Wastewater Can Become An Asset with Proper Treatment

Posted September 29th, 2012

Cities Are Learning to Use Wastewater as a Valuable Resource

Wastewater is becoming an asset rather than a disposal problem as some cities’ recycling efforts become more sophisticated.

Wastewater treatment plants are increasingly recognized as community resources for electricity, fertilizer, and heat, as waste to energy projects become commonplace.

Wastewater is a continuous source of energy that will only increase over time.

One of the most valuable waste products is methane gas, which is one of the most effective and efficient ways for new or upgraded Wastewater Treatment plants to generate energy for their own operation and for surrounding communities.

According to the Water Environment Research Foundation, wastewater contains up to ten times the energy needed to treat it.

Wastewater Treatment plants are currently responsible for approximately 1.5-percent of total U.S. energy consumption. For some municipalities, this translates to 30 to 40-percent of the total electricity bill.

Nevertheless, some newer Wastewater treatment plants are becoming net energy positive, producing enough power through a combination of microbial activity, efficiency improvements, and mechanical modifications to offset the energy needed to operate.
WWTPs can be sources of hydropower, capturing and redistributing the energy produced as water circulates throughout a plant. Some cities currently use the heat in wastewater much like a geothermal heat pump, resulting in billions of bulk gallons that are cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

Fertilizer is another important product of wastewater treatment.

Science News reports:

[It is reported that] sewage treatment plants in the United States use about 1.5 percent of the nation’s electrical energy to treat 12.5 trillion gallons of wastewater a year. Instead of just processing and dumping this water, they suggest that in the future treatment facilities could convert its organic molecules into fuels, transforming their work from an energy drain to an energy source. Based on their research, they estimate that one gallon of wastewater contains enough energy to power a 100-watt light bulb for five minutes.

Saving Lots of Water Is Easier Than You Think

Posted September 28th, 2012

Food, Shortage, Water Issues

The Quickest, Easiest Way to Save Water

By Jon Fisher, The Nature Conservancy

Meat eating is seldom mentioned as a water conservation issue and many Americans fall for the notion that gluttonous water consumption can be brought under control if we can only remember to turn off the tap while we brush our teeth. — Hardly Waite, Pure Water Gazette.

I admit it: I’m kind of obsessed with saving water. Not only have I done everything possible at home (low-flow toilets, showerhead, washer/dryer, dishwasher, etc.), I even stealthily installed a faucet aerator in the bathroom of a favorite restaurant of mine. Since bathrooms in businesses get a lot of use, I couldn’t resist the 4.5 gallons per minute savings. But what if I told you that you could save even more water than me, without being a total weirdo? What if it was free?

In the United States, the average person uses about 69 gallons of water at home indoors per day (25,295 gallons per year) and about 100 gallons of water per day (36,500 gallons per year) if you include outdoor use like watering a lawn. While that is already a lot of water, this number doesn’t even represent all our water use. In fact, the water we use at home is just 3.6% of our total water use! Another 4.4% is industrial, and a whopping 92% is agricultural (food and fiber).

Home water use is declining in the U.S., and you can join in on the fun by saving about 25 gallons per day with standard conservation measures (like low-flow showers). But if you really want to use less water, you can save far more than that by making one tiny change in your diet on a weekly basis.

The trick here is to reduce the portion of water use that goes to agriculture (92%) by choosing different foods. Just as we can calculate a person’s “carbon footprint” to measure their total contribution towards climate change, we can do the same with water. Your “water footprint” includes both your direct and indirect water use (e.g. the water used to produce products you buy), and includes both the consumption andpollution of water. In the U.S. the average annual water footprint per capita is 750,777 gallons; the global average is less than half of that at 365,878 gallons.

So, here’s the quickest, easiest way to reduce your water footprint: Once per week, eat a soy burger instead of a hamburger. That’s it. That single swap saves you a whopping 579 gallons each time, and if you do it once per week it adds up to saving 30,111 gallons per year (more than your total indoor water use at home).

If you also drink a cup of soy milk instead of cow’s milk you can save another 47 gallons each time (2,447 gallons per year if you make the switch once per week). So between the burger and the milk, that’s a total savings of 32,559 gallons per person per year, enough to take 814 baths. Trust me, choosing soy products instead of cow products is a lot easier than trying to save that much water at home (and way easier than installing aerators at restaurants, which requires stealth).

Think about that: you could shut off your water at home (no toilet, no shower, no washing machine, etc.) and still have less impact than switching from beef to soy once per week*.

Inspired? The average American eats 57.3 pounds of beef and drinks 20 gallons of milk per year; swap that all out for soy and save 115,396 gallons of water each year! If you don’t like soy, there are plenty of other options.

You can educate yourself on how much water various foods and drinks require at a fantastic web site put out by the Water Footprint Network. (Before you click over, let me warn you: you may not want to know.)

So if you find yourself pulling your hair out because you can’t afford a front-loading washer, or if it starts to seem like a good idea to leave a spare aerator and a wrench in your backpack (just in case), remember there’s an easier way.

* Note that if you wanted to offset your outdoor water use as well as indoor use, be prepared to switch another 1.6 cups of milk a week for soy milk.

For the original, go here.

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Fluoride, Still Around in 2012?

Posted September 27th, 2012

Fluoride

Fluoride: An Issue that Never Goes Away

by Hardly Waite, Pure Water Gazette Senior Editor

In lots of important ways, the United States leads the civilized world at being backward.

Although we somehow worked our way past witch burning, we’ve had trouble keeping up with the rest of the civilized world on issues like capital punishment, dealing with drugs, providing medical care for our citizens, and figuring out the metric system. And when you look at the fact that we’re still, in 2012, intentionally putting a powerful systemic poison into our drinking water, it makes you wonder how we ever got past the fear of witches.

Fully 97% of modern western Europeans have reached the conclusion that putting fluoride into the water supply is a bad idea. Nevertheless, fluoridation is still practiced in most parts of the USA. What’s surprising is that a large portion of Americans haven’t even heard that there might be something a little strange about adding the toxic waste products of aluminum and fertilizer plants to the public water supply.

Since the idea of selling municipalities toxic industrial waste as a way to prevent dental cavities first popped into the entrepreneurial brain in the middle of the past century, there’s been a battle going on, though most Americans seem blissfully unaware of it.

Fluorosis, caused by excessive fluoride.

Fluoridation became an official policy of the United States Public Health Service by 1951, and by 1960 water fluoridation had become widely used in the U.S., reaching about 50 million people. By 2006, almost 70% of the U.S. population on public water systems were receiving fluoridated water.During this period there has been strong opposition to fluoridation but also strong and well-financed support for it. The aluminum and phosphate fertilizer industries, the chief financial beneficiaries of fluoridation, have been enthusiastic supporters, as has the American Dental Association. The fluoride industry contributes $50 million per year to efforts to influence the public to adopt fluoridation in California alone. (It also contributes to the American Dental Association.) Well financed proponents of water fluoridation have been successful at dominating local fluoride elections, often by painting opponents of fluoridation as Luddite crazies, enemies of progress, the American flag, and cavity-free teeth. (See Paul Carpenter’s excellent piece, “Once Again the Kooks Are Vanquished,” on the Pure Water Gazette’s website.)

The conventional water treatment industry has remained predictably neutral on public fluoridation over the years, being content to sell products to remove an intentionally added contaminant. Professional associations take no position on the issue and hardly seem to notice its existence. In many ways fluoridation is government welfare for the water treatment industry.

One of the really puzzling aspects of fluoridation is that the American Dental Association supports it. This is puzzling because professional organizations do not often, if ever, endorse practices that cost their members money. The truth is that a 1972 report by the American Dental Association stated that dentist earn 17% more profit in fluoridated areas as opposed to non-fluoridated. (Douglas et al., “Impact of water fluoridation on dental practices and dental manpower,” Journal of the American Dental Association; 84:355-67, 1972.) To my knowledge, this is the single study on dentists’ income as it relates to fluoridation.

More information about dental treatments that result from fluoridation.

Arsenic Violations Are Becoming More Common

Posted September 27th, 2012

Arsenic

Elevated Levels of Arsenic Were Found in a Georgia Elementary School

Arsenic in water violations are becoming more common, partly because of the new arsenic rule that sets the limit at 10 parts per billion, down from a previous limit of 50. Many water supplies that were once considered safe are now being required to reduce their arsenic levels.

Arsenic is an odorless, tasteless semi-metal element that can enter drinking water naturally through erosion of the earth or agricultural runoff. It can also occur as the result of industrial pollution.

The Colquitt County School System in Georgia is considering a filtration system to deal with elevated levels of arsenic found in well water at Hamilton Elementary School.

The system learned of the elevated levels of the naturally occurring poisonous substance in January, at which time the Georgia Department of Natural Resources recommended monitoring the well that serves the school through the end of the year.

The school’s well has been testing at 10 ppb or slightly more, so the school has decided to provide bottled water for its students until an arsenic removal system is installed. The current expectation is that the system will cost the school some $50,000.

Water treatment for arsenic is by ion exchange, distillation, or reverse osmosis.

Testing for arsenic is crucial to making sure water is clean and safe to drink.

Long term exposure to arsenic can cause stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, partial paralysis, numbness in hands and feet, blindness, and thickening and discoloration of the skin.

More About Arsenic in Moultrie School

More About Arsenic in Water

Governments Procrastinate While Africans Go Without Clean Water and Basic Sanitation

Posted September 24th, 2012

Politics of Water

300 Million Africans Still Lack Access to Safe Drinking Water

More than 400 million Africans now live in countries that lack sufficient water; 300 million lack safe drinking water; 230 million lack access to basic sanitation facilities.

Although officials usually blame lack of funding for their failure to provide basic sanitation and clean water, there is a growing belief that it makes little sense for governments to make more commitments in these areas.

Water comes with a high price tag for millions of Africans.

Goals and commitments are made, but rather than fulfilling them, African governments simply make even more ambitious goals and promises.

Water and sanitation are still not top priorities for governments, despite overwhelming evidence that a country’s development and people’s well being depends on efficient use of water.

Many feel that at the present rate of progress, African governments will need two or three millennia to meet their goals. One Unicef official, however, pointed out that progress has been made. “Before we were not even allowed to say toilets or defecation,” she said, “but now we see UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon using these words, which greatly increases exposure and awareness of the issue.”

Eight Pounds of Mercury Found in Water Treatment Plant on Military Base

Posted September 24th, 2012

Mercury

Source of Mercury in Camp Lejeune’s Water Is Not Known

Military bases are notorious for their water pollution issues because chemicals are available in great supply.

An unusual water pollution issue popped up this month when Camp Lejeune (NC) was forced to shut down one of its water treatment plants after about 8 pounds of mercury was found in a pipe in the facility.

Lejeune spokesman Nat Fahy said elemental mercury was found in the pipe at Hadnot Point Water Treatment Plant during maintenance. Tests did not reveal mercury in the drinking water.

The plant will remain closed until repairs are completed.

Mr. Fahy says about 1 pint of mercury, weighing 8 pounds, was found. Water pressure meters containing elemental mercury were removed from the plant in the 1980s and replaced with digital meters.

Elemental mercury is found in items such as thermometers, dental fillings and fluorescent bulbs. Mercury in elevated amounts is relatively rare in drinking water supplies.

More about water pollution at Camp Lejeune

More about mercury in water

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Governments Fiddle While the Arctic Ice Melts

Posted September 22nd, 2012

Environmental

In 2012 Arctic Ice Reached the Smallest Volume Ever Recorded

In 2007, 27 percent of the Arctic Ocean was covered with ice. That was the lowest percentage ever recorded, but this year, 2012, only 24 percent of the Arctic’s surface was covered with ice.

One research scientist said, “The Arctic is the earth’s air-conditioner.” When the ice recedes in the Arctic region, it isn’t just the humans and animals who live in the region that feel the effect. The entire planet can feel the effect.

The sea ice is declining much faster than was predicted in the last big UN report on the state of the climate, published in 2007, which suggested that the ice would not disappear before the middle of this century.

Now, some scientists think the Arctic Ocean could be largely free of summer ice as soon as 2020. But governments have not responded to the change with any greater urgency about limiting greenhouse emissions. To the contrary, their main response has been to plan for ways to exploit energy in the Arctic, including drilling for oil.

A deep concern is that as the ice melts, the level of the oceans will rise to levels even greater than expected. The sea is now rising at a rate of about a foot per century. As the rate of rise increases, so does the risk to coastal settlements.

A main concern of scientists is the apparent futility of convincing the public and governments of the gravity of the situation.

Off the East Coast of Greenland, Where Ice and Sea Meet, Satellite Pictures Show a Frightening Loss of Arctic Ice

More information on Arctic ice melts from the New York Times.

Silent Spring, One of the World’s Most Influential Books, Was Published 50 Years Ago This Month

Posted September 22nd, 2012

Environmental

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring Gave a Strong Push to the Environmental Awakening that Lead to the Establishment of the EPA

September of 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of one of the most influential books of modern times, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.

Rachel Carson’s 1962 book, which focused on what she saw as the widespread and detrimental use of pesticides, is credited as being the catalyst for the modern environmental movement and helping to lead to the creation of the US EPA in 1970.

Silent Spring, Publish in 1962, A Book of Immense Influence

“With the publication of Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring,” average citizens grasped, maybe for the first time, how their choices could harm the environment in which they live,” said EPA Regional Administrator Shawn M. Garvin. ”Each of us is an engine of change in the choices we make, what we buy and how we live.”

The New Yorker started serializing Silent Spring in June 1962, and it was published in book form by Houghton Mifflin later that year. When the book Silent Spring was published, Rachel Carson was already a well-known writer on natural history, but had not previously been a social critic. The book was widely read—especially after its selection by the Book-of-the-Month Club and the New York Times best-seller list. The book inspired widespread public concerns with pesticides and environmental pollution .

Silent Spring started the dialog that resulted in the ban of the pesticide DDT^[3] in 1972 in the United States. The book documented detrimental effects of pesticides on the environment, particularly on birds. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading purposely misleading the public, and she accused public officials of accepting industry claims uncritically.

Read the EPA’s Statement on the 50th Anniversary of Silent Spring

NSF Grants First-Ever Certification For A Swimming Spa

Posted September 21st, 2012

Uncategorized, Water Issues

NSF International’s Comprehensive CCS-11804 Protocol Is Established for Swimming Spas, Hot Tubs, and Related Equipment

NSF International, an independent global organization that establishes standards, tests and certifies products for the water, food and consumer goods industries, has developed the first comprehensive protocol that evaluates the performance, health and safety of every component of a swim spa.

The new protocol, CCS-11804, includes testing and evaluation criteria in these areas:

Performance testing – evaluates the durability, strength and chemical resistance of the spa shell and other components.
Material evaluation – verifies that water contact materials meet regulations for corrosion resistance, toxicological health and safety and do not leach harmful contaminants into the swim spa water.
Accessibility and safety features – tests the effectiveness of safety features such as floor and step slip resistance, step dimensions, depth markings, handholds and railings.
Filtration and water chemistry – ensures the chemical treatment, water skimming and particulate filtration systems perform at a high level and effectively filter contaminants.
Suction fittings and systems testing – tests the entire swim current or exercise system for entrapment safety. This includes verifying that suction vacuum release systems and suction fittings are compliant with ANSI/APSP 16 (formerly known as ASME/ANSI A112.19.8), as mandated by the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act.

Master Spas’ Michael Phelps Signature Swim Spas are the first to earn certification to the new protocol.

Pure Water Gazette staff members lounge in the new NSF-certified spa located on the roof of the Gazette’s penthouse facility in Denton, TX.

NSF’s Press Release with More Information about Spa Certification.

Salem, NH Is Fighting an Extended Battle with TCE Contamination

Posted September 20th, 2012

Trichloroethylene (TCE)

An Abandoned Wastewater Treatment Plant is Oozing Trichloroethylene

The town of Salem, NH has been spending at least $100,000 per year for the last 15 years in an effort to clean up pollution left behind when it closed its old wastewater treatment plant in in mid-1980s.

The issue now is environmental contamination caused by the chemical trichloroethylene, a solvent that is carcinogenic. After being closed for 25 years, the old plant is still the source of excessive amounts of TCE. Now, $306,000 additional is being requested for 2013 cleanup activities.

Trichloroethene is a manufactured, volatile organic chemical. It has been used as a solvent to remove grease from metal. Trichloroethene has also been used as a paint stripper, adhesive solvent and as an ingredient in paints and varnishes. The chemical can affect the nervous system.

TCE can cause liver and kidney damage, and other ailments. It is probably carcinogenic to humans. In small amounts, TCE can cause headaches, lung irritation, poor coordination, and difficulty concentrating.

Small amounts of TCE can contaminate large amounts of groundwater. Salem is doing its best to deal with a dangerous and frustrating problem.

More information from the Salem Eagle-Tribune.