Water is Life

Bottled water for Newfoundland students after grave concerns over school's well location
Sue Bailey, THE CANADIAN PRESS
First posted: Friday, September 08, 2017 08:19 AM EDT | Updated: Friday, September 08, 2017 12:29 PM EDT
MOBILE, N.L. — Students in Newfoundland are drinking bottled water amid concerns about how close their high school’s well is to an adjacent graveyard.
They attend Mobile Central High School, about a 40-minute drive south of St. John’s. It opened in 2008 right next to a cemetery that has been there since the late 1800s.
“There’s signs all over the school saying: Do Not Drink the Water,” said one student who took photos of brown water Wednesday as it ran from a washroom tap.
“We’re not allowed to drink any water. All of our taps are closed off.”
The student spoke on condition of anonymity about what has become a sensitive topic in the small community.
One parent estimates the well is within about 10 metres of the closest graves, which are on the other side of a retaining wall, but a school board spokesman said it is about 40 metres from the closest grave.
Education Minister Dale Kirby said Friday it’s not unusual for well water to run brown for a time after less use during summer months. He said it has been tested and is safe to drink.
Still, notices are up in the school as the analysis done in recent weeks by provincial Service NL staff has not been fully assessed and endorsed by the local health authority, Kirby said.
And he said it’s up to the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District, which initially provided the bottled water, to decide when it’s no longer needed at the Grade 7 to 12 school of about 260 students.
Ken Morrissey, a spokesman for the board, said no explicit distance from graves is required under sanitation regulations of the Public Health Act.
He also said in an emailed response that, although the well water tested safe in July, students will receive bottled water while a waterline is moved as part of a planned extension of the school.
Kirby accused opponents of the school extension project of hyping water concerns to advance their cause.
“There is not a single doubt in my mind this is entirely political,” Kirby said. “This is about stirring up as much consternation in the local parent community as possible, and I’m not sure to what end.”
The high school extension to be completed by next fall is going ahead. Kirby said it has nothing to do with water safety.
Susan Stamp, one of almost 800 members of a local concerned parents’ group fighting the project, said the water wasn’t discoloured last year. She said parents and students are worried.
“There’s probably no one getting sick at this point immediately, but what are any long-term effects?” she said in an interview. “No one knows.
“It’s a little disturbing that we know that for years students have been drinking this water and now the government is forcing the issue and saying we’re going to be drinking it for the foreseeable future without doing anything major to move the well.”
Caskets were exposed during an extension of the old high school decades ago, Stamp added.
Loyola Hutchings, chairman of the Mobile Cemetery Committee, said there are about 200 to 250 graves there. Its oldest section closest to the school includes several graves that are no longer marked.
“Some of them are from the late 1800s so there’s nothing left there, no crosses. There was only wooden crosses done then and they were right up against the (school) fence line.”
Families whose loved ones are buried there are concerned about pending construction, Hutchings said Friday.
“They don’t want any more graves disturbed.”
Stamp’s group, the Concerned Parents of St. Bernard’s and Mobile Central High, has lobbied the province for years to build a new middle school in the fast-growing region.
Instead, the governing Liberals plan to expand the Mobile Central High School to accommodate Grade 6 pupils. Stamp said nine extra classrooms and a new computer lab will only temporarily ease over-crowding — a claim Kirby denies, based on his department’s forecasts.
Stamp said many parents aren’t convinced there will be adequate water and septic service.
“They’re going to just compound issues and complicate the matter by trying to build an extension on that building.”
Bottled water for Newfoundland students after grave concerns over school's well

Dakota Access Pipeline owner sues Greenpeace, arguing it broke organized crime law


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...e-organized-crime-law/?utm_term=.6a4b25ae53ef

Sue the terrorists!

One trillion litres of sewage leaked into Canadian waterways in last five years
Canadian Press
Published:
August 13, 2018
Updated:
August 13, 2018 10:03 AM EDT
Water overflows from heavy rain, stopping a streetcar on King St. W. in Toronto on Tuesday, August 7, 2018.Shlomi Amiga / THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA — Last Wednesday, a team of people from the Lake Ontario Waterkeeper environmental group descended on the Toronto harbourfront looking for any signs the previous night’s massive, flash-flood rainfall had caused the city’s ancient combined sewer system to overflow into the lake.
They didn’t need to dip a single test tube into the water to know it had.
There, in plain sight and floating around the docks and pedestrian bridges along the waterfront of Canada’s biggest city, was a toxic stew of used condoms, plastic tampon applicators and mounds of shredded toilet paper, along with a countless quantity of other, unidentifiable solids.
When water testing was done, the levels of bacteria “were off the charts,” said Krystyn Tully, vice-president of the national water advocacy group Swim Drink Fish.
Toronto, like the vast majority of Canadian cities, doesn’t monitor real-time data of sewage leaks into lakes, rivers or oceans. As a result, it’s unknown how much raw sewage flowed through overflow pipes when the storm overwhelmed the city’s treatment facilities.
BY THE NUMBERS: Raw sewage in Canadian waterways
Environment Canada does require municipal governments to report annually how much untreated wastewater is spilled, but settles for calculations that are based on computer models, rather than specific data of actual events.
Data provided by the federal government shows in 2017, municipalities reported 215 billion litres of raw sewage were spilled or leaked without being treated. Enough to fill 86,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, that represents an increase of 10 per cent over the amount reported five years ago.
Over the last five years, the total amount is in excess of one trillion litres.
About two-thirds of the amount of reported in 2017 was purposely released when rains overwhelmed water systems that use a single pipe for both storm sewers and wastewater. When storms happen, the excess water can’t be handled by treatment plants and must be released into waterways to prevent basement backups.
The rest is usually the result of problems like power outages, system breakdowns or leaks. Tully, whose organization has monitored the Toronto inner harbour for the last three years, said whether it rains or not, “there isn’t a day that we’ve gone to the harbour that we haven’t been able to find some evidence of sewage contamination.”
The largest contributor to the national problem is British Columbia, where municipalities reported 77 billion litres of raw sewage that leaked or was spilled in 2017, followed by Nova Scotia at 39 million litres, Newfoundland at 29 million litres and Ontario at 22.8 million litres.
Those numbers are nowhere near the actual amounts being leaked, said Tully.
Data she obtained from Environment Canada said in 2016, only 159 of the 269 municipal water systems that are required to report sewage leaks actually did so. The agency is supposed to investigate every missing report, but Tully said the government is more focused on providing education and technical assistance.
Environment Canada also does not publicly report each spill, and very few cities do it themselves. Last year, the Ontario city of Kingston became the first in Canada to install monitors in its pipes to measure how much sewage is being leaked; the city now reports publicly in real time every time it happens.
When Kingston began using the monitors, it also found that its earlier calculations were significantly underestimating how much untreated sewage was actually being discharged, Tully said.
The municipality felt real-time monitoring was the best way to serve the public, said Jim Miller, director of utility engineering for Utilities Kingston. The eventual plan is to eliminate all its combined storm and wastewater pipes, but that will take time, he added.
“This is a long-term solution,” Miller said. “It’s not going to happen overnight, but in the long run it is the most effective solution.”
The cost to addressing the leaks is large and the projects take a long time to finish. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities estimates it will cost cities $18 billion to implement new regulations introduced by Ottawa in 2012 that toughened standards for treating wastewater. Those standards aren’t yet in effect; high-risk systems have until 2020 to meet them, while those deemed low risk have until 2040.
Those regulations do nothing to require cities to address the problem, even as the effects of climate change amplify the frequency of extreme rain events — a phenomenon that risks making flash floods like last week’s in Toronto far more common.
Several cities are taking on the challenge without regulation. Victoria, where decades of untreated wastewater being released into harbour prompted nearby Seattle to warn tourists from visiting, is spending $765 million to build a new treatment plant that will come online in 2020.
Toronto is embarking on a $3-billion, multi-stage project to build overflow pipes to store excess water during storms until the treatment system can handle the additional water, said Frank Quarisa, Toronto Water’s acting general manager.
But it will be 10 years before the first phase is expected to start operating, and as long as 25 years before the entire project is complete.
Tully said she thinks Canadians are appalled when they hear about the sewage, but that public reporting of the issue needs to be much more detailed and complete, with cities being required to actually monitor their leaks.
“The first thing they need to do is actually track what is coming out,” she said.
Environment Minister Catherine McKenna wasn’t available for an interview Friday. But she’s familiar with the problem: just days after becoming minister, she was forced to allow Montreal to purposely dump eight billion litres of sewage into the St. Lawrence River so it could fix a pipe.
http://torontosun.com/news/local-ne...ked-into-canadian-waterways-in-last-five-year

How much raw sewage finds its way into Canadian waterways, by the numbers
Canadian Press
Published:
August 13, 2018
Updated:
August 13, 2018 8:00 AM EDT
Toronto Blue Jays fans get stuck in the Rogers Centre as the entrance to the parking garage floods with torrential rain, in Toronto on Tuesday, August 7, 2018.Fred Thornhill / THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA — Canadian cities and the federal and provincial governments are spending billions to keep raw sewage out of waterways, but as of now, enough untreated waste spills each year to fill 86,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Some more numbers:
215 billion litres: Reported amount of untreated sewage flowing into Canadian waterways in 2017.
1.02 trillion litres: Reported amount of untreated sewage flowing out between 2013 and 2017.
269: Number of municipal water systems that are supposed to report sewage outflows to Environment Canada each year.
159: Number of municipal water systems that actually reported sewage outflows to Environment Canada each year.
1: Number of municipalities known to monitor the actual amount of sewage outflows versus a calculated estimate.
36 per cent: Share of total leaks and spills in 2018 that came from British Columbia.
Source: Environment Canada
http://torontosun.com/news/national...ts-way-into-canadian-waterways-by-the-numbers

It's shocking they don't have a seperate storm water system like most other cities.

WATER FROM THIN AIR: California couple's H2O-making device wins US$1.5M XPrize
Associated Press
Published:
October 25, 2018
Updated:
October 25, 2018 5:28 PM EDT
The Skysource/Skywater Alliance co-founders David Hertz, right, and his wife Laura Doss-Hertz demonstrate how the Skywater 300 works Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2018, in Los Angeles. Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP
LOS ANGELES — It started out modestly enough: David Hertz, having learned that under the right conditions you really can make your own water out of thin air, put a little contraption on the roof of his office and began cranking out free bottles of H2O for anyone who wanted one.
Soon he and his wife, Laura Doss-Hertz, were thinking bigger — so much so that this week the couple won the US$1.5-million XPrize For Water Abundance. They prevailed by developing a system that uses shipping containers, wood chips and other detritus to produce as much as 528 gallons (2,000 litres) of water a day at a cost of no more than 2 cents a quart (1 litre).
The XPrize competition, created by a group of philanthropists, entrepreneurs and others, has awarded more than $140 million over the years for what it calls audacious, futuristic ideas aimed at protecting and improving the planet. The first XPrize, for $10 million, went to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and aviation pioneer Burt Rutan in 2004 for SpaceShipOne, the first privately financed manned space flight.
The XPrize trophy is seen at The Skysource/Skywater Alliance offices Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2018, in Los Angeles. Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP
When Hertz learned a couple of years ago that a prize was about to be offered to whoever could come up with a cheap, innovative way to produce clean freshwater for a world that doesn’t have enough of it, he decided to go all in.
At the time, his little water-making machine was cranking out 150 gallons a day, much of which was being given to homeless people living in and around the alley behind the Studio of Environmental Architecture, Hertz’s Venice Beach-area firm that specializes in creating green buildings.
He and his wife, a commercial photographer, and their partner Richard Groden, who created the smaller machine, assembled The Skysource/Skywater Alliance and went to work. They settled on creating little rainstorms inside shipping containers by heating up wood chips to produce the temperature and humidity needed to draw water from the air and the wood itself.
“One of the fascinating things about shipping containers is that more are imported than exported, so there’s generally a surplus,” said Hertz, adding they’re cheap and easy to move around.
And if there’s no wood chips around for heat, coconut husks, rice, walnut shells, grass clippings or just about any other such waste product will do just fine.
“Certainly in regions where you have a lot of biomass, this is going to be a very simple technology to deploy,” said Matthew Stuber, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Connecticut and expert on water systems who was one of the panel’s judges.
He called their water-making machine a “really cool” merging of rather simple technologies that can be used to quickly deliver water to regions hit by natural disasters, stricken by drought or even rural areas with a shortage of clean water.
The Skysource/Skywater Alliance co-founders David Hertz, left, his wife Laura Doss-Hertz, right, and project designer Willem Swart pose for a photo with an image of a $1.5 million prize the company received Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2018, in Los Angeles. Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP
Hertz and Doss-Hertz are just starting to contemplate how to accomplish that.
Theirs was among 98 teams from 27 countries who entered the competition. Many teams were bigger and better funded, while the couple mortgaged their Malibu home to stay in the game. At one point, they were told they hadn’t made the final round of five, but one team dropped out and they were back in.
“If you say we were the dark horse in the race, we weren’t even in the race,” Hertz recalled, smiling.
He stood near a giant copy of the check in his office while Doss-Hertz prepared to leave for a photo shoot and a visitor sampled a glass of their freshly made water.
Now, though, they are in for the long, wet haul.
“There’s no restrictions whatsoever on how it’s used,” Hertz said of the prize money. “But Laura and I have committed to using it all for the development and deployment of these machines, to get them to people who need the water most.”
http://torontosun.com/technology/wa...-couples-h2o-making-device-wins-us1-5m-xprize

Inquest urged into death of ex-Grassy Narrows First Nation chief
Canadian Press
Published:
October 26, 2018
Updated:
October 26, 2018 2:17 PM EDT
Former Treaty 3 Grand Chief Steve Fobister Sr. speaks next to Aboriginal Affairs Minister David Zimmer after demanding that changes be made to help those in Grassy Narrows affected by mercury poisoning.SunMedia
The family of an Ontario First Nation chief, who was a vocal advocate for a community plagued by a mercury-contaminated river, called Friday for an inquest into his death, saying it was needed to shed light on the illness he grappled with for years.
Those close to Steve Fobister Sr., the former chief of the Grassy Narrows First Nation, said the probe could prove what they believe is true — that the community leader’s death at 66 earlier this month was the result of long-term mercury poisoning.
“The family is looking for the truth and we don’t see any other avenue to find out the truth,” said Robert Williamson, a friend of Fobister. “An inquest would be something that finds out what’s really happening.”
Fobister’s family also called on the prime minister and Ontario’s health minister to acknowledge that the former chief was poisoned by mercury.
“Our beloved Steve died without ever getting the closure of having a government minister look into his eye and admit that he was poisoned by mercury,” said Fobister’s niece, Sylvia Wapioke. “Instead, he was forced to fight for four decades for mercury justice in the face of denial, delay and discrimination.”
Mercury contamination has plagued the English-Wabigoon River system near Grassy Narrows ever since a paper mill in Dryden, Ont., dumped 9,000 kilograms of the substance into the river systems in the 1960s. The contamination closed a thriving commercial fishery and devastated Grassy Narrows’ economy.
Fobister’s family said he suffered from a degenerative neurological disorder that was the result of mercury poisoning. Consequently, Fobister had trouble walking and chewing, they said.
An inquest into his death, they said, would help others in his community who are also dealing with similar ailments.
A spokeswoman for Ontario’s chief coroner said his office had learned of Fobister’s Oct. 11 death on Friday and would begin an investigation. A decision about holding an inquest will be made after the investigation is complete, said Cheryl Maher.
The coroner’s office investigates approximately 17,000 deaths in the province a year and holds 40 to 45 inquests on average.
Sol Mamakwa, the NDP legislator who represents the riding that is home to Grassy Narrows, said the provincial government needs to fully acknowledge the damage that has been done to the community by mercury poisoning.
“I asked the government to admit publicly that Mr. Fobister had died as a result of mercury poisoning,” he said. “Again, they did not answer.”
When asked about Fobister’s death on Thursday, Ontario Government House Leader Todd Smith said both Energy Minister Greg Rickford and Environment Minister Rod Phillips have met with the chief and elders of Grassy Narrows.
“What happened in Grassy Narrows is an historic tragedy,” he said. “I know that our government is committed to working extremely closely with the members of Grassy Narrows … to come to a proper conclusion in this case.”
Earlier this week, federal Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott called Fobister a “strong and passionate voice” for Grassy Narrows.
“It is clear that community members have suffered for generations— suffering that continues to this day,” she said. “Steve’s work was focused on ensuring a better and brighter future for his community, and the federal government will continue to be a partner in this critical work.”
Ontario’s former Liberal government committed $85 million to remediate the river system, while the federal government has committed to funding a treatment centre for those affected by mercury contamination.
http://torontosun.com/news/provinci...h-of-former-grassy-narrows-first-nation-chief

petros said:

Tell that to the Slavé.

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Yes, to serbs.

spaminator said:

Raw sewage overflowing into Ontario waterways at alarming rate: Watchdog
Canadian Press
Published:
November 13, 2018
Updated:
November 13, 2018 10:19 AM EST
Environmental Commissioner of Ontario Dianne Saxe. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn)
Ontario’s environmental watchdog says the province is allowing raw sewage to overflow into lakes and rivers at an alarming rate.
Environmental Commissioner Dianne Saxe is raising concerns about the issue in her annual report, released Tuesday.
The report says that between April 2017 and March this year, raw sewage overflowed into southern Ontario waterways 1,327 times from nearly 60 outdated municipal sewer systems that combine sewage and stormwater.
Saxe recommends the province require every municipality with combined sewers to take action to eliminate overflows using measures like additional stormwater fees and building additional infrastructure.
Saxe says the province’s waterways are also being affected by run-off laden with fertilizer and road salt.
The report also notes that provincial standards on toxic waste poured into waterways haven’t been updated in 25 years.
http://torontosun.com/news/provinci...o-ontario-waterways-at-alarming-rate-watchdog

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I'm all for clean water until it raises the price of a drinking straw.


Salt would settle to the bottom would it not?? Phosphate runoff creates algae blooms that is fish food until it consumes all the O2.


Water can have air bubbled through it to keep O2 levels up so the fish eat and remain alive. The blooms can also be skimmed to remove some and just dump it where there are fish or save it and release it back into the water when the fish are getting hungry.


Sewage discharges should be treated and filtered so 'garbage' is collected. Ozone in the water treatment side is the best method of sterilizing water so it is fit cor consumption. Adapting it to existing facilities would be quite easy and the consumer also has that option as home size devices are cheap these days.

Good choice considering running down their own streets was the alternative.

spaminator said:

Raw sewage from Mexico spill tainting California beaches
Associated Press
Published:
December 12, 2018
Updated:
December 12, 2018 2:57 PM EST
In this July 9, 2001 file photo, people stroll down the beach in the La Jolla section of San Diego, Calif. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi, File)
IMPERIAL BEACH, Calif. — Millions of gallons of raw sewage has spilled into Mexico’s Tijuana River and is flowing north into California, fouling some beaches in San Diego County, where swimmers and surfers were urged to stay out of the ocean.
The Los Angeles Times said if the spill that began late Monday continues unabated, it could be the largest since early 2017, when coastal waters were tainted for weeks.
The wastewater is supposed to be treated before it’s emptied into the river,
In September, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra joined the U.S. cities of Imperial Beach, Chula Vista and the Port of San Diego in suing the Trump administration over sewage spills and other toxic flows coming from Mexico.
The lawsuit seeks to force the U.S. government to upgrade the capacity of pumps in the river and catch basins in nearby canyons.
The systems are intended to divert flows to the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant before the waste reaches beaches.
More than 6 million gallons (22 million litres) a day of raw sewage has spilled into the river since Monday, authorities say.
The U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission said Tuesday that officials in Mexico attributed the leak to a ruptured collector pipe.
The aging collector underwent major upgrades over the past year but is not fully rehabilitated, officials said.
http://torontosun.com/news/world/raw-sewage-from-mexico-spill-tainting-california-beaches

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Makes sense sue your own country to treat another countries raw sewage

Why would they have such a shitty system when they are parked right next to the US?? It isn't like Canada doesn't do the cleanup for oil spills caused by drunken foreign sailors.

There's a water ice glacier on Mars the size of Great Bear Lake.

http://www.rt.com/news/447139-mars-water-ice-images-esa/amp/

Why does no red dust ever land on it if they are yearly events that cover the globe (except the white ice at the poles now that you mention this ice as being as dust-proof as the solar panels on the rovers and the landing pads on the Apollo landers, small solar system eh??

MHz said:

Why does no red dust ever land on it if they are yearly events that cover the globe (except the white ice at the poles now that you mention this ice as being as dust-proof as the solar panels on the rovers and the landing pads on the Apollo landers, small solar system eh??

Click to expand...

Photoshop.

There are no probes orbiting Mars.

There is no Mars, beyond the wandering red point of light projected up on the overhead screen. for that matter.

Cliffy said:

“Yesterday, members of the RCMP’s Aboriginal Police Liaison met with the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and indicated that specially trained tactical forces will be deployed to forcibly remove Wet’suwet’en people from sovereign Wet’suwet’en territory. Police refused to provide any details of their operation to the Dini’ze and Tsake’ze (hereditary chiefs) including the number of officers moving in, the method of forcible removal, or the timing of deployment. By rejecting the requests for information by the Dini’ze and Tsake’ze the RCMP indicated that they intend to surprise and overwhelm the Wet’suwet’en people who are protecting their territories on the ground.
The RCMP’s ultimatum, to allow TransCanada access to unceded Wet’suwet’en territory or face police invasion, is an act of war. Despite the lip service given to “Truth and Reconciliation”, Canada is now attempting to do what it has always done – criminalize and use violence against indigenous people so that their unceded homelands can be exploited for profit.”


http://unistoten.camp/action-alert-international-call-to-action-for-gidimten-access-checkpoint

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War is it ? When does the shooting start ? Who will win ? Are you and your riffle on the way to volunteer?

pgs said:

War is it ? When does the shooting start ? Who will win ? Are you and your riffle on the way to volunteer?

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Tell us what you've ever volunteered for, pigs.