PG&E backs 3 solar plants in the Mojave power for 375,000 homes -- "San
Francisco Chronicle"
San Francisco, CA
PG&E backs 3 solar plants in the Mojave power for 375,000 homes
Oakland firm will design, build installations; sunlight, groundwater will generate power
for 375,000 homes
David R. Baker, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer Tuesday, April 1
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. will announce contracts today for three new large solar
power plants in the Mojave Desert, whose open spaces and clear skies have placed it
at the center of a renewable energy boom.
The three installations, together, will generate enough electricity for more than 375,000
homes. Fields of mirrors at each plant will focus sunlight on centralized towers, boiling
water within the towers, creating steam and turning turbines.
"Solar thermal energy is an especially attractive renewable power source because it is
available when needed most in California - during the peak midday summer period,"
said Fong Wan, PG&E vice president of energy purchasing.
All three will be designed and built by BrightSource Energy Inc. of Oakland, with the first
plant starting operation as early as 2011. San Francisco's PG&E has signed contracts
with BrightSource to buy power from the facilities. The companies won't disclose how
much PG&E has agreed to spend.
Dozens of solar projects have been proposed for the Mojave Desert as California tries
to fight global warming by expanding the use of renewable energy.
Under state law, all three of California's large, investor-owned utilities have until the end
of 2010 to ensure that 20 percent of the power they deliver to their customers comes
from such renewable resources as the sun and the wind. So the utilities are turning to
the Mojave, which has the strong sunlight and undeveloped land needed for large-scale
solar projects.
"It is one of the best spots on planet Earth to put solar power plants," said John
Woolard, BrightSource's chief executive officer. "It's a world-class resource."
Two of the company's power plants will be built in the Ivanpah dry lakebed, close to the
Nevada border in San Bernardino County. The third will occupy Broadwell Dry Lake,
north of Ludlow, also in San Bernardino County.
The Mojave already has several large solar plants that have been generating electricity
since the 1980s. Unlike rooftop solar panels, these "solar thermal" plants don't draw
energy directly from the sun. Instead, they use curved mirrors to focus sunlight on
liquid-filled tubes. The concentrated light heats the liquid, which is used to generate
steam and run a turbine.
Several of the people who designed and built the Mojave's earlier generation of solar
power plants also founded BrightSource. They have tweaked their technology, hoping to
improve each plant's efficiency and lower costs.
Each power plant will use groundwater, which will be recycled within the plant. After
spinning the turbines, the water will be cooled through a system much like a car
radiator, with the ambient air carrying off the heat. The water will then flow back to the
boilers to be turned into steam once again.
NYC leaders say city must test drinking water after AP report -- "Newsday"
Melville, NY
NYC leaders say city must test drinking water after AP report
By COLLEEN LONG NewsDay Associated Press
NEW YORK The city's drinking water must be tested to determine whether trace
amounts of pharmaceuticals are flowing from residents' faucets, City Council members
insisted Thursday in an emergency hearing called in response to an Associated Press
investigation.
The city's Department of Environmental Protection tests its drinking water for hundreds
of contaminants daily but doesn't inspect for pharmaceuticals, despite research showing
minute concentrations of 16 drugs or byproducts in its watershed in upstate New York,
including medications for infections, seizures and high blood pressure.
As part of its five-month PharmaWater investigation, the AP surveyed 62 major water
providers nationwide; pharmaceuticals were detected in the drinking water of 24 of
those systems, serving 41 million Americans.
Officials at 34 major water providers, including New York _ which has the world's largest
unfiltered water supply _ said tests have not been conducted.
"To protect health, we need to be informed about what is in our drinking water," said
council member James Gennaro, the head of the Environmental Protection Committee,
who called the hearing.
Tests that detected pharmaceuticals in the upstate source waters were conducted by
the U.S. Geological Survey and New York State Department of Health.
The city's Department of Environmental Protection, which operates the system providing
water to 9 million, continues to resist calls for testing, contending there's no regulatorapproved test or regimen for detecting pharmaceuticals in drinking water supplies.
"It is far too early for DEP to make any predictions about the long-term need for any
particular treatment technology as a response to the presence of pharmaceuticals," said
Paul Rush, deputy commissioner for water supply.
The agency has a public awareness campaign asking residents near the upstate
watersheds not to flush drugs down the toilet but hasn't created a protocol for testing
drinking water, Rush said. The DEP also is participating in a city and state roundtable
about disposal issues related to pharmaceuticals in water supplies, he said.
But Gennaro said the city cannot wait for the federal government to act and suggested
legislation to require testing and to develop a plan to filter the drugs from the water, if
necessary.
"At the end of the day, it's not the USGS that has to drink the water, it's not the state
(Department of Environmental Conservation) that drinks it up in Albany; we drink the
water," he said.
Gennaro and other members of the committee criticized the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency and the state Department of Health for declining to appear at the
hearing.
Though measured in concentrations of parts per billion or trillion, it is unknown how
much of the drugs found in the city's watersheds lingers by the time 1.1 billion gallons
reaches the city and northern suburbs daily via a century-old network of aqueducts and
tunnels.
The drugs reached waterways through human activity along the vast and mainly rural
watershed, which stretches almost from Pennsylvania to Connecticut. Human and
veterinary medicines are excreted or discarded and eventually enter source waters
mostly through residential sewage or farm runoff.
And while these waters are processed at wastewater treatment plants upstate, much of
the pharmaceutical residue passes right through, studies show.
As in other cities, human health risks from trace pharmaceuticals are uncertain, since
concentrations in New York source waters are way below medical doses and further
diluted with fresh water en route to the city.
Though New York does not filter its water, it does disinfect and add chemicals. It also is
building a new filtration plant for water from its Croton watershed _ its smallest and
closest source.
Gennaro also cited studies mentioned in the AP series that indicate traces of
pharmaceuticals may be harming fish in New York City's Jamaica Bay, within sight of
Manhattan's skyscrapers. Researcher Anne McElroy at Stony Brook University has
found feminized male flounder there and has linked them to high levels of the female
hormone estrone or other estrogenic chemicals discovered in the waterway.
Return to Summa
Worldwide Water Shortage On Horizon -- "Terra Daily"
Worldwide Water Shortage On Horizon
by Staff Writers Terra Daily Albuquerque NM (SPX) Apr 03
A crisis is looming over water shortages worldwide. By 2025 more than half the nations
in the world will face freshwater stress or shortages and by 2050 as much as 75 percent
of the world's population could face freshwater scarcity. So say Mike Hightower and
Suzanne Pierce, water experts at Sandia National Laboratories, in an article they wrote
that appeared in a recent issue of Nature.
"This growing international water crisis is forcing governments to rethink how they value
and use and manage water, especially because economic development hinges on
water availability," they say.
"Drinking water supplies, agriculture, energy production and generation, mining and
industry all require large quantities of water. In the future, these sectors will be
competing for increasingly limited freshwater resources, making water supply availability
a major economic driver in the 21st century."
Freshwater withdrawals already exceed precipitation in many parts of the U.S., with the
worst shortfalls often in areas with the fastest population, particularly in the southwest.
But, this is also very much a global problem.
What can be done to help solve the water dilemma? The answer is not simple and will
involve usage of all water sources - more than just freshwater supplies as has been the
primary focus in the past. Innovative treatments will have to be used - treatments using
advanced membrane separation technologies, as well as treatment of nontraditional
water sources such as wastewater, brackish groundwater, seawater and extracted mine
water.
Hightower and Pierce say that to some extent this is already happening. In the United
States, wastewater reuse is growing by 15 percent per year.
"There are other, cheaper ways to increase water productivity, such as improving water
conservation and efficiency," Hightower and Pierce said in the article. "But water reuse
can help to expand these traditional approaches by matching the quality of water
supplies to needs, and substituting nontraditional water for freshwater where
appropriate."
As an example, waste water, sea water or brackish groundwater could be used by
electric power plants for cooling and processing instead of freshwater; switching to
renewable energy technologies that do not need water for cooling, such as wind and
solar electric; and introducing technologies to condense evaporation from cooling
towers and capture and reuse the water.
Duck and Cover: It's the New Survivalism -- "New York Times"
New York, NY
Duck and Cover: It's the New Survivalism
By ALEX WILLIAMS New York Times
THE traditional face of survivalism is that of a shaggy loner in camouflage, holed up in a
cabin in the wilderness and surrounded by cases of canned goods and ammunition.
It is not that of Barton M. Biggs, the former chief global strategist at Morgan Stanley. Yet
in Mr. Biggs's new book, "Wealth, War and Wisdom," he says people should "assume
the possibility of a breakdown of the civilized infrastructure."
"Your safe haven must be self-sufficient and capable of growing some kind of food," Mr.
Biggs writes. "It should be well-stocked with seed, fertilizer, canned food, wine,
medicine, clothes, etc. Think Swiss Family Robinson. Even in America and Europe
there could be moments of riot and rebellion when law and order temporarily completely
breaks down."
Survivalism, it seems, is not just for survivalists anymore.
Faced with a confluence of diverse threats - a tanking economy, a housing crisis,
looming environmental disasters, and a sharp spike in oil prices - people who do not
consider themselves extremists are starting to discuss doomsday measures once
associated with the social fringes.
They stockpile or grow food in case of a supply breakdown, or buy precious metals in
case of economic collapse. Some try to take their houses off the electricity grid, or plan
safe houses far away. The point is not to drop out of society, but to be prepared in case
the future turns out like something out of "An Inconvenient Truth," if not "Mad Max."
"I'm not a gun-nut, camo-wearing skinhead. I don't even hunt or fish," said Bill Marcom,
53, a construction executive in Dallas.
Still, motivated by a belief that the credit crunch and a bursting housing bubble might
spark widespread economic chaos - "the Greater Depression," as he put it - Mr.
Marcom began to take measures to prepare for the unknown over the last few years:
buying old silver coins to use as currency; buying G.P.S. units, a satellite telephone and
a hydroponic kit; and building a simple cabin in a remote West Texas desert.
"If all these planets line up and things do get really bad," Mr. Marcom said, "those who
have not prepared will be trapped in the city with thousands of other people needing
food and propane and everything else."
Interest in survivalism - in either its traditional hard-core version or a middle-class "lite"
variation - functions as a leading economic indicator of social anxiety, preparedness
experts said: It spikes at times of peril real (the post-Sept. 11 period) or imagined (the
chaos that was supposed to follow the so-called Y2K computer bug in 2000).
At times, a degree of paranoia is officially sanctioned. In the 1950s, civil defense
authorities encouraged people to build personal bomb shelters because of the nuclear
threat. In 2003, the Department of Homeland Security encouraged Americans to stock
up on plastic sheeting and duct tape to seal windows in case of biological or chemical
attacks.
Now, however, the government, while still conducting business under a yellow terrorism
alert, is no longer taking a lead role in encouraging preparedness. For some, this leaves
a vacuum of reassurance, and plenty to worry about.
Esteemed economists debate whether the credit crisis could result in a complete
meltdown of the financial system. A former vice president of the United States informs
us that global warming could result in mass flooding, disease and starvation, perhaps
even a new Ice Age.
"You just can't help wonder if there's a train wreck coming," said David Anderson, 50, a
database administrator in Colorado Springs who said he was moved by economic
uncertainties and high energy prices, among other factors, to stockpile months' worth of
canned goods in his basement for his wife, his two young children and himself.
Popular culture also provides reinforcement, in books like "The Road," Cormac
McCarthy's novel about a father and son journeying through a post-apocalyptic
wasteland, and films like "I Am Legend," which stars Will Smith as a survivor of a manmade virus wandering the barren streets of New York.
Middle-class survivalists can also browse among a growing number of how-to books
with titles like "Dare to Prepare!" a self-published work by Holly Drennan Deyo, or
"When All Hell Breaks Loose" by Cody Lundin (Gibbs Smith, 2007), which instructs
readers how to dispose of bodies and dine on rats and dogs in the event of disaster.
Preparedness activity is difficult to track statistically, since people who take measures
are usually highly circumspect by nature, said Jim Rawles, the editor of
www.survivalblog.com, a preparedness Web site. Nevertheless, interest in the
survivalist movement "is experiencing its largest growth since the late 1970s," Mr.
Rawles said in an e-mail, adding that traffic at his blog has more than doubled in the
past 11 months, with more than 67,000 unique visitors per week. And its base is
growing.
"Our core readership is still solidly conservative," he said. "But in recent months I've
noticed an increasing number of stridently green and left-of-center readers."
One left-of-center environmentalist who is taking action is Alex Steffen, the executive
editor of www.wWorldchanging.com, a Web site devoted to sustainability. With only
slight irony, Mr. Steffen, 40, said he and his girlfriend could serve as "poster children for
the well-adjusted, urban liberal survivalist," given that they keep a six-week cache of
food and supplies in his basement in Seattle (although they polished off their bottle of
doomsday whiskey at a party).
He said the chaos following Hurricane Katrina served as a wake-up call for him and
others that the government might not be able to protect them in an emergency or
environmental crisis.
"The 'where do we land when climate change gets crazy?' question seems to be an
increasingly common one," said Mr. Steffen in an e-mail message, adding that such
questions have "really gone mainstream."
Many of the new, nontraditional preparedness converts are "Peakniks," Mr. Rawles
said, referring to adherents of the "Peak Oil" theory. This concept holds that the world
will soon, or has already, reached a peak in oil production, and that coming supply
shortages might threaten society. While the theory is still disputed by many industry
analysts and executives, it has inched toward the mainstream in the last two years, as
oil prices have nearly doubled, surpassing $100 a barrel. The topic, which was the
subject of a United States Department of Energy report in 2005, has attracted attention
in publications like The New York Times Magazine and The Wall Street Journal, and
was a primary focus of "Megadisasters: Oil Apocalypse," a recent History Channel
special.
Another book, "The Long Emergency" (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005), by James Howard
Kunstler, an author and journalist who writes about economic and environmental issues,
argues that American suburbs and cities may soon lay desolate as people, starved of
oil, are forced back to the land to adopt a hardscrabble, 19th-century-style agrarian life.
Such fears caused Joyce Jimerson of Bellingham, Wash., a coordinator for a recyclingcomposting program affiliated with Washington State University, to make her yard an
"edible garden," with fruit trees and vegetables, in case supplies are threatened by oil
shortages, climate change or economic collapse. "It's all the same ball of wax, as far as
I'm concerned," she said.
Scott Troyer, an energy consultant in Sunnyvale, Calif., said he was spurred by
discussions of peak oil - "it's not a theory," he said - and other energy concerns to
remake his suburban house in anticipation of a petroleum-starved future. Mr. Troyer, 57,
installed a photovoltaic electricity system, a pellet stove and a "cool roof" to reflect the
sun's rays, among other measures.
Mr. Troyer remains cautiously optimistic that Americans can wean themselves from oil
through smart engineering and careful planning. But, he said, "the doomsday scenarios
will happen if people don't prepare."
Some middle-class preparedness converts, like Val Vontourne, a musician and
paralegal in Olympia, Wash., recoil at the term "survivalist," even as they stock their
homes with food, gasoline and water.
"I think of survivalists as being an extreme case of preparedness," said Ms. Vontourne,
44, "people who stockpile guns and weapons, anticipating extreme aggression.
Whereas what I'm doing, I think of as something responsible people do.
"I now think of storing extra food, water, medicine and gasoline in the same way I think
of buying health insurance and putting money in my 401k," she said. "It just makes
sense."
New CO2 Maps Zoom in on Greenhouse Gas Sources -- "RedOrbit"
Tyler, TX
A new, high- resolution, interactive map of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from
fossil fuels has found that the emissions aren't all where we thought.
'For example, we've been attributing too many emissions to the northeastern
United States, and it's looking like the southeastern U.S. is a much larger source
than we had estimated previously,' says Kevin Gurney, an assistant professor of
earth and atmospheric science at Purdue University and leader of the project.
The maps and system, called Vulcan, show CO2 emissions at more than 100
times more detail than was available before. Until now, data on carbon dioxide
emissions were reported, in the best cases, monthly at the level of an entire
state. The Vulcan model examines CO2 emissions at local levels on an hourly
basis.
Researchers say the maps also are more accurate than previous data because
they are based on greenhouse gas emissions instead of estimates based on
population in areas of the United States.
To create the Vulcan maps, the research team developed a method to extract
the CO2 information by transforming data on local air pollution, such as carbon
monoxide and nitrous oxide emissions, which are tracked by the Environmental
Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy and other governmental
agencies.
'These pollutants are important to determine the ozone levels and air quality in
major cities, and they are tracked on an hourly basis,' Gurney says. 'We've been
able to leverage that data to determine the levels of CO2 being produced.'
Carbon dioxide is the most important human-produced gas contributing to global
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climate change. The United States accounts for about 25 percent of global CO2
emissions.
The increased detail and accuracy of Vulcan will help lawmakers create policies
to reduce CO2 emissions while also increasing scientists' understanding of the
sources and fate of carbon dioxide, researchers say.
'Before now the only thing policy-makers could do was take a big blunt tool and
bang the U.S. economy with it,' Gurney says. 'Now we have more quantifiable
information about what is happening in neighborhoods, on roads and in
industrial areas, and track the CO2 by the hour. This offers policy-makers
something akin to a scalpel instead.'
Gurney says the inventory system, which is named for the Roman god of fire,
quantifies all of the CO2 that results from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal
and gasoline. It also tracks the hourly outputs at the level of factories, power
plants, roadways, neighborhoods and commercial districts.
A preliminary analysis of the Vulcan data suggests that previous maps of U.S.
fossil fuel emissions were inadequate for current scientific and policy-making
needs, Gurney says.
'When you compare the old inventories to Vulcan, the new data show
atmospheric CO2 differences that are as large as five parts per million in some
U.S. regions in the late winter,' he says. 'The levels in the global atmosphere
only rise one and a half part per million every year, so this is the equivalent of
three years of global emissions in the atmosphere that isn't where we thought it
was
. This will be important for policy-makers and is enormous from a scientific point
of view. It's shocking.'
Gurney says this change isn't only due to people moving to the southeast, but
also because of the approximations of previous estimates.
James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, says
Vulcan provides a 'check' to judge the accuracy of existing satellite data.
'The high-resolution map from Vulcan also provides a picture of emission
sources in a way that the public and policy-makers can understand, which may
be helpful in discussing what we will do about the climate problem,' Hansen
says.
The three-year project, which was funded by NASA and the U.S. Department of
Energy under the North American Carbon Program, involved researchers from
Purdue University, Colorado State University and Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory.
Robert Andres, a senior researcher with the Carbon Dioxide Information
Analysis Center at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National
Laboratory who is not affiliated with the project, says Vulcan will provide
scientists with many insights into the global carbon cycle and climate change.
'Vulcan will be revolutionary in carbon cycle research,' he says. 'It is the next
generation in our understanding of fossil fuel emissions. The implications for
climate science, carbon trading and climate change mitigation work are
tremendous.'
To extract the CO2 information from the data on other pollutants, research
scientists in the Office of Information Technology at Purdue developed a
computational system to apply Gurney's methods to existing information.
Once the data was converted to determine the CO2 emissions, it was combined
with geographic information systems (GIS) data to layer the emissions onto
roads and other infrastructure at the Earth's surface. The current emissions are
based on information from 2002, but the Vulcan system will soon expand to
more recent years.
Gerry McCartney, vice president for information technology and chief information
officer at Purdue, says the digital data conversion developed by Gurney and IT
research scientists at Purdue will advance both climate science and information
technology.
'This was an important project that required a massive amount of data and a
large number of people with highly technical skills,' McCartney says. 'Vulcan is a
part of a larger vision for tracking greenhouse gas emissions around the world,
eventually even in real time, and we are pleased that Purdue possesses the
resources and technical ability to take on a project of this scale.'
Vulcan is expected to complement NASA's planned December 2008 launch of
the Orbital Carbon Observatory satellite, which will measure the concentration of
CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere.
'Our understanding of atmospheric CO2 we gain from Vulcan and from NASA's
satellite will be enhanced tremendously by combining them,' Gurney says
. 'It's like the old photographs found in stereoscopes or View-Masters. Each
image is nice, but when you put them together you achieve a 3-D view that gives
you much more information.'
The Vulcan data is available for anyone to download from the Web site at http
//www.eas.purdue.edu/carbon/vulcan. Smaller summary data sets that offer a
slice of the data and are easier to download also are available for non-scientists
on the Vulcan Web site. These can be broken down into emission categories,
such as industrial, residential, transportation, power producers, by fuel type, and
are available by state, county, or cells as small as six miles (10 kilometers)
across.
A video of the maps and simulations of the atmospheric fate of fossil fuel CO2
also can be viewed on YouTube at http
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJpj8UUMTaI.
The animation was created by Bedrich Benes, assistant professor of computer
graphics technology and a research scientist in Purdue's Envision Center for
Data Perceptualization, and computer science graduate student Nathan
Andrysco. The animation required a year to produce, and the rendering of the
animation (the video equivalent of printing) required nine hours to produce the
2,000 images that make up the 60-second video.
'To do this, we built from scratch a software program that is specifically tailored
to visualize greenhouse gases,' Benes says.
Although Vulcan can be used to pinpoint CO2 emissions down to the levels
previously unseen, Gurney says the tool should not be used to affix blame.
'Ten years ago there might have been resistance to the notion of examining who
is responsible for the CO2 emissions in such a visually detailed way,' Gurney
says. 'However, what Vulcan makes utterly clear is that CO2 emissions cannot
be exclusively affixed to SUV drivers, manufacturers or large power producers;
everybody is responsible. We need to look for real solutions, and have a deeper
discussion about energy use. It's not about politics. It's about doing good
science and solving the problem, and we can all be a part of that.'
US Water Pipelines Are Breaking -- "Associated Press"
US Water Pipelines Are Breaking
By COLLEEN LONG - Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - Two hours north of New York City, a mile-long stream and a marsh
the size of a football field have mysteriously formed along a country road. They are such
a marvel that people come from miles around to drink the crystal-clear water, believing it
is bubbling up from a hidden natural spring.
The truth is far less romantic: The water is coming from a cracked 70-year-old tunnel
hundreds of feet below ground, scientists say.
The tunnel is leaking up to 36 million gallons a day as it carries drinking water from a
reservoir to the big city. It is a powerful warning sign of a larger problem around the
country: The infrastructure that delivers water to the nation's cities is badly aging and in
need of repairs.
The Environmental Protection Agency says utilities will need to invest more than $277
billion over the next two decades on repairs and improvements to drinking water
systems. Water industry engineers put the figure drastically higher, at about $480
million.
Water utilities, largely managed by city governments, have never faced improvements
of this magnitude before. And customers will have to bear the majority of the cost
through rate increases, according to the American Water Works Association, an
industry group.
Engineers say this is a crucial era for the nation's water systems, especially in older
cities like New York, where some pipes and tunnels were built in the 1800s and are now
nearing the end of their life expectancies.
"Our generation hasn't experienced anything like this. We weren't around when the
infrastructure was being built," said Greg Kail, spokesman for the water industry group.
"We didn't pay for the pipes to be put in the ground, but we sure benefited from the
improvements to public health that came from it."
He said the situation has not reached crisis stage, but without a serious investment, "it
can become a crisis. Each year the problem is put on the back burner, the price tag is
going to go up."
Catastrophic problems can arise when infrastructure fails. An 84-year-old steam pipe
erupted beneath a New York street last year, creating a mammoth geyser that rained
mud and debris down on the city.
In Chicago, an 80-year-old cast-iron water main broke earlier this year, spilling
thousands of gallons and opening up a 25-foot hole in the street.
In Denver, up to 4 million gallons of water gushed from a ruptured 30-year-old pipeline
in February, gouging a sinkhole across three lanes of Interstate 25. The lanes were shut
down for nearly two weeks.
Cleveland has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on infrastructure in the past 20
years but still must repair daily breaks. Last month, a break in a 2 1/2-foot-diameter
water main turned a downtown square into a watery crater and knocked out other
utilities.
The amount of wasted water from these breaches is staggering.
The 36 million gallons a day that leak from the 85-mile Delaware Aqueduct in New York
state amounts to more than 1 billion gallons a month. That may be a drop in the bucket
compared to the hundreds of billions of water consumed in New York City every year,
but the daily leak in the tunnel would meet the daily demands of drought-ravaged
Raleigh, N.C.
Residents in Wawarsing, about 100 miles from New York City, blame tunnel leaks for
the constant flooding in their yards and basements. Department of Environmental
Protection engineers are trying to determine whether the aqueduct is really responsible
for the soggy mess along Route 209 that has gotten considerably worse over the last 10
years.
David Sickles said the water just bubbles up from the cracks in the concrete in his
basement - even when it doesn't rain.
"It's like there is too much water in the ground already," Sickles said, showing off the
water line on the concrete wall of his basement. "There's no place for this to go."
Nearly every house has a black discharge hose running from the basement through the
yard, gushing water into already-soggy patches of grass.
The land around Laura Smith's house turns into a lake when the snow melts, and her
driveway is so muddy your feet sink when you walk to her front door.
Utilites currently spend about $10.4 billion annually on large-scale repairs and
improvements on drinking water infrastructure, a figure that has been relatively flat
during the past two decades, the EPA said.
Cities have a hard time convincing residents that they should spend money on
something they never see, buried hundreds of feet underground. And often, public
officials pawn the responsibility off on the next person elected, Kail said.
Repairs tend to be long and costly, especially since many systems were built nearly a
century ago, deep underground, where buildings and major roads now stand.
Even monitoring pipes for vulnerabilities can be expensive and tricky, since it's not
possible to shut down a city's water supply to test for leaks. If New York were to do that
to the Delaware Aqueduct, for example, the 13 1/2-foot-diameter tunnel might crumble
under the crushing weight of the land without the water to support the duct.
The Department of Environmental Protection monitors leaks by sending water through
the tunnel and measuring how much comes out at the end. The department also sends
robots that swim through the tunnels and collect data on their condition.
The amount of water being lost is inconsequential, given that reservoirs are so full, said
Environmental Commissioner Emily Lloyd. But she said it is important to fix the leaks
now because there is no way to tell how the system might deteriorate in the next 30
years.
New York has spent decades digging a new $6 billion tunnel that will create an
alternative source of water delivery and allow for easier inspection and repair of the
other tunnels. It is expected to be completed by 2020.
Around the country, water rates are going up to help pay for the repairs, estimated at
anywhere between $550 and $7,000 per household during the next three decades.
Augusta, Ga., raised rates 11 percent from 2001 through 2007 for a $300 million
program to improve the deteriorating water system. Cleveland gradually increased rates
by about 6 percent for more than 15 years to fund a $750 million project to address
aging and inefficient pipes. Springfield, Mass., doubled rates for its 250,000 customers.
Philadelphia, Kenosha, Wis., Portsmouth, Va., and other cities have followed suit.
Many engineers and water utilities say water bills around the country are too low. In
New York City, where a studio apartment can rent for more than $3,000 a month, the
cost of water and sewage is about $60 for an entire single-family home.
"We are the only utility where the raw material is free, but the infrastructure is the most
expensive," said Nick DeBenedictis, chief executive of Aqua America, a water company
that serves 3 million people in 13 states. "We have to dig up streets in order to do it, but
once we make investments it's good for years."
Study: Disinfection of drinking water creates toxic byproducts -- "Chesterton
Tribune"
Chesterton, IN
Study: Disinfection of drinking water creates toxic byproducts
Chesterton Tribune, IN
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant says that the disinfection of drinking water has virtually
eliminated water-borne illnesses in much of the world but that the disinfecting process
has lead to its own set of concerns.
According to a statement released on Monday, some disinfectant by-products, or DBPscreated by the reaction of organic water with the disinfectants-can have long-term
health impacts, including several types of cancer. Some DBPs have been linked to fetal
development problems.
"Approximately 600 DBPs have been identified, which represents only a fraction of the
total number," said Michael Plewa, a genetic toxicologist at the University of Illinois. At
the moment, however, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates only
a small number of DBPs, although the agency is in a multi-year period of evaluation of
the new Stage 2 Drinking Water Disinfection Rule.
In a project partially funded by Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, Plewa has developed a
comprehensive in vitro database of toxicity levels of DBPs considered a priority by the
U.S. EPA. Plewa's team, which included EPA scientists, test DBPs to assess their
impact on mammal cells and their genetic material.
"Michael Plewa's database will provide important data to aid in the EPA's assessment of
present regulations," said U.S. EPA scientist Susan Richardson. "The database can
also serve as a much-needed practical resource for the water treatment community as
they make decisions regarding local disinfection practices."
For example, the statement said, to reduce the occurrence of regulated by-products,
some communities have switched from chlorine to chloramine in their disinfection
process. "In water that is high in organic matter, typically surface water, this can lead to
an increase in emerging classes of nitrogen-containing DBPs, some of which Plewa has
found to be considerably more toxic than those that are regulated. In water that contains
iodine, such as water that has been infiltrated with sea water or sea water that has been
locked away underground, the use of chloramine can produce highly toxic iodinated
DBPs."
"Some iodinated DBPs are the most genotoxic to mammalian cells of any known
DBPs." said Plewa. "Water managers should know that the spectrum of DBPs shifts
when chlorine is replaced with chloramine."
Plewa is not recommending that people steer clear of tap water, the statement said, and
in fact he called the disinfection of drinking water the most important public health event
of the 20th century. "And tap water, unlike bottled water, is regulated," he said. "But, for
those concerned about DBPs, its a good idea to use a point-of-use filter in their home."
Plewa did note that one day, through genetic testing, it may be possible to pinpoint
people particularly vulnerable to health problems related to DBPs and to make
appropriate recommendations."
The Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant College Program is one of 30 National Sea Grant College
programs. Created by Congress in 1966, Sea Grant combines university, government,
business, and industry expertise to address coastal and Great Lakes needs. Funding is
provided by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the National Oceanic Atmospheric
Administration, the University of Illinois, and Purdue University.
Dangerous Animal Virus on US Mainland? -- "Associated Press (AP)"
New York, NY
Dangerous Animal Virus on US Mainland?
By LARRY MARGASAK Associated Press (AP)
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is likely to move its research on one of the
most contagious animal diseases from an isolated island laboratory to the U.S.
mainland near herds of livestock, raising concerns about a catastrophic outbreak.
Skeptical Democrats in Congress are demanding to see internal documents they
believe highlight the risks and consequences of the decision. An epidemic of the
disease, foot and mouth, which only affects animals, could devastate the livestock
industry.
One such government report, produced last year and already turned over to lawmakers
by the Homeland Security Department, combined commercial satellite images and
federal farm data to show the proximity to livestock herds of locations that have been
considered for the new lab. "Would an accidental laboratory release at these locations
have the potential to affect nearby livestock?" asked the nine-page document. It did not
directly answer the question.
A simulated outbreak of the disease _ part of an earlier U.S. government exercise called
"Crimson Sky" _ ended with fictional riots in the streets after the simulation's National
Guardsmen were ordered to kill tens of millions of farm animals, so many that troops
ran out of bullets. In the exercise, the government said it would have been forced to dig
a ditch in Kansas 25 miles long to bury carcasses. In the simulation, protests broke out
in some cities amid food shortages.
"It was a mess," said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who portrayed the president in the 2002
exercise. Now, like other lawmakers from the states under consideration, Roberts
supports moving the government's new lab to his state. Manhattan, Kan., is one of five
mainland locations under consideration. "It will mean jobs" and spur research and
development, he says.
The other possible locations for the new National Bio-and Agro-Defense Facility are
Athens, Ga.; Butner, N.C.; San Antonio; and Flora, Miss. The new site could be
selected later this year, and the lab would open by 2014. The numbers of livestock in
the counties and surrounding areas of the finalists range from 542,507 in Kansas to
132,900 in Georgia, according to the Homeland Security study.
Foot-and-mouth virus can be carried on a worker's breath or clothes, or vehicles leaving
a lab, and is so contagious it has been confined to Plum Island, N.Y., for more than a
half-century _ far from commercial livestock. The existing lab is 100 miles northeast of
New York City in the Long Island Sound, accessible only by ferry or helicopter.
Researchers there who work with the live virus are not permitted to own animals at
home that would be susceptible, and they must wait at least a week before attending
outside events where such animals might perform, such as a circus.
The White House says modern safety rules at labs are sufficient to avoid any outbreak.
But incidents in Britain have demonstrated that the foot-and-mouth virus can cause
remarkable economic havoc _ and that the virus can escape from a facility.
An epidemic in 2001 devastated Britain's livestock industry, as the government
slaughtered 6 million sheep, cows and pigs. Last year, in a less serious outbreak,
Britain's health and safety agency concluded the virus probably escaped from a site
shared by a government research center and a vaccine maker. Other outbreaks have
occurred in Taiwan in 1997 and China last year and in 2006.
If even a single cow signals an outbreak in the U.S., emergency plans permit the
government to shut down all exports and movement of livestock. Herds would be
quarantined, and a controlled slaughter could be started to stop the disease from
spreading.
Infected animals weaken and lose weight. Milk cows don't produce milk. They remain
highly infectious, even if they survive the virus.
The Homeland Security Department is convinced it can safely operate the lab on the
mainland, saying containment procedures at high-security labs have improved. The
livestock industry is divided. Some experts, including the former director at the aging
Plum Island Animal Disease Center, say research ought to be kept away from cattle
populations _ and, ideally, placed where the public already has accepted dangerous
research.
The former director, Dr. Roger Breeze, suggested the facility could be safely located at
the Atlanta campus of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or at Fort Detrick
in Frederick, Md., home of The United States Army Medical Research Institute for
infectious diseases.
Another possibility, Breeze said, is on Long Island, where there is no commercial
livestock industry. That would allow retention of most of the current Plum Island
employees.
Asked about the administration's finalist sites located near livestock, Breeze said: "It
seems a little odd. It goes against the ... safety program of the last 50 years."
The former head of the U.S. Agriculture Department's Agricultural Research Service
said Americans are not prepared for a foot-and-mouth outbreak that has been avoided
on the mainland since 1929.
"The horrific prospect of exterminating potentially millions of animals is not something
this country's ready for," said Dr. Floyd Horn.
The Agriculture Department ran the Plum Island lab until 2003. It was turned over to the
Homeland Security Department because preventing an outbreak is now part of the
nation's biological defense program.
Plum Island researchers work on detection of the disease, strategies to control
epidemics including vaccines and drugs, tests of imported animals to ensure they are
free of the virus and training of professionals.
The new facility will add research on diseases that can be transferred from animals to
humans. The Plum Island facility is not secure enough to handle that higher-level
research.
Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee also are worried about the
lab's likely move to the mainland. The chairman, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., and the
head of the investigations subcommittee, Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., are threatening to
subpoena records they say Homeland Security is withholding from Congress. Those
records include reports about "Crimson Sky," an internal review about a publicized 1978
accidental release of foot-and-mouth disease on Plum Island and reports about any
previously undisclosed virus releases on the island during the past half century.
The lawmakers set a deadline of Friday for the administration to turn over reports they
requested. Otherwise, they warned in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael
Chertoff, they will arrange a vote next week to issue a congressional subpoena.
A new facility at Plum Island is technically a possibility. Signs point to a mainland site,
however, after the administration spent considerable time and money scouting new
locations. Also, there are financial concerns about operating from a location accessible
only by ferry or helicopter.
The Homeland Security Department says laboratory animals would not be corralled
outside the new facility, and they would not come into contact with local livestock. All
work with the virus and lab waste would be handled securely and any material leaving
would be treated and monitored to ensure it was sterilized.
"Containment technology has improved dramatically since foot-and-mouth disease
prohibitions were put in place in 1948," Homeland Security spokeswoman Amy Kudwa
said.
Cattle farmers and residents are divided over the proposal to move the lab to the
mainland.
"I would like to believe we could build a facility, with the knowledge and technology we
have available, that would be basically safe from a bio-security standpoint," said John
Stuedemann, a cattle farmer near Athens, Ga., and a former scientist at the Agriculture
Department.
Nearby, community activist Grady Thrasher in Athens is worried about an outbreak from
a research lab. Thrasher, a former securities lawyer, has started a petition drive against
moving the lab to Georgia, saying the risks are too great.
"There's no way you can balance that equation by putting this in the middle of a
community where it will do the most harm," Thrasher said. "The community is now
aroused, so I think we have a majority against this."
In North Carolina, commissioners in Granville County originally endorsed moving the lab
to their area but later withdrew support. Officials from Homeland Security ultimately met
with residents for more than four hours, but the commissioners have taken no further
action to back the facility.
"Accidents are going to happen 50 years down the road or one year down the road,"
said Bill McKellar, a pharmacist in Butner, N.C., who leads an opposition group that has
formed a research committee of lawyers and doctors.
A service of the Associated Press(AP)