Shuaibah SWRO desalination deal helps Doosan re-enter Saudi Arabia

Shuaibah SWRO desalination deal helps Doosan re-enter Saudi Arabia.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Korean firm Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction has secured a US$422 million contract to build a seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant in Saudi Arabia.
The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) project for the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) will see the SWRO facility built in Shuaibah, 110 km south of Jeddah, on the coast of Red Sea.
Business Korea reported that the produced water will supply 1.3 million people in the region.
It has been seven years since Doosan has secured new business in Saudi Arabia’s desalination market, having won the Yanbu phase 3 desalination deal in 2012, and the Ras Al-Khair project back in 2010.
Yoon Seok-won, head of Water BG Group at Doosan Heavy Industries reportedly said: “We hope to move more aggressively to tap into the global RO seawater desalination market, which will worth US$4.5 billion (5.01 trillion won), by 2020.” ### Read more Doosan ships first evaporator unit for Saudi Arabia’s Ras Al Khair seawater desalination plant

The issue of limited access to clean water off campus needs attention now

Originally posted on September 26, 2016

 

Sometimes you do not realize how often you use something until you no longer have open access to it. Some students living in off-campus housing are realizing just how true that statement is now, with limited access to clean water.

Residents of Cedar Ridge Townhomes in Willington, including many students from the University of Connecticut, have had yellow water that sometimes carries foul odor pouring from their taps since before move-in day in late August. Cups of this water sometimes have black sediment settling at the bottom.  Residents are not able to drink this water, and they cannot cook or bathe with it either. This means buying a lot of bottled water and showering elsewhere.

The Lutz Management Company, the company running Cedar Ridge, is employing a water specialist and testing the water weekly. The complex sent an email to its residents notifying them that they currently draining out all of their hot water storage tanks in an attempt to drain the sediment. That email stated the water was safe to drink. Yet Robert Miller, Eastern Highlands Health District’s director of health, says that they cannot be certain of the current problem. He also warned that there are many possible reasons for discolored water and said, “Prudent avoidance is probably the way to go until you feel comfortable about the water you’re drinking.”

This is not the only incident of poor water quality in housing around or in the UConn area; there have been problems at Mansfield and Hilltop apartments. Last Tuesday, students at Hilltop noticed the water from their faucets was brown, with enough color to stain towels. A few weeks ago, Mansfield Apartments’ residents noticed the water from their taps was brown. A few students resorted to bottled water because this concerned them. It only lasted a few days, but the university did not release any official communications nor did they tell the residents how the problem was resolved.

This problem is not specific to this year. A student from Mansfield Apartments reported a similar problem last year.

The University of Connecticut has been involved with all of these problems. They receive updates from the Eastern Highlands Health District and work with students to help them fulfill their needs, including providing students Salma Yousif and her roommate with meal plans because they cannot cook with the Cedar Ridge water. Yet, the university could be better with communication about these water problems on campus and off, because it would provide more security for the students, knowing the university is doing everything possible to bring back the daily staple of clean water.

Wisconsin will have to alter water access

originally posted on April 3, 2017

 

source, Waukesha could no longer rely on the radium-laced aquifer that has served it for so long.

A panel of governors on a Great Lakes regional council on June 21 has approved a request from Waukesha to divert water from Lake Michigan.

“That’s an area where I suspect that we all have a lot of work left to do – to make sure that the State of Wisconsin and the City of Waukesha are protecting that river and those communities”, said Molly Flanagan with the Alliance for the Great Lakes.

In the months leading up to the historic vote, 38,000 citizens from around the Great Lakes basin offered their opinions on the request – 99 percent of which opposed Waukesha’s request.

Waukesha Mayor Shawn Reilly said he’s pleased with the outcome.

This was the first major test for the Great Lakes Compact, which was enacted in 2008 to have control of water diversion from the Great Lakes.

The city applied for the diversion in 2010, and state regulators reviewed the request for six years before passage on Tuesday. That’s what the compact was designed on, looking at the population the Great Lakes feed in both the USA and Canada. Our families and employers need a new water supply.

Waukesha’s plan is to buy water from Oak Creek which would then pipeline the water west. Waukesha would use the water, treat the water, then send it back to the Lake via the Root River in Racine.

It was among many springs in the city that once provided most of Waukesha’s drinking water.

Just before 2 p.m., delegates for the governors of Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and NY gave their unanimous consent during a during a Tuesday, June 21 meeting of the Great Lakes Compact council. All Great Lakes states will be able to audit the community’s compliance, and environmental monitoring and mandatory reporting will be enforced.

In fact Dingell and Miller charge that the decision to divert water to Waukesha undermines the entire Compact agreement. Waukesha plans to buy its water from Oak Creek and return almost 100 percent it, after treatment, to the lake via the Root River.

The compact largely forbids water to be exported outside of the Great Lakes basin, with two exceptions – for cities that straddle the watershed, or cities located in counties that straddle the line where water on one side flows into the Great Lakes, water on the other side into the Mississippi River. “It is key that Great Lakes advocates and the Compact Council remain heavily engaged in this process to ensure that the requirements under the Great Lakes Compact and specific conditions are enforced and the integrity of the Great Lakes Compact is upheld”.

The mayor also praised the Waukesha Common Council, the Waukesha Water Utility Commission and Waukesha Water Utility staff. “Waukesha investigated all our alternatives”.

The compact also established that any one governor could sink a request for water diversion.

Drought leaves 237,000 people thirsty in central China

by PNA-Xinhua, originally posted on September 25, 2016

 

WUHAN — Severe drought in central China’s Hubei Province over the past three weeks has caused drinking water shortages for 237,000 people, local authorities said Saturday.

The province received average precipitation of 10.5 mm since the beginning of the month, only 10 percent of the normal volume, the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters said in a press release.

It said the northwest of the province suffered the most from the drought.

In Shiyan and Yichang cities, the driest areas, 237,000 people and 170,000 head of cattle were suffering from a shortage of drinking water.

Meanwhile, 123,000 hectares of cropland was damaged by the drought, posing severe challenges for this year’s harvest.

The provincial government has sent water wagons to relief thirst in the drought-hit villages and townships.

Boil-water advisory lifted for Richmond community

originally posted on June 27, 2016

 

Ottawa Public Health has lifted the boil-water advisory for users of the communal well water system in the Kings Park community in Richmond. The caution is no longer in effect, according to a tweet sent out Monday.

The advisory issued on June 25 was due to a depressurization in the communal well system in the area.

Water users in the affected area had been asked to bring their water to a rolling boil for at least one minute before using it for all consumption purposes, including drinking, making juice, ice and infant formula, as well as for use in food preparation.

Crouch Mesa water crisis continues through weekend

The New Mexico Environment Department and the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission will hold a meeting June 30 to hear concerns from the public about AV Water

-by Brett Berntsen, originally posted on June 25, 2016

 

FARMINGTON — The Crouch Mesa water crisis will continue through the weekend, as the AV Water company waits for equipment to arrive that will allow it to restore drinking water to more than 6,000 customers.

The water system has been under a boil advisory for about a month, due to problems at its aging treatment facility. On Tuesday, the company entered a contract with the city of Farmington to purchase water and distribute it to its customers. A connection currently exists between the two systems, but the company doesn’t have adequate pumping equipment to route water through its entire service base.

Fred Whistle, AV Water’s General Manager, said the company is attempting to install a temporary pump within a week. Establishing a permanent solution, however, will take another two or three weeks, he said. Once construction is complete, it will take additional time to carry out tests to clear the water for drinking.

The lengthy crisis has drawn criticism from customers and regulators alike, especially with continued high temperatures. To prompt a faster response, the New Mexico Environment Department has issued an Emergency Order, which charges AV Water a $1,000-per-day fine if the company does not improve in a timely manner.

According to a press release issued on Friday, both the NMED and the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission are investigating AV Water. The state agencies will hold a meeting on June 30 to hear concerns from the public. The meeting will take place at 6 p.m. at the Farmington Civic Center, 200 W. Arrington St.

Frustrated customers have also formed a Facebook group called the Animas Valley Water Protesters. The group plans to meet on June 28 at Dino’s Hideaway Lounge, 405 County Road 390 in Farmington.

A common concern expressed by water users has been a lack of notification and updates from the company. Customers have also expressed reservations toward paying for water they can’t drink.

Whistle said the company has contracted with an outside business to provide alerts through phone calls and emails. Whistle said he’s suggested to AV Water’s owners that customers should see a reduction in their bills. He said any discount would be spread out over multiple months.

AV Water is owned by a Chicago-based company. Whistle said the owners have been responsive by phone, but have not come to Farmington in person.

As the boil advisory continues, the San Juan County Office of Emergency Management has established free, around-the-clock water filling stations for Crouch Mesa residents at McGee Park and in the city of Aztec. Showers are also available at McGee Park from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m., and at the San Juan College Health and Human Performance Center. The HHPC is open from Monday through Saturday. Hours are listed on the college’s website.

Late Friday, the county Office of Emergency Management issued a press release from AV Water asking customers to conserve water. It asks that they use the filling station water to flush toilets and do dishes and not to use water from its system to water lawns or fill pools.

It also suggests that customers “use the same bath water for more than one person” and do their laundry at laundromats.

Inmates win lawsuit to get safe drinking water at Wallace Pack Unit

by Jake Walker, originally posted on June 25, 2016

 

A spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice says the agency plans to appeal a recent ruling ordering the water supply at a Navasota prison unit be replaced after inmates won a lawsuit claiming they had no choice but to drink arsenic-laden water to cool off in the summer months.

 

U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison on Tuesday gave the Texas Department of Criminal Justice 15 days to provide water at the Wallace Pack Unit that complies with the Environmental Protection Agencies standards for safe drinking water.

 

Jason Clark, a spokesman for the Texas prison system, said the federal government’s standards regarding arsenic have changed “significantly” over the past 10 years. In 2006, the EPA lowered the acceptable levels of arsenic in drinking water from 50 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion. Clark said TDCJ installed a new water filtration system at the Pack Unit shortly after the change, which lowered the levels near the standard but did not fully satisfy the new federal requirement.

“The water at the Pack Unit is safe to drink according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Texas Department of State Health Services,” Clark said in a prepared statement. “Although this is not an emergency and the water is safe to drink, we have designed a new filtration system which has been approved by TCEQ, and the final installation is expected in early 2017.”

 

In an email from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Andrea Morrow, a media relations manager for the agency, said TCEQ does follow the same EPA regulations for arsenic and enforces those rules, but that the agency also employs its own scientific experts to research various potential dangers to Texans. Morrow wrote that arsenic levels typically found above 10 parts per billion are not an immediate health concern.

 

Edwards said TDCJ’s own experts acknowledged that drinking this water at the quantities suggested results in an increased risk of cancer, however slight.

“When you take away someone’s liberty it comes with responsibilities, and the most basic responsibility is that you provide shelter and water that is safe,” Edwards said. “That we’re having an argument about that is embarrassing.”

 

The Wallace Pack Unit is a medical and geriatric facility that has a high population of inmates who are over 65 or have serious medical conditions, the order reads. The six inmates named as plaintiffs alleged that TDCJ was subjecting the inmates at the Wallace Pack Unit to extremely high temperatures during the summer months, without air conditioning in the housing areas and with limited access to air conditioning elsewhere. The inmates said the primary measure TDCJ used to lower the risk of heat-related injuries is encouraging inmates to drink copious amounts of water, however, evidence presented in the hearing showed that the drinking water at the Wallace Pack Unit has contained between two and four and a half times the amount of arsenic — a known carcinogen — permitted by the EPA.

 

Jeff Edwards, an Austin-area attorney who represented the inmates, said the TDCJ is not taking the federal judge’s ruling seriously — that the water supply is a danger and needs to be corrected. Edwards said it reflects TDCJ’s “indifference” to the welfare and safety of the inmates.

 

He said TDCJ has spent more money litigating this case than it would have cost to replace the water supply. The ruling is designed to teach TDCJ what to do in housing prisoners humanely, but Edwards said the response from the prison system is disappointing.

Warrington votes to eliminate chemicals in drinking water

 

Warrington supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday night to pursue a strategy of removing all perfluorinated compounds from the town’s drinking water.

The supervisors approved an authorization for town officials to initiate talks with the nearby North Wales Water Authority to purchase 2.1 million gallons of water a day, which would meet Warrington’s average daily demand.

The decision follows the initiation of similar plans in neighboring Horsham and Warminster townships. All three communities have been dealing with water contamination since 2014, when unregulated chemicals perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) were first found in public drinking water supplies. The Navy and National Guard Bureau have claimed responsibility for the contamination, as the chemicals are suspected to have originated in firefighting foams used at a trio of former and current military bases in the area.

Since 2014, five wells in Warrington’s public system have been taken offline because they contain the chemicals above 70 parts per trillion — the limit recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency. That leaves just three Warrington wells in operation, and they average 19.8 ppt of the chemicals, according to township officials.

Customers in the eastern district of the township– east of Folly Road and Elbow Lane — receive about 35 percent of their water from those wells, and 65 percent from the North Wales Water Authority. Residents in the western district receive 100 percent of their water from the North Wales Water Authority, whose water has not been found to contain the chemicals.

Just 24 hours before Tuesday’s meeting, Warrington officials had addressed a crowd of about 300 residents in the auditorium of Central Bucks High School South. There, officials with the town’s water and sewer department laid out two possible options. One would leave the three remaining wells online, and in effect change nothing about the level of the chemicals currently in the drinking water. A second option would take those wells offline, replace all well water with North Wales water, and leave the five most highly contaminated wells as back-up after the military installs carbon filtration systems designed to clean out the chemicals.

Several residents spoke in favor of the second option Tuesday night, and chairwoman Shirley Yannich said Tuesday that their requests were heard.

“The board clearly heard what the public was saying last night, and that’s why the professionals worked through the night and early morning to put this together for us,” Yannich said.

But the switch to North Wales water is hardly a done deal, officials said Tuesday. The township needs several infrastructure upgrades before it can successfully make the transition, township solicitor Terry Clemens said.

“Among the things we have to do is get an interconnection system and booster pumps that are able to handle the quantity of water that would be necessary to meet all the water needs. That system is in design,” Clemens said.

Information handed out at Monday’s meeting stated the infrastructure could be in place by the middle of 2017. However, there’s also the issue of paying for it. Officials Tuesday did not offer any cost estimates for the infrastructure upgrades or additional water purchases, but Clemens did say the Air National Guard appeared split on what it would agree to pay for.

To date, the Air National Guard has agreed to pay just shy of $6 million to install a carbon filtration system for the three wells above the EPA’s 70 ppt advisory level and purchase replacement water in the meantime. But Warrington has submitted a proposal for more, Clemens said.

In a meeting with the Air National Guard, Clemens said military representatives didn’t give “much push back” on a request for additional carbon filtration systems, or the other necessary infrastructure upgrades.

“We got a lot of push back in terms of them funding over a 10 year-plus horizon, taking all the water from the (North Wales) authority,” Clemens said.

If other towns’ plans are any indication, long-term water purchases could have substantial costs. In June, Horsham voted to increase its water purchases from the North Wales authority from 400,000 gallons a day to 1.2 million gallons — an 800,000-gallon increase at a cost of up to $1.2 million a year.

The motion passed by Warrington on Tuesday also included language authorizing town officials to pursue additional funding sources and required, at a minimum, weekly updates to the supervisors on progress.

Then there’s the matter of the ability of North Wales to meet the demand. The utility has also entered agreements with Horsham and Warminster to provide millions of additional gallons as those townships work to reach non-detectable levels in their water.

Clemens said that based on discussions so far, it appeared the North Wales authority would be able to meet the demand after completing its own infrastructure upgrades.

“We’ve been having discussions with North Wales Water Authority for probably about three months,” Clemens said. “They’ve indicated that they have most of the capacity that we need, and that they will gear up to provide all of the capacity. But this is going to be an incremental kind of thing.”

Asked by one resident why the township couldn’t install temporary carbon filtration systems on the wells in the meantime, officials said that it can take months or even years to go through the bidding, design, construction and testing processes.

Two million people in Aleppo don’t have access to running water: UN

By Lucy Westcott, originally posted on August 9, 2016

 

The humanitarian crisis is escalating in the Syrian city of Aleppo, as two million people have lost their access to running water.

An escalation of fighting and attacks has damaged the electricity networks that are needed to pump water supplies throughout the city, according to the United Nations children’s agency, UNICEF.  The electricity transmission station responsible for powering the water supply in eastern and western parts of Aleppo was struck by attacks on July 31. While authorities were able to use an alternative power line on August 4, that was damaged in less than 24 hours during continued fighting and has resulted in a lack of running water, UNICEF said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Children and families in Aleppo are facing a catastrophic situation. These cuts are coming amid a heat wave, putting children at a grave risk of waterborne diseases,” Hanaa Singer, UNICEF representative in Syria, said in a statement on Tuesday. “Getting clean water running again cannot wait for the fighting to stop. Children’s lives are in serious danger.”

The U.N.’s call for a ceasefire comes on the same day the U.N.’s special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, and the U.N. emergency relief coordinator, Stephen O’Brien, were due to brief the U.N. Security Council on the situation in Aleppo. On Saturday, opposition fighters broke the two-week government siege in the eastern part of the city, opening a corridor to their allies in the west, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group.

The city has now been without running water for four days. UNICEF said it’s delivering emergency drinking water via trucks to around 325,000 people per day in the western part of the city. In eastern Aleppo, as many as 300,000 people—a third of them children—are relying on potentially unsafe drinking water from wells. UNICEF does not currently have access to eastern Aleppo.

Urgent repairs are needed in order to bring safe drinking water to Aleppo’s residents, UNICEF said. If running water is not back soon, civilians “will be forced to resort to unsafe water sources,” the organization said in a statement.

“We urge parties to the conflict to immediately allow safe access for technicians to conduct critical repairs to the electricity and water systems,” said Singer. “This is the only way people all over the city can have safe drinking water. Civilian infrastructure like electricity and water pumping stations must never be attacked.”

Aleppo has recently seen some of the worst attacks on its health care system since the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011. Six hospitals were struck by airstrikes between July 23 and July 31, resulting in a number of deaths, including four infants at a pediatric center, according to U.S.-based organization Physicians For Human Rights. In southwestern Syria, starvation and malnutrition in the village of Madaya has resulted in an increase in the number of miscarriages and suicide attempts, while children are beginning to experience stunted growth and skin rashes.

Residents face day without water

Four neigbourhoods will face the greater part of the day without water. File photo.

Joburg Water has sent out a statement warning residents that certain areas would be without water due to supply constraints on 21 June.

External communications officer, Eleanor Mavimbela said that areas around Linden Ext would face a day without water. “[There will be] repairs on a 450mm pipe on the corner of Boundary Road and Main Street,” said Mavimbela.

The following areas are affected:

• Linden Ext

• Fontainebleau

• Robin Acres

• Robindale

 

Mavimbela could not confirm when exactly water would be restored to the areas.

She added that water supply across Johannesburg is normal, with reservoir levels across the city in a satisfactory position.

 

Level 2 water restrictions according to section 44 (3) of the Water Services Bylaw states that all consumers are forthwith compelled:

• Not to water and irrigate their gardens from 8am and 4pm every day;

• Not to fill their swimming pools with municipal water; and

• Not to use hosepipes to wash their cars, paved areas, etc.

 

Water saving tips:

• Don’t leave taps dripping;

•Take shallow baths; and

• Use bathwater or grey-water to water the garden.

“We urge residents to remain active partners in reducing the amount of water used in the City of Johannesburg,” said Mavimbela. She concluded that residents report any form of vandalism and theft of water infrastructure to 0800 00 2587.