Columnist David McKay Wilson talks about changes in the plan for Westchester County Airport since George Latimer took over as county executive. FiOS Westchester has discovered groundwater contamination at the county airport, with officials suspecting it was caused by chemicals used in firefighting foam decades ago. Preliminary results from one monitoring well, located near a former Air National Guard septic field, found contaminants in concentrations that were 14 times the limit set by the US Environmental Protection Agency health advisory. The airport borders the Kensico Reservoir, which provides drinking water to New York City and some Westchester residents. Most residents in nearby Greenwich, Connecticut, get their water from reservoirs in town managed by Aquarion Water Co., although some rely on private wells. Tests of the Kensico Reservoir have found no evidence that the contamination has seeped into the water supply, a state official said. “We had a few high hits on some wells,” said Vincent Kopicki, the county’s commissioner of public works and transportation, at the Jan. 24 meeting of the county Airport Advisory Board. The contamination was detected at a well just north of the airport in July 2017, which led to testing of wells across the airport property. Samples taken in November found contamination at the airport, with the public notified of the findings at the Jan. 24 meeting of the Westchester Airport Advisory Board. Investigators want to determine which direction the contamination is flowing — to the west toward the Kensico Reservoir, or to the southeast, toward public wells in Greenwich. The EPA sets safe drinking water standards of 70 parts per trillion….

Manawatū’s mayor and Horizons Regional Council are stepping up pressure on the Government to deal more effectively with fallout from the Ohakea airbase water contamination saga. Manawatū mayor Helen Worboys has visited residents around the base because of community concerns about the quality of information being provided. Some had talked about suffering headaches and illness, she said. “What I am hearing from our affected community members is that the information they are being provided with is inconsistent and unclear,” she said. READ MORE: * Lawyers talk with landowners at Ohakea and Woodbourne about water contamination * Test results show Ohakea and Woodbourne drinking water contaminated from airbase toxic runoff * Chemical risk bubbles over for Ohakea’s neighbours Legal action could result from the saga, with Horizons officially investigating the incident. The Defence Force stopped using a specific firefighting foam in 2002 after concerns were raised about two chemicals, PFOS and PFOA. They got initial results back about possible contamination of water in 2015, but did not inform the Government until August. The Ministry for the Environment has since done testing at Ohakea, and found 19 properties near the base had the toxic foam contaminants on the…

Water scarcity already affects more than 40 per cent of the world’s population and is expected to rise due to global warming. Drought-stricken Cape Town could run out of water as soon as April, but South Africa is not alone in its struggle as ever more world cities battle acute water shortages. Water scarcity already affects more than 40 per cent of the world’s population and is expected to rise due to global warming, with one in four people projected to face chronic or recurring shortages by 2050, according to the United Nations. Already hosting more than half the world’s people, cities are at the forefront of the problem, as population growth increases pressure on reserves, which are already stretched by too little rain and too much waste. Following are some of the crisis cities: MELBOURNE The Australian city suffered the so-called ‘Millennium drought’ between 1997 and 2009. It was one of the worst dry…

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Drought-stricken Cape Town could run out of water as soon as April, but South Africa is not alone in its struggle as ever more world cities battle acute water shortages. Water scarcity already affects more than 40 percent of the world’s population and is expected to rise due to global warming, with one in four people projected to face chronic or recurring shortages by 2050, according to the United Nations. Already hosting more than half the world’s people, cities are at the forefront of the problem, as population growth increases pressure on reserves, which are already stretched by too little rain and too much waste. Following are some of the crisis cities: SAO PAULO The reservoir supplying Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city and a metropolitan region of 20 million people, nearly dried up in 2015, as the country faced its worst drought in 80 years, depriving many residents of water for 12 hours a day. The city was criticized by U.N. experts for losing 31 percent of its treated water to leaks and theft, compared to an average of…