The City of Salem’s water issues this summer served as a learning experience and research opportunity for Willamette University students whose families live in the area.
“They were told, hey, do not do this, like don’t boil the water or only use the water for daily tasks like washing the dishes and doing laundry and don’t use the water for cooking, but they weren’t explaining why you shouldn’t be doing those things,” said Espinoza, an incoming senior this year.
But when their community’s drinking water was suddenly and unexpectedly compromised, they started looking for answers.
“We were looking at the raw data the City of Salem was providing to the community, and our professor actually made graphs and we could see why the City of Salem responded the way they did,” said Vasquez.
Along with the students’ independent research, biologists with the City of Salem used Willamette’s lab to develop their early sampling protocols, because the lab offered access to equipment the city didn’t have yet.
Months after the discovery of the cyanotoxins, the city still doesn’t have answers to why the bacteria were present this year, or how they made it through the city’s treatment facility.
Copyright 2018 KPTV-KPDX Broadcasting Corporation.
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I am the proud co-author of bi-partisan legislation – along with Senator Bill Monning (D-Carmel), that finally provides a reliable funding source to ensure children and families across the state have access to safe and clean water from their faucets.
The legislation has been vetted through nearly two years of policy and budgetary hearings.
The proposal now provides greater economic security to agricultural and rural regions like ours while addressing nitrate impacts in drinking water.
In exchange for regulatory relief regarding nitrate contamination, the agricultural industry has agreed to very modest funding increases assessed on fertilizer and livestock.
In Sacramento, I represent one of the poorest Senate districts in the state, which includes thousands of constituents who lack access to safe and clean drinking water.
As a farmer, I understand how burdensome regulation and job-killing policies are increasing the cost of doing business in California.
This counter-productive approach makes agriculture – already one of the riskiest industries – even more difficult in which to succeed.
However, SB 844 allows California farmers and farmworkers to plan for costs that help make sure all Californians have safe and clean drinking water.
However, the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund has been thoroughly reviewed by all stakeholders.
Our communities, our farmers, and our farmworkers cannot afford another year of inaction.

After the huge success of three water fountains in Soho and Liverpool Street, the Mayor of London and the #OneLess campaign are rolling out the refill your bottle water stations across London.
There will be 16 new fountains in London before the end of the year with a further 17 potential sites already being investigated.
Scroll down for the full list of new fountains.
Since being installed at the beginning of August, the two Liverpool St fountains have dispensed 8,000 litres of drinking water, the equivalent of 16,000 water bottles.
While 78% of us nationally want easy access to free water, the average Londoner gets through 175 single-use plastic water bottles every single year.
“We are delighted to be working with the Mayor of London on this exciting initiative to reduce the plastic blight on the ocean and firmly establish London as a city that no longer uses plastic bottled water.” The London Drinking Fountain Fund has been established by #OneLess, the Mayor of London and MIW Water Cooler Experts, with the aim to reduce the amount of single-use plastic bottles used in London as part of the fight against ocean plastic pollution.
(For more information visit www.onelessbottle.org).
With the hot weather we’ve seen this summer, the demand is greater than ever for quick and easy ways of accessing free drinking water and I’m pleased to confirm the locations for the first of our 20 new public water fountains.
Some of these are already attracting thousands of visitors a day and we are working on plans to secure many more across London.” Look out for water fountains at these London sites Kingly Court, Soho (already installed) Liverpool Street (already installed) Heart of Valentines Park, Redbridge (already installed) Camberwell Green Swiss Cottage Open Space North Acton Station Square Windrush Square, Brixton Ladywell fields Beckhenham Place Park Horniman Museum and Gardens Paddington Recreation Ground Acton Park, near the new skate park Guy’s Hospital St Thomas’ Hospital Bexleyheath Town Centre Nisbett Walk, Sidcup Town Centre The Natural History Museum, South Kensington South St Alban’s Street, St James The London School of Economics and Political Science Need a new plastic free water bottle?
Our favourites are here or go the whole hog and put a zero waste kit together.

Four years after reports surfaced that tap water in Flint, Michigan, was contaminated with lead, Detroit’s public school district is shutting off drinking water after tests revealed large amounts of lead or copper at a majority of its schools.
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that Detroit Public Schools Community District Superintendent Nikolai Vitti decided to turn off the water at the district’s 24 schools after "water in 16 of them was found to have high levels" of the substances.
"Although we have no evidence that there are elevated levels of copper or lead in our other schools where we are awaiting test results, out of an abundance of caution and concern for the safety of our students and employees, I am turning off all drinking water in our schools until a deeper and broader analysis can be conducted to determine the long-term solutions for all schools," Vitti said in a statement to the Detroit Free Press on Wednesday.
District officials said aging water fixtures may have caused the contamination, the AP reported.
The Great Lakes Water Authority, which provides water to the schools, "says its water surpasses all federal standards," according to the AP.
Over 40,000 students attend schools in the district, whose school year begins next week.
Read more here or here.
– The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Up to 23 million households (in over 292,000 villages) without electricity; 7 percent (43,000) villages without mobile services; 17 percent rural habitations without clean drinking water; 25 percent of 14 to 18-year-olds (nearly 88 million) in rural areas cannot read basic text in own language.
Of 640,932 villages in India (597,608 inhabited and 43,324 uninhabited), all inhabited villages have been electrified – according to the government, although this is unverified – but over 23 million households in rural areas are without electricity.
Of more than 219 million rural households, 195 million, or 89 percent, have been electrified, official data show.
Of 23 million rural households to be electrified, Uttar Pradesh leads the list with over 12 million households, followed by Assam (1.9 million) and Odisha (1.8 million), as on 22 August 2018.
The first mobile phone call in India was made in 1995; now, 23 years later, 43,000-odd inhabited villages do not have mobiles services as on 27 July 2018, according to government data.
Of 1,78,184 eligible habitations to be covered under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY, or the Prime Minister’s Rural Roads Programme), started in 2000 to ensure all-weather roads across villages, 31,022 or 17 percent habitations are yet to be connected, according to this reply to the Lok Sabha on 22 March 2018.
There is a 19 percent shortfall in health sub centres, 22 percent shortfall in primary health centres (PHCs) and 30 percent shortfall in community health centres (CHCs) at the end of March 2017, according to data from the Rural Health statistics.
The CAG survey found that 73 percent sub centres were more than 3 km from the remotest village, 28 percent were not accessible by public transport and 17 percent were unhygienic, IndiaSpend reported.
About 25 percent of the 14-18 age group (~88 million) in rural areas still cannot read basic text fluently in their own language, according to the Annual Status of Education Report, 2017 by Pratham, an advocacy.
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A Correspondent Hailakandi: The people of Duttapar (Bisuram Para) under Gharmura-Bagcherra Gaon Panchayat in South Hailakandi Development Block have no access to safe drinking water even after 72 years of independence.
Located in a remote part of the district and inhabited mostly by the Reang community, the fruits of development are yet to percolate down to ground zero.
Feeling incensed by the problems confronting the community, leading citizen Shivram Reang on behalf of the residents of Bisuram Para, dashed off a letter to Deputy Commissioner Adil Khan urging him to take steps to solve the drinking water problem by sanctioning a water supply scheme.
“We are living in a very interior zone where government facility have never been implemented so far till date.
The main big problem that we are facing is that we have no pure drinking water.
Using such impure water may lead us to various critical diseases,” said Reang, urging Khan to use his good offices to sanction a water supply scheme for the inhabitants of Bisuram Para.
Following directive from Deputy Commissioner Khan, Superintending Engineer, Public Health Engineering, Nuruzzaman Choudhury assured that the department would make a survey of the area immediately and submit plan and estimate along with DPR to Dispur for sanctioning of a piped water supply scheme.
As a short term measure, Choudhury said the department would explore ways to provide drinking water facility through installation of hand pumps and ring wells.

United Nations Millions of children are going to school without basic hygiene facilities, and the goal of universal access to basic water, sanitation and hygiene remains “a huge challenge,” the United Nations has warned.
A new joint UN agency study, Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Schools: 2018 Global Baseline Report, says that good hygiene facilities in schools provide the basis of a healthy learning environment, and that girls are more likely to attend when they are on their period.
Moreover, children who pick up good hygiene habits at school can reinforce positive life-long behaviours in their homes and communities, said the report.
However, millions of children are going to school without basic hygiene facilities: over 30 per cent of schools worldwide do not provide safe drinking water; a third of schools do not provide the most basic of toilet facilities (such as septic tank, pit latrines or composting toilets); and nearly 900 million children go to schools with no handwashing facilities with soap and water.
The annual report is produced by the World Health Organization/UN Children’s Fund Joint Monitoring Programme, or JMP, which has been monitoring global progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene since 1990.
It looks at the progress made towards reaching the targets of two of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Goal 6(Clean water and sanitation), and Goal 4 (Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all).
Commenting on the report, Kelly Ann Naylor, Global Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene at UNICEF, said that “If education is the key to helping children escape poverty, access to water and sanitation is key to helping children safely maximize their education.
To neglect this is to be careless with the well-being and health of children,” Universal access to basic water, sanitation and hygiene in schools is part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, but achieving this ambitious target presents a huge challenge.
The JMP has designed tools to make it easier to track progress across countries, towards a basic level of drinking water, sanitation and hygiene service.—APP

WASHINGTON, AUG 29, 2018 — U.S. Sens.
Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan have introduced bipartisan legislation aimed at making sure federal agencies are held accountable for cleaning up PFAS contamination across the country.
The PFAS Accountability Act calls for federal facilities, including military installations, to expedite cooperative agreements with states to address PFAS contamination.
The PFAS Detection Act provides the U.S. Geological Survey with $45 million over five years to monitor the natural environment for the chemicals.
In May 2016, the U.S. EPA set permanent health advisories for PFOS and perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA at 70 parts per trillion.
Recently, President Donald Trump signed the Defense Authorization Act for 2019, which includes another $10 million secured by U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen for the first-ever study on the health effects faced by people exposed to PFAS chemicals.
Shaheen’s amendments to the act during the past two years include a total of $17 million toward the first two years of the first ever national PFAS health study.

The first-ever global assessment of water and sanitation in schools – carried out by the World Health Organization and UNICEF – shows that 620 million children do not have decent toilets at school and around 900 million cannot wash their hands properly.
“Children may not come to school at all if there’s no toilets … Then, when they are at school, they are not going to at their very best if they not able to use a decent toilet or if they are not properly hydrated.” World leaders have signed up to global pledges to provide safe water and hygiene facilities for all and ensure every child gets a comprehensive education by 2030 under the UN’s sustainable development goals.
A lack of safe water and sanitation facilities can cause dehydration, illness, and even death, according to the study.
Moreover, children who pick up good hygiene habits at school can reinforce positive life-long behaviours in their homes and communities, said the report.
However, millions of children are going to school without basic hygiene facilities: over 30 per cent of schools worldwide do not provide safe drinking water; a third of schools do not provide the most basic of toilet facilities (such as septic tank, pit latrines or composting toilets); and nearly 900 million children go to schools with no handwashing facilities with soap and water.
The annual report is produced by the World Health Organization/UN Children’s Fund Joint Monitoring Programme, which has been monitoring global progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene since 1990.
Commenting on the report, Kelly Ann Naylor, Global Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene at UNICEF, said that “If education is the key to helping children escape poverty, access to water and sanitation is key to helping children safely maximize their education.
To neglect this is to be careless with the well-being and health of children,” Universal access to basic water, sanitation and hygiene in schools is part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, but achieving this ambitious target presents a huge challenge.
The JMP has designed tools to make it easier to track progress across countries, towards a basic level of drinking water, sanitation and hygiene service.
Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2018

Mrs Owoade’s house has a borehole.
Once it does not smell and does not have sediment, I can drink the water.” Water Vendors Unlike the Owoades and Fasadares, Emmanuela Njoku in Jikwoyi, another suburb of Abuja, said she entirely relies on water vendors.
Though the vendors say they buy their water from boreholes, one cannot be too sure.
In Nigeria, potable water supply is a familiar challenge of households.
About 2.1 billion people worldwide, according to World Bank statistics, do not have access to safe drinking water services and 4.5 billion people lack access to safely managed sanitation.
“Annually, girls and women spend 73 billion hours fetching water.
The 2017 MICS survey stated that 68 per cent of Nigerians buy or source water from locations outside their homes.
He said if the country continues at the present rate of development in the water sector, only about 72 per cent of Nigerians will have access to potable water supply by 2030.
Mr Jurgi said access to safe water can save most of the under five children who die from preventable diseases, as most of the diseases are caused by poor access to water.
He noted that about 88 per cent of diarrhoea cases in Nigeria come from states that do not meet the WASH standard.