The News Review:
- Rhode Island news | projo.com | The Providence Journal
- New view on water storage: Injecting water into the aquifer is tested…
- China plans huge river clean-up
- Partnerships, not protests, will secure water needs
- National Briefing
- Feds propose listing local steelhead as ‘threatened’ species
Rhode Island news | projo.com | The Providence Journal
Providence Journal – Mar 30, 2006
01:00 AM EST on Thursday, March 30, 2006
BY TALIA BUFORDJournal Staff Writer
Two teenagers have been arrested in connection with the vandalism at the Blackstone, Mass. , Water Department and a public health advisory for customers to avoid contact with the water was lifted by midday yesterday. But the incident prompted officials to wonder how safe the water supply in the region is if teenagers could break into a water-system facility and do enough damage to close schools and businesses in Blackstone and leave dozens of customers in North Smithfield unable to drink from the tap or even bathe. The federal government has a series of guidelines — but no mandates — for water departments to ensure the safety of their facilities, such as installing lighting around facilities and locking access to water tanks, said Jane Downing, chief of the drinking water branch of the U. Environmental Protection Agency’s New England Region. “We have guidance available on the need to ensure the integrity of tanks and suggestions on how to do that,” she said, “but it’s up to each system to decide what works best for them… Environmental Protection Agency awarded $53 million for security upgrades to publicly owned drinking water utilities across the country that serve at least 100,000 people. In Rhode Island, the Providence and Pawtucket Water Supply boards each received $115,000 as part of that award. The Providence Water Supply Board provides water to more than 600,000 people — or 60 percent of the state, while the Pawtucket Water Supply Board serves 100,000 people in Pawtucket, Central Falls and sections of Cumberland and Seekonk. The Providence system has spent “several million” over the past few years upgrading security, adding cameras, alarms and fences,” said chief engineer and general manager Pamela Marchand. Smaller towns can look to the state for monetary relief for security upgrades to water facilities, Downing said. Each year, EPA contributes about $8 million to Rhode Island, alone, to finance upgrades to municipal and town water systems, Downing said.
New view on water storage: Injecting water into the aquifer is tested…
Free with registration – Sacramento Bee – AccessMyLibrary.com – Mar 30, 2006
30–There’s room to store hundreds of thousands of acre-feet of water in the ground beneath the Sacramento region. If developed, the extra storage could do much to improve.
China plans huge river clean-up
BBC News – Mar 30, 2006
2bn cleaning up the Songhua River along the Russian border after it was polluted by toxic chemicals last year. Water supplies were cut off to millions of people following the benzene leak. The clean-up plan will fund more than 200 projects designed to reduce industrial pollution and improve sewage treatment and water quality. November’s spill strained relations with Russia and focused attention on pollution problems in China’s rivers. 8m people in the northern Chinese city of Harbin lost their water supplies for up to five days after 100 tonnes of benzene and nitrobenzene leaked into the Songhua… People have also been warned against drinking from a nearby river after gas field workers noticed gas bubbling into the water on Saturday. In the four months since the Songhua incident, China has suffered a further 73 major spills, Xinhua says. The Ministry of Water Resources estimates that 40% of water in China’s 1,300 major waterways is fit only for industrial or agricultural use. The north-eastern province of Gansu, on the Yellow River, is to spend nearly five billion yuan ($623m) on improving water quality by 2010, Xinhua reports. Neighbouring Shaanxi has allocated 4. 5 billion yuan ($561m) to clean up the Weihe River.
Partnerships, not protests, will secure water needs
San Francisco Chronicle – Mar 30, 2006
They combine local knowledge and oversight with access to new technologies and global expertise, while ensuring that the water resources, infrastructure and rate-setting responsibilities remain under local control. Take San Juan Capistrano, for example. Like many Southern California communities, the city known for the return of the swallows had been relying on imported water and was unable to store the recommended emergency minimum water supply for its citizens. The city’s solution was to partner with ECO Resources, Inc. , a part of Southwest Water Company Services Group, and construct a new facility. Built on time and under budget, the plant can produce 4,800 acre-feet of water per year, or nearly 100 percent of San Juan Capistrano’s water needs in the winter and half in the summer. ECO Resources continues to operate the San Juan Capistrano water facility under a 20-year contract… , a part of Southwest Water Company Services Group, and construct a new facility. Built on time and under budget, the plant can produce 4,800 acre-feet of water per year, or nearly 100 percent of San Juan Capistrano’s water needs in the winter and half in the summer. ECO Resources continues to operate the San Juan Capistrano water facility under a 20-year contract. Success stories like this are not unique. The Water Partnership Council, a consortium of water and wastewater-treatment providers, recently surveyed officials with 31 public entities that depend on the private-sector partnerships for the daily management, operation and maintenance of their water or wastewater facilities. The survey’s conclusion? Partnerships work. In fact, 93 percent of respondents rated the technical competence of their private partner as “good” or “outstanding”; 93 percent of respondents said that their private partners proactively participate in community activities and undertake local community initiatives beyond what is required; 74 percent of the public officials rated their regulatory compliance as better under the partnership than prior to the partnership; 53 percent reported that employee salaries at the water plants increased under the partnership; and 90 percent of municipalities that projected cost savings before entering into the public-private partnership achieved their projected savings.
National Briefing
New York Times – Mar 30, 2006
Muhammad’s trial in the six Montgomery County, Md. , killings is set for May 1. (AP)NEW ENGLANDMASSACHUSETTS: TWO CHARGED IN WATER SUPPLY BREAK-IN Two 15-year-old boys were charged in connection with a break-in at the town of Blackstone’s water storage facility, Lt. Gregory Gilmore of the town police said. The charges are malicious destruction of property, tampering with a public water supply and polluting the water supply, all felonies, and trespassing. The boys’ names were not released because of their ages. Tests found no evidence of chemical contamination in the water, the authorities said.
Feds propose listing local steelhead as ‘threatened’ species
Seattle Post Intelligencer – Mar 30, 2006
A departmental science study of the effect of hatcheries on wild steelhead populations — the ones that would be protected under the Endangered Species Act — is due out in May. Then the state will work out plans to minimize the effect of hatcheries on wild steelhead, Koenings said. Seattle’s water supply in the Cedar River should be safe, said Rand Little, a biologist for Seattle Public Utilities, in part because the city already takes steps to help steelhead there. Seattle has obtained federal approval for a habitat conservation plan, which required the city to open up 17 miles of the Cedar previously walled off by a dam from spawning salmon and steelhead. Behind the dam where a fish ladder was added were a bunch of rainbow trout, he said, and here’s an interesting twist to the steelhead story: They’re really rainbow trout that decide to head off to the ocean like a salmon. The city also has built a storage reservoir that should allow technicians to keep enough water in the Cedar to sustain fish even in dry summers, city officials say. The question is: Will federal authorities count rainbow trout — which could become steelhead under the right conditions — toward recovery of steelhead? The proposal released Wednesday indicates not, quoting a scientific report that says the rainbows “by themselves should not be relied upon to maintain long-term viability” of a steelhead run.