This week's NEWS

Contaminants from A to P include two that are not-so-usual: Antimony and mercury. And there are a lot more contaminants to be considered on CCL3... AWWA gives EPA some kudos... and good advice. If you see what looks like a cluster, what do you look for in the water? How many pages of site-specific MTBE information can you copy in 4000 hours with $495,000? "Waiter! There's a fly in my... water bottle." How much is that worth?

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Federal Updates

• Contaminant Candidate List 3: AWWA provides comprehensive comments on EPA's draft CCL3 (PDF file, 413 K)
  Commentary: AWWA is quite complimentary of the improvements that USEPA has made in the CCL process as it evolved from CCL1 thru CCL2 to the current CCL3 draft. They make a number of very cogent recommendations to EPA for continuing to improve the process, including a new paradigm for deciding on microbial agents to be considered for regulation: AWWA's recommended microbial decision trees (PDF file, 3 MB)

State Updates

• Alaska's spring Northern Flows newsletter (PDF file, 1.6 MB)
• Colorado's Aqua Talk newsletter (PDF file, 483 K) is filled with updates and will inform you about Capacity Building Coaches!
• New Jersey's new newsletter for well drillers: The Well Informed (PDF file, 265 K)
  Commentary: The exciting news out of New Jersey, other than the revival of this old newsletter, is: "The Well Permitting Program will no longer be using the old atlas system (a.k.a. LORDS) and will convert, starting July 1, to the Department-wide standard of using state plane feet."  Wow!
• As part of its program on "Establishing, Managing and Operating PWS," Texas DEP is holding the 2008 Public Drinking Water Conference on August 19 - 20

Disinfection Byproducts

• Arizona city officials seem perplexed by EPA citation and fine for not submitting plan to sample DBPs (Nogales International, May 23)

Water Treatment

• San Diego County, CA, new submerged-membrane water treatment plant is online (San Diego Union Tribune, May 24)

Epidemiology

• "Cluster" of brain tumors in Missouri town triggers environmental sampling (KMBC, May 22); testing of drinking water shows "nothing abnormal" with water quality standards met (KMBC, May 23)
  Commentary: In this case, a cluster is twelve tumors in about six months in a town of 6500 people. It would be interesting to see what array of contaminants are tested to determine if there might be a link between drinking water and brain tumors?

Antimony

• Utah resort town has antimony at twice the MCL; rate increase will augment state grant to do engineering studies on treatment (Deseret News, May 26)

Arsenic

• New Mexico city looks at its options to comply with arsenic MCL (Mountain Mail, May 22)
• New Mexico to test volunteers and tap water in Alamogordo (Alamogordo Daily News, May 23) as part of a statewide epidemiology program to assess health effects related to arsenic in drinking water

Lead

• Canadian city council approves lead-in-children blood study after ten percent of water samples show elevated lead (Hamilton News, May 26); the proposed study (PDF file, 6.12 MB)

Mercury

• Tank vandalism leads to mercury warning in California utility (CBS 5, May 26)

MTBE

• New Hampshire's largest-ever, broad-based lawsuit heads for trial... it's too broad, say the oil companies (Concord Monitor, May 25); state's ground water cleanup fund is running out... needs an infusion (Concord Monitor, May 25)
  Commentary: Using what, apparently, is advanced legal terminology, an attorney representing the state in this lawsuit says that doing things the way the 26 defendant oil companies want to would take "approximately forever!" New Hampshire's lawsuit is the only "statewide" MTBE legal action remaining after New Mexico rolled its case into the recent big settlement. 
• Long Island, NY, water district is happy to share in MTBE legal settlement... even though it has had no contamination (Bellmore Herald, May 22)

Perchlorate

• California senator (and local lawyer) wants "suspected" responsible parties to pay for replacement water up front (Redlands Facts, May 26); one of 40 parties offers to settle (San Bernardino Sun, May 26)

NEWS CONTINUES BELOW

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Bottled Water

• Subtitle = Legal Frivolities: Canadian Supreme Count quashes man's suit over fly in bottled water (CTV, May 22)
• Book Review: The marketing of thirst (Wall Street Journal, May 23)
  Commentary: Now they're writing tomes on the topic of why people prefer to drink their water from portable bottles! And the readers of the Canadian media outlet really get in on the show with their comments on the guy's lawsuit... which reminds one of Groucho Marx's bit about the man who complains: "Waiter, there's a fly in my soup." "Don't worry, Sir. He won't eat much." But, who knew chocolate had so many nutrients in it? Or that the government had such "stringent" standards on bug parts in food items?

PFOA

• More C8 health studies planned for people along the Ohio River (Columbus Dispatch, May 24)

PPCPs

• Illinois EPA reports the findings of its sampling for PCPPs in a number of large water systems (News release, May 22)

Radiological

• New Brunswick, Canada, town wonders about uranium and radon tests from 1980s (Daily Gleaner, May 22); provincial government offers free tests to town residents (Daily Gleaner, May 24)

Source Water Protection

• Wisconsin state officials pressure City of Madison to control private wells (Madison Capital Times, May 21)
• Minnesota town implements its "wellhead protection plan" (Farmington Independent, May 23)

TCE

• Multiple facets of TCE issue in Arizona:
  • Drinking water utility will not take water from treated contaminated well (East Valley Tribune, May 21)
  • Scottsdale emphasizes that the TCE problem did not affect its system (East Valley Tribune, May 12)

Fluoridation

• New York village council confirms its decision to stop fluoridating despite health experts' advice (Schenectady Daily Gazette, May 22)

Security

• Cincinnati, OH, is out front with water-security program pilot testing (Associated Press, May 24); USEPA's Water Security site

Invasive Species

• Western states address mussels:
  • Colorado flexes its muscles in war on mussels (Denver Post, May 23)
  • California Department of Water Resources offers boaters advice for mussels (DWR news release, May 22; PDF file, 47.4 K); quagga and zebra mussels in California
  • Colorado River: Mussels are a given! (Mohave Daily News, May 22)
  • Nevada: Lake Tahoe threatened (Nevada Appeal, May 23)
  • California boaters surveyed about quaggas (Lake County Record Bee, May 27)

Desalination

• Desalination for a world short of water (Business Week, May 21)
• California city signs on to get desalted water (San Clemente Times, May 22)
• Promises made to provide desalinated water to Cyprus residents at a reasonable cost (Cyprus Mail, May 22)

Water Reuse

• Australian report looks at urban community attitudes on use of recycled water (Cooperative Research Center, PDF file, 1.3 MB) and... taste tests test tasters testing tastes (The Age, May 24)
• Clearwater, FL, officials get ready to do their own tasting... to get public in support of their ground water recharge program (St. Petersburg Times, May 25)

International

• Chinese government says five million people in earthquake zone have safe water... only 3/4 million to go (China Daily, May 26); and a Canadian group delivers small ray of hope for safe drinking water to Chinese earthquake victims (Toronto Star, May 26)
• Canadian First Nations:
  • Study finds water safety is a big concern for native communities (National Post, May 22)
  • Recent history of drinking water in First Nation communities (National Post, May 22)
• Belgian farmer pierces NATO aviation fuel pipeline; ground water contamination concerns (AFP, May 22)
• Study finds half of Pakistan city's population drinks water contaminated with sewage (Khaleej Times, May 27)

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