Varattar emitting stinking smell, dumping suspected.
Chengannur: The Varattar stream has allegedly been polluted with suspected chemicals or sewage along the stretches passing through the Kuttur and Thiruvanvandur Panchayats.
The water in the stream along these stretches has been flowing with a thick black color emitting a strong stench.
Locals have pointed to possible sewage dumping from Arattukadavu side or to chemical effluents being dumped by a private company at Thiruvalla for the change in the water.
The houses on the banks have also been experiencing severe mosquito menace in the recent days.
Residents along the banks of the stream at Thiruvanvandur have registered a complaint with the Health Inspector.
OBC Morcha District Asst.
Health Supervisor K N Radhakrishnan said that water from the stream was being collected for tests.
The water samples have been collected and will be sent to the water authority lab at Thiruvalla for testing, he said.
Haritha Keralam Mission Technical Director R Ajay Kumar Varma said that an expert team will be sent to study the new developments on Monday and Tuesday.

Speltz, the chair of the Winona County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) Board, is not the only local farmer seeing soil wash away.
“We should look at not expanding, but reducing” the number of agencies and programs focused on water quality, Winona County Board member Steve Jacob said.
“There is still too much pollution going on, but we’re doing more than ever.” Pollution problems Southeast Minnesota does have water pollution problems.
Manure and human waste — from fields, feedlots, septic tanks, and water treatment plants — also contribute to coliform bacteria contamination in local rivers, and soil erosion clouds trout streams.
Big farms are not the problem, others argued, but rather small, less-regulated farms.
On the state level, the Board of Soil and Water Resources (BSWR) doles out funding and sets guidelines for local SWCDs, watershed districts, and other agencies.
The MDA, MPCA, and Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) all have different roles for overseeing water quality and working to improve it.
SEMWRB Director Linda Dahl said her organization is exploring the possibility of consolidating with another regional group, the Southeast Soil and Water Conservation Districts Technical Support Joint Powers Board.
In southern Winona County, the new Root River Watershed One Water One Plan (1W1P) Joint Powers Board would replace that, but Winona County will still have to maintain a water plan for the other two watersheds in the county.
Like it or not, Harmes added, sometimes the state and federal agencies require local government to complete studies before they are eligible for funding.

Fish and Boat Commission moves to protect local hatcheries from New Zealand mudsnails.
Centre County’s Spring Creek is a “destination stream,” attracting anglers from all over the United States.
The mudsnails were likely — although unknowingly — introduced into Spring Creek by an angler who had been fishing in a western state.
However, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is taking steps to make sure that mudsnails do not get into their fish hatcheries and potentially spread across the state with stockings.
Three Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission fish hatcheries are located in the Spring Creek watershed — Bellefonte, Benner Spring and Pleasant Gap.
“It is a low-voltage, low-wattage barrier that the mudsnails will not cross,” Niewinski said.
“We want to keep the New Zealand mudsnail out of our fish hatcheries, because from there they could potentially be spread all across the state.
Fish-for-Free Days allow anyone, resident of non-resident, to fish in Pennsylvania waters without a fishing license.
On June 11, area residents will have two opportunities, not only to fish for free, but to get help and/or be able to borrow fishing equipment.
Later the same day, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission will hold a Family Fishing Festival at Bald Eagle State Park at Pavilions 6 and 7 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Environmental Protection Officer (Water Quality Modelling) (Waste and Water Stream).
Job Description Environmental Protection Officer (Water Quality Modelling) (Waste and Water Stream) Location: Appointments Section, Environmental Protection Department, 12/F Guardian House, 32 Oi Kwan Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong An Environmental Protection Officer (Water Quality Modelling) (Waste and Water Stream) is mainly deployed to – (a) develop, review, maintain and apply mathematical water quality and hydrodynamic models; (b) develop and manage geographic information system on hydrology, water quality and pollution inventory; (c) evaluate and apply mathematical methods and statistical techniques in water quality and hydrologic data analyses; (d) plan and implement water quality and hydrodynamic modelling studies, investigations and surveys; (e) give advice on waste management and land or water pollution issues, and provide professional input to project assessment with regard to water quality and hydrodynamic modelling; (f) manage departmental computer facilities; (g) assist in the preparation of policy and legislative proposals and in the development of codes of practice, guidelines, procedures, standards, objectives and strategies in relation to the control of land or water pollution, and waste management and disposal; (h) plan and implement land or water pollution studies, control schemes and projects, and investigations and surveys; and (i) assist through various means, such as the preparation and presentation of educational and publicity materials, in conveying waste management and water quality management policies and strategies to the public, and to various community representatives.
Entry Requirements Candidates should have – (a) (i) a Hong Kong First or Second Class honours degree, or equivalent, in a relevant science or engineering subject, and three years’ post-graduate experience at an appropriate level of responsibility relevant to waste management or water pollution, with at least one year relevant to water quality and hydrodynamic modelling; or (ii) Corporate Membership of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers of a relevant discipline (see Note (1)) elected after 5 December 1975, or equivalent, and three years’ training or experience at an appropriate level of responsibility relevant to waste management or water pollution, with at least one year relevant to water quality and hydrodynamic modelling (not necessarily obtained after Membership); (b) a pass result in the Aptitude Test (AT) in the Common Recruitment Examination (CRE); and (c) met the language proficiency requirements of Level 2 in the two language papers [Use of Chinese (UC) and Use of English (UE)] in the CRE, or equivalent (See Note (2)).
Enquiry Address Appointments Section, Environmental Protection Department, 12/F Guardian House, 32 Oi Kwan Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong Enquiry Telephone 3521 0875 Master Pay Scale Point 27 (HK$49,445 per month) to Master Pay Scale Point 44 (HK$99,205 per month) Advertising Date 26/05/2017 Closing Date(dd/mm/yyyy) 09/06/2017 23:59:00

EPA studies creek contamination.
A handful of Osage County oil producers may need to temporarily suspend operations while federal officials attempt to determine the source of salt water contamination in a creek branch northwest of Pawhuska.. For now, producers in the affected area near Bird Creek will be asked to submit daily production reports to investigators with the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA administrator Sam Coleman said.
For several months, the slow-moving pool of salt water and oil was being monitored.
Since the creek eventually would discharge into Bluestem Lake, the city eventually took the precaution of switching to Lake Pawhuska for its municipal water needs.
The source of the salt water found in Bird Creek still has not been determined, officials said.
As a result, more than a mile of pasture land has been declared unuseable.
Tests were subsequently conducted which indicated the damaged pipe was allowing contaminated water to leak into the freshwater creek.
The environmental experts worked quickly with preserve staff to isolate the pollutants.
Pumper trucks were used to take water from a pond beneath the damaged pipe and a series of ditches were dug for collecting the contaminated water until it could be pumped away from the runoff area.
Officials said the salt water that previously spilled into Sand Creek should cause no problems downstream.

Surveying 16 stream catchments in the North York Moors National Park – historically one of the worst acid water pollution sites in the UK – researchers found a higher diversity of invertebrates than expected and faunas indicative of unpolluted waters. Previous water quality surveys have shown very acidic stream waters and high levels of toxins such as aluminium, especially in catchments that were forested after the Second World War. Little was previously known about how pollution might have affected invertebrates inhabiting these streams, which are the basis of the aquatic food chain. Surprising results Sam Jones, a graduate from the Department of Biology who conducted the sampling as part of his placement year at the National…

Rising temperature dries up wells, water projects across Odisha.
Kutra block with 16 gram panchayats (GPs) has a population of 80,000 and almost all the villages and hamlets are facing scarcity of drinking water.
Villagers are mostly dependent on tube wells, open wells and natural water streams.
A piped water supply project of Rural Water Supply & Sanitation (RWSS) at Panchara was rendered defunct after trial run in 2014 and a similar project at Biringatoli is also not functioning for the last couple of years.
Eight concrete reservoirs for round the clock water supply at Kutra block headquarters are also defunct for long.
At many dry pockets of the block, the situation is turning grim with tube wells not yielding enough water.
Locals said the administration should consider supplying water from three large pits of open cast dolomite and limestone mines at Katang to nearby areas.
Villagers of Baunspada, Andiapara, Bhogra and Jhirpani of Kiringsara GP, Kadopada, Birtola and Upartola village of Purkhapali GP, Jharangdipa, Jamupada, Baunspada, Malupada and Girjapada villages of Kutra GP, Toppopada, Majhipada of Kandeimunda GP, Khuntmunda village of Gangajal GP and many areas of Kandumunda and Rajabasa GPs are facing water scarcity.
Several piped water projects of RWSS are defunct.
Kutra BDO Jagannath Hanuman said the block has about 1,000 tube wells and the block has adequate funds to take up digging up of tube wells if required.

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – Have we been heading down the wrong path in terms of reducing pollution from streams and rivers?
In his presentation, he looked at water pollution from two different sources – the first being the sediment that is deposited into our streams, rivers and eventually into the lakes; and secondly, the nutrients, especially phosphorus, that are being washed into these waters and ending up in Lake Winnipeg.
“When I was a student, I was always told that gully erosion and streambank erosion was around 15 percent of the sediment load of most watersheds,” Lobb said.
Most of the phosphorus that ends up in the lake is actually coming from the runoff (dissolved phosphorus), and not the sediment, he said.
“This extends beyond vegetation in the field, and this point is important particularly to people in Minnesota, to the riparian areas, because vegetation in riparian areas can actually be a source of phosphorus, not a sink.
“The vast majority of our water and nutrients leave our landscape when the land and vegetation are frozen and riparian areas cannot work in that situation.
Those areas may have some function in lowering phosphorus in runoff when there is vegetation growing during runoff, but even then runoff concentrates into narrow paths and largely passes through riparian areas.
“By encouraging riparian areas that are unmanaged and poorly designed, you risk creating more of a problem and we have been stating this for the last two or three years.” During the question and answer session that followed, Lobb said Minnesota State officials are aware of this situation, that at least in the northern half of Minnesota, riparian buffer strips may not actually decrease the phosphorus runoff problem.
The suggested solution – Lowering the phosphorus runoff into lakes such as Lake Winnipeg, will require managing the runoff more so than soil erosion.
“If you are going to manage the runoff, you have to think about how you are going to get that water into the soil, store it in the soil and use it where it lands.

Contaminated water supply puts Shopian on brink of disease outbreak.
“We have been provided 24-hour water supply but the water is dirty, mixed with sand and mud.
This water is not fit for drinking,” Muhammad Amin Wagay from Pinjora said.
Tariq Ahmed Pir, a resident of Alyalpora said that the supplied water is so dirty that on occasions, domestic animals also refuse to drink it.
The authorities are not taking the issues seriously.
The drinking water supply feeder near Killora village for 36 villages of Rampathri area is filled with sand and mud up to 11.5 feet.
Authorities say due to the huge mixture of sand and mud with water these filters gets filled with sand and mud within three days and the department has no effective mechanism to clean them regularly.
“The contractors of Mughal Road put all the soil, sand and other material on the banks of rivulet, when snow starts melting and due to heavy rain all the mud flows into the river and contaminates the water,” a group of PHE employees said.
Beig said the issue of contaminated water supply is known to the chief minister.
About 25 water supply schemes get water from Rambiara Rivulet, our filtration plants only have capacity to filter the large dirty particles, he said.

Parish Flats is out of control because a project completed decades ago to control Parish Creek no longer works.
The issue: What happens at the mouth of Conklin Gully, where it empties into Parish Creek and plumes into hundreds of acres of unruly wetland.
A man-made channel put in decades ago did its job for years.
Schumacher and partners in his dairy operation, other farmers, local officials, a number of concerned citizens and project partners focused for two hours at a presentation and discussion last Wednesday to try and come up with a fix for the flats.
“We have been on this project for only two or three months — but many of you have been looking at this for two or three decades,” said Greer.
The town of Naples is partnering on the project with the Canandaigua Lake Watershed Council, The Nature Conservancy and state Department of Environmental Conservation.
Specifically, five groundwater wells were installed to look at floodplain retention times, flood elevations and infiltration.
Wetlands and floodplain restoration is a big deal, not just in Naples but throughout the Canandaigua Lake watershed and beyond, where water quality is at stake because wetlands have been disappearing over time.
Canandaigua Lake Watershed Program Manager Kevin Olvany, who was at the Naples workshop, said wetland restoration is especially critical at the south end of Canandaigua Lake and Parish Flats area where many of the nutrients are entering the lake.
LOCAL IMPACT A plan is underway to fix Parish Flats in Naples.