OSCODA — Tucked in around the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base, a mass water purification operation is taking place. And if you know where to look, one can spot the buildings that, house wells and tanks sucking up water to purifying the ground of Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA). These are among a family of chemicals known as Per Flouryl Alkyl substances (PFAS).

Recent upgrades mean the pump and treatment system pulls water from the ground at a constant rate of 1,400 gallons per minute, which equals to about 2,000,000 gallons per day. It has been in place since 2017, but has received new expansions to the tank and pumping system. It was reported as an $11 million project that nearly doubles the systems’ treatment capacity.

To celebrate the upgrades, the Air Force hosted a Site Tour and PFAS Technical Workshop at the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base, Oct. 26 and 27.

The workshop involved a tour of the CTS building, the Well control building and the FT02 Treatment Building.

People from many different backgrounds attended. Members of the Restoration Advisory Board (RAB), environmental activist groups, Air Force, state departments, tribal groups and general members of the public showed up to ask questions about the specifications of the operation.

“From a hydro-geologic environmental engineering standpoint, we can do a pretty good job of managing groundwater from flowing off site,” said Jim Romer of Aerostar, a company based in Texas. Environmental cleanup is one among of their many hats. Romer is the Remediation Engineer in charge of monitoring and reducing contamination in the wells and tanks as the water is purified.

Romer said the job of environmental cleanup in the area previously involved petroleum, chlorinated solvents and “different stuff.”

The $4.7 million project expands an existing treatment system with six additional groundwater extraction wells. It also adds three granular activated carbon (GAC) units to pre-treat extracted groundwater.

GAC systems involve large tanks that hold tons of activated charcoal, a porous substance, that traps contaminants in water.

After the GAC tanks reach a certain level of contamination, they are cleaned out and the charcoal is sent for “regeneration,” which means they are heated to 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit, destroying all organic compounds and reused.

They also have a solid waste collector, which filters out solids into a separate tank. They introduce diatomaceous earth, which clings to any impurities and settles at the bottom where it is transferred to a press. They squeeze out any water from the contaminants and send that down to a the Subtitle C landfill in Belleville, MI.

Just like every other contamination cleanup scenario, Romer said the first step always involved preventing additional flux of the stuff in the environment flowing down stream.

“We don’t want to pump these for 30 years. How do we go back up and actually kill the sources and get this to grade down?”

While the facilities on base do their job of taking away PFAS, the main issue is there is not enough to completely remove any contamination. Romer said their job is to only act as a “stopgap” in the system to prevent further contamination down stream. Any PFAS currently present in Van Etten or Clark’s Marsh is staying there for now. That’s cleanup for another day.

“I think it’s great,” said Bob Delaney. “I used to work for the state trying to get them to do testing across the state.”

He said he was glad to see the Air Force finally doing something about the cleanup after all these years.

Delaney used to work for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, now known as EGLE. He discovered the PFAS contamination in Wurtsmith in 2010.

In an August meeting for the RAB, he said despite the EPA health advisories just decreasing, the Air Force are following less stringent standards.

“Michigan’s criteria are the thing that they’re going to default to. And so I explain this to you, to understand how the game is played. So whichever number is more convenient, that’s what the Air Force has used in the past.”

Due to the chemical’s toxicity in even incredibly low volumes, the EPA has set the standard to “virtually undetectable” standards. They set PFOS contaminants in the water to 0.004 parts per trillion (ppt) for PFOA, and 0.02 ppt for PFOS.

In 2020, EGLE set Michigan’s guidelines at 8 ppt for PFOA and 16 ppt for PFOS.

Before the EPA’s new standards set in June, the maximum allowable amount in outflow water was 70 ppt for both PFOS and PFOA.

Currently, Romer reports the incoming rate of PFAS is between 2,000 to 4,000 nanograms per liter, while the discharge rate is around 20 to 40 nanograms per liter.

This level was determined by the the 2016 Substantive Requirements Document (SRD), set by EGLE. This is the standards the Air Force has used, with attorneys arguing they’re grandfathered in, according to a 2021 MLive article.

Romer said they will monitor the wells closely for 9 months to determine if the new system is doing well.

Some people in the community would like to see more done.

Mike Munson of the RAB said the Air Force has been kicking and dragging their feet for years around this issue.

“They discuss it first,” he said. ‘Should we clean it up?’ ‘I don’t know!’ Then they discuss on how to clean it up. ‘Should we use a rag, or maybe a paper towel?’ Meanwhile, it’s flowing.”

The community of Oscoda has had a history of going back and forth with the Air Force on cleaning up the contamination left on base.

Earlier in October, MLive reported Mark Henry and Bob Delaney, both experts in the PFAS contamination at Wurtsmith, aren’t welcomed at meeting with the Department of Defense surrounding the cleanup effort. Their contributions have largely been stonewalled.

[ad_2]

Originally Appeared Here

PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — Prince George County residents living in the Beechwood Manor neighborhood can expect to have their water shut off through this afternoon as the county utility service performs pipe-cleaning activities.

The cleaning is scheduled for today from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. During these hours, the county says the water will be turned off to limit the amount of sodium solution entering the service lines.

Residents in the neighborhood are still being advised to boil their tap water before drinking and cooking it and can expect to be informed by the county later today when the water boil advisory is lifted.

Veterans Affairs in Richmond, last with dog testing, ‘effectively ended’ canine experiments

The county notes that failure to follow the boil water advisory could result in stomach or intestinal illness.

[ad_2]

Originally Appeared Here

Australian ultra-marathoner and environmental activist Mina Guli plans to run 200 marathons in 365 days until the start of the United Nations Water Conference in March 2023. As of September 2022, she has passed the halfway mark, running 100 marathons in Australia, Central Asia and Africa since May 2022, and moving onto Europe.

Guli is CEO of the Thirst Foundation, a non-profit organization driving action on water, and a former World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. She will be running in some of the world’s most water-stressed locations, before completing her final marathon in New York city. Often a scarce resource, water can be easily destructive during heavy floods. Humanity is already living beyond its means when it comes to water, and it is not doing enough to protect it either.

I was that kid in the corner that no one ever picked for their sports team. I couldn’t run, I couldn’t swim and I was horrible at bike riding.

Marina Guli

Seventeen countries, home to a quarter of the world’s population, face ‘extremely high’ levels of baseline water stress, where agriculture, industries and municipal services withdraw more than 80% of their water supply each year, the World Resources Institute estimates. A further 44 countries, home to a third of the world, face ‘high’ stress levels, withdrawing more than 40% of their water, the World Economic Forum reports.

© Mina Guli

With demand so close to supply levels, these countries are vulnerable to fluctuations in water levels through drought or increased water use. Climate change is making water scarcity worse, causing more frequent droughts and making water supplies less predictable.

Guli has form running marathons to draw the world’s attention to the water plight. In 2016 she ran 40 marathons across seven deserts in seven continents over seven weeks. Run Blue aims to inspire companies to take action on water in the lead up to the UN Water Conference.

Companies currently account for nearly 90% of the world’s fresh water use, which means companies can become the biggest problem solvers for water.

Mina Guli

There are currently some 2.2 billion people without access to safe drinking water in the world, and nearly two-thirds of the world’s total population face severe water shortages for at least one month each year. The amount of usable freshwater is decreasing, but demand is increasing due to a growing population, wasteful behaviors and climate change.

The campaign aims to raise awareness and highlight that the water crisis can be solved by working together. She wants 200 companies – one for each of her marathons – to assess their water risk, understand where they need to improve and implement a plan to improve their water use. Two-thirds of companies currently face substantial water risk, either through their direct operations or their supply chain.

© Mina Guli

Guli started in Australia on World Water Day, March 22, 2022. She will run until the United Nations Water Decade Conference in New York City in March 2023. Guli wants to mobilize people and businesses around the world and raise awareness about the critical role of water in all aspects of our lives. She wants to show how we can take action to solve the crisis.

The water crisis in numbers:

• There are currently some 2.2 billion people who do not have access to safe drinking water.
• It is estimated that water use for industrial and municipal purposes will increase by 50% by 2050.
• There will be a 40% gap between water supply and demand by 2030.
• It is estimated that by 2050, 60% of the world’s inhabitants will face water scarcity.
• Nearly two-thirds of the world’s total population will face severe water shortages for at least one month each year.
• 3 billion people in the world lack hand-washing facilities at home (40% of the world’s population).
• 1 million people die each year from diseases related to contaminated water or lack of hygiene, which could be reduced with access to safe drinking water.
• A 57% increase in global water demand is expected by 2050.
• 20% of all diseases in the world are related to water issues.
• By 2030, 10% of the world’s population will have to migrate due to water scarcity.

[ad_2]

Originally Appeared Here

Concerns are now being raised by Navua residents as they have been facing water supply issues for a number of years where tap water is yellowish in colour and unsafe to drink and the pressure is very low as well.

Tokotoko, Navua resident, Shasnil Chand says they had to suffer a lot during Diwali as they did not have water and had to buy it and are grateful they are able to buy water but not all residents in Navua are able to.

The resident says he spends about $100 on buying drinking water while his bill is about $47.

Your browser does not support the audio element.

He says he has tried doing a small survey and it is not just the people of Tokotoko but people residing along the highway and the town area are also facing the same problem.

He further says unlike the Suva to Nausori corridor, Tokotoko is not overly populated.

Chand says emails sent to customer care and CEO have not been addressed.

A Thompson Road, Navua resident says she has been complaining about this since 2019 and yet there is no action taken.

She says whenever they call the Navua team, they are being told that the water level is down, the pump broke down, the reservoir is overflowing, or low water pressure. The woman says she cannot wash clothes and cook, and cannot fill water to store it during the day because all the family members are at work.

We sent questions to the Water Authority of Fiji on concerns raised by Navua residents on Friday and about water supply issues continuously being faced by residents living in some parts of Nakasi and Nausori last week. They are yet to respond.

[ad_2]

Originally Appeared Here

The ability to trust that our basic needs are met is the foundation of a healthy psyche, according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. These needs include access to food, water, shelter, and other physiological necessities. When we cannot fulfill those needs, items and tasks that appear higher on the hierarchy, like freedom, friendship, self-esteem, and self-actualization, become more difficult or impossible to achieve.

Unfortunately, even in a developed country like the U.S., our drinking water is not always safe. Instances like lead contamination in Flint, Michigan, water treatment plant failures in Jackson, Mississippi, and a Navy fuel storage facility leak in Honolulu are all evidence of some of the issues and dysfunctional systems that can lead to unsafe water. All of those instances are now public and either resolved or in the process of being resolved; however, despite its illegality, organizations in charge of ensuring clean, potable water for their constituents aren’t always transparent about the state of their product, thereby violating federal law.

The Government Performance and Results Act requires all federal entities to produce performance reports that include relevant statistics about their work. Part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s reports contain data about a wide variety of water quality violations, including which organizations have failed to comply with public notice rules for water contamination that they discover.

Using the EPA’s GPRA Violation Report for public notice violations, Stacker compiled a list of the largest organizations in violation of the law requiring the public to be notified of contaminated drinking water between January and June 2022. Organizations are ranked by the size of the population they serve. Ties were broken by the number of public notice violations incurred.

Read on to see which organizations in your state have incurred the largest violations.

#20. Devils Creek Estates Home Assoc

– Population served: 145

– Number of violations from January-June 2022: 1

#19. Camp Ingawanis-Ranger Well

– Population served: 150

– Number of violations from January-June 2022: 2

#18. P.M. Park Trustees-East

– Population served: 152

– Number of violations from January-June 2022: 2

#17. Monticello Jellystone Park

– Population served: 153

– Number of violations from January-June 2022: 2

#16. Village Creek Bible Camp

– Population served: 166

– Number of violations from January-June 2022: 14

#15. Mt Joy Mobile Home Park

– Population served: 173

– Number of violations from January-June 2022: 2

#14. Denali’S On The River

– Population served: 185

– Number of violations from January-June 2022: 2

#13. Camp Wyoming

– Population served: 191

– Number of violations from January-June 2022: 6

#12. Saint Peter & Paul Parish – Sherril

– Population served: 200

– Number of violations from January-June 2022: 4

#11. Romantix Inc

– Population served: 204

– Number of violations from January-June 2022: 2

#10. Camp Abe Lincoln

– Population served: 210

– Number of violations from January-June 2022: 2

#9. Dodds Valley View Water Assn

– Population served: 220

– Number of violations from January-June 2022: 8

#8. Coralville Lake-Ad Bldg

– Population served: 275

– Number of violations from January-June 2022: 1

#7. Fertile Municipal Water

– Population served: 305

– Number of violations from January-June 2022: 2

#6. Triple Play Llc

– Population served: 400

– Number of violations from January-June 2022: 2

#5. Camp Ingawanis-Maple Well

– Population served: 402

– Number of violations from January-June 2022: 2

#4. Troy Store

– Population served: 502

– Number of violations from January-June 2022: 2

#3. Caseys Store (Nichols) #2472

– Population served: 603

– Number of violations from January-June 2022: 3

#2. Caseys General Store (Anamosa)

– Population served: 1,215

– Number of violations from January-June 2022: 1

#1. Wellman Municipal Waterworks

– Population served: 1,524

– Number of violations from January-June 2022: 2

[ad_2]

Originally Appeared Here

While climate change is putting immense pressure on the global supply of water, digitalisation can improve sustainability – it’s one of the top three benefits of digital transformation. Here, Gentrack selected a panel of global experts to share their views on industry challenges and explore the key to digitising.

Water is a natural resource many of us take for granted, but recently it has been the subject of global concern. While devastating floods are wreaking havoc across Australia, the Northern Hemisphere is battling record breaking water shortages, including the worst European drought for 500 years.

Outside of our industry, we seldom appreciate the millennia of engineering advancements that have led to a system of safe, clean drinking water delivered directly into our homes and the removal of unwanted waste – or the immense pressure that system is under today.

Aside from the overwhelming effects of climate change, the global water industry is battling urbanisation and population growth, regulatory and political pressure, all while contending with aging infrastructure. And it’s not just the physical assets that are aging – 75 per cent of global utility customers are managed on legacy IT systems1. As a transformation powerhouse, we wanted to get to the bottom of this digital delay in the water sector.

While sustainability is a significant positive outcome of digitalisation, it was customer experience that stood out as the top benefit. This is unsurprising considering that many water firms don’t utilise data to inform intelligent customer solutions and propositions.

Given that the benefits of digital transformation are clear, why are many water firms relying on manual processes?

Our panel (83 per cent) claimed that during a transformation, operational and culture change present the biggest challenges, but poor change management capabilities are the biggest blocker to starting a transformation.

This is despite reports from Global Water Intelligence that global digitisation of the sector could lead to savings of approximately USD$176 billion on total expenditure over five years for drinking water treatment, distribution, customer services, metering and billing.

How do we get past these challenges?

If culture is one of the key blockers, then the simple reality is this – it’s time to change the culture and introduce innovative thinkers into the business. Some of our panel even noted that going digital drives recruitment of leading tech talent.

Working with a delivery partner with a hundred per cent transformation success rate, water businesses can mitigate the migration risks and focus on the benefits of delivering world-class customer and operational excellence, slashing their cost to serve and driving continuous innovation.

What’s more, our panel agreed that engaging a proven technology partner is key to overcoming poor change management. When 70 per cent of transformation projects fail, it’s understandable that the water sector is resistant to change. But being a digital laggard isn’t the answer. The global challenges facing the water sector will become unmanageable for those relying on manual processes.

This sponsored editorial is brought to you by Gentrack. For further information, please visit www.gentrack.com.

[ad_2]

Originally Appeared Here

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Monday that the city’s water is safe to drink again after months of sampling water at a treatment facility. Floods in August had caused supply disruptions for about 150,000 residents, but before that the city had already been under a boil-water warning since July. The city has encouraged city residents to stay up-to-date on the water situation for possible further boil-water notices or notices about other local issues. Gov. Tate Reeves has extended the state of emergency the city is under to Nov. 22, saying that by then the state will have transitioned control of the water supply away from the state to a private operator.

What did Jackson residents do for water over the past few months? Although water was restored to many people within days after the August flooding caused a shutoff of the water supply, many Jackson residents have avoided drinking the tap water, and have done so for years, out of distrust of the supply. During the water crisis, people lined up for bottled water to use for cooking, bathing, and drinking.

Dig deeper: Read Gary Perilloux’s report in Compassion about the water crisis in Jackson.

[ad_2]

Originally Appeared Here

Pure Water Soquel has nothing to do with drinking poop water. The project has everything to do with making sure that we will all have sustainable water source water now and for future generations. The existing SCCWD board is implementing a complicated a solution, has secured over $90 million in grants, and has received praise and acclaim by water leaders worldwide. All in just seven years! The finished product will be water that is cleaner than treated ground or surface water. And, that cleaner water will continue to come out of your tap to sustain your kids, their kids and their kids’ kids. The project has been scrutinized and approved by people that know a heck of a lot about water than the two, new renegade candidates stirring up fear.

— Niels Kisling, Capitola

The Sentinel welcomes your letters to the editor. Letters should be short, no more than 150 words. We do not accept anonymous letters. Letter-writers should include their full name as well as a street address and telephone number. We don’t publish those details in the newspaper, but need the information for verification purposes. Occasionally, we reject letters simply because we’ve had so many on the same subject. Submit your letters online at www.santacruzsentinel.com/submit-letters. 

[ad_2]

Originally Appeared Here

Hurricane Ian knocked out electricity in much of Southwest Florida, which cut power to pumps that deliver freshwater to homes and businesses. The underground system of pipes that deliver the water was also damaged, leading to a loss of pressure and possibly contaminating the drinking water supply.

In response, much of the area was placed under a boil-water notice that lasted for weeks.

So would the utilities that deliver water to residents in the Tampa Bay area be able to continue operating if the region took a direct hit from a similar storm? To find out, WUSF reached out to several water departments in the area along with Tampa Bay Water, which supplies drinking water to government utilities that serve more than 2.5 million people in parts of Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties.

Tampa Bay Water

Charles (Chuck) H. Carden is the general manager of Tampa Bay Water.

The agency’s facilities are tested every 10 years, according to Carden.

“We do ‘what if’ scenarios. If we lose any power or loss of water or a pipe, how do we get water to our customers? And then that report will show where we’re weak in certain spots and then we will put in capital improvement projects to try to eliminate that from happening,” he said.

Carden said they have backup generators at their critical facilities.

“And then you want to look at where your pipes are exposed to possibly wind damage and so you would harden them up or go underground with them where you can so you won’t have pipes being blown off because of the wind,” Carden said.

But the agency just collects the water, which means it’s up to each individual government utility to maintain the distribution of water to their customers.

Hillsborough County

The director of Hillsborough County’s Water Resources Department, Lisa Rhea, said in an email that their facilities are equipped with diesel-powered emergency generators, which are tested monthly, to provide electricity in the event of a power outage.

Rhea said that when a tropical event approaches, they top-off the diesel storage tanks, which can provide four to 14 days of continuous operation depending on location and water demand from customers.

“In extreme disasters, like what Lee County faced with Hurricane Ian, the supply chain is disrupted. This is evident to the public at gas stations and grocery stores but it also impacts the supplies needed to run water plants,” she said. “The delivery of diesel and other important supplies, like chlorine for disinfection, may be delayed because the delivery trucks cannot get to the locations.”

She added that breaks in the pipes are often not within officials’ control, as underground pipes sometimes get wrapped by tree roots. The rain from a storm can soften the soil, and then the wind or storm surge can knock trees down, pulling the root-wrapped pipes along with them.

“There is one major difference to keep in mind when comparing Hillsborough County’s water system to Lee County’s water system: the lowest elevation water treatment plant elevation is 25-feet above sea level so we would not have been impacted by the storm surge seen in Lee County,” said Rhea.

“Unfortunately, coastal facilities, like those in Lee County, were under water from the storm surge which can damage electrical equipment and contaminate tanks or other systems.”

Tampa

The Tampa Water Department also maintains several days’ worth of fuel onsite at their water treatment plant to power backup generators in case of a power loss, according to Sonia M. Quiñones, supervisor of Communications and Conservation.

She said that as part of their advance prep for Ian, they also had dozens of employees who remained onsite during the storm to ensure normal water treatment operations continued throughout.

“Our distribution team — which is responsible for maintaining and repairing water mains and other assets in our service area — had teams that mobilized at an Emergency Response Center (ERC). They stayed there to respond to emergencies (until they had to hunker down for the storm) and then went into action afterward to clear out their assigned routes of debris and assess post storm needs,” she said in an email.

Plus, in anticipation of the expected high amount of rainfall, the city’s Water Production team coordinated with the Southwest Florida Water Management District to lower the level of water in the Hillsborough River Reservoir.

“We lowered the reservoir by 2.5 feet over the course of three days immediately before Ian hit the area. This action was taken as a flood control measure. We ultimately released approximately 500 million gallons of water,” she said.

St. Petersburg

The city of St. Petersburg also has the option for generator power at its two pumping stations at Washington Terrace and Oberly.

“Both pumping stations are located on relatively higher elevations and should not be as impacted as the rest of the city from flooding inundation,” said John Palenchar, director of Water Resources, in an email.

“The pumping stations are redundant and the city can be supplied with water from either one of the pumping stations if one is unable to operate.”

St. Petersburg also has an Emergency Water Distribution Plan, in case a severe storm or other event limits the use of their regular system. The plan is focused on the distribution of water to the community before the arrival of disaster relief aid from the Florida and/or the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“During storm preparation, the EWD Plan requires reserving 18 million gallons of water in storage tanks at the Oberly and Washington Terrace water pumping stations. Based on providing up to 2.5 gallons of drinking water per person per day, this storage is sufficient to serve the city’s population for several days,” Palenchar said.

Water operations officials in Pasco County and New Port Richey did not respond to emails and/or calls for this story.

[ad_2]

Originally Appeared Here

In Kgetlengrivier municipality in the North West, the 510 households of the community of Mazista have to fetch water from boreholes on neighbouring farms such as this one. Although nine boreholes were drilled by the municipality and water tanks were built, no water flows through the taps of the government-supplied houses. The municipal boreholes have either been vandalised or the water they supply is undrinkable. The farmer who runs his cattle on this farm pays for the electricity used by the submersible pump, and pays for a man to live on the farm and take care of the pump and valves. Photo: Steve Kretzmann

• Piped water in two-thirds of South Africa’s municipalities does not meet minimum standards.
• Untreated sewage often flows into drinking water dams.
• Failure by national and provincial authorities to take action sees citizen groups approaching the courts.

Almost two-thirds of South African municipalities responsible for supplying drinking water to residents are either failing to provide water that meets the minimum drinking standards, or simply failing to test the water they supply.

Not all South Africa’s municipalities are responsible for treating and supplying drinking water to residents. Many municipalities are supplied by water boards which are state-owned companies. But of the 144 municipalities that do treat and supply water, 94 were failing as of 11 October. These municipalities are responsible for supplying drinking water to at least 22 million people, when matched against Stats SA’s 2016 Community Survey.

Exacerbating the situation, 112 of 144 (77%) of these municipalities that supply drinking water were polluting streams, rivers, and oceans with untreated or partially treated sewage. Overlapping drinking water and sewage treatment failures were evident in 81 municipalities.

These statistics are extracted from the Department of Water and Sanitation’s own publicly accessible water and sanitation data repository.

And geolocation and field research reveal that in many cases where sewage works are or have been failing, such as in Winburg in the Free State, Emalahleni and Standerton in Mpumalanga, Buffalo City in the Eastern Cape, and Koster and Swartruggens in the North West, untreated or partially treated water is polluting the dams from which drinking water is extracted.

There are also communities such as Mazista and Mogogelo in the North West Province, Makhanda, Fort Beaufort and Butterworth in the Eastern Cape, Mbokoto village in Limpopo, and the entire Ugu District Municipality on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast, which do not receive water or have suffered water outages lasting days or even weeks. These are just some examples extracted from a current news search.

South Africa’s largest city, and the country’s economic hub, Johannesburg, is not exempt. Although water to Johannesburg is supplied by Rand Water – a state-owned company – and meets quality standards, water distribution is a municipal responsibility, and this year for the first time, water distribution to large parts of the city is failing. Unlike water shortages experienced in the city of Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape, Johannesburg’s water shortages are not due to drought – the Vaal Dam from which it obtains water is about 91% full. The shortages are due to infrastructure and planning failures, exacerbated by loadshedding, according to reports.

But many municipalities have been suffering dirty water and intermittent supply for years. And in the face of inaction, or at best ineffective action, from relevant national government departments such as the Department of Water and Sanitation, some citizens have decided to take matters into their own hands.

Seeking help from the courts

“It was December 2019 when we approached the court,” said attorney Adreas Peens in Koster, a small town in the Kgetlengrivier municipality in the North West Province.

Peens represents the Kgetlengrivier Concerned Citizens, who went to the Magistrate’s Court to grant them access to the water treatment works so they could get it running again after it had been shut down during a municipal workers’ strike over salary increases.

The court granted them access, and the water supply was restored.

Adreas Peens is a lawyer who has represented Kgetlengrivier Concerned Citizens. Photo: Steve Kretzmann

This success, said Peens, gave the concerned citizens courage to address the municipality’s longstanding water and sanitation failures through the courts.

A year later, in December 2020, Peens was in the North West Division High Court with an urgent application to take custodianship of the municipal water treatment works and the sewage works.

He said raw sewage was being diverted via ditches and pipes from the sewage works in Koster, and the nearby town of Swartruggens, straight into the Koster and Elands Rivers. The discharge in both cases was upstream of the dams supplying drinking water to the towns.

Swartruggens farmer Wilhelm Rocher, who in November last year was elected as an independent municipal councillor, said sewage had been flowing into the Swartruggens dam since at least 2014.

On 18 December 2020, Judge Samkelo Gura ruled in favour of the citizens, ordering the municipality to stop raw sewage flowing into the rivers – an issue which had not been resolved despite a visit from the provincial environmental affairs minister – and to immediately fix the causes of the problem. Judge Gura also declared that the water treatment works at the two towns were in “states of disrepair”, and “mismanaged”.

The interim order gave the municipality two weeks to put an end to sewage pollution and provide a continuous supply of clean drinking water. Failure to do so would allow the concerned citizens to “take control” of the infrastructure, and the municipal manager would serve a minimum 90 days prison sentence.

The municipality did not meet the terms of the order. By early January, Willie Jones, an engineer and head of Jones Masjiene, a 20-year-old family business manufacturing agricultural equipment, was at the helm of a team repairing the water treatment works and sewage works. Within days, they were supplying clean water and releasing clean sewage effluent. On 21 February, news programme Carte Blanche posted a video of Jones drinking the treated water released from the Koster sewage plant after it had been fixed. Though the municipality did not meet the two-week deadline to repair its water and sanitation failures, the municipal manager has not been imprisoned. He won a subsequent court appeal.

But, explained Peens, in an expansion of the initial interim order, on 12 January the court ordered the municipality to appoint an “implementing agent” to take control of the water and sewage infrastructure.

Peens said the concerned citizens didn’t want to manage the plants on a permanent basis, only to intervene.

But when once the appointed agent, Magalies Water, a state-owned company originally established in 1969 to provide water to the platinum mines in nearby Rustenberg, took over on 17 March 2021, water supply problems re-emerged.

A partial win

Two weeks after Magalies Water took over, water supply in Koster began to fail, said Rocher.

“We get water for maybe an hour, hour-and-a-half in the morning,” said Kenalemang Morule, who lives in a household of four adults in Koster’s Hospital Heights, within a stone’s throw of the water purification plant.

Interviewed in October this year, Morule said water normally flows from the taps between about 5am and 6am. “We open the taps when we go to sleep, so that the [sound of running] water will wake us up,” he said.

But occasionally the taps stay dry for days or even weeks. “We can go for three weeks without water.”

When that happens, people buy water from those who have boreholes, such as the Bem-Vindo Lodge. The going rate was about R5 for 20 litres. For those without cars, wheelbarrows are used to cart the drums and buckets.

Resident Joseph Moeti said from January to March 2021, “when Jones was in charge”, the water “was good”. Moeti said the water was clean and the supply was regular, and his team even painted the fence around the water purification plant.

“After March (when Magalies Water took over) everything went down again”.

“Jones is a white guy, but he was a good guy,” said Moeti.

Pensioner Mary Montsho, who lives further down the hill in Reagile, said she also only received water “for a few hours” a day, and “sometimes it’s dirty”.

Like her neighbours, she said she filled buckets and barrels when the water flowed, in order to provide enough for the needs of three adults and three children in the house. The youngest is just three years old.

Mary Montsho is a pensioner. She says she only receives piped water for a few hours daily, and sometimes it’s dirty. Photo: Steve Kretzmann

While Montsho, Moeti, and Morule all said they drink the water supplied, data from the Department of Water and Sanitation site, captured on 11 October, showed water quality in Kgetlengrivier municipality was “bad”. It had a microbiological compliance of 94%, indicating the presence of fecal coliforms such as E. coli. The minimum drinking water requirement in order for the water to be labelled “good” is 97%. It was, however, achieving “excellent” status for chemical compliance.

An inspection of the sewage effluent released into the Koster River revealed a clean outflow, showing that what sewage reached the plant, was being effectively treated. But not all the town’s sewage was reaching the sewage works. A significant leak a few hundred metres above the sewage works was evident, with raw sewage running down what appeared to be an old furrow, toward the river.

Wilhelm Rocher is a farmer and independent municipal councillor. Photo: Steven Kretzmann

In Swartruggens, Rocher, who daily checks the drinking water reservoir levels, said the water and sewage were “hundred percent”.

Meanwhile, Peens is involved in ongoing litigation in an effort to have Magalies Water removed as an agent and have Pionier, a for-profit company initiated by the Afrikaans civil society group Afriforum, appointed in its place.

An example for others

The partial, but significant, improvement in water supply and sewage treatment in Kgetlengrivier municipality has spurred residents of Mafube municipality in the Free State to take similar legal action.

In January this year, the Mafube Business Forum took the municipality to court, obtaining a judgment from the Free State High Court in April. The court ordered the municipality, with oversight by provincial authorities, to immediately cease the pollution caused by dysfunctional sewage plant operations. As in the case with Kgetlengrivier, the municipality was told to pay legal costs and relevant provincial authorities who were also cited as respondents.

However, according to Jacques Jansen van Vuuren, chair of the Vaal Dam Reservoir Catchment Forum and liaison officer for the Mafube Business Forum, despite the court’s order, no action has yet been taken by the municipality or the provincial government.

“We are going to court to see if we can get contempt of court charges against those responsible,” said Jansen van Vuuren.

He said untreated sewage from the towns within the municipality, Frankfort, Tweeling, Cornelia, and Villiers, was all flowing to the Vaal Dam, which is the drinking water supply for Johannesburg. Along with other failing municipalities, this contributes to the ongoing threat to Johannesburg’s drinking water supply.

A boy with a drum of water collected from a private farm borehole waits for his friend before continuing home. Behind him are empty water reservoirs meant to supply the state-built homes in Mazista. Photo: Steve Kretzmann

Data shows Mafube municipality fails to report on the quality of sewage effluent, though this is a legal requirement for operating the sewage works. All compliance and monitoring levels are at zero, suggesting the municipality is also not reporting the quality of its drinking water.

Jansen van Vuuren said no drinking water was being delivered to the town of Cornelia at present. He said when they met with the municipal manager on Monday 24 October, two days before speaking to GroundUp, Cornelia had been without water for four days. He said the municipal manager had not provided an explanation.

Doing it for themselves

The picturesque Free State town of Clarens in the Dihlabeng municipality is in the foothills of the majestic Maluti Mountains. Here residents took the problem of water supply failures, due to frequent pipe breakages, into their own hands.

Former chair of the Clarens Village Conservancy, Bastiaan Verhoek, said water pipe breakages began in about 2017, and got to a point where water supply was interrupted to parts of the town three times a week.

“We’re a tourist town with about 200 guesthouses so we had to help ourselves. Visitors wouldn’t come back if they had no water.”

As the municipality had no money to buy the necessary parts, municipal employees would dig down and expose the fault, and “residents would go out and buy the parts,” said Verhoek. He said unlike in Kgetlengrivier municipality, where the court ordered the municipality to refund the concerned citizens the R15.8-million in expenses incurred, the Clarens residents bought the parts out of their own pocket.

He said water supply was now constant, although the pipe network was old and needed to be fully replaced. “Clarens ratepayers are fighting to get that on the budget,” he said.

Regarding water quality, he was of the opinion it was “ok”, although insufficient supply in peak tourist periods prompted the municipality to sacrifice quality in a bid to maintain supply by bypassing the water treatment process.

Department of Water and Sanitation data shows that as of 11 October, Dihlabeng municipality, under which Clarens falls, failed water quality standards, with microbiological compliance cited as ‘poor’ at 97%. Acute chemical compliance was at 0%. In addition, Dihlabeng sewage works were failing, with all sewage compliance indicators within the “bad” or “poor” parameters.

The official response

Questions to Kgetlengrivier and Mafube municipalities were not answered. We could not figure out how to contact Dihlabeng municipality; the website is out of date.

The Department of Water and Sanitation is aware of the deterioration in municipal water and sanitation services, said the department’s director-general Sean Phillips, and as a result has developed a Water Services Improvement Programme. The programme “aims to strengthen government’s support and intervention at municipal level, more consistently and systematically,” said Phillips.

In line with this, the department “is developing rolling regional support and intervention plans” based on the data it collects. This will be managed by the department’s regional offices, in consultation with provincial governments and municipalities.

Phillips said there is no provision in the Water Services Act for the department to issue a directive when drinking water is not compliant. However, he said, there is a legislative review of the Water Services Act underway to empower the department to enforce compliance with drinking water quality.

Currently, the Water Services Act requires national government to monitor performance and should there be performance challenges, the minister may intervene through a Constitutional process.

Sewage pollution, however, violates provisions of the National Water Act, and as such, notices and directives had been served to 88 municipalities during the 2021/22 financial year, related to sewage pollution, Phillips said. These were “triggered by pollution incidents reported and proactive investigations undertaken”.

He said a “vast array” of contraventions had been found, ranging from manhole overflows caused by blockages, malfunctioning pump stations causing sewage overflows in water resources and discharge of “substandard” effluent from wastewater treatment works into water resources.

Phillips said “some” of these municipalities subsequently submitted action plans to address the pollution, some of these plans were inadequate and the department had taken “further enforcement action”.

In some “unfortunate” cases the municipalities had not responded to the department’s instructions, he said.

He said where the municipalities had not complied, the department had initiated civil action. Two examples were Modimolle and Lekwa Local Municipalities, against which the courts had ordered the municipalities to take remedial action. The Modimolle municipality complied, but the department is monitoring Lekwa municipality’s implementation of the court order. (You can read about the situation in Lekwa municipality here).

He said in “certain circumstances” the department would institute criminal action. There were nine municipalities facing criminal charges for contravening provisions of the National Water Act, and some of these had been initiated by the department, Phillips said.

Recently, a case had been opened by a member of the public against the Rand West City Local Municipality for discharging partially treated sewage into a river. The case was heard in the Randfontein Regional Court in May. The court imposed a R10-million fine on the municipality, R7-million of it suspended for five years provided the municipality met certain provisions.

Earlier this year, the Thaba Chweu Local Municipality received a R10-million fine by order of the Lydenburg Magistrate’s Court, for ignoring complaints about sewage spilling into the Dorps River, and allowing waste to pile up on the streets since 2011.

Seeking accountability

But Peens believes fines issued against municipalities are ineffective. And as Phillips states, some municipalities do not even respond. Mafube Local Municipality, which according to Jansen van Vuuren has done nothing to stop the ongoing sewage pollution despite a court order to do so issued six months ago, is a case in point.

Peens says the municipalities pay the fines with ratepayers’ money, and often much of the fine is suspended in any case.

Municipalities will only clean up their act if the responsible officials are sentenced to prison, he believes. For this reason, he was back in the North West Province High Court on 27 October to push an application to have the Kgetlengrivier municipal manager imprisoned as per the original court order. Even a suspended prison sentence would mean a criminal record dismissal from the municipality.

This, he said, would set a precedent, and shock the responsible officials across all South Africa’s failing municipalities.

“Our aim is accountability,” said Peens.

Data visualisations by Yuxi Wang. This investigation was produced in collaboration with the Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism and OpenUp, with the support of the Open Society Foundation.

Definition of “failure”

There are a number of quality indicators for drinking water and sewage effluent.

For drinking water, indicators include microbiological compliance, acute chemical compliance, chronic chemical compliance, and aesthetic compliance, among others.

For wastewater (sewage), indicators include microbiological, chemical, and physical compliance.

Failure, for the purpose of this analysis, is determined by microbiological compliance. According to water quality expert and Professor at the University of Free State’s Centre for Environmental Management, Anthony Turton, this is the easiest factor to treat.

Microbiological compliance relates to the number of fecal coliforms in the water. There should be less than 10 colony forming units per 100ml in drinking water, and less than 1,000 colony forming units in treated wastewater (sewage) effluent. Fecal coliforms, such as E. coli, do not survive long outside the gut where they originate and are easily eliminated with chlorine.

Municipalities where microbiological compliance was labelled “bad” and “poor” by the Department of Water and Sanitation, were considered to have failed to comply with minimum standards. Those labelled “good” and “excellent” were seen to meet minimum standards.

There are municipalities which attain microbiological compliance but fail chemical compliance, but these were discounted in this analysis. As a result, failure is more widespread than even the microbiological compliance levels indicate.

The data informing this article was scraped from the Department of Water and Sanitation’s Integrated Regulatory Information System (data repository) on 11 October 2022.

[ad_2]

Originally Appeared Here