December 2005



"Troubled Waters in Maine"
"Study Says Water, Sewer Needs Rising"
"Fresno Officials Vote Not to Send Sewage to Kern County Farm"
"Arsenic Removal Technology Presented at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris"
"Clean Water, Clean Energy: Palmdale's Water Treatment Plant"
"The Battle Over Toilet Testing"



"2006 Water Sources Conference and Exposition"
"Bacteria Warning Came Far Too Late"
"Cooperation on Water Needs"



"2006 Appropriation Continues Funding for Animas-La Plata Project Construction"
"USEPA Considering Proposed Wastewater Blending Policy"
"Negotiators Reach Deal on Great Lakes Water Protection"
"San Francisco PUC OKs Revised Water Plan"
"$20B in Doubt for Great Lakes Fix"
"Water for the Poor"

Troubled Waters in Maine
Boston Globe (12/08/05) ; Russell, Jenna

Nestle Waters North America, bottler of Poland Spring, is applying for a permit to build two new pumping sites near Kingfield and Rangeley, Maine, to add to the six sites already operational in the state, which combined accounted for nearly 495 million gallons of water in 2004. However, some local residents are hesitant, fearing dwindling water supplies and a disruption to the towns' rustic settings. Others say the sites are needed to boost local employment. One group claims to have collected 50,500 signatures in support of its plan to tax water bottlers 20 cents for every gallon of water extracted in the state. They say this would give the state a revenue boost of $100 million a year; money that could go towards the monitoring of water supplies. Officials at Nestle warn that approval of such a measure could drive them out completely.
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Study Says Water, Sewer Needs Rising
Waynesville Smoky Mountain News (NC) (11/30/05) ; Kucharski, Sarah

A new study by the North Carolina Rural Center reveals a short-term need of $6.8 billion to improve the state's water, wastewater, and stormwater systems, a figure expected to increase to $20 billion by 2030. A similar study conducted in the 1990s reported a funding shortfall of $11.9 billion in rural sections of the state and led to an $800 million statewide bond for funding that was passed in 1998. The use of public water supplies has increased from about 450 million gallons per day in 1970 to 925 million gallons in 2003 in North Carolina. More than 90 percent of the state's water and sewer systems are expected to grow within the next 25 years yet just half of the water systems have a capital improvement plan and understand their capital requirements for the next five years, tasks complicated by rising construction costs due to recent hurricane activity. The Rural Center says that systems need to find a permanent revenue source to fund improvements other than tax hikes and that many systems are not charging enough to meet their costs. The report stated that a $41.25 average monthly increase was needed to pay for current improvement needs among the state's smaller systems with 400 or less service connections and $10.25 for those with 10,000 or more connections. The study was funded by the Rural Center, U.S. Congress, Clean Water Management Trust Fund, and state General Assembly.
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Fresno Officials Vote Not to Send Sewage to Kern County Farm
San Diego Union-Tribune (11/29/05) ; Barbassa, Juliana

The city council of Fresno, Calif., has voted to acquiesce to the wishes of its neighbor, Kerns County, and not redirect some of the 300 tons or so of treated human waste its residents produce every day to a county farm that uses treated waste on farm fields. Kern County receives about 450,000 tons of treated sewage waste annually from surrounding cities and counties in the Los Angeles basin, a practice that many residents want stopped. About 25,000 signatures have been collected to push for a proposition on an upcoming ballot that would stop land application of sewage in the county, a practice seen by some as potentially damaging to local health and the marketability of local grown crops. "We believe sludge applications represent a real risk to the long-term quality of our ground water," said Kern Water Agency senior water resources planner Lloyd Fryer. The contract with Fresno's current composting facility expires next month. The city council has already approved a contract with Earth Wise Organics for disposal of about half of its waste.
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Arsenic Removal Technology Presented at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris
UNESCO (10/14/05)

An environmentally-friendly filter that uses absorbent recycled matter to remove arsenic from drinking water was presented at UNESCO headquarters in Paris recently. The filter employs iron oxide coated sand, which is expensive to produce commercially but is a natural byproduct of groundwater treatment that utilizes natural sand for iron removal. This source is free of charge, making it ideal for use in developing countries. The technology is now being tested in rural areas of Bangladesh. A parallel initiative being piloted in Greece and Hungary geared towards centralized arsenic removal applications involves a cheap regeneration procedure for exhausted adsorbent.
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Clean Water, Clean Energy: Palmdale's Water Treatment Plant
Energy & Power Management (11/05) Vol. 30, No. 11, P. 10

The Palmdale water treatment plant uses a 250 kilowatt-hour (kwh) FuelCell Energy Model DFC 2001 unit to produce 255 kwh onsite. The fuel cell produces its power using 70 percent to 80 percent of the digester gas produced at the facility, plus emits an exhaust gas that has applications for digester process heat applications. Northern Power Systems has agreed to equip the facility with an advanced energy storage system and install supervisory system control and tracking features. Caterpillar's fuel cell marketing manager, David Stanesa, hopes the project at the Palmdale facility will encourage other water districts to equip fuel cells at their treatment plants. Southern California Edison Co. and other investor-owned utilities in California are encouraging the purchase of distributed generation equipment, such as fuel cells, via the Self-Generation Incentive Program. Stanesa notes that Caterpillar has the expertise to advise potential customers on turnkey solutions because of its involvement with electric power generation. The fuel cell at the Palmdale facility has provided substantial energy cost savings, plus lower emissions. Northern Power President Jito Coleman said the project can provide a template for future initiatives of its kind and demonstrate the benefits of the technology to energy-related sectors.
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The Battle Over Toilet Testing
Wall Street Journal (12/08/05) P. D1 ; Tan, Cheryl Lu-Lien

A group of water utilities and plumbing companies is urging adoption of the Uniform North American Requirements (UNAR) for toilet parts and testing. The group wants the toilet industry to change the method by which it tests toilet flushing capabilities, a major focus since the Energy Policy Act of 1992, which required 1.6 gallons of water per flush maximum to replace the former threshold of 3.5 gallons, though many toilets built in the 1950s used as much as 7 gallons a flush. The new mandate put greater focus on coming up with methods to avoid clogging, double-flushing, and other wasteful occurrences and practices. Since 1978, toilet manufacturers tested flushability by dropping 100 3/4-inch plastic balls into a toilet, flushing, and then counting the balls remaining afloat; seventy five balls had to be flushed for the toilet to pass. However, passing this test does not mean a toilet will pass real-life conditions, which proponents of change say can better be assessed through use of miso, made mainly from cooked soybeans. Using miso however would be more expensive than using plastic since miso is not reusable, argue toilet makers. The consortium of utilities and plumbers hope that municipal water authorities will adopt UNAR, and with it a miso testing mandate, to determine eligibility for water-saving rebates, which a growing number of cities are promoting to push their water conservation agendas.
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2006 Water Sources Conference and Exposition
American Water Works Association (11/30/05)

The 2006 Water Sources Conference and Exposition hosted by the American Water Works Association is scheduled for Feb. 5-8 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The forum will touch on issues related to conservation, including regulation, legislation, and education. Water resource management will also be a focus, including source water protection, groundwater, and water rights. Water professionals from around the globe are expected to take part.
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Bacteria Warning Came Far Too Late
Augusta Chronicle (GA) (12/10/05) P. A4 ; Draughon, Betty Maxwell

The author of this letter to the editor notes that the Augusta-Richmond County Water System of Georgia released a "Publication Notification Microbiological Violation" report on Nov. 1, warning of the presence of coliform bacteria in drinking water, two months after the contamination was actually discovered. The notification stated that the levels of bacteria found did not warrant an immediate warning but urged residents with compromised immune systems to seek medical attention. The bacteria can manifest in vague symptoms that can go undetected. The notification will be included in the next mailings of water bills, further delaying efforts to inform the public.
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Cooperation on Water Needs
Monterey County Herald (CA) (12/10/05)

California American Water recently leased a regional desalination plant in Moss Landing for 98 years to better serve its customers in the Monterey County and Pajaro-Sunny Mesa regions of California. The facility is expected to be environmentally friendly while at the same time increasing water supplies for the counties' needs. A public-private partnership between California American and Poseidon Resources is expected to reduce demands on area groundwater supplies in Springfield Terrace and Pajaro Valley, as well as at the Seaside basin and Carmel River. The desalination plant is expected to produce 20 million to 25 million gallons of drinking water per day, according to this editorial piece. Supporters of the project are urging the public to get behind the construction deal since it would eliminate the need for fresh water to be pumped into the region from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
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2006 Appropriation Continues Funding for Animas-La Plata Project Construction
Waterchat.com (11/22/05)

President Bush has signed the 2006 Energy and Water Appropriations bill into law, giving the Animas La-Plata (A-LP) water reclamation project for the Ute Tribes in the Southwest its largest appropriation to date and $4 million more than last year’s. "We are pleased that this year’s appropriations will support the current construction schedule for the project," said U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Upper Colorado Regional Director Rick Gold. "The project at this time is more than 30 percent complete. However, because A-LP is a funding-driven project, some long term schedule adjustments are necessary." Accordingly, the scheduled completion date will have to be moved from 2010 to between the spring of 2012 and the spring of 2013, depending on funding in coming years. Meanwhile, work on the project’s dam is slowing down with the coming of winter though construction on the outlet works tunnel, the Durango Pumping Plant, and other project features is continuing.
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USEPA Considering Proposed Wastewater Blending Policy
American Water Works Association (11/23/05)

The EPA in May decided to shelve an earlier proposal to allow the blending of wet weather overflows with biologically treated wastewater in some cases. EPA cited some 98,000 public comments in its decision. A new proposal jointly developed by the National Association of Clean Water Agencies and the Natural Resources Defense Council has been tabled to provide the agency with an alternative. The proposal, say the two groups, "would ensure that peak wet weather flow bypasses of secondary treatment in separate sewer systems are authorized only after an analysis of the wastewater collection and treatment system demonstrates to the permitting authority that there are no feasible alternatives to an anticipated bypass." At a joint press release, the two organizations went on to say that the proposal "would benefit the nation's water quality by minimizing publicly owned treatment works' reliance on peak wet weather flow diversions as a long-term wet weather management approach to the maximum extend feasible, taking into account the economic and real-world factors detailed in the guidance."
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Negotiators Reach Deal on Great Lakes Water Protection
U.S. Water News (11/01/05)

Concern that states in the booming yet arid Southwest will siphon water from the Great Lakes has prompted a group of governors and premiers of the eight states and two Canadian provinces bordering the lakes to come to an understanding that if approved by the relevant legislatures will ban most new or increased diversions of water, including groundwater, inland lakes, and rivers, from the basin, which holds 90 percent of the fresh surface water in the United States. Exceptions, if approved unanimously by the group, could be made for jurisdictions if they cannot meet their own needs from other sources or conservation. The agreement describes the Great Lakes as "precious public natural resources shared and held in trust" by the region's governments and will also govern bottling of water from the lakes, a contentious issue that environmentalists say sets a precedent for treating water as a privatized commodity rather than a public resource. In May, Mich. Gov. Jennifer Granholm imposed a moratorium on new or expanded water bottling operations following the state's issuance of a permit for Nestle Waters North America to purchase water from the city of Evart that prompted a lawsuit from the company over a stipulation that the bottled water only be sold within the Great Lakes basin.
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San Francisco PUC OKs Revised Water Plan
San Francisco Chronicle (11/30/05) P. B1 ; Gordon, Rachel

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission has approved a $4.3 billion, 10-year improvement plan designed to safeguard and boost the efficacy of the Hetch Hetchy water system serving San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo, and Alameda counties in California. The original plan calling for the building of an additional 47-mile pipeline to carry water from the Sierra foothills was scrapped due to its high price tag and concerns raised by environmentalists over the potential damage that would be inflicted on wildlife habitat in and around the Tuolumne River, from which the proposed pipe would have carried massive amounts of additional water. The adopted plan will still allow for the additional diversion of 25 million gallons a day from the water source, which is a federally designated scenic and wild river. Currently, up to 225 million gallons a day can be taken from the river, inadequate for future needs, say officials. The approved plan calls for repairing the existing three pipelines and building a new shorter 9-mile stretch of pipeline as sell as upgrades to the system's dams, pump stations, and tunnels along the 167-mile aqueduct that runs between Yosemite National Park and the Bay Area. The project will be funded by a $1.6 billion bond measure approved by voters three years ago, the rest being covered by suburban water customers. Since the funding measure was passed, the cost of the project has increased considerably, and proponents of the plan warn that further delays would only lead to further expenses.
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$20B in Doubt for Great Lakes Fix
Detroit News (12/13/05)

A White House task force has released a $20 billion, 15-year plan to restore the Great Lakes but whether the funding will be available to cover the ambitious effort is still a big question mark. The Great Lakes are the world's largest freshwater resource, holding some 95 percent of fresh surface water in the United States. Between 1992 and 2004, the fed spent $1.7 billion on Great Lakes restoration projects, including $500 million spent on cleaning up contaminated sites. The new plan calls for mostly new funding efforts, two-thirds of which would go to fix and upgrade antiquated sewer systems in the region that during wet weather spill untreated sewage into waterways. The plan also calls for an additional $2.25 billion to clean up 31 toxic sites. Meanwhile, a group of governors and leaders of Canadian provinces that border the Great Lakes have agreed to a pact that would stem diversion of the lakes' waters. The agreement must be ratified by the U.S. Congress and the relevant state legislatures to take effect.
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Water for the Poor
Clean Water Report (11/21/05) Vol. 23, No. 43, P. 221

The U.S. Senate has passed H.R. 1973, the Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act of 2005, which sets one of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals as a U.S. law. [President Bush signed this bill into law on Dec. 1.] The bill charges the secretary of the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development with writing a national strategy within 180 days to send aid to countries plagued by drought or lack of access to clean water. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) had worked on similar legislation -- the "Safe Water: Currency for Peace Act of 2005," or S. 492 -- but in the end decided to team up with Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and adopt H.R. 1973, according to Frist senior aide Bill Hoagland. The two pieces of legislation were nearly identical, Hoagland said. Frist's bill was driven by a need for a single agency to take charge of global water issues, global economic security, faith-based efforts to bring public health services to developing countries and communities dealing with high rates of HIV/AIDS in drought-stricken areas. The bill makes access to safe water and sanitation in developing countries as an objective of U.S. foreign assistance by recognizing the link between poverty and availability of clean drinking water. This legislation will help U.S. contractors to expand their services overseas. It also will help equipment manufacturers find new markets for their systems. The question remains whether this legislation will take away already limited funding from U.S. projects. This could be a problem for U.S. plants that have to repair aging infrastructure or switch to new technology to address new regulations. This also could be a problem in areas washed out by the natural disasters this year.
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