Town officials are looking at an assortment of water issues, including how the lack of public water and sewer services affects development along the roadway.
[PETER PEREIRA/THE STANDARD-TIMES/SCMG] By Jeffrey D. Wagner / The Herald News WESTPORT — There are some homes in town with unsafe drinking water.
There is nitrogen in the East Branch of the Westport River and failed septic systems in town, according to planning officials.
Town officials are mulling over these issues, and started with a standing-room only kickoff meeting with an engineering firm that is conducting an integrated water resource management plan.
Besty Frederick, a project leader with the engineering firm, led the meaning and framed it by stating the purpose right now is to identify problems and generate goals.
We will get back something to a working group and then back to selectmen for next fiscal year.” Frederick said the entire process will take around 11 months.
She mentioned that there will be other workshops, but right now the goal is simply to come up with goals.
Planning Board Vice Chairman Robert Daylor prefaced the meeting with that point, saying that engineers were looking for valuable input.
Frederick pressed officials and residents to come up with goals, and asserted that if the goals do not lead to results for the town, the entire process will be regarded as a failure.
Former Selectmen Antone Vieira Jr., a third-generation farmer, urged residents and officials to stop blaming farmers for some of the river issues.

There were some victories.
Classes will resume Monday at Florida State’s sprawling, 40,000-student campus in Tallahassee and several other area universities.
State offices also reopened.
In the Bay County communities of Panama City and Mexico Beach, where the strongest hurricane to hit the Panhandle since record-keeping began slammed onto the coast four days earlier, search-and-rescue crews accompanied by dogs solemnly picked through the rubble of shattered neighborhoods The storm killed at least 17 people, including one in Mexico Beach.
"If we lose only one life, to me, that’s going to be a miracle," Mexico Beach Mayor Al Cathey said.
More: ‘Like a bomb crater’: Pilots survey damage from Hurricane Michael More than 170,000 power customers in Florida remained in the dark Sunday, including more than half the homes and businesses in Bay County.
"We will open our schools as soon as is feasible, but right now the county is focused on a humanitarian mission."
Bay Medical Sacred Heart Hospital had "significant" damage that required evacuation of patients, CEO Scott Campbell said.
The state Department of Corrections said 2,600 inmates were evacuated from the Gulf Correctional Institution and Annex.
"We’re all in this together," Tallahassee Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum tweeted Sunday.

Readers rave about welcoming to tourist, free breakfast, Seattle Mariners, help after bike accident, courteous homeless; rant about dark house paint, bottled water, yelling rowers, dog chasing squirrel RAVE It’s not the big things that will bring me back to Seattle to spend my money, it’s all the personal touches and hospitality.
Sure I enjoyed the natural beauty, Mount Rainier, Pike Place Market and the Space Needle, but it’s the smiles and friendly people of Seattle that make it a special place to visit.
RANT To the woman walking around Green Lake who took her dog off-leash so that he could chase a squirrel she was filming.
RAVE After crashing my bike in the rain and landing on my face, I was dazed and confused, with blood dripping and spitting teeth, trying to figure out if I could ride home, when a gracious woman stopped her car.
After they suggested a trip to urgent care, this lovely woman drove me there and waited with me until a friend arrived.
I’m so grateful for the kind and compassionate people of this city who put the sunshine back into a very cloudy day.
RANT In the age of technology, why are rowing clubs still yelling at 5 a.m.?
Unfortunately they came up short yet again, but they gave us plenty to cheer about.
There’s one on at least every block in my neighborhood, sometimes two.
Surely there are cheerier options, folks!

It might also be the next city to experience “day zero”: when it runs out of ground water entirely.
But in settlements just outside the city centre, people already live without municipal water supplies.
The Bengaluru water board does supply a range of tanker water services.
To access drinkable water, some of the more fortunate areas have access to pipe connections where water flows once a week for an hour or so.
These water kiosks are also connected to groundwater sources and water filters.
If kiosk water is limited or absent, residents have to depend on “canned” water for drinking and cooking purposes.
It is priced at 300-500 INR per tanker for 4,000-5,000 litres.
In some neighbourhoods, residents collectively buy tanker water by pooling resources.
This limited water supply also comes at the cost of time.
Based on our sampling of experiences in seven neighbourhoods of southeast Bengaluru, adult women such as Manjula* typically spend between 3 and 5 hours a week working to secure water supplies – time that could be used to supplement household income.

In the occupied territories of Donetsk region from 5 to 12 October, over 230 people were poisoned water from the water supply.
This was announced by the representative of the Ombudsman of Ukraine in the Donbass Pavel Lisyansky on his page in Facebook.
According to him, natkonal Kiev territory of Donetsk region has increased the number of people who were poisoned water from the water supply.
“From 5 to 12 October in hospitals of the occupied part of the Donetsk region appealed more than 230 people with complaints of high fever, nausea, and upset stomach.
Mostly children up to 17 years.
The parents of several College students said they convincingly recommended to be treated at home and not go to the hospital,” he said.
Lisyansky simultaneously assure, after the publicity in the media of the effects of water Makeevka residents occupying power has made every effort to hush up the cases of acute intestinal infection in the high school.
As noted by the representative of the Ombudsman, they are afraid of riots.
According to them, water has a strong smell of mold or dust, According to the published October 11 in the “DNR” results of analyses of tap water, there are deviations and chemical and microbiological indicators, including at school No.
86 of Makeyevka.

(Photo: Gann Matsuda/Wikimedia Commons) Over the years, cities and large metropolitan areas have been able, through their sizeable customer bases and economies of scale, to finance and build drinking water and wastewater systems that meet the needs of growing populations, serve growing economies, and satisfy an array of environmental and public safety requirements.
Unlike their urban counterparts, however, rural communities have small and dispersed populations.
As a result, they often do not have large enough customer bases to be able to make adequate investments in drinking water and wastewater systems.
This can create hardships in terms of human health and well-being, as well as the ability to attract new businesses and grow jobs.
Elevate Rural CA has identified such water infrastructure challenges as a key “solution space” in which rural areas, as well as the state as a whole, can be strengthened and lifted through strategically targeted community, workforce and economic development activities.
California’s rural areas contain beautiful mountains and forests, lakes and streams, rolling hillsides and stretches of coastline.
As such, they constitute desirable vacation destinations, second-home locations and potential sites for business expansions.
The exact scope of water infrastructure needs for rural areas is difficult to pinpoint.
California’s rural areas also face challenges in managing and sustaining the watersheds that originate in remote forested areas and sustain activities throughout the state, including food production, hydropower and recreation.
The California Economic Summit’s Elevate Rural CA initiative has identified the need to bolster both local water infrastructure and management of forest headwaters as a top priority, along with forest resiliency and broadband access.

And what would it be like to be without water for a day?
Local businesses and askHRGreen.org are partnering up to ask that very question of people Wednesday.
askHRGreen.org is a Hampton Roads Planning District Commission project intended as an educational resource for environmentalism in Hampton Roads.
In the Williamsburg area, Aromas and Alewerks are participating.
“Alewerks is very interested in environmental consciousness.
“We’re more than happy to support it.” The event is part of the national awareness campaign Imagine a Day Without Water, which seeks to educate people on the importance of maintaining functional and safe water and wastewater systems.
In Hampton Roads, 12 drinking water treatment plants with 21 reservoirs and more than 50 wells support public water systems.
“This is a simple way to make a serious point — that we shouldn’t take water for granted,” askHRgreen.org team leader Katie Cullipher said in the release.
“No water?
No coffee or beer.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) announced its long-term solution to provide clean drinking water for the more than 50,000 students and staff throughout the district, with the installation of water hydration systems.
In addition, DPSCD announced support from approximately a dozen philanthropic partners who have committed $2.4 million to support the purchase and installation of the hydration systems to be placed in every school building by summer of 2019.
“We worked expeditiously to identify a long-term drinking water solution that ensures all students and staff have access to safe and clean drinking water,” said Nikolai P. Vitti, Superintendent of DPSCD.
“We are extremely grateful to our donors who continue to step up and assist us with maintaining a safe learning environment.” The DPSCD Board of Education unanimously approved the implementation and funding of hydration stations in all DPSCD schools today during a special board meeting.
They are also working to raise additional funds from the community through a dedicated website link at http://www.UnitedWayWaterFund.org.
Until the hydration stations are installed, schools will continue to use water coolers.
We stand firmly with the district in putting the safety of our children first and ask the community’s support of our special campaign so that students have access to clean drinking water.” Similar hydration stations are being used in multiple districts around the country, as well as locally in Royal Oak, Ann Arbor and Birmingham schools, suburban school districts in Michigan.
“The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) applauds Superintendent Dr. Nikolai Vitti for being proactive and testing all of the water taps at all of the Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) school buildings.
Included in this packet is a letter from the Detroit Health Department.
The District extends a special thank you to the donors, and all involved who have put this plan in place.

Detroit Public Schools Community District has so far secured $2.4 million to deal with a widespread lead/copper water contamination problem in its buildings, including separate $500,000 pledges from United Way for Southeastern Michigan and Quicken Loans Community Fund.
The Detroit public school district plans to buy 818 clean water stations for its 106 schools as part of a $3 million effort to deal with high copper and/or lead levels in school buildings’ water.
DPSCD, United Way and the Quicken Loans Community Fund announced the "permanent solution" Tuesday afternoon, soon after the Detroit school board unanimously approved the new plan.
The district’s plan involves installing new Elkay "hydration station" drinking fountains and filtration systems that cool water and remove contaminants.
We stand firmly with the District in putting the safety of our children first and ask the community’s support of our special campaign so that students have access to clean drinking water."
United Way is seeking donations to its Detroit schools water fund on a new website, UnitedWayWaterFund.org.
Donations are funding a substantial portion of costs, but the rest will come from the district’s coffers.
Since Vitti shut off drinking water access, the more than 50,000 students and staff have been drinking out of coolers and bottles.
DPSCD is to purchase water coolers through June 30 from Absopure for $750,000.
The district is still waiting for water test results from 17 schools.

The state of Vermont has been awarded a total of $18,966,000 in revolving loan fund grants to finance community-based water infrastructure projects, such as upgrades to municipal sewage plants and public drinking water systems, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday.
"These low-cost loans further EPA’s commitment to ensuring American communities have access to clean water, safe drinking water and the infrastructure necessary to support local needs."
Phil Scott.
"These loans are especially important to our smallest communities, helping pay for crucial infrastructure upgrades, and can be used to enhance drinking and wastewater treatment facilities, keep pollution in check, support green infrastructure projects and more."
The total amount of funding came through separate grants to the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation in the amount of $7,859,000 for its clean water revolving fund program, and for $11,107,000 for its drinking water revolving fund program.
In partnership with the Vermont Municipal Bond Bank, the DEC administers the state revolving fund programs at the state level.
Under both loan programs, the EPA provides grants to all 50 states plus Puerto Rico to capitalize state water loan programs.
Since 1987, the SRFs have provided more than $160 billion in financial assistance to 38,000 water quality infrastructure projects and 14,000 drinking water projects.
Clean water programs provide loans to construct municipal wastewater facilities, control nonpoint sources of pollution, build decentralized wastewater treatment systems, create green infrastructure projects and protect estuaries.
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