The Kansas government allowed hundreds of residents in two Wichita-area neighborhoods to drink water contaminated by a cleaning chemical called perchloroethylene, also known as PCE or tetrachloroethylene, The Wichita Eagle reported Sunday.
The state discovered the tainted groundwater at a Haysville dry cleaner in 2011 but the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) did not act for more than six years.
KDHE did not test nearby private wells or alert residents about the contamination.
Similar contamination was discovered at another dry cleaning site near Central and Tyler in Wichita, but the state did not notify residents for four years.
KDHE said they initially assumed the contaminated groundwater in Haysville was traveling southwest away from the private wells.
The delay in notification can be blamed on a 1995 state law requested by the dry cleaning industry called the Kansas Drycleaner Environmental Response Act that actually instructs health authorities not to look for contamination from shops.
They passed the Kansas Drycleaner Environmental R… https://t.co/7TdV0q4NJg — altEPA (@altUSEPA) 1535330832.0 One family’s private well that was tested had water containing 49 parts per billion of PCE, about 10 times what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allows.
"Instead, they all kept quiet.
Prolonged exposure can cause changes in mood, memory, attention, reaction time and vision.
Some studies even found a link between PCE and a higher risk of bladder cancer.

Reportedly, in 2011 the state discovered that dry cleaning chemicals had contaminated groundwater in Haysville, Kansas.
"We didn’t find out for 7 years," Joe Hufman told the Wichita Eagle, whose well was contaminated by dry cleaner chemicals at nearly 10 times the allowed level.
KDHE knew it.
Kwik Shop knew it."
The dry cleaning chemical perchloroethylene (PCE), also known as tetrachloroethylene, was found at a level in the groundwater that is considered unsafe to drink by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
"The Kansas Department of Health and Environment says it initially gave the Haysville site a low priority, assuming the contaminated groundwater was traveling southwest — away from private wells and in a different direction than Cowskin Creek," the Eagle reported.
"It had happened at least once before, at a dry cleaning site near Central and Tyler in Wichita, where the state waited more than four years between discovering contamination nearby and notifying residents of more than 200 homes," the Eagle reported.
But the costs associated with cleaning up pollution can tally in the millions, and the state law limits liability to $5,000 for a dry cleaning shop.
"Currently, the state is dealing with contamination at 10 sites, while another five are proposed for work this year," according to the Eagle, and almost a year ago the state had 70 sites on backlog as they waited for funding, with unknown levels of contamination and whether drinking wells were effected.
Read the full report at the Wichita Eagle.

Hundreds of residents in two neighborhoods near Wichita, Kansas, drank contaminated water for years without knowing it, according to The Wichita Eagle.
The Eagle’s investigative report found that Kansas officials allowed the drinking of contaminated water to go on for years “despite warning signs of contamination close to water wells used for drinking, washing and bathing.” The state first discovered dry cleaning materials had contaminated groundwater while they investigated a possible expansion of a Kiwk Shop back in 2011.
The Kansas Department of Health didn’t act for six years, even though it knew about the water.
According to the Eagle’s report, the state “didn’t test private wells less than a mile away.
Nor did it notify residents that their drinking wells could be contaminated with dry cleaning chemicals, known as perchloroethylene, so they could test the water themselves.” And, even worse, some fear that the contamination could happen at 22 other sites where the state hasn’t checked yet.

(Reuters) – Detroit authorities on Wednesday ordered drinking water shut off at all city public schools after elevated levels of lead and copper were found in water at more than a dozen buildings with antiquated plumbing systems.
FILE PHOTO: Running tap water is seen in Michigan, U.S., May 4, 2016.
REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo Over the weekend, supplies were cut at 16 schools and bottled water was provided until water coolers arrive, Detroit Public Schools Community District Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said.
“We have no reason to believe that any children have been harmed,” said Chrystal Wilson, a spokeswoman for the district.
Detroit public schools students are due to start classes on Tuesday, although teachers are already working.
Detroit’s drinking water comes from the Detroit River.
Water safety is a sensitive issue in Michigan, where lead contamination in the water supply of Flint prompted dozens of lawsuits and criminal charges against former government officials.
Medical research has linked lead to a stunting of children’s neural development.
Exposure to copper can cause gastrointestinal distress and liver or kidney damage, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Flint switched its water supply to the Flint River from Lake Huron in April 2014 to cut costs.

Ramon Padilla, Karl Gelles and Shannon Green, USA TODAY DETROIT — Detroit’s city school district is shutting off drinking water to all of its schools after test results found elevated levels of lead or copper in 16 of 24 schools recently tested.
In a statement Wednesday, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti of the Detroit Public Schools Community District said he had initiated water testing in all 106 school buildings in the spring to ensure the safety of students and employees.
"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.
► April 9: Up to 30,000 Flint kids to be screened for effects of lead in drinking water ► August 2017: 63 million Americans exposed to unsafe drinking water ► December 2016: What the EPA says it’s doing about lead in tap water Both lead and copper leach into drinking water primarily through corroded pipes and other plumbing fixtures, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
The Detroit Free Presswas shadowing Vitti on a day in May when the issue of water quality in the schools came up during a cabinet meeting.
Earlier that day, Vitti had learned that test results at several schools had come back showing elevated lead levels.
The district’s building problems have been a constant source of frustration for Vitti.
Water fountains and other drinking-water sources likely will be shut off at all schools by the end of this week and certainly before the school year begins Tuesday, said Chrystal Wilson, school district spokeswoman.
► April 2016: Lawmakers target lead contamination in drinking water ► March 2016: Excessive lead levels found in 2,000 water systems across all states Detroit’s water department and the regional water and sewer agency for southeast Michigan, the Great Lakes Water Authority, also issued a statement to assure residents that the lead and copper contamination with water in the school buildings do not extend to the pipes that deliver water to customers’ homes.
This isn’t the first time the district has tested school buildings for elevated levels of lead and copper.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Senate approved a $45 million appropriation that will allow the Air Force and National Guard to reimburse the City of Newburgh, the state of New York and other municipalities for expenses related to the contamination of public drinking water from the use of firefighting foams at military facilities.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand announced Wednesday that they successfully included an amendment for the reimbursement fund in a 2019 spending bill for the Defense Department.
Washington Lake, Newburgh’s primary water supply, has been closed since May 2016 due to high levels of PFOS, one of the chemicals found in firefighting foam.
An investigation concluded that the contamination came from the use of the foams at Stewart Air National Guard Base.
Contamination from PFAS, the class of chemicals that includes PFOS, was also found in private wells near Gabreski Air Force Base in Suffolk County.
“Communities all across New York State deserve to be repaid for the actions they took to respond to the contamination of their water supplies and private wells due to toxic PFOS contamination that originated on nearby airbases like Gabreski and Stewart,” Schumer said.
New York has spent an estimated $50 million in response to Newburgh’s contamination, the state Department of Environmental Conservation said earlier this month.
Costs include $22 million for a new filtration system designed to eliminate the chemicals from the city’s water and nearly $6 million spent between June 2016 and this past February to cover Newburgh’s cost to buy water from New York City’s Catskill Aqueduct.
In June, Newburgh Comptroller Kathryn Mack estimated the city’s non-water contamination expenses to be $573,000.
“It’s time for the federal government to do its part and reimburse communities like the City of Newburgh and Westhampton Beach for this expensive cleanup,” Gillibrand said.

And what’s horrible is that the government knew about it, and chose not to inform the residents about the toxic water.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment informed residents about the water that was going in their bodies only after six years.
The state also did not inform residents that the water in their drinking wells could be contaminated with the dry cleaning chemical.
“We didn’t find out for 7 years,” said Joe Hufman, after discovering his well was contaminated by a Haysville dry cleaner.
“Haysville knew it.
The state knew about it but didn’t notify the residents living in over 200 homes that they had been consuming contaminated water for four years.
To defend this misconduct, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said it did not worry about contaminated water in Haysville because they apparently thought the groundwater was traveling southwest, away from private wells.
That clearly wasn’t the case.
“Instead, they all kept quiet.
Thumbnail/Banner Image: Reuters, Navesh Chitrakar

With the 2018 primaries about to end, all but two of the 37 Republicans Mr. Trump has endorsed for House, Senate and governor during their primary campaigns have won.
The president’s supporters say the policies and candidates he is advancing bring the party more in line with what GOP voters want.
“ Donald Trump’s views are a reflection of what rank-and-file Republican voters have already believed for many years,” said Andy Surabian, a Republican strategist and former Trump White House official.
“Republican voters across the country have been ignored by Republicans in Washington, D.C.” Some GOP leaders say the president’s endorsements could hurt their chances in the general election by advancing candidates who could alienate swing voters or mobilize Democrats to even more vigorous opposition.
Trump Bump In many of his endorsements, President Trump has backed candidates who were already front-runners.
In Georgia’s GOP gubernatorial runoff, Mr. Trump backed Secretary of State Brian Kemp, a self-described “politically incorrect conservative,” over the lieutenant governor.
“Almost all their candidates for governor have shackled themselves to the…Titanic, which is the Donald Trump party,” he said.
“That makes it easier for us to defeat them.” Only two candidates have lost a primary so far after being endorsed by Mr. Trump.
Mr. Putnam had backed former Florida Gov.
Tim Pawlenty, a Trump critic in the 2016 election who unexpectedly lost his bid for a comeback in his state’s Aug. 14 GOP gubernatorial primary.

Representing Pakistan was the ruling Muslim League N’s favourite anti opposition vitriol machine and Federal Minister for Climate Change, Senator Mushahidullah Khan.
This comes at a time when Pakistan ranks seventh on the list of countries most vulnerable to the consequences of climate change.
The significance of the climate change portfolio can be accessed from the earlier sacking of Senator Mushahidullah.
Such was the importance accorded to the ministry by the then ruling Muslim League, that it was sacrificed to appease Rawalpindi.
DW calls water scarcity a bigger threat to Pakistan than terrorism with experts at the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources predicting that the country is expected to dry up by 2025.
One of the most water intensive countries in the world, there is an increasing trend of blaming neighbouring India for her water woes, with terms such as “water terrorism” hot on the nation’s airwaves.
It also passed the Environmental Protection Act of 2014 and has a robust environmental policy in its manifesto.
Recently notified as the PM’s advisor on Climate Change, Aslam has a wealth of experience in environmental issues.
Regardless, Aslam stuck with his party and was awarded with a cabinet position.
His interests include cricket, South Asian politics and political Islam Published in Daily Times, August 28th 2018.

This press release was orginally distributed by SBWire Houston, TX — (SBWIRE) — 08/27/2018 — E-waste or electronic waste is waste material created by rejected electronic devices and components as well as materials involved in their manufacture or use.
Although e-waste is a generic term, it cover televisions, computers, mobile phones, white goods such as fridges, washing machines, toys, tablets, digital cameras, dryers, home entertainment systems, stereo systems, toasters, kettles – almost any household or business item with circuitry or electrical components with power or battery supply.
"Research N Reports Analyst Predicts The E-Waste Management Market Expected To Grow at a CAGR of +05% During Forecast Period."
Get Sample Copy of this Report: https://www.researchnreports.com/request_sample.php?id=90379 Top Key Players Profiled in the report are: Aurubis AG, Sims Metal Management, Umicore, Stena Technoworld AB, Enviro-Hub Holdings, Boliden AB, MBA Polymers, Electronic Recyclers International, Global Electric Electronic Processing The growing market penetration in developing countries, replacement market in developed countries and a high undesirability rate make e-waste one of the fastest waste streams.
Electronic waste can be used as a resource, including plastics, iron, glass, aluminum, copper and other precious metals such as silver, gold, platinum and palladium, as well as economically beneficial materials for the recovery of lead, cadmium and mercury.
Developing countries recycle electronic waste because most of the electronic waste is exported by developed countries to emerging countries.
Computers, laptops and cell phones are generating a large amount of electronic waste in North America.
North America makes the largest revenue in the world market.
As a source of waste generation, the global electronic waste market is divided into IT and Telecom, domestic and consumer electronic products.
Table of Contents Global E-Waste Management Market Research Report.