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More business, environment, regional and international news
Around the U.S.
U.S. Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist says there is a "very good chance" the Senate will approve a slimmed-down energy bill in March. House GOP is upset that the bill no longer gives legal protection to MTBE producers. Reuters 2/24/04
Houston,
Texas FotoFest celebrates water. Art focuses on water
issues. Houston Business Journal 2/23/04
Tap
water from Desert Hot Springs, California is ruled the best in the
world. Judges sipped samples from around the globe. AP/Seattle
Post-Intelligencer 2/23/04
Modern tribute to ancient water god. Chinese American leaders raise funds to restore Taoist temple in Marysville, California. San Francisco Chronicle 2/20/04
New Mexico official worries money may not be there for state to meet its water obligations to Texas. Carlsbad Current-Argus 2/19/04
We need you, Rhode Island town tells volunteer wastewater commissioners. The commissioners all quit because of second guessing by the town council. East Bay Newspapers 2/19/04
U.S. enforcement of water treaty with Mexico is lax, says Texas senator. AP/Houston Chronicle 2/18/04
Maui water department to hire consultant to seek cause of rashes. Honolulu Advertiser 2/18/04
New Mexico House approves proposal for state water reserve. AP/Albuquerque Journal 2/17/04
Ohio town's water at last runs past a color line. NY Times 2/17/04
Cost savings cause some Florida communities to leave county water system. St. Petersburg Times 2/16/04
Crossed
water lines sent treated wastewater, not drinking water, into four
Florida homes. One family drank the water for three
months. City fined $72,000. Lakeland, Florida Ledger 2/14/04
California
officials are questioning the right of the Lake Arrowhead water
provider to sell water to customers. Community agency
has right to store water in the lake, but may never have sought
permits to sell. Press-Enterprise 2/14/04
American Rivers praises Senate-passed federal transportation bill for $958 million to clean up street and highway storm water runoff. Press Release 2/13/04
US water utilities want more security information, training and financial assistance for security initiatives, according to a limited survey by the EPA’s Inspector General (IG). AWWA 2/12/04
Bottled Water
Donald
Trump teams with Laurel Run, a 77-year-old Pennsylvania water company
to sell his own label of bottled water at his hotels and casinos. Times
Leader 2/17/04
Judge
denies Nestle's request for a retrial in Michigan Ice Mountain water
bottling case. AP/Holland Sentinel 2/14/04
Business
Pennsylvania's York Water Company reports record earnings for 2003. Credits customer growth and increased rates. Press Release/Business Wire 2/24/03
Fitch assigns a 'AA' rating to the New York City Municipal Water Finance Authority's (NYW) approximately $348 million water and sewer system revenue bonds. Press Release/Business Wire 2/23/04
Russia
to allow private ownership of bodies of water. No.
Lake Baikal isn't for sale. Think smaller. Pravda 2/19/04
Fitch
rates Arlington, Texas' $15 million water and wastewater revenue
bonds 'AA+ '. Press Release/Business Wire
2/19/04
India's Kerala state bans Coke plant from using groundwater. Decision unjustifiable, says Coke. AP/San Francisco Chronicle 2/18/04
Western Water Company announces 4th quarter losses for 2003. No stock dividends due to financial setback from expiration of water sales with city of Inglewood, California. Press Release/Business Wire 2/18/04
Layne
Christensen Co.'s Water Treatment Division wins contracts worth
$5 million. Projects are in Delaware and California. Kansas
City Business Journal 2/16/04
Aqua
Water Supply Corp. seeks wastewater business in one of the largest
Texas applications in 20 years. Firm already supplies
area drinking water. Austin Business Journal 2/16/04
Feature: Companies hope profits flow from clean water. Its importance to industry is increasingly recognized. NY Times 2/15/04
Ontario, Canada to charge water bottlers. Companies that take water from Ontario lakes and streams will have to pay for it. Toronto Star 2/12/04
Construction
Digging itself out of a hole. San Antonio, Texas, Water System gets proactive about replacing city's aging pipes; $110 million budgeted for 2004. San Antonio Business Journal 2/23/04
Sultanate of Oman likely to award multi-million dollar contracts later this year for a modern wastewater collection and treatment system. Trade Arabia 2/19/04
Texas water board allots $21.5 million for projects in seven parts of the state. AP/Star Telegram 2/18/04
Environmental News
New $197 million pump cleans Florida Everglades water with plants. AP/Bradenton.com 2/23/04
Groundwater
perchlorate polluter Olin offers bottled water to farm laborers
in Gilroy, California. Gilroy Dispatch/KRT/Miami
Herald 2/21/04
Feature:
Providing water while protecting the Platte. Colorado's
river caretakers. Rocky Mountain News 2/21/04
EU law to make European companies pay for cleaning up water and other pollution. AP/San Francisco Chronicle 2/20/04
EPA approves new water test system to detect weakened--but still living--E.coli in drinking water. The system, called Colitag, was developed by a University of California, Berkeley professor. CPI International is the manufacturer. San Francisco Business Times 2/16/04
Bush
administration quietly helped MTBE producers. EPA plan
to ban use of the water polluting gasoline additive was put aside. AP/Miami
Herald 2/15/04
Industry opposition kills plan for Alaska to take over point-source
pollution monitoring from the EPA. Federal oversight
imposes no costs on industry and sewage treatment plants. State
would charge for permits. AP/Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
2/15/04
Auburn University researchers hope to develop a process to remove perchlorate from Alabama drinking water. AP/Al.com 2/14/04
Princeton Gamma-Tech to pay $21.5 million for New Jersey cleanups. EPA press release 2/13/04
International
Government says almost all Indonesian water firms are nearly bankrupt. Companies are in trouble because they'e selling water at a price well below their production costs, official says. Jakarta Post 2/23/04
Water
restrictions to tighten even more around Sydney, Australia.
Storage levels continue to dwindle. Herald Sun 2/23/04
Dengue
fever kills 191 in Indonesia as disease generally increases throughout
Asia. Mosquitos that carry dengue breed in clean water. AFP/Channelnewsasia.com
2/21/04
UK water company proposes deslination plant in East Sussex. Environmentalists wary. BBC NEWS 2/21/04
EU law to make European companies pay for cleaning up water and other pollution. AP/San Francisco Chronicle 2/20/04
"King tides" threaten to sink Pacific atoll nation of Tuvalu. Prime Minister declares Tuvalu will continue to exist, even if its 10 square miles of land sinks. AFP/Terra Daily 2/19/04
Only
one million in Kenya have access to clean water. Thirty
million don't. allAfrica.com 2/19/04
India
and China will have to import water by 2025, water management expert
predicts. UNI/deepikaglobal.com 2/19/04
Russia to allow private ownership of bodies of water. No. Lake Baikal isn't for sale. Think smaller. Pravda 2/19/04
Israel cracks down on communities that don't pay water bills and insists they revamp administration. Jerusalem Post 2/18/04
Pakistan's first national water policy to be presented to the cabinet for approval. Controversial Indus River dam a key topic. Pakistan Link 2/18/04
Central
Asia's river rivalry. A series of disputes have broken
out in Central Asia over the use of the region's two big rivers,
the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya, or Oxus. BBC News 2/18/04
Water
shortages in most of the cities in north China are expected to be
eliminated by 2010 when part of the project to divert water from
the Yangtze River is completed, official says. Xin
Hua 2/18/04
India, Pakistan agree broadly on talks framework. Water sharing one of the issues. Reuters 2/17/04
Tanzania not bound by colonial Nile water treaty, minister says. Treaty requires upstream nations to get permission from Egypt to use Lake Victoria water. AFP/Terra Daily 2/16/04
Bangladesh
conference seeks answers to risks from arsenic in drinking water.
Scientists estimate 85 million in country drink water with dangerous
arsenic levels. BBC News 2/16/04
Water
suppliers from throughout Africa gather in Ghana's capital to discuss
bringing private sector money and expertise to the continent's water
problems. Two thirds of all Africans lack access to
clean water. allAfrica.com 2/16/04
Sudan fighting destroys all water sources in combat zone. AFP/Mathaba.net 2/15/04
Australia's summer heat sends Sydney's water savings down the drain. Water restrictions to fight drought in effect since October. Sydney Morning Herald 2/13/04
Iraq Water
Marshes a vengeful Hussein drained stir again. Can 5,000-year-old way of life come back too? It depends on water quality. NY Times 2/21/04
Mars
Rovers explore hints of salty water. Much more analysis
needed. But could it br brine that makes soil stick to Rover's wheels?
space.com/Yahoo news 2/9/04
U.S.-Spanish consortium of CH2M Hill and Union Fenoza subsidiary
wins $12.75 million Iraqi dam contract. They'll rebuild
the Haditha Dam in northeast Iraq. Forbes/Reuters 2/11/04
Legal Issues
The Lynn, Massachusetts, Water and Sewer Commission fires contractor USFilter over $15 million performance guarantee. Daily Item 2/24/04
Tainted water at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina Marine base to be probed. It was supplied to base housing for five years after contaminated wells were discovered. Washington Post/Arizona Republic 2/20/04
Arizona utility regulator files to take over seven water companies. Owner had long list of violations, including unreliable service, state says. Arizona Daily Sun 2/20/04
Dewight Francis Kramer Sr., former general manager of two scandal-plagued California water districts, pleads guilty to IRS fraud charges. He agrees to cooperate in investigation of other water district officials. Sacramento Bee 2/20/04
Veteran Texas precinct worker arrested following irregularities in water board voting. AP/Mercury News 2/12/04
Tampa Bay, Florida water officials to pay desalination plant builder Covanta $5 million to go. Plant beset by problems. Another company will be hired to fix and run it. AP/Bradenton Herald 2/10/04
National Security
National security for water systems reduces priorities for other projects, federal official says. Speech comes as battling Central California agriculture interests sign peace agreement. Fresno Bee 2/19/04
Al Qaeda threat increases water rates in Muncie, Indiana. Star Press 2/18/04
People in the News
Dallas
Cowboys running back Adrian Murrell is now a partner in an Arizona
water treatment business. Phoenix Business
Journal 2/23/04
Bernie
Rhinerson, the chair of the San Diego County Water Authority, elected
chair of the United States Desalination Coalition.
Water agencies and utilities from Southern California, Florida and
Texas formed the coalition to press for increased federal support. North
County Times 2/13/04
Regional Water Issues
Southern Nevada's search for water may include a $1 billion pipeline. Water to the Las Vegas area may come from the Muddy and Virgin rivers and outlying mountains and valleys. AP/Las Vegas Sun 2/23/04
North
Florida group campaigns to keep water from going South. Tallahassee
Democrat 2/21/04
Arkansas
River water leases close to agreement. Deal with Aurora,
Colorado is largest temporary water agreement in state history. Rocky
Mountain News 2/21/04
South
Dakota governor says Corps of Engineers new plan for Missouri River
water use may be better than current system. Plan due
April 15. AP/Aberdeen News 2/19/04
Surprise!
The numbers are in and Green Bay, Wisconsin's offer to sell water
to the suburbs is the most expensive option. Will the suburbs go
it alone? Green Bay Press-Gazette 2/19/04
Colorado legislation intended to make sure rural areas get paid for water used by urban areas likely to die because of opposition by Denver Water. Denver Post 2/18/04
California's agricultural big guns settle Central Valley water dispute. Porterville Recorder 2/17/04
Deep South Texas growth is meeting up with the limits of the Rio Grande. The river is the sole water source for one of the fastest-growing areas in both the US and Mexico. AP/Houston Chronicle 2/17/04
Water mining plan for west Texas draws strong reaction from area ranchers. Odessa American 2/15/04
Head of Wyoming water panel cool to Platte River plan. Even so, he says he supports the agreement with Nebraska and Colorado. Billlings Gazette 2/14/04
Settlement possible in 40-year-old New Mexico water rights dispute. A $280 million regional water system could settle the water rights of Indian pueblos and non-Native Americans. Native American Times 2/12/04
Dwindling groundwater supplies prompt South Carolina to regulate large well withdrawls in six eastern counties. Pee Dee rules highlight concerns about coastal aquifer. The State 2/13/04
Technology
Pennsylvania State University scientists generate electricity from wastewater. Microbial fuel cells work through bacteria to clean water and generate electricity. Press Release 2/23/04
Wastewater
Collapse of a 90-foot wall causes spill of more than one million gallons of raw sewage in Shreveport, Louisiana. Shreveport Times 2/23/04
Operations Management International Inc. parts company with Santa Paula, California. Wastewater treatment won't be interrupted, city says. OMI has been part of an EPA investigation. Santa Paula Times 2/11/04
Western U.S. Drought
Normal spring rain and snow will fill Denver's reservoirs to 92% of capacity. Officials still drought wary. Rocky Mountain News 2/18/04
And Finally
No hard feelings. Head of California Water Board is guest speaker to group that is suing him. Happens a lot, he says. KRT/Miami Herald 2/20/04
A 250-year-old underground water system is discovered in India. It's in such good shape, it might help with the area's current water shortage. PTI/Rediff.com 2/16/04
Mystery
solved. A major water leak that baffled an Ohio town
for more than a week, finally is located. Broken main in the basement
of a burned out building sent 5.6 million gallons down the drain. Chillicothe
Gazette 2/14/04
