The Wednesday Wetness

ToI, Iranian media says desalination plant on Gulf island non-functional after airstrikes. "Iran’s foreign minister had said a US strike took place on March 7 on Qeshm Island, a popular yet heavily militarized tourist destination for Iranians."

Aljazeera, Iranian attack damages Kuwait power and desalination plant, kills worker. "Kuwaiti authorities say Indian worker killed in attack that also caused ‘significant material damage’ to building."

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor up and garnering clicks at The Other McCain.

The Wednesday Wetness

There are a bunch of articles on the Potomac River sewage spill in yesterday's Bay Newsfeed:

D.C. Government, Dept of Health Lifts Potomac River Recreational Advisory for Washington, DC

WaPoo, Is the Potomac River safe? What to know as D.C. lifts water advisory

WRC, Do you feel safe touching the Potomac River? People give mixed reactions after spill

WJLA, District leaders question DC Water over Potomac sewage spill

WTOP, 2 more sections of Potomac Interceptor rated at high risk after massive sewage spill

WUSA 9, Potomac River watermen seek relief as sewage spill stigma devastates oyster season

FWIW, I would be willing to touch the River water; I've done far worse; and I had the Hep A shot. I might even eat Striped Bass or Blue Catfish from below the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. I might still be a little leary about eating oysters from anywhere north of the 301 bridge.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Because I Can up and at 'em at The Other McCain.

The Wednesday Wetness

From the Balmer Sun, Baltimore-led work group to study regional water management model serving 1.8 million residents

A 13-member work group will convene in January to start discussing a potential new oversight structure for the Baltimore region’s water and sewer systems. Chaired by Baltimore Comptroller Bill Henry, the work group will look at creating a regional water management model to give jurisdictions that use the systems a say in how the water and wastewater systems are managed and financed, and to bolster the region’s ability to maintain the infrastructure in the future. “The future of Baltimore’s water system affects so much of the metropolitan area; it’s important that we employ a regional approach when tackling this issue,” Henry said in a statement Monday. The work group will meet Jan. 7 in the Baltimore City Council chambers.

Owned and operated by Baltimore City, the region’s water and wastewater systems serve 1.8 million residents in the city, as well as Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties. The city is responsible for managing, maintaining and upgrading the systems, though nearby jurisdictions chip in through cost-sharing agreements. “This work group gives us the chance to modernize a system that has served the region for decades, but no longer reflects the needs of our communities,” Baltimore County Executive Kathy Klausmeier said in a statement.

You have to be pretty desperate to let the City of Baltimore handle your water and sewage needs.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Old Trucks & Young Girls up on time and under budget at The Other McCain.

The Wednesday Wetness

WTOP, New report shows vulnerability of DC area water supply: Shortages could lead to restrictions, taps running dry "The report by ICPRB shows the region will have enough water in most years, but there is an increasing chance — up to about 1% in 2030 and up to about 5% in 2050 — that there will be water shortages."

Real Clear Science, Iran's Water Woes: A Textbook Case of How Civilizations End "To put it bluntly, Tehran's fresh water is running out, a fact that even the country's authoritarian government cannot hide. A month ago, President Masoud Pezeshkian even floated the notion of evacuating the capital itself if rain does not arrive soon in needed quantities. Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city with a population of four million, is in a similar predicament. Its water reserves register below three percent."

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: More Like Sparking Ramp, Amirite? online and garnering clicks at The Other McCain.

The Wednesday Wetness

TSMC Arizona: What About the Water?

WAMU, Proposed Montgomery County data center would use Potomac River water for cooling, and lots of people aren't happy about it.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Snow. Ugh. up on time and under budget at The Other McCain.

The Wednesday Wetness

USA Today, Beaches across US close during Labor Day weekend due to fecal contamination. As I once learned from a plumber, "shit don't flow up hill." Too bad cities across the country haven't taken care of their plumbing.

The Wombat has Rule Five Sunday: The End of Summer up and garnering clicks at The Other McCain.

The Wednesday Wetness

Arkeonews, Ancient Water Pipeline Unearthed on 65-Meter Hill in Tajikistan Reveals Engineering Marvel of the Past.

The Wombat has Rule Five Sunday: Laundry Day up and at 'm at The Other McCain.

The Wednesday Wetness

Fox 45, Hopkins researching danger level of foul ‘pistachio tides’ on Magothy River

Greenish, cloudy, and with a smell like rotten eggs, “pistachio tides” are causing concern among residents who live along the Magothy River.

Magothy River Association member Bob Moyer said he went out to photograph a particularly large pistachio tide on Cattail Creek in October, and was so overwhelmed by the sulfur smell that he collapsed to his hands and knees and had to crawl off the pier.

Pistachio tides occur when bacteria in the river produce hydrogen sulfide, which depletes the oxygen in the water and creates a rotten smell. The bacteria produce a bright green color, which is where the name comes from.

Working with the river association, Johns Hopkins University is researching the bacterial booms in Cattail and Old Man creeks this summer to identify where and when they occur. Pistachio tides usually develop between August and October, and Hopkins started collecting water samples in early July to get ahead of the blooms.

That classic rotten egg smell is an ancient evolutionary mechanism to help us avoid hydrogen sulfide, which is a deadly poison, on the order of hydrogen cyanide. Interestingly, people rapidly get habituated to the smell, and so poisonings from hydrogen sulfide do occur occasionally.

Sulfate reducing bacteria, which produce sulfide from sulfate (a major salt in salt water) are obligate anaerobes and are totally inhibited by even low concentrations of oxygen. The process is quite common in sediments, but rare in the water column, and usually only in the bottom water.  Something is seriously wrong if the surface water in the Magothy are going anoxic even occasionally. 

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Gother Than Thou up and garnering clicks at The Other McCain.

The Wednesday Wetness

Eos, River Alkalinization and Ocean Acidification Face Off in Coastal Waters

Li et al. ran a simulation to analyze pH trends in the Chesapeake Bay between 1951 and 2010, revealing a complex web of factors that altered the bay’s pH over that 60-year period.

Nutrient runoff into the Chesapeake Bay increased between 1950 and 1980 before dropping in the 1990s, thanks primarily to decreased atmospheric deposition of nitrogen and to upgrades in wastewater treatment systems. Agricultural lime application and intensified chemical weathering, which also decrease acidity, became more common over the study period. In contrast, coal mining, drainage from which can increase water acidity, declined over the study period. Weather played a role as well: Typical spring rainfall, as well as particularly wet decades such as the 1970s, pushed the upper bay freshwater plume farther into the middle of the bay and increased the area’s pH.

The researchers examined all these factors and found that overall, the upper bay generally became more alkaline over time but that deeper waters in the middle and lower bay became more acidic. No long-term trend in the pH of the surface waters of the middle and lower bay was observed, as the effects of river alkalinization and ocean acidification mixed and essentially canceled each other out.

They found that river alkalinization had twice the effect on the Chesapeake Bay’s long-term pH trends compared with ocean acidification. Both processes played a greater role than coastal eutrophication did.

I guess the science isn't settled.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Surf’s Up up and garnering clicks at The Other McCain.

The Wednesday Wetness

WRIC, Richmond hit with more alleged water violations after 3rd water crisis event in 2025

The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) has again hit Richmond with a Notice of Alleged Violation after the city’s third water-related crisis event this year.

On Monday, June 16, Richmond officials announced that it had received a Notice of Alleged Violation from the VDH’s Office of Drinking Water (ODW) in connection with May’s boil water advisory. This means the ODW has accused the city of violating at least one of Virginia’s Waterworks Regulations, as laid out within its Public Water Supplies Law.

Many Richmond residents were under a boil water advisory for two days after filters at the city’s water treatment became clogged, causing a decrease in water pressure. City officials later explained this was because the filters had not been properly cleaned for some time.

Yep, ya gotta keep up with the maintenance. 

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: In The Sun up on time and under budget at the Other McCain.

The Wednesday Wetness

At the Bay Journal, Clean water advocates weigh data center growth in Chesapeake region

Data centers are not just a Northern Virginia problem. The vast and growing presence of these warehouse-like buildings housing the world’s computing power has implications for quality of life, land, energy and water across the Chesapeake Bay region.

This was the main message of a half-day workshop on May 19 hosted by the Choose Clean Water Coalition at the start of its annual conference held this year in Harrisonburg, VA. The “kickoff” event featured experts mostly from Virginia speaking about the environmental impacts of data centers, which they have seen firsthand — and which they say are imminent for every state in the region.

Northern Virginia is the global epicenter of data center infrastructure and home to about half of all data centers in the U.S. This distinction is not new but has garnered increasing attention as the global race to power artificial intelligence begins to strain regional power supplies. Researchers at the workshop warned that continued unrestrained growth of data centers in the Potomac River basin in the coming years could strain the region’s water supply as well.

Data centers use water primarily for cooling the computers. It seems to me that cooling is rather clean use of water. Certainly the water could be reused in some other  way, either agriculture if not human consumption. Or they could recycle it on site with cooling towers, resulting in much lower water consumption, but requiring the disposal of mineral rich blow-down water. 

Thursday Tanlines

Newsweek whines Republicans Wants to Make Tanning Salons Cheaper. That's pretty fair. Republicans want almost everything cheaper.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Country Girl in Carhartts up on time and under budget.

The Wednesday Wetness

WTOP News, DC region’s water reserves may be tapped this summer if drought persists

Despite all the recent rain, the D.C. region remains under a drought watch. Now, that begs the question, will water restrictions come into play this summer?  The area’s been under a drought watch since July 2024, when officials advised the public to use water wisely. The alert marked the first time it was implemented since 2010, according to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

“We estimate that there’s a 22 to 36% probability that we will be drawing down those reservoirs in the summer and the fall,” he said. Historically, Nardolilli said, the region’s maintained an 8 to 15% probability of having to draw down reserves.

After nearly a week’s worth of continuous rain spells, the D.C. area will continue to experience the downpour through Friday evening.

No worries here; our community draws from deep wells that are not affected by to weather, at least not in this millennium.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Head On ready and willing to accept your clicks.

The Wednesday Wetness

Fox 5 DC,  DC, Arlington water pipes get annual cleaning; officials say chlorine taste possible

Beginning on Monday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Washington Aqueduct, which serves both Washington D.C. and parts of Northern Virginia, will start cleaning some 13-hundred miles of water pipe. To do this, they switch from a chloramine disinfectant to chlorine. Both DC Water and Arlington Water say it's not harmful and routine for every major water utility nationwide.

If you notice a chlorine-like smell or taste in your tap water, suggestions given are to run your tap water for 2 minutes and then use a filter. Or customers can put a pitcher of water in the refrigerator for a few hours for the taste and smell to subside.

For Arlington residents in particular, in addition to the disinfection process, the county also opens fire hydrants to conduct a system-wide flush. Arlington Water says this is to enhance water quality, but this does also come with a warning.

Flushing of the system also has the potential to cause discolored water which may stain your clothing if doing laundry during the county's "flush periods."

Beats getting cholera, coccidiosis or Giardia.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Sunday Night Loungewear up and at 'em at The Other McCain.

The Wednesday Wetness

Politico whines about Water world’s quiet Trump freak-out. 

A Native American tribe with a powerful water claim had an ultimatum for the Trump administration: Release money to protect the Colorado River — or fight over the future of the most important river in the West. 

Uncharacteristically, the Trump administration backed down. The Interior Department released $105 million eight days later to repay the tribe for work it had done to line leaky canals and take other measures to protect a waterway that supports farms and cities in seven states.

It was a victory for Arizona’s Gila River Indian Community — and a rare success in cities, farmers and tribes' ongoing fight over drought funding from Democrats' signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act.

But the episode last month, previously unreported, underscores the alarm that Western officials are feeling over the Trump administration’s freeze of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for the waterway, which supports 40 million people and a $1.4 trillion economy but has been gripped by megadrought for more than two decades.

The Gila River tribe is still one of the few entities to have its funding freed up. Most entities with federal contracts for water-saving work are still waiting to find out if they’ll be paid.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Waitress on the Ramparts posted and garnering clicks at The Other McCain.

The Wednesday Wetness

SF Examiner, US Supreme Court rules for SF, against EPA

The United States Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its statutory authority when it attempted to make San Francisco responsible for water quality in the Pacific Ocean.

The 5-4 ruling in City and County of San Francisco v. Environmental Protection Agency, which reversed an appellate decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said the EPA is not authorized under the Clean Water Act to include what the Supreme Court termed “end-result provisions” in a permit it issued to The City allowing the discharge of pollutants. “We are very pleased the Court issued the narrow decision San Francisco sought,” said City Attorney David Chiu and Public Utilities Commission General Manager Dennis Herrera in a joint statement. “This decision upholds the Clean Water Act’s critical role in protecting water quality and simply requires the EPA to fulfill its obligations under the Clean Water Act, as intended by Congress.” The case involved two provisions the EPA added to the pollutant-discharge permit issued for The City’s Oceanside water-treatment facility, which empties into the Pacific Ocean, when it was renewed in 2019.

In its petition for Supreme Court review, San Francisco argued that the EPA overstepped its statutory boundaries when it “added two provisions that generally demand that the City not violate [water quality standards] … rather than specify pollutant limits that San Francisco must meet.” “In practice, generic water quality prohibitions make it impossible for permittees to know what the law requires until an enforcement action’s late stages, putting them in a predicament that offends basic concepts of due process,” the City Attorney’s Office wrote in its petition.

The Supreme Court rejected San Francisco’s argument that the EPA is limited in what type of limitations it may impose on discharges, but it agreed with the contention The City made in its initial brief that “the Act does not authorize EPA to impose NPDES permit requirements that condition permitholders’ compliance on whether receiving waters meet applicable water quality standards.” “Determining what steps a permittee must take to ensure that water quality standards are met is the EPA’s responsibility, and Congress has given it the tools needed to make that determination,” wrote Justice Samuel Alito in the majority opinion.

“This ruling makes clear that permitholders like San Francisco are responsible for what they discharge, and the EPA has the tools at its disposal to ensure water quality,” Chiu and Herrera said in their statement. “But it’s not lawful to punish permitholders for things outside of their control, such as the end-result water quality of a shared body of water, where many other factors affect water quality.”

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: South American Cowgirl ready and willing at The Other McCain. 

The Wednesday Wetness

ABC 8 News, When will Richmonders get answers from the city’s water crisis investigation?

The city of Richmond recently chose the firm that will look into its widespread water crisis. But when will residents hear about its findings? Citizens of Richmond and multiple surrounding counties had little to no water from Jan. 6 to 11, following a malfunction at the city’s water treatment facility.

In the weeks that followed this crisis, questions have been raised about how this could have happened, including what actions — if any — the city could have taken to prevent it.
. . .
“The City will definitely update the public as we move through the after-action process,” the spokesperson said. “What [details are] released to the public and when will depend on several factors — especially since there are important homeland security considerations when it comes to the water treatment plant.”

In the meantime, the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) is also launching its own investigation into the water crisis, also through a third-party firm. It made this decision after it found two alleged violations of state waterworks regulations at Richmond’s water treatment plant.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: You Can Be My Cowgirl up and garnering clicks at The Other McCain.

The Wednesday Wetness

Best Life, New Study Uncovers the "Potential Risks" of Bottled Water and Why You Should Drink Tap Instead "Did you know that bottled water and tap water aren't regulated in the same way?" Why, yes, I did.

Published in the journal BMJ Global Health, the new study concludes that "misunderstandings about the safety and potential risks of bottled and tap water persist." The biggest misunderstanding may be that bottled water (BW) isn't regulated in the same way as tap water, which is overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Bottled water is under the jurisdiction of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

For their part, the FDA says they ensure "the quality standards for bottled water are compatible with EPA standards for public drinking water."

However, according to the study, bottled water manufacturers "face no obligation to disclose the presence of microbial or chemical contaminants. They do not need to demonstrate that their products meet specific quality standards or adhere to stringent inspection protocols."

The EPA, on the other hand, must adhere to the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), which sets legal limits on over 90 drinking water contaminants. Municipal water systems must then report their water quality to the EPA.

In recent years, much of the discussion surrounding bottled water centers on microplastics. "Plastic contamination is ubiquitous in BW, with reports suggesting a wide-ranging presence spanning from 10% to 78% of BW samples," the study authors note. 

The data on the potential harmfulness of microplastics is less than convincing.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Snow Bunny up and garnering clicks at The Other McCain.

The Wednesday Wetness

NJ.com, Smelly drinking water reported near Jersey Shore. Utility says not to be alarmed.

Drinking water in parts of Monmouth and Ocean counties has a foul odor and taste, but residents are being assured it is safe to drink.

New Jersey American Water said Monday its water supply in the area is being affected by seasonal algal activity, causing the disturbing smell and taste.

The company said it’s working to minimize the problem and the temporary algal effects on its water typically happen during colder months.

Not a problem with our local well water.  

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Smoke Break up and garnering clicks at The Other McCain.

The Wednesday Wetness

Delaware News, Newly Released Federal Report Highlights Complexity of PFAS Exposure 

Researchers hope the study, which shows the results of testing for seven different types of PFAS in household dust, may also help further educate consumers about PFAS. While the synthetic “forever chemicals” have tended to be most prominently associated with drinking water to date, scientists are now discovering that as much as 80% of a person’s exposure to PFAS may stem from use of everyday products.

Bay Journal, Concerns rise over PFAS exposure near MD Perdue plant

The 250-acre Perdue plant at the center of the Salisbury investigation contains a soybean-processing plant, a chicken hatchery and a grain-storage facility. MDE detected PFAS in wastewater there in September 2023 as part of a statewide campaign to test potential hot spots. The Perdue concentrations stood out, ranging from below detectable levels to 1,370 parts per trillion. The federal drinking water limit is 4 parts per trillion.

But neither the state nor Perdue notified the public until about a year after the initial discovery. They say it took time to drill additional monitoring wells on the west side of Perdue’s property and gather evidence that the groundwater contamination was migrating off-site.

“That’s when we had the information to inform the [other] property owners,” said Lee Currey, director of MDE’s water and science administration.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Merry Christmas! up on time at The Other McCain.