August 12, 2022

At Pescadero High School, no one takes clean drinking water for granted. That’s because the high school itself and the district office next door has had to rely on bottled water for drinking and cooking for years.

“The water fountain has never been used,” said English teacher Jennifer Freeman.

Freeman pointed to the sinks in the classrooms which carry a warning not to drink from the tap. In fact, all the water for students and staff to drink must be trucked in and it’s been that way since 2015.

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Looking to go for a cool dip in one of King County’s lakes? Before you head to the beach, check the water quality using the interactive map below, which we will be updating for the rest of the summer. 

Every week from mid-May to early September, the King County Lake Swimming Beach Program measures bacteria concentrations at selected high-use public beaches. Most of these beaches are on Lake Washington or Lake Sammamish, but others are on Green Lake, Echo Lake, Beaver Lake, Pine Lake, Lake Wilderness and Rattlesnake Lake.

Bacteria is an indicator of fecal matter, usually from humans, pets or wildlife on land, getting in the water.  

Among the 33 freshwater beaches where water bacteria levels are being monitored, 17 have logged at least one week of high or moderate levels of concern this summer. Swimming is still safe in bacteria levels of moderate concern, according to the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks, unless it is persistent in three consecutive samplings, which at that point may lead to a closure.

“There aren’t simple recommendations — bacteria concentrations are highly variable, so one day in that ‘medium’ range might just be a fluke, rather than meaningful information,” said Daniel Nidzgorski, an ecologist at DNRP.

“I’d trust Public Health to recommend closing the beach if and when they do get unsafe.”

As of August 11, the following beaches are closed due to high bacteria levels: Gene Coulon, Madison Park Beach, Matthews Beach and Newcastle Beach.

Visual reporting of local news and trends is partially underwritten by Microsoft Philanthropies. The Seattle Times maintains editorial control over this and all its coverage.

The count of bacteria is measured as colony-forming units (CFU) in about half a cup of water (per 100 mL). 

To measure the level of bacteria at a beach, county officials collect three water samples from different areas of a beach and average the results to get the average bacteria value for the day. The Public Health — Seattle & King County department then reviews this data and other information to recommend closures to the beach manager. 

The closure affects only the specified beach — not the entire lake — as bacteria results vary even over short distances of 50 feet or less. 

Typically, a beach is closed when the sampling day’s average bacteria measures over 1000 CFU/100mL, or if the average bacteria value for the three most recent sampling days is over 200 CFU/100 mL. This three-day geometric mean is how the county measures moderate-but-persistent poop problems. 

A closed beach may reopen when the average bacteria is below 200 CFU/100 mL in three consecutive samplings, and the daily average of the two most recent sampling days was below 200 CFU/100 mL. 

“Once the poop source is fixed and there’s no new poop getting into the water, the bacteria that’s already in the water naturally washes away or dies off pretty quickly,” Nidzgorski said. Public Health, he said, doesn’t recommend reopening a beach until they have evidence bacteria concentrations are consistently staying low.

Lake Washington and Lake Sammamish are big enough that water quality is likely much better out away from the shoreline in the open waters, the Department of Natural Resources and Parks said. In smaller lakes, however, fecal matter from land can cause high bacteria even in open waters. Be sure to follow safety guidelines when swimming away from the shore.

How to help keep beaches safe and open

Unlike pools, the water at lake beaches does not get treated.

Here’s how the public can help keep poop out of water and help beaches stay safe and open:

• Don’t feed geese or ducks near the beach. “Food attracts them, and more geese and ducks means more poop at the beach,” Nidzgorski said.
• Don’t bring your dog to the swimming beach. Most swimming beaches do not allow dogs.
• Use a good swim diaper for babies and toddlers to keep poop well-contained. 
• Shower before going in the water. “Everybody has a little bit of poop on our bodies,” Nidzgorski said. “When you get 3,000 people a week swimming at a popular beach, all those little bits really add up.”

What to do where the water is not tested 

Since the King County Lake Swimming Beach Program does not test the water quality at every freshwater swimming hole, Nidzgorski recommends scoping the area around the shoreline before getting into the water.

Look and smell around the shoreline and look for signs of toxic algae, he said. Proceed with caution if you see or smell poop from people, pets or wildlife. 

He also recommends waiting a day or two after it rains before getting into the water. “During summer dry weather, poop builds up on land. And then when it rains, all that poop can wash into the water at once.”

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What is a drought?

A drought means a prolonged period of shortages in the water supply. It can happen after an unusually low period of rainfall, for an extended period of time.

Without normal levels of rainfall, reserve water levels start to fall and plants and crops can die. If the dry period continues, it can become a drought.

In the UK, the Environment Agency (EA) decides when we are in drought conditions. The EA works together with water companies to reduce the impact of drought for people in affected areas.

 

Is the UK experiencing a drought?

The UK isn’t officially in a drought yet, but after a very hot and dry 2022 so far, it’s likely to be declared this October.

Risk of drought in the UK is down to a number of factors:

• After a dry winter and spring, we saw the hottest July since 1935 and record-breaking temperatures.
• Very low levels of rainfall so far this year

These conditions have scorched the earth and dried out reservoirs, bringing hosepipe bans across the country.

With the Met Office forecasting more hot weather and little ‘meaningful rainfall’, it means that a drought in the UK is very likely.

 

Has human activity caused drought in the UK?

People do tend to use more water in hot weather – taking more showers, watering plants, and cooling off in paddling pools, impacting water supplies.

We’re also an increasing population.
This is why water companies in parts of the UK are imposing hose-pipe bans. As a country, we can pull together and restrict our water usage to save water.

But the main cause of drought is the extreme heat and lack of rainfall we’ve experienced. And that’s down to climate change.

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Increased funding comes from bipartisan infrastructure law

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure, announced the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded $6,817,200 to the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) program. 

The CWSRF provides low-interest financing for the development of water systems for communities, schools, parks and other projects. These projects improve and protect water quality and public health for communities throughout the state.

The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act specifically increased funding for North Dakota’s State Revolving Fund (SRF) programs to accelerate water infrastructure improvements. The bill authorized $200 million for clean water infrastructure projects and programs in North Dakota through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund and the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund.

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Many small and rural communities across California are vulnerable to drought and water shortages as they lack the diverse water sources and infrastructure of big cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles. In some cases, these communities are forced to rely on bottled water or water hauled in from elsewhere, which experts say is costly and unsustainable.

Data from the state water board’s 2022 “Drinking Water Needs Assessment” shows that nearly 90 water providers across the state, including six in the Bay Area, have had to resort to bottled or hauled-in water to fully meet their communities’ drinking water needs in the past three years. The report finds that California’s ongoing drought played a role in straining supply for some of these providers.

There are more than 7,000 water systems in California that provide water for people through pipes or other types of connections, and they vary in size, from those serving large cities to ones built for apartment complexes or single schools. All of the 89 systems shown as relying on bottled or hauled-in water in the 2022 assessment are smaller providers with fewer than 30,000 service connections. In comparison, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission serves about 2.7 million customers.

The largest provider among the 89 was the City of Wasco, northwest of Bakersfield, which serves water to nearly 23,000 people. Thirty-two of the 89 providers are schools in small or rural communities, including Pope Elementary School in Napa, Mountain House School in Alameda and Pescadero High School in San Mateo County.

All of them are failing or at risk of failing the state’s safe drinking water standards, which are based on several factors, including water quality, accessibility and affordability.

Bringing in bottled or hauled-in water to meet demands, however, is only a temporary fix and should be a “last resort,” said Eric Zuniga, a drought response program manager for the drinking water division of the State Water Resources Control Board.

“The issue is that (bottled or hauled-in water) can’t be relied upon,” he said “There are so many things that can happen to an alternative water supply, which means a whole community or a household can run out of water,” he added.

Communities rely on bottled or hauled-in water for different reasons, he said. In many cases, it’s because their primary supply, such as wells, contain high levels of harmful chemicals. Others may be short on supply because of overdrafted aquifers and the ongoing impacts of drought.

One of the most important vulnerabilities that the vast majority of these 89 water systems share is that they have only one source of water, Zuniga said, many of them groundwater sources like wells. Cities like San Francisco, on the other hand, have many backups, including a water bank system to store excess water from wet years for use during dry ones.

Ten of the 89, most of them in drier Central or Southern California, have been specifically identified by the state as relying on bottled or hauled-in water because of adverse drought impacts. Much of the most severe and extreme drought conditions in the state have been in those areas, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. All of them rely on some type of groundwater, the levels of which have been critically declining in recent years.

These 10 water systems are in some of the most disadvantaged and resource-starved areas of the state. The average median household income for people served by these water systems is just over $41,000, compared with the statewide median of nearly $79,000.

At-risk small and rural water systems have limited options — and money — for clean water, Zuniga said. They also don’t have the same planning and engineering resources as big agencies and cities do.

When the state identifies water systems as failing or at risk of failing, the state mobilizes state funding and staff resources to help them develop more sustainable ways of getting clean water, he added. That might mean helping build connections, such as pipelines, to bigger water infrastructure.

“Sometimes, it’s an easy project,” he said. “Nine times out of 10, it’s a difficult multi-year — decades, sometimes — project.”

Yoohyun Jung is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected]

 

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Germany’s Environment Minister Steffi Lemke has urged cities and municipalities across the country to set up more free drinking water fountains.

Citizens should be able to obtain water more easily when they are on the move, as well as fill up with free water for domestic use, reports dpa news agency.

A corresponding bill by the Green politician passed the federal cabinet on Wednesday.

“Access to drinking water must be as easy as possible for all people in Germany,” Lemke said.

The bill provides for municipalities to set up drinking water fountains in parks, pedestrian zones and shopping arcades, for example, as long as this is technically feasible and meets local needs.

As a first step, cities and municipalities are to set up about 1,000 additional fountains, the Ministry said.

There are already more than 1,300 public drinking water fountains across the country.

“The recent dry and hot summers have shown us that persistent heat waves are no longer a rare event in Germany,” Lemke said.

Drinking fountains with tap water are one of the basic components of good public health in these circumstances, she added.

“If municipalities take action now, they will make an important contribution to protecting the health of citizens,” Lemke said.

“Tap water is a controlled foodstuff, it saves energy and is provided without packaging at the drinking fountain, so the environment also benefits.”

–IANS

ksk/

 

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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March,United Kingdom – August 11, 2022 —

Aquamaster Water Treatment Ltd. announced that it has won a prestigious contract to supply and install a bespoke water purification & filtration system to a beverage company located on the borders of Cambridgeshire and Essex, UK.

For more information about the company and its services, visit https://www.aquamasterwater.co.uk

Chris Camp, the Owner and MD of Aquamaster Water Treatment, is proud to have the opportunity to be engaged in this new water treatment purification project. The new contract was awarded on the merits of the company’s track record of maintaining and repairing commercial water purification systems across the UK.

As part of the contract briefing, the client outlined their broad goal of reducing the cost of having to buy water every day, as mains water was not an option at the factory location. As a result, they had a well/borehole drilled. Laboratory test results following the drilling of a well concluded that the water was unsuitable for use without first having an appropriate water treatment and purification system installed, leading to the contract with Aquamaster Water Treatment Ltd. The company was contracted to install a system capable of meeting the factory’s daily requirement of 25 cubic metres (25,000 litres) of water for daily operations.

Having been awarded the contract, Aquamaster Water Treatment provided a purification system comprising a 400-litre pressure accumulator to control the well water pump and a 750-litre break tank with a variable booster pump system.

Under the new contract, Aquamaster Water Treatment has facilitated the supply of purified water through a reverse osmosis backwash flow rate commercial reverse osmosis system, Clack duplex water softener, 3000-litre storage tank, ultraviolet sterilisation system, and the booster delivery pump from the 3000-litre storage tank which provides water to the factory facility.

For more information about the well water purification contract in Cambridge, visit https://www.aquamasterwater.co.uk

Contact Info:
Name: Chris Camp
Email: Send Email
Organization: Aquamaster Water Treatment Ltd
Address: 8 The Paddocks Wimblington, March, Cambridgeshire PE15 0RX, United Kingdom
Phone: +44-1354-740896
Website: https://www.aquamasterwater.co.uk

Release ID: 89078565

If you detect any issues, problems, or errors in this press release content, kindly contact [email protected] to notify us. We will respond and rectify the situation in the next 8 hours.

COMTEX_412036809/2773/2022-08-10T21:52:01

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As Frank Herbert wrote in Dune, “On Arrakis, water was money.” And in the case of France, the lack of water is costing the country’s taxpayers a fortune. Many parts of the country are experiencing severe drought conditions, and over 100 municipalities are getting their water from trucks.

“There is no more water in the pipes, said France’s Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu with the characteristic bluntness the world has come to admire from people in that splendid European country. “So the municipalities are now being supplied by trucks.”

The drought has been exacerbated by a heatwave that has seen temperatures soar to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in some parts of the country. The heatwave has also caused wildfires, evacuations, and heat-related deaths. The lack of water has affected not only the country’s residents, but also its economy. Farmers have been hit hard by the drought, with crops withering in the fields.

Over the weekend, France’s Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne set up an “inter-ministerial crisis unit.” I don’t know about you, but when I hear “inter-ministerial crisis unit” I don’t think “immediate action.” I think “endless meetings, PowerPoint presentations, arguments over inconsequential details, and jockeying for the prime spot in photo ops.”

I hope I’m wrong.

[via Brussels Times]

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Photo by Cape Hatteras National Seashore

State recreational water quality officials today lifted a water quality swimming advisory at an ocean-side site in southern Hatteras village.

The advisory was lifted because water testing shows that bacteria levels have dropped below the state’s and Environmental Protection Agency’s standards set for swimming and water play.

The advisory was posted Aug. 4 at the public beach access at ramp #55 off Museum Drive in Hatteras Village, part of the Cape Hatteras Nation Seashore. At the time, tests of water samples from the site showed a monthly average of the bacteria enterococci above the EPA-mandated level of 35 enterococci per 100 milliliters of water, the standard for high-use sites. Subsequent testing of water samples collected at this site found that bacteria levels have fallen below this standard. The sign advising against swimming, skiing or otherwise coming into contact with the water will be removed.

Enterococci, the bacteria group used for testing, are found in the intestines of warm-blooded animals. While it is not known to cause illness, scientific studies show that enterococci may indicate the presence of other disease-causing organisms. People swimming or playing in waters with bacteria levels higher than the standards have an increased risk of developing gastrointestinal illness or skin infections.

Coastal recreational waters in North Carolina are generally clean. However, it is important to continue monitoring them and inform the public of any localized problems. The N.C. Recreational Water Quality Program samples 215 sites in coastal waters of the state, most of them on a weekly basis from April through October.

For more information on the N.C. Recreational Water Quality Program or to a view a map of testing sites, visit the program’s website, and follow the program’s Twitter feed.

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The UK is in the throes of an abnormally hot summer, with a heatwave sweeping across southern parts of the country.

The Met Office has issued several weather warnings over the past few weeks and water companies have had to impose hosepipe bans in some counties.

This poses problems for gardeners – but the good news is that you can reuse certain types of water from your home in your garden.

Can I use washing-up water on my garden?

Recycled or “grey” water should be used with care, but can be useful in times of water shortages.

Plants can be watered with shower, bath, kitchen and washing machine water (from rinse cycles) – collectively referred to as “grey” water.

This type of water varies in quality and may contain contaminants such as soap and detergent.

Fortunately, soil and potting composts are effective at filtering these contaminants out, and the residues can even sometimes act as a mild fertiliser.

More from Homes and gardens

To minimise bacterial growth, grey water should be saved for only 24 hours, unless filtered through a reed bed or professionally designed system.

It is best applied by watering can: grease and fibres can clog irrigation systems.

There should be no problem with small-scale, short-term use of grey water to tide plants over in summer drought. An exception is on edible crops, due to the risk of contamination from pathogens in the water.

In recent experiments on a few popular border perennial plants and sub-shrubs, we at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) found that applying grey water for several weeks over the summer did not significantly affect plant function.

However after six weeks some plants (eg Stachys byzantina) benefited from a rinse-through with tap water as they were beginning to show signs of salt stress.

Long-term, extensive use, or permanent altering of indoor plumbing, should not be attempted without expert advice.

Softened tap water and dishwasher water are less useful. Salts used in them can damage soil structure, particularly if rich in clay.

However, short-term use of softened water should not cause serious damage and may be worth considering in an emergency.

Mains water usage in homes and gardens is often highest when water availability is lowest – in hot, dry periods.

We are encouraging gardeners to adopt a few simple pledges to make gardens and outdoor spaces thrive by collecting rainwater during rainy spells, and re-using it during dry spells.

The RHS is a charity inspiring everyone to grow via research, advice, outreach, shows and gardens.

More on Heatwave

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