A Halloween Horror Story: Waterboarding

Some top American politicians actually endorsed the use of the fearful torture technique known as waterboarding during the dark early days of the “War on Terror”

Waterboarding is a form of water torture in which water is poured over a cloth covering the face and breathing passages of an immobilized captive, causing the individual to experience the sensation of drowning. Waterboarding can cause extreme pain, dry drowning, damage to lungs, brain damage from oxygen deprivation, other physical injuries including broken bones due to struggling against restraints, lasting psychological damage, and death. Adverse physical consequences can manifest themselves months after the event, while psychological effects can last for years.

In the most common method of waterboarding, the captive’s face is covered with cloth or some other thin material, and the subject is immobilized on his/her back at an incline of 10 to 20 degrees. Torturers pour water onto the face over the breathing passages, causing an almost immediate gag reflex and creating a drowning sensation for the captive. Vomitus travels up the esophagus, which may then be inhaled. Victims of waterboarding are at extreme risk of sudden death due to the aspiration of vomitus.

The term water board torture appeared in press reports as early as 1976. In late 2007, it was widely reported that the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was using waterboarding on extrajudicial prisoners and that the Office of Legal Counsel, Department of Justice, had authorized the procedure among enhanced interrogation techniques. Senator John McCain noted that the United States military hanged Japanese soldiers for waterboarding American prisoners of war during World War II. The CIA confirmed having used waterboarding on three Al-Qaeda suspects in 2002 and 2003.

In August 2002 and March 2003, in its war on terror, the George W. Bush administration issued what became known as the Torture Memos after being leaked in 2004. These legal opinions argued for a narrow definition of torture under US law. The first three were addressed to the CIA, which took them as authority to use the described enhanced interrogation techniques (more generally classified as torture) on detainees classified as enemy combatants.

Why Pure Water Products’ Backwashing Filters Are the Very Best in the World

Gene Franks, Pure Water Products

To start with, we have invented a superior new filter medium that removes all known contaminants from water, never wears out, and is very inexpensive.

We also have created a new filter control valve that lasts for 40 years, runs without electricity, and can be programmed by thought.

Finally, in response to customer demand, we have created a unique space-saving mineral tank that is over twice as large on the inside as it is on the outside.

I really wish I could tell you all of that is true, but, alas, I have to tell you that we mainly use the same old stuff that’s available to everyone else in the industry for making filters. Nevertheless, I can confidently say that our backwashing filters are the best on the market and that it doesn’t worry us that some other internet sites seem to be selling comparable filters at a slightly lower price.

Here are some reasons: 

100% Vortech. We now use Vortech mineral tanks exclusively for all residential-sized filters (up to 13”). Vortech tanks cost more and they are harder to get, but they don’t need gravel underbeds,  and compared with conventional tanks, they save at least 20% of regeneration water used by the filter.  They save water day after day, year after year. We now use Vortech tanks even for dome hole applications (for calcite filters) and bottom drain tanks (for vacation homes that require draining for winter).

We use all Fleck controls. These tried and proven performers are easy to program, easy to maintain, economical to operate. We offer standard timer models, SXT electronic upgrades, and even non-electric manual Fleck units, plus the AIO electronic air-draw control in two control valve styles for problem well water.

We program all control valves before the filter is shipped. Plug it in, set the time of day, and you’re ready to go. If you want to change the programming, it’s easy.

We provide a complete “Setup Sheet” for all filters that lets you know at a glance the type and quantity of the media your filter has, the regeneration time, the backwash and rinse duration, and the drain line flow control size. Plus, we keep this information on file so if you call or email we’ll know exactly what you need for your filter.

We pay shipping. Keep this in mind if you’re comparing prices. Backwashing filters are large and the media that goes in the tank are heavy.

We build filters every day, so we have everything in stock and can normally ship the filter the day you order it. This means also that we always have parts in stock if you need them.

We support installation and service by both email and phone. If you call us, or if your plumber calls us, we’re happy to help.

The most important thing about buying a backwashing filter is getting what is needed for your specific water issue. We offer help in diagnosing water issues and in selecting and sizing equipment. You can contact us by phone or email for help. We offer a dozen different media choices that cover most city or well water issues. We also sell and supply any supporting equipment needed, such as sediment pre-filters, chlorine or aeration pre-treatment, or pH amendment. We also offer free testing to help determine what you need (or don’t need).

What others offer as options, come as standard equipment with our filters. All of our filters come with such standard equipment as a stainless steel bypass valve, drain tubing, pre-installed flow control for regeneration, a media funnel, and a clear-bowl media trap. We’ve just added the media trap as a standard feature to protect your home against media intrusion in home services lines. The bypass, funnel, drain tubing, and media trap when sold as options cost over $100.

 Our Fleck 2510 filters come with either traditional timer or advanced SXT control.

Gazette Famous Water Picture Series — The Mysterious Lowering of London

Is London Sinking?

From the waterways of Piccadilly Circus to moorings outside St Paul’s Cathedral, these remarkable illustrations imagine what London would look like if its streets were to become the canals of Venice.

The superimposed images, created by hand for a spoof feature in The Harmsworth Magazine in 1899, show the city’s roads filled with former taxi drivers navigating gondolas through bustling water traffic, rather than Victorian horse and carts.

The black-and-white pictures show iconic sites including Regent Street, Horse Guards Parade and Hyde Park Corner submerged in water, while major landmarks like St Paul’s Cathedral sit on the banks of canals.

The historic photo project was prompted by news reports at the turn of the 19th century which described how London had lowered by 68 feet in 500 years, sparking speculation that the metropolis would eventually sink below the River Thames.

These pictures were accompanied by an imagined future tour of London’s newly-submerged landmarks.

Piccadilly Circus in a sunken London.

Source: The Daily Mail.  Go here for more pictures from the 1899 collection.

Pure Water Gazette Fair Use Statement

 Slipshod oversight allows millions of gallons of water to be taken off public lands

by Cassie MacDuff

Nestle takes millions of gallons of virtually free water from public lands, and leaves behind:

The government is urging people to let their lawns die and to turn off the tap while brushing their teeth because of California’s extreme drought.

And people are cooperating.

So it’s galling to learn that federal officials have allowed a bottled-water company to extract more than 25 million gallons a year from the San Bernardino National Forest on a permit that expired 27 years ago.

Three public-interest groups last week filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Riverside against the U.S. Forest Service, accusing it of failing to enforce its own environmental rules.

The lawsuit, filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, Story of Stuff Project and the Courage Campaign Initiative, asks a judge to shut down the water-taking by Nestlé Waters North America Inc., bottler of Arrowhead 100% Mountain Spring Water.

Nestlé is not the target of the suit, although environmental groups have been asking the company to stop taking the water from Strawberry Creek, east of the famous arrowhead landmark above San Bernardino.

The company has declined, because, why should it, unless the federal government tells it to? The company is making millions selling the water it extracts for a mere $524 a year. That’s right: $524.

The Forest Service has enabled the company – and its predecessors (there have been a series bottling Arrowhead water over the years) – to operate on expired permit, even during the state’s four-year drought.

Until the groups started pressuring the service, no work was done on re-issuing the permit until late last year. And even now, the effort is just getting underway.

An investigation by the Office of Inspector General in 2011 uncovered the reason why expired permits are rampant in national forests: the Forest Service doesn’t have enough personnel to do the job.

The service is sitting on more than 4,500 expired permits, including around 1,200 that involve water, because it doesn’t have enough funding to review and renew them.

The Inspector General also found that six of the nine Forest Service regions – including the one that oversees the San Bernardino National Forest – haven’t updated their fees to reflect fair market values nor adjusted them for inflation. The government failed to collect $5.4 million as a result, it said.

Region 5, which encompasses California, hadn’t done a market survey or adjusted for inflation since 1988 – the year the Arrowhead permit expired.

So a multinational food-and-beverage company like Nestlé pays a pittance for California’s precious water, and the government allows the squandering of a scarce public resource because it can’t afford to process permits.

Who wouldn’t like to pay 1988 prices? If you could buy groceries and gasoline at 1988 prices today, you’d have a lot more money in your wallet. Right?

But the problem here is not just how little Nestlé is paying. It’s that the Forest Service hasn’t examined whether extracting 25 million gallons a year is harming the forest around Strawberry Creek.

Source: The Press Enterprise.

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Fluoridation Chemical Company Mosaic Fertilizer Fined $2 Billion 

The company that gets rid of highly toxic wastes by selling them as a “product” to municipal water departments across the country as cheap fluoridation chemicals has been fined $2 billion for gross violations of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), reports the Fluoride Action Network (FAN).

Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC, is one of the largest sellers of a toxic fluoride chemical, “fluorosilicic acid”, that cities add to public drinking water. Fluorosilicic acid is described by EPA in the Consent Decrees as a “hazardous waste” produced at Mosaic’s fertilizer plants. More than 200 million Americans drink these wastes every day.

For decades Mosaic has been selling fluoridation chemicals to public drinking water systems across the U.S. This Kafkaesque scheme, approved by EPA, benefits the polluter in the belief that it helps the teeth of the poor, according to FAN.

The fine was levied on October 1st by the EPA and U.S. Department of Justice. These wastes are produced at Mosaic’s six phosphate fertilizer plants in Florida and two in Louisiana.

“It’s outrageous that Mosaic is allowed to sell an EPA ‘hazardous waste’ to dump into the drinking water used in most major U.S. cities,” says FAN scientist Dr. Neil Carman.

Dr. William Hirzy, also with FAN, added, “This loophole needs to be closed by the EPA. It was not addressed in the Consent Decrees which allow Mosaic to continue selling a hazardous waste to the public disguised as a way to boost fluoride in drinking water.”

The RCRA laws govern the storage, treatment and disposal of hazardous waste.  Mosaic’s 60 billion pounds of improperly handled hazardous waste cited by EPA is the largest amount ever covered by a RCRA settlement. Mosaic’s wastes have also caused huge local environmental problems, due largely to their high fluoride levels. The fluoride, not captured in pollution control devices and sold for water fluoridation, ends up in their liquid and solid wastes. Other toxic constituents include arsenic, lead, cadmium, uranium and radium. Enormous quantities of these wastes have been stored for years in so-called gypsum stacks. They will never become non-toxic, and these open hazardous waste piles have regularly leaked into rivers and groundwater causing huge fish kills and other problems.

Source: PR Newswire.

Pure Water Gazette Fair Use Statement

Gazette Numerical Wizard B. Sharper fills in the the numerical blanks that Harper’s misses.

According to a company press release, the number of cans of drinking water that have been provided by Anheuser-Busch in support of disaster relief efforts – 73,000,000.

Year by which Coca Cola aspires to be “water neutral,” replenishing as much water as it uses in its beverages – 2020.

According to 2005 research, the number trees on earth for each human – 61

Number of trees we lose annually to toilet paper, timber, farmland expansion, and other human needs – 15 billion.

Gallons of bottled water sold in 2012—9.7 million.

Gross profit from these sales – $11.8 billion.
Average cost per gallon – $1.22.

Annual cost of bottled water for a family that consumes 3 gallons of bottled water per day –$1,335.

Annual cost for the same family if they drank tap water prepared by a $200 water filter – >$220.

Percentage of plastic water bottles that end up in landfills – 70%.

Approximate number of years it takes a plastic water bottle to degrade – 1,000,

Number of potentially harmful chemicals found by a German scientific study in a single plastic bottle of water – 24,000.

Number of pinheads that would fit onto a plastic microbead used in soaps and cosmetics – 3.

Number of microbeads that go into our water supply daily – 8 trillion.

Number of tennis courts that a day’s supply of microbeads would cover – 300.

Year in which Illinois became the first state to ban microbeads – 2014.

Estimated number of marijuana plantations now operating in Calfiornia – 50,000.

Percentage of US marijuana that is grown in California – 70%.

Factor by which the quantity of water in China’s underground Tarim basin exceeds the water contained in all the US Great Lakes combined – 10.

Average annual shrimp consumption by US citizens in 2008 – 4.1 lbs.

Percentage of Ecuador’s total shrimp production that is exported to the US – 93%.

Estimated number of major city water pipe breaks that occur in the US daily – 700.

Cost of replacing a single mile of water main piping — $500,000 to $1,000,000.

Water Pipes: An Underground World We Neglect

More than a million miles of underground pipes distribute water to American homes. Maintaining that complex network is an extremely expensive and never-ending ordeal.

Some pipes date back to the 1800s. As they get older, they fail in different ways. Some split and rupture, with an estimated 700 main breaks occurring around the U.S. every day. The most devastating failures damage roadways, close businesses and shut off service for hours or days. If pipes are particularly bad, they can contaminate water.

Utilities have long struggled to predict when to replace pipes, which have vastly different life cycles depending on the materials they are made from and where they are buried. Some might last 30 years, others more than 100. Sophisticated computer programs are helping some water systems prioritize the order in which pipes should be replaced, but tight budgets often mean the fixes don’t come until it’s too late.

Replacing a single mile of water main can cost from $500,000 to more than $1 million, but doing so is far more disruptive to customers if it fails first. Experts say a peak of up to 20,000 miles of pipe will need to be replaced annually beginning around 2035, up from roughly 5,000 miles currently. Des Moines Water Works alone has 1,600 miles of distribution pipes.

The Philadelphia water department, the nation’s oldest, is already spending tens of millions of dollars more per year to replace its worst pipes. Yet the city saw more than 900 water main breaks in the most recent budget year. In June, two massive breaks forced evacuations and damaged cars, homes and businesses.

New Orleans once boasted about not raising water rates for two decades. But in 2012, the city approved 10 percent increases on water bills for eight straight years as part of a plan to fix a crumbling system. The average household’s monthly water-and-sewer bill will climb to $115 by 2020. The extra money will help replace deteriorating mains damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

The massive main break that flooded the UCLA campus in Los Angeles in 2014 — ruining its basketball court and inundating buildings and fields with millions of gallons of water — was widely seen as a wakeup call for failing infrastructure. But a year later, the city’s response illustrates how large of a problem many systems face.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is moving from a 300-year replacement cycle to a 250-year cycle for its 7,200-mile water distribution system, still far slower than the 100-year cycle many experts recommend. The department is proposing a 3.8 percent annual water rate increase for five years, which would go largely toward system improvements and gradually raise the typical household water bill by $12.30 per month. Heavier users would face steeper increases.

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The California drought is killing almond trees, too

by Ana Sofia Knauf

Almond Tree 

Salted almonds are essentially God’s gift to snack food, salads, and ice cream. But when it comes to growing almonds, salt can really screw things up. Unfortunately for California’s almond orchards, salty groundwater has become a huge problem and it’s killing trees across the state. That’s right: We’re talking about almonds and California again, folks, but bear with us.

Valley Public Radio has the story:

“The trees just don’t look healthy,” [Paul Parreira of Rpac Almonds] says. “Everybody is watering at the minimum levels with high salinity water. It’s a double edged sword.”

High salinity levels in groundwater used for agriculture on the Westside of Central California is commonplace, but this year the issue is compounded. Many farmers have a zero allocation of surface water from the Delta. These farmers are forced to irrigate with salty groundwater and the little water they receive from the Sacramento Delta is also high in things like salt.

“Without any adequate rainfall to move those salts down through the soil there’s just no way for us to remove those salts,” Parreira says. “Not only is it staying there, we’re adding to it because of the poor quality from the Delta.”

Almond trees are able to deal with some salt, but if they take in too much, the mineral becomes toxic to them — just like humans! The tree leaves begin showing signs of salt burn, and eventually the whole tree could die. As the problem has become more widespread, the Almond Board of California predicts crop yields will decrease by four percent in 2015, the radio station reports. According to “Almond Doctor” David Doll, the groundwater could be diluted to reduce salt levels – but that requires rain.

Basically, you may have to end your love affair with almonds whether you’re guilted into it or not. We’re sorry!

Source: Grist.

Pure Water Gazette Fair Use Statement

What can I do about a problem water heater?

If odor is in the hot water only, simply replacing the anode in your water heater may fix it.

Odor from a hot water heater can be a perplexing problem. Theories of cause and cure abound. Usually blamed on hydrogen sulfide gas, water heater odor is most often associated with well water, but it can happen with city water as well. If the odor is in both hot and cold water, the problem is in the well and a whole house treatment is required. The suggestions below are for situations where the odor is in the hot water only. –Editor.

Below are some strategies to try.

Replace or remove the magnesium anode. Many water heaters have a magnesium anode, which is attached to a plug located on top of the water heater. It can be removed by turning off the water, releasing the pressure from the water heater, and unscrewing the plug. Be sure to plug the hole. Removal of the anode, however, may significantly decrease the life of the water heater. You may wish to consult with a reputable water heater dealer to determine if a replacement anode made of a different material, such as aluminum, can be installed. A replacement anode may provide corrosion protection without contributing to the production of hydrogen sulfide gas. There are also replacement “lifetime” anodes that use electricity that are almost always successful at  getting rid of odors in the hot water heater.

Disinfect and flush the water heater with a chlorine bleach solution. Chlorination can kill sulfur bacteria, if done properly. If all bacteria are not destroyed by chlorination, the problem may return within a few weeks.

Increase the water heater temperature to 160 degrees Fahrenheit (71 degrees Celsius) for several hours. This will destroy the sulfur bacteria. Flushing to remove the dead bacteria after treatment should control the odor problem.

Reference: Minnesota Dept. of Health.  We have had several customers who speak highly of the electric anodes.

Cleaning Up After California’s Pot Farmers

An L.A. Times Editorial

Marijuana Farm in Northern California

Long known as the nation’s “salad bowl,” California has also become its marijuana bowl. The state produces as much as 70% of the cannabis sold in the United States, and its landscape bears the scars of both legal and illegal cultivation. Pristine habitat has been clear-cut to make way for pot farms, roads have been carved into hillsides, creeks have been pumped dry for irrigation and wildlife has been poisoned by pesticides and rodenticides. The effects of irresponsible cultivation, coupled with the drought, could doom the survival of some salmon species in Northern California.

Environmentalists now worry that damage to the state’s flora and fauna from marijuana growing will only increase as more states vote to legalize the recreational use of the drug. It’s essential that the various ballot measures being floated for California’s November 2016 election include not only rules for regulating marijuana farms but enough funding to enforce them and to mitigate the damage that’s already occurred.

Too often, however, the environmental impacts of cultivation are an afterthought. California legalized medical marijuana nearly 20 years ago, but state lawmakers largely ignored the exponential increase in cannabis cultivation. Now, officials estimate there are 50,000 marijuana plantations across the state. Yet the California Department of Fish and Game has 16 people to police pot farms and has been able to inspect fewer than 1% of the sites. Gov. Jerry Brown budgeted $3.3 million in 2014 to boost enforcement, but experts estimate that the state needs $25 million a year to regulate these plantations and enforce environmental laws.

Recent legislation around the country hasn’t made environmental protection a priority either. Neither Washington nor Colorado earmark tax revenue from the sale of recreational marijuana to help enforce rules on growers. (To be fair, those states have more indoor growing and haven’t experienced damage on the scale of California.) The California Legislature recently passed bills that regulate medical cannabis, but lawmakers removed a proposed excise tax that would have generated $60 million for environmental cleanup and enforcement. Instead, the bills would let state agencies raise fees on licenses to cover enforcement. The high cost of licenses, however, could prompt some growers to remain in the black market rather than come into compliance.

Until recently, there has been little opportunity and no incentive for growers to act responsibly. Any effort to legalize marijuana must ensure that this billion-dollar industry repairs the legacy of damage and becomes a responsible steward of the land.

Source: LA Times.

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