Archive for the 'Water' Category
Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 18 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: Electric, Water, Energy, Environment
The New York Times:
It takes a lot of water to produce electricity, both to mine and to process coal and other fuels and to cool power plants. Production of gasoline uses water, too, but in an analysis in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, Carey W. King and Michael E. Webber of the University of Texas found that adding more plug-in vehicles would result in a significant increase in water use because of the additional electricity that would have to be generated.
For every mile driven by a gas-powered vehicle that is displaced by one driven by an electric vehicle, the researchers report, about three times as much water is consumed (that is, lost to evaporation) and about 17 times as much is withdrawn (used and returned to its source).
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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
San Jose Mercury News:
Eight of the nation’s largest water providers from California to New York announced the formation of a coalition to develop strategies on dealing with climate change.The newly formed Water Utility Climate Alliance includes the giant Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the San Diego County Water Authority and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.
Members, which together provide water to more than 36 million people, also include Denver Water, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, the Portland (Ore.) Water Bureau, Seattle Public Utilities and the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
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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 18 Feb 2008 | Tagged as: General, Water
Water Tech Online:
The nation’s utility regulators are expected to vote next week on a resolution asking state governments to give water-supply companies that comply with state and federal safe drinking water standards “safe harbor” against lawsuits by those who would claim they’ve been harmed by drinking water.
The object of the resolution, according to a text of it provided by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), is to prevent the cost of such lawsuits from becoming an undue economic burden on water suppliers and their ratepayers.
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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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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 25 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: Water, International, Environment
AFP:
Documentary film “Flow,” premiering at the Sundance Film Festival this week, condemns water profiteering, calling for a UN resolution to make access to clean drinking water a human right.
The film by French-born director Irena Salina blasts Paris-based Suez and Vivendi Environment for commercializing water systems around the world, as well as Nestle, the world’s largest bottled water seller, for draining watersheds.
Even the World Bank gets knocked in the film for funding massive water diversion projects that have displaced 80 million people, instead of smaller, cheaper and more eco-friendly community projects to bring fresh drinking water to the poor.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 27 Dec 2007 | Tagged as: Water, Environment, Wastewater
U.S. Water News:
A pharmaceutical company will pay more than $20 million for multiple Clean Water Act violations stemming from three chemical spills, one of which killed more than 1,000 fish and forced the city to temporarily shut off drinking water intakes.
Based in Whitehouse Station, N.J., Merck & Co. Inc. will pay $10 million for systems to prevent future hazardous discharges at the facility 15 miles outside Philadelphia, and $9 million for other large-scale environmental protection projects, federal authorities said.
Merck also will pay $750,000 to the federal government, $750,000 to the state and $75,000 to the state Fish and Boat Commission in penalties and civil damages for the three 2006 discharges in the Wissahickon Creek, which is the source of 40 percent of Philadelphia’s drinking water.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 17 Dec 2007 | Tagged as: Water, Environment, Wastewater
Water Tech Online:
Pharmaceuticals maker Merck, located in West Point, Montgomery County, will pay more than $20 million in a federal remediation settlement agreement for discharging potassium thiocyanate into the Wissahickon Creek in June 2006, according to a December 13 US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) press release.
The June 13, 2006, Clean Water Act violation caused extensive fish kills in the creek, a tributary of the Schuylkill River. The incident also caused the Philadelphia Water Department to temporarily close its Schuylkill River drinking water intake on June 14-15.
The settlement, announced by the EPA, US Attorney Pat Meehan and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, calls for the company to pay $10 million to put into place systems that will prevent future dangerous discharges at its facility, which is located 15 miles outside Philadelphia, and $9 million for other comprehensive environmental protection projects.
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