The following is a transcript of the WaterWorld Weekly Newscast for September 17, 2018.
Hi, I'm Angela Godwin for WaterWorld magazine, bringing you water and wastewater news headlines for the week of September 17. Coming up...
Judge grants WOTUS injunction for 3 additional states
Dominion coal ash not 'point source'
ACCIONA breaks ground on Vancouver wastewater plant
Google app monitors, analyzes water treatment systems
If you've been following the trajectory of the Obama administration's 2015 Clean Water Rule, then you know that the Trump administration has been keenly focused on a 'repeal and replace' strategy, issuing a rule in February that delayed applicability of the Clean Water Rule for two years.
But, in mid-August, a South Carolina court found that the Trump administration had not followed correct procedures when promulgating its delay rule, which revived the Clean Water Rule in 26 states.
In the latest swing of the pendulum, a letter from attorneys general in Texas resulted in a Texas judge granting a temporary injunction last week for three additional states: Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
For now, the Clean Water Rule is stayed for 27 states, shown in red on the map, and in effect for 23 states, shown in blue.
A federal appeals court ruled last week that arsenic leaching into groundwater from Dominion Energy coal ash ponds is not a violation of the Clean Water Act.
While the court agreed that arsenic had indeed leached from the coal ash ponds into waterways, it disagreed with a lower court ruling that the discharge came from a point source.
Dominion's coal-fired power plant near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay operated from 1953 until it was decommissioned in 2014.
Federal and local authorities recently gathered in Vancouver, British Columbia, to kick off construction of the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant, a new facility that will replace the existing primary Lions Gate Wastewater treatment Plant.
The USD $536 million facility will feature state-of-the-art secondary treatment and energy recovery solutions, using biogas from the treatment process to generate electricity to run the plant and heat the facility.
The design will also meet LEED and Envision Gold Standards, incorporating water conservation and reuse, on-site stormwater management, and measures to minimize waste generation.
The plant is expected to be operational by the end of 2020.
A new web app designed by engineering firm AEEC in collaboration with engineers from Google Cloud boasts a user-friendly and secure cloud solution for monitoring and analyzing water treatment systems for both industry and consumer end users.
AEEC's Innovation Lab unveiled the solution at the recent Maryland Association of Counties conference.
AEEC CEO Raj Patil said the Google Cloud-based app will help water treatment facilities "comply with regulatory reporting standards, improve health and safety, and connect utility customers with water quality data."
For WaterWorld magazine, I'm Angela Godwin. Thanks for watching.
