Tuesday, September 22, 2009

I read my daily water world news (Brown and Caldwell Water News) and just shook my head. First story was of a shallow lake that is filled with DDT and other chemicals. and, you guessed it! There is no money for remediation. The costs are either $12,000,000 to dredge the lake or $1,400,000 to cap it. I am sure the wildlife will love the latter alternative. Anyone remember when there was an EPA with Superfund clean up moneys? Just know that the Bush Administration closed down the tax to corporations to help fund those projects and there is no money. Thanks.

I see the news is not so good in England, too. Or upstate New York. The two latter instances are of the same problem. Sewage technology has grown by leaps and bounds in the past fifteen years. You can remove nutrients. In the future, you will be able to remove trace pharmaceuticals. Actually have pristine water. But, all this costs money. I work with so many Districts, cities and boards. They are manned by people who want to be elected. Some to do the right thing, others for power. One thing that is common is that you can't raise taxes or rates and stay elected. People like clean drinking water and swimming and water sports, but few want to pay for it. In England and in NY, you have wastewater systems that are outdated. The issue in NY is that when the collection sewerage systems were built, they combined the sanitary sewers with storm sewers. If you had a heavy rain, excess flow just goes out to the sea, lake or river. Yes, that includes the diluted pooh from everyone's toilets. In the western US and more modern systems that is not a problem. Imagine the difficulty of digging up a whole city to separate the two sewer systems. and the cost. It is no wonder that Obama wanted "shovel-ready" projects to start on. There are so many issues like this to deal with, and the solution is funding and political will. And with the world economy crapping out, it will take real planning (hint, don't elect those who don't want government to govern because they can't do it).

Here Florida is cited as having toxic public water. The whole NY Times is here. I have to love the one article where how much weedkiller (poison) is in your water glass. Makes me feel all fuzzy inside. and we wonder why cancer spreads. Many mutagenic changes happen at concentrations as low as 0.01 parts per billion.

and sadly, what happens when you dam rivers with disregard of the downstream population. As if the rape of their country were not enough, let's steal the water.

just a bundle of joy today.

rojo

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