LeakBird

(Jan. 27, 2009, The Kansas City Star)
America’s roads, public transit and aviation have gotten worse in the past four years. Water and sewage systems are dreadful. The basic physical backbone of American society is barely above failing, a report by top engineers says.
It’ll cost $2.2 trillion to fix America’s ailing infrastructure, according to highlights of [...]

(Jan. 23, 2009, Jeff St. John, GreenTechMedia)
The world’s poorest and richest nations alike need to find ways to conserve and use water more efficiently if they hope to avoid shortages and conflict, says noted water expert Peter Gleick.
The threat of “peak water” should be considered as big a threat – and opportunity – as the [...]

(Jan. 25, 2009, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
A year ago, Gov. Sonny Perdue and state leaders made water their top priority. Georgia’s first water management plan zipped through the House and Senate and landed on Perdue’s desk in under three weeks.
“We will conserve and use this precious and vital resource wisely,” Perdue told lawmakers in his 2008 [...]

(Jan. 23, 2009, San Francisco Chronicle)
San Francisco must upgrade its emergency water system to avoid a catastrophe like the fire that devastated the city after the 1906 earthquake, according to a report to be released today.
Improvements to the system – a network of pipes and storage facilities – won’t be cheap, according to the report, [...]

(Jan. 24, 2009, The Portland Water Bureau)
NSF International announced updated standards regulating lead content in plumbing components. The new standards will limit lead content to 0.25% by weight. The current EPA regulations minimize lead content to 8.0%. The revised standards are in response to new strict standards recently enacted in California. These revised standards will [...]

(Jan. 23, 2009, Bloomberg)
Malaysia’s Selangor state plans to complete taking over the assets and operation of water companies including Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd. in March in a bid to revamp the industry and prevent water shortages within five years.
The country’s richest state, through its Kumpulan Darul Ehsan Bhd. unit, will buy all the region’s [...]

(Jan. 21, 2009, MSNBC)
Some Central Asian countries could be hit by severe water shortages this year because power-starved Tajikistan has been draining its reservoirs to generate electricity, the country’s foreign minister said Wednesday.
To compensate for a shortfall caused by the suspension of electricity from Turkmenistan, Tajikistan is taking unusually high volumes of water from its [...]

(Jan. 21, 2009, MuniWireless)
Not all water meters are created equal. If you’re thinking of implementing an AMR/AMI solution then you may wish to consider the following factors.
I’ve seen water meters installed on the sides of homes and I’ve also seen water meters installed underground under a steel plate.  The latter is typically used in new [...]

(Jan. 15, 2009, Fast Company)
Randy Truby’s wardrobe — broad, rectangular glasses; a long-sleeve navy blue corduroy shirt; navy slacks; and oxblood cowboy boots on an 80-degree day in Southern California — does little to minimize his distinct physical presence. But an almost elfin energy animates Truby’s big-fella frame when he starts talking about water. “If [...]

(Jan. 21, 2009, Frank R. Rijsberman, AlterNet)

So, is the planet drying up? Not exactly, but a growing number of people are sharing a fixed amount of water that is badly managed and polluted.
Sri Lanka’s celebrated twelfth-century king Parakramabahu reportedly said, “not a single drop of water received from rain should be allowed to [...]

(Jan. 21, 2009, UN News Centre)
Water supplies for over a billion people around the world are under threat from increasing populations, expanding cities, industrialization, climate change and even the rising demand for food, warned the United Nations, as delegates from more than 60 countries kicked off a meeting today in preparation for the upcoming World [...]

(Jan. 21, 2009, The International Herald Tribune)
U.S. and Iraqi officials opened a water treatment plant in Baghdad’s Sadr City slum on Wednesday three and a half years after they began it, a sign that the area is finally quiet enough for long-promised reconstruction work.
The $65 million (47 million pound) plant provides water for 200,000 people — [...]

(Jan. 20, 2009, CleanTech)
Researchers at Frost & Sullivan say the water treatment industry is going to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of China’s plan for RMB 4 trillion in government spending in 2009 to stimulate the economy.
The government already spent RMB 120 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008, with about 10 percent of [...]

(Jan. 20, 2009, JCFloridan)
A new water bottling plant in Marianna should be in full production some time next month, according to T.J. East, the plant manager for Ice River Springs’ local operation.
The Canada-based company will be drawing water from White Springs in Liberty County’s Bristol community, and Gainer Springs in Bay County’s Fountain community, [...]

(Jan. 20, 2009, The Vacaville Reporter)
Pushing hard to build a new canal around the delta, the Schwarzenegger administration rarely misses an opportunity to point out how rickety California’s water system has become.And in their zeal to get the expensive and controversial aqueduct built, they occasionally exaggerate.
For example, when federal regulators imposed new rules last month [...]

(Jan. 20, 2009, New York Times)
Six states bordering the Ohio River are joining the Environmental Protection Agency in the largest study of its kind to identify and reduce dangerous levels of bacteria that plague the waterway.
Unsafe levels of fecal coliform, or E. coli, have been identified in about 500 miles of the 981-mile river, which [...]

(Jan. 20, 2009, MSNBC)
Dr.T.N.V.V.Rao joins Underwriters Laboratories (UL) water division as Head – Water solutions at UL’s office in India. Prior to this appointment Dr. Rao was with Givaudan and was responsible for Regulatory Affairs and Product Safety (RAPS) for India Operations and helped to develop and maintain Quality Systems. At UL, he will work [...]

(Jan. 20, 2009, BDNews24)
China is to embark on a water-diversion scheme it calls the most difficult in history, bringing water to nearly half a million people in drought-prone mountains of the southwest, state media said on Monday.
The “unthinkable” hydro scheme in the province of Guizhou would include a curved, 63-km (40-mile) canal and a [...]

(Jan. 20, 2009, Macon)

Many people are applauding the state’s new water conservation plan, now up for public comment, although some critics say it isn’t specific enough and is likely to suffer from lack of funding.
Water planning gained new urgency — and political legs — in the wake of a historic drought that has hit north [...]

(Jan. 16, 2009, Enviroblog)
Economic losses caused by nutrient pollution of U.S. freshwaters are felt by people all around the country, according to the policy analysis by the Kansas State University team of scientists led by Walter Dodds.
Repeated application of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers, intensive tillage of soil, discharge of manure from animal farms, and [...]

(Jan. 20, 2009, WaterWired)
Susan Greene’s column in the 15 January 2009 Denver Post suggests something to which James Powell alluded in Dead Pool: Lower Colorado River Basin (LCRB) states (CA, AZ, NV) casting their eyes and wallets south of the border in search of water:
Following Nevada’s example, Phoenix begins to build a desalting plant on the [...]

(Jan. 19, 2009, Sarah Kuck, WorldChanging)

On the blue planet, and especially in the industrialized world, water is seemingly everywhere. At the turn of the faucet or the flush of a toilet, our control over our water supply is misleadingly large.
Although the planet is covered in more than 70 percent of the stuff, only three [...]

(Jan. 19, 2009, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Heavy industry group Rexnord LLC announced its third acquisition of a water-engineering company in as many years, becoming the latest Milwaukee-area company to expand in the water-technology sector.
“We wanted to add an additional platform that would allow for additional growth of the company,” both nationally and globally, Rexnord Chief [...]

(Jan. 12, 2009, MultiTrode)
The Florida 2008 results include the biggest challenges faced by water & wastewater utilities, the effect of the current economic problems on the capital and operational budgets, the importance of energy cost and CO2 emissions and many more insights into how utilities are thinking.
Florida water & wastewater utilities face many problems in [...]

(Jan. 20, 2009, Aquafornia)
From the O.C. Register:
As a crucial part of a citywide conservation initiative, Orange officials are having waterless urinals installed. The installation of 49 waterless urinals at 14 city facilities is underway; they are expected to save nearly two million gallons of water each year.
The urinals, installed by Falcon Waterfree Technologies, will be [...]

(Jan. 19, 2009, Arabian Business)
Saudi-based Huta Marine has been awarded a $52 million contract to supply drinking warter and to construct a reverse osmosis plant at the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), it was reported Monday.
KAEC is the largest private finance initiative in the Kingdom, taking up 55 million sq m of greenfield land and [...]

(Jan. 19, 2009, EcoLocalizer)

It feels like you can’t check the news lately without hearing about another area coping with severe drought. Here in Atlanta, we’ve been dealing with a water shortage for years, as have folks in California.
Texas is in a worsening drought situation, too, which is leading to cattle deaths. There’s no grass [...]

(Jan. 18, 2009, Colorado Water Examiner)
Infrastructure — Rachel Maddow’s favorite topic — receives a good deal of attention in the new stimulus bill. Efforts will largely be focused on upgrading existing older systems that fail stricter standards both for supply and wastewater.
Colorado is in line for funding for the Arkansas Valley Conduit. The project is [...]

(Jan. 19, 2009, Inside Bay Area)

Construction of a new pipeline designed to improve Peninsula drinking water access will produce considerable noise, traffic and other impacts to homeowners over the next two years, according to officials.
Residents can voice concerns about the proposed 21-mile Bay Division Pipeline project at meetings this week. Some cities have begun expressing [...]

(Jan. 19, 2009, Scotsman)

SCOTTISH Water should be sold off to pay for the new Forth Road Bridge under proposals to be unveiled by CBI Scotland director Iain McMillan today.
Mr McMillan says the sale or mutualisation of Scottish Water would solve a funding headache by freeing cash to help build the bridge by private finance initiative.
Ministers [...]

(Jan. 18, 2009, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Metro Atlanta’s plan for meeting its water needs through 2035 may be most remarkable for what it doesn’t include.
There’s no high-tech proposal to turn sewage water into drinking water, nor a master plan to cut back on the region’s biggest water wasters: landscapes and septic tanks. In fact, the draft [...]

(Jan. 18, 2009, Aguanomics)
I’ve had several emails from people describing how important water is to their community’s culture and lifestyle.
Water has defined us for eons. Water determined where we lived (London, San Francisco, Mumbai, etc.); what we ate (fish or camel? cactus or watermelon?); the location of our borders; and so on…
It is thus [...]

(Jan. 16, 2009, Peak Oil News)
…new evidence by scientists from the University of Rhode Island and colleagues in the U.S. and Canada, published recently in the journal Eos, indicates that the water level in the lake system is highly sensitive to climate changes.
“In the distant past, there were great fluctuations in the water level [...]

(Jan. 16, 2009, USFA)
There are numerous challenges in administering a local water supply system to ensure adequate water supply and pressure for fire protection. Water storage capacity, system demand, supply interruption, number and performance of fire hydrants, use of non-potable water, and alternative water supply are some of the issues that confront both water utilities [...]

(Jan. 17, 2009, ENS)
Eight water conservation and control projects along China’s longest river, the Yangtze, will be underway by 2011 to improve water use and protect the environment, a water conservation official said Tuesday.
Cai Qihua, director of the Yangtze Water Resources Commission, announced the projects during the commission’s annual work meeting in Wuhan, the [...]

(Jan. 16, 2009, Mercury News)
Mike Robinson’s family has been tilling land in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta since the 1880s, growing crops in some of California’s most fertile soil. His alfalfa, hay, corn and tomatoes thrive on water pulled from the delta, the estuary that also provides water to two-thirds of the state and cropland throughout [...]

(Jan. 17, 2009, GreenThing)

With only one toilet and one tap, it seemed crazy to be handing money over when there’s plenty of rain water falling for free!
Using the parts for a water butt diverter, I just connected up to a drain pipe outside the shop and diverted rain water into a large tank [...]

(Jan. 16, 2009, Aguanomics)
David Zetland, an agricultural and resource economist at the University of California, Berkeley, talks with Bloomberg’s Tom Keene about the economics of bottled and tap water, conservation, and global water supply and management.
The 26 minute interview [.mp3] is — in my not-humble opinion — pretty damn good.
In it, Keene and I [...]

(Jan. 15, 2009, MetaEfficient)
There are lots of misleading claims about water purification. Much of the misinformation comes from water filter manufacturers eager to sell expensive purification systems. But information from local governments also tends gloss over issues of water pollution–it’s not in their interest to point out problems with municipal water.
Unfortunately, there are many sources [...]

(Jan. 15, 2009, Arizona Geology)
Starting this month, Resolution Copper will start dewatering its mine shaft in Superior, treat that water and then send it to New Magma Irrigation District located near Queen Creek via a pipeline for use in irrigating crops.
This sounds like a significant step with impacts on water agencies, agriculture, and [...]

(Jan. 15, 2009, Water Technology Online)
The government of Saratoga County, NY, headquartered here, will decide January 20 whether it will join six communities in the county that are planning to sue the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over what they see as a conflict between an EPA-backed PCB-dredging project in the Hudson River and the [...]

(Jan. 15, 2009, Orlando Sentinel)
Possibly 10 years from now, a converted oil tanker could offload desalted ocean water at an Atlantic port, with that water pumped to Mount Dora, Leesburg and DeLand.
A dozen utilities want to figure out whether that’s the best way to supply drinking water in the future.
The Coquina Coast desalination group on [...]

(Jan. 14, 2009, Detroit Free Press)
It’s not very sexy. Yet it is one of the most important and potentially costly health-related issues facing our nation. I refer to the need to continue supplying safe, clean drinking water — billions of gallons a day. Threats to our water security are increasing and the infrastructure for delivery [...]

(Jan. 14, 2009, Jared Simpson, WaterBlogged.Info)
The handy, if not especially dandy, U.S. Drought Monitor–provided by the wonderful water wonks at the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln–graphically drives home the dire drought situation in California and elsewhere in the U.S. (Click on the map image atop our right-hand menu.) What looks to [...]

(Jan. 14, 2009, Urban Work Bench)
Over at Aguanomics there is a guest post by Damian Bickett, a PhD student from University of California Berkley. In this post Damian discusses the use of the term “Peak Water” in a book  by Peter Gleick (among others) of the Pacific Institute. You can read the whole post here, [...]

(Jan. 15, 2009, GreenTechMedia)

WaterHealth International Inc., has a deal for poor rural villages around the world – we’ll help you borrow money to buy our water purification systems, and then we’ll stick around to make sure they’re run properly.
The Irvine, Calif.-based company announced this week it has raised $10 million in a series D round [...]

(Jan. 14, 2009, Treehugger)
We don’t normally think of malls as having a whole lot of landscape to water, and yet even their relatively tiny strips of grass and shrub beds are potential sources of water savings. WeatherTRAK, the smart water system developed by HydroPoint Data Systems, is helping malls in the Western US implement water [...]

(Jan. 15, 2009, Consumer Reports)
The federal Energy Star program has revamped its standards for dishwashers. Machines made after mid-August 2009 must be at least 48 percent more efficient than federal energy-use standards require to qualify. What’s more, for the first time, Energy Star qualification also hinges on how much water a dishwasher can use. Qualifying [...]

(Jan. 14, 2009, Robert Glennon, Huffington Post)
I recently returned from Saudi Arabia, a country that faces self-inflicted water challenges. I’m part of a team charged with drafting a water code for the Kingdom. In the 1980s, Saudi Arabia decided it wanted food security, so it encouraged farmers to grow wheat by drilling an unknown number [...]

(Jan. 14, 2009, NanoWerk)
QuantumSphere, Inc., a leading developer of advanced catalyst materials, high-performance electrode systems, and related process chemistries for portable power and clean-tech applications, today filed for a U.S. patent on a water purification process that serves as a more energy-efficient alternative to desalination methods now commonly used to help meet growing water needs [...]