Antidepressants in Lakes Do Not Make Bacteria Happy

Fluoxetine, the active ingredient in Prozac, is killing off microbial populations in the Great Lakes.

Traces of antidepressants such as Prozac have been found in both drinking and recreational water supplies throughout the world, in quantities experts say are too dilute to affect humans but which have been found to damage the reproductive systems of mollusks and may even affect the brains of animals like fish.

The fluoxetine found in Lake Erie is at very low levels—about one nanogram per liter of water. This amount does not appear to be harmful to humans, but it is possible that combined with other chemicals in the water, fluoxetine could have a cumulative effect on the ecosystem.

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The City of Superior, Wisconsin Is Changing to Ultraviolet for Wastewater Treatment

Like most cities, Superior, WI has been using chlorine to treat disinfect its wastewater for release into the environment.  It then uses sulfur dioxide to eliminate the chlorine.  The city currently uses 11 tons of chlorine per year.

Switching to ultraviolet disinfection, which works by altering bacteria at the genetic level to render them unable to multiply, will not only spare the environment the heavy chemical load but will also eliminate pH problems and the issue of trihalomethanes (chlorination by-products).  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency only allows the release of trihalomethanes at 80 parts per billion annually. This presents a problem for many municipal wastewater systems.  Use of UV will eliminate the trihalomethane problem completely.

More details on waste water treatment with ultraviolet. 

Workman Thomas Albert Turner Dies in the Risky Las Vegas/Lake Mead Water Tunnel

Ninety percent of Las Vegas water currently comes from Lake Mead, which has shrunk in recent years due to ongoing drought and increasing

demand from seven states and more than 25 million people sharing Colorado River water rights under agreements dating to 1922.

One of the ways Las Vegas is working on to provide itself water is an impossibly difficult $187 million five-year engineering nightmare that involves tunneling for 3 miles 600 feet beneath the bed of nearby Lake Mead to create a channel that will eventually draw water from the very bottom of  the dwindling lake.  Some say that the project is as challenging as the building of Hoover Dam itself.

Lake Mead’s surface level has dropped about 100 feet in elevation since the lake was full in 2000. At current usage rates it will soon be dry.  It is about half-full today, but Las Vegas plans to keep pumping its water as long as a drop remains.

In June of 2012, project worker Thomas Albert Turner, 44,  died of an accident in the tunnel.

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 While Preaching Austerity, Congress Treated Itself  to $860,000 Worth of Expensive Bottled Water

According to Corporate Accountability International, the House of Representatives spends at least $860,000 on bottled water a year. That’s almost $2,000 for each representative.

While representatives were demanding cuts on everything from public libraries to Social Security, they were spending hundreds of thousands of tax dollars on drinking water, which costs only about a penny per gallon from the tap.  The report states that with the money the House spends in a single year on bottled water,

it could purchase more than 4,000 drinking fountains, ‘bottle-less’ coolers and water filtration units on Capitol Hill – more than enough for each Congressional office and a one-time investment in water infrastructure that would show Americans that Congress is serious about saving money and supporting public water.

The study also found that 70 percent of the bottled water of questionable purity was purchased from industry leader Nestlé.

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Michigan Is Struggling Under the Burden of Orphan Leaky Abandoned Storage Tanks

There are some 9,100 LUSTS (Leaky Underground Storage  Tanks) in Michigan.  Fourteen hundred of these pose an immediate threat to groundwater. The average cost for a LUST

cleanup is $400,000.  State laws favoring landowners have left the state with some 4500 “orphan” sites to pay cleanup on, after the gasoline vendors pocketed their money and moved on.

Cleanup of these orphan sites would take 90 years and cost the state $1.8 billion.  Michigan is broke.

More details from the Circle of Blue Website.

Drip Irrigation of Crops is Growing Fast in World Use, But Older Methods Still Prevail

Although the use of drip irrigation, a plant watering method that delivers water directly to the roots of plants in just the right amounts, is growing rapidly in popularity, a big majority of plant growers still rely on crop watering methods that are thousands of years old. Drip irrigation can  double or triple water productivity.

Over the last twenty years, the area under drip and other “micro” irrigation methods has risen at least 6.4-fold.

The most dramatic gains have occurred in China and India, the world’s top two irrigators, where the area under micro-irrigation expanded 88-fold and 111-fold, respectively, over the last two decades. India now leads the world, with nearly 2 million hectares (about 5 million acres) under micro-irrigation methods.

Amazingly, most farmers today still irrigate the way their predecessors did thousands of years ago — by flooding their fields or running water down furrows between their rows of crops. Often less than half the water applied to the field actually benefits a crop.

California leads the US in drip irrigation usage, with Florida and Texas a distant second and third.

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Illinois’ Historic Hoffman Dam, Two Centuries Old, Comes Down In July

Work has begun to remove the Hofmann Dam across the Des Plaines River, putting an end to nearly two centuries of history.

Illinois Constructors Corporation started early today knocking a hole in the center of the dam. When the work is completed, scheduled for July 

7, the center of the dam will be fully removed all the way down to the bedrock, allowing water to flow the natural course of the Des Plaines River.

Built in 1827 and rebuilit several times, including in 1866 and 1908, the last time the Hofmann Dam was replaced was in 1950, when the state of Illinois footed the bill.

In 1908, George Hofmann commissioned the building of a tower from plans imported from Germany on property originally purchased by the Hofmann family in 1874. The tower and dam are located at a ford in the Des Plaines River and an old Indian trail. The dam, built in 1830 in conjunction with a nearby mill, was improved at the time of the tower’s construction.

 

The Hoffman Tower

The Hoffman Dam

Pig Toilets In Taiwan Have Spared the Water, Cleaned Up the Environment, and Saved Producers Money

In his book Beyond Beef,  Jeremy Rifkin estimates that cattle and livestock account for twice the amount of pollutants as comes from all US industrial sources. According to another source, “Every second 250,00 pounds  of excrement are produce from livestock in the USA.”

It’s surprising how little has been done in the US to address the massive amount of pollution and water waste that come from livestock breeding.

In an innovative move, farmers in southern Taiwan have started to potty-train their pigs in response to a planned water pollution fee. To keep their livestock from defecating into nearby rivers, a growing number of farms have established special “toilets” smeared with feces and urine to attract the pigs.  The results have been encouraging.

One farmer says that his pig toilet has helped him collect 95% of the waste and has made cleaning much easier.

Are pigs in Taiwan that much smarter that US pigs?

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Aging Infrastructure and Energy Costs Are Water Providers’ Leading Problems

Aging infrastructure is the most pressing concern within the industry, according to  Black & Veatch’s first Strategic Directions in the U.S. Water Utility Industry Report .  The report identifies top challenges in the water and wastewater industry.

Growing energy cost also ranked high on the list of challenges.  Electricity costs account for about 30% of the cost of providing water for customers.

The report noted that most municipal water customers are not remotely aware of the true cost of providing water and the gap between the real cost and what they actually pay for public water.

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Some Blame Agricultural Practices for Rising Levels of Nitrates in Texas Water

A recent study performed by the Texas Agrilife Office reports that groundwater concentration of nitrates, or dissolved nitrogen, is on the rise in certain agricultural regions of Texas.  There is disagreement about whether agriculture is to blame.

Drinking water with high concentrations of nitrates can lead to methemoglobinemia, or ‘blue-baby syndrome’, in infants less than six months of age.

In one city, families with infants and expectant mothers are provided free bottled water.

Nitrates are removed from water best by reverse osmosis and anion exchange.

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