During his campaign, Gov.-elect Ralph Northam wanted the regulatory process for a pair of controversial natural gas pipelines planned to be built through Virginia to be “as thorough and environmentally responsible as permitted under state and federal law.” Yet on the eve of crucial votes by the State Water Control Board that begin this week for water-quality certifications for the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipelines, the Democratic lieutenant governor appears content to stay away from what critics contend has been a deeply flawed review of the potential water quality hazards posed by the blasting, trenching, ridgetop flattening and tree removal that construction will entail.
The citizen board, whose seven members were appointed by outgoing Gov.
The pipelines, already approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and other federal agencies, will cross some of the most mountainous terrain in the state, and opponents contend they cannot be built without dislodging sediment that could damage streams, aquifers and drinking water sources.
Asked whether Northam supports the water board issuing the permits before he takes office in January, a spokeswoman said he “will respect the final determination made at the end of a transparent, science-driven regulatory process.” The spokeswoman did not respond when asked whether Northam thought the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality’s proposed certifications will adequately protect state waters.
The board will take up certification for the Dominion Energy-led Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which would run 600 miles from West Virginia through the heart of Virginia and into North Carolina, with an extension to Hampton Roads, on Dec. 11 and 12.
Environmental groups say the board, as a result of how the DEQ has narrowed its review, does not have the information it needs to issue legally defensible certifications.
Dominion sees nothing wrong with the DEQ’s process, and a spokesman bristled at the suggestion by environmental groups that the influential energy giant is driving the timetables for approval.
“He should get involved now,” said Mike Tidwell, director of the nonprofit Chesapeake Climate Action Network, which has fought the pipelines.
“These pipelines, if they’re built, are going to become a PR nightmare for Dominion, for EQT and for the elected leaders of Virginia who supported them, including Ralph Northam.
The environmental harm that we in the environmental community have warned against will become plain for the whole state to see.

However, for those who get their drinking water from private wells rather than a public utility, there could be a cause for concern where their water is coming from.
In their study, Jasechko and Perrone found that approximately half of all hydraulically fractured wells stimulated in 2014 exist within two to three kilometers of one or more domestic, public and self-supply groundwater wells.
They were also able to identify 236 counties where most recorded domestic groundwater wells exist within two kilometers of one or more recorded oil and gas wells producing during 2014.
Their analysis of hydraulic fracturing operations assessed wells likely stimulated in 2014, whereas their analysis of oil and gas wells assessed wells producing hydrocarbons in 2014.
“This co-location [of hydraulic fractured and domestic groundwater wells] emphasizes the need to determine the frequency that hydraulic fracturing activities impact groundwater well-water quality.
“Our results underscore the importance of increased water-monitoring efforts near both hydraulically fractured and conventional oil and gas wells in ascertaining the risk of contamination and in protecting water-well quality.” According to Jasechko and Perrone, quantifying and communicating risks of hydraulic fracturing to groundwater resources is challenging because of the lack of consistently cataloged information about the frequency and severity of spills and leaks linked to hydraulic fracturing, integrity of active and decommissioned wells and groundwater quality before vs. following the initiation of a hydraulic fracturing operation and environmental profile, including toxicity of chemicals used for oil and gas production.
“Our analysis underscores the need to increase monitoring efforts to maximize the probability that we can identify well waters that may be impacted and do our best to remediate, contain and isolate potentially contaminated waters before they cause harm,” Jasechko said.
In this case, the problem is a lack of consistent data across states as well as across industries.
Quantifying and communicating actual risks remain challenging because of the lack of publicly available and consistently cataloged information.
As more shale oil and gas reservoirs become economically and technologically feasible to access with hydraulically fractured wells, understanding the frequency that groundwater resources are contaminated will be critical to allocating resources for safeguarding groundwater and addressing public concerns.

WATCH 150,000 malnourished children in Yemen could die if left untreated, according to the UN A Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemeni rebels eased an air, land, and sea blockade of Yemen a week ago, but it is still keeping commercial ships with food and fuel from docking and unloading their cargo in the country, putting millions at risk of starving, the United Nations said this weekend.
Millions of Yemenis depend on those supplies, and without fuel, health and water facilities can’t run.
So Yemen’s cities are running out of clean water, the chiefs of several United Nations agencies and other top humanitarian officials said in a statement Saturday.
“Urban water networks in seven cities have run out of fuel and now depend on humanitarian organizations to fill in the gap,” the officials said.
“This imminent catastrophe is entirely avoidable,” the officials said.
But continued restrictions on commercial food and fuel imports have devastated markets and driven up prices for millions of Yemenis who do not receive humanitarian aid, putting them at risk, aid groups said.
Yemen imports nearly all of its food.
The average price of diesel in Yemen has risen 99 percent since September, and the average price of petrol had gone up 71 percent in that period, she said last week.
“The people cannot exist alone on food aid.” In some areas, the price of trucked-in water has jumped 600 percent, the price of wheat flour had gone up 30 percent, and the price of wheat flour had risen 30 percent, the UN and aid officials said in their statement Saturday, without giving a timeframe.
“It’s critical that shipments of commercial food continue,” the Yemen country director for the U.N.’s World Food Programme, Stephen Anderson, told ABC News last week, “and it’s also essential that humanitarian supplies are able to flow without delays.” All the partial lifting of the blockade on Yemen’s ports on its Red Sea coast has done, the officials said Saturday, was to “slow the collapse towards a massive humanitarian tragedy costing millions of lives.” The statement was issued by the heads of the WFP, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the International Organization for Migration, as well as the United Nations’ high commissioner for refugees and under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.

GLOVERSVILLE — The city has been awarded $623,655 in funds to remove lead service lines, according to a news release sent out by Gov.
Andrew Cuomo on Monday.
The funds are part of $20 million that has been awarded statewide to replace residential drinking water lead service lines as part of New York’s Clean Water Infrastructure Act of 2017.
“These critical improvements to New York’s drinking water infrastructure are vital to protecting public health and to laying the foundation for future growth and economic prosperity in these communities,” Cuomo said in a news release.
“With this $20 million award, we are helping to protect residents and their families across this state and are creating a stronger, healthier New York.” Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said, “Public health begins with access to clean drinking water, and reducing lead exposure, especially in children, should always be a top priority.
This state-wide program to replace residential lead pipes in areas of the state that need it most will improve the health of New Yorkers.” Municipalities were determined to be eligible to participate in the LSLRP based on the following criteria: percentage of children with elevated blood levels, median household income, and the number of homes built before 1939.
Grants will be used to replace residential lead service lines from the municipal water main to the residence.
Officials with the city’s water department said on Tuesday, they had not yet received word they received the funding.

Suez, on behalf of SINOMACH-CMEC is building a drinking water processing plant in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon.
This contract, worth €43m for SUEZ, includes pumping of raw water into the river Sanaga, the building of the plant over a 36-month period, the pumping stations and the transfer of the treated water to Yaoundé.This operation will be financed by Eximbank of China and by the Cameroonian government within the scope of a larger and structuring project of over €650m.
This project will respond to the drinking water needs of the fast-growing population of Yaoundé, which today has nearly 3 million inhabitants, and will support the capital city’s economic development.
SUEZ will be in charge of carrying out the engineering studies on the treatment plant, providing equipment, and supervising the assembly and commissioning of the plant.
The Group will also be responsible for training the Cameroonian personnel.
The plant will integrate degrémont® technologies such as PulsatubeTM and Aquazur®V, as these products guarantee excellent quality of the water produced, regardless of the quality and flow rate of the untreated water.
We are proud of this partnership with the Cameroonian authorities, SINOMACH-CMEC and Eximbank of China in order to provide a technical and financial solution that best responds to the drinking water needs of the residents of Yaoundé.
Marie-Ange Debon , Group Deputy CEO in charge of International segment SUEZ is thus strengthening its presence in Cameroon, where it has built the drinking water production plant in Akomiada (100,000 m3/day), and in Africa, a promising market for the Group.
Present on the continent since the construction of the La Djoué water treatment plant in Brazzaville in 1952, SUEZ has since built more than 500 drinking water and sanitation facilities, and continues to serve many of Africa’s capital cities, including Nairobi, Ouagadougou, Dar Es Salaam and Bamako.
Source: Company Press Release

Binghamton residents who live in a home with lead water pipes will have them replaced by New York state.
The City of Binghamton was awarded $663,000 in state Clean Water Infrastructure money to replace residential lead service lines used for drinking water.
“With this funding, the City will take another step to ensure residents have access to clean and safe drinking water for decades to come,” said Mayor David.
“Replacing the antiquated water lines that were built with many of Binghamton’s older homes will help lower residents’ risk of lead exposure and protect the public health of our City.” The City of Binghamton Water Department will target the properties with older service lines containing lead.
Homeowners normally would have to pay to replace the lines that run to the water meter but Binghamton is one of 26 cities that qualifies for residential funding.
High levels of lead in drinking water can be especially harmful to young children

How hopeful should we be that this will ever get fixed?” — Resident Karen Lithgow Residents pressed officials for answers in the ever-widening water contamination testing issue in the Grayling area.
Water samples taken at the Grayling Army Airfield, where the foam was used for training purposes, tested positive for the chemicals in the fall of 2016.
Of 500 residential wells tested, 10 have had detects above 70 parts per trillion in Grayling Charter Township.
One residential water well within the City of Grayling has tested above the 70 parts per trillion health advisory.
Residential water wells around Lake Margrethe will be tested for the compounds.
Resident Karen Lithgow questioned the amount of time that studies will take.
Lemming, however, said she believes that the foam coming up to the surface of the lake is tied to contaminated residential water wells.
Potential solutions to address the contaminated groundwater include drilling wells deeper into the surface for residents, or connecting to a municipal water system.
Stone, the assistant adjutant general for installations for Michigan Army National Guard, said no funding solutions will be determined until the full environmental investigation is completed.
If any resident has additional questions regarding this issue, the State of Michigan Environmental Assistance Center can be contacted at 800-662-9278, or emailed at deq-assist@michigan.gov.

The Singapore International Foundation yesterday announced that more than 70,000 villagers will have access to clean drinking water when the second phase of its project closes in 2021.
The SIF’s Water for Life programme was first launched in 2010 in Siem Reap province’s Sout Nikum and Prasat Bakong districts.
By 2014, more than 460 Singapore International Volunteers had installed 2,600 bio-sand filters, which benefited 17,000 villagers.
This led to an 85 percent drop in the incidence of water-borne diseases.
From 2014 to 2017, volunteers in 12 communes in Kampong Speu installed 1,700 bio-filters, providing safe and accessible drinking water to 44,000 villagers.
By 2021, SIF estimates that more than 70,000 Cambodia villagers will have access to clean drinking water.
SIF’s announcement yesterday coincided with a visit to its project by Singapore’s Minister of Communications and Information Yaacob Ibrahim.
The country also has one of the highest infant mortality rates in Asia, and most of these premature deaths could be attributed to water-borne disease such as diarrhoea, hepatitis A and typhoid.
“Studies have shown that bio-sand water filters effectively remove more than 90 percent of harmful bacteria and 100 percent of parasites” it said.
SIF’s Water for life programme augments the government’s national strategy for rural water supply, sanitation and hygiene, which aims to provide every person in a rural community with access to safe water and sanitation by 2025.

"I would not drink it for sure.
Flinders University environmental health researcher Kirstin Ross, who recently conducted a review of tank water around Adelaide, said that although there was no evidence of increased gastrointestinal illness as a result of using rainwater tanks for drinking water, the microbes are present in the water.
But with many Australians without access to town water and reliant on rainwater, what precautions should we take to make sure our tank water is safe to drink?
Under lab conditions filtration systems are able to remove E. coli, Dr Ross said, but filters in homes often became a breeding ground for the bacteria.
"Filtering might be enough if they use a well-maintained filter.
Filtering can also remove some — but not all — of the dangerous metals that have been found in many Australian water tanks.
"Filtration will remove some of these metals, but not all – we did a study on water that we artificially contaminated with bushfire ash, to see what recommendations should be made post-bushfire to landholders, and found that filters were good at removing zinc and copper but not chromium and arsenic," Dr Ross said.
If mosquitoes can access the water in the tank it can become a breeding ground for the disease-spreading insects, said Dr Moglia, who was part of a research project that inspected 450 tanks across Melbourne.
And check your mesh is in good nick every three months; a recent CSIRO study found more than 10 per cent of water tanks inspected had mesh that was in poor enough repair to let pests and vermin into the tank.
And there’s a bigger environmental benefit of more homes having rainwater tanks, especially in urban areas, according to Dr Moglia: reducing runoff into waterways.

BINGHAMTON (WBNG) — The City of Binghamton has been awarded more than $663,000 in state funding to replace lead service lines used for residential drinking water, according to Mayor Rich David’s Office.
Officials say the Binghamton Water Department will identify properties with older service lines containing lead to target for replacement.
When old water pipes containing lead corrode, the lead can seep into the water and contaminate it, according to the mayor’s office.
Officials say lead exposure can be especially harmful to young children and that lead poisoning can impact a child’s growth, behavior, and ability to learn.
“With this funding, the City will take another step to ensure residents have access to clean and safe drinking water for decades to come,” Mayor David said in a statement.
“Replacing the antiquated water lines that were built with many of Binghamton’s older homes will help lower residents’ risk of lead exposure and protect the public health of our City.” In a news release, Mayor David’s office noted that the City is responsible for the portion of a water service line that runs from water main line to the curb box, and that homeowners are responsible for the portion of the service line that runs from the curb box to the water meter.
According to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office, Binghamton is one of 26 municipalities in New York State to receive funding for residential lead service line replacement.
The effort is part of New York’s Clean Water Infrastructure Act of 2017.