The News Review:

- Water treatment plant gets upgrades, residents asked to conserve
- FEATURE-Water crisis is big test for Peru’s president
- Cities ‘should consider’ drinking recycled effluent

Water treatment plant gets upgrades, residents asked to conserve
San Diego Union Tribune – Nov 27, 2006
Residents, businesses and local growers, particularly in north San Diego County, are requested to contact their local water supplier to determine water-use restrictions for their area, Rigdon said. The Skinner plant shutdown is part of a $400 million construction project under way at the facility to increase the plant’s water treatment capacity, improve water quality processes and modify chemical handling capabilities, Rigdon said. Work to increase the plant’s treatment capacity by 110 million gallons per day is scheduled to be finished by next summer, he said, while water quality improvements would become operational in 2007 and 2009. While the treatment plant is shut down, Metropolitan will inspect and make repairs to major water delivery canals and pipelines that service the area, as well as to valves, meters and other equipment, according to Rigdon. “Maintaining and improving our ability to store, process and deliver drinking water throughout our Southern California service area requires periodic curtailments in deliveries while the work is being done,” he said. The San Diego County Water Authority also will be conducting pipeline inspections and completing necessary repairs during the shutdown. The MWD routinely schedules shutdowns of its facilities in winter months, when temperatures usually are cooler and demands are lower, to complete inspections and perform maintenance and upgrades with the least impact on consumers, Rigdon said…
The MWD routinely schedules shutdowns of its facilities in winter months, when temperatures usually are cooler and demands are lower, to complete inspections and perform maintenance and upgrades with the least impact on consumers, Rigdon said. The Skinner plant is a primary source of supplemental, treated drinking water to communities served by Eastern and Western, which both rely on the MWD’s water for about 80 percent of their water supply needs. The Water Authority calls upon MWD’s imported supplies for up to 90 percent of its water needs. According to Metropolitan, “voluntary water conservation by consumers, combined with activation of system interconnections between water agencies, will offer added safeguards to help ensure that residents and businesses have adequate water during the shutdown. ” “The cooperating agencies, however, stand prepared to intensify the conservation request should locally stored supplies dwindle during the outage,” according to an MWD statement. Residents who want to know more about how the shutdown will affect them should contact their local water provider directly.

FEATURE-Water crisis is big test for Peru’s president
Reuters AlertNet – Nov 27, 2006
Peru’s basic services regulator in late November approved a $600 million investment plan for Sedapal in Lima and the neighboring Callao port city for the next five years, funded by development banks, higher water tariffs for current users, government money and concessions with private companies. "We’ve already started programs to reach 570,000 people in Lima who in nine months from now will have drinking water for the first time," Garcia said in a speech in late November. The government plans to push an additional $550 million plan for two waste water treatment plants and the construction of a tunnel to bring snowmelt from the Andes to the coast. Garcia also aims to award at least three water concessions in central and northern Peru to private operators next year. Some Peruvians say it sounds too familiar. "Garcia needs to show some results. The people can’t wait for water forever," said father-of-five Carlos Mejia as he dug a latrine.

Cities ‘should consider’ drinking recycled effluent
NEWS.com.au – Nov 27, 2006
Only the New South Wales southern highlands town of Goulburn is currently considering a recycling system – part of a six-month community consultation process on water management strategy. The WSAA report says the "great virtue" of recycled wastewater is that it is a rainfall-independent source of water, which is critically important in an era of climate variability and erratic rainfall patterns. At a time of climatic uncertainty, it says, no water supply option should be ruled out, including putting treated effluent into drinking supplies. Other options include seawater desalination in coastal cities, buying water from irrigators, and rainwater tanks in areas of high rainfall. Each should be judged on its merits based on the local situation, the report says. The pro-recycling views in the report back those of John Howard and the National Water Commission. The two have called on governments to seek federal funding for "innovative" wastewater recycling projects…
If separate networks were built, recycled water would probably be limited to supplying willing commercial and industrial users – not enough to deal with declining inflows and rapidly growing populations. "Recycled water will play an increasingly important part in securing the reliability of our urban water supplies," the report says. But "like all demand and supply options, recycled water has benefits and limitations. The limitations of recycled water include high transport costs and the need to manage its by-products". It says recycling water can reduce discharges to the environment by capturing water and nutrients that would otherwise be released from wastewater treatment plants and stormwater drains, and can also be used to provide improved environmental flows to urban waterways and for other public amenity purposes such as parks. Share this article.