January 2006



"International Symposium on Waterborne Pathogens March 16-18, 2006 - Atlanta, Georgia"
"Home Depot to Buy Hughes"
"NuFlo Measurement Systems Acquires Ultrasonic Meter Manufacturer Caldon"
"Key Workers Now to Stay Near Pumps During Hurricane in Jefferson Parish"
"Arsenic Levels in Leachate Among Factors Affecting New Contract for Treatment"
"Lucerne's Water Issues Move Ahead"
"Immediate Purchase of New Security System for City Water Plant"



"Let's Tap Into Water Policies"
"Editorial: Focus on the Great Lakes"



"Feikens: Give Suburbs a Voice, City a Profit on Water"
"Cities Spend Millions on Land to Protect Water"
"State Investigating Sewage Spill"
"Schwarzenegger Proposes $222-Billion Plan for California Growth"
"$18 Million Targeted for Water Quality Monitoring"
"Bill Targets Proposed Changes to DEC Rules"
"California Water Planners Tired of Asking Voters for Money"
"Ohio's Top Court Rules Landowners Own Groundwater"

International Symposium on Waterborne Pathogens March 16-18, 2006 - Atlanta, Georgia
American Water Works Association (01/11/06)

The International Symposium on Waterborne Pathogens will take place in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 16-18. The fourth in a series of symposia addressing waterborne pathogens, this event will provide a comprehensive forum for the exchange of up-to-the-minute information and cutting edge ideas relating to this critical public health issue. Special areas of concern includes sources of pathogens, detection methods, outbreak investigations, new water and wastewater treatment technologies, and public health effects, treatment, and communications. Topics to be covered include disinfection effectiveness, emerging/re-emerging pathogens, and regulations.
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Home Depot to Buy Hughes
Washington Post (01/11/06) P. D2

Home Depot has inked a $3.2 billion deal to acquire Hughes Supply of Orlando. The deal will double the size of the Home Depot Supply division, which serves everyone from builders and contractors to maintenance professionals and municipalities. Hughes Supply, which provides heating and cooling systems, sewer, and building materials as well as industrial pipes, presently has more than 500 locations nationwide.
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NuFlo Measurement Systems Acquires Ultrasonic Meter Manufacturer Caldon
Market Wire (01/05/06)

NuFlo Measurement Systems has acquired Caldon, Inc. of Pittsburgh, PA, a supplier of ultrasonic flow measurement products and systems. Caldon's products and systems are currently used in petroleum pipelines, refineries, hydroelectric dams, water distribution facilities, and nuclear power plants around the world. NuFlo Measurement Systems is the measurement group of Cooper Cameron Valves and Measurement, a division of Cooper Cameron Corporation. Caldon, Inc. specializes in advanced transit time ultrasonic technology involving measurements based on the movement of sound waves through fluids. The company focuses on providing solutions for demanding high performance applications, from clean liquids to mining slurries. The acquisition of Caldon supports Cooper Cameron's mandate to expand the breadth and scope of its flow measurement products, services and overall capabilities. The Caldon ultrasonic meters offer a complementary line of measurement devices to NuFlo's current portfolio, which includes turbine meters, totalizers, orifice plates and meters, flow computers, chart recorders, transmitters, differential pressure products, and sampling systems.
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Key Workers Now to Stay Near Pumps During Hurricane in Jefferson Parish
U.S. Water News (01/01/06)

Louisiana's Jefferson Parish said it would build 20 "safe houses" for pump workers to ensure that pumps can quickly be started when floods happen. Hurricane Katrina forced the parish to use the seven-year-old "Doomsday Plan" under which 236 pump workers were sent 100 miles north to Washington Parish, and thousands of Jefferson Parish homes flooded in the 12 hours it took for workers to come back. Parish President Aaron Broussard said the parish would never again use the 1998 Doomsday Plan, which was based on sending essential personnel to a safe area. The new plan will instead focus on sheltering essential workers within Jefferson Parish, close to water-works plants and pump stations. Broussard expects the safe houses--four of which were already being built when Hurricane Katrina hit--will be ready by the time the hurricane season starts up again on June 1. The parish will also be seeking out other public and private structures that can be fortified to serve as other hurricane shelter sites, and it will also look into the possibility of making use of a large Navy ship on the Mississippi River for that purpose. The parish's evacuation plans for residents will also be reviewed but are not likely to be changed.
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Arsenic Levels in Leachate Among Factors Affecting New Contract for Treatment
Pottstown Mercury (PA) (01/01/06) ; Brandt, Evan

The level of arsenic in treated water leaching from the Pottstown Landfill has exceeded allowable standards at least six times over the past decade yet no fines have ever been levied, says the Alliance for a Clean Environment. Pottstown Borough Authority officials say that the permit which governs the limits on dangerous substances in the leachate allows the polluter to exceed the limits for certain pollutants and not be subject to a violation, so long as it causes no adverse effects at the sewer treatment plant. The landfill's issues with arsenic seem to be part of an ongoing campaign to have its limits raised. The last time the leachate's arsenic level exceeded its permit limits was Feb. 20, 1998, a year that also saw the landfill ask for its permit limits for arsenic to be raised from .12 milligrams per liter to .25 milligrams per liter. The limit was raised to .50 milligrams per liter. However, a new Environmental Protection Agency standard that will take effect Jan. 23 lowers the amount of arsenic allowed in drinking water to .010 milligrams per liter.
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Lucerne's Water Issues Move Ahead
Lake County Record-Bee (12/31/05) ; Logsdon, Terre

Progress is being made in resolving the water system issue in Lucerne, Calif., where the need for a new water plant prompted the California Water Service (CWS) to request a 273 percent rate hike from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in September. Bill Koehler, manager of CWS' Lucerne plant, said the increases would allow the continued operation of the plant, but a report issued Dec. 19, 2005, by the CPUC's Office of Ratepayer Advocates said that CWS should have known about the dilapidated condition of the water system before purchasing it from Dominguez. Moreover, the office recommended that CWS shareholders fund 90 percent of the cost rather than local residents. "Water rates should be low enough so that low-income customers will not have to displace other essential services to pay their water bills," the report advised. On Jan. 9, CWS was slated to provide rebuttal testimony to all concerned parties in response to hearings held in November before Administrative Law Judge James McVicar. Additional negations will take place on Jan. 13, followed by evidentiary hearings in San Francisco from Jan. 24 to Jan. 27. A proposed decision will be filed May 16, which the CPUC will mull over in June. A group called Lucerne Flow, meanwhile, wants to enable the community to become its own water district to ensure local control.
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Immediate Purchase of New Security System for City Water Plant
Brockville Recorder & Times (Canada) (12/22/05) P. A3 ; Zajac, Ronald

Brockville, Ontario, will spend $25,000 on a new security system for its water treatment plant immediately rather than wait for next year's budget process, a move that will allow the city to buy the equipment at a discount. The security system will be connected to the SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) system that monitors the plant's operations and key points of entry, said operations director Conal Cosgrove. In a report to the Brockville City Council, Cosgrove and water and wastewater treatment supervisor Melodie Hobbs noted that the security system will interface with existing alarms on the SCADA system. In the event of an intrusion, the equipment will be able to provide "prosecution quality" files. Although some city council members opposed pre-approving spending for the security system instead of waiting for budget time, others said that the potential for sabotage of the drinking system gives this item a higher priority than other items on the budget. The potential for sabotage was brought to the city's attention in March 2004, when vandals broke off a padlock on a hatch door leading to the reservoir at the city's water treatment plant. Although tests ultimately concluded the city's water supply was not contaminated, the incident prompted the city to look at the water treatment plant's security system and determine it needed to be upgraded, Cosgrove said.
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Let's Tap Into Water Policies
Philadelphia Inquirer (01/09/06)

As an attorney practicing before the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) in the early 1990s, the author of this article, Rich Ciamacca, noted a new trend under which locally owned water systems were being sold to private companies. He wondered if this trend would eventually cost customers in the shape of higher water bills as more and more cash-strapped towns and cities sold their water systems to raise funding.. Now, Aqua Pennsylvania has requested a 14.4 percent rate increase for customers in suburban Philadelphia, ostensibly to fund the $250 million the company says it will have to spend to pay for improvements to the region's water system. But the author queries the need for such a dramatic hike, given that the companies parent, Aqua America, posted an increase of 24 percent in earnings during the second quarter, using some of its profits to purchase other water systems, including that of Ocean County, N.J., in November and another one in North Carolina in late December. The company plans to make up to 35 acquisitions annually. Furthermore, Aqua America has asked the PUC for a rate hike every two years since 1993. Its last request for a 10.2 percent increase was cut to 5.9 percent by the commission. Ciamacca urges the public to get involved in the debate, especially when their local government is considering a sale of its water system.
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Editorial: Focus on the Great Lakes
Fort Wayne News-Sentinel (IN) (12/28/05)

This editorial states that cleaning up pollution in the Great Lakes and keeping the water from being drawn out of the region will take a great deal of money and political willpower, possibly an unrealistically large amount, but two developments on Dec. 12 and 13 underscore the importance of the topic on the public agenda. The first development involved local, state, and federal officials' release of the final version of a $20 billion, 15-year plan to clean up key pollution problems facing the lakes, including $13 billion for upgrading sewage-treatment plans that are contaminating the lakes. Also included in the plan are cleaning up 31 key toxic spots, restoring hundreds of thousands of acres of wetlands and buffer strips, and fighting invasive species. However, certain pollution sources--such as mercury from power plants--are not addressed because government and industry cannot see eye to eye on where the fault lies and how best to address it. Meanwhile, the Dec. 13 development was a historic pact among eight states and two Canadian provinces that would bar most diversions of water outside the drainage area of the lakes, and which would also create new rules on how the water can be used by states and provinces that are within the drainage area. This pact would still have to be approved by Congress and by the legislatures of each of the states and provinces, however.
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Feikens: Give Suburbs a Voice, City a Profit on Water
Crain's Detroit Business (01/09/06) ; Ankeny, Robert

District Judge John Feikens says that neither legislation or litigation will resolve a dispute between the city of Detroit and its suburbs regarding oversight of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. Under current state law, the city has sole authority to run its own water system but is prohibited from receiving any benefits or making any profits from doing so. Feikens suggested that a new framework under which a regional water authority would be created so that suburban communities have a say in operations and the city is allowed to receive a profit may be more appropriate. His opinion was delivered while the court considered a petition filed by Oakland County to have Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick removed as special administrator of the department in favor of a panel that would include the mayor as well as representatives from several counties. Feikens instead opted to eliminate the position and the authority vested in it giving the mayor the power to veto water department board and Detroit City Council authority over hiring, firing, and purchasing decisions regarding the settlement of a 1977 lawsuit filed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. That suit revolved around polluting of the Detroit River by a waste-treatment plant managed by the water and sewerage department. Feikens overheard the original case and gave his court virtual receivership authority to oversee compliance with federal anti-pollution mandates.
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Cities Spend Millions on Land to Protect Water
Wall Street Journal (01/04/06) P. B6 ; Carlton, Jim

Cities across the nation are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase land to preserve drinking water supplies, seeing in this strategy a cheaper alternative than building treatment plants. The cities of Austin and San Antonio in Texas are in a race to buy open space atop the Edwards Aquifer, which is particularly vulnerable to contamination due to its composition of porous limestone. The aquifer supplies nearly all of San Antonio's drinking water and 5 percent of Austin's and holds enough water to continue supplying San Antonio alone for more than 100 years. San Antonio has spent about $45 million to purchase 7,000 acres of land in Texas Hill County, which is experiencing a boom, to prevent further sprawl that might endanger the water source. In May, city voters approved a $90 million tax measure to purchase thousands more acres. Austin has raised $80 million in bonds since 1998 to buy 20,000 acres of land and may ask voters to approve a $100 million bond measure next year for the acquisition of more property. But the policy has its opponents, mainly land developers and local land holders who say the policy depreciates the value of their properties. The strategy is not limited to Texas. Massachusetts has spent about $120 million since 1985 to purchase about 20,000 acres of land around two reservoirs that supply Boston, while New York City has bought about 70,000 acres adjoining stream and rivers in the Catskills that feed into reservoirs that supply the city.
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State Investigating Sewage Spill
Denver Post (01/06/06) ; McGuire, Kim

Colorado's health department is probing into a 44,000-gallon sewage spill into a river in Colorado Springs. The spill dumped raw sewage into Fountain Creek after a manhole became clogged during repairs to the city's wastewater system on January 5. Some of the sewage was diverted to a nearby wastewater treatment plant, but most of it ended up in a tributary of the river, said Steve Barry, spokesman of Colorado Springs Utilities. The utility has been blamed for more than 377,000 gallons of sewage entering Fountain Creek since last summer via multiple spills, prompting a federal lawsuits by the Pueblo County District Attorney and the Sierra Club. The utility was fined more than $110,000 in October by the state health department, which ordered it to inspect 131 sewer lines. Berry said the utility plans to overhaul its wastewater system at a cost of over $250 million over the next two decades.
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Schwarzenegger Proposes $222-Billion Plan for California Growth
ENR (01/06/06) ; Long, J.T.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed a $222 billion infrastructure construction plan, including $35 billion for the state's aging water system. Of the $35 billion, $6 billion would be spent on levee improvements and flood-control projects. The improvements to the state's water system would be paid for in part by five general-obligation bonds that would contribute a total of $9 billion and a newly created Water Resources Investment Fund composed of fees collected from retail water districts, which would contribute $5 billion. The plan would also depend on matching grants, federal cost-share projects, private-public partnerships, and a user-pay principle, which would require beneficiaries of infrastructure improvements to pay the costs of improvements.
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$18 Million Targeted for Water Quality Monitoring
Waterchat.com (12/30/05)

The Environmental Protection Agency has announced its plans to allocate the FY 2006 increase of $18 million for national water quality monitoring. These funds supplement an existing allocation of approximately $200 million annually to support state, interstate agency, and tribal programs to combat water pollution. The agency is changing the way it allocates funds under the water pollution control grant program (known as Section 106 of the Clean Water Act). The agency allocates the funds through a prescribed allotment formula. Under the revised process, EPA will be better able to target these additional funds to help carry out priority areas that include monitoring for pollutants. The process requires the agency to consult with states and interstate agencies prior to finalizing the allocation formula. This action was taken in response to President Bush's FY 2006 budget calling for an increase in funding of water-quality monitoring nationwide.
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Bill Targets Proposed Changes to DEC Rules
Homer News (AK) (12/29/05) ; Stuart, Ben

While Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is working on analyzing public comments on its plans to loosen several water-quality standards, several state lawmakers have submitted a bill to retain most of the old rules. A day after the pubic comment period ended for the department's proposals, the lawmakers announced that they had pre-filed legislation that would continue to bar mixing zones in freshwater spawning areas. Most sewage treatment plans in Alaska make some use of mixing zones--areas where wastewater mixes with fresh water or the ocean--and so do some seafood processors, fish hatcheries, mining operations, and oil and gas facilities. Current law prohibits discharges in spawning streams, although permits can be obtained from DEC to discharge treated wastewater into freshwater streams and lakes that contain no spawning fish. DEC is currently amid its second round of proposals in recent years aimed at changing the law; more than 600 comments were received in 2004, mostly opposed the law, and the department has received more than 200 comments on the new proposal. Under the new proposal, limited exceptions to the prohibition would be allowed so long as the applicant shows that the fish would not be harmed and so long as the application is okayed by the Department of National Resources and the Alaska department of Fish and Game. Several city councils and the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly passed resolutions in 2005 opposed to the new round of changes, which DEC argues are necessary to help small community wastewater facilities provide their services.
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California Water Planners Tired of Asking Voters for Money
Scripps Howard News Service (12/23/05) ; Krist, John

Californians have approved five bond measures aimed at water projects over the past decade, raising a total of $11.1 billion, though only a fraction of the funding actually went towards water systems, the remainder going towards things like farmland preservation and coastal wetlands protection.. Now, the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) and the Conservation Strategy Group of Sacramento, Calif., have drafted "The Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Costal Protection Bond Act of 2006" to raise an additional $5.4 billion, $1.5 billion of which would go towards water supply and quality projects. The sponsors would have preferred to include the spending measure in a huge public-works ballot measure being proposed but had no idea when that measure would get off the ground, said ACWA chief Steve Hall during a recent association conference in San Diego. The issue highlights the inadequacy of relying on voter goodwill to raise funding for water projects. As a solution, a proposal tabled at the ACWA conference called for the creation of a statewide Water Resources Investment Fund under which a fee charged to every water user in the state would be pooled to help cover the $50 billion to $75 billion that would be needed to implement all the projects identified in California's most recent water plan.
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Ohio's Top Court Rules Landowners Own Groundwater
Cleveland Plain Dealer (OH) (12/22/05) ; Brown, T.C.

On Dec. 21, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that a government is required to compensate landowners for obstructing their groundwater. The justices said a title to property is inclusive of the groundwater underneath the ground, and any unwarranted interference by the government in the use of the water is considered a "taking" under the Ohio constitution. As a result, the owner would have to be reimbursed for the loss. The decision is significant for farmers and landowners who run their own water system, said attorney Tony Logan, who represents the Ohio Farmers' Union but was not part of the lawsuits. "This allows future disputes with the government to be resolved more expeditiously and with a minimum of legal wrangling," Logan said. "City development departments need to plan and budget for groundwater acquisition if they are going to try to sink well fields." In his decision, Justice Paul Pfeifer noted that 700,000 Ohio residents have wells, while Ohio businesses use more than 240 million gallons of groundwater daily. Farmers use roughly 2 billion gallons of groundwater daily, according to Pfeifer.
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