BOZEMAN, MT, August 8, 2008 (Water Tech) — Human error results in contamination scare

LONDON, ONTARIO, August 12, 2008 (Water Tech) — Ontario city pushes bottled water ban

POST FALLS, ID, August 14, 2008 (Water Tech) — Sewage spill threatens WA drinking water

WASHINGTON, August 18, 2008 (Water Tech) — Biologist: DC tap water ‘abominable’ for fish

YANKTON, SD, August 18, 2008 (Water Tech) — SD city marks fourth quarter with THMs

CHICAGO, August 20, 2008 (Water Tech) — Arsenic in water may contribute to diabetes

MUSKEGON, MI, August 22, 2008 (Water Tech) — Fewer raw sewage releases in MI

YAKIMA, WA, August 22, 2008 (Water Tech) — Kitchen may hold answers for contaminated water

INDIO, CA, August 26, 2008 (Water Tech) — Small system’s contamination may have natural source

FORREST CITY, AR, August 27, 2008 (Water Tech) — AR city’s supplies contain too much TCE

BOZEMAN, MT, August 8, 2008 (Water Tech) — Human error at this city’s water department prompted a possible episode of drinking water contamination, according to an August 8 Associated Press article on www.montananewsstation.com.

According to the article, a subcontractor hired to install new software on the computer system that controls the city’s water storage, distribution and wastewater services forgot to put the system back online when he finished on August 7. This caused a decrease in pressure and the possibility that the water could be contaminated with fecal bacteria and chemicals.

Local officials are asking that residents do not drink the water, even if it has been boiled, because that could increase the contamination, according to the article.

LONDON, ONTARIO, August 12, 2008 (Water Tech) — A proposal to ban the sale of bottled water on city-owned property is scheduled to go before the City Council here on August 18 after the city’s environment and transportation committee passed a recommendation calling for the ban, according to an August 12 article in The London Free Press.

During the committee’s August 11 meeting, the regularly scheduled public forum turned into a heated discussion among those in attendance, the article said.

On June 9, the City Council voted in principle to stop selling bottled water in city offices, cafeterias and parks in an effort to reduce waste. Jay Stanford, director of the city’s environment and solid waste programs, said the recommendation calls for the gradual phase-out of the sale of plastic water bottles, as WaterTech Online™ reported.

POST FALLS, ID, August 14, 2008 (Water Tech) — A raw sewage spill discovered in the early hours of August 11 is feared to have contaminated the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer, which provides drinking water to the Spokane, WA, area, according to an August 13 article in The Seattle Times.

Up to 130,000 gallons of raw sewage from the Post Falls wastewater system spilled at the Idahline Lift Station, which raises sewage to a higher elevation for treatment, according to the article.

A hydrologist has been hired to determine whether the sewage could seep into the aquifer. The spill occurred over the weekend but was not detected until early Monday morning because of a broken wire in the alarm system, according to the article.

WASHINGTON, August 18, 2008 (Water Tech) — The recently renovated National Aquarium — which at the age of 135 is the nation’s oldest aquarium — is seeking a higher profile despite the local water quality issues that complicate filtration and treatment, according to an Associated Press article in The Washington Post.

At a recent briefing, aquarium officials discussed the quality — or lack thereof — of the local tap water.

“D.C. water is abominable. It cannot sustain life,” Andy Dehart, director of biological programs at the aquarium, said in the article.

“But it’s safe to drink!” Executive Director Bob Ramin told the audience, according to the article.

Dehart responded to Ramin by specifying that the water was not safe for fish or invertebrates.

The water flowing from taps in the nation's capital is treated with chloramine year-round and with chlorine in the summer. In order to sustain aquarium life, these chemicals must be removed using activated carbon and the mineral zeolite.

The aquarium has added a new part to its water treatment system after a four-year, $1.6 million upgrade funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which studies what marine creatures need to survive in captivity. Recent trends in aquarium water quality focus on replicating the animals’ natural environments, according to the article.

Filters, fractionators and biofilters have recently been added under the advice of consultant Andy Aiken, life support engineer at the Baltimore National Aquarium.

YANKTON, SD, August 18, 2008 (Water Tech) — For the fourth quarter in a row, the city of Yankton has been forced to issue a notice informing residents that tests by the South Dakota Department of Environmental and Natural Resources indicate that the city’s drinking water contains an excess of trihalomethanes (THMs), according to an August 17 article in the Press & Dakotan.

Jerry Busby, water treatment plant supervisor in Yankton, said in the article, “There will probably be one or two more [notices], unfortunately. The water has basically stayed the same, but [the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)] dropped the THM level from 100 parts per billion (ppb) to 80 ppb on an annual running average.”

Yankton’s water averages 92-94 ppb, Busby said.

Yankton began to experience heightened levels of THMs after the US Army Corps of Engineers created sandbars upriver to provide habitat for endangered birds. Towns upriver from the sandbars do not have problems with excessive THMs, according to the article.

Officials are looking into several solutions, including leasing equipment to introduce chlorine dioxide to the city’s treatment process. They have also considered obtaining water from wells, which would reduce impurities, protect the water treatment system from zebra mussels and reduce the amount of sediment flowing through the system.

Multi-Pure Commentary:

Multi-Pure Drinking Water Systems have been certified by NSF International, under Standard 53, to reduce THMs, a VOC.

CHICAGO, August 20, 2008 (Water Tech) — Research published on August 19 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has linked low-level arsenic exposure, including possibly through drinking water, to type 2 diabetes, according to an August 19 Associated Press report on CNN.

Through the analysis of 788 Americans’ medical tests, researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that subjects with low levels of inorganic arsenic loads in their urine carried more than triple the risk of developing the disease than those with even lower arsenic loads. This data follows previous research that indicates an increased risk of diabetes with high levels of arsenic exposure.

How arsenic contributes to diabetes is not yet known, but studies have found impaired insulin secretion in pancreatic cells treated with arsenic compound, according to the article.

Concerning the policy implications of the new findings, Molly Kile, an environmental health research scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health, wrote an accompanying editorial in JAMA, stating, “Urinary arsenic reflects exposures from all routes — air, water and food — which makes it difficult to track the actual source of arsenic exposure let alone use the results from this study to establish drinking water standards.”

Known cancer risks linked to arsenic caused the arsenic limit in public water systems to be lowered to 10 parts per billion in 2001, and it is recommended that private well owners self-test their water. The US Geological Survey has mapped the level of groundwater contamination by arsenic.

Multi-Pure Commentary:

Multi-Pure’s MP880 Series has been certified by NSF International, under Standard 53, to reduce Arsenic V.

MUSKEGON, MI, August 22, 2008 (Water Tech) — According to a report by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), the state released a total of 26 billion gallons of raw or partially treated sewage into surface water due to combined sewer overflows in 2007, a 30 percent reduction from 2006, an August 21 Associated Press (AP) report on www.mlive.com said.

Combined sewer overflows occur when rainwater overwhelms sewer systems that handle both wastewater and stormwater. Dumping sewage prevents water from backing up into residential basements, according to the report.

Detroit was responsible for 88 percent of the dumped sewage. Grand Rapids, which ranked second to Detroit, dumped less than one hundredth of a percent of Detroit’s total, according to the report.

Local, state and federal agencies have been working since the late 1980s to reduce combined sewage overflows into the Great Lakes, a drinking water source, the report said. In 1989, the state provided $2.8 billion in low interest loans to help cities separate combined sewer lines and upgrade wastewater treatment systems.

YAKIMA, WA, August 22, 2008 (Water Tech) — While looking for ways to clean toxic groundwater at the Hanford nuclear reservation, the most contaminated nuclear site in the nation, researchers have again turned to the kitchen cabinet, according to an August 24 Associated Press article in The Seattle Times.

This week, researchers will inject 1,500 gallons of vegetable oil mixed with 50,000 gallons of water into the soil at the site near the Columbia River. An estimated 80 square miles of groundwater near the Pacific Northwest’s largest waterway is contaminated by radioactive waste exceeding state and federal drinking water standards. Federal officials are particularly concerned about a plume of hexavalent chromium, a contaminant that moves easily through water, which stretches for 1.25 miles along the Columbia River shore. Injecting the oil is expected to increase the food supply for natural microbes and remove oxygen from the groundwater, thereby enabling the chromium to convert to the nontoxic form for up to seven years, according to the article.

Multi-Pure Commentary:

Multi-Pure’s MP750 Plus RO has been certified by NSF International, under Standard 58, to reduce Hexavalent Chromium.

INDIO, CA, August 26, 2008 (Water Tech) — Natural sources may be to blame for the presence of perchlorate in a well at La Quinta Ridge Mobile Home Park, according to an August 25 article on www.kesq.com.

Dr. Mark Matsumoto of the University of California Riverside’s Chemistry Department said in the article, “Perchlorate can be found in [non-industrial] places for a couple of reasons. First there is some natural perchlorate.”

The rocket fuel ingredient perchlorate can result from activities relating to fuel or explosives production or use and can seep into well water over time. Deserts are particularly vulnerable to this, because the chemical will build up and not wash away, according to the article.

The managers of the mobile home park will face fines unless they hook the park into the city’s water supply by August 28, according to the article.

Multi-Pure Commentary:

Multi-Pure’s MP750 Plus RO has been certified by NSF International, under Standard 58, to reduce Perchlorate.

FORREST CITY, AR, August 27, 2008 (Water Tech) — Trichloroethylene levels that exceed the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) maximum contaminant level (MCL) have been detected in 70 percent of the water supplied to this city’s system, according to an August 21 article in the Times-Herald.

The high trichloroethylene, or TCE, levels occurred from June 1, 2007, through June 30, 2008, for a total of four violations. The city’s supply contained an average of 0.010 milligrams per liter (mg/L) of TCE. The federal MCL for the solvent TCE is half that, at 0.005 mg/L.

In compliance with state and federal regulations, the Forrest City Water Utility has drafted a letter detailing the violation for its customers. The letter states, “The [US Environmental Protection Agency] sets drinking water standards and has determined that trichloroethylene is a health concern at certain levels of exposure. This chemical is a common metal cleaning and dry cleaning fluid.”

Multi-Pure Commentary: