World Water Crisis (LIFE)

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Outstanding Source for Important News Regarding Water:

Rural Water Washington (News & Public Statements)
http://www.ruralwater.org/

Here are the headlines from just the week of November 2:

To read the entire article, click on the above link for Rural Water Washington, then
click on the selected article.

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Chemical Security Update – The House could vote as soon as next week on new comprehensive security regulatory legislative for water and wastewater systems: HR 2868 and HR 3258. Under a compromise announced by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee last week, EPA would oversee security at drinking water and wastewater facilities. The compromise resolves the issue by authorizing the EPA to have oversight over drinking water and wastewater facilities.

Appropriations Update (link)

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FY2010 EPA Appropriations Bill New SRF Appropriations and Authorizations: $2,100,000,000 for the CWA SRF and $1,387,000,000 for the SDWA SRF. The bill directs that not less than 20 percent of the SRF funds shall be used to address green infrastructure, water or energy efficiency improvements, or other environmentally innovative activities. And not less than 30 percent of SRFs funds shall be used to provide additional subsidy in the form of forgiveness of principal, negative interest loans, or grants (or any combination of these), except for the CWA funds appropriation this section shall only apply to the portion that exceeds $1,000,000,000

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Two Parts per Billion… Columbia Missouri Interaction with EPA’ Dinsinfection Byproducts Rules – quoted from the local paper, “the permissible level for THMs in a water supply is 80 parts per billion; the THM levels in the city water supply in 2007 rose to 82.3 parts per billion (more).” The city is introducing chloramines to their water for treatment – which is witnessing a growing grassroots opposition campaign (to chloramines), “chloramine itself has been associated with severe respiratory toxicity and skin sensitivity (more).” In recent weeks, some Senators have expressed a renewed interest in reform of the way EPA is implementing the SDWA for systems experiencing incidental violations of disinfection byproducts and naturally occurring contaminants’ standards. Some of these Senators have historically expressed concern and consternation over EPA’s implementation for these rules (see comments to EPA on the agency’s DBPs and Variances policies).

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Baltimore Apartment Complex Legionnaire's Outbreak Blames on Water (more).

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Climate Change and Rural Water – the following are comments from David Saddler (AZ rural water) Rural Water’s representative on the EPA National Drinking Water Advisory Committee (NDWAC) regarding the panel’s recent agenda of looking at climate change and its impacts on water supplies (read em).

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Drinking Water and Wastewater Utilities will Spend $448 to $944 Billion Between Now and 2050 to Adapt with Climate Change - according to a recent report by the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies and the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (more)

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New AWWA Web Blog Announced – highlighting AWWA’s DC staff lively conversation and blog about legislation, regulation and policies (link). Additionally, it features photos of the handsome and sartorial tasteful AWWA DC staff.

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USGS’s Latest Water Use Report - continues to show that the two largest water users are power generation (49%) and agricultural irrigation (31%), with drinking water being the third largest use (11%) (more from AWWA).

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