Volume 3 Issue 01 - January 2012

One Water Networking

On Friday, February 10, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., at the Dupont Hotel, in Washington D.C., the Clean Water America Alliance will host a One Water Networking meeting. Leaders united for implementing the next generation in water management will explore their potential for consensus on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). In cooperation with the Water Environment Research Foundation, the Alliance is organizing the coalition to identify action steps and commitments towards Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). Participants will identify areas of agreement, priorities, and obstacles, inventory potential IWRM actions, and discuss the contents of a possible MOU on shared principles and coordinated practices. Guest presentations will include Howard Neukrug, Water Commissioner, City of Philadelphia and Nancy Stoner, Acting Assistant Administrator for Water (invited). This meeting is by invitation, but some observer seats are available. Please email Lorraine at lloken@cwaa.us, 202.533.1819, to inquire.
 

Report on Wastewater Reuse Hits the Street

A new report from the National Research Council concludes that expanding water reuse could significantly increase the nation’s total available water resources, and that a portfolio of water treatment options is available to mitigate water quality concerns. The report analyzes the risk of exposure to contaminants from drinking reused water and concludes it is not any higher than the risk experienced in some current drinking water treatment systems—and may be orders of magnitude lower. A brief version of the report is available here (PDF).

Ben Grumbles, President of Clean Water America Alliance, said: “Our water future depends on the reuse movement. The more science to inform the policy and defuse the politics, the better. I hope the report will help bring together key parties and organizations to focus on this important but challenging opportunity. ”

The NRC invites the public to submit questions about the water reuse report to the Chair of the report’s authoring committee, Dr. Rhodes Trussell.

The Q&A will be open until Tuesday, January 24, and all questions submitted will be considered. Dr. Trussell’s answers will be posted as soon as possible (within a few days).

Click here to participate in the online Q&A.
 

U.S. EPA Announces the Water Laboratory Alliance Security Summit

The Save the Date for the Water Laboratory Alliance (WLA) Security Summit, in Nashville, Tennessee, March 22-23, 2012.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in collaboration with the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), will host the third WLA Security Summit, an exciting event that will provide participants with the unique opportunity to learn about the benefits of the WLA program.

The previous WLA Security Summit was attended by over 100 participants. The program provides an abundance of useful information, tools, and resources for responding to emergencies and has been described as “very informative” and “very interactive.” Past Summit participants have represented a variety of stakeholder groups including, water and wastewater utilities, laboratories, first responders, and state, local, and federal governments.

EPA encourages the participation of the emergency response, laboratory, and water utility communities at the 2012 WLA Security Summit. The Summit is free and will actively engage a broad array of technical and leadership staff from these communities to discuss water contamination laboratory response coordination and take part in a table top exercise that practices the WLA Response Plan (WLA-RP).

The WLA-RP establishes a comprehensive approach for coordinated laboratory response to water contamination incidents. The table top exercise will provide an excellent opportunity for participants to network across emergency response functions to improve and enhance response during an incident. In addition, the Summit will provide attendees with an opportunity to learn how to identify laboratories with additional capacity and capabilities and apply to become members of the WLA.

Participants will benefit from new EPA security-related tools and resources that will be demonstrated in hands-on exhibits at the Summit. These include:
1. A field-portable ultrafiltration device for pathogen concentration from large-volume drinking water samples,
2. Recent enhancements to the Water Contaminant Information Tool (WCIT),
3. The Compendium of Environmental Testing Laboratories,
4. The Electronic Data Review (WebEDR) application that performs automated data evaluation, and
5. The Sampling Guidance for Unknown Contaminants in Drinking Water.

Visit the WLA Security Summit website (www.wlasummit.com) for details on registration, hotel, and agenda. For more information on the WLA Security Summit, contact Pamela Barnes at barnes.pamela@epa.gov."

The Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) is approved as a provider of continuing education programs in the clinical laboratory sciences by the ASCLS P.A.C.E.® Program. Participants who successfully complete this program will be awarded 8.0 P.A.C.E.® contact hours.
(Course 588-865-12)

California Water Agencies Going Solar

It was announced this week that four California water agencies and treatment facilities have installed solar power equipment from SunPower. The City of Galt’s Wastewater Treatment Plant, the Castaic Lake Water Agency’s Rio Vista Water Treatment Plant, the Rancho California Water District’s headquarters, and Riverside’s Sengal Dohety Pump Station have all installed systems that will supply a total of 3.8 megawatts of clean electricity, offset an average of 83% of their power requirements, and estimated savings of $4.3 million over the next twenty years. Due to a financial arrangement with SunPower, the new equipment had no upfront cost, will provide a fixed billing rate for energy use, and will be fully operated and maintained by the company.

According to the Department of Energy, 75% of municipal water processing and distribution costs are due to energy use. Not only will these instillations save the utilities and their rate-payers money, they are an important step to easing the stress on California’s fragile electrical grid. While the utility companies may be happy, we imagine their customers will be even happier.

Sources: PV Tech News; SunPower; Cal.gov Energy
 

Smart Water Grid – $$ Infrastructure Solution?

The Water Innovations Foundation, a close affiliate to the Water Innovations Alliance, has released an interesting suggestion on the heels of a December Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife hearing entitled, “Our Nation’s Water Infrastructure: Challenges and Opportunities.” The Water Innovations Foundation proposes a cost-saving solution to repairing our water infrastructure through the development of a nationwide smart water grid. Starting with a national control center, communities could begin analyzing the broader picture of usage and management with similar technology. According to the Foundation’s findings, creating a Smart Water network would add $19.2 billion to the predicted $365 billion expected cost of reforming the current system, but would create $102 billion (28%) in savings over time. These saving would occur in five ways: reducing the amount of water lost to leakage; lowering energy demand; improving environmental conditions; reducing chemical usage; and dramatically cutting water borne illness.

Senate hearing link: