The News Review:

- PA DEP Continues to Analyze Dimock Water Supplies
- New water releases to help power drinking water
- New Plan utlines Statewide Regional Priorities to Balance …
- WQA Discusses Well Water Treatment ptions in Congress
- Year off to record dry start

PA DEP Continues to Analyze Dimock Water Supplies
FXBusiness
Cabot is providing those homes with alternative water supplies and is monitoring natural gas levels. To date no indoor vapor problems have been encountered. Additionally the company has installed a treatment system at another home where the department concluded the water supply was impacted by drilling activities. DEP is inspecting existing wells in the area and monitoring new drilling activity. The department continues to schedule residential visits to take water samples and monitor for gas. “As Cabot implements its remedial actions DEP will continue to sample home wells to determine if the company’s activities are reducing the dissolved methane levels there” Bedrin said. “This procedure is time consuming and laborious but it is a necessary process for us to get this problem solved.

New water releases to help power drinking water
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Friday Johnston said. The flow should be enough to bring the river’s level back up to the intake pipes at Washburn’s water treatment plant he said. The increased water supply also should help the Stanton and Leland lds electric power plants resume their operations Johnston said. Stanton which is owned by Great River Energy and the Leland lds plant owned by Basin Electric Power Cooperative shut down Thursday because they could no longer draw the river water they needed. Both plants are in Mercer County in west-central North Dakota. Great River spokesman Lyndon Anderson said the Stanton plant which can generate 188 megawatts of power should be fully operational late Saturday.
Related from Vervemed: Drink Up Energy Hogs

New Plan utlines Statewide Regional Priorities to Balance …
FXBusiness
Hanger was joined by representatives of the regional and statewide committees that created the plan following five years of public meetings throughout the state. “The state water plan represents years of exhaustive and difficult work and provides Pennsylvanians with a vision goals and recommendations for meeting the challenges of sustainable water use over the next 15 years” Hanger said. “Each region came to the table with its own priorities — protecting drinking water supplies creating jobs avoiding devastating floods reducing mine drainage and ensuring well thought out plans for how to use the land–but the statewide committee was able to craft a document that takes into account these many conflicting priorities and demands. The updated state water plan — the first since 1983 — was required under Act 220 of 2002 that created a Statewide Water Resource Committee and six regional water resource committees tasked with compiling and reviewing water-use data taking public comment identifying where existing and potential water-use conflicts and water quality issues may occur and creating recommendations for the state water plan. The plan consists of inventories of water availability an assessment of current and future water demands and trends assessments of resource management alternatives and proposed methods of implementing recommended actions. It also analyzes problems and needs associated with specific water resource usage such as navigation stormwater management and flood control. Key components of the state water plan include: — An innovative Water Use Analysis Tool to determine where water demands may exceed available water supply.

WQA Discusses Well Water Treatment ptions in Congress
FXBusiness
nly 34 percent of respondents stated that they believed federal drinking water quality laws are “fair. ” Additionally 38 percent said they do not believe their municipality is doing everything it should to make sure water reaching their home is safe to drink. verall just over two-thirds of Americans – 67 percent – are generally concerned about the quality of their household water supply. Seventy percent said they believe that home filtration plays a role along with their municipality in ensuring safe drinking water. For a copy of the WQA fact sheet on drinking water safety and related information visit the “Breaking News” button on the WQA home page wqa.

Year off to record dry start
Baltimore Sun
It cost them 20 to 80 percent of their crops and triggered federal drought disaster declarations in 21 of the state’s 23 counties. Municipal well systems in Western Maryland ran short or failed and Baltimore’s reservoirs fell to a record-low 41 percent of capacity. The city tapped the Susquehanna River to augment dwindling supplies. Glendening called for voluntary water conservation in 15 counties. But by April he was forced to declare a drought emergency imposing mandatory watering curbs on all of Central Maryland outside the urban water service areas.