Canadian study shows that rainwater harvesting could decrease household potable water demands by as much as 47 percent

A study suggests that there is dramatic potential for rainwater harvesting.  A researcher says that if regulations were changed and made clear so as to allow things like rainwater and grey water into homes for non-potable use like in toilets and laundry machines, that would have a huge affect on easing up on how much water is drawn from municipal systems.  Friendsofwater.com suggests that we can at least use rainwater for our yards right now.

                                                              
 

World's Largest Water Lilies

The world's largest water lilies are blooming in a tropical greenhouse at London's Kew Gardens.

The world's smallest known water lily, now extinct in its native African habitat, are also thriving at Kew Gardens.  Scientists hope to one day return this tiny lily to the wild in Rwanda. 

To learn more about the small lily, how it was saved, and to see a video, click on Voice of America.

 

PepsiCo will roll out a global web-based crop management system to help farmers reduce water use

The UK unit of PepsiCo, who owns Quaker Oats among others, set a goal of reducing water use and carbon emissions from the farming of its core crops by 50 percent over the next 5 years.

Trials of i-crop, the web-based crop management system developed with Cambridge University, are underway at 22 farms in the U.K. The technology will be rolled-out in Europe in 2011, then to the United States, and then hopefully in India, China, Mexico and Australia by 2012.



                                       Since 1900
   more than half of the world's wetlands have disappeared.

                              



Municipal Bonds Risk

The municipal bonds that help finance a major portion of the nation's water supply may be riskier than investors realize because the credit ratings do not adequately reflect the growing risks of water shortages and legal battles over water supplies.  To illustrate, 40% of Atlanta's water could be cut by 2012 due to a judge's ruling.  And water in Lake Mead is dropping so low that the Hoover Dam could be forced to stop generating electricity by 2013.  Apparently, financial markets have ignored these risks to date.

                             
                                           Lake Mead


Cancer Causing Toxin in Farm Country Aquifer

 

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. was ordered by regulators to find out why toxic chemicals from a cooling tower spill have leached even deeper into the water supply for Hinkley.  Reportly the toxin was used between 1952 and 1966, howvever, the contamination is spreading now. The plume has grown to 2.6 miles long and 1.3 miles wide and extends 0.6 of a mile farther than it did two years ago. Regulators said increased levels of chromium have recently been detected in 12 more domestic drinking water wells and in the lower aquifer, an area of groundwater separated from the upper aquifer by a layer of clay.

Dozens of townsfolk reported falling sick, and some allegedly died from exposure to the carcinogen. Breast cancer,  Hodgkin's disease, lung, brain and gastrointestinal cancers, miscarriages, and kidney and ovarian tumors were blamed on the poisoned water.

The order, by the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Controll Board, requires the utility to dig monitoring wells and determine how cancer-causing hexavalent chromium got into the lower aquifer, where many residents get their drinking water.

Friendsofwater.com has seen no mention of this contaminanted water getting into food as well as water supplies, but we have to suspect that would be the case.

                              

 

Radioactive leak from cleanup site

630 of gallons of radioactive water from a cleanup at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory spilled from a drainage pipe into the Mohawk River last month. 

 

NY City Tap Water Shows Elevated Lead Levels     11/5/2010

                                         

At friendsofwater.com we try not to be overly dramatic or reactionary.  But friends, if you don't have good water filters in place, can you say why?  (We know many of you do.)  Are you going to wait until after you have serious health problems from drinking the contaminants that we know are in the water - and those that come unexpectedly?  We hear from people all the time with thyroid issues, cancer and other health challenges that are known to result from, or are aggravated by, the contaminants in the water supply. 

                      

Remember to replace your air purifier, kitchen, pitcher, bath, shower, garden or whole house water media.  There is no point having a filter that isn't doing what you need.