December 2012 Water News in Numbers

Water News Numbers for December 2012

Gazette Numerical Wizard Bee Sharper Indexes the Numbers that Harper’s Misses

Facts You Would Have Learned Had You Read This Month’s Top Water Stories Articles in the Pure Water Gazette. Aren’t you ashamed that you didn’t?

Age of Besse Cooper, who died in December of 2012 — 116.

Number of significant medical studies that have found the children living in areas where water is fluoridated have lower IQ scores than children from non-fluoridated areas–36.

Projected increase in the number of water-consuming Texans between 2010 and 2050 — 25 million to 55 million.

Number of Americans who have at least one food allergy — 7.5 million.

Percentage by which food allergies increased between 1997 and 2007 –18%.

Number of years an artificial Christmas tree must be used to make its environmental impact equal to that of a “real” Christmas tree — 20.

Fraction of US winter food crops that are grown with irrigation water from the Colorado River — 1/3.

Low temperature at the cite of this year’s (Dec. 23) annual Christmas Bath in Poland’s Warta River– minus 10 C.

Temperature at which performance figures for residential reverse osmosis membranes are rated — 77 F.

Inlet pressure at which residential reverse osmosis membrane are rated — 60 psi.

Number you multiply by to convert milliliters per minute to gallons per day to figure reverse osmosis production rates– 0.38.

Gallons of fresh water accidentally lost by an El Paso County fracking operation — 1.8 million.

Number of households this water would supply for a year — 54.

Percentage of Americans’ mercury intake that comes from eating tuna — almost 40%.

Number of years that medical authorities used and recommended bloodletting as an effective treatment –2500.

Size increase of some water-absorbing toys when placed in water (or a child’s stomach) — 400 times.

According to the UN, the number of people worldwide who are suffering from water scarcity — 700 million.

According to the Minnesota Department of Health, the amount being charged by many “high pressure” sellers of water treatment equipment for $1,000 worth of equipment — $6,000.

Approximate number of US motorists who die each year from drowning — 400.

According to the Mercury News, the rank of Jamie Nolan among girls’ water polo players — #1.

Age of the New Delhi woman whose rape (and subsequent death) sparked massive protests which police sought to control with powerful water cannons–23.

Water saving claimed by the maker of a new aerating shower head — 35%.

Length of a controversial water pipeline recently approved to transport water to Las Vegas — 264 miles.

Number of Rose Bowl fulls of water that are dumped into Santa Monica Bay by a good rain– 100.

Number of gallons — 10 billion.

Number of California’s ten most polluted beaches that are in Los Angeles County — 7.

“Water Footprint” of the average modern Californian– 1500 gallons per day.

B. Sharper appears each month in the Pure Water Occasional email newsletter.  Sign Up.  It’s free.

 

Consumers Are Warned to Beware of Unethical Water Treatment Vendors

Introductory Note:  For years the  legitimate water treatment industry has been burdened by high pressure sellers who use deceptive methods,  fear-mongering, and false product claims to rush buyers into a purchase of equipment that is usually massively overpriced and frequently unnecessary. The Minnesota Department of Health recently issued an admonition to consumers to beware of unscrupulous sellers.  Here are some excerpts: 

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) is reminding Minnesota residents to beware of false claims, deceptive sales pitches, and scare tactics being used by some water treatment companies to sell expensive and unnecessary water treatment systems. High profile investigations of groundwater contamination in Washington County and elsewhere in the state have resulted in a noticeable increase in the number of complaints regarding such deceptive sales activities.

Recently Richfield police issued an alert after residents reported getting green bottles left on their doorstep with a request for a water sample. After providing a sample, a homeowner received a visit from a salesman with an aggressive sales pitch for a treatment system costing more than $6,000 and had difficulty getting the salesman to leave. Officials in Falcon Heights also alerted residents after complaints of water testing kits and personal information requests being left at people’s doors. The city directed residents to call 911 if they saw anyone dropping off testing kits. Several cities have complained about a website containing misleading information about municipal water suppliers and what tests are done on drinking water. The website has been used to try to sell treatment systems to homeowners.

While the pitch varies in these situations, the salesperson nearly always:

Recites a list of recent groundwater contamination problems across the state, regardless of whether the contamination actually affects the resident or not.
Conducts a series of water quality “tests” that the salesperson claims indicate the presence of contamination, when in fact they may simply indicate the presence of naturally occurring minerals in the water.
Misrepresents state and federal drinking water standards, claiming the resident’s water exceeds those standards, and implying the water is unsafe to drink.
Offers a “one-time only” offer of a water treatment system at a “greatly reduced” price, when in fact the systems are being sold at grossly inflated prices.

In some of the worst instances, the salesperson has implied or said that he is working with the city’s water utility or the state health department. In most cases, the systems are being sold for thousands of dollars more than they would cost if bought through a reputable water treatment company.

Even legitimate water treatment systems can be very expensive and if poorly operated or maintained may have limited effectiveness and, in some cases, make the water quality worse. Water treatment systems should be installed only if actually needed and selected to address the specific water problem.

If you use city water, it is safe to drink unless you are notified directly by the city that the water is not safe to drink. The United States Environmental Protection Agency sets standards for public water supplies and the water is tested regularly to ensure that these standards are met. You may find out the results of tests on a public water supply by contacting your water utility.

Water from a private well should also be free of unsafe levels of man-made contaminants if the well is properly constructed, is drawing from a safe aquifer, and has not been flooded or otherwise compromised. However, the only way to be certain about the quality of the water from a private well is to have it tested by a competent water testing laboratory. To find out where you can get your water tested, contact your community health service, local health department.

For further information.

 

 Pretty Good Water Stories

by Hardly Waite

 

Back in the olden days when the Pure Water Gazette was written with a typewriter and printed on paper, I had to look for water stories wherever I could find them. This usually meant going through magazines and newspapers and an occasional book.  Articles about water were hard to find.

Now, with the help of automatic searches, the opposite is true.  In fact, just by subscribing to a few key search items in Google Alerts I get more submissions every day than I can look at. Unfortunately, most of the random finds made by Google as it crawls the web looking for “water articles” or “water treatment” or “water news” are what you would expect of a robot.  There are lots of finds like “large snake killed on road near Sapulpa water plant,” or “Minot council votes to postpone water rate hike.”  Then there are slightly more interesting stories that get picked up and repeated and repeated like this month’s U Tube posting of a young man in Siberia throwing a pan of boiling water from an apartment building balcony to demonstrate that it turns to snow before it reaches the ground.

Here are, in brief, some pretty good stories—not the best or the worst—that I came across during this December of 2012.

Around 400 U.S. motorists die each year from drowning when their vehicle plunges into water. To help eliminate the chances of being restrained in a submerged car, a new seat belt mechanism has been designed to make sure that occupants can extract themselves quickly and safely when underwater.

Recruits at a South Texas military base were forced to fill their canteens from a toilet.

Gangs of thieves in Philadelphia perform daylight robberies by pretending to be water department employees.

According to Huffington Post,  a new Brita-style pitcher filter  named Soma (after “. . .a mystical drink to help warriors overcome their fears in battle or poets to find their inspiration. . .”) will come on the market soon if investors can be found.  Its distinction is that it is recyclable, being made from “. . . Malaysian coconut shells, . . . vegan silk and . . . plant-based PLA composite.”  A unique marketing plan includes a subscription service for cartridge replacements.

Harrison Enright was named boys water polo player of the year by Mercury News.  Jamie Nolan was named girls water polo player of the year.

With a growing population and a drought that seems intent on hanging around, the most critical issue for Oklahoma City in 2013 may be securing access to an important source of drinking water. The city is involved in a water rights court battle with the Choctaw and Chicasaw tribes over water rights for a large area of southeastern Oklahoma.

A video was released in December of what is being called the largest iceberg calving event ever caught on tape.

  More Informationabout the New Delhi protests.

Residents of Orange Cove, CA were warmed against drinking tap water for an indefinite period because nitrate levels in the city’s water tested nearly double the EPA allowable.    (An undersink reverse osmosis unit would easily take care of the nitrates.)

A genetically-modified salmon which grows twice as fast as ordinary fish could become the first genetically-modified animal in the world to be declared officially safe to eat. America’s powerful FDA ruled it posed no major health or environmental risks. The GM Atlantic salmon is engineered with extra genes from two other fish species.  Read details in the Guardian.

Hollywood is getting a new water tower.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. is seeing a delay in starting operation of a new water treatment facility that can remove more radioactive substances than the one currently being used at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.  The plant is an effort to deal with a massive amount of contaminated water created as a result of continuing water injection into the damaged reactors.

In HCM City, city authorities have mandated the use of new state-of-the-art waste water treatment systems at 324 medical stations.  Medical authorities are complaining that the water treatment systems are not only extremely expensive but are largely unneeded.  It is estimated that every waste water treatment system at medical stations costs 400-500 million dong.

At a “Water For Children” event staged for Greenpeace China,  artists painted water treatment devices onto the bodies of children,  as a metaphor for their bodies having to process water from polluted water sources in some areas of China.

Most water-saving showers save water by making the holes on the head smaller but this often means your shower doesn’t feel as cleansing, as you end up with a fine mist instead of a proper shower. A new shower head called Air-In-Shower  aerates the water to make the water droplets larger. In layman’s terms, it fills the water droplets with air so that you’re not using as much water as a regular shower but the volume of the water shouldn’t feel lower.   The manufacturer claims a 35% saving in water.  The maker of the Air-in-Shower is Toto.

The Bureau of Land Management, in a very controversial decision, approved the plan for a 264 mile pipeline to carry billions of gallons of water to thirsty Las Vegas from rural counties along the Nevada-Utah line.

EPA administrator Lisa Jackson announced her resignation.

Bad Water Stories

We’ll end the year with a few examples of bad water stories. These are scraping the bottom of the water bucket.

A man in Converse, TX got a $12,000 water bill, but then the city changed it to $180.

A new product called Dream Water promises to help you sleep after flying.  Ingredients:  Melatonin, GABA, 5HTP and a few other things, in a 3-ounce serving.  Price: $38.99 per six pack.

Justin Bieber tossed a bottle of water at Miami paparazzi.

According to the Collinsville News,  a beautiful and well-behaved dog is thought to have recently been abandoned at the Collinsville Water Treatment Plant. Plant workers discovered the dog several days ago and the dog appears to have been well taken care of.

And finally, the absolute worst water story of the year:

You can cool hot soup quickly by stirring it with a frozen plastic water bottle.

Drought Conditions and an Army Corps’ Management Decision Have Dropped the Mississippi to Its Lowest Level Since the Drought of 1956

Commerce on a key stretch of the Mississippi River could “come to an effective halt” earlier than expected next week due to low water levels, disrupting shipments of billions of dollars of grain and other goods, a group of shippers said.

The Waterways Council, which represents shippers and receivers of commodities, said in a message to its members Wednesday that it had received an advisory from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Monday [Dec. 24, 2012] that indicated water levels around Thebes, Ill., could be too low for most vessels to operate by Jan. 3 or 4.

A spokesman for the Army Corps did not immediately return a call for comment about the forecast.

Shippers for months have been watching the stretch of the Mississippi River between St. Louis and Cairo, Ill., which includes Thebes, because of concerns about a potential closure.

A shipping superhighway that carries billions of dollars in grain, coal, steel and other commodities every year from the central United States to the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi is near record-low levels due to the worst U.S. drought since 1956.

“Water levels are falling quicker than we anticipated,” Ann McCulloch, spokeswoman for the American Waterways Operators, a sister organization to the Waterways Council, said in an interview. “We were hoping not to reach this point until mid-January.”

The Waterways Council did not specify how long the river could be effectively closed.

Shippers have said that rain is needed to replenish water levels to keep the river open.

Recent snowfall in the central United States should help increase water levels on the lower Mississippi River, said Army Corps spokesman Mike Petersen earlier on Wednesday. However, “we would need a lot more” precipitation to see a significant improvement on key stretches of the middle Mississippi near Thebes, he said.

The Mississippi River is the main shipping waterway for grain moving from Midwest farms to export facilities at the Gulf of Mexico. About 55 to 65 percent of U.S. corn, soybean and wheat shipments exit the country via the gulf.

Exporters stepped up shipments of grain and soybeans to the Gulf Coast before water levels fell to critically low levels, forcing barges to take on lighter loads. They also resorted to loading more of their goods on rail cars.

The disruption of river traffic due to low water has pushed up export prices for grain, especially soybeans that are in strong demand from buyers like China.

The latest forecast calls for the Mississippi River gauge at Thebes to be at 3 feet on or around Jan. 3-4, with vessel drafts limited to 8 feet, according the Waterways Council. Most vessels require a 9-foot draft to operate.

The draft is the distance from the surface of the water to a boat’s lowest point.

“Our members have been preparing (for an effective closure) by investigating other options to move their products, either by rail or truck,” said Debra Colbert, senior vice president for the council. “We’ve seen orders canceled; we’ve seen orders curtailed. We’ve seen companies looking at potential layoffs.”

The Army Corps last week began clearing rocks from a shallow stretch of the drought-hit river near Thebes to maintain the flow of goods to Gulf Coast ports.

The low water level on the Mississippi River after this year’s devastating dry spell was exacerbated by the corps’ decision to reduce by even more than usual the amount of water that flows into the waterway from the Missouri River. The corps reduces the Missouri River flow every autumn.

The move raised protests from Midwestern governors and senators who urged President Barack Obama to rescind the decision for fear that badly needed income would be lost through the disruption of commerce that flows through the river.

The river groups met last week with White House staff “and continue to implore them and members of Congress and the Corps to release additional water to sustain navigation on the Mississippi River,” the council said.

Article source.

Gazette Fair Use Statement

A Good Rain Pours 100 Rose Bowl Stadiums’ Worth of Nasty Water into Santa Monica Bay

 

Editor’s Note.  The piece below is excerpted from an LA Times article by Mathew King, who is communications director for Heal the Bay, a Los Angeles environmental group founded in 1985 to stop the dumping of raw sewage into Santa Monica Bay.

Even if you’re not a surfer, you have reason to be concerned about polluted storm water. Rimmed by foothills and mountains, Los Angeles County is like a giant bowl tilted toward the sea. When it rains, water rushes along paved streets, picking up trash, fertilizer, pet waste and automotive fluids before heading to the ocean via the region’s extensive storm drain system. A single typical day of rainfall spews an estimated 10 billion gallons of runoff into Santa Monica Bay, untreated and unchecked. That’s the equivalent of roughly 100 Rose Bowl stadiums’worth of dirty water. It’s little wonder the county claims seven of the 10 most polluted beaches in the state.

This is not simply a public health issue; it’s also a huge waste of a precious resource. Los Angeles imports costly and increasingly scarce water from Northern California and the Colorado River. Storm water — if held, filtered and cleansed naturally in groundwater basins — could provide a safe, more secure and less costly source of drinking water.

The county now has a chance to address the problem. This month, notices have gone out to county property owners about a proposed storm water fee. Most single-family residential parcels would be assessed $54 per year, and the money — about $270 million annually — would be used for innovative infrastructure projects to capture and reuse storm water. On Jan. 15, the county Board of Supervisors will hold a hearing on the issue, after which an election by mail is likely.

Some opponents are already crying about hidden taxes, but this measure is more rightly viewed as a sound economic investment. Funds raised will enable municipalities to develop multi-benefit wetlands, parks and open spaces that can recharge groundwater supplies, saving money in the long run. Thousands of local jobs in the construction, engineering and landscaping industries will be created. Reclaimed storm water will irrigate neighborhood parks, ball fields and school grounds instead of fouling rivers and beaches.

An advisory committee of property owners and members of the public, appointed by the supervisors, would approve project plans and oversee the funds. Fees could not be raised nor diverted to any other use.

Surfers like me often do dumb things. But Los Angeles County can be smart about storm water. Let’s stop pouring money, and bacteria, down the drain.

Please read more about Heal the Bay’s many projects and activities aimed at protecting the Santa Monica Bay.

Matthew King is communications director for Heal the Bay.

Gazette Fair Use Statement

Examining California’s Water Footprint

by Rick Paulas

 

Water’s ‘fiscal cliff’ is no pretty waterfall

Cold Water Swimming:  It’s More Popular Than You Think

Cold water swimming is a big event in certain parts of the world as a Christmas  or  New Years celebration, but it is also a routine practice of many at any time when the weather and the water are cold.  It is a little-publicized sport, although there are those who keep records about it.  Health benefits are usually associated with the practice, although these have not been verified.

The South London Swimming Club sponsors a very popular event (so popular that online registration for the  upcoming competition has been cancelled because of excessive demand)  called the Cold Water Swimming Championships.   Here is information from the Club’s notice of the upcoming event:

This biennial event has become a must for cold water swimmers, attracting both the experienced cold water swimmer and people who are trying it for the first time. Age and ability is no barrier as, with water temperatures as low as 3°C, jumping in for the 30 yard races is a challenge in itself.

The Cold Water Swimming Championships celebrates the fun and camaraderie of cold water swimming and the competiton is often just friendly but can also be fierce. There are a variety of races this year, from the traditonal “head-up” breaststroke, the freestyle dash and relays to the 450 metre challenge for the really fool hardy. To help the competitors recover there will be a Finnish sauna available after the races as well as good food, a host of stalls and entertainment going on throughout the day.

Here is a taste of the SLSC Cold Water Swimming Championships.

If you’re looking for an event near you, here’s a Wikipedia rundown of some of the main events:

Northern Europe

In Finland, Northern Russia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, the cold-water swimming tradition has been connected with the sauna tradition.

Ice swimming on its own is especially popular in Finland. There is an Avantouinti (ice-hole swimming) and the Avantouinti Society.

United Kingdom

Famous locations include the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park, London.

China

In Harbin, northern China, many ice swim in the Songhua River.

Russia

There are strong traditions for cold-water swimming and dousing with cold water in Russia. They are done for health benefits, as a ritual of the Orthodox Church for the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, and for sports. Such club members are called “walruses” (Russian: моржи) instead of “polar bears”.

North America

The members of Canadian and American Polar Bear Clubs go outdoor bathing or swimming in the middle of winter. In some areas it is unusual or ceremonial enough to attract press coverage. Polar Bear Swims are conducted as fund-raisers for charity, notably the Special Olympics.

The oldest ice swimming club in the United States is the Coney Island Polar Bear Club of Coney Island, New York, who hold an annual polar plunge on New Year’s Day as well as regular swims every Sunday from November to April.

International Ice Swimming Association

The International Ice Swimming Association was founded by Ram Barkai of South Africa and conducts 600m and 1-mile swims in open bodies of water whose water temperatures are less than 5°C (41°F).

World Winter Swimming Championships

The World Winter Swimming Championships are also held annually in Europe where Extreme swimming events attract hundreds of athletes from dozens of countries.

To end this, here’s a famous cold water swimmer out of his usual element making an underwater delivery in warm water:

 

 

How Temperature, Pressure, and Water Quality Affect How Much Water Your Home RO Unit Makes

If your home reverse osmosis unit is rated for 50 gallons per day production, that means that it will, theoretically,  produce water at the rate of 50 gallons in 24 hours, or about 2 gallons per hour.  What it will actually produce is only remotely related to its advertized production rate.  It could be more, but it is often less.  And it usually doesn’t matter.  Unless you use the unit to fill an aquarium, you probably don’t need more than a couple of gallons per day anyway. As long that water comes out of the faucet when you request it, all is well.

When the membrane makers give the gallons-per-day figure for their membranes, they don’t take into account that the unit will most likely be used on an undersink reverse osmosis unit where it has to fill a pressurized storage tank.  If the unit spends most of its time simply topping off a pressure tank when a pint or two of water has been taken out, its advertized production goes way down.

However, the three main variables that influence the final flow rate of the product water from an RO unit are inlet water pressure, the TDS (total dissolved solids) of the inlet water, and the temperature of the inlet water. With these, the membrane maker makes certain assumptions for residential membranes.  The assumed numbers do not represent ideal conditions or even average conditions;  they are simply numbers that have been agreed upon to provide a standard by which membrane production performance can be measured.  Here are the assumptions:

Inlet Water Pressure: 60 psi.

Inlet Water Temperature: 77 degrees F.

Inlet Water Total Dissolved Solids: 500 ppm.

The following chart shows how each of these affects the actual amount of water that comes from your unit.

Variable	How This Affects Performance	Discussion
Water Temperature: 77%.	As the temperature goes down, production goes down, sharply. As the temperature goes up, so does production.	77 degrees F. is higher than water temperature in most areas of the country. It, of course, varies considerably by the season, so you might notice that your RO unit makes more water in summer than in winter.  (If your water source is a deep well, the season won’t matter much.)  Note also that as temperature and consequently production goes down, the overall TDS rejection rate of the membrane goes up.  That is, when low temperature causes the unit to produce less water, it actually makes better water.  It isn’t practical to try to control inlet water temperature for residential units other than by a simple fix like adding more tubing to the inlet water line to allow exposure to ambient temperature as the water enters the RO unit. This might speed production up a bit in the winter.
Inlet Pressure: 60 psi.	As pressure goes up, production goes up; as pressure goes down, production goes down.	60 psi is a fairly common pressure for city water, but most wells run between 30 and 50 psi.  A residential membrane makes little water at 30 psi.  This variable is the easiest to control.  Adding a booster pump in front of the unit will increase inlet pressure to about 80 psi and water production will go up significantly.
TDS of Inlet Water.	As feedwater TDS goes up, RO production goes down; as feedwater TDS goes down, production goes up.	500 PPM TDS is higher than most city water.  Typical city water that comes from a lake, for example, might be 200 ppm.  Your water is the water your RO unit has to deal with, and there is no practical way to alter its TDS before it enters the RO unit.  (The unit will, of course, make a 90% plus reduction in the TDS coming out.)

 

 

How to Determine the GPD Production of Your Home RO Unit

Expected production for home reverse osmosis units is usually stated in gallons per day (GPD). Many factors affect the production. These include inlet water pressure, water temperature, total dissolved solids (TDS), the condition of prefilters, etc.

Here’s an easy way to determine the actual production of your RO. The only tools needed are a standard household measuring cup (or any measuring device that has a milliliter, or ml, scale) and a watch or clock with a second hand.

1. For undersink units, turn off the valve at the top of the tank to isolate the tank from the system, then lock the dispensing faucet open and let the unit produce into the sink for a minute or so. The drip or small stream you see is the actual production of the unit—how fast it is making water. (For countertop units, just start the unit and let it produce water for four or five minutes until a steady production rate is established.)

2. Using the watch and measuring cup, get an accurate measure of how much water the unit produces in milliliters into the cup in one minute.

3. Multiply the result by 0.38 to convert milliliters per minute to gallons per day. The result is how many gallons your reverse osmosis unit will produce if it runs for 24 hours.

Example: If your unit is making 50 milliliters per minutes, multiply 50 X 0.38. The result is 19. Your unit is producing water at the rate of 19 gallons per day.

More details on this subject from the Pure Water Gazette.

The Oil Company Did Not Apologize For the Massive Leak.   It Just Said,  “Oops.”

It is hard to imagine a “leak” of 1.8 million gallons of water.  The weight of the water is some 14,000,000 pounds.   A typical fracking operation consumes that much doubled, at least, and usually more.  This leak alone would furnish water for 27 homes for 2 years.

One authority questioned the company’s ability to protect ground water from fracking fluids during ultra high pressure underground injection when it apparently cannot control plain water on the surface.

Source Reference:  The Gazette of Colorado Springs.