Judge orders bottled water delivered in Flint, Mich., in water crisis
By David Bailey, originally posted on November 10, 2016
(Reuters) – A federal judge on Thursday ordered state and city officials to deliver bottled water directly to qualified residents in Flint, Michigan, where a water contamination crisis has made unfiltered tap water unsafe to drink since April 2014.
Officials must deliver four cases of bottled water a week immediately unless they can prove a water filter is installed and properly maintained at a home or if residents opt out of a filter or deliveries, U.S. District Judge David Lawson said.
The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by residents and advocacy groups Concerned Pastors for Social Action, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan.
“Here the plaintiffs seek a stop-gap measure that provides ready access to safe drinking water,” Lawson said. “It is in the best interest of everyone to move people out of harms way before addressing the source of the harm.”
Flint, a predominantly black city of 100,000, was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager when it switched its water source in April 2014 to the Flint River from Lake Huron in a money-saving move. The more corrosive river water caused lead to leach from city pipes and into the drinking water.
The city switched back in October 2015 after tests found high levels of lead in blood samples taken from children, but the water has not returned fully to normal. Flint has been replacing lead pipes running to homes, and state officials have said the water is safe to drink if properly filtered.
The crisis drew international attention and numerous lawsuits and led to calls by some critics for Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to resign over the state’s response.
The groups’ lawsuit, filed in January, seeks replacement of lead service pipes. They later asked Lawson to order home water deliveries or faucet filter installations because transportation issues made it hard for some residents to get to water distribution centers.
The city and state argued that bottled water was widely available at government-run distribution points and ordering door-to-door deliveries could be financially crippling.
Lawson called the city and state efforts commendable, but said the plaintiffs offered credible anecdotal evidence the distribution network was in flux and not completely effective.
“The court correctly recognized that the government created this crisis, and it’s the government’s responsibility to ensure that all people in Flint have access to safe drinking water,” NRDC attorney Dimple Chaudhary said.
State Funding To Give Drought-Laden Tulare County Community Clean Water
by Ezra David Romero, originally posted on January 24, 2017
The tiny community of Monson in Tulare County received some good news this week. The State Water Resources Control board awarded $1.2 million to help solve the area’s long term water problems. The area’s dealt with high levels of nitrates for decades and the drought dried up lots of wells that people depend on for drinking water.
Tulare County Supervisor Steve Worthley represents the area. He says funding due to the drought is answering the communities longtime water problems.
“There is zero infrastructure in a community like Monson,” Worthley says. “We have some of the highest nitrate levels compared to the rest of the county. It took the lack of water to really change the outlook that provided the state funding for the project.”
Funding for the Monson Emergency Water Supply Project will be used to set up a system with a well that residents can hook into. The funding will come from the State Water Resources Board’s Cleanup and Abatement Account as well as additional funding from the board from previous years and the USDA Emergency Community Water Assistance Grant. It’s a total of $2.11 million. There are around 30 homes in the area.
“It’s going to supply them with a reliable supply of water, which will be safe for them to drink,” says Worthley. “Historically these people have had individual wells with septic tanks on the lots, which is never a good combination. They’ve had some real water quality issues.”
If all goes as planned a community of around 800 people a few miles away called Sultana could also link into the system. There’s a school there as well a post office and a few gas stations.
“They have a well, but only one well,” Worthley says. “This will give them some redundancy because and the new well will provide water for both communities.”
The project is slated to start this spring and should be finished within six months. Now that the funds are approved Tulare County, Self Help Enterprises, and the Monson-Sultana communities are working to set up a way for the unincorporated areas to be self-governing.
“After struggling for many years, we’re glad to see that the community of Monson is receiving funding for a long-term solution that will address their water contamination issues and supply,” says Self-Help Enterprises Community Development Manager Maria Herrera. “We look forward to assisting the residents as they connect their homes to the permanent water lines.”
A Third Of The U.S. Population Won’t Be Able To Afford Water Bills In Just 5 Years
And if you still can afford it, it’s going to get a lot more expensive.
by Charlie Sorrel, originally posted on January 26, 2017
Universal access to water isn’t much good if people can’t afford that water. That’s true in the developing world, but it’s also true in the U.S. A new paper from the Michigan State University predicts that “the percentage of U.S. households who will find water bills unaffordable could triple from 11.9% to 35.6%” over the next five years.
This isn’t just a concern for the people who need water, either. It’s also a big problem for water utilities, because, if so many people can’t pay their bills, then the water companies have trouble covering their costs, which will then be passed on to the customers who can afford to pay.
The EPA says that water and wastewater services shouldn’t cost more than 4.5% of household income. That means that bills can become unaffordable because of both rising prices, and also lowering incomes. This puts Mississippi in the high-risk category, says lead author Elizabeth Mack, because many families make less than $32,000. Many other southern states are also at risk.
But water costs have increased, too–a staggering 41% since 2010. If that growth continues, then more and more homes will be unable to afford water. Not only that, but because the people who can’t afford water are often concentrated geographically, they can put extra pressure on utility companies’ ability to operate. It’s one thing to have a few homes defaulting on their bills, but if it’s whole communities, then the costs will get passed on to the customers who can pay. Some of us can absorb those increases, but in many cases, the extra cost will cause yet more lower-income households to default.
Water services have a large fixed cost, and a big chunk of that is building and maintaining infrastructure. Much of the country is running on WWII-era infrastructure, and it is starting to fail. According to Mack’s report, the cost for upgrades will cost $1 trillion over the next 25 years, and that will drive prices still higher.
Then, in poorer areas, the population is shrinking enough that there aren’t enough people left to pay for these fixed costs. Almost half of the accounts in Philadelphia, 227,000 customers, are past due, and 50,000 people in Detroit have had their service terminated since 2014. These costs could rise even further if cities turn to private water companies to provide service (Atlanta, Georgia, has private service and costs $325.52 per month, one of the most expensive rates in the U.S.).
Add to this the effects of climate change, which means that infrastructure has to be improved even more to waste as little water as possible, and you can see the scale of the problem.
These are conservative estimates, says Mack. If we carry on as we are going, a third of the population won’t be able to afford water. That’s a rather embarrassing figure for a developed nation. What’s the answer? It’s not good. “Governments, utilities, and consumers will need to work together to solve a growing affordability problem,” writes Mack. Given the current political climate, and the precedent of care set by the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, her conclusion looks rather optimistic.
COA scores Palace management staff for almost P1-M drinking water tab
by Kathrina Charmaine Alvarez, originally posted on June 8, 2016
The Commission on Audit (COA) has chided the Presidential Management Staff (PMS) for buying pricey bottled drinking water since mid-2014.
In its report released June 3, state auditors said the PMS “could have saved more than P800,000” in 2015 had it opted to purchase purified drinking water in five-gallon bottles from water refilling stations than buying branded drinking water of six liters per bottle.
The report said the government agency decided to purchase branded drinking water from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Commissary sometime in the middle of 2014 “due to a lone incidence of diarrhea” among its personnel.
“For the year 2015, the agency spent a total of P999,100.00 for the consumption of 103,440 liters of drinking water at an average cost per liter of P9.6587 which proved to be more expensive than the cost of drinking water offered by the refilling stations which ranges from P25.00 to P35.00 per bottle of 5-gallons equivalent to P1.50 to P1.75 per liter,” it said.
“Had the agency opted to purchase from the refilling stations which offered P30.00 or P35.00 per bottle, the agency could have saved up to P8.1587 per liter which would have amounted to a savings of P843,935.93,” COA added.
The COA also noted that the PMS’ 19 water dispensers with a total cost of P76,359 had been “unutilized” since the purchase of branded water.
“We recommended that the agency be prudent in spending government funds by purchasing drinking water from reputable refilling stations. The agency should simply choose carefully a supplier which complies with all sanitary requirements to ensure safety of the employees,” the COA said.
Sought for comment, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma, Jr. defended the agency’s purchase of branded drinking water.
“Alternative procurement was done in view of health issues arising from water supplied previously. All procurement has been done in accordance with law,” Coloma said.
“Water dispensers from central office have been re-deployed to regional offices,” he added. —NB, GMA News
Pinehurst water issues beginning to improve
Pinehurst water issues beginning to improve.
Some good news out of Pinehurst as Pinehurst Water District (PWD) chairman Bruce Rumpel announced that as of April 7, all of the residents in Pinehurst who were without water due to frozen pipes now have running water.
However, this winters freezing has left its scars on the system.
PWD has identified three broken water lines that the city will need to fix once the ground is completely thawed.
The declaration of emergency is required for the PWD to be eligible for available grant funding.
To keep the city eligible, the BOCC essentially set up an auto-renewal process so that Pinehurst could stay in the state of emergency while the grant monies are being sought and distributed.
“If we start digging now, we are going to break lines that currently aren’t broken due to the heavy frost,” PWD chairman Bruce Rumple said during a previous meeting.
“No we have not heard anything from the Idaho Department of Commerce or the USDA,” Rumpel said, “they said it could be a couple of weeks so by the end of next week like April 13 or 14 we hopefully will hear something.” Dan Remmick, an engineer with Century West Engineering was also at the open forum to discuss the details of the project.
“We will begin design work once the grant funds become available and we try to expedite that so we can get it out for bid.” Mabile’s proposals feature a project that would open for bid in April, actual work being done in May, and have it finished by the end of June.
This week, Rumpel and representatives will begin visiting every home and business that was affected to see if there were any additional problems caused by this crisis that they can address either right then and there, or when the work begins next month.
IDEM to start distributing water filters
IDEM to start distributing water filters.
The Indiana Department of Environmental Management will begin distributing water filters to residents living at East Chicago’s U.S.S.
Eric Holcomb signed in February.
As the IDEM prepares to start distributing water filters to Calumet residents, a number of community groups have stepped in to ensure people living at the U.S.S.
Lead Superfund site have access to safe drinking water.
Elizabeth Gingerich, a professor at Valparaiso University, worked with Project Neighbors to raise money and collect water filters for residents of the Superfund site.
The state’s plan will distribute filters to residents in the Superfund site, but a request made to the Environmental Protection Agency will provide water and filters to all East Chicago residents.
Lead Superfund site, a collective of advocacy groups wants the EPA to supply residents with water filters or bottled water to avert potential health risks to residents.
As the EPA halted remediation efforts throughout the Superfund site in December, the agency found that 18 of the 43 homes where the water was tested exceeded 15 parts per billion of lead – the EPA’s threshold for water safety.
Twitter @craigalyons
Dramatic cholera outbreaks in East Africa linked to extreme El Niño event
Dramatic cholera outbreaks in East Africa linked to extreme El Niño event.
Scientists have established a link between El Niño and cholera epidemics in Africa.
A study conducted in Bangladesh revealed an association between the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle and cholera.
El Niño is a climate cycle which has a global impact on weather patterns including tropical storms and drought.
The new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science is the first to tackle this issue.
They created high-resolution maps of cholera incidence and discussed the factors that could explain the outbreaks – whether population density, access to drinking water, access to sanitation, and distance to nearest major water body.
The scientists found that while the total number of cholera cases did not vary between El Niño years and non-El Niño years, the geographic distribution of cases did.
There were approximately 50,000 additional cases in East Africa during and following El Niño years and 30,000 fewer cases in southern Africa.
Thus, increased rainfall in East Africa partly explained why the number of cases exploded during El Niño.
We saw an association between rainfall and disease, at least in the few regions of East Africa where we know that rainfall tends to be higher during El Niño years", Moore pointed out.
Water main break affecting about 30 Bedford County residents
originally posted on January 12, 2017
A water main break in Bedford County Thursday morning is causing low water pressure or no water at all for about 30 county residents.
Megan Aubrey, communications coordinator for the Bedford Regional Water Authority, said water service was shut off at around 9:30 a.m. following a leak at the corner of Chestnut Road and Windy Ridge Drive. One house on Chestnut Road and the 900 block of Windy Ridge Drive have been affected by the break.
Service should be returned to those customers within the day, Aubrey said. An alert from the authority stated that once service is returned, residents may experience temporary discolored water or air in the water line.
4 Million in Damascus without Safe Drinking Water: UN
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The UN warned that four million people in the Syrian capital city of Damascus have been deprived of safe drinking water supplies for over a week after springs outside the city were deliberately targeted.
originally posted on December 30, 2016
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced in a statement on Thursday that water supplies from Wadi Barada and Ain al-Fija springs in northwest of Damascus which serve 70 percent of the population in the city have been cut after “infrastructure was deliberately targeted and damaged”, Press TV reported.
“The UN is concerned the water cut could lead to diseases transmitted through dirty water, especially in children, in addition to the extra financial burden for families,” the statement said. “(People) have to purchase water from private vendors, where prices and water quality are unregulated,” it said.
Each neighborhood in Damascus reportedly gets water for about two hours a day and bottled water prices had increased dramatically in the free market.
According to the OCHA, 15 million people across Syria are in need of help to access water and households spend nearly a quarter of their income on water.
The Syrian army and its allies have been conducting an operation to liberate the Wadi Barada valley from terrorists since last week.
The government says the terrorists have polluted the springs with diesel, forcing authorities to cut the supplies on Friday.
The terrorists in Wadi Barada have cut water supplies several times in the past to prevent the Syrian army from recapturing the area.
Last week, the Ministry of Water Resources and the Ministry of Local Administration ordered authorities in the provinces of Rif Dimashq and Damascus to start using water reserves until the problem was resolved.
Syria has been the scene of a foreign-backed crisis since early 2011.
UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed since the onset of the militancy. The UN has stopped its official casualty count in Syria, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources.
Hoosick Falls Kids Call for Constitutional Right to Clean Water
originally posted on December 30, 2016
Environmental Advocates of New York and EffectiveNY Team Up in Push for Constitutional Amendment
“At home we drink bottled water, we basically do all the stuff with bottled water” says 10-year-old Hoosick Falls resident, Ashlynn Sagendorf, more than a year after residents first learned they had been drinking water contaminated with Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA).
Environmental Advocates of New York and EffectiveNY released two online ads today featuring children affected by the water contamination crisis in Hoosick Falls that make the case for a state Constitutional amendment which would grant New Yorkers the long overdue right to healthy drinking water, clean air, and a safe climate.
In a 30-second testimonial named “Mikayla,” 14-year-old Hoosick Falls resident Mikayla Baker says, “I think one of the highest priorities of New York State should be to have a healthy environment. It’s ridiculous that we should even have to ask for the right of clean water and clean air.”
Peter Iwanowicz, executive director of Environmental Advocates of New York said, “If the role of government is not to ensure the basics—that kids have water to drink and air to breathe that doesn’t make them sick—then the priorities are backwards. Kids like Mikayla and Ashlynn were drinking contaminated water most of their lives, and no one told their families. Since then, government has often covered for the polluters. It has become clear that for New York to be a true leader, we are going to need a Constitutional amendment to ensure the state proactively protects our air, water, and climate, and responds with full force when a crisis occurs.”
“Nobody makes a more eloquent case for the obvious need for New Yorkers to have a constitutional right to clean drinking water, fresh air, and a healthful environment than these two bright children, who are suffering the consequences of our state not currently have these essential rights enshrined in our Constitution,” said Bill Samuels, the founder of the good government group EffectiveNY.
Governor Andrew Cuomo is preparing his 2017 priorities which are expected to be released in the first few weeks of 2017; a Constitutional right to clean water and air should be part of his agenda. If not, the responsibility lies with state legislators to take the lead on introduction. A Constitutional amendment must pass two successive Legislatures, as well as voter approval.
Both spots direct viewers to text ‘OurWater’ to 52886 or go to NYCleanWater.org to sign a petition in support of the effort to amend the Constitution to include a new Environmental Bill of Rights.
Environmental Advocates of New York’s mission is to protect our air, land, water, and wildlife and the health of all New Yorkers. Based in Albany, we monitor state government, evaluate proposed laws, and champion policies and practices that will ensure the responsible stewardship of our shared environment. We work to support and strengthen the efforts of New York’s environmental community and to make our state a national leader.