The News Review:

- Tennessee sludge contains elevated levels of arsenic
- 2009: Third year of drought?
- Iowa regulators agree to delay in coal ash rules
- Many delta islands may be lost
- Signs of Another California Drought Year
- At Plant in Coal Ash Spill Toxic Deposits by the Ton
- Fluoridating water ‘can prevent tooth decay in children’

Tennessee sludge contains elevated levels of arsenic
CNN 
About a dozen other homes were damaged. Preliminary results from water samples taken in the spill area show no unsafe levels of toxins said Leslie Sims on-scene coordinator for the Environmental Protection Agency. The testing includes municipal supplies and private wells he said. Kingston Mayor Troy Beets said he let his grandchildren drink and bathe in city water at his house over the holidays and didn’t worry about it. At a Friday news conference he drank a cup of water he said was straight from the tap in his home.

2009: Third year of drought?
Manteca Bulletin CA 
com209-249-35322009: Third year of drought?Sierra snow survey not encouragingA snow storm expected to blanket the higher elevations in the Sierra today is in deep contrast to snow surveys that are pointing to an unprecedented third year of drought in the post World War II era in California. The Department of Water Resources this week conducted monthly surveys and discovered water content was 83 percent of normal. It is better though than a survey a year ago that showed water content was 60 percent of normal and a survey two years prior that placed it at 69 percent of normal. The last non-drought year — 2006 — had water content at 92 percent of normal at the end of December. The snow pack and its water content are critical as it is actually the largest reservoir of water in California. January is also critical as it is historically the wettest month in terms of snow in the Sierra.

Iowa regulators agree to delay in coal ash rules
Chicago Tribune United States 
Critics of the plan which would delay the rules for up to threeyears while more monitoring takes place say the state is puttingIowans’ drinking water supplies and health at risk. “Why if they were willing to pass a whole new rule to protectpublic health would they throw it out the window and say ‘You dowhat you wish?”‘ asked Carrie La Seur founder of Plains Justicea Cedar Rapids-based public interest environmental law center. La Seur said she learned earlier this week that state regulatorsagreed to postpone action on the rules.

Many delta islands may be lost
San Francisco Chronicle  USA 
tmpl –> Two decades ago water breached a levee on Tyler Island 8800 acres along the northeastern edge of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta wiping out crops damaging buildings and nearly destroying the Mello family’s farming business. Steve Mello worries the same thing may happen again – with the approval of state policymakers who are considering whether to save some islands if increasingly fragile levees fail. It’s a familiar scenario for Mello who has heard proposals in the past to flood the land in the name of restoring a sensitive ecosystem that also serves as the hub of California’s water supply. “I feel like a lamb surrounded by wolves and every time you turn to deal with one another one is nipping at you” said Mello who farms about 2500 acres of alfalfa corn pears potatoes and wheat. Fewer structures have been more critical to California’s development than the 1100 miles of earthen levees that help funnel water through the 1300-square-mile confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers.

Signs of Another California Drought Year
New York Times United States 
Last year a collapse in the population of returning fall Chinook salmon in the Sacramento River led to the closing of the salmon season off the coast of California and much of regon. Since this year’s returning salmon were spawned three years ago there is little direct connection between the low numbers of 2008 and the prospects for 2009. But said Sheila Green an environmental scientist with the state’s Department of Water Resources though the 2009 adults are the offspring of a robust population of 2006 fish the water flows that took these young salmon out to sea in 2007 were low. Green said the complex interplay of factors affecting salmon’s survival — freshwater conditions predators ocean currents and the levels of food rising from the ocean’s bottom — made it impossible to predict how strong the 2009 salmon runs would be particularly the fall Chinook run which is the most important. Among the other indicators of the state’s increasingly parched condition are water levels in reservoirs.

At Plant in Coal Ash Spill Toxic Deposits by the Ton
New York Times United States 
and other agencies recommending that direct contact with the ash be avoided and that pets and children should be kept away from affected areas. Residents complained that the authority had been slow to issue information about the contents of the ash and the water soil and sediment samples taken in and around the spill. “They think that the public is stupid that they can’t put two and two together” said Sandy Gupton a registered nurse who hired an independent firm to test the spring water on her family’s 300-acre farm now sullied by sludge from the spill. “It took five days for the T.
Related from Vistra-corp: Coal-Ash Spill May Cost Utilities Billions in Rules

Fluoridating water ‘can prevent tooth decay in children’
Telegraph.co.uk United Kingdom 
Campaigners claim that the chemical has been linked to illnesses including brittle bone disease and cancer. But dentists believe that it could cuts rates of tooth decay especially in deprived areas and among children. Fluoride is currently added to about 10 per cent of Britain’s water supply mainly in the West Midlands and the North East of England. Alan Johnson the Health Secretary has indicated that he is in favour of using increasing fluoride more widely. “The daily use of fluoride is the most cost-effective evidence-based approach to reduce dental decay” according to the Lancet. It warns that tooth decay can negatively affect a child’s development including their ability to eat sleep and concentrate in school. Tooth pain is one of the most common reasons given for school absenteeism in countries like Britain it adds.