Elgin Academy students to walk for clean water access.
Elgin Academy students next week will walk 3.5 miles carrying 20 pounds of books using backpacks to mimic what nearly a billion people go through each day to access clean water.
The school’s Environmental Club is hosting a Walk for Water May 12 benefiting Water Mission, an international organization helping provide safe water and sanitation globally.
"There is no set cost for people to participate.
Our main goal is to raise awareness and make people realize what they can do in their everyday lives."
Feeley said she hopes future students will carry on the tradition of the water walk.
Water conservation already is a focus of the school’s environmentally conscious students, said Lynn Martin, school spokeswoman.
A baking club at the school does bake sales to raise money for Charity Water.
"A lot of reusable water bottles are on campus.
This is somewhat happening naturally.

How taking a walk in Seattle can bring clean water to remote areas of the world.
When we want clean water, we just turn on the tap.
But some 650 million people around the world do not have access to clean water, and by the year 2025, half the world’s population will be living in what’s known as water-stressed areas.
In many countries, people walk miles to find water and lug it home, and in many cases it is dirty and disease-ridden.
International charity World Vision, based in Federal Way, develops ways to bring fresh water to struggling regions, and today they tell us how we can help, and it couldn’t be simpler.
Samuel Irungu from World Vision shared his own story of growing up in Kenya with little access to drinking water, as well as the work being done by World Vision to bring clean water to remote areas of the world.
He also previewed this weekend’s Global 6K for Water.
World Vision’s Global 6K for Water takes place at 9:00 am on Saturday, May 6th at Gas Works Park in Seattle.
CLICK HERE for more information.
CLICK HERE to learn more about World Vision

To provide the necessary resources for our growing communities, more river flows will be diverted for agriculture and industry, stored for drinking water, and harnessed to meet rising energy demands.
And how do we ensure that investments in hydropower are lower risk and realize a broader portfolio of benefits?
It requires reframing the challenge between development and rivers as one of system design — meaning, we must consider a comprehensive management system that balances the needs of energy and industry with what river basins need to remain healthy and thriving.
The business case builds from the 2015 Power of Rivers report and draws from the Conservancy’s 65-year history of providing evidence-based, bottom-line oriented solutions to balancing conservation and development needs.
Key findings suggest that the potential global economic benefits of widespread adoption of a system scale approach to hydropower planning and management are significant: even a 5 percent improvement in other water-management resources in hydropower-influenced basins would produce up to US$38 billion per year in additional benefits, a sum comparable to average annual investment in hydropower.
Hydropower by Design can guide site selection toward a portfolio of projects with a lower percentage of significant delays and cost overruns due to environmental and social risks.
System scale thinking: essential to increasing investment benefits, minimizing risk Across renewable energy sources, it’s critical that we consider early planning and holistic approaches to avoid or mitigate impacts to our productive lands and waters.
Countries facing urgent demands to increase electricity generation are understandably hesitant to embark on a strategic planning process if they believe it will delay delivery of projects that can meet rising demand.
By drawing from integrated water-management, energy, and financial models, Hydropower by Design (HbD) can deliver useful insights about development and management options for governments, investors, and developers in a relatively short period of time.
And the potential to capture economic values beyond energy generation is substantial.

We All Live Downstream: At Risk From the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Spill that crude in water, and the damage can become far more widespread.
The simple reason: all pipelines leak.
There are a lot of people downstream of the DAPL’s many river crossings.
And that’s not counting the many smaller communities, some of them far from affluent, along the Missouri and Mississippi in 11 states.
As geographer Jennifer Veilleux notes, some of those more rural downstream communities include Native nations.
There’s the direct harm to human health done by short-term exposure to petroleum products, which can include poisoning, respiratory damage and apparent nervous system damage.
Secondly, there are the long-term effects from consistent exposure to smaller amounts of petroleum and its components.
While the levels of contaminants in the Mississippi River at New Orleans may not be significantly affected by a large accident near Bismarck, each accident does add to the overall burden of pollution endured by communities downstream.
Persistent organic pollutants from an oil spill — or more likely, a series of spills — may end up in your food, beverages, and toothpaste even if you live hundreds of miles outside of the Missouri-Mississippi watershed.

Drinking Water Is A Human Right, But These Valley Residents Don’t Have It.
In 2012, California made history when it became the first U.S. state to declare that clean drinking water is a human right.
But five years later, nearly 300 communities still can’t drink their water, according to new state data—many of which are in the San Joaquin Valley.
“Here is the project where they make the water treatment plant,” says Lanare resident Isabel Solorio, pointing to a concrete cylinder in the middle of town.
“Not only did their bills go up and they can’t drink the water, they also now have to pay off a debt of an arsenic treatment plant that sits in their community,” she says.
Around 400,000 Californians are impacted—and more than half of those live here in the San Joaquin Valley.
In Kings County, for example, 40% of residents have unsafe drinking water—that’s almost half its population.These numbers come from a new website the state water board launched earlier this year called the Human Right to Water portal.
There, you can find data about every public water system in the state and all violations from the past five years.
When the state begins regulating that chemical later this year, estimates of impacted residents throughout the state could skyrocket.
Still, in places like Lanare that are in that 1 percent, the problem may seem insurmountable.

MPS students raise concerns about lead in water at North Division High School.
A student group at Milwaukee’s North Division High School is raising concerns about lead in water sources there and has asked the district to provide bottled water until it can fully address the issue.
Milwaukee Public Schools said it has turned off every fixture — drinking fountains and faucets — at North Division and other buildings where lead levels were found last year to exceed the Environmental Protection Agency standard of 15 parts per billion and is in the process of replacing those.
But members of the advocacy group Youth Rising Up Student Union have complained about a lack of transparency and urgency in the process.
They are asking the district to install filters on all MPS drinking fountains and taps used for cooking, regardless of the test results, noting there are no safe levels for lead in drinking water.
MPS spokeswoman Denise Callaway said the water accessible to students is safe and that the district is in the midst of a three-year plan to add filters to every fixture used for consumption, including those that meet the EPA standards for lead.
Wendell E. Willis, MPS’ chief operations officer, is scheduled to meet with the group on Wednesday, in advance of a rally the students have organized to draw attention to the issue.
And it’s looking at other options, including philanthropic foundations, for funds to expedite the process.
"If the water is on, clearly it’s fine.
And if it’s not, we’re replacing it," said Willis, who is overseeing the efforts for the district.

Culligan International Supports National Drinking Water Month.
ROSEMONT, Ill., May 2, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — With concerns about our water quality in North America growing, this year’s National Drinking Water Month is more relevant than ever.
Culligan International, a world leader in the treatment of water, is doing their part by offering consumers helpful information on the importance of clean drinking water through their ongoing "Truth About Water" campaign.
While many naturally occurring chemicals and impurities from local land practices can be filtered at the source, unsafe amounts of lead can enter water from lead service pipes.
Because water contamination can happen at any time and/or through a local municipality, an underground well or a homeowner’s own pipes, it is important to have your water tested by a water expert who can determine the necessary steps to eliminate any harmful impurities that may be present.
While testing can be done at any time, Culligan recommends scheduling a water test especially after moving into a new house, if appliances that use water are collecting residue or burning out, and as soon as you notice a change in your water’s taste, odor or appearance.
Well water should also be tested whenever any changes in your water such as color, taste, odor or cloudiness are noticed.
For more information about Culligan water treatment products, including water softeners, drinking water systems, whole-house systems and solutions for business, or to find your local Culligan representative visit www.culligan.com.
About Culligan Cares Established in 2005 as a partnership between Culligan International and Culligan dealers across North American, Culligan Cares supports individuals, families and communities in need of clean, safe water around the world.
Culligan’s products include water softeners, drinking water systems, whole-house systems and solutions for business.

Shelf Life: Water for Africa with new Chivas venture.
Cheryl Hunter (shelflife at marklives.com)’s weekly pick of all things new — product, packaging, design, insight, food, décor and more!
I-Drop Water in Chivas Venture Gaia gets Inhouse overhaul Woolworths — a decade of doing good Water from whisky South Africa has experienced severe water shortages, with almost 2m people having no access to a reliable water supply between 2011 and 2015.
Social entrepreneur, James Steere, has created I-Drop Water, a for-profit social enterprise that designs, builds and installs drinking-water purification and dispensing machines in grocery stores at no cost, sharing income generated from water sales with store owners.
i-Drop Water has installed purification and dispensing units in over 55 locations in South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe, helping shop owners save almost 995 000l of water and over 1 300kg of plastic waste — an achievement that saw the company announced as the winner of the South African version of Chivas Regal’s The Venture III.
Says Steere: “Everywhere I have travelled in Africa, there is bottled water for sale in grocery stores at an exorbitant price.
And yet, in many of these grocery stores, there is a water supply; what is missing is a way of purifying water on site.
“We are extremely proud that our business is born in Africa and has potential to impact millions of people around the world as water shortage is a fast growing global crisis.” Inhouse inside Gaia Infrastructure investment company, Gaia, recently commissioned interior design firm, Inhouse Brand Architects, to create its new Cape Town office space, resulting in a design that is meant to perfectly complement the challenging and unusual architectural space.
Winning with Woolworths Woolworths’ flagship South African sustainability programme, the Good Business Journey (GBJ), turns 10 this year, celebrating its achievements in transformation, social development, health and wellness, ethical sourcing, sustainable farming, waste, water and energy.
Notify us of yours at shelflife at marklives dot com.

PATASKALA – When Liberty Christian Academy senior Addie Dickerson first learned that some children in developing countries must walk 6 kilometers, or 3.72 miles, just to get drinking water, her heart sank.
In need of a senior project for school, she decided to partner with World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization, and bring a benefit 6 kilometer run/walk to Liberty Christian and the Pataskala area.
By registering, participants will ensure a child in a developing country gets access to clean water.
"People even get information about their child, and they have the (opportunity) to sponsor them for life, too," Dickerson said.
"It’s because it’s 3.7 miles, which is the average distance a child walks to get water (in developing countries) — and it’s not even clean water," she said.
"If you get sick and your stomach gets messed up here, you just go to the doctor," Dickerson said.
The can represents the clean water World Vision works to get to people in developing countries.
The event will follow a course around the school, which stands on Refugee Road, just south of Pataskala.
The Pataskala-area Global 6K for Water When: 5 p.m. May 6 Where: Liberty Christian Academy, 10447 Refugee Road How much: Individuals can register for $50, but if they register for the Eagles Soar for Others team before midnight on May 1 they can save $10.
What for: Proceeds will go to World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization that provides clean water to children in developing countries.

Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism wins top national award for drinking water project.
“Failure at the Faucet” was one of 85 honorees among more than the 1,300 entries.
“This award is a testament to the stellar work of the Center’s staff and the inspiring leadership of Andy and Dee Hall, who have built the Center into one of the top investigative nonprofit newsrooms in the country,” said Brant Houston, Knight Chair in Investigative and Enterprise Reporting at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and president of the Center’s board of directors.
Reporting for the series began in 2015 as part of The Confluence, an experimental news project of the Center and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
It is an example of in the UW’s vaunted Wisconsin Idea in action.
In early 2016, the Center was the first to report on the dangers posed by Wisconsin’s 176,000 lead service lines and the state’s high childhood lead poisoning rate, which rivals that of Flint, Michigan.
Throughout 2016, the Center continued its coverage of the risk of lead in state drinking water, including high levels at two state prisons.
The Center’s staff, along with UW-Madison’s J475 students, won an award for "Best Investigative Story or Series" for the "Failure at the Faucet" series, which revealed numerous threats to drinking water quality in Wisconsin, including lead, arsenic, radium, strontium, human and animal bacteria and viruses and pesticides.
UW-Madison journalism faculty: Deborah Blum and Katy Culver.
The organization is “dedicated to the perpetuation of a free press as the cornerstone of our nation and our liberty.” Last year’s SDX award winner in the same category was “Rape on the Night Shift,” by Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting, the Investigative Reporting Program at University of California-Berkeley, Frontline, Univision and KQED.