The News Review:
- Study prioritizes protecting water supply
- Cooperation, conservation best hope for water supply
- The poor suffer most from corruption in the water sector
- DEP issues emergency water supply permit to Bear Valley
- Water District Holds Open Forum on Wednesday
- Grammy Winner Benson Adds His Voice to Water Warning on Exelon …
Study prioritizes protecting water supply
Herald Zeitung, TX
” That means anyone with water on their land is allowed to pump as much as they please, and potentially could sell and distribute it outside of the county. “We’re greatly concerned that people will come into our county and transport this water to other communities for a considerable profit, while leaving us high and dry,” said Comal County Judge Danny Scheel. “We’re a county with a huge target painted right in the middle of it for our water resources. “But despite concerns for a potential lack of future resources, voters in the county have twice defeated the idea of a resource-protecting body on the Trinity aquifer. Although the state provides county the authority to create such districts, voters must approve it and they chose not to by wide margins in both 1995 and 2001. “We tried twice to make the citizens aware and try and protect themselves with a water conservation district,” Scheel said. “It’ll be up the citizens to get it back on the ballot.
Cooperation, conservation best hope for water supply
Hilton Head Island Packet, SC
“We do not have to go down the path of resolving issues in the courtroom,” said Carol Couch, director of Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division. Couch spoke last week at the South Carolina Water Resources Conference. Her presence there was a good sign. According to The (Columbia) State, she reported on progress made during the three years since the states’ two governors created the Savannah River Bi-State Task Force: • The states are working to make their water regulations match up, which should make later negotiations easier. • Georgia is forcing coastal utilities to use more water from rivers and less from the Upper Floridan aquifer. • State officials are collecting information to help make decisions on allocation: how much water each state can take from the river and how much treated waste each can put back into it.
The poor suffer most from corruption in the water sector
Mmegi Online, Botswana
8 million lives a year. The report raises a number of questions about who are the key players and who are committing corruption in the water sector. To address these questions and others, we take a look at the water supply situation in the City of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in the last five years. Before the turn of the 21st century, public institutions used to be the predominant players in water supply and management in Tanzania. This is probably due to conventional perceptions of water being a free public resource. As such water is directly related to public health and therefore needs to be protected by government institutions in terms of administration, operation and maintenance. Yet, the ownership and operation of water supply systems by these institutions received much criticism and was blamed for poor water delivery services mainly linked to lack of investment resources and incentives for maintaining efficiency and accountability in water resource use and management.
DEP issues emergency water supply permit to Bear Valley
Chambersburg Public Opinion, PA
21 – In response to a request from Bear Valley Joint Authority, the Department of Environmental Protection has issued a new emergency public water supply permit authorizing the authority to use existing filtration facilities temporarily while work on new drinking water source and filtration plant continues in Franklin County. “The emergency permit was issued to ensure an adequate supply of drinkable water was available to Bear Valley customers while the authority, its engineers and equipment manufacturer work to complete installation of a new filtration facility,” said DEP Southcentral Regional Director Rachel Diamond, in a news release. Because of the Bear Valley Joint Authority’s inability to meet its maximum daily demand of approximately 2 million gallons, the company agreed to a moratorium on new service connections under the terms of a 2004 consent order and agreement with the department. The authority serves 4,000 customers in Hamilton, Peters and Saint Thomas townships. To meet the daily demand of its customers, Bear Valley has been purchasing an additional 250,000 gallons of water per day from Chambersburg Borough, while developing a new source well and completing the construction of a replacement filtration plant on Broad Run. Bear Valley has purchased the land rights for the new well, but has yet to bring it into service.
Water District Holds Open Forum on Wednesday
San Diego 6, CA
San Diego receives about 90 percent of its water from MWD, which gets its supplies mostly from Northern California and the Colorado River. Ongoing drought conditions and a federal judge’s ruling that limits the amount of water that can be pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to protect an endangered fish threaten supplies. San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders has cautioned that if San Diegans don’t voluntarily conserve more water, mandatory cutbacks could be imposed. He has recently concluded a series of town hall-style meetings in San Diego to discuss potential water shortages.
Related: Live blogging the John McCain rally at The Forum
Grammy Winner Benson Adds His Voice to Water Warning on Exelon …
PR Web (press release), WA
2007, the Guadalupe Basin River Authority cut a deal with Exelon that reserves more than 24 billion gallons of water annually from the Guadalupe River for the proposed plant. As Benson notes in his radio announcements, that's more than seven times the amount of water the entire city of Victoria uses every year. "The more people learn about Exelon's plans and the implications to our area's water supply, the more red flags are raised," said TSEPA Director John Figer. "Ray Benson's involvement in our education effort shows concern goes beyond Victoria County. Communities all along the Guadalupe River have a stake in whether this nuclear facility is built or not. "Benson joins a growing number of concerned citizens across the state questioning whether there is enough water in the Guadalupe River Basin to support a nuclear power plant. TSEPA's mission is to support a Texas energy supply policy that is reasonable, sustainable and environmentally sound.