In an effort to make amends for tainting the private water supply of Chester County families last week, Sunoco Pipeline LP announced this week that it will pay to connect the public water supply to around 30 homes in the area.
Residents of Chester County’s West Whiteland Township first complained of cloudy water and low water pressure on July 3rd, a few weeks after workers began construction on the local portion of Sunoco’s 350-mile Mariner East 2 gas-liquids pipeline.
According to State Impact PA, Sunoco had previously notified the township that drill crews had encountered groundwater, but hadn’t expected the event to lead to contamination.
When the complaints reached Sunoco, drilling was halted for five days, and affected residents were provided with bottled water, filtration systems, or hotel stays.
The murky water, sent immediately to an independent water-testing company for analysis, was assumed to contain a contaminant known as bentonite clay, or drilling mud.
Although full test results have not yet been returned, the initial water samples sent back to the township on Tuesday have contained no bentonite clay.
As residents await further details on the safety of their water, Sunoco has confirmed that the water will remain cloudy in appearance even if approved for consumption.
“It’s going to continue to give the people cloudy water and they are never going to be satisfied,” township supervisor George Turner told State Impact PA, “We want them to have what they had before Sunoco ever came to town.” Affected Chester County residents will get clear water on Sunoco’s dime, but it could take a while.
As of Wednesday, Sunoco had not released an expected end date for the construction of West Whiteland Township’s new private water lines.
Sunoco spokesman Jeff Shields says he anticipates the water problems will be temporary.

60,000 locals of Baglung deprived of drinking water as landslides destroy water pipes.
BAGLUNG, July 13: Locals of Baglung bazaar at the district headquarters are facing severe drinking water shortage for the past few days as monsoon-induced landslides destroyed water supply lines, depriving access to water to as many as 60,000 locals.
With this, the already chronic water shortage has increased during the wet season.
We are forced buy jar water,” said Suraj Pariyar, a local of Baglung bazaar.
“Let alone drinking water, we are compelled to purchase water even for cleaning toilet and bathing.
According to the locals, water supply has been completely halted after landslides washed away water supply pipes since last Thursday.
The landslides had destroyed pipes at Reshkhola and Boksey Gaira of Baglung Municipaliyt-3, according to Himal Sharma, manager of Municipal Drinking Water and Cleanliness Consumer Committee, Baglung.
But we are doing our best to ease the drinking water supply,” he informed, adding that it might take another week to repair the pipes.
According to Sharma, they will repair pipes at Reskhola after the landslides stop.
On the other hand, 400 meters long new pipes can be installed in Boksey Gaira, which can take a week,” said Sharma.

SA’s worst drought ever recorded may be largely broken, but there is no room for complacency in a country where water scarcity remains a very real threat to economic sustainability.
Hammering this home, Strategic Water Partners Network (SWPN) project manager Nick Tandi warns that without concerted action to reduce consumption, SA’s total water resources will fall 17% short of supply in just over a decade.
Water supply shortfalls are a threat that brought companies and the department of water affairs together in 2011 to form the SWPN.
The network now has 20 core corporate members, including Coca-Cola SA, Woolworths, Nestlé, SA Breweries (SAB) and Sasol, says Tandi.
Another priority is elimination of alien vegetation, which draws more than 7% of SA’s water resources.
"In 2010 we set a target of reducing our water consumption by 20% by 2020.
"Every year we set increasingly demanding water-savings goals," says Thole-Muir.
Not all companies consume the volume of water that Coca-Cola SA does, but they are still making a meaningful contribution to water saving.
Recycling is a key target.
Water saving initiatives by corporates, state-owed entities and municipalities will go a long way to reduce SA’s water supply deficit to below 17% by 2030, says Tandi.

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — An agreement has reportedly been reached between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Israeli Water Authority that will result in the flow of “tens of millions of cubic meters of water to the PA and Gaza,” according to a Thursday report from Israeli news website Arutz Sheva. Arutz Sheva reported that the Red Sea-Dead Sea conveyance project, which was first proposed over a decade ago in an effort to study and amend the degradation of the Dead Sea — which borders Jordan and the occupied West Bank — was agreed upon under the mediation of the United States. In 2005, Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority sent a joint letter to the World Bank requesting a study to investigate the feasibility of reversing the environmental degradation of the Dead Sea by transferring water through a canal from the Red Sea.US special envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt held a press conference lauding the agreement, saying “the US welcomes the agreement reached between the PA and the government of Israel which will allow for the sale of 33 million cubic meters of water from Israel to the PA.”The details of how the sales would be conducted and the larger implementation of the plan remained…

“We’ve set performance standards for coal ash contaminants to ensure that families who use these filtration systems will have water that meets or exceeds federal and state standards.” On DEQ’s new list of standards is chromium VI, or hexavalent chromium, listing 10 parts per billion as the limit.
Scientists at DEQ and those at the Department of Health and Human Services disagreed on what was considered a “safe” level of chromium VI in drinking water.
In one of the meetings, DHHS scientist Ken Rudo advocated for permissible chromium VI levels at 0.07 parts per billion, 1,400 times more stringent than the federal standard.
DEQ at that time estimated that more than half of public water systems in the state would need to tell residents not to drink their tap water if Rudo’s standard was used.
Much to the dismay of DEQ, Rudo moved forward with sending “do not drink” notices to 400 homeowners, but later had to rescind them.
Cooper pulled the issue into a live campaign debate, saying he would have backed Rudo, supporting a chromium VI level that is much lower than that for bottled water.
“One of the things I’m going to do is listen to the scientists,” Cooper said during a televised gubernatorial debate in October 2016.
Chromium VI, however, is a carcinogen in high concentrations.
Recently, a California state court knocked back efforts to establish a chromium VI limit of 10 parts per billion.
In that case, the court ruled that the chromium level established by the state’s Department of Public Health was not economically feasible and efforts to comply with it would raise household water prices between $64 and $5,000 annually, depending on the size of their water system.

“We’ve set performance standards for coal ash contaminants to ensure that families who use these filtration systems will have water that meets or exceeds federal and state standards.” On DEQ’s new list of standards is chromium VI, or hexavalent chromium, listing 10 parts per billion as the limit.
Scientists at DEQ and those at the Department of Health and Human Services disagreed on what was considered a “safe” level of chromium VI in drinking water.
In one of the meetings, DHHS scientist Ken Rudo advocated for permissible chromium VI levels at 0.07 parts per billion, 1,400 times more stringent than the federal standard.
DEQ at that time estimated that more than half of public water systems in the state would need to tell residents not to drink their tap water if Rudo’s standard was used.
Much to the dismay of DEQ, Rudo moved forward with sending “do not drink” notices to 400 homeowners, but later had to rescind them.
Cooper pulled the issue into a live campaign debate, saying he would have backed Rudo, supporting a chromium VI level that is much lower than that for bottled water.
“One of the things I’m going to do is listen to the scientists,” Cooper said during a televised gubernatorial debate in October 2016.
Chromium VI, however, is a carcinogen in high concentrations.
Recently, a California state court knocked back efforts to establish a chromium VI limit of 10 parts per billion.
In that case, the court ruled that the chromium level established by the state’s Department of Public Health was not economically feasible and efforts to comply with it would raise household water prices between $64 and $5,000 annually, depending on the size of their water system.

Drinking water ministry writes a dirge on low funding for rural schemes.
NEW DELHI: Only 20.7% rural population is getting enough and safe pipe water supply to quench their thirst.
The funds to provide drinking water to the rural population is shrinking and expenditure for reviving existing yet impoverished water sources is fast drying up.
“Budget estimate of 2017-18 is Rs.6050 Crore.
However, Ministry of Finance is suggesting to restrict the requirement at the present BE level for 2017-18 and 10% annual increase for the subsequent 2 years,” the draft EFC note stated.
“The present status clearly shows that the achievement towards pipe water supply coverage -55 litres Per Capita Per Day (LPED) including stand posts is only 20.70% -in terms of population and 15.62% in terms of habitations.
Thus there was a shortfall of about Rs.30,000 Crores in this period itself ,” the Ministry note said.
The Ministry pointed out that as on March 31 2017, over 3.85 Lakh habitations are not covered with 40 LPED.
The Ministry estimates that it would require at least Rs.
6 Lakh Crore to meet the target.

NEW DELHI: Only 20.7% rural population is getting enough and safe pipe water supply to quench their thirst.
Ministry of Drinking Water of NDA government has candidly admitted that it may not achieve the target at this pace.
“Budget estimate of 2017-18 is Rs.6050 Crore.
Such level of funding by government of India is meager compared to the overall requirement to achieve Sustainable Development Goals- 2030.
However, Ministry of Finance is suggesting to restrict the requirement at the present BE level for 2017-18 and 10% annual increase for the subsequent 2 years,” the draft EFC note stated.
“The present status clearly shows that the achievement towards pipe water supply coverage -55 litres Per Capita Per Day (LPED) including stand posts is only 20.70% -in terms of population and 15.62% in terms of habitations.
Thus there was a shortfall of about Rs.30,000 Crores in this period itself ,” the Ministry note said.
The Ministry pointed out that as on March 31 2017, over 3.85 Lakh habitations are not covered with 40 LPED.
The Ministry estimates that it would require at least Rs.
6 Lakh Crore to meet the target.

Project signed to increase water supply in Kingdom.
JEDDAH: Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture Abdulrahman Al-Fadhli awarded a project to build 17 strategic water reservoirs in Makkah’s Al-Sharay and Taif’s Al-Hada areas, each with a capacity of 170,000 cubic meters, totaling 2.9 million cubic meters of potable water, reported Al-Hayat newspaper.
The water reservoir projects will be completed in three years, according to the contracts.
A similar project in Jeddah reached 97 percent completion of its first stage in January.
Fawwaz Bahlas of the National Water Co. (NWC) said the company started executing the Jeddah project in 2012 for the water storage in the city to reach 4 million cubic meters.
In the Eastern Province, the Water Service Administration announced the allocation of SR69 million ($18.4 million) for the region’s water-storage projects.
Some of the new measures include holding regular meetings with contractors, identifying reasons behind disruptions or delay of projects, and appointing good consultancy firms.
Another major initiative is to reuse wastewater across the country.
“Another initiative of the ministry is to promote awareness about conservation because water scarcity is one of the most significant challenges in Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East region,” said Mohammed Al-Solaiman, a water expert.
“To achieve this, billions of dollars of long-term capital investments have been committed to water projects, while government agencies are working to educate people to reduce water consumption,” he added.

Geological difficulties slowing tunnel excavation work.
Five people have been stricken with the rare, rode… Kathmandu, July 6 The Melamchi Water Supply Development Board has said it may take additional few months to supply water supply to Kathmandu Valley due to geological problem in tunnel excavation.
“It is almost certain that the project will miss its October deadline due to difficulties in tunnel excavation,” Devkota told The Himalayan Times, adding that they were also unable to set a new deadline as it is uncertain when the tunnel excavation work would be completed.
A few days ago, the board had confirmed that it will not be able supply water to Kathmandu Valley by October this year.
The Melamchi project’s first deadline expired in 2007 and second in 2016.
The project deadline was then extended to October 2017.
Given the current rate of tunnel excavation, it may still take four months to complete tunnel excavation work.
According to the project, it will take another three months to complete the remaining work after tunnel breakthrough.
The Melamchi project envisages supplying 510,000,000 litres of water per day to the Valley from the Melamchi, Yangri, and Larke rivers of Sindhupalchowk district.
The current daily demand of water in Kathmandu Valley is around 370,000,000 litres, while daily supply stands at 110,000,000 litres per day.