Punjab Muktsar, May 19 As polluted water is flowing in canals, the water supply authorities have closed the water inlets of reservoirs so that the already stored water is not contaminted.
The underground water in most parts of the district has been declared unfit.
Now, potable water scarcity is set to hit the area.
Amritdeep Bhattal, SDO, Water Supply and Sanitation Department, Muktsar, said, “We have just got the alert regarding contaminated water flowing in canals in our area.
Now, we are informing our waterworks operators to close the water inlets so that contaminated water doesn’t enter reservoirs.
It may even affect the water supply for some days.
As of now, we will supply the already stored water.” He said most waterworks in the area were dependent on the canal water as the underground water in most parts of the district was declared unfit for drinking.
Meanwhile, farmers said they could not irrigate fields with the contaminated water.
(Archit Watts)

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Nexstar) – Reports of contaminated water at military bases is raising concerns about the safety of servicemembers and their families.
Defense officials say firefighting foam used on military bases leaked into water systems.
That caused potentially harmful levels of compounds linked to cancer and other health issues.
Lucian Niemeyer, a spokesperson for DoD environmental issues, said the agency is working to fix the water problem.
Pentagon officials said the drinking water issues have been addressed and they are now working with members of Congress on making sure the groundwater is safe.
"We want all our military members to be protected," Rep. Walter Jones, R-North Carolina, said.
He wants to focus on long-term solutions, not temporary changes.
Federal officials will continue to monitor water levels to determine if they meet safety standards.
Pentagon officials said they are still assessing the cost but they plan to shift money from other defense programs to help clean up the contaminated water sites.
Sheppard Air Force Base and Fort Sill aren’t on the list of installations with contaminated water, but 11 of 12 wells at Altus Air Force Base tested positive for the presence of perfluorinated compounds.

FAIRBANKS — The South Davis Park groundwater is contaminated with perfluorinated compounds from the nearby fire training center, the Fairbanks city and borough governments announced in a joint news release Thursday.
Groundwater contamination from old firefighting foam has previously been known to affect a few dozen of private wells in the area.
The family of contaminant chemicals, often referred to as PFCs, also have polluted water wells around Eielson Air Force Base and Fairbanks International Airport, also because of firefighting foams used at those locations.
At the South Davis Park, the contaminated water wells are used only for irrigation, not for drinking.
The South Davis Park is directly across the Mitchell Expressway from the fire training center.
The letter tells the borough the two wells cannot be used for irrigation until the water meets clean water standards.
It wasn’t immediately clear Thursday why the Department of Environmental Conservation didn’t contact the borough about the contaminated wells in 2016.
Thursday’s news release states that the city government will be providing clean water to irrigate the turf fields “in the short term.” The projected cost to the city of irrigating the sports fields with clean water wasn’t immediately known because the city hasn’t yet decided how to supply the fields with clean water, said city spokeswoman Teal Soden.
Options for getting clean water to PFC contaminated areas discussed elsewhere in the borough have included trucking in clean water, connecting areas to city water service and providing carbon filters.
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Bryce Canyon City’s water supply for all of its restaurants, hotels, residential houses, campgrounds and other facilities is not and will not be affected by the Bryce Canyon National Park E. coli water contamination.
Bryce Canyon City, home to attractions like the world famous Ruby’s Inn and the Bryce Canyon Grand Hotel, is located just outside the entrance of Bryce Canyon National Park and the city uses a separate water source from the park.
“We want all to know that the water used by Bryce Canyon City is safe to drink, as we have put in place safeguards to prevent water contamination,” said Shiloh Syrett, mayor of Bryce Canyon City.
For decades, the local government and businesses of Bryce Canyon City have had a contamination plan to prevent E. coli and other bacteria from entering the water supply.
With such a deep-water source, animals cannot access and contaminate the water, like the surface water source used by Bryce Canyon National Park.
“At Bryce Canyon City, we are dependent on tourism,” Syrett said.
“The scare of an E. coli outbreak in Bryce Canyon National Park could decrease the number of visitors to the area, which will not only greatly impact the park, but also the surrounding cities.
The water system and wells used by private and local organizations outside the park, including Bryce Canyon City, are not part of the area that is under investigation.
“We have actually been approached at Bryce Canyon City about bottling our water because it is so good,” said Syrett.
“Our water is mineral-rich, cold, delicious and pure.”

Lawmakers have introduced a bill to create a registry of military families experiencing cancers and other illnesses they think may be tied to base water contamination.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. and Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., introduced the “PFAS Registry Act” in April.
The legislation would “create a national database for service members and veterans experiencing health problems possibly due to contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, (PFAS)” the senators wrote.
In April, Military Times reported that the Pentagon had released a study on all the bases that have water sources that tested positive for higher than recommended levels of PFOS and PFOA — compounds tied to cancers and birth defects.
PFAS is the larger family of chemicals that includes PFOS and PFOA, compounds that “have emerged as a widespread contaminant to the drinking water sources of military bases across the country due to their use in firefighting foam used by the armed services,” the senators wrote.
Separately, Shaheen secured $7 million in the 2018 federal budget agreement signed in March for a nationwide study of the long-term health affects of PFOS and PFOA on military bases and their surrounding communities.

Buy Photo Aides to President Trump’s embattled EPA administrator attempted to stop publication of a study into water contamination near military bases nationwide, including former naval bases in Bucks and Montgomery Counties, according to a published report.
When a Trump administration aide said the report would cause a “public relations nightmare,” aides to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and the White House sought to block the study from being made public, according to EPA emails released to the Union of Concerned Scientists under the Freedom of Information Act.
Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) on Tuesday said that if the Politico report is true, “the White House should stop blocking the release of this health study.
All of them have had their water tested based on the EPA’s current guidelines.
After the contamination was made public, the military agreed to provide filters for public drinking wells — but only if they contained levels of the chemical above the EPA advisory, which they did for some local private well owners.
In Warminster, Warrington, and Horsham, the towns changed public water systems to ensure there were no chemicals in their drinking water.
Veterans and former civilian employees of the bases — which were mostly closed before the contamination was discovered — have also expressed concern about the chemicals.
Nationwide, 564 public or private drinking water systems near military bases had contamination above the EPA advisory level as of August, the military said in a recent report.
PFOA and PFOS are not among chemicals regulated by the EPA; the agency called its OK-to-drink level a guideline.
The White House referred questions about the issue to the Department of Health and Human Services, Politico said, which confirmed that the study has no scheduled release date.

A population of 1.47 crore across almost 17,000 areas in the country faces a major health hazard due to arsenic contaminated drinking water, according to the latest data of the ministry of drinking water and sanitation.
Arsenic is present in drinking water above the permissible limits in 16,889 areas while 12,029 areas have high levels of flouride and 2384 habitations have heavy metal contamination.
These areas are part of the list of 70,793 places (habitations) where drinking water is contaminated — either with heavy metals, iron, nitrates or even high degree of salinity, cited by the government last month in a written reply to a question on water contamination in Parliament.
According to the national rural drinking water programme’s (NRDWP), the number of habitations with contaminated water is 69,267 with a population of 4.56 crore.
Out of this, 16,609 areas have high arsenic in the water.
The ministry said West Bengal leads in arsenic contamination with 9756 areas affected while Assam is second with 4416 areas.
While the total number of habitations with contaminated water has come down in the last five years, the figures are rising again.
The data submitted by the states on number of arsenic, fluoride, iron, salinity, nitrate and heavy metal affected habitations (more than the prescribed limit found in drinking water sources) is incorporated into the ministry’s Integrated Management Information System (IMIS).
Arsenic is one of the most dangerous contaminants of drinking water.
Officials in the ministry of drinking water and sanitation, however, said funds provided to the states under NRDWP can be utilized for coverage and tackling water quality problems with priority to fluoride and arsenic affected habitations.

Ōhakea group trusts government process on contaminated water, says chairman 8 May, 2018 12:00pm 3 minutes to read People affected by Ōhakea’s contaminated groundwater have faith in the government process but want tests for toxic compounds in their bodies, spokesman Andy Russell says.
He’s the chairman of a committee representing about 300 people who live on or own land around the air force base where groundwater is contaminated with PFAS compounds from foam used for firefighting.
Russell said he had met some of the lawyers, but the group was not interested.
We are quite united in that."
One issue with the contamination is how the compounds might affect people exposed to them since birth – people drinking bore water or swimming in highly contaminated ponds.
Some in the group have met a MidCentral public health officer and would like the level of compounds in their bodies tested.
The lead agency is the Ministry for the Environment, and its deputy secretary, Claire Richardson, is working with the group.
His property has had two tests so far – one of the bore water, and one of bore and tank water.
A community water scheme, for human and stock drinking water, has been suggested.
Groundwater near other defence bases and airports is also being tested for the compounds.

In this May 5, 2018, photo is provided by Cambodia National Police, patients, who sickened from drinking water, lie on the beds in a hospital at Kratie province in northeastern of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
A health official says several Cambodian villagers have died and more than a hundred of others are sickened after drinking water suspected to be contaminated with insecticide.
(Cambodia National Police via AP) (Associated Press) PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Ten Cambodian villagers have died and 120 others have been sickened after drinking water suspected to be contaminated with insecticide, a health official said Sunday.
The dead and sickened villagers exhibited the same symptoms including breathing problems, dizziness, vomiting and chest pains, said the head of the Kratie Provincial Health Department, Chhneang Sivutha.
He said villagers began getting sick on Thursday.
Health authorities have collected water and food samples from the two villages and are awaiting laboratory results.
The deputy provincial police chief, Chhim Sokhim, suspected rainwater from nearby farms that use insecticide had come into contact with a stream where villagers collect water used for drinking and cooking.
Outbreaks of food and water poisoning are not uncommon in Cambodia, where health checks are rare and safety regulations lax.
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From the plugging of abandoned oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania’s mining regions, to responding to drinking water contamination in the Philadelphia suburbs, to overseeing new natural gas pipelines throughout the state, the Department of Environmental Protection has a lot of priorities to cover but not always enough resources, secretary Patrick McDonnell said recently.
McDonnell said earlier this month the department approved an increase in drinking water fees to pay for new staff in its drinking water safety program.
Now, the program receives about $20 million from the state’s “Act 13” money, which comes from impact fees on natural gas extraction.
“But that’s (only) funding half the program,” McDonnell said.
“One of the conversations we’ll be having here over the next year or two is how we fund that going forward, and what those programs look like.” Resources are also needed to plug as many as half a million abandoned oil and gas wells, some of them existing from the 19th century.
He said lawmakers in Harrisburg seemed to support the proposal during early budget hearings, but that nothing is certain.
That’s a question I wouldn’t be able to answer.” Asked about the most significant issues in the southeast region, McDonnell and Patterson turned first to ongoing perfluorinted chemical water contamination in Bucks and Montgomery counties.
If the state were to make a limit lower than the one recommended by the EPA, it could affect the actions the military would have to take in addressing regional drinking water contamination.
Patterson said the state may try and base its cleanup requirements off the 70 part per trillion drinking water safety limit recommended by the EPA.
An major ongoing concern are potential cuts to EPA funding, which in turn could trickle down to states that receive money from the agency to run delegated programs, such as those for air pollution and clean drinking water.