Free Republic

The number of suspected salmonella cases linked to contaminated tap water in Alamosa, Colorado exceeded 200 Sunday. Of 216 reported cases, 68 were confirmed by lab results, public information officer Jim Shires said. health officials said may be caused by the municipal water system. Health officials said the Alamosa tap water tested positive for bacteria believed to be salmonella, but are awaiting final confirmation. Authorities said the first victim began showing symptoms around March 8. State emergency management officials activated an emergency operations center in the Denver suburb of Centennial to help coordinate deliveries of bottled water. “The risk that...

West Palm Beach water system cleansing underway, but boil water order continues WEST PALM BEACH - Chlorine began flowing this morning to cleanse West Palm Beach's contaminated water supply, and authorities are still searching for the source of the contamination that prompted a boil water order likely to last through Wednesday. Affected water customers can help too: At 8 p.m. tonight, people should use plenty of water on long showers, car washes, and clothes washing. "To flush the system in your house, basically," said West Palm Beach spokesman Chase Scott. The boil water alert Friday was for its 125,000 utilities...

Water woes in California awakened some elected officials to the need for a peripheral canal, an alternative to the state's existing water delivery system, where the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta pumps can be shut down at any time for any number of reasons. Congressman Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, has become a proponent and has called for construction of an alternate water conveyance system - a peripheral canal - that would transport water supplies from Northern California to the southern regions of the state. Their unified stance intensified after the Department of Water Resources voluntarily shut down the pumps for 10 days...

ATLANTA (AP) – Thousands of Marines and their families went to serve their country at North Carolina's Camp Lejeune. Instead, many wound up fighting it, blaming the government for failing to protect them from an enemy that invaded their lives in a most intimate way: through the water that quenched their thirst, cooked their food and filled their bathtubs every day. The gruff ex-drill instructor is angry leukemia claimed his daughter, Janey. Parents were guilt-ridden that perhaps their own actions had ruined their daughters' health. An aging major still mourns the wife who shared his torment over their baby's fatal...

LOS ANGELES Federal, state and local officials are on the hunt for an invasive mussel that has been spotted in California for the first time ever and could clog water supply pipelines. Quagga mussels were found earlier this month at Lake Mead in Arizona and at Lake Havasu near the Whitsitt intake facility for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. The discoveries launched a wider search for infested reservoirs and pipelines in California that are connected to the Colorado Aqueduct. The aqueduct delivers water to an estimated 18 million people in urban Southern California, including Los Angeles and San...

Scientists have linked exposure to small levels of a chemical found in public drinking water supplies in 26 states to suppressed thyroid function in more than a third of women and girls 12 and older.     The exposure to perchlorate, a study showed, was most acute in women with low levels of iodine in their systems, said Dr. James L. Pirkle, director of sciences in the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention's Environmental Health laboratory and the study's author.     "It's already been known that high levels of exposure to perchlorate [reduce] thyroid function, but this large study of more...

The bluegill is a freshwater fish of many talents, able to elude predators by hiding in submerged tree stumps and to survive for weeks without food. Now, with the help of a scientific contraption developed by the U.S. Army and a private company, the fish also is keeping vigil over the Washington region's water supplies, where it might be able to save millions of lives in the event of a terrorist attack. The scaly sentinels are a key component of the IAC 1090 Intelligent Aquatic Biomonitoring System, a new water-monitoring device that electronically analyzes the behavior of eight captive bluegills...

Law enforcement question pilot at Lincoln Park airport LINCOLN PARK, N.J. -- The pilot of a single-engine aircraft seen flying over New York reservoirs was questioned by law enforcement officers Friday at a local airport, federal officials said. At about 4 p.m. Friday, the New York State Police aviation unit received a call from state police in Delaware County, N.Y., that a low-flying plane was seen over Pepacton, Cannonsville and Ashokan reservoirs, said Maj. Alan Martin of the state police in Middletown, N.Y. It was described as a white plane with a red stripe and matched the description of a...

Over in the alternative universe of the 9-11 Commission hearings watched only by me, Richard Ben-Veniste recently proposed an amazing new standard for investigating Arabs in this country. In the middle of haranguing Condoleezza Rice, Ben-Veniste demanded to know why the suspected 20th hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui, had not been more aggressively investigated, despite the fact that – I quote – he had "no explanation for the funds in his bank account, and no explanation for why he was in the United States." So let me get this straight: Airport security can't acknowledge that a person is an Arab, but they...

Much of Colorado’s water leaves the state in its rivers. That can be explained by the state’s obligations under interstate and international compacts. Additionally, Colorado has not fully developed — put to use — all of its water. The amount of water yet to be stored in reservoirs for consumptive use is a matter of discussion. .. In an average year, about 16 million acre-feet flows through Colorado rivers... Under the Colorado River Compact of 1922, the upper basin states of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming are obligated to allow 75 million acre-feet of water, spread over a span...

A Blackstone official fed up with the cost of cleaning up after rude teens who urinated into the water supply says the boys should be forced to pay the $40,800 bill. “For these kids to actually break open a hatch on the water tank and do what they did, there has to be some type of punishment that equals the crime,” said Blackstone Selectmen Chairman Charles Sawyer. Two 15-year-old Blackstone boys allegedly got past the fence protecting the Bellingham Road water tower one March night. They cut through barbed wire, made their way to the top, destroyed several pieces of...

New York City's water supply could be the target of contamination if a water system map made its way into the wrong hands, an environmentalist said. The threat has arisen since someone broke into a vehicle belonging to a Department of Environmental Protection maintenance supervisor and stole an agency laptop containing a map of the water system. If the map was detailed enough,"there could be the opportunity to pose a threat," the executive director for the Center for Environmental Information, Cindy Stachowski, said. Even without a map, Ms. Stachowski added, someone pouring biological, chemical, or radiological contaminants into a fresh...

China's water crisis -- from severe shortages to heavy pollution -- is the worst in the world and requires urgent action, a top government official says. China was "facing a water crisis more severe and urgent than any other country in the world," Vice Minister of Construction Qiu Baoxing told a conference in Beijing on developing China's urban water supply.

Singapore opens world's biggest desalination plant SINGAPORE, Sept. 13 KYODO Singapore on Tuesday opened its first desalination plant, believed to be the world's biggest, to reduce the tiny island-state's dependence on imported water. The SingSpring Desalination Plant, built at a cost of S$200 million (about $119 million), is located in Tuas in the western part of Singapore and can produce about 136,000 cubic meters of water per day.

New York -WABC, Feb. 10, 2005) — A boil water advisory has gone out to 17 area towns this morning. All are serviced by the same water treatment tank where the body of a missing New Jersey woman was found last night. Eyewitness News reporter Ken Rosato is at the scene in Totowa with more. The medical examiner arrived at the Passaic Valley water treatment plant last night. It was clear, the news would be grim. They had found the body of a woman missing for several days. The discovery led officials to declare a boil water advisory for several...

London, Apr. 21 – At least 62 people have been killed and over 1,000 arrested in the week-long clashes between people and security forces in Iran’s southern Khuzestan province, according to the main Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran. Fierce fighting has brought the province to a complete stand-still since Friday, when State Security Forces (SSF) opened fire on a 3,000-strong anti-government demonstration in the city of Ahwaz. The residents who were mainly ethnic Arabs were complaining of government plans to redefine the ethnic make-up of the province. Ahwaz was placed under a de facto martial law...

Va. trooper shot during water contamination investigation By the Associated Press Published February 4, 2003 ACCOMACK, Va. -- A Virginia state trooper was shot Tuesday night in Accomack County while investigating a possible plot to contaminate water supplies. Col. Gerald Massengill, state police superintendent, said the trooper had been taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Massengill said the trooper was executing a search warrant on Virginia's Eastern Shore between 10 and 10:30 p.m. in connection with an investigation into a possible plot to contaminate water supplies. The investigation was being conducted by the state police, the FBI...

December 28, 2004 17:02 PM Water Supply Services In Penang Not Affected By Tsunami PENANG, Dec 28 (Bernama) -- Penang's water supply infrastructure, services and quality have not been affected by the tsunami triggered by the underwater earthquake near Sumatra, Indonesia, last Sunday. Perbadanan Bekalan Air Pulau Pinang Sdn Bhd (PBAPP) general manager Datuk Liew Chook San said Tuesday the company's personnel were monitoring water supply 24 hours a day. "We continue supplying water to Tanjung Bungah, Batu Ferringhi, Teluk Bahang, Balik Pulau and other areas with no compromises on quality and pressure," he said in a press statement here....

Those who go to sleep at night with the threat of terrorism on their minds might be surprised to learn that Muslim CEOs are running companies that watch over our safety. • Fuad El-Hibri is CEO of BioPort, the only U.S. maker of anthrax vaccine. • Houssam Salloum is CEO of Axiolog, a Detroit firm developing a high-tech system for tracking international cargo into vulnerable U.S. ports. • Nafa Khalaf is CEO of Detroit Contracting, which after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 secured the five major treatment plants that supply water to 4.5 million residents of the Detroit area....

ALERT. At approximately 9:00 a.m., the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency received a phone call that the water system in Columbus had been poisoned. Local city and county officials have convened a meeting to coordinate a plan of action to inform the public concerning the situation. The public may use bottled water until further notice. We are cooperating with the Mississippi State Department of Health. At present, we don't know if it is a credible threat, but we will be remiss is we didn't notify the public. We will keep you updated as we receive the information.