Archive for the 'Wastewater' Category
Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 11 Aug 2008 | Tagged as: Water, Wastewater
The New York Times:
When you flush in Santa Ana, the waste makes its way to the sewage-treatment plant nearby in Fountain Valley, then sluices not to the ocean but to a plant that superfilters the liquid until it is cleaner than rainwater. The “new” water is then pumped 13 miles north and discharged into a small lake, where it percolates into the earth. Local utilities pump water from this aquifer and deliver it to the sinks and showers of 2.3 million customers. It is now drinking water. If you like the idea, you call it indirect potable reuse. If the idea revolts you, you call it toilet to tap.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 24 Jul 2008 | Tagged as: Natural Gas, Water, Environment, Wastewater
Times Union (NY):
The gas in the Marcellus is held like bubbles in a brick of Swiss cheese. To extract it, a mixture of water, sand and chemicals is shot into the earth with such force it fractures the rock, releasing the bubbles to the surface. When the gas surfaces, so does the water - laden with natural toxins from the shale, including suspected cancer-causing compounds.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 04 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Environment, Wastewater
AP via Google News:
Amish farmer Andy Swartzentruber is determined to live the simple life of his forefathers, plowing his field with a horse-drawn tractor, getting around in a horse-drawn buggy and offering eggs for sale to help support his family.
But now he and a school elder in his Amish settlement are being compelled to defend their religious beliefs over an unlikely issue: sewage.
The two say that they will not comply with state code that governs how they handle waste from two outhouses at their community’s schoolhouse. The men are members of the Swartzentruber Amish, one of the Christian group’s most conservative wings.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 16 May 2008 | Tagged as: Water, Wastewater
The New York Times:
Faced with a persistent drought and the threat of tighter water supplies, Los Angeles plans to begin using heavily cleansed sewage to increase drinking water supplies, joining a growing number of cities considering similar measures.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 02 Apr 2008 | Tagged as: Water, M&A, Wastewater
AP via Forbes:
Water and wastewater utility company American Water Works Co. expects its planned initial public offering to total 64 million shares and price between $24 and $26 per share, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday.
Voorhees, N.J.-based American Water is a subsidiary of RWE, a European electricity and gas company. RWE first announced it would exit its water activities in the U.S. and the U.K. in 2005. The parent company plans to sell American Water in more than one offering through its subsidiary Thames Water Aqua Holdings GmbH.
After the initial offering, RWE will continue to own up to about 60 percent of the American Water’s common stock.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 01 Apr 2008 | Tagged as: Water, Wastewater
Water Tech Online:
The Waters Corp., a laboratory analytical instrument and software company headquartered here, announced in a March 31 press release on Environment News Service that it is offering complimentary tests for common over-the-counter and antidepressant pharmaceuticals to any water authority that serves more than 100,000 customers.
The company said in the press release this move is in response to the recent report from The Associated Press that 41 million Americans receive drinking water tainted with trace levels of pharmaceuticals.
Water authorities can apply for the free testing until April 19. “Requests will only be honored from authorized water officials and the results will be held in strict confidence,” the company said in a statement, noting that no third party requests will be accepted.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 11 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: General, Water, Environment, Wastewater
AP via Baltimore Sun:
A vast array of pharmaceuticals - including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones - have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.
To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.
But the presence of so many prescription drugs - and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen - in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists about long-term consequences to human health.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 06 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: Water, Environment, Wastewater
U.S. Water News:
A 2010 deadline looms for Pennsylvania to comply with federal mandates to reduce pollution that flows into waterways that eventually empty into the 200-mile-long Chesapeake, the nation’s largest estuary and one of its great natural resources.
Improvements to sewage treatment plants could cost hundreds of millions of dollars — and that is scaring municipalities in the bay’s vast watershed, which includes parts of six states.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 04 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: Water, Environment, Wastewater
The Economist:
A programme to replace lead water-pipes may have backfired and increased the amount of lead in tap water in thousands of homes. The $93m scheme to replace the pipes started in 2005, after hazardous amounts of lead were found in DC’s water. According to tests in 2006—made public in February after an unofficial analysis by an independent scientist—quantities of lead subsequently rose to unsafe levels in some homes, at least temporarily. The process of replacing pipes in 9,000 homes over the last three years apparently dislodged flecks of lead in the water system. “We’ve torn up all these neighbourhoods, and it appears the situation is worse than when we started,” a city council member told the Washington Post. DC’s water authority has been holding public hearings to consider whether to discontinue the programme.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 06 Feb 2008 | Tagged as: Water, Wastewater
Water Tech Online:
The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) $7.14 billion fiscal year 2009 budget includes increased funding to improve water infrastructure security as well as $842.2 million for drinking water grants, according to a February 4 EPA press release.
The agency has allocated $555.5 million for clean water grants.
According to the release, several sustainable infrastructure initiatives are included, such as targeting Energy Star-rated technologies to help reduce the $4 billion annually that water utilities spend on energy costs, supporting a multi-year research program to foster innovation in distribution and collection systems, and proposing private activity bonds to provide another mechanism for water project financing.
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