Trump takes steps to ensure more Americans have access to polluted water.
The Trump administration took steps Tuesday to eliminate an Obama-era environmental initiative that sought to protect the drinking water used by one-third of America, openly admitting it was doing so in order to benefit business.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Tuesday that they’re beginning to dismantle the Clean Water Rule, aimed at safeguarding the drinking water delivered to about one in three Americans.
The rule, which sought to clarify part of the Clean Water Act, created protections for an additional two million miles of streams and 20 million acres of wetlands.
The rule was extremely unpopular with a wide range of groups, including farmers, real estate developers, and manufacturers, who worried the bill’s expansive jurisdiction over “waters of the U.S.” would result in prosecution for diverting a stream or building on wetlands.
The Trump administration has not announced any plans to protect those waterways in lieu of the rule.
“We are taking significant action to return power to the states and provide regulatory certainty to our nation’s farmers and businesses,” EPA head Scott Pruitt, a climate change skeptic who repeatedly sued the EPA as Oklahoma’s attorney general, said in a statement.
“This is the first step in the two-step process to redefine ‘waters of the U.S.’ and we are committed to moving through this re-evaluation to quickly provide regulatory certainty, in a way that is thoughtful, transparent and collaborative with other agencies and the public.” Pruitt, who supported Trump’s deep cuts to the EPA budget, recently made headlines when, after meeting with the CEO of Dow Chemical, he declined to ban a pesticide scientists say is harmful to both children and farmers.
In doing so, he cited the use of “sound science in decision-making rather than predetermined results” — those so-called predetermined results being findings made by the EPA’s own scientists.

The Wisconsin State Journal reported wells no longer require environmental reviews from regulators in these cases.
The wells serve numerous purposes across the state, ranging from irrigation for farm fields to drinking water for communities.
Spanning across six counties in central Wisconsin, this area has made headlines due to its abundance of high-capacity wells and shrinking water levels.
Long Lake, once home to trophy fishing, has lost surface to the point many houses no longer have a waterfront view, Billingham said.
Billingham said the league isn’t against high-capacity wells in general but it wants to see protections, including reviews and studies of the cumulative effects of multiple high-capacity wells.
“We have more lakes than Minnesota and we want to keep those 10,000 lakes,” he said.
Land with bedrock can require drilling 300 feet or more for water.
Farming needs Webb said he didn’t have an irrigation system in 2012 when his fields suffered from drought.
Drought is one of the most devastating disasters to befall a farmer, and irrigation provides assurance, Zimmerman said.
DNR records show the well pumped more than 4 million gallons last May and more than 3 million last June, the two highest months.

An estimated 1,680 villages in Sistan-Baluchistan Province lack piped water, according to the provincial governor general.
“Water in 1,300 villages is being supplied via tankers, and another 380 are on the list for the current season,” said Ali Owsat Hashemi at a recent meeting with provincial government representatives and Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the government spokesman and head of the Management and Planning Organization.
Water supply from Afghanistan could increase the chances of cholera in Iran, which has been free of cholera for over two years.
But threats still exist from the two adjacent countries of Afghanistan to the east and Iraq in the west.
Over the last few years sources of drinking water supply in Iran have improved in many rural areas.
According to Ali Asghar Qane,’ deputy head of the National Water and Wastewater Engineering Company, 3,000 villages with a total population of two million were connected to water supply networks in the last fiscal year that ended in March.
A budget of $500 million from the National Development Fund of Iran (NDFI) was allocated for implementation of piped water projects.
“A threat to the water resources would mean higher chances of residents deserting the province,” he noted, lamenting that due to the difficulties related to supplying water through tankers, there are few takers for year-long contracts.
Statistics show that in 1956, the rural population in Iran comprised 70% of the population of 19 million.
Results of the National Population and Housing Census released in February show that during the past five years, 3.9 million people migrated from rural to urban areas, of which 20.2% moved to the overcrowded capital Tehran.

Drinking water crisis ends in Mt.
Shasta.
“Repeat samples show no E.coli or fecal coliform bacteria in the Mt.
Shasta spring source,” Andrew DiLuccia, a spokesman for the State Water Resources Control Board, said Tuesday.
The city of Mt.
Some restaurants reportedly closed because they couldn’t ensure diner’s safety.
The believers come by the thousands, searching and exploring the giant peak’s myth and magic.
They come from around the world, from more than 50 countries, to explore the giant peak, 14,180 feet tall and 17 miles across.
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The importance of investing in water delivery systems.
The need to invest in water delivery systems over the years has only increased and is a more pressing issue.
The problem is not just aging pipes.
The sources of the drinking water are also becoming out-of-date, which include depleted aquifers and inadequate storage.
As water systems age and little investment is made into water delivery systems, the country is paying a costly price.
One important program to help states update their water infrastructure is the Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund (DWSRF), which serves as a federal-state financial assistance program in which states receive federal grants and contribute an additional 20 percent in matching funds.
The DWSRF acts as an infrastructure bank to provide low interest loans for drinking water infrastructure projects.
Through 2016, state revolving loan funds have provided more than $30 billion for water infrastructure projects.
President Trump recognizes the importance of this program for infrastructure projects, and his budget proposal calls for increasing federal funds for this program.
More funding for this program will greatly benefit states like Missouri to help update its water delivery systems.

Water Technology Innovation.
Capabilities, such as those available with Bentley’s AssetWise, can work in concert with a geospatial information system to provide these capabilities and allow utilities to plan and implement proactive asset performance and reliability strategies.
WW: What benefits does a digital strategy provide water and wastewater utilities?
RM: Going digital is a strategy that we at Bentley believe will transform the delivery of capital projects as well as the performance of assets in operations and maintenance.
By digitizing assets and processes, a digital strategy will not only realize performance improvements for assets but also see the adoption of new technologies that can enable going digital.
WW: How does Bentley software align with good engineering practices in water and wastewater systems?
Having a common data environment helps streamline design and management of critical information, but the key is now a connected data environment that helps facilitate the interoperation of multiple data sources, providing a common view of data that delivers accurate and reliable information to operations, maintenance, and engineering when it is needed.
By providing real-time information that can be supplemented with hydraulic models, the operator can have true insight into the behavior and condition of a network.
Asset information management systems that enable the convergence of IT, OT, and ET data will make infrastructure assets more powerful, efficient, and reliable by exploiting the Big Data potential.
Hydraulic modeling generally has been used for long-term planning, while data from the SCADA systems are used heavily in daily operational decisions.

An estimated 1,680 villages in Sistan-Baluchistan Province lack piped water, according to the provincial governor general.
“Water in 1,300 villages is being supplied via tankers, and another 380 are on the list for the current season,” said Ali Owsat Hashemi at a recent meeting with provincial government representatives and Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the government spokesman and head of the Management and Planning Organization.
Water supply from Afghanistan could increase the chances of cholera in Iran, which has been free of cholera for over two years.
But threats still exist from the two adjacent countries of Afghanistan to the east and Iraq in the west.
Over the last few years sources of drinking water supply in Iran have improved in many rural areas.
According to Ali Asghar Qane,’ deputy head of the National Water and Wastewater Engineering Company, 3,000 villages with a total population of two million were connected to water supply networks in the last fiscal year that ended in March.
A budget of $500 million from the National Development Fund of Iran (NDFI) was allocated for implementation of piped water projects.
“A threat to the water resources would mean higher chances of residents deserting the province,” he noted, lamenting that due to the difficulties related to supplying water through tankers, there are few takers for year-long contracts.
Statistics show that in 1956, the rural population in Iran comprised 70% of the population of 19 million.
Results of the National Population and Housing Census released in February show that during the past five years, 3.9 million people migrated from rural to urban areas, of which 20.2% moved to the overcrowded capital Tehran.

Irish Water wants no public access to €80m Stillorgan reservoir site.
The utility company said the condition to provide publicly accessible open space within the reservoir site was incompatible with its core function to “secure a sustainable supply of drinking water to 200,000 people and to facilitate growth in the Dublin region into the future.” The condition was imposed by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council when it approved plans to construct a new, covered reservoir on the site.
Once the new covered reservoir is operational, two other open reservoirs are to be decommissioned and landscaping of the site will include a meadow on the roof of the reservoir.
Irish Water said the entire site had been in use for more then 150 years as a critically important part of Dublin’s water services infrastructure and would remain so, as services are to be expanded over the coming decade.
Cllr Barry Saul (Fine Gael), who is currently running a campaign for a new public park to be created in the area, said up to four sports clubs had hoped to get pitches in on the site.
He accused Irish Water of showing poor judgment by opposing public access to the reservoir.
“Local sports clubs are crying out for extra pitches.
The current upgrade project is planned for completion in 2021.
Planning for additional water storage at the site will commence in the early 2020s with construction of additional storage likely to follow in the later part of the decade to ensure that evolving needs are met, the utility said.
“The entire site will be required for the present and future construction needs of Irish Water and will not be available for publicly accessible open space.” It said the Stillorgan reservoir, “as an active water supply site, contains high pressure pipes and valves, and the view of Irish Water is that the use of the site for active open space in the form of publicly accessible open space is not feasible”.

Man ‘shocked’ by First Nations water crisis running across Canada to raise awareness.
According to a Government of Canada website, there are more than 100 long-term drinking water advisories in First Nations communities across Canada.
Hasan Syed hopes that through his efforts he can help ensure every community in Canada has access to safe drinking water.
‘I always viewed Canada as a safe haven’ Syed moved with his family to Canada from Pakistan when he was 10 years old, and he has firsthand experience of not having access to clean water.
That’s why, in his last year of studying nursing, Syed was shocked to learn that people struggle to access clean drinking water across Canada as well.
"I always viewed Canada as a safe haven, a developed nation for all," said Syed.
The discovery ignited a passion in Syed, and he felt compelled to do something about it.
Challenged by run Syed started his journey in April and planned the run to last 150 days to commemorate Canada’s 150th birthday, but the journey is more difficult that he imagined.
Syed will be speaking about his journey at Wesley United Church in Regina at 7 p.m. CST on Tuesday.
With files from CBC Radio’s Morning Edition

Man ‘shocked’ by First Nations water crisis running across Canada to raise awareness.
According to a Government of Canada website, there are more than 100 long-term drinking water advisories in First Nations communities across Canada.
Hasan Syed hopes that through his efforts he can help ensure every community in Canada has access to safe drinking water.
‘I always viewed Canada as a safe haven’ Syed moved with his family to Canada from Pakistan when he was 10 years old, and he has firsthand experience of not having access to clean water.
That’s why, in his last year of studying nursing, Syed was shocked to learn that people struggle to access clean drinking water across Canada as well.
"I always viewed Canada as a safe haven, a developed nation for all," said Syed.
The discovery ignited a passion in Syed, and he felt compelled to do something about it.
Challenged by run Syed started his journey in April and planned the run to last 150 days to commemorate Canada’s 150th birthday, but the journey is more difficult that he imagined.
Syed will be speaking about his journey at Wesley United Church in Regina at 7 p.m. CST on Tuesday.
With files from CBC Radio’s Morning Edition