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.”

This is our plight every summer despite the Naveen Patnaik government’s tall claims and promises over the last 18 years, decried the villagers.
We are left high and dry every summer, they remarked in anger and disgust.
This figure is sent to the state secretariate and the CM is impressed during his review meetings without realising that the figures are either fudged or nothing has been done to connect the pipeline to the tank or the pump station does not work due to lack of electrical connection etc.
For instance, there are 23 pipe water supply projects in different panchayats of Naugaon block.
These are connected to the overhead water tank, but water is yet to be pumped to the overhead tank.
The sarpanch of Korua panchayat Mr Aranya Nayak said there are two pipe water projects in Garei and Dhunapada villages but the villagers of Dhanikhia do not get potable water as the pipeline is damaged and in the other there is no connection to the overhead water tank.
In Dabour panchayat, the pump has been defunct since one year and nothing has been done to repair it, resulting in water scarcity in Dabour, Mahanapari villagers.
Villagers of Kusupur, Baramunduli, Anantpur under Balikuda block have alleged that pipe water supply projects have been completed but these projects are not functioning as there is no power connection.
The piped water project at Sankheswer panchayat under Tirtol block has been defunct since six months.
The Executive Engineer, RWSS, Mr Chittaranjan Jena, said: “We have initiated steps for repair and restoration, but it must be understood that the panchayats are in charge of maintenance and repairing of tube wells and pipe water projects.” Ironically, the pre-summer, ritualistic annual line over the last 17 years of the CM has been repair and restoration of all tube wells and water supply lines must be done on war footing!

Residential wells must be at least 50 feet away from all potential and known sources of contamination.
“We’re held to the standards of the Safe Water Drinking Act.” Rick Miller, Sturgis Director of Public Services, says “our goal is to provide customers with a high quality, safe and dependable supply of drinking water and we work diligently to do just that.
“The city is very fortunate in that they are located in an area of safe and plentiful water supply.
The Wellhead Protection Program was implemented in an effort to protect and preserve the city’s water supply for generations to come.” Miller said there are basically two types of water systems: surface water and ground water systems.
The city of Sturgis utilizes a groundwater system, and uses a total of four wells to pump water from the aquifer into the distribution system to supply water to customers.
The city has more than 4,000 water accounts.
Twenty-nine percent of the total piping in the city’s system was installed in 1950 or before; 54.9 percent was installed between 1951 and 1999; 16.1 percent was installed from 2000 through 2016.
Raw water from the wells is treated using chlorine, fluoride (hydrofluosilicic acid), and a polyphosphate polymer.
Chlorine is a disinfectant added to prevent bacterial growth in the water supply system.
The city is required to perform water testing on a weekly, monthly, bi-annual and annual basis.

The meeting was attended by senior Board officials, who discussed the proposal in detail.
The Board has approved a budget to the tune of Rs 2,350 crores under the plan and Rs 2,787.63 crores under non-plan expenditures for the year 2018-2019, a statement from the DJB stated.
The DJB will invest Rs 30.61 crore in Bawana to reduce water scarcity in the area.
The focus of the DJB will be to repair the sewers in all the areas of the national capital and improve the water supply, especially in localites where there is water shortage.
Where water scarcity is more, the government will order extra pipelines.
The Board will also focus on the improvement of water supply and laying new pipelines to reinforce the water distribution system in the city.
“Consent to the work of rehabilitation of peripheral sewers in Uttam Nagar, Paschim Vihar, Saraswati Vihar, Moti Nagar and adjoining areas in West-North, West Delhi at an estimated cost of Rs 102.23 crores was given by the Board.
The above project will benefit the whole population of the said segment,” it added.
After the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) order, nearly 700 borewells have been shut down in the city, leading to an acute water crisis in the national capital.
According to the Board, the city has more than 5,000 borewells on which the department will take action soon.

1 automaker, the one that has operated a famed testing facility nearby known as the Milford Proving Ground since the 1920s and has paid for bottled water deliveries to her family’s home and their neighbors since 2014: General Motors.
But several months later, they received a letter from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, notifying them of excessive levels of salt in their water.
O’Nions is now one of several plaintiffs named in a lawsuit filed last autumn against General Motors, alleging the automaker’s decades-long use of salt on roads and in vehicle tests at the 4,011-acre vehicle testing and development facility has contaminated ground and drinking water supplies for The Oaks.
At the facility, GM says, salt is used to de-ice the facility’s roads, test tracks and parking areas, as well as for a variety of corrosion tests on vehicles.
But the study concluded that road salt “appears to be a major source of chloride” at the facility.
That’s when the developer of a new subdivision located just southwest of the proving ground discovered high chloride levels, after drilling wells for homes set to be built in the neighborhood.
“GM may be responsible as they have salt storage on site and use salt in splash testing for cars, etc.” Local county officials conducted tests that confirmed excessive levels of chloride, and that October, Michigan’s environmental quality department told GM that, based on the results of the samples taken, “it appears that a source of sodium and chlorides may therefore emanate from the GM Proving Grounds.” The letter set off a war of sorts between GM and MDEQ that went on for years.
“I had always admired it,” Moore told Jalopnik this month in the living room of her 3,000-square-foot home.
Some residents took up the reverse osmosis option, but Moore and O’Nions said the company balked at installing them for every location in their homes.
When people come to your home and they’re saying, ‘Oh, you live in such a nice neighborhood.

Bottled water is being handed out at St. Marys as Mayo Clinic investigates what caused dark-colored liquid to appear in the hospital’s water system.
Staff and patients were first alerted Monday afternoon that the water on campus was not safe for consumption or use in clinical care.
As of Tuesday afternoon, people were still being advised to drink bottled water.
"Mayo Clinic is investigating instances of dark-colored water on our Mayo Clinic Hospital – Rochester, Saint Marys Campus," said spokesperson Sharon Theimer.
We will provide an update when the issue is resolved."
The water is suitable for hand washing, said Theimer, but hand sanitizers are being placed in bathrooms as a precautionary measure across the hospital.
Rochester Public Utilities said Tuesday it is confident that the issue is internal to the St. Marys campus and that water throughout the city is safe to drink.
"RPU and Saint Marys officials will continue to address the discoloration issue and work to determine the cause," RPU said in a blog post.
The water concern was brought to RPU’s attention mid-morning on Monday after "sediment and rust or black colored water" began showing up in sinks and toilets at Saint Marys.
Updated 5.1.18 at 12 p.m.

Aa Aa Small-scale hydropower projects are soaring in number across the Balkans — but they’re also destroying the region’s wild rivers and threatening one of Europe’s most biodiverse areas, according to environmental groups.
Despite the environmental damages that these plants produce, governments and companies are continuing to fund their construction.
The Balkan region represents a biodiversity hotspot and many of its rivers are still in outstanding conditions, according to Pippa Gallop, an expert from BankWatch, a global network focused on monitoring activities of several international financial institutions.
Ulrich Eichelmann of RiverWatch, an organisation focused on protecting the Balkan rivers from dam construction, said local communities need rivers’ freshwater in order “to irrigate their fields and gardens, sometimes use it as drinking supply, to catch fish and — most importantly — for their sheep, goats and cattle.” He added: “There are villages in Albania with hundreds or even thousands of sheep that rely on natural sources to water their flocks.” These types of plants also damage areas surrounding rivers and streams.
In most cases, flagrant violations of national laws and international financial institutions’ standards are visible and include blocking fish passes, releasing insufficient or no water at all downstream, and creating significant erosion with access roads.” Flouting local environmental laws?
An EBRD spokesperson refuted this, however, saying that all of their projects: “Must fulfil strict local and international laws and regulations and under these conditions we are committed to sustainable hydropower solutions.
He added that EIB does not “usually finance directly small-scale hydropower projects”, as these are normally financed with credit lines via local banks as intermediaries.
In Valbona National Park in Albania, three plants are under construction, leaving locals without water supply.
According to Schwarz, there is no restoration concept for dam-affected rivers and says there should be a “moratorium for new hydropower plants construction for specific rivers in the countries that wish to access the EU.” For Eichelmann, financial institutions like EBRD and EIB must stop funding Balkan projects, and instead push these countries to more balanced renewable energy production, focused on solar and wind power.
The bank finances the full range of renewable energy activities both inside and outside the EU.

BOSTON — Two law firms representing residents affected by the contaminated Hyannis water supply filed a class action lawsuit against several companies in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts last week seeking compensation for those who have fallen ill or experienced other negative effects from exposure to the water.
The lawsuit names as defendants five manufacturers of firefighting foams containing perfluorinated chemicals PFOS and PFOA, which are believed to have contaminated wells serving residents in Hyannis, Hyannisport and West Hyannisport.
The plaintiffs are seeking the establishment of a medical monitoring protocol, which would allow members of the class action suit to receive medical testing for diseases potentially connected to their exposure to the water at the defendants’ expense.
“You shouldn’t have to pay for testing for these diseases that are attributed to the exposure.” PFOA and PFOS can accumulate in the body and lead to illnesses years down the road, she said.
A few plaintiffs are already experiencing some of these illnesses, but plaintiffs don’t have to be sick to join the class action suit, Caro said.
Plaintiffs are also asking to be compensated for personal injury as well as declining property values, according to the complaint.
Under terms of that agreement, the county will pay the town $2.95 million to reimburse it for capital costs, including carbon treatment systems, associated with cleanup of the contaminated wells.
In December 2017, U.S. District Judge Denise Casper dismissed five of eight counts brought by Barnstable County against many of the same firefighting foam manufacturers named in the class action lawsuit.
Despite the ruling in 2017, Caro said she believes her clients have a strong case.
“They did not disclose to the purchasers of the material how dangerous it was, and I think that’s going to come out more now,” she said.

Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC), Enugu State chapter, at the weekend urged the state government to address challenges of perennial water scarcity in the state.
IPAC specifically called on Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to do everything possible to solve the problem in order to provide the people of the state with adequate potable water.
John Nwobodo who made the call in his office, however commended the governor for the provision of other amenities like roads, but pointed out that the people were bedeviled with lack of adequate water supply.
“Governor Ugwuanyi has done well in the provision of infrastructure like roads and other infrastructure.
“I’ll say that he has performed more than 90 per cent.
“When it comes to criticism, IPAC is objective.
When there is need, we criticise.
Anywhere they are failing, we shall not fail to speak up.
However, we want the government to do more in the provision of potable water to the people in both rural and urban areas,” he said.
It is only through the ballot that we can effect the change that we need,” he said.

Some 3,000 families in Likoni constituency, Mombasa County, are set to benefit from fresh water supply once the Likoni Water Supply Works Project is completed.
Likoni residents told the Star on Saturday the project will help “quench our thirst.” Newly appointed Water CS Simon Chelugui toured the area on Friday to inspect the progress of the project.
Yesterday, the Water CS was here to inspect the project and we are being assured that water scarcity in Likoni will soon be a thing of the past,” Evans Momanyi, a youth leader in the region, said.
We are sure this project will serve the entire Likoni population estimated to be over 200,000 people,” he said.
“Water is life and we are happy that the government is committed to ensure Likoni residents and Mombasa at large get access to fresh tapped water,” he said.
Contractors water pipes in Likoni in the Likoni Water Supply Works Project.
He said the Sh542 million projects, which is being undertaken by Suhufi Agencies Limited, is expected to be completed by the end of October this year.
“The ongoing work comprise laying of 52km steel and UPVC pipes and construction of chambers for all meters, valves, air valves, fire hydrants and thrust blocks on bend," Chelugui said.
According to the contractor, Suhufi Agencies Limited, they are already ahead of schedule and they expect to hand it over to the government by the end of August or early September.
The project, which is expected to be handed over October, will actually be handed over by August or thereabout,” Director Siyad Issak told the Star.