Major electric, water, gas and internet utilities said Monday they are well prepared to maintain service in Arizona even as people shift to home-based work and school in the weeks ahead, including many of the utilities’ own employees.
Easily fixed water leaks in American households account for nearly one trillion gallons of water wasted annually. The average household leaks nearly 10,000 gallons of water every year. This would wash 300 loads of laundry and could cost you an additional 10% on your water bill.
Fix-A-Leak Week 2020 is March 16-22. It was created by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and is supported by WaterSense partners across the U.S. and Canada, including the San Diego County Water Authority and many of its 24 member agencies.
An employee at Silicon Valley’s largest water district has tested positive for coronavirus, and at least eight other employees, including CEO Norma Camacho, entered self-quarantine because of it.
The employee at the Santa Clara Valley Water District — a public agency that provides drinking water and flood protection to 2 million residents from Stanford University to San Jose to Gilroy — works in the communications department.
The employee, who began showing symptoms on March 1 and left work March 2, remains hospitalized. The employee is not involved with the treatment or delivery of drinking water, and that service continues uninterrupted, officials at the district, also known as Valley Water, said Monday.
“As Valley Water continues to monitor the outbreak of COVID-19, we want to reassure our community that this virus is not impacting the safety of your drinking water, or our ability to supply water in Santa Clara County, ” CEO Norma Camacho said in a statement.
The number of known military sites where cancer-linked firefighting foam may have contaminated groundwater across the United States has jumped to 651 from 401, and the cleanup bill will likely cost billions of dollars more than initially estimated, according to a new Pentagon report.
The new report was directed by Defense Secretary Mark Esper as part of his focus on PFAS contamination and lists hundreds of additional locations, many of them Army National Guard sites, in all 50 states where area groundwater may have been contaminated by the chemical compound.
The military now has at least 651 sites that have been contaminated with cancer-linked “forever chemicals,” a more than 50 percent jump from its last tally.
The information was released Friday in a report from the Department of Defense (DOD), part of a task force designed to help the military remove a class of chemicals known as PFAS from the water supply near numerous military bases.
More than 100 public utilities in at least 34 states have agreed to halt the practice of cutting off water to homes that fail to pay their water bills during the coronavirus crisis.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been urging people to wash their hands regularly with soap, saying it’s one of the most effective methods of keeping the Covid-19 virus at bay. But that’s only possible if a household has running water.
Carpinteria Valley Water District (CVWD) released a statement on March 16 that drinking water in the district is safe and will not be interrupted. CVWD cited the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) statement that “Americans can continue to use and drink water from their tap as usual.”
California Drinking Water Regulators and the EPA have established regulations with treatment requirements for public water systems that prevent waterborne pathogens such as viruses from contaminating drinking water and wastewater, according to the CVWD statement. “COVID-19 is a type of virus that is particularly susceptible to disinfection and standard treatment and disinfectant processes are expected to be effective,” stated CVWD.
After securing more than $350 million for water supply projects in the San Diego region – along with other benefits – the San Diego County Water Authority’s board of directors Feb. 27 voted to dismiss related claims against its Los Angeles-based supplier, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
This is a major step toward resolving the litigation, in which we claimed water rights and challenged water rates and charges imposed by MWD on the Water Authority and the region’s ratepayers from 2010-2018. The board’s action will allow the parties to avoid a trial scheduled for June 2020 and clear the way for judgment to be entered in the older cases.
Almost 90 cities and states across the US have suspended water shutoffs for residents unable to afford their bills, as local leaders scramble to tackle the complex public health threats posed by the coronavirus pandemic.
The final days of winter will bring more stormy weather across much of California.
A storm started off the weekend along the northern California coast, helping to produce snow and blizzard conditions across the Cascades and northern Rockies.
The storm will shift south along the California coast through early week, bringing precipitation to central and southern California.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
