California governor issues statewide mandatory water restrictions
California Gov. Jerry Brown recently issued mandatory water restrictions for the first time across the state to reduce water usage by 25 percent. Brown, standing on dry grass from Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada issued an executive order, explaining in a statement California’s drought “demands unprecedented action.” The 25 percent cut in water use amounts to approximately 1.5 million acre-feet of water in nine months.
Infographic highlights importance of fresh water conservation
An infographic titled, “Every Drop Counts,” released by Nature’s Water Ltd. illustrates the importance of fresh water. According to the infographic, 97 percent of the world’s water is salt water, two percent is frozen in glaciers and only one percent equates to available fresh water, which the world’s population, around seven billion people, all share. The infographic highlights that the world’s population is growing by 80 million people a year on average, increasing the demand for fresh water by around 16.9 billion gallons a year.
New standard evaluates effective Cryptosporidium removal from public drinking water
NSF International has published the first consensus-based American National Standard to evaluate municipal water filtration technologies’ performance in removing Cryptosporidium from public drinking water supplies. The new standard, NSF/ANSI 419: Public Drinking Water Equipment Performance – Filtration, incorporates federal and state regulatory requirements and assists state regulators in verifying compliance while reducing costs and time for manufacturers by streamlining the testing process. In addition to federal and state requirements such as certification to NSF/ANSI 61: Drinking Water System Components – Health Effects, the NSF/ANSI 419 standard incorporates the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule (LT2) — created to ensure Cryptosporidium is effectively removed from public drinking water and applies to all public water systems using surface water or groundwater that is under the direct influence of surface water.
Four federal agencies join forces, develop early warning system to detect algal blooms
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it is joining forces with NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to develop an early warning indicator system using historical and current satellite data to detect algal blooms. EPA researchers will develop a mobile app to notify water quality managers of water quality changes using satellite data on cyanobacteria algal blooms from NASA, NOAA and USGS. The project will create a standard, reliable method for detecting cyanobacteria blooms in fresh water lakes and reservoirs throughout the U.S. using ocean color satellite data. To allow for more frequent observations over wider areas than can be accomplished by taking traditional water samples, numerous satellite data sets will be evaluated against environmental data collected from the fresh water reservoirs and lakes.
California Energy Commission approves standards for water appliances
To help manage water resources to deal with the effects of California’s drought and in preparation for any future droughts, the California Energy Commission approved standards for water appliances which will save over 10 billion gallons of water in the first year. Over time, water savings are forecast to reach 105 billion gallons per year, a savings of over three times the annual amount of water used by San Francisco. The approved energy efficiency and water standards require water appliances to consume less water which in turn will require less energy while performing the same function. Last year, California consumed 443 billion gallons of water a year for running faucets and flushing toilets/urinals.
EPA launches Safe Drinking Water Act dashboard
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the release of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) dashboard. The SDWA dashboard is a user-friendly website presenting data about violations and the compliance status of public water systems. The website contains interactive charts and graphs providing information regarding public water systems’ compliance with federal drinking water regulations and enforcement actions. Annual statistics and five-year trends for U.S. public drinking water systems in easy-to-read bar chart and pie graph formats are included in the dashboard, and all data on the website can be downloaded, exported and printed. The SDWA dashboard is the latest in a series of online dashboards available through EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) website.
PEOPLE
Chandler Systems Inc. announced Brett Wilfong has been hired as the company’s business development manager, and Ted Cooksey has joined the company as the national sales manager. Wilfong brings more than 20 years of sales experience in the wastewater and water treatment industries, and Cooksey has more than 40 years of experience in the water treatment industry.
Corvias Solutions announced Jason Washington and John Campagna have joined the company as vice presidents of partnership development. Both Washington and Campagna will help municipalities in the Chesapeake Bay region understand the benefits of a community-based public-private partnership solution for stormwater and infrastructure challenges.
Editor’s note: In the March 2015 issue of Water Technology on page 16, boiling of water, as in distillation, as another effective means to kill microorganisms, including Cryptosporidium and Giardia lamblia, was inadvertently not mentioned. We apologize for the omission.
