The News Review:

- Streamline drinking water supply, officials told
- Tests point to water contamination in Mysore
- Experts: Ethanol’s Water Demands a Concern

Streamline drinking water supply, officials told
Hindu – Jun 18, 2006
Issuing series instructions to officials, she said the municipality should chalk out plans for uniform supply of water during daytime and ensure adequate supply in all areas. Time and date of supply should be announced well in advance to people. The municipality should follow uniform time and date of water supply for each area keeping in mind the convenience of residents, she said. She inquired officials about the quantum of water reaching main supply tank from Cavuery head works in Karur and quantum of distribution to Dindigul and quantity of water received from Peranai and Athoor Kamarajar water schemes, two other main drinking water sources to the town. While inspecting Terracotta doll making unit operated by self-help group at Samathuvapuram in Nallampatti, she advised officials to take necessary steps to provide bank loan to the unit for expansion. Later, she inspected ground level supply tank at M…
Time and date of supply should be announced well in advance to people. The municipality should follow uniform time and date of water supply for each area keeping in mind the convenience of residents, she said. She inquired officials about the quantum of water reaching main supply tank from Cavuery head works in Karur and quantum of distribution to Dindigul and quantity of water received from Peranai and Athoor Kamarajar water schemes, two other main drinking water sources to the town. While inspecting Terracotta doll making unit operated by self-help group at Samathuvapuram in Nallampatti, she advised officials to take necessary steps to provide bank loan to the unit for expansion. Later, she inspected ground level supply tank at M.

Tests point to water contamination in Mysore
Hindu – Jun 18, 2006
The tests proved positive for water contamination. Pointing out that the water samples were collected from points very close to the source of water supply, the MGP argued that the chances of contamination near the source – Yadvigiri High Level Reservoir and Vijaynagar Ground Level Reservoir – owing to leakage from sewers was very low. “So a positive result near the source of water supply is an indication that filtration and chlorination of water are inadequate in removing the harmful bacteria,” according to the MGP. Ajay Memorial Drinking Water Foundation, the MGP says that the danger of water contamination is the highest at the beginning of the monsoon…
“Therefore, the amount of organic matter and bacteria in the reservoir is high during the early part of the rainy season. It is very difficult to filter turbid water which contains a high load of organisms. So the water that comes out of the filtration unit in the water treatment plant still contains a lot of suspended organic material which provide protection to bacteria against chlorination,” said the MGP quoting Prof. Hence the citizens of Mysore have been advised to purify water before drinking. It has been suggested to boil water for 10-15 minutes or immerse a clean (EC grade) copper sheet in the water for 24 hours to kill harmful bacteria. Word of caution Unless precautionary steps are taken, people are at risk as contaminated water supply had resulted in localised epidemics in the last few years in Bogadi and Paduvarahalli in which people died.

Experts: Ethanol’s Water Demands a Concern
San Francisco Chronicle – Jun 18, 2006
The demand for water by the two dozen operating ethanol plants in Iowa has not damaged water sources or supplies, said Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association. Improving technology means new plants use as much as 80 percent less water than plants built just five years ago, and most plants recycle their water so it has more than one use, he said. Still, the draw on Midwest water supplies is a concern. “It’s an issue that is certainly at the forefront of our minds,” said Paul VanDorpe, a scientist at the Iowa Geological Survey in Iowa City. But he does not perceive as much concern among the public, he said. The possibility of a new ethanol plant is one reason the city of Aberdeen, S…
, decided to seek new water sources, perhaps from deeper wells, Mayor Mike Levsen said. “We felt that for the current demand we had plenty of water to supply them, but that would begin to run us up to our limit,” he said. Many industries use more than a million gallons of water each day, still far less than the 23 million gallons per day used by Champaign and Urbana or the 500 million gallons per day that Chicago pumps from Lake Michigan. The Mahomet Aquifer, along which several ethanol plants are proposed, has plenty of water. Running across the midsection of the state from the Indiana line to the Illinois River, it supplies an estimated 250 million gallons of water per day to municipalities, industry, farms and homes. That is a pittance given the estimated 13 trillion gallons of water in the aquifer, Wehrmann said.