A former Cottonwood city employee has been indicted on fraud and forgery charges after allegedly changing drinking-water test results to hide contamination, according to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
Hans Burnett — who resigned from his position as wastewater-operations foreman Wednesday — is accused of instructing employees to alter test results that showed positive signs of bacterial contamination in 2015 and 2016.
The altered results were then submitted to the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality as part of the city’s drinking-water compliance obligations, the Attorney General’s Office said.
The water contained coliform, the Attorney General’s Office said, which generally serves as a sanitation indicator rather than a serious threat to public health.
City officials said in a statement Friday that there is no evidence the public was exposed to unsafe water.
Outside testing and an additional compliance and audit process were implemented after officials learned of the fabricated results, they said.
"The city apologizes for this failure in performance and we can assure the public that all steps have been taken to prevent any further failures in the future," the statement said.

There is government deceit, and then there is a level of skullduggery that only Scott Pruitt would dream of passing off as responsible environmental stewardship.
Because he apparently has no issues with covering up a national water contamination crisis.
Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6th Dist.)
has it right when he says, "Families throughout our country have a right to know about dangerous contaminants in their drinking water.
The White House has once again shown that it cares more about public relations than public health."
The study from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry – a branch of Health and Human Services – was to propose new levels for these chemicals in drinking water that were six times more stringent than EPA recommendations, as the Environmental Working Group has found that current levels are unsafe for 110 million Americans.
We have it under control in New Jersey.
Chris Christie’s DEP set the national’s strictest limits on PFAS last November – for someone who dismantled the Drinking Water Quality Institute, he delivered on that one – but these chemicals are still everywhere, because they derive from Teflon.
They were first manufactured in 1947 by the 3M Co. for Scotchguard, then later during the nonstick craze created by DuPont, which knew for decades that it was contaminating water supplies.
Scott Pruitt, at your service.

The boil advisory is issued for German Township Water District customers located from the Boonville New Harmony Rd.
and Big Cynthiana Rd., east to Patdora Dr. and north to Sensmeier Rd.
The temporary precautionary measure is recommended due to scheduled maintenance in the distribution system.
Officials say the maintenance has been completed, but water pressure did fall during work.
Although the chance of water contamination is unlikely, customers are advised to boil all drinking and cooking water for five minutes before using.
Customers should continue to boil their water until notified.
Updated information regarding boil advisories can be found on the German Township Water District’s website and the company voicemail system at (812) 963-6403.
For the latest breaking news and stories from across the Tri-State, follow Eyewitness News on Facebook and Twitter.
(This story was originally published May 24, 2018)

Belle District, Gbarpolu – Students at the government-run Fomba Public Elementary and Junior High School in Belle district are troubled by the lack of safe drinking water and the deplorable state of classrooms.
They are frustrated that the school, which is the second most populated in the district, has no access to safe drinking water.
“I am kindly asking the government to help us get water in our school”.
Another female student, Iran K. Zaza of the 9th grade is worried about the deplorable condition of the classrooms.
“This building our lawmaker built for us is only used by the junior high classes,” she said of a four-classroom building constructed under the Legislative Support Project (LSP) fund.
“Our people started this school building for us.
“Our little brothers and sisters are suffering too; they walk long distances just to come to learn,” student Zaza stressed.
He works along with 14 teachers and five volunteers, who are heavily supported by the PTA.
“It’s regrettable to say that they too have a limitation, if they had the resource and know-how, by now, that their PTA project is finished, hand pump was not going to be a problem.” Meanwhile, John Bellah, town Chief of Fassama and a member of the PTA, says he’s aware of the many challenges facing the school.
“I just hope that something good will happen in our children favor during this Pro-poor government,” added James Seekay a resident of Fassama Town, Belle District.

Today, more than 3.5 million small businesses in the state of California – more than in any other state in the nation – account for 98 percent of all businesses.
That means, more than 6.5 million Californians and their families depend on a small business for their financial wellbeing.
The average small business in California has 5.8 employees, all of whom often wear many hats during the day to make ends meet – including sales, operations, human resources, finances, legal and more.
The list is endless.
Small businesses have fewer resources or employees to make our voices heard and less ability than larger companies to adapt to new fees, taxes and regulations.
As small business owners, when a problem arises, we can’t simply fix it by raising our prices.
A case in point: While a vast majority of Californians have access to safe drinking water, a Brown Administration budget trailer bill proposes to create a new tax on drinking water in order to increase water security in primarily rural, disadvantaged communities currently lacking safe water.
UCAN recently joined with more than 150 other businesses, chambers of commerce and water agencies to instead look to existing funding sources to address this dire need.
This same principal can certainly be applied in Sacramento.
Yes, every Californian absolutely deserves access to safe drinking water and with a little ingenuity and resourcefulness it can be done within our means and utilizing existing funding sources –not by implementing a water tax.

Dakine has partnered with the Rob Machado Foundation, Mizu Bottles and Reef to bring clean drinking water to public schools.
The group kicked off the initiative with a recent event at Haiku Elementry School in Maui, HI, focused on keeping single-use plastic out of watersheds while giving children access to purified water.
Albee Layer and Paige Alms, both surfers on the Dakine team and Haiku School alumni, helped distribute reusable bottles to use in the recent installation of purified water stations—funded by Dakine, Reef and Skyline Eco Adventures—throughout the school.
Staff from Dakine, RMF and Mizu, along with fellow pro surfers Kai Lenny, Tai Simpson-Kane and Jesse Richmond, spent the afternoon providing awareness and education on the importance of drinking clean water, as well as the risks of contamination to water sources caused by single-use waste from plastic cups and bottles.
Partnering with RMF and Mizu is the first of many environmentally focused initiatives for Dakine in 2018.
Since joining the brand in July 2016, Dakine CEO Ken Meidell has initiated a companywide movement to support efforts regarding mitigating the effects of climate change, better public land recreation policy within the U.S. and supporting clean water, healthy ocean and coastlines and accessible beaches for all.
Meidell was recently appointed to the board of directors of The Surfrider Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world’s ocean, waves and beaches, as well as Public Land Solutions, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing comprehensive recreation planning and stakeholder coordination to support effective and sustainable public land solutions.
For more information on Dakine’s sustainability efforts, please visit dakine.com/en-us/respect/.
Photo courtesy Dakine

Bhopal: Water scarcity at Shankracharya Homes in Baghsevaniya has forced its 80 families to consume unsafe red water leading to stomach infection and other ailments.
Red water is the generic term for water with high-particulate iron concentrations due to corrosion by-product release.
High iron concentrations in the source water can cause red water problems, while leaks can be caused by corrosive soil acting on the outside of the pipes as well as by corrosive water acting on the inside of the pipes.
The residents so now have to depend on borewell which has red water.
Consumption of unsafe red water has led to various stomach issues and many people of the society have complained about it, he added.
We have no option.
We are compelled to consume contaminated water after missing it with Narmada water h. We have complained and written over 50 letters to Mayor, BMC officials and engineers but to no avail,” said Sharma expressing utter helplessness.
The 66-year-old forest officer further said, “We have personal borewell, but since its water was red we applied for bulk Narmada water connection in January 2012 and paid Rs 2.70 lakh to BMC in July 2015.
Finally we got connections in April14, 2016.” But the water being supplied by BMC is not sufficient to meet the requirement of the residents.
We must take action, if we get such complaint.

Just over a week ago, InsideEPA and Politico broke news that the White House and the EPA attempted to bury a proposal from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry that suggested exposure to Teflon and Scotchgard chemicals may be harmful at levels 10 times lower than what the EPA has publicly called safe.
EWG calls on the EPA, testing laboratories and drinking water utilities across that country that have PFAS testing results to make the information public immediately.
Based on a reanalysis of the national dataset by Eurofins Eaton Analytical, a water testing lab that processed more than 30 percent of nationwide water samples, EWG estimated how many utilities would likely have contaminated water if the reporting values had been set lower.
At a reporting limit of 5 ppt, an estimated 1,046 utilities could have tested positive.
If all results down to 2.5 ppt were reported, we estimate that over 1,900 of the 4,920 water utilities tested in the U.S. would have reported contamination.
Using maps generated by Eurofins Eaton Analytical and the public UCMR results, we calculated the number of water utilities that the lab identified as having PFOA or PFOS in their water, without results being reported to the EPA.
The PFAS water contamination issue is not going away and the EPA needs to take immediate action to both understand the full extent of contamination and ensure Americans have safe drinking water.
Based on the sensitive results from Eurofins Eaton Analytical, we estimated the number of American water systems with PFAS levels at or above 2.5 and 5 ppt.
To calculate the number of utilities estimated to have detections at 5 ppt, we used the ratio of detections between Eurofins lab at UCMR levels and at 5 ppt compared with the overall detection ratio for all labs at UCMR levels.
We estimate that 21.3 percent of water utilities in the UCMR program would likely have PFAS detections at 5 ppt or higher, and the detection frequency approximately doubles when comparing levels of 5 ppt and 2.5 ppt.

More than 70 per cent of Aussies have access to fluoride in their drinking water and in New South Wales that percentage almost rises to 100.
But a few councils in New South Wales have repeatedly voted against putting fluoride in their water — one of which is Oberon, a town of less than 3000 people.
At a recent council meeting, the residents of the central NSW town passionately debated about putting the mineral in the water supply.
In 2013, both Byron Shire Council and Lismore City Council on the north coast of NSW decided to not fluoridate its water.
The dental health of kids on the north coast of NSW has now become one of the worst in the state, according to dentists working in the area.
Representatives from the Australian Dental Association attended the meeting, giving the dozens of locals concrete evidence about how fluoride actively prevents tooth decay.
Australians born after 1970, when the majority of water fluoridation programs started, have half the level of tooth decay.
Source:Supplied The previous petition with 672 signatures against adding it to the water — more than a fifth of the town — indicates the strong sentiment.
That is a comparison we can make weekly in Bathurst and Oberon,” Ms James, a NSW Health worker, told the publication.
Most other states have been adding it to their water supplies since the 1950s and 1960s.

An annual report by the Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency found the city’s water met all standards set forth by the EPA and the state for drinking water in 2017.
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SCV Water and Los Angeles County Waterworks District #36 are required to conduct a series of tests each year and compiling the results in an annual report on the quality of drinking water.
This 2018 Annual Water Quality Report, also known as the Consumer Confidence Report, describes in detail the quality of local water supplies in the Santa Clarita Valley during 2017.
The report is available here.
About SCV Water The Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency (SCV Water) is a full-service regional water agency located in the Santa Clarita Valley.
SCV Water provides water service to business and residential customers – half are local groundwater supplies and the other half is imported from the State Water Project and other sources.
SCV Water was formed on January 1, 2018 and combines the former service areas of Castaic Lake Water Agency, Newhall County Water District, Santa Clarita Water Division and Valencia Water Company.
Note: This information was provided to KHTS by the Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency.
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