LAKE TOWNSHIP — The Stark County Metropolitan Water District is advising residents to boil water before using it due to the possibility of disease-causing organisms having entered the Lake Township water supply.
Officials say the illness-causing organisms may have been introduced to the water supply through a “low-pressure event.” The water boil advisory has been issued for residents from Brumbaugh to Pontius Street and east and west to Hoover Estates and Edison Street.
Residents should take note of the following: DO NOT DRINK THE WATER WITHOUT BOILING IT FIRST.
Bring all water to a boil, let it boil for at least one minute, and let it cool before using, or use bottled water.
Boiled or bottled water should be used for drinking, making ice, brushing teeth, washing dishes, and food preparation until further notice.
Boiling kills bacteria and other organisms in the water.
People with severely compromised immune systems, infants, and some elderly people may be at increased risk.
These people should seek advice about drinking water from their health care providers.
The water district says it has no evidence that the water system has been contaminated, but “the possibility, however, does exist that the water system is contaminated and is issuing this advisory as a precaution.” The district says it is investigating the issue and taking steps to correct the problem.
Anyone who requires additional information may call the water district at 330-451-2320.

Updated, February 25, 2019 The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has released results of a 2018 state-wide sampling of public, school and tribal water supplies for per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.
Of 1,114 public water systems, 119 have been found to contain some level of PFAS.
The study cost $1.7 million.
According to the DEQ press release, only the city of Parchment and Robinson Elementary School near Grand Haven returned levels "exceeding the […] 70 parts per trillion (ppt) for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) individually or combined in drinking water."
In August of 2018, the city of Parchment was connected to Kalamazoo’s municipal water system.
This map shows locations where PFAS has been detected in public water supplies.
Full testing data, including for schools, daycares and Head Start programs, can be found on the state’s PFAS response website.
Original post, Oct. 4, 2018: This spring, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality set out to test 1,300 public water systems for PFAS.
Only twice has it tested over the action level of 70 parts per trillion — once at astronomical levels in the City of Parchment, where a State of Emergency was declared before water quality could be restored — and once at 72 parts per trillion in *one* of the City of Kalamazoo’s pumping stations (this was deemed to not be cause for concern, and also, this was total PFAS, whereas the action level only applies to PFOA and PFOS).
The state is projected to finish this testing in November, and Michigan Radio will update the map as test results continue to be released.

LAKE TOWNSHIP — The Stark County Metropolitan Water District is advising residents to boil water before using it due to the possibility of disease-causing organisms having entered the Lake Township water supply.
Officials say the illness-causing organisms may have been introduced to the water supply through a “low-pressure event.” The water boil advisory has been issued for residents from Brumbaugh to Pontius Street and east and west to Hoover Estates and Edison Street.
Residents should take note of the following: DO NOT DRINK THE WATER WITHOUT BOILING IT FIRST.
Bring all water to a boil, let it boil for at least one minute, and let it cool before using, or use bottled water.
Boiled or bottled water should be used for drinking, making ice, brushing teeth, washing dishes, and food preparation until further notice.
Boiling kills bacteria and other organisms in the water.
People with severely compromised immune systems, infants, and some elderly people may be at increased risk.
These people should seek advice about drinking water from their health care providers.
The water district says it has no evidence that the water system has been contaminated, but “the possibility, however, does exist that the water system is contaminated and is issuing this advisory as a precaution.” The district says it is investigating the issue and taking steps to correct the problem.
Anyone who requires additional information may call the water district at 330-451-2320.

The early challenges of not having fresh drinking water in their homes in Kenya gave way to an idea that would lead Yvonne Nkatha, Wangui Kagera and their three business partners to set up Gambino Bottling, a water processing business.
“Back in the day there was limited access to bottled drinking water.
Most people used to boil water for drinking.
They started learning about water purification and in 2008 the business was born.
We started small but over the years we have been growing,” Nkatha says.
We used to buy the bottles, then go back to our small factory, fill them, go look for clients and deliver,” Nkatha says proudly.
The company started producing smaller 500ml bottles.
At the moment, the still hope that the government would offer better options for businesses run by young people.
“Business people should take more time to read,” Kagera says.
She explains that there was little information from institutions on how to set up a business, let alone a water-bottling business.

NEWYORK (WCBS 880) – Newark started handing out water filters across the city as it deals with elevated lead levels in the water supply, but one advocacy group says that isn’t enough.
Erik Olson, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, says it took a while for Newark to even admit it had a problem with lead in its water.
Olson says lead levels in the city are significant.
“The federal EPA’s drinking water standard (…) sets an action level of 15 parts per billion.
But Newark agreed to hand out filtration devices to at-risk households.
But Olson says it’s been a “haphazard program.” He says some households didn’t get their filters.
“We’ve asked the court to force the city to really go forward with a bottled water program,” he said.
The NRDC also wants Newark to start fortifying its water treatment while the city works on the longer-term goal of replacing its pipes.
A city spokesman says the filter program is working and that the NRDC is cherry-picking incidents.
“A huge swath of the city continues to have these lead contamination problems,” he said.

NEWYORK (WCBS 880) – Newark started handing out water filters across the city as it deals with elevated lead levels in the water supply, but one advocacy group says that isn’t enough.
Erik Olson, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, says it took a while for Newark to even admit it had a problem with lead in its water.
Olson says lead levels in the city are significant.
“The federal EPA’s drinking water standard (…) sets an action level of 15 parts per billion.
But Newark agreed to hand out filtration devices to at-risk households.
But Olson says it’s been a “haphazard program.” He says some households didn’t get their filters.
“We’ve asked the court to force the city to really go forward with a bottled water program,” he said.
The NRDC also wants Newark to start fortifying its water treatment while the city works on the longer-term goal of replacing its pipes.
A city spokesman says the filter program is working and that the NRDC is cherry-picking incidents.
“A huge swath of the city continues to have these lead contamination problems,” he said.

Israeli forces this week opted to cut off water supply lines feeding into more than a dozen communities in the West Bank city of Hebron, according to the Palestine News Network.
In total, the changes will affect 17 Mafasir Yatta communities, where an estimated 1,500 Palestinians reside.
The Wednesday move has been largely criticized by locals as yet another Israeli measure to force Palestinians away from their home in order to expand settlements, PNN reported.
A 2009 Amnesty International report on Palestinian access to water supplies notes that "Palestinian consumption in the [Occupied Palestinian Territories] is about 70 litres a day per person — well below the 100 litres per capita daily recommended by the World Health Organization — whereas Israeli daily per capita consumption, at about 300 litres, is about four times as much."
More recently, a 2018 United Nations report found that "at least 1.9 million Palestinians experience, or are at risk of, conflict and violence, displacement and denial of access to livelihoods, among other threats."
"The most vulnerable Palestinians are currently denied or restricted in their access to essential services such as water and health care.
A recurrent cycle of shocks, natural and manmade, has eroded the resilience of vulnerable households to cope with the prolonged nature of the humanitarian crisis," it noted.
News of the water lines being closed off came on the same day that Israeli forces destroyed a recently reconstructed road that connected Khallet Ad-Dabe’ to Masafer Yatta in the south of Hebron.
Rateb al-Jabour, the coordinator of the Anti-Wall and Anti-Settlement Committees in Yatta, told the Palestine News Agency that Israeli servicemembers provided protection to a military bulldozer as the road was being destroyed.
Earlier this week, residents of the troubled city of Hebron also witnessed Israeli settlers attacking various Palestinian homes in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood, Ma’an News Agency reported.

Re: California’s unfulfilled promise on access to safe water Supplying residents and businesses with clean, affordable, high quality water is priority one for water districts and cities throughout California.
In Riverside and San Bernardino counties, water agencies and regional planners work to ensure customers have access to safe, clean and reliable water.
Through state-of-the-art treatment plants, around-the-clock testing and innovative technologies, regional water suppliers such as Eastern Municipal Water District, Western Municipal Water District, Riverside Public Utilities, and San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District provide our customers with the highest quality water available that exceeds all state standards.
As leaders in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, we have seen the issue of groundwater contamination firsthand.
Through long-term planning and investments, we have cleaned up local groundwater supplies where necessary, enhanced access to reliable groundwater and imported supplies, and continue to invest in the needs of our communities.
We will continue working together to deliver fresh, clean drinking water safely to you and your family, and plan for the needs of this growing region.
The solution will include governance reforms and consolidations of extremely small systems that are unable to achieve the economies of scale necessary to address contamination and treatment-related issues.
Water agencies, cities, and business organizations across the state have proposed a funding solution that does not impose a tax on urban water users and, when coupled with the governance reforms, establishes a sound process for repairing unusable drinking water systems.
This package of funds is an appropriate way to address this key social issue rather than taxing our water customers that have already invested in their local water systems.
These funds should be vetted as a viable solution along with a plan to help unusable drinking water systems become operational again.

Houses are without water and a number of businesses have also been affected due to supply issues in Sherwood.
A team from Severn Trent are on site and are trying to investigate the cause of the supply issues.
They have told customers on Twitter that bottled water will not be supplied at this stage.
She said: "It didn’t cause too much disruption for us."
Other businesses, such as Haus of Sottung in Mansfield Road, have had to close.
Key Events “We’ve had a problem at one of our service reservoirs which our teams have quickly fixed, so everyone should now start to see their water coming back on.
We’re really sorry for the inconvenience, but we’re confident everything should be back to normal in the next couple of hours.” Haus of Sottung: ‘We have had to close’ Sid Sottung, who runs barber academies in Forest Fields and Sherwood, said he had to close Haus of Sottung on Mansfield Road.
One of my staff members called me and told me what was going on because staff from Pudding Pantry who are our next door neighbours told us about it.
This is affecting my students education.
“I understand things happen but as a business owner this is affecting my business.”

Grundy County Public Water Supply District Number 1 has issued a precautionary boil advisory due to repairs.
The advisory affects customers from Highway 6 south to the Grundy County line and from the Thompson River west to the Grundy County line.
The precautionary boil advisory remains in effect until further notice.