NEW YORK, January 19, 2007 (Water Tech) — A study recently completed at the Municipal Institute of Medical Research in Barcelona, Spain, suggests drinking, bathing or swimming in chlorinated water may increase the risk of bladder cancer, according to a January 18 Reuters report in Scientific American.

As part of the study, researchers examined the effects of trihalomethanes (THM), disinfection byproducts resulting from the use of chlorine in water treatment, on more than 2,400 men and women, about half of whom had bladder cancer, the story said.

The scientists discovered that people exposed to water with an average household THM level exceeding 49 micrograms per liter had double the bladder cancer risk of those exposed to water with a THM concentration below 8 micrograms per liter, the report noted.

Study participants who drank chlorinated water were at 35% greater risk of bladder cancer than those who didn't, while use of swimming pools boosted bladder cancer risk by 57 percent, according to the article.

RIALTO, CA, January 19, 2007 (Water Tech) — Officials in this Southern California city are reaching out to the public for assistance in drafting a plan to clean up a rocket-fuel ingredient that has contaminated six Rialto drinking water wells, The Press-Enterprise reported recently.

The city hopes to draft a cleanup plan within a month and send the document to the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board, as well as state and federal officials, according to the article.

City Attorney Bob Owen said in the story that Rialto wants to "involve the community in the decision-making process of what remediation efforts we will choose, who is going to pay for it and how much it's going to cost."

San Francisco, CA, January 17, 2007 (San Francisco Chronicle) - Americans spent an estimated $11 billion last year drinking 8.3 billion gallons of bottled water, according to Beverage Marketing Corp., the leading compiler of facts and figures about the beverage industry.

That means the average American consumed almost 28 gallons of Aquafina, Dasani, Evian or hundreds of other brands that comprise the up to $100 billion global market for bottled water.

So great is our thirst for the stuff that Americans now drink more bottled water than any other commercial beverage except carbonated soft drinks -- more than milk, more than coffee, more than beer.

"The single biggest factor driving sales of bottled water is health and wellness,"  says Gary Hemphill, managing director of Beverage Marketing Corp. in New York, "People see it as a healthy alternative."

Yet a 2001 study by the World Wildlife Fund found that despite the widespread perception that bottled water is better for you, there's actually little difference between what you can buy in a store and what pours from the tap.

"Bottled water may be no safer, or healthier, than tap water in many countries while selling for up to 1,000 times the price," the group said in a report compiled by a University of Geneva researcher.

PORTLAND, TN, January 26, 2007 (Water Tech) — This city has ordered the Imperial Fabricating Co. to stop emitting wastewater into the city's treatment plant after high levels of pollutants were found in its discharges, a January 24 Tennessean story reported.

The city is saying the company violated a 2001 agreement that allows the plant to release 1.05 parts per million of nickel a day, the story said.

The company, which has two plants in the city, is denying the claim, according to the article.

Brian Goodwin, the superintendent of public works, said, "Our department is having to do extra work to clean the water. We're holding sludge that shows high nickel levels, then de-watering it. And we've had to get a special landfill permit to dump the sludge."

This isn't the first time the city has had to deal with the company's waste. Since 2004 eight violations over wastewater discharges were filed against the plant, the article said.

The city of Durham was recently given a violation notice for withholding drinking water test results from the state, which had revealed harmful amounts of lead, the story said.

Along with Durham, 214 other North Carolina systems failed to send in lead test results, and 76 didn't submit the correct amount of samples, according to the article.