Nobody went home satisfied last week when state legislators finally adjourned after a record 193-day slog.
Jay Inslee said in a news conference statement (more like an understatement).
Failing to pass a two-year capital budget for the first time in memory leaves $4 billion in a lockbox.
This is money that should be building schools and mental health facilities statewide, funds to prevent wildfires and homelessness, investments to boost local economies with infrastructure projects from Algona to Zillah.
First, it should be noted that the U.S. was one of 41 countries that abstained from the historic UN resolution.
Second, a cursory reading of the resolution shows that it focuses on the 884 million people in poor countries who lack access to safe drinking water and the more than 2.6 billion deprived of basic sanitation.
The grim toll: an estimated 1.5 million children under age 5 die each year from water- and sanitation-related diseases.
To equate a global humanitarian crisis with Washington property-rights disruptions shows a clear case of tone-deafness.
Republicans accuse Democrats of running and hiding from a permanent Hirst fix, and maintain that rural landowners are being denied a human right.
Perhaps state lawmakers and their surrogates need time to reflect on how our problems pale in comparison to much of the rest of the world.

88% Indians had no access to clean drinking water in 2015.
With 88% of its population able to access “basic drinking water services” in 2015, India ranked 165 among 233 countries/regions globally, according to the 2017 report of the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene produced by the World Health Organization and UNICEF.
The global average was 89%.
Among its South Asian neighbours (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka), India ranked better only than Afghanistan, where 63% of the population had access to basic drinking water services.
The report, published on July 12, 2017, evaluated 233 countries/regions globally based on the percentage of population that sourced its drinking water from ‘basic services’, ‘limited services’, ‘unimproved services’ of water or from ‘surface water’.
Basic services: Drinking water from an improved source, provided collection time is not more than 30 minutes for a round trip, including queuing; Limited services: Drinking water from an improved source for which collection time exceeds 30 minutes for a round trip, including queuing; Unimproved services: Drinking water from an unprotected dug well or unprotected spring; Surface water: Drinking water directly from a river, dam, lake, pond, stream, canal or irrigation canal.
In 2015, 4% of India’s population sourced its drinking water from ‘limited services’, 7% from ‘unimproved services’ and 1% from surface water; the global average was 4%, 6% and 2%, respectively.
(Vivek is an analyst with IndiaSpend.)
Reprinted with permission from IndiaSpend.org, a data-driven, public-interest journalism non-profit organisation.
You can read the original article here

This Frightening New Study Will Make You Stop Drinking Tap Water.
And yet, new research has found that it may also be a serious problem.
A study conducted by Macquarie University found Australian household tap water is frighteningly contaminated.
In other words, the water you’d use to fill your kettle first thing in for a morning cuppa or baby formula.
But it begs the question: should we be allowing any at all?
If we’re sticking to our 2-3 liters per day, it’s a large amount of lead and copper to accumulate in the body, which can have adverse effects on our health.
“As the sampling of household water took place across NSW, the widespread distribution of samples with elevated copper and lead concentrations demonstrates that this is not a spatially-isolated problem, and that domestic supplies across Australia are likely to be subject to similar issues,” Harvey says.
“There is a significant health risk associated with consumers, particularly infants consuming formula and pregnant women.” The high use of lead in pipelines across Australia is cause for concern for all household tap water.
Plus, it doesn’t hurt that it has a minimal, sleek design to compliment our HQ and offers boiling, chilled and even sparkling water on-demand.
“Sparkling or tap?” We have both.

The value of water on tap.
This rural water system – one of 33 formally organized systems across the state – began with a single well on what was the Streeter Ranch in 2004, and now serves an area from roughly 7-11 Road, west across Argyle Rd., to the developments in southern Custer County west of Hwy.
From there, the water is pumped up the hills to the reservoir facility located along Hwy 385 near southern entrance to Wind Cave National Park.
Here, in 2010, a $283,000, 140,000 gallon reservoir was built to hold and help distribute the water.
Where gravity feed cannot bring enough pressure to serve individual taps, pumping stations – called boosters – add additional pressure to move the water through the 120 total miles of pipeline in the system.
Peterson talked about how, in the past, when he worked for another water system, he had to climb a water tower tank, look into it and gauge the amount of water in the system.
With the SCADA system, he can monitor the entire system from a computer, and communicate with individual elements of the system – say upping the pressure in a pumping station – to keep the system operating smoothly.
Wick and Peterson talked about how, creating the 30-inch wide, 6 foot deep trenches required for the 120 miles of water pipeline, especially going west of the Streeter well, progress was very slow.
The water tower tank, built in 2013, along with the booster stations also resulted in a larger SBHWS investment – $573,000 for the tank, and $8,000 each for the boosters.
However, cutting through the rocks required a jump in fees to $2,500 as time continued.

The cholera outbreak has now spread throughout the country, which is also suffering from armed conflict and a food crisis.
It is crucial that the international community makes a joint effort to ensure that the UN humanitarian appeal is met.
Norway is increasing its humanitarian aid to Yemen by NOK 10 million.
The UN has described the situation in Yemen as the world’s worst humanitarian disaster and has estimated that almost 80 % of the population is in need of humanitarian assistance.
Ten million people urgently require live-saving assistance.
Norway therefore supports the efforts of the UN special envoy to get the parties back to the negotiating table as quickly as possible,’ said Mr Brende.
So far this year, Norway has nearly doubled its aid to Yemen, and is providing about NOK 250 million in humanitarian relief.
This includes the amount announced at the donor conference for Yemen in April, as well as additional funds in response to the hunger crisis and the cholera epidemic.
Norway’s support is being channelled through several UN agencies, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, and various humanitarian organisations that cooperate with local partners in Yemen.
Norway is also providing funding through the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), which has disbursed more than NOK 200 million to Yemen so far in 2017.

Why a New Orleans Museum Displays a Can of Water.
Created at an Anheuser-Busch plant in Georgia, the can was part of a massive donation of drinking water that the beer company sent to disaster victims after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005.
But this artifact isn’t unique to New Orleans.
Every time there’s a major disaster Anheuser-Busch partners with the Red Cross to send water.
Busch wanted to help, and he sent a telegraph to the head of the Red Cross: Inspired by the President’s recommendation by confidence in you as the head of the Red Cross Society, and by the splendid condition of the national troops as I witnessed it, the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association subscribes $100,000 [equivalent to more than $2.5 million today] to your San Francisco sufferers, subject to your directions.
In 1988, the company created its current disaster-relief canned water program.
Canning pure water actually takes longer than canning beer, because the carbonation makes a difference.
According to one plant manager, it takes more than twice as long to produce the same amount of water.
But one of it canning plants, in Cartersville, Georgia, periodically switches from canning beer to canning water so there’s always a supply at the ready.
You can simply never have too much.

Save Our Saluda, an environmental advocacy group, has received $54,550 from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control to create a plan to reduce sediment runoff in the North Saluda River and Saluda Lake, which provide drinking water and recreation for thousands of Upstate residents.
“I am especially excited about the wonderful partnership of organizations that have agreed to cooperate and help guide the project.” The group has partnered with 11 stakeholders, including Greenville County, Greenville Water, and Renewable Water Resources, to complete the plan and restore the lake and river, which have experienced high levels of sediment runoff over the years from development and other sources.
Excess amounts of sediment not only fill in the rivers and lakes, but also carry pollutants like bacteria, fertilizers, and pesticides that further degrade water resources, according to Ruhlman.
“The upper part of the lake was dredged at significant expense in 2012 and is already filling in with sediment again.
We have heard complaints from fishermen and boaters who see it first-hand,” she said.
According to a press release, Save Our Saluda plans to implement various best management practices, including vegetated buffers along waterways, to control erosion and sediment, stabilize streambanks, restore riparian areas, improve wildlife and pollinator habitat, and protect downstream water quality, aquatic life, and recreational uses.
The group, for instance, recently received a $20,000 grant from Michelin, Naturaland Trust, TreesGreenville, and others to restore the riparian area along Railroad Creek, a tributary to the North Saluda River.
The group will plant native woody species as well as install grassed swales and rock fillers in ditches to filter sediment from runoff and pollinator strips along farm fields to increase nectar and pollen sources for pollinator insects.
“The North Saluda River is an important source of drinking water but is also one of the cradles of locally-sourced food for the Upstate,” said Mac Stone, executive director for Naturaland Trust.
“As our region continues to grow, we will need further access to clean water and healthy local food.” For more information, visit saveoursaluda.org.

Flint — The city will avoid closure of all of its water distribution sites after residents pressured government leaders to keep the bottled water flowing.
Rick Snyder’s office and the Concerned Pastors for Social Action, announced Wednesday the city and state had reached an agreement to allow four water distribution sites, known as PODS, to remain open indefinitely.
Under a settlement reached earlier this year, the state “could start closing the PODS, and we know that all of the PODS were scheduled to close this September,” Weaver said.
The agreement allows for four distribution sites to remain open under normal hours on each side of the city: Mt.
Five PODS will close and do so on two dates.
The PODS located in the 2nd Ward at St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church and the in the 3rd Ward at Calvary Missionary Baptist Church will close on Aug. 11.
“The system has made dramatic improvements where in 2016, the 90th percentile for city was testing at 20 parts per billion from January through June,” Creagh said.
Baird said the state felt just because it could close all of the PODS it “doesn’t mean we should exercise that authority.” Baird added the “all-in” cost for maintaining the distribution sites “is about $2 million a month,” and that it’s important for the state to have a timeline to end distribution.
Pisgah Baptist Church and spokesman for the Concerned Pastors for Social Action, said even though the water quality is improving, “we don’t want to give people a determined closure date.” “Because people will start to horde water and then the water they have will go bad,” Hill said.
“One of the primary goals of this partnership, is to ensure people that they will have access to good, clean water.” The city’s water became contaminated with lead after state-appointed emergency managers switched Flint’s drinking water source in April 2014 from the Detroit area water system to the Flint River.

Is your drinking water clean?
New search tool hopes to tighten water regulations.
Residents concerned about the quality of their drinking water have access to new information online.
Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit that focuses on public health, recently published the search tool, which is compiled from state and federal data.
The new data provides information on contaminants ranging from lead and chromium-6 to cancer-causing chemicals that are byproducts of disinfecting water.
“Part of the value in this is that you can look up your own utility," David Andrews, EWG senior scientist, said.
EWG’s standards for how much of a chemical is acceptable in water are stricter than those set forth by the Environmental Protection Agency, Andrews said.
Andrews said there’s "growing awareness" of the connection between chemical exposures and cancer.
The group hopes to push government agencies to set stricter standards.
EWG also recommends certain types of water filters as a stop-gap measure, said Andrews.

Is your drinking water clean?
New search tool hopes to tighten water regulations.
Residents concerned about the quality of their drinking water have access to new information online.
Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit that focuses on public health, recently published the search tool, which is compiled from state and federal data.
The new data provides information on contaminants ranging from lead and chromium-6 to cancer-causing chemicals that are byproducts of disinfecting water.
“Part of the value in this is that you can look up your own utility," David Andrews, EWG senior scientist, said.
EWG’s standards for how much of a chemical is acceptable in water are stricter than those set forth by the Environmental Protection Agency, Andrews said.
Andrews said there’s "growing awareness" of the connection between chemical exposures and cancer.
The group hopes to push government agencies to set stricter standards.
EWG also recommends certain types of water filters as a stop-gap measure, said Andrews.