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Australia’s drinking water at risk from extreme weather events

Australia’s drinking water is at risk from extreme weather, a new study says. The study, commissioned by the United States-based Water Research Foundation, says flooding, prolonged rainfall, drought, cyclones and bush fires impact surface water quality. Such weather events, it says, are predicted to become more frequent and intense in many parts of Australia due to climate change. “We need to focus on building resilience into our future supplies,” said Stuart Khan, an associate professor of the school of civil and environmental engineering at the University of New South Wales, and lead author of the report, in a news release. “This means designing systems that are more protected from the impacts of climate change and that have greater flexibility to respond to extreme weather events. This could be partially brought about through a diversification of water sources.” The report comes as Australia broke another […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Australia's drinking water at risk from extreme weather events

Australia’s drinking water is at risk from extreme weather, a new study says. The study, commissioned by the United States-based Water Research Foundation, says flooding, prolonged rainfall, drought, cyclones and bush fires impact surface water quality. Such weather events, it says, are predicted to become more frequent and intense in many parts of Australia due to climate change. “We need to focus on building resilience into our future supplies,” said Stuart Khan, an associate professor of the school of civil and environmental engineering at the University of New South Wales, and lead author of the report, in a news release. “This means designing systems that are more protected from the impacts of climate change and that have greater flexibility to respond to extreme weather events. This could be partially brought about through a diversification of water sources.” The report comes as Australia broke another […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Water Restored for Nearly All 300,000 Affected by West Virginia Ban

Water was restored here Friday for nearly all 300,000 people affected by a chemical spill that contaminated the supply for more than a week, officials said as new details emerged about the company at the center of the incident. The lifting of the wide water ban marked a turning point in a crisis that began Jan. 9 after authorities said a substance called Crude MCHM had leaked from a storage tank, breached a faulty containment wall and infiltrated a water-treatment plant. Residents were told not to drink, bathe in or clean with tap water. Also on Friday, the owner of the storage facility, Freedom Industries Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection amid mounting civil lawsuits. A Freedom representative declined to comment, but the court papers revealed new details about the company, whose representatives have declined to comment since a brief Jan. 10 news conference. A supplier of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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West Virginia Chemical-Spill Site Avoided Broad Regulatory Scrutiny

The site of a West Virginia chemical spill that contaminated the water supply for 300,000 people operated largely outside government oversight, highlighting gaps in regulations and prompting questions on whether local communities have a firm grasp on potential threats to drinking water. The storage facility owned by Freedom Industries Inc. on the banks of the Elk River was subject to almost no state and local monitoring, interviews and records show. The industrial chemical that leaked into the river, 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, isn’t closely tracked by federal programs. Before last week’s spill, a state regulator said environmental inspectors hadn’t visited the site since 1991. Residents and businesses in the state capital of Charleston and nine surrounding counties have been without water for drinking, bathing or other uses since Thursday, when an estimated 7,500 gallons of MCHM leaked from a one-inch hole in a tank at the Freedom site, breached a containment […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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West Virginia water emergency nears fifth day, with no end in sight

Around the swollen Elk River, now flowing with a chemical that no one can pronounce, myriad streams and rivulets tumbled from the hillsides this weekend, the result of a drenching downpour. Logs and branches floated downstream, toward the junction with the Kanawha in the heart of the city. Potholes on the beat-up country roads had turned into deep puddles. As they say: Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink. “DO NOT USE WATER” say the signs taped over sinks at the airport, and in the state capitol the sinks are entirely wrapped in plastic bags. People line up for free water at the fire stations, or buy it directly at the Dollar General, $1.60 for a 20-ounce Dasani, $39 for a flat of 24 bottles. A chemical used in coal processing has leaked from an old tank along the Elk and invaded the water […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Coal-related chemical spill prompts state of emergency in West Virginia

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin declared a state of emergency for nine counties Thursday night because of a chemical spill into the Elk River in Charleston, advising residents not to drink, bathe, cook or wash clothes in the water and to only use it for flushing. The chemical, used in the coal preparation process, leaked from a tank at Freedom Industries and overran a containment area on Thursday. Freedom Industries did not immediately respond for comment. The amount that spilled isn’t immediately known. West Virginia American Water has a treatment plant nearby. The company’s president, Jeff McIntyre, said the advisory affects up to 100,000 customers. "The water has been contaminated," said Tomblin, who didn’t know how long the emergency declaration would last. It includes includes West Virginia American Water customers in Boone, Cabell, Clay, Jackson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, Putnam, and Roane counties. Tomblin said the advisory also extends to restaurants, hospitals, nursing homes and other […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Water pollution in four states linked to oil and gas drilling

In at least four states that have nurtured the nation’s energy boom, hundreds of complaints have been made about well-water contamination from oil or gas drilling, and pollution was confirmed in a number of them, according to a review that casts doubt on industry suggestions that such problems rarely happen. The Associated Press requested data on drilling-related complaints in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Texas and found major differences in how the states report such problems. Texas provided the most detail, while the other states provided only general outlines. And while the confirmed problems represent only a tiny portion of the thousands of oil and gas wells drilled each year in the U.S., the lack of detail in some state reports could help fuel public confusion and mistrust. The AP found that Pennsylvania received 398 complaints in 2013 alleging that oil or natural gas drilling polluted or otherwise affected […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Another View: Worldwide shortages could lead to water wars

Get ready for the water wars. Most of the world’s population takes water for granted, just like air. But a Hindustan Times blogger said that in India right now, as in so many other places around the globe, drinkable water has become such a “precious commodity” that it’s dragging the world into “water wars to follow the ones for the control of fuel oil.” Climate change is drying up lakes and rivers almost everywhere. In Australia, for example, an unprecedented heat wave brought on massive wildfires and critical water shortages. As water grows scarce, more countries are building dams on rivers to hog most of the water for themselves, depriving the nations downstream. Already, Egypt had threatened to bomb the Grand Renaissance Dam upstream on the Nile River in Ethiopia. And as the Earth’s population crossed the 7 billion mark last year, more and more water sources are so […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Agriculture Land Shrinking in China; World Bank Provides Loans to Reduce Soil Pollution

Growing population, industrialization and rapid economic growth are putting unprecedented pressure on China’s agriculture resources, and have become a threat to food security in the country and the world. According to China’s national land survey figures released recently, total arable land in the country stood at around 135.4 million hectares at the end of 2012. This is still about 15.4 million hectares above the “red line” of a minimum 120 million hectares earmarked to ensure food security in China. However, pollution of land and water are eroding agriculture land in China. Coupled with increasing population, China’s per capita arable area now stands at around 0.1 hectare, almost half of the global average of around 0.2 hectare. According to government officials in China, it was found from the survey that about 3 million hectares of land is now unsuitable for rice cultivation due to heavy contamination by poisonous heavy metals […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Water security: ‘Water scarcity has put survival in jeopardy’

Increasing population worldwide, particularly in Pakistan has caused deterioration of the environment and challenges of food and water security, speakers at a seminar on Integrated Flood Management said on Tuesday. The seminar was organised at the New Senate Hall by the Water Management Research Centre of the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. It was chaired by Vice Chancellor Iqrar Ahmad Khan. Dr Khan said 43 per cent of the world’s population lived in urban centres… urbanisation was also on the rise in Asia. By 2020, half of Asia’s population would be living in cities, he said. “We need to take emergency measures to provide water facilities for cities and create awareness about rational use of water,” said Dr Khan. Pakistan is barely above the 1,000 cubic metres per capita benchmark for water scarcity, he said. This would worsen in the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple