District’s Environmental Health Director Addresses Oscoda Water Contamination Concerns.
We got some answers on the Oscoda water contamination issue from District Health Department #2’s Environmental Health Director.
On April 25th, a town hall meeting was held in Oscoda to continue the conversation, and catch up those of us who didn’t have all the details.
The contaminants, called perfluorinated chemicals, or PFA’s, were accidentally leaked into groundwater by the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base.
Environmental Health Director Chuck Lichon says while they are still trying to understand the issue completely, they are working closely with residents to make sure they have access to safe drinking water.
Or they can get a water cooler.
This is not just a local issue, however.
The air force is currently working with PFA leakages in cities across the nation.
And 38 of the 40 also have issues with these Perfluorinated chemicals or PFA’s, into the groundwater,” Lichon says.
We’ll unveil the history that led to the leaks in the first place, learn about the different organizations involved and what they’re doing to combat the problem locally, and hear how the Air Force is responding to the national threat.

Rotary clubs seek to raise awareness of clean drinking water.
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BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. — Five local Rotary clubs, as well as Rotary Interact and Rotoract clubs from across the region, will come together Sunday afternoon to raise awareness of the importance of quality drinking water.
The Water Awareness Project will be from 2 to 5 p.m. at Berkeley Springs State Park.
The effort will highlight the local and international clean-water projects that Rotary supports.
Rotary clubs will host a Bucket Brigade, where participants will transport water from the springs to a ShelterBox water-filtration system.
Mike Hornby, incoming Rotary district governor, and Berkeley Springs Mayor Scott Merki will join the cause by drinking the water once it is filtered.
Local high-school students who participate in Rotary Interact clubs will be on site, and will hold a bake sale to raise money for clean-water efforts.

In October 2011, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that the City of Montpelier had no authority to prohibit recreational uses on the Pond — a ruling that ended more than 100 years of Montpelier’s control of the pond.
In due course the Montpelier City Council and the City’s representative in the Vermont House went to the Legislature to seek state authority to regulate the pond.
The City shall have the authority to regulate its public water supply and public water sources in order to protect the water supply and sources from corruption.
The city’s water supply sources include Berlin Pond in the Town of Berlin.
According to Rep. Warren Kitzmiller who has consistently advocated for Montpelier’s control of the pond — H.6 — the bill that would grant the City the authority to regulate the Pond is still “on the wall” in the committee room.
Some will argue that it’s wise, that it may be in the best interest of the City of Montpelier to attend the working group meeting, seek common ground, get the best deal we can get with the Town of Berlin, the State of Vermont and the sporting organizations that have pressed to open the pond.
We’ve lost an irreplaceable resource, protected for more than 100 years.
Will the State of Vermont pay?
Or the Town of Berlin.
About Montpelier’s Berlin Pond Drinking Water Supply Vermont lakes/ponds available for fishing & boating: 263,000 acres Vermont towns/cities served by small pond for their drinking water supply: 11 towns with 10 percent of Vermont’s population.

The city of Rhinelander is eligible to apply for up to $300,000 in grant funds from the state’s Environmental Improvement Fund’s (EIF) Safe Drinking Water Loan Program’s Private Lead Service Line (LSL) Replacement Funding Program to help city residents replace lead water lines into or out of their homes.
The water and wastewater committee has known about this eligibility for a couple months now, and a flyer was sent out with the most recent water bills advising homeowners to check their pipes to see if they are lead.
However, so far, no one has come forward seeking information on how to obtains funds to have their lead pipes replaced, public works director Tim Kingman told the committee Monday.
"The reason we have not found a use for these funds is because there is very little – if any – locations where there are any lead service pipes present in the city’s system," Kingman said.
He added that even though the city would drop its claim to the funding this year, that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be able to reapply in the future if locations with lead service pipes are located at a later date.
Alderperson Dawn Rog suggested the city wait until the June committee meeting to make a decision to withdraw its application.
In hindsight, Kingman said the flyers should have been sent out with the water bills a few months earlier because the city would be hard-pressed to meet the June 30 deadline for applying for the loan now.
"What happens if we get three people who say they have lead pipes?
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De Nora attracts investment from Blackstone.
MILAN, Italy – Asset management firm the Blackstone Group has invested into Italian water technology company, De Nora.
Funds managed by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities will be used for the transaction for an undisclosed amount.
De Nora was advised on the transaction by Lazard and Blackstone by Mediobanca and Deutsche Bank.
The Blackstone Group was also linked to the sale of GE’s water group earlier this year, before SUEZ was confirmed as the buyer.
De Nora operates two principal divisions: electrode technologies and water technologies.
It was in July 2015 when De Nora made headlines in the global water market with the acquisition of Severn Trent Services.
Andrea Valeri, senior managing director of Blackstone Tactical Opportunities, said: "Providing capital to a company with a longstanding family history and management continuity is a hallmark of Blackstone’s investments in Italy and beyond, and we look forward to working with De Nora to build on its continued success."
Paolo Dellachà, CEO of De Nora, said: "We are confident that this partnership will act as a springboard for expansion into new markets.
De Nora’s planned launch of new innovative technologies will greatly benefit from Blackstone’s established global network.” ### Read more De Nora completes acquisition of Severn Trent’s water purification group

Voinjama, Lofa County – Citizens in Lofa’s capital, Voinjama will shortly receive pipe borne water through a USAID funded project.
According to Lofa County Superintendent, George S. Dunor, the water project is a USAID initiative meant to provide safe drinking water for thousands of residents of Voinjama and its surroundings town and villages.
The project is part of USAID Municipal Water initiative to be constructed in three counties including Lofa County.
The Lofa County Superintendent informed reporters that the construction of the pipe-borne water line is expected to be completed and dedicated by or on the 26 of July 2017.
He explained that residents of Voinjama are expected to graduate from drinking from open wells and creeks and begin benefiting from fresh pipe-bone water.
He disclosed that initially, Lofa was not one of the counties listed for the project, but said he was glad when the name Lofa later surfaced, but did not name which county forfeited their place to the former ‘Bread Basket’ of the country.
However, the question that remains is how accessible will the water be for residents of Voinjama and its environs.
The issue of the need for safe drinking water for the Liberian society cannot be overemphasized as vast majority of the country’s population still drinks from creeks and running waters in rural communities while most urban and semi-urban dwellers still drink from open wells.
This low percentage is seen not to be a surprise, as it dates back to the beginning of the country’s civil wars which ended in 2003.
Recommendations have been made by Civil Society Organizations and partners of the Government of Liberia to provide Liberians with safe drinking water, but much has not been done to address said concern.

Cheyenne’s drinking water is better than federal water standards.
According to the City of Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities’ (Board) 2016 Consumer Confidence Report (CCR), also known as a water quality report, Cheyenne’s drinking water continues to be safe and water quality meets or exceeds federal and local drinking water standards.
Or, in other words, Cheyenne’s drinking water is better than the drinking water standards established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
What makes Cheyenne’s drinking water safe?
Drinking water is safe because Board employees protect it and make it safe.
Water department crews monitor and protect water quality at water sources, during water treatment and as water is delivered to homes and businesses.
Cheyenne also has excellent water sources.
About 75 percent of Cheyenne’s drinking water comes from mountain streams in the Medicine Bow Mountain Range west of Laramie and from the Laramie Mountain Range west of Cheyenne.
Around 25 percent of Cheyenne’s water comes from groundwater wells.
A copy of the 2016 Water Quality Report will be mailed to customers, is available online, and at the Board’s office at 2416 Snyder Avenue.

A ranking of the Safe Drinking Water Act violations puts Wisconsin 12th worst in the United States by one measurement, according to a new study by the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The study released Tuesday by the environmental advocacy group lists nearly 1,400 violations of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act by public wells in Wisconsin, resulting in the state’s 12th worst ranking for the number of violations per the number of people using community wells.
There were more than 80,000 reported violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act nationally, according to the study.
Across the U.S. the federal government needs to put more money into the public water supply infrastructure, said Erik Olson, director of NRDC’s health program.
"We’re living off of our great grandparents investments.
A lot of these water systems are 100 years old or older and need to be updated," Olson said.
"The fix is to invest in two things: common sense enforcement of the law and the other is water infrastructure investments."
Our robust system to discover violations early is likely more comprehensive than other states, meaning violation numbers may seem high when looking just at EPA data, which some broadly interpret as a widespread problem, but in fact our system enables us to identify more problems quicker and allows us to assist systems in getting them resolved quicker, which in turn gets clean, safe water back on line for the public quicker.
It’s still reported to (the) EPA as a violation, but the community system is still serving the public with clean, safe water from its other sources.
A federal program will provide $1 billion in credit to finance $2 billion in work.

North Division High School students protest school’s water cleanliness.
A group of students held a rally at 4 p.m. at the school saying they’re concerned over the presence of lead in their drinking water.
Students part of the group "Youth Rising Up" organized the rally, saying they’re afraid to drink the water at their school.
According to its website, when MPS voluntarily tested the water at North Division, it found 15 drinking fountains and 92 faucets where lead levels exceeded EPA standards (15 parts per billion).
The district is in the process of replacing fixtures at North Division and at all schools where standards exceeded those guidelines.
A spokesperson for the district said two water fountains at North Division still need to be repaired.
"No longer will we sit back and just accept, yes this happened, no this didn’t happen.
The students were also upset over the installation of a filtered water fountain on the third floor of the building, where MPS says the district conducts staff training.
MPS said it found there weren’t a lot of water fountains on the third floor and staff who came to the building for training were waiting in line to fill up water bottles.
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1.4M children in Somalia to suffer acute malnutrition in 2017, UNICEF says.
ah_fotobox/iStock/Thinkstock(HARASHEF, Somalia) — The number of children in drought-stricken Somalia expected to suffer from acute malnutrition has surged by 50 percent since the beginning of this year, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
“The combination of drought, disease, and displacement are deadly for children, and we need to do far more — and faster — to save lives,” Steven Lauwerier, UNICEF’s representative in Somalia, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Of the 1.4 million children who are expected to be affected, more than 275,000 have or will suffer life-threatening severe acute malnutrition in 2017, according to UNICEF.
Severe acute malnutrition is an extreme form of hunger that makes people literally waste away and leaves children especially vulnerable to deadly diseases like cholera, measles and acute watery diarrhea.
Many of the water sources they can access are contaminated, leaving people vulnerable to waterborne diseases.
“They see their whole means of livelihood wiped out,” Susannah Price, chief of communication for UNICEF Somalia, told ABC News.
“They’re the ones who are so weak that if they’re hit by diarrhea or measles or an illness like that, they’re really at risk of dying,” she told ABC News.
Donors have also stepped up to help, hoping to avoid a situation like Somalia’s 2011 famine, in which over 250,000 people died.
As of Tuesday, UNICEF had received $78.7 million of the $148 million it needs, the organization said.