The News Review:

- Scott County mulls best option for water treatment
- The choice: woodchips or water
- A third reservoir holding about 50 million gallons of water was not…

Scott County mulls best option for water treatment
Kingsport Times News – Oct 22, 2006
“We’re looking at a regional water treatment plant at Speers Ferry on the Clinch River,” said Dan Danko, executive director of the Scott County Public Service Authority. Army Corps of Engineers will have to perform an environmental impact study…
“That’s fine now, but with dry periods it gets low, and that is what you look for – the worst-case scenario,” Danko said. There is no comparison between the two rivers, he said. There is a substantial difference between the water supply available from the Clinch. “There is a concern that, in a drought, the Big Moccasin could not meet water needs in the county. The Clinch could,” he said. But a former member of the Scott County Board of Supervisors suggested that the county could get its water from Kingsport without the risks or investment involved with building a new water treatment plant. Robert Wininger, who served on the county board in the 1960s and again in the 1980s, suggested at a recent PSA meeting that the board members talk to Kingsport officials about the ability to purchase water from the Model City.

The choice: woodchips or water
The Age – Oct 22, 2006
Almost 400,000 hectares are now covered with plantations withthe area expected to treble in the next 15 years. Federal parliamentary secretary for water Malcolm Turnbull hassuggested cutting down trees as a way of restoring flows in somecatchments. But the impact on water supplies is just one area of concern forlocal communities and environmentalists. Private companies and managed investment schemes — whichcan attract investors by offering lucrative tax breaks — areaccused of artificially inflating the prices of rural propertieswith aggressive acquisitions. There also is concern about increased fire risk from denselyplanted blue gums and aerial spraying of pesticides to kill naturalvegetation regrowth and insects. Friends of the Earth water expert Anthony Amis said aerialpesticide spraying had led to contamination of domestic drink watersupplies in tanks, rivers and reservoirs. Mr Amis was instrumental in exposing the contamination ofGeelong’s water supply over an 18-month period from 2004 with theherbicide hexazinone from a pine plantation 50 kilometresupstream.

A third reservoir holding about 50 million gallons of water was not…
Honolulu Star-Bulletin – Oct 22, 2006
Kamuela resident Frank Fuchino said some residents had feared the reservoirs could burst, causing a disaster like the one on Kauai on March 14, when the Kaloko Dam failed, killing seven people. The dam released as much as 300 million gallons of water. The leaks were identified by engineers from the Department of Water Supply, state Department Land and Natural Resources, Federal Bureau of Reclamation and Army Corps of Engineers, according to Civil Defense. Workers cut water access to the reservoirs at 7 p. Friday to begin releasing water into Waikoloa Stream to drain the reservoirs.