New study links treated wastewater to ethanol fuel production
By Daniela Salvador
A University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign study finds that the use of treated wastewater might be used in place of potable freshwater in the production of ethanol fuel.
The study, called “Use of Treated Ethanol Water in Cellulosic Ethanol Production,” concludes, however, that since there were limited wastewater samples used in the study, more research is needed.
Finding substitute water sources could be significant since various studies say that it takes at least four gallons of water to produce a gallon of ethanol. Corn also is the crop used to make 95 percent of ethanol in the U.S., and it is important to note that depending on where the corn is grown, it can take from 19 to 865 gallons of water to grow a bushel of corn. The Baker Institute estimated that it will take 2.9 trillion gallons of water to meet the 2015 ethanol federal mandate.
Other studies also have reported that water resources in ethanol facilities’ communities are already stressed. Discovering how the reuse of treated wastewater could be used in the production of ethanol could make this alternative fuel more sustainable.
Southern Oregon University offsets water use
By Drake D'Ambra
Southern Oregon University is the first university to offset 100 percent of its water use by restoring an equal amount of its water use into the Klamath River Basin.
SOU buys Bonneville Environment Foundation Water Restoration Certificates to balance its water footprint.
To pay for the cost of the water restoration program as well as other campus sustainability projects, the university’s student body voted and passed an initiative in 2007 for each student to pay a sustainability fee each quarter. The fee has ranged from $8 to $15.
The university also offsets 100 percent of its electricity and carbon emissions with the help of BEF energy certificates.
SOU joined the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment in 2011 to help the university become climate neutral.
Insurance claims increase significantly due to sinkholes
By Alia Blackburn
Insurance claims related to sinkholes more than doubled between 2006 and 2009, according to a report by ABC News.
News about the dangers of sinkholes made headlines in March. In Tampa, Florida, a 37-year-old, man, died March 5 when the bedroom he was sleeping in was swallowed by a sinkhole that developed under his home. An entire block was shut down in Washington, D.C., on March 12, due to a sinkhole.
Sinkholes have been common in Florida due to the state resting on unbroken limestone. Central Florida, mainly the Tampa area, is known for its sinkholes. Arizona also has numerous sinkholes. One of the latest ones in Arizona was noted on Feb. 20. It was 150 feet wide and 5 feet deep on Highway 89.
Sinkholes can be a problem any place in the U.S. where there is limestone. Sinkholes are formed when acidic rainwater dissolves limestone, or similar rock, beneath the soil. The void eventually collapses when it can no longer hold the weight above it. Sinkholes also can develop after heavy flooding due to hurricanes and heavy rains.
Groups sue coal companies over mine pollution claims
By Alia Blackburn
The Sierra Club filed in February three lawsuits that accused companies engaged in mountain-top coal mining of polluting waterways in West Virginia. Waste products from mountain-top coal mining that can leak into area water supplies are mercury, lead, sulfur and selenium.
The suits are against subsidiaries of Alpha Natural Resources; Alex Energy Inc and Fola Coal Co. LLC; and Consol of Kentucky Inc.
Other states taking action against this issue include Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia.
Wichita Falls working for water replenishment
By Alia Blackburn
Officials in Wichita Falls, Texas, are looking into technologies to turn their sewage water into drinking water.
Wichita Falls is one of a growing cities in Texas participating in sewage water and greywater reuse projects.
A $14 million plant planned for the western part of the state is expected to distribute daily 2 million gallons of treated wastewater to the Midland-Odessa area by spring.
“After the drought, people are letting go of their reservations about so-called toilet-to-tap programs and have realized we’ve got to take steps to make our water supply stable,” Wichita Falls, Texas, Mayor Glenn Barham said.
Desalination
project largest
in U.S.
By Drake D'Ambra
The Carlsbad Desalination Project, located 35 miles north of San Diego, is the largest desalination plant under construction in the U.S. It will produce about 50 million gallons of water a day by 2016 and 7 percent of the region’s needs by 2020.
San Diego Water Authority agreed to a 30-year contract with the plant’s builder. Overall, the water created will cost ratepayers more than twice the amount the San Diego Water Authority now pays the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California for water from Northern California and the Colorado River.
Because the desalination process destroys marine life that’s an integral part to the ocean’s food chain, the Coastal Commission is making Poseidon Resources create 55 acres of marine wetlands in San Diego Bay to help offset some of the damage.
Study shows a majority of waters polluted
with fungicide
By Daniela Salvador
A 2012 study of 33 fungicides used on potatoes found that 75 percent of surface waters tested and 58 percent of ground water samples were polluted with traces of at least one fungicide. This will continue to be a problem as the prediction for 2017 is that $21 billion worth of fungicides will be sold annually.
According to an article in Environmental Health News, farmers around the country have been spraying more kinds of fungicides on more acres over the past decade. A 2009 estimate, implies that fungicides were routinely applied on up to 30 percent of the U.S.’s 220 million acres of corn, soybean and wheat.
Experts warn that there is insufficient environmental monitoring on the chemicals. Limited toxicology data is available for these compounds.
Corn ethanol
production limits
water resources
By Daniela Salvador
Corn ethanol plants require large amounts of water during the fermentation process and might be causing stress on water supplies in states where they are common, according to Jerald Schnoor, a University of Iowa engineer professor, in an article for the Scientific American.
According to the Scientific American article, Iowa state geologists warned that the Jordan aquifer was being pumped at an unsustainable rate in several counties as early as 2009. This has caused the state's 1975 base line for water use to be exceeded for the next two decades.
Another danger to Midwestern states’ water supplies are distillers grains, which are the byproducts of making ethanol, according to an article by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Distillers grains are the fiber, protein and nutrients left behind to feed the livestock, poultry and fish. If it is used as a fertilizer, it will further increase the phosphorus pollution in surface waters.
Bringing
oysters back
to the bay
By Alia Blackbrun
The Watershed Project in Richmond, Calif., plans to create 100 concrete oyster reef balls along the Point Pinole shoreline, which is part of the northern arm of the San Francisco Bay.
The restoration of the oyster beds is important as they benefit the ecosystem by improving water quality and promoting underwater plant life. The reef balls provide habitats for worms, crabs and fish, which are food for larger fish and birds.
Army Corps shows plan would divert water from Miami
By Alia Blackburn
A proposed $1 billion Central Everglades Project might disrupt the supply of drinking water to Florida’s Miami-Dade County, as well as reduce freshwater flows to Southern Biscaine Bay, according to a water reuse model from the Army Corp of Engineers.
"It is truly a tentatively selected plan," said Kim Taplin, chief of the Army Corps' Central Everglades branch. "There are a lot of policy issues that have to be worked out."
The goal is to have a plan formalized and approved this year so other Everglades projects can begin.
Water reuse models from the Army Corps of Engineers are practiced in a variety of other states, such as Colorado, Illinois and California.
NEWS
Easy steps
to save on water
and money
By Benecia Brown
Conserving water has become an important practice in various regions, even in locations where water is abundant.
According to the EarthEasy website, it discusses the 25 ways to conserve water in the home and in the yard. The average household, which uses 130,000 gallons per year, could save 44,000 gallons of water per year, according to the EarthEasy website.
One way to conserve water outside is to plant drought-resistant lawns, plants and shrubs that require less water to grow and remain healthy. Also, it is good to add organic matter to soil, which will increase water retention and absorption to help the plant store water longer.
For more information about the different ways to conserve water, go to EarthEasy.
Grant for
water
research
By Benecia Brown
A research grant from the WaterReuse Research Foundation has been awarded to American Water, which is the nation’s largest publicly traded water and wastewater utility company.
The grant would help develop risk management strategies for Legionella, a pathogenic group of bacteria in reclaimed water systems.
Legionella pneumophila is the predominant species, which is responsible for both the severe Legionainaire's disease or the self-limiting mild (Pontiac fever) in humans.
Environmental complex accomplishes
LEED platinum
By Benecia Brown
The Pennsylvania Stroud Water Research Center announced on Earth Day that its Moorhead Environmental Complex has achieved a LEED Platinum rating.
LEED Platinum is the highest level of certification established by the U.S. Green Building Council and verified by the Green Building Certification Institute.
The Moorhead Environmental Complex includes the Center’s Department of Education. It provides professors increased opportunities to involve their students in the wetland treatment of waste water, rainwater capture and geothermal heating and cooling.
More than 100,000 projects are currently participating in the LEED rating systems and compromise more than 8 billion square feet of construction in all 50 states of the U.S. and 114 countries.
Study measures plastic, toxic chemicals in
Great Lakes
By Alia Blackburn
The results of the first-ever plastics survey of the Great Lakes has found toxic chemicals are clinging to plastics found in the lakes. The results were released in April.
The study’s scientists originally thought the toxic chemicals would settle in sediments because 85 percent of the pieces of plastic are smaller than tiny insects. Instead, the toxic chemicals might be making their way with plastics to other parts of the Great Lakes.
Overall, researchers found 1,500 to 1.7 million plastic particles per square mile with the highest amounts in Lake Erie. These plastics can stay in the environment up to 50 years or longer and have the potential to create health problems for fish and other organisms in the Great Lakes, which will be the focus of the researchers’ next study.
Oklahoma-Texas
water fight heads
to Supreme Court
By Alia Blackburn
Two states’ dispute over water is headed to the Supreme Court. Oklahoma and Texas are arguing over rights to water from the river that is responsible for the border between the two states.
Tarrant Regional Water [Texas] v. Hermann, et al. could have an impact on interstate water-sharing agreements across the country, depending on the court’s verdict.
Texas has tried to buy water from Oklahoma, cities and towns and Native American tribes within the state. However, lawmakers have denied those efforts, citing laws restricting out-of-state water exports. Lower courts also have sided with Oklahoma’s laws.
Other states also are going head to head for control of water rights. Alabama, Florida and Georgia are battling over control of water in certain rivers and lakes within their states.
URBAN PLANNING WATER SUSTAINABILITY PROJECT
By Daniela Salvador
Four students in an urban planning class at Ball State University have designed a project for a new site in downtown Indianapolis with an important emphasis on water sustainability.
The students’ design guidelines for the project were to use water suitable materials, such as permeable surfaces made of pavers, porous pavement and gravel. Also, the students wanted to reuse collected storm water runoff from roof tops and impervious areas.
“It is expensive to make water for reuse, but it is not difficult if you incorporate it into your design,” said Daniel Greenfield, a sophomore urban planning major and one of the students who shaped the design.
In the design, water comes from rooftops and flows into cisterns in the attic of the building. Planters and swales, which can be human-created low areas in the land, also work as cisterns because they are placed along the building walls to store more storm water from the rooftops.
Ellen Forthofer, a sophomore urban planning major and another design team member, said, “In our project, we are working on really taking advantage of all the water that comes in contact with our site.”
The water that will be collected from the cisterns could later be used to wash clothes or dishes and to water plants. If the recycled water is used for irrigation of nearby vegetation, it could reduce the demand for treated municipal water that is drinkable by two-thirds.
Another aspect of the project is that it shows that drinkable water does not need to be used for certain daily activities as it is now. Rainwater or nonpotable water is effective for irrigation and flushing toilets.