Federal Action Taken to Make DoD Pay for Newburgh Water Remediation.
NEWBURGH – Representative Sean Patrick Maloney (NY-18) announced he is taking legislative action to ensure the Department of Defense pays for the remediation of PFOS and PFOA contamination at Stewart Air National Guard Base.
“Thanks to the City of Newburgh, Commissioner Seggos and Governor Cuomo for joining me in this effort – together we’ll finish this fight.” “It’s clear from our ongoing research that the Department of Defense must move more quickly to clean up their mess in the Newburgh area,” said DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos.
I renew my calls to the DOD to take responsibility in remediating the hazardous conditions that were created in Newburgh and I applaud Congressman Maloney for his diligence in reference to this important public health issue,” said Orange County Executive Steven M. Neuhaus.
After the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) declared Stewart Air National Guard (ANG) base a state Superfund site, Rep. Maloney called on the Department of Defense (DoD) to comply with the DEC’s request for a federal remediation program.
In addition to hundreds of Newburgh residents, Rep. Maloney received his results as part of the round of blood test results released in February.
Rep. Maloney also renewed calls for the EPA to provide immediate material assistance to the City of Newburgh to remediate the contamination.
On May 13, Rep. Maloney called on the DoD to immediately conduct an investigation into the likely source of the pollution – Stewart Air National Guard Base.
In addition to calling for a review of the source of the contaminant, Rep. Maloney asked the DoD to ensure total remediation for the City of Newburgh.
Investing in Testing Act authorizes $15 million for a two year study by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to determine the health impact of PFOS contamination in drinking water, and The Clean Water Healthy Communities Act would require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to test unregulated contaminants in communities with fewer than 10,000 people.

Republicans in Washington state took a water-rights dispute a step farther Monday by comparing landowners who can’t drill wells on their property to people lacking safe drinking water in developing nations.
The state’s Legislature spent a record number of days in overtime this year debating how to respond to state Supreme Court’s Hirst decision, which has effectively halted construction for some property owners in rural areas.
“The United Nations General Assembly voted in 2010 to recognize ‘…the right to safe and clean drinking water as a human right,’” staff for the GOP Senate caucus tweeted Monday morning, citing an article posted by the Natural Resources Defense Council.
In the Hirst decision, the state Supreme Court said Whatcom County didn’t adequately protect water resources when approving developments relying on new wells.
The resolution “recognizes the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights.” But, according to the same article cited in the GOP tweet, the U.N. resolution also comes with a few caveats.
“Therefore, the 1.1 billion people worldwide who lack a water tap are not suffering a human rights violation, as long as their governments are making an effort,” the Natural Resources Defense Council’s article said.
A spokeswoman for Senate Republicans didn’t respond to questions about why staffers compared the property-rights debate surrounding Hirst to the U.N. resolution on clean drinking water.
Right now, the GOP controls the state Senate with the help of a conservative Democrat, while Democrats control the state House.
Each side continued to lob accusations at the other on Twitter Monday, even after Senate Republicans deleted the tweet about the United Nations resolution.
House Democrats criticized Republicans’ “all or nothing” strategy of costing the state billions in construction projects, while Senate Republicans accused Democrats of running away last week to prevent a last-minute vote on a Hirst bill.

Here’s what the colour of your urine says about your health.
Much more than we thought actually… The colour of your urine says a lot about your health, being intrinsically linked to how hydrated you are.
So it’s definitely a problem, but still, up to 7.2 million British adults are going without drinking water every day.
And according to SodaStream, while 1 in 7 of us don’t drink a glass of water on a typical day, over half of us have an alcoholic drink each day.
The problem it has been suggested is a lack of awareness around how much water we should be drinking, but there is a growing belief that we should pay less attention to the EU daily drinking recommendations and spend more time tracking our own urine instead.
To help Brits better understand dehydration warning signs, SodaStream has created a 50 Shades of Yellow pee chart with the help of Dr Dawn Harper, advising on hydration health and instructing when to increase water consumption.
‘There is still a lot of confusion around recommended daily allowances for water,’ explained Dr Dawn Harper.
‘The amount of fluid your body requires depends on several variable factors including; ambient temperature, exercise levels and other fluid in foods you’ve eaten.’ She continued: ‘By the time headaches develop, you are already significantly dehydrated.
Your urine should consistently be the colour of shade 1 to 20 on our 50 Shades of Yellow pee chart.
In extreme cases, dehydration can cause kidney problems, so if it’s not the right colour, then act and get access to water!’ If you are alarmed by the colour of your urine, you should contact your local GP.

Possible tornado strikes Maryland’s Kent Island during night of severe storms.
FOX 5’s Melanie Alnwick was in Bay City on Maryland’s Kent Island Monday where residents were being asked to shelter in place following the storm.
231 Ruthsburg Rd Centreville MD pic.twitter.com/7zD2almqVh — Queen Anne’s Co. DES (@QueenAnneEM) July 24, 2017 Officials said approximately 8000 residents were without power at 6:30 a.m. Downed power lines were a major safety concern and were the reason residents were being asked to stay inside.
DES is asking residents in Bay City to shelter in place.
pic.twitter.com/0ilxPCrPs9 — Queen Anne’s Co. DES (@QueenAnneEM) July 24, 2017 Authorities warned residents to treat all downed power lines as live power lines as the cleanup continued and advised residents who did not need to leave home not to.
Lots of property damage in Bay City neighborhood that took brunt of the storm that hit Kent Island around 1am.
pic.twitter.com/Gb6JaPWXMs — Bob Barnard (@barnardfox5dc) July 24, 2017 The Bay Bridge was temporarily closed overnight due to the severe weather.
Under the plan: * The Ramp from 50 Eastbound to Rt 8 will be closed.
* The Ramp from 50 Westbound to Rt 8 will only allow Northbound Traffic.
Motorists who live South on Rt 8: * Coming East you will need to take Thompson Creek exit and use the access road to Rt.

TDot Performance Teams up with Charity Water.
In an effort to bring clean drinking water to global communities, TDot Performance has teamed up with charity:water.
Toronto, Ontario – TDot Performance, one of Canada’s top auto-parts retailers, has decided to team up with charity: water in an effort to bring clean drinking water to global communities where it’s sorely lacking.
People who live in places like Sub-Saharan Africa desperately need funds to set up drilled wells, spring protections, and BioSand filters.
“Our goal is to raise $10,000 USD.
That would be enough to give hundreds of people access to clean water,” says Charith Perera, a co-founder and CEO of TDotPerformance.ca, “As Canadians, we are fortunate enough to have access to clean water.
When I thought about how others globally do not share this same blessing, I started to look for a way to raise money for this initiative and have Tdotperformance.ca lead the way,” says Perera, “And we’re very invested in reaching our goal.” As an added incentive for making a donation, TDot Performance is offering to match a donor’s donation amount in the form of a TDot Performance gift card ($10 for $10 donations, $15 for $15 donations, and $25 for $25 donations).
The donation will run through 9/30/2017.
Every dollar helps.” About TDot Performance TDot Performance is the largest source of car performance parts in Canada.
Because the company is based in Canada, customers are never charged with customs, duties or brokerage fees.

Since so many North Carolina residents draw drinking water from unmonitored private wells, a push is on to improve testing and treatment.
Still, any filling in of blanks could help state and county public health experts like her improve their understanding of where wells are and what contamination risks lurk nearby.
The steps were developed at a 2015 Environmental Health Collaborative summit attended by a mix of drinking water supply and public health experts.
“There needs to be more support for private well owners.
Using 2007-2013 data from North Carolina emergency departments, she concluded in research published last year that 99 percent of 29,400 emergency department visits over a seven year period for acute gastrointestinal illness – vomiting, diarrhea and the like – linked to drinking water were associated with contamination in private wells, not public water supplies.
A bacteria screen can be as little as $25, but a full panel, including pricey tests for radium, can add up to more than $600.
The occupational and environmental branch of the state Division of Public Health recommends that well owners test their water annually for coliform bacteria, one step to detecting animal or human waste contamination.
Gibson’s studies of such neighborhoods in rural Wake County, called “under-bounded” communities by demographers and public health researchers, contribute to evidence that being unlinked can introduce health risks.
Results for both contaminants were only a fraction of a percent in samples taken from the nearby public water.
The summit recommendation Gibson has published also calls for studies to identify these under-bounded neighborhoods, estimate how much it would cost to connect these homes to public water, and make extending water and sewer lines their way a priority.

EZULWINI – Over 190 million people are in dire need of access to electricity in southern African region, the King of Swaziland, Mswati III has revealed during the just ended SADC Energy Investment Forum here last week.
Mswati III the chairperson of SADC noted that currently the region is faced with several challenges which affect the live-hood of the people such as unemployment, insufficient electricity and water services that hinder the drive towards achieving industrialization goals.
He further stressed that it is disturbing to note that out of over 292 million people in the region, only 60 percent has access to safe drinking water while only 40 percent has access to adequate sanitation facilities.
The King he is hopeful that the national energy projects presented by Swaziland and those of the SADC Region will be able to attract funding and partnerships from financial institutions and investors.
She said the investment forum came at the opportune time in order to ensure that energy plays its rightful role in the region’s industrialisation drive.
Tax said the fact that 58 percent of the African population does not have access to electricity has serious negative implications for productivity, and therefore aspirations to industrialise.
“In the 21st Century women are still cooking with fuel wood and charcoal, spending many hours collecting wood and other biomass, thus denying them the valuable time for other productive activities.
“This happens when Africa and indeed the SADC Region has abundant supply of solar, hydropower, wind and geothermal potential, as well as significant amounts of natural gas and in some countries coal deposits”, said Tax.
The Executive Secretary said the region therefore has to move quickly to unlock the energy potential in order to accelerate the drive towards our goals of regional integration, through among others, a reliable base load power to drive industrial growth and thus economic prosperity and poverty eradication.
And for this to happen, SADC has to take advantage and effectively develop and utilize the abundant sources of energy through the emerging technologies and alternative business models that will facilitate investments in this critical socio-economic sector.

Since so many North Carolina residents draw drinking water from unmonitored private wells, a push is on to improve testing and treatment.
Still, any filling in of blanks could help state and county public health experts like her improve their understanding of where wells are and what contamination risks lurk nearby.
The steps were developed at a 2015 Environmental Health Collaborative summit attended by a mix of drinking water supply and public health experts.
“There needs to be more support for private well owners.
Using 2007-2013 data from North Carolina emergency departments, she concluded in research published last year that 99 percent of 29,400 emergency department visits over a seven year period for acute gastrointestinal illness – vomiting, diarrhea and the like – linked to drinking water were associated with contamination in private wells, not public water supplies.
A bacteria screen can be as little as $25, but a full panel, including pricey tests for radium, can add up to more than $600.
The occupational and environmental branch of the state Division of Public Health recommends that well owners test their water annually for coliform bacteria, one step to detecting animal or human waste contamination.
Gibson’s studies of such neighborhoods in rural Wake County, called “under-bounded” communities by demographers and public health researchers, contribute to evidence that being unlinked can introduce health risks.
Results for both contaminants were only a fraction of a percent in samples taken from the nearby public water.
The summit recommendation Gibson has published also calls for studies to identify these under-bounded neighborhoods, estimate how much it would cost to connect these homes to public water, and make extending water and sewer lines their way a priority.

UN regards access to water as basic development goal.
BEIRUT, July 24 (KUNA) — Clean, accessible water for all is an essential part of the world we want to live in, says a recent UN report.
There is sufficient fresh water on the planet to achieve this.
But due to bad economics or poor infrastructure, every year millions of people, most of them children, die from diseases associated with inadequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene, said the report released by United Nations Information Centre in Beirut (UNIC Beirut).
Drought afflicts some of the world’s poorest countries, worsening hunger and malnutrition, according to the report.
By 2050, at least one in four people is likely to live in a country affected by chronic or recurring shortages of fresh water, it indicated.
Hydropower is the most important and widely-used renewable source of energy and as of 2011, represented 16 percent of total electricity production worldwide, the report showed.
The State of Kuwait, for instance, suffers a sharp scarcity of natural water resources, and is considered one of the countries that suffer most from sever weather conditions.
It serves Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Kuwait, and works closely with the UN family in Lebanon.
(end) wsm.mt

Good news to ensure good water.
The beautiful black water of the North Edisto River puts Orangeburg in the enviable position of a having a continuous and quality source of drinking water.
It is a resource generally taken for granted — except for thousands of people not served by a water system.
The Water Well Trust, the only national nonprofit helping low-income Americans get access to a clean, safe water supply, has announced that it is expanding from 13 to 16 the number of South Carolina counties eligible to receive assistance for drilling a new water well or rehabilitating an existing well.
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded a $140,000 matching grant to the Water Well Trust for a project to increase potable water availability to households in 13 rural South Carolina counties, including Orangeburg.
The USDA grant monies will provide long-term, low-interest loans to applicants seeking new or improved water wells in the 16-county area.
To be eligible to receive a WWT loan, an applicant must be the owner and occupant of the home as their primary residence.
The 2016 Non-Metropolitan median household income for South Carolina is $44,200.
The income criteria apply to both the applicant and all other occupants of the home.
Ask those people whether water is to be taken for granted.