You are now in California and the U.S. Home Headline Media Coverage category.

Water Quality Issues, Safety Concerns are Significant Drags on Water Utility Customer Satisfaction

/in , , /by /WaterWorld Magazine

As the Environmental Protection Agency moves closer to implementing regulations for PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), commonly referred to as “forever chemicals,” in the U.S. drinking water supply, many Americans are “just saying no” to tap water. According to the J.D. Power 2020 U.S. Water Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study released today, 25 percent of Americans say they never drink their tap water, setting the stage for a serious set of customer satisfaction challenges on the part of regional water utilities.

Full Story

Americans Are Told to Wash Hands to Fight Coronavirus. But Some Don’t Trust the Tap

/in , , /by /The Washington Postby Frances Stead Sellers

For the Chavez family and many others in California’s fertile San Joaquin Valley, bottled water is the toilet paper of their coronavirus pandemic — an everyday necessity that vanished from supermarket shelves.

Full Story

California Regulator Adopts Safe Drinking Water Plan

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Lawby Emily Dooley

California’s top water regulator adopted a plan Tuesday that will guide the state in identifying and helping communities that don’t have access to safe drinking water.

Full Story

Opinion: How to Waste $1 Billion in Less than a Minute

/in , /by /Moterey Heralsby Michael DeLapa

Why would a public agency support an unnecessary and risky billion-dollar desalination plant and let a private utility profit hundreds of millions of dollars at the public’s expense? Here’s the story.

Full Story

Coronavirus Could Worsen Death Toll of Summer Heat Waves, Health Officials Warn

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Anna Phillips, Tony Barboza

As summer descends on the U.S., public health experts are warning that the coronavirus could make intense heat waves deadlier, adding to the devastating death toll the country has suffered.

Full Story

Opinion: Now, More Than Ever, We Need Tribes at the Water Negotiating Table

/in , , /by /AZ Centralby Dennis Patch, Ted Kowalski

A study recently published in the journal Science found that global warming and climate change have led to an emerging “megadrought” in the western U.S. – and that the drought we’ve been experiencing over the last 20 years is as bad or worse than any in 1,200 years.

Full Story

Delta Blues: The Battle over Water has been Fought to a Standstill

/in , , /by /Comstock's Magazineby Eric Johnson

The state had been wrestling with the problem for 15 years, and there were hopes it was about to get pinned to the mat. A decade and a half of meetings, lawyerly and political negotiations, and massive public input had led the State Water Resources Control Board to the brink of a momentous decision: California must leave a lot more water in its rivers and streams in order to save the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay.

Full Story

Plumbers Warn Small Business Owners to Run Water Before Reopening

/in , , /by /Fox 26 Newsby Jenna Liston

When small businesses are closed it means appliances haven’t been running inside; a problem that could be putting customer’s health at risk but also damaging the plumbing.

Full Story

Is It Safe to Come Out of Lockdown? Check the Sewer

/in , , /by /The New York Timesby Carl Zimmer

Wastewater could provide early, painless and localized data about the rise or fall of coronavirus levels.

Full Story

Latest Raw Sewage Testing at Special Districts Facilities Does Not Detect Virus That Causes COVID-19

/in , , /by /Lake County News (Clearlake, Calif.)by Elizabeth Larson

The latest testing of raw sewage at Lake County Special Districts’ four treatment facilities found no presence of the virus that causes COVID-19 at any of the plants late in April, despite the fact that samples earlier in the month confirmed its presence.

Special Districts Administrator Jan Coppinger reported Friday that she received the latest test results from Biobot, a Massachusetts firm that is offering the testing as part of a pro bono program it’s conducting along with MIT, Harvard and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

The tests are used to detect the presence of SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The virus is shed in the stools of infected people.

Sewage testing also has successfully tracked the poliovirus and consumption of drugs such as opioids, according to Dr. Mariana Matus, chief executive officer and cofounder of Biobot.

Biobot is seeking to use wastewater testing to proactively detect outbreaks and help governments and communities to get ahead of public health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Full Story