique and effective solution "...to remove the radioactive particles from the filters and solidify them in concrete."  The state EPA "has given the city permission to dispose of the waste in an Allied landfill..."

Fluoridation

• "Déjà vu all over again" for fluoridation in three locations:
  • Canadian town votes on fluoridation again; vote two years ago favored starting fluoride addition to drinking water (Thunder Bay Chronicle, Journal, March 1)
  • Corning, NY, city council puts their "start fluoridation" vote on hold until after public vote on the issue in the fall (Elmira Star-Gazette, March 4)
  • New York water district will re-visit its earlier vote to stop fluoridation (Poughkeepsie Journal, March 4)

PFBA

• New developments in Minnesota on the PFBA issue:
  • Minnesota revises (upward) its Health-Based Value for PFBA in groundwater (PDF file, 614 K)
  • Suspect water in east metro safe to drink, Minnesota agency says (Minneapolis Star Tribune, February 29)
  • State schedules public meetings to discuss results of water sampling (KSTP, March 1)

Source Water Protection

• Nineteen national organizations involved in drinking water Source Water Collaborative
• Connecticut coalition works to protect drinking water sources (Fairfield Minuteman, February 28)
• Delaware county group revises its modified source water protection ordinance; time-of-travel issue addressed (Lewes Cape Gazette, March 3)

Desalination

• More North Carolina coastal towns look to desalting for supply solutions (Raleigh News and Observer, March 3)
• Public-private partnership for new Australian desalination facility likely to include foreign firms (Melbourne Herald Sun, March 3)

Nitrate

• California funds study to help assess the extent and source(s) of nitrate contamination of groundwater (Central Valley Business Times, March 3)
• Wisconsin study finds reduction in number of contaminated wells in county (WBAY-TV, March 4)

Bottled Water

• Albuquerque, NM, water authority says fungus in bottled water from pilot plant was result of bottling, not the treatment (Las Cruses Sun-News, March 1)
• Sustainability task force in California city wants city to stop buying bottled water (Chico Enterprise Record, March 2)

Water Reuse

• Workshop on UV for Wastewater and Reuse, March 18 in Orlando, FL
• Durham, NC, offers residents free reclaimed water–250 gallons at a time–but training is required (NBC 17 News, March 4)
• Inventor of waste-treatment device, The Reclamator, says California's pollution control laws don't apply to his front yard (San Luis Obispo Tribune, March 4)

Pesticides

• South Carolina state officials meet with community re: groundwater contamination with EDB and DBCP (Florence Morning News, February 29)

Private Wells

• Florida state agency will drill monitoring wells to determine source of arsenic contamination in private wells; it may be naturally occurring? (Tampa Tribune, March 3)

Newsletters

• NWRI's "Briefings" for Winter 2008

International

• Gaza Strip's water authority advises boiling water as blockade-impacted chlorine supply is inadequate to treat many supply wells (Haaretz, February 28)
• Two similar views on how the 2008 Olympics in China has dramatic negative impact on Chinese: Even recycled wastewater will be scarce! (Associated Press, February 27); areas outside of Beijing will be shortchanged on water to serve Olympics (BBC News, February 28)

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