Water News Roundup – July 27, 2010

KSL: Tests show no source for sheen seen in underground streams – Water managers in Salt Lake City say test results reveal no link, so far, between a sheen found on water running through several east bench properties a few blocks north of Red Butte Creek and the Chevron oil spill into that stream. Still, the source of the sheen is mystery.

Deseret News: How bad was the Red Butte spill? – Neil Vickers would like to know what made him and his wife sick the weekend a Chevron pipeline leak sent tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil down the creek that runs through his east Salt Lake City yard.

Science Daily: New water management tool may help ease effects of drought – Continued improvement of climate forecasts is resulting in better information about what rainfall and streamflow may look like months in advance.

After reading this article, I feel slightly better about not obsessing about drinking 64 oz. of water each day.  Too much of a good thing, etc…….

Scientific American: Strange but true, drinking too much water can kill you – Liquid H₂O is the sine qua non of life. Making up about 66 percent of the human body, water runs through the blood, inhabits the cells, and lurks in the spaces between.

Water News Roundup – July 8, 2010

Salt Lake Tribune:

Fluoridation battle rages on – Holliday Water won’t have to fluoridate its supply — at least for now.  Under a recent decision by the Utah Supreme Court, the water company will not have to fluoridate its supply, despite a 2000 Salt Lake County ordinance that requires fluoridation. The company argued that as a private corporation, it was exempt.

Detecting oil leaks – In coordination with local, state and federal officials, Chevron has made all the right moves in responding to last month’s oil pipeline leak in Salt Lake City.  Chevron and city crews were on scene quickly, equipment materializing out of nowhere. Within hours of the discovery, the leak was stanched and the cleanup launched.

Open house on Murdock canal plan –  The Provo River Water Users Association is sponsoring an open house to discuss plans to enclose the Murdock Canal in a pipe and create a trail system over the canal right-of-way. The open house is on July 13 at 6 p.m. at Orchard Elementary School, 800 E. 1035 North [in Orem].

Provo Daily Herald:  BYU contributes to digital water policy library – Brigham Young University’s Harold B. Lee Library is one of five research libraries that helped complete a content expansion project for the Western Waters Digital Library.  Founded in 2004, the library is an online public resource that provides information about water issues in the western United States.

High Country News:  Monkey wrenchers keep on keeping on – When the news spread last year about Tim DeChristopher’s impromptu act of civil disobedience in Utah, I thought: Somebody is finally reviving the lost art of environmental monkey-wrenching.

Stories about hydro-fracking and groundwater contamination…

Wyoming Trib: Monitoring wells nearing completion – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has almost finished drilling two monitoring wells to test for pollution in a central Wyoming community where residents suspect chemicals related to gas drilling have contaminated their well water… Area residents say chemicals related to a process called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” may have polluted their wells. Fracking involves pumping water, sand and chemicals underground at high pressure to open fissures and improve the flow of oil or gas.

AWWA:  Fracking bill may face uphill battle – Democratic Reps. Diana DeGette, Maurice Hinchey and Jared Polis introduced a bill in June to reverse a 2005 measure excluding hydraulic fracturing, used to enhance extraction of oil and gas, from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Water News Roundup – July 6, 2010

I’m back from what could possibly be described as the most awesome Fourth of July EVER!  Ahhhh…. welcome back to the water news work week.

Salt Lake Tribune has a bunch of stories that will be posted as soon as they manage to get their website up and running (doh!)

KSL: Insider details state’s issue with energy study – Utah officials spent $200,000 in federal and state funds to have the study done. But when it was finished a few months ago, they sidetracked it and refused to vouch for it — after it ran into a wall of opposition from industry.  The study blames Utah power plants for 202 premature deaths each year and for health and water costs up to $2 billion annually.

An interesting study of how irrigation method possibly contributes to or limits groundwater E. coli contamination…

Science: Keeping feces on the farm – Think dairy farm, and your mind may wander to images of cows grazing dewy green pastures, as glistening silos and red-walled farmhouses slumber in the distance. But something sinister is lurking in the grass: cow feces crawling with disease-causing Escherichia coli bacteria. A new study, however, reveals that these bacteria are much less likely to enter  groundwater and cause illness if farmers spray their fields with water rather than flooding them, as is traditional.