Source Water Contamination Resources
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Two Water Movies: The Harmful And The Hopeful
3/8/2023
Adam Tank and I just had Travis Loop as a guest on our podcast Water We Talking About, and he gave us an update on his initiative to do in-depth reporting on the PFAS issue. And our next guest is Aoife Kelleher, associate producer and lead researcher for the water documentary Brave Blue World. So I thought it would be a good time to repost my review on two very different water movies, Dark Waters and Brave Blue World.
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To Clean Up England's Rivers We Need To Know How Much Sewage Is Dumped — But Water Firms Won't Tell Us
3/6/2023
UK environment secretary Thérèse Coffey has demanded that water companies share plans for how they will reduce sewage discharges into rivers. They could start by coming clean on how much sewage is being dumped. If we don’t know how much sewage is actually being released — for at least the worst offending locations — we won’t be able to measure environmental and industry improvement with any confidence.
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Developing PFAS Regulations Provide Cause To Take Action Against Polluters Now
2/9/2023
On October 18, 2021, the U.S. EPA released its PFAS Strategic Roadmap which sets timelines to take specific actions for regulating 29 man-made perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Many state regulatory agencies already request or require water systems to test for an expanded list of these chemicals. Most states that require testing are requiring it at and near airports and military sites where aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) containing various PFAS compounds was likely used, for potentially decades, to extinguish fires — and to conduct training exercises where large volumes of the foam were often discharged onto the soil.
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Tackling The PFAS Crisis In 2023
1/24/2023
2022 may be heralded as the year that PFAS took center stage in the effort to provide safe drinking water access for all. Some states began enacting laws targeting the “forever chemicals,” and the U.S. EPA took major steps to designate two of the most widely used PFAS as hazardous substances under CERCLA. However, concerns that the progress may not be enough to adequately combat PFAS have only intensified.
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Leachate — A Key To Unlocking The Chain Of Recirculating PFAS Forever?
1/11/2023
PFAS contamination is ubiquitous in the water cycle, but landfill wastewater leachate poses an opportunity to treat concentrated streams and break up the continuous movement through the water cycle.
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Regulating Farm Pollution To Reduce Harmful Algal Blooms
1/11/2023
As nutrient pollution increases the incidence and severity of harmful algal blooms, it is obvious and important to point mitigation practices toward a prime culprit — the agriculture industry.
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How EPA Can Help Utilities Be More Climate Change Resilient
1/6/2023
As global climate conditions change, water utilities face a variety of stressors, including drought, flooding, rising sea levels, saltwater intrusion, and more. These changing conditions put increasing amounts of pressure on utilities to upgrade and adapt their operations and infrastructure. Unfortunately, many utilities lack two key things needed to become more climate change resilient: the expertise to determine the most critical projects to invest in, and the funding needed to implement them.
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3M Announced It Will Stop Making PFAS. What Does This Mean For Water Providers?
12/28/2022
Earlier this week 3M announced that it will stop making PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), a group of thousands of chemicals it has produced for decades, by 2025. 3M’s announcement begs the questions of why the company is taking this action now, and what does it mean for water providers across the country. While there may not be one simple answer to the first question, it seems that 3M’s past actions have finally caught up to the company and that the legal efforts to expose the harms of PFAS, dating back to the first case in 1999, as laid out in the movie Dark Waters, have led to significant change.
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Water Quality Is Not A Guarantee
11/28/2022
We often take our drinking water for granted. We always have access to running water, so we don't think much more about it. However, quality water is not always a guarantee. In fact, a number of cities are having issues with their water right now. The government creates laws to protect drinking water, and the EPA determines guidelines for how to ensure safe drinking water. Unfortunately, water quality issues may still arise that put you and your family at risk for disease — or worse. Let me share some of the most serious risks to your drinking water and how to solve them.
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Celebrating 50 Years Of (Mostly) Clean Water
11/3/2022
October 18, 1972, the day the Clean Water Act (CWA) became law, was undeniably a pivotal moment for the state of water quality in America. From where we stand now, 50 years later, it's hard to imagine a time when polluters were dumping contaminants freely into environmental waters — enough to set a river on fire! Here we recall the six key 1972 amendments that defined the CWA, accompanied by some recent themes related to each one.