The United States' 54,000 drinking water systems and 16,000 wastewater systems face staggering infrastructure funding needs of nearly $1 trillion over the next 20 years and a shortfall of a half of a trillion dollars, according to Clean and Safe Water for the 21st Century. The figures were released by the Water Infrastructure Network (WIN). Although America's drinking water and wastewater systems spend $23 billion per year for infrastructure, they face an annual shortfall of another $23 billion to replace aging facilities and comply with existing and future federal water regulations, the report says.
WIN is calling on the federal government to make investment in the critical drinking water and wastewater infrastructure a national priority. Failure to meet these clean and safe water investment needs of the next 20 years risks reversing the public health, economic and environmental gains of the last three decades.
"The benefits of drinking water and wastewater infrastructure to the nation's well-being cannot be overstated," says WIN. "Yet local governments and ratepayers must fund 90 percent of clean and safe water infrastructure costs while grappling with competing needs to educate children, maintain roads and transportation systems, fight crime, and provide social services. The federal government should not make communities choose between providing safe and clean water and funding other necessary community programs. Nor should families be forced to pay unaffordable water rates. Better solutions are needed."
Without a significantly enhanced federal role in providing assistance to drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, critical investments will not occur, the report notes. According to WIN, there are a number of possible solutions. These include grants, trust funds, loans, and incentives for private investment. "So, the question is not whether the federal government should take more responsibility for drinking water and wastewater improvements," says WIN, "but how?"
Almost half of Canada's land area is covered by forests and wise use of this resource has importance on a global scale. According to the Timber Harvesting indicator bulletin in the National Environmental Indicators Series, timber harvest levels have more than doubled since the late 1950s and, in some areas, local timber supply shortages have been reported. The bulletin also shows that the annual area successfully regenerated to commercial species has increased 23% since 1991, largely due to increased planting efforts in the 1980s.
Although the total area affected by insect disturbances has declined since the 1980s, consecutive years of insect defoliation have had a considerable impact on forest ecosystems in the Atlantic Maritime and Boreal Shield Ecozones. Forest fires - another important element in forest change - were particularly severe in 1994 and 1995 when an average of 6.37 million hectares burned - close to four times the area burned in 1993.
Mercury as the silvery stuff in the bottom of the thermometer can become an airborne toxin that travels long distances in the atmosphere before finally coming down to earth through precipitation or dry deposition. An Environment Canada team has been studying airborne mercury at Esther, in southeastern Alberta, as part of a national research program to investigate airborne mercury in different regions of Canada.
The research aims to better understand where the mercury comes from, where it ends up, and how it moves through the air. Research findings so far show that air masses reaching the monitoring site from the east or south, which have spent more time over the continent, tend to bring higher mercury concentrations than air masses arriving from the west, which have traveled rapidly from the northeast Pacific to the site. The air masses which have spent more time over the continent have had a greater time to accumulate mercury emissions from Canada and the US. Two other findings were that forest fire smoke is associated with higher mercury concentrations at Esther, and that emissions of mercury from the soil were an important source, especially in the spring.
The Ontario Water Works Association, a Section of the American Water Works Association (AWWA), has selected Hershel Guttman to be the recipient of the highest AWWA Section honour, the George Warren Fuller Award.
The George Warren Fuller Award is presented to Hershel as a member of the Association, for his distinguished service to the water supply profession over the last 30 years. The award commemorates the sound engineering skill, the brilliant diplomatic talent, and the constructive leadership of George Warren Fuller, and is given to members in this Association who characterize his life.
This award was officially presented to Hershel at the June 2000 Annual Conference held in Denver.
The Corrugated Polyethylene Pipe Association has updated its web site to give more information about polyethylene pipe. The site, www.cppa-info.org, answers the most basic questions about the pipe and gives visitors up to date information on research and CPPA news.
The redesigned web site provides several easy to access pages featuring background information on the CPPA, a dozen technical booklets and case studies written on corrugated polyethylene pipe. One of these pages is dedicated to understanding HDPE pipe. Written in a question and answer format, this page contains statistics, quotes from users, colour photos, and links to pipe manufacturers, and the technical booklets.
Adrian Driver, president of CSR Hydro Conduit Corporation, has been named the new chairman of the board of the American Concrete Pipe Association (ACPA). As president of the Pipe and Concrete Products Division of CSR America Inc., Driver heads the largest precast concrete pipe manufacturer in the US. CSR America Inc. is headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida.
In discussing his goals as ACPA's new chairman, Driver said he will focus on growing the available "pie" for precast concrete pipe products, as well as increasing the size of the market.
Scientists in southern Alberta think they may have a solution to the blue-green algae that foul rural ponds and small-town drinking water storage reservoirs most summers. Alberta Agriculture reports that 3,000 algae-eating silver carp have been imported from the southern United States as part of a two-year study to see if the fish can solve perennial water quality problems.
Silver carp are closely related to the now widely used green carp, a species that eats half of its own weight in weeds daily. A research biologist has said that the sterilized fish will be confined to ponds inside a greenhouse at Lethbridge Community College for at least a year in order to find out if they do two things: survive Alberta winters and feed on the type of algae common in the province.
Experiments with silver carp in England and several parts of Europe have shown mixed results. In some areas the fish did as hoped while in other regions they failed miserably.