BY BENJAMIN ALLDRITT, NORTH SHORE NEWS, April 22, 2012 

Could Health Canada guidelines cost Metro Vancouver $400 million?

The mayor of the City of North Vancouver is calling on the provincial government to ignore new federal drinking water standards that he says provide no health benefits but could create $400 million in new costs for Metro Vancouver taxpayers.

Darrell Mussatto, also chairman of Metro’s utilities committee, told the North Shore News “all the science and all the scientists say there’s no good reason for this.”

In November of 2011, Health Canada released a draft report titled Turbidity in Drinking Water. The federal agency proposes that the maximum acceptable level of cloudiness in drinking water be reduced from five nephelometric turbidity units, or NTUs, to one.

“You would not notice the difference in a glass of water,” Mussatto said. “We don’t know why they would come up with these stringent new regulations.”

In a March 16 report to the utilities committee, senior utility engineer Stan Woods wrote that the changes “have not been scientifically justified, are inappropriately more stringent than regulation in other parts of the world including the United States, and are not justified by any assessment of cost versus benefit.”

Woods noted that drinking water was not held to the same standard in such population centres as New York, Boston, Seattle, Portland and San Francisco.

Although the federal government can produce guidelines, ultimately the province will decide whether or not to adopt them. Early conversations with provincial staff, said Mussatto, have been promising. “The province is listening,” he said. “They understand the science isn’t there.”

If the higher standards are adopted, they wouldn’t have any effect on the new SeymourCapilano system, which already has filtration equipment. Upgrades would be required at the Coquitlam reservoir however, and that could cost $300 million to $400 million, Mussatto said, money that would come from around Metro Vancouver, in part from the North Shore.

The North Vancouver mayor said his committee will be urging the Metro Vancouver board to write to the province and the federal government advising them against the new guidelines. Mussatto also plans to travel to Victoria in early May and take the matter up with MLAs in person.

The potential for new water costs is particularly hard to swallow on the North Shore because strict new federal standards require a new wastewater treatment plant on the North Shore, which is estimated to cost more than $1 billion dollars. Funding these major infrastructure projects is a major regional issue, Mussatto said.

“We’re going to see a real tussle and a tug-of-war between municipalities,” he said.

Provincial surface water treatment objectives released

The Ministry of Health released its March 2012 report titled Drinking Water Treatment Objectives at the recent BCWWA conference in Penticton.

The long awaited standards provide much needed guidance to the province’s health authorities on the provincial standards for  treating surface water. The treatment objectives reiterate the 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 treatment objective for removal of viruses, protozoa and bacteria, and provide information regarding acceptable treatment approaches as well as providing raw and treated water turbidity objectives.

Follow this link to download a copy of the treatment objectives:  Drinking Water Treatment Objectives.

Water Efficiency Journal, Tuesday, April 17, 2012 2:49 PM 

Much of U.S. in the midst of drought, billions in agricultural losses.

First it was Georgia, with Governor Sonny Purdue holding prayer meetings in attempt to incur divine intervention. Then it was Texas, with uncontrolled wildfires outside of Austin and water shipped on the back of tankers instead of flowing out of faucets. And as recently as last year, the southern United States has been left reeling from over $10 billion in agriculture losses.

And there’s no end in sight.

In the March/April issue of Water Efficiency, I discussed the US Drought Monitor that revealed, “many American cities—including Atlanta, GA; Dallas, TX; Phoenix, AZ; and Oklahoma City, OK—are situated smack dab in the middle of a drought belt. Indeed, much of the western US appears to be headed in the same direction.”

Unfortunately, a lack of April showers has plunged much of the country into drought conditions—transforming the drought belt into a drought blanket. Last week, theDrought Monitor reported that 61% of the lower 48 states are experiencing “abnormally dry” drought conditions. In fact, only two states—Ohio and Alaska—are not experiencing any drought, or “near-drought”, conditions.

With 48 states in the crosshairs of drought—the highest percentage since 2007, according to the Drought Monitor—many regions unaccustomed to water shortages are finding themselves at the losing end of their water resources. According the US Geological Survey, New England is currently experiencing stream flow levels at record lows. In fact, all along the East Coast, communities are struggling to deal with unusual drought conditions, including:

* Connecticut has “endured its driest January-March period ever” according toWeather Channel meteorologist Jonathan Erdman.

* Vermont is listed as “abnormally dry” in the sixth month, after recording its wettest August on record, including flooding as a result of Hurricane Irene.

* Wildfires in Florida, New Jersey, and all along the East Coast are being blamed on dry, windy conditions.

In the South, conditions are also continuing to worsen. The South Florida Water Management District has issued a water shortage warning extending from Key West to Orlando. And parts of Georgia and Texas continue to struggle under dry conditions exacerbated by La Niña weather conditions.

In California, the Department of Water Resources has warned that the state’s snowpack is 45% below normal. And in the Plains states and the Midwest, farmers are keeping a wary eye on weather conditions due to a less than optimal snowpack, thanks to an unusually mild winter.

So, what do you think? How do we get ourselves out from under the drought blanket? Are we doing enough to reduce demand and eliminate water waste? And do you think there’s enough of an understanding by the general public that drought doesn’t just impact the water that comes out of the tap, but the light switch, the gas pump, and just about every product and activity we depend on?