Monahas Firefighters Given Relief With Bottled Water Drive.
It’s the shortage of another necessity, that’s threatening their safety during a very busy season.
One person decided to step up and start a movement to support these emergency responders.
The wife of a Monahans fire fighter decided a shortage of drinking water for some of the city’s bravest was unacceptable.
So she started a water bottle drive and got the word out to the community.
She says she didn’t expect such a huge response in just two days.
CBS 7 was there when one local business dropped off several cases of water.
“We just feel like as a major company in the area that it’s our responsibility to help out and do what we can,” said Keith Wilson, an employee at Energy Transfer that donated bottled water.
You know a small community, I mean a lot of times they don’t have the resources and the things that they need,” Wilson.
If you would like to donate bottled water, drop off locations include the Child’s Play Learning Center at 500 E. 16th Street or the Monahans Chamber of Conference.

Nestlé, Under Pressure, Plans Buyback and Perhaps Acquisitions.
LONDON — In revealing his investment position in Nestlé on Sunday, the hedge fund manager Daniel S. Loeb urged the company to consider slimming down, as well as buying back its stock.
Yet Nestlé’s new strategic course came out only two days after Mr. Loeb’s hedge fund, Third Point, emerged as one of the company’s biggest shareholders and presented suggestions aimed at shaking up what Third Point described as a significant underperformer.
The company said its board was prepared to spend up to 20 billion Swiss francs on stock buybacks.
And the conglomerate said it planned to continue to “adjust” its portfolio of operations.
Nestlé announced this month that it was considering a sale of its American candy business, home of Gobstoppers and Butterfinger bars, with the unit in a prolonged sales slump.
Nestlé, however, also emphasized that it was prepared to spend, and potentially spend a lot, to bolster the fast-growing parts of its business.
Such deals would be a higher priority than the stock buybacks: Nestlé said the bulk of its share repurchases would take place in 2019 and 2020 to let the company make takeovers first.
But one of Mr. Loeb’s suggestions — selling off Nestlé’s 23 percent stake in L’Oréal, a cosmetics company — may not find favor among Nestlé’s top managers.
In February, Mr. Schneider described the L’Oréal stake as a “strategic asset” and suggested that any change to it be done carefully.

Pet owners giving animals bottled water over GenX concerns.
NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — As many people are no longer drinking tap water because of GenX, many pet owners are also not giving it to their animals.
“I’ve pretty much worked in medicine most of my life, so I just went, ‘Wow.
Why would we even think that our animals could?
‘” Humphrey said.
She is not the only one concerned about her pet.
Veterinarian Salina Locke at VCA Wrightsville Beach Animal Hospital said she does not know much about GenX, but she has seen studies done about a similar compound and how it affects animals.
“The research studies have been at high doses and for short term,” Locke said.
Locke said she has not had any inquiries about GenX from her patients yet, but this is what she would tell anyone who is concerned.
“You know, be smart.

In June, the Department of National Defence (DND) sampled off-site residential water supplies near 22 Wing North Bay for PFAS and of 27 results received so far, two tested residences exceed the Health Canada screening values for drinking water.
BayToday has requested the actual numbers from DND.
Once confirmed, results will be made available.
"Acceptable levels for PFAS are guided by Health Canada drinking water screening values.
Screening values are established at a level designed to protect the health of Canadians, including children, based on a lifetime’s exposure to the substance.
The five remaining water sample results are expected shortly.
DND says it will immediately notify homeowners of any results that exceed the Health Canada screening values for drinking water, and will contact residents within one to two weeks of receiving validated results that are within the Health Canada screening values.
The last round of water testing, conducted in June, was to monitor for seasonal variability and to expand the sampling program in certain areas.
Residents that have not been contacted by DND regarding water sampling, are not in the affected area," says a DND release.
From the early 1970s to the mid-1990s, DND used extinguishing substances containing Perfluoroalkylated substances at former firefighting training areas at the North Bay Airport.

We now also realize that New Hanover County and the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority have little real authority concerning what pollutants are dumped into the Cape Fear River above our drinking water intake.
We do little, however, to protect our groundwater.
The county and CFPUA should exercise their powers and work together to further develop the following programs: Wellhead protection regulations to tightly protect the immediate areas around public drinking water wells; Groundwater pumping restrictions to protect the sustainability of public wells; Full disclosure by industries of anticipated groundwater use and other externalities.
Dave Weaver, Wilmington Editor’s note: The writer, a retired New Hanover assistant county manager, serves on the county planning board.
Disparity in health care EDITOR: African-Americans have a higher risk of heart failure than Caucasians, but lower rates of heart transplantation.
This did not occur in North Carolina and the other states that did not opt for the expansion, thus serving as a control group.
Bottled not best option EDITOR: The article “Where does bottled water come from and how is it treated?” (StarNews, June 21) stated that bottled water manufacturers must adhere to FDA regulations, but local residents should be aware those requirements are very limited.
In fact, bottled water is monitored less frequently and for fewer contaminants than public tap water.
While water treated with reverse osmosis prior to bottling may provide temporary peace of mind when high levels of a harmful compound like GenX are found in the local tap water, installing a home filtration system is a more surefooted and sustainable way for residents to protect their health until the Chemours facility’s discharge of GenX is cleaned up once and for all.
Katie Hicks, Asheville Editor’s note: The writer is associate director of Clean Water for North Carolina.

KAUKAUNA, Wis. (WBAY) — A boil/bottle water advisory is in affect in the City of Kaukauna.
Officials say a construction related water main break caused the system to lose pressure.
City leaders say all areas south of the Fox River are potentially affected.
Officials say any ice, food, or beverages prepared with unsafe water must be discarded.
Residents should boil or use commercially bottled water for drinking, food preparation, and making ice.
Water should be heated to a rolling boil for at least one minute before use.
Ice should also be made from boiled or bottled water.
City officials say they have isolated the water main break and have restored pressure to the areas affected.
Crews have begun flushing the water mains and the storage facilities in the area that lost pressure to remove potentially contaminated water and to reestablish the disinfectant residuals in these areas.
City leaders say they will continue to do this for two days until the DNR notifies the city that the boil/bottled water advisory is no longer necessary.

Kokomo fire department doesn’t want bottled water donations.
KOKOMO, Ind.
— The Kokomo fire chief has asked people not to donate bottled water to the fire department or its employees.
Deputy mayor David Tharp told RTV6 the Kokomo Scanner put out a request on their Facebook page to bring bottled water to area fire departments.
However, Tharp said the fire departments have water coolers and do not need bottled water.
Plus, well-meaning citizens are often blocking emergency vehicles when they park at the fire stations to unload bottled water.
“It’s actually very dangerous,” said Tharp.
Tharp said they want the public to donate to charities that need the water.
The Kokomo Fire Department is directing any bottled water donations to charities like the Kokomo Rescue Mission.
RELATED | Kokomo homeowners concerned about flooding, storm water damage | PD: Man connected to deadly Kokomo hit-and-run turns himself into police | 17-year-old arrested for attempted murder in Kokomo robbery, shooting

A boil water advisory as Mount Shasta readies for busy summer.
A water-boiling advisory has forced several Mount Shasta restaurants to close their doors or go with limited menus right around the time they are preparing for a busy Fourth of July weekend.
Black Bear Diner closed on Sunday but is set to reopen today at 1:30 p.m. Employees are using only bottled drinking water to wash and cook food.
Bistro No.
The city of Mount Shasta issued the advisory after finding E. coli in its water supply.
Timing is key, with the uptick in summer tourism.
"But this morning I got confirmation from city workers that everything should be OK in the next few days and back to normal."
Besides, Maxwell said, there will be plenty of bottled drinking water at the festival.
Residents can also use bottled water.
Boiled or bottled water should replace the tap water used for drinking, making ice, brushing teeth, washing dishes and food preparation until further notice.

D.C. Councilmember Outraged After Police Handcuff Black Teens for Selling Bottled Water.
Images of three African-American teens handcuffed by U.S. Park Police for selling bottled water on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., last week made its rounds on social media, sparking outrage among critics who saw the move as excessive and, perhaps, racially motivated.
Sgt.
Anna Rose of the U.S. Park Police said the teens told police they did not have the proper permit required to sell goods on the Mall, after which all three were placed in handcuffs “for the safety of the officers and the individuals.” An onlooker snapped several photos of the incident, one of which showed one of the teens sitting on the ground with his hands behind his back.
pic.twitter.com/7iSqP4UYMq — Tim Krepp (@timkrepp) June 22, 2017 This didn’t sit well with D.C. Councilmember Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), who penned a sharply worded letter to Police Chief Robert MacLean condemning the officers’ actions.
“While I understand the need to maintain consistency in permitted actions, I do not understand why the enforcement cannot take place with uniformed personnel and actions less severe than handcuffing individuals suspected of the sales,” Allen wrote on June 23.
“I can’t help but think how the reaction by these same officers might have varied if different children had set up a quaint hand-painted lemonade stand in the same spot.” “I observe any number of lemonade stands in these areas by neighborhood children,” he continued.
The detainment was reportedly part of Park police’s effort to crack down on illegal vendors, but Allen argued that the situation could have been handled differently.
And I do not believe the image of young African-American men handcuffed on the ground for selling water is a reflection of my city.
“We should be making every effort to divert young people from the juvenile justice system and improve their relationship with law enforcement.”

Bitcoin and government failure.
I sent this to The Economist (no idea if they will publish): Sir I enjoy both the theory and empirical outputs of your BigMac Index, which gives an indication of whether currencies are over-/undervalued relative to the USD (and each other).
Given this success, it seems useful to promote a new index — The Bitcoin Governance Index (BGI) — as an indicator of the over-/underperformance of a government’s ministries of finance and treasury.
The index would compare official exchange rates to bitcoin exchange rates to see how much “leakage” is escaping to bitcoin.
The Indian Rupee, for example has a rate of INR 64.5 per USD, but it takes INR 185,026 per BTC.
Given a USD 2,685 price per BTC, the BGI "exchange rate” is INR 68.91 per USD, indicating a discount of ~9 percent.
Although these differences are going to be arbitraged in liquid markets with traders in both currencies, they will not in illiquid markets.
In Venezuela, for example, the central bank rate is VZB 2,640 per USD, but it takes VZB 21,800,000 per BTC.
The BGI “exchange rate” is VZB 8,119 per USD, indicating a discount of ~67 percent.
The BGI, by showing the gap between market sentiment and government assertion, will help readers, traders and politicians understand just how well government policies are working.