The Wednesday Wetness

WUSA 9, Power outage at water filtration plant triggers essential water use order in Montgomery, Prince George's counties

Nearly two million people in Maryland are under an essential water use only order Tuesday. WSSC Water issued the urgent request following a power outage at the Potomac Water Filtration Plant. Here's what you need to know.

WSSC Water is urging all 1.9 million customers in Montgomery and Prince George's counties to only use water for essential purposes effective immediately. Officials say at this time, there is no need to boil water before use, and water is safe.

When you're delivering water to 2 million, even your backups should have backups. 

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: A Salute to Mrs. Justin Verlander  up and awaiting your digital pleasure.

The Wednesday Wetness

Fox News,  Texas becomes testing ground for new defense against attacks on America’s water systems. "The six-month pilot pairs federal agencies, Texas Cyber Command, and firms like Microsoft and Dragos to defend utilities."

The Wednesday Wetness

Science Alert, 'Tremendously Grave': The First US City Is on Track to Run Out of Water

It seems inconceivable, even if you're aware of the perilous situation that the world's water supplies are in, but a developed coastal city in Texas that more than 300,000 people call home is now in serious danger of running out of water. 

The city is Corpus Christi, and difficulties with water scarcity are now coming to a head after years of concerns over shortages. There are multiple issues combining here, perhaps most importantly the arrival of major industrial developments, off the back of the unlocking of vast oil and gas reserves that came with the shale revolution.

One plastics chemical complex, built in 2022, uses as much water for cooling every day as all the Corpus Christi residents combined. 

A planned seawater desalination plant, which was supposed to ease some of the pressure brought on by rising industrial water usage, never materialized, further compounding the problem of supply.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Getting Strapped up and garnering clicks at The Other McCain.

The Wednesday Wetness

The Baynet, Potomac River Reaches 94 Degrees As Fish Kill Reported In Maryland

Record-breaking water temperatures likely contributed to a fish kill in the Potomac River near Seneca, where Maryland environmental officials recorded an extraordinary 94-degree water temperature following days of extreme heat across the region.

The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) confirmed the fish kill in a social media post, saying, “We’re aware of reports of a fish kill in the Potomac River near Seneca. Our biologist recorded water temperatures at a record 94°F. This can trigger a summer turnover event, when layered warm and cold water suddenly mix and oxygen-poor water rises to the surface, stressing fish.”

Although the fish kill occurred in Montgomery County, the Potomac River flows south along the borders of Charles and St. Mary’s counties before emptying into the Chesapeake Bay, making the conditions noteworthy for residents, anglers and boaters throughout Southern Maryland.

The fish kill follows several days of dangerous heat across Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic. Air temperatures climbed into the upper 90s and low 100s across much of the state, with parts of Montgomery County reaching about 100 degrees and nearby Washington, D.C., reaching 102 degrees during the recent heat wave.
...
State officials have not announced how many fish were affected or identified the species involved.

If I'm reading the map right, this fish kill occurred up in the riverine Potomac, above Great Falls. I'm not sure I understand their argument about the summer turnover event. However, it was really hot for a few days there.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Melon Season up and garnering clicks at The Other McCain.

The Wednesday Wetness

Fox, Filtered water at specific ages could add months to your lifespan decades later, new study finds. Color me skeptical. There are cases of where drinking bad water can kill you, but if you drink water from a regulated water provider, I doubt that added filtration has any benefit. 

The Wombat has Rule Five Sunday: Outstanding In Her Field up and garnering clicks at The Other McCain.

The Wednesday Wetness

NBC 4 Washington, Potomac River named nation's most endangered due to data centers, aging infrastructure

The Potomac River got top billing in large part due to the massive sewage spill that dumped over 230 million gallons of raw sewage into the river in January. But even if the spill had never happened, the Potomac would have made the top 10, according to Potomac Riverkeeper Network President Betsy Nicholas.

"We were already under discussions about having it as part of the top 10 endangered rivers at the end of last year," Nicholas told News4 on Tuesday. "So we were gathering information based primarily on the impact of water withdrawals, and then water quality concerns, about data centers."

The American Rivers list cites the "rapid, unchecked buildout of data centers" in the D.C. area as "a significant and growing threat" to the Potomac.  Nicholas says data centers use a lot of water for cooling super-sensitive computers and chips. The more data centers there are, the more water is pulled from local water sources, like the Potomac. "As much as maybe 2 to 4 million gallons a day of water could be used for cooling," Nicholas told News4.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: It’s (Almost) That Time of Year Again up and garnering clicks at The Other McCain.

The Wednesday Wetness

WUSA 9, Sewage spill in Montgomery County considered 'catastrophic' 

After nearly a week, since a section of the Potomac Interceptor sewer line collapsed along Clara Barton Parkway, DC Water reported it's close to fully containing the overflow. DC Water built a temporary bypass system after 72 inches of the 54-mile sewer line collapsed on the evening of Jan 19, causing sewage water to run into the Potomac River. On Sunday, the company said that in the first full day of operation since the bypass was activated, the flow of wastewater increased by about 40 million gallons per day. Almost back to its normal 60 million gallons per day average. Despite this, some of the wastewater continues to escape around the break site. While the bypass is operating, crews will begin excavation, inspection, and develop a long-term repair plan. It is unclear what the timeline of that will be.

While DC Water is working on ways to permanently fix the leak, the Potomac Riverkeeper Network (PRKN) released the results of its testing of the contaminated water from last week's sewage spill. According to its report, the data shows a "far worse impact than originally contemplated." The president of PRKN, Betsy Nicholas, announced on Monday, "These measurements of E.coli bacteria show contamination which is nearly 12,000 times what authorities limit for human contact. And so far, almost 300 million gallons have entered the Potomac River. The long term impact cannot be overstated. We measured against the standards established by Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality and Maryland’s Department of the Environment. We were able to get this information thanks to the real-time testing done on Friday, January 23 by Dean Naujoks, Potomac Riverkeeper, and Evan Quinter, PRKN Volunteer Coordinator on Friday.”

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Extra Value Meal ready for your clicks at The Other McCain.

Chesapeake Streams Tell the Story

The Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin issues a News Release: Streams showing slow, but steady, improvement in the Chesapeake Bay watershed

A new report from the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin (ICPRB), the organization tasked with assembling and reporting the data, shows a 1.4 percent improvement in overall stream health throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed over the past six years.

The tracking tool is a Chesapeake basin-wide index of biotic integrity for stream macroinvertebrates, known as Chessie BIBI for short. One way scientists gauge the health of a stream is by figuring out who calls it home. Specifically, how many and what species of benthic macroinvertebrates — the scientific term for creek critters like dragonfly and stonefly larvae — are living at the bottom of a stream. Some creek critters need healthy streams to live while others are more tolerant of poor conditions.

“It would be too expensive to monitor for every possible contaminant in every part of the stream,” explains Dr. Claire Buchanan, director emerita at ICPRB and one of the study’s co-authors. “The health of the creek critters gives us a good gauge on the overall health of the stream because their numbers show a predictable pattern depending on their sensitivity to pollution. If something is going wrong — or right — they’re going to tell us.”

The Chessie BIBI tracks percent improvement over 6-year intervals to capture the various monitoring schedules across the watershed.

In the past quarter century, Chessie BIBI has seen which translates to almost 15,000 healthier stream miles overall, according to the report. With the new numbers, an estimated two-thirds of the roughly 145,000 stream miles in the Bay watershed now have Chessie BIBI ratings of excellent, good, or fair.

So, looking at their map, we see a band of streams in relatively poor health along the fall line, where most of the urbanization has occurred. However, despite all the hyperventilation about Pennsylvania not holding up it's end of the Bay Diet by controlling agriculture, the hinterlands of Pennsylvania look pretty good. Maryland's Eastern Shore is a little iffy. 

The Wednesday Wetness

Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Reduce Your Stormwater with Rain Gardens 

Arain garden is a bowl-shaped garden designed to capture and infiltrate stormwater runoff. They are created to receive water from natural rainfall, downspouts, and/or rain barrel overflow and sheet flow from surrounding areas.

Rain gardens are depressed areas that fill up with water when it rains. They have a specialized porous soil that can also hold water. Water fills the garden, then filters into the soil over a period of time after the rain. Water-loving native plants with deep roots help to soak up the captured stormwater. Rain gardens come in many sizes and varieties, from highly engineered street-side bioretention to large-scale bioretention ponds. . .

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Young Girls & Old Trucks garnering clicks at The Other McCain.

The Wednesday Wetness

WHRO, HRSD has now turned 1 billion gallons of sewage into drinking water

When you flush your toilet or run your dishwasher, the wastewater flows to a plant run by the Hampton Roads Sanitation District. Typically the water is treated, disinfected and released into local waterways. But HRSD has been working to recycle it instead.

The district is slowly expanding a program that converts sewage into drinking water and sends it underground for future use. The Sustainable Water Initiative for Tomorrow, or SWIFT, launched in 2018 and operates out of a research center in Suffolk.

This month, HRSD surpassed 1 billion gallons of treated wastewater injected deep underground. By 2030, officials hope to add 50 million gallons per day. “I can’t believe it,” said Germano Salazar-Benites, a treatment process engineer for SWIFT. “I remember pressing the button when we started recharging and I was so excited.”

Umm, no thanks. Sure, treating sewage into drinking water is possible, but do you really trust the government to do it safely in the long haul?

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Fall Colors up and garnering clicks 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. 

The Wednesday Wetness

Fox 45 News Baltimore, 21M gallons of partially treated wastewater in Patapsco prompt advisory

The Anne Arundel County Department of Health issued an advisory against direct contact with the Patapsco River after 21 million gallons of partially treated wastewater overflowed into the waterway, impacting the headwaters of the river to Bodkin Creek.

Health officials said the overflow came from the Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant in Baltimore City after a structural issue led to the bypass of nitrogen-reducing equipment. Officials said the wastewater did not meet the standard for discharge but confirmed that raw sewage did not enter the waterway.

21 million gallons? Is that all?

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Some Jeep Drivers Are Okay on time and under budget.

The Wednesday Wetness

Little Falls Watershed Alliance, Salt Testing Shows Toxic Levels Continue into Spring

Volunteers testing creeks in the Little Falls watershed found that salt readings in area creeks spiked to toxic levels after snow storms, but they did not always return to safe levels after the events. April readings showed that chronic toxicity (over 230 parts per million) remains in 3 locations on the Little Falls Branch - by the Somerset Pool, by the Willard Avenue Neighborhood Park, and by Westbrook Elementary School. Chronic toxicity means that the habitat of the aquatic life that depends on fresh water is compromised to the point where they cannot survive.

Since December 2024, trained LFWA volunteers have tested 8 sites along the Minnehaha, Little Falls and Willett Branch creeks before and after snow storms as well as once a month in the warmer months. The data shows that we have a serious salt pollution problem in the watershed. Most of our sites experienced spikes to levels of over 860 PPM after snow events. Chloride is naturally present in the environment. Chloride concentrations between 1 and 100 ppm (mg/L) are “normal” in most freshwater waterways. But levels over 230 PPM are considered chronic toxicity as aquatic organisms cannot tolerance this much salt for more than a few days. Levels over 860 are considered acute toxicity as the organisms can only survive for several hours at this level.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Lewis Grizzard Memorial Post ready on time and under budget at The Other McCain.

The Wednesday Wetness

Anxious Richmond, Richmond took 4 days to tell counties of fluoride spike in water supply

Richmond's surrounding counties are annoyed with the city for not telling them quickly enough about a water event — again.

Why it matters: The issue was a fluoride spike in the local water supply, and city officials didn't tell Richmonders or the counties about it for nearly five days.

State of play: Last Wednesday, employees at Richmond's water plant had issues installing a new fluoride pump, leading to excess fluoride accidentally being pumped into the drinking water for about five hours, per a city release.

• City levels were four times higher than the optimal target of 0.7 milligrams per liter during that period, but the water was safe to drink and below the maximum allowable limit set by federal standards, Richmond officials say.
• Because Hanover, Henrico and Chesterfield share the city's water supply, the counties also had increased fluoride levels last week.

Zoom out: The counties didn't find out about the issue until late Sunday night, per Monday afternoon statements.

Fluoride is insanely toxic. Which is the reason we, as a small water co-op are not permitted to add flouride to our water. If you can screw up and add four times too much, you can screw up and add 1000x too much. Who hasn't lost a decimal or three? 

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: San Romero Knights ready and awaiting clicks at The Other McCain.

The Wednesday Wetness

The Beeb, Are you cleaning your water bottle enough?

Every time you take a sip from your water bottle, you are depositing bacteria inside and over the course of a day these can multiply by the millions. Here's what scientists say you can do about it.

Carl Behnke had always wondered how clean his reuseable water bottle was. When he stuffed some paper towels inside and smeared them around, he was in for a shock.

"The towels were white – until I pulled them out," says Behnke, an expert in food safety at Purdue University in Indiana, US. "I realised that the slippery sensation I felt in the interior of the bottle was not because of the material but rather because of a bacterial build-up."

His next step was to design a study. Behnke and colleagues stopped passers-by in a corridor at Purdue and asked if they would be happy to loan their water bottles to them as part of their research – to see how clean they were.

"One thing that stood out from the project was the number of people who didn't want to know the results," recalls Behnke. "Basically, they knew that their cleaning habits were poor to non-existent – something the data later confirmed." The results confirmed that those bottles were brimming with bacteria.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Babe in Boots 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.

MDDNR Discovers If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It

MDDNR, Maryland Stream Data Shows Hidden Effects of Management Practices, "US Geological Survey study shows that management can have positive and negative impacts."

Many management practices aim to reduce nutrient and sediment pollution entering the watershed, and a new study looked at what unintended effects these practices are having on Maryland streams.

The study, led by scientists with the United States Geological Survey using data from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ Maryland Biological Stream Survey, assessed the effects that urban and agricultural management practices in the state could be having on the living things in streams, namely fish and benthic macroinvertebrates—aquatic animals including insect larvae and crustaceans.

“That’s why we did our paper,” Kelly Maloney, a USGS research ecologist and co-author of the study, said. “We realized no one connected the dots, at least at this scale. And we need more and more data to answer this question.”

 

By comparing data on a range of management practices—including riparian forest buffers, cover crops, bioretention, and septic system denitrification—with Maryland Biological Stream Survey data on fish and invertebrate communities, the scientists found that management practices can have both hidden costs and benefits.

In areas with poorer stream health, management practices tended to have more positive effects, according to the study. Management practices also benefited species that were sensitive to sedimentation.

However, in streams that were already healthier, management practices could have negative effects, increasing the amount of dissolved material in the water, which can be detrimental to fish and invertebrates.

I'm actually astonished they admitted that. One thing about being a regulatory agency is that you never have to say you're sorry.

The study did not look at specific streams, but brought together large amounts of data and used modeling techniques to determine causal inferences, or likely cause-and-effect relationships between management practices and aspects of stream health. This modeling technique is also often used in epidemiology, where researchers can employ vast data sets to draw out conclusions about the spread of disease.

Sean Emmons, a USGS research ecologist and lead author of the study, said more research is needed to connect particular management practices to specific effects on stream biology, but that the study highlights how these biological benefits can be considered while designing management approaches.

He said the breadth of Maryland Biological Stream Survey data on streams was critical to taking this step in determining effects of management practices.

“We knew that the Maryland MBSS data was a powerful and extensive dataset we could use to answer this question,” Emmons said. “So I think partnering with the Maryland MBSS team was a natural progression.”

The study was published in June in the Journal of Environmental Management.

Read the USGS Science Summary on the study and its additional findings here.

Upon going to the cited study, the one thing I find cited as a management practice that has negative consequence in streams in good condition was retention ponds, that increase the conductivity (dissolved solids) in water. Seems reasonable.

On a higher level, I think this points out an important point when attempting to fix environmental issues. Find the biggest problems, identify where they occur, and focus on those, rather than issuing blanket management practices, which cost lots of time and money, and may have essentially no, or worse, even negative effects 

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Welcome, Indiana! up at The Other McCain.

The Wednesday Wetness

At the Bay Journal, Get to know a stream near you — and its connection to the Chesapeake Bay

A small creek is often one of the first “natural” places a child investigates, a seemingly wild area full of adventures. The sound of water flowing though the landscape and trickling over rocks is all but universally soothing. Streams offer us a place of refuge from the stress of our everyday lives. Streams connect us to nature.

As a kid growing up in Culver City, California, I used to explore La Ballona Creek (for some reason they seem to have dropped the "La"), a fully channelized creek that is now largely street runoff.  Our house was only a few houses distant. We used to catch tadpoles and mosquito fish, and look for "treasures" there. One time my dad and I found a diamond ring.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Biker Babe In Bikini up and garnering clicks at The Other McCain.

The Wednesday Wetness

NJ.com, Father and son rescue N.Y.C. man who spent the night treading water off the N.J. Shore

Two commercial fishermen helped rescue a New York City man who drifted overnight from the waters off a Queens neighborhood toward the New Jersey shoreline in Monmouth County, police said. The 34-year-old man was brought into the boat by the fishermen, a father and son, and taken to the Monmouth Cove Marina around 9 a.m. Monday, Middletown Township police said.

Township Deputy Police Chief Paul Bailey told NJ Advance Media the man entered the water in Breezy Point, a section of Queens, around 11 p.m. Sunday and was caught in the outgoing tide. He was about 2 miles off the New Jersey coastline when he was rescued.

Breezy Point and the marina are about 5 miles across the water from each other, spanning three bays, Lower, Raritan and Sandy Hook, Bailey said. The waters are busy with shipping traffic coming from the New York and New Jersey ports, he said. “It’s unbelievably remarkable,” Bailey said.

The Wombat makes up time with Rule 5 Sunday: Hangar Queen Double-Scoop Sunday! 

The Wednesday Wetness

Sauron's Eye, Atlanta water main break causes major disruptions, closures. 

Water service was restored to several major buildings in Atlanta after corroding pipes burst in downtown and Midtown, forcing many businesses and attractions to close and affecting water service in area homes, officials said.

By Sunday morning, crews had completed enough repairs so that service to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was fully restored, said the Atlanta Department of Watershed Management in a news release. Service was also restored to the Fulton County Jail and the Atlanta City Detention Center, as well as "many of Atlanta's critical facilities, and residents, including several senior high-rise buildings," according to the department.

Atlanta officials were slowly repressuring the city's water system earlier this weekend. The city was handing out cases of water and setting up portable toilets at several fire stations and first responders were checking high-rise residences to see if the elderly or other vulnerable residents were OK.

"Water is a valuable, critical resource and cities can't function and lives can't function without it," Mayor Andre Dickens said during a news conference Saturday morning. "It's absolutely at the top of our list."

In a second news conference Saturday evening, Dickens announced that he had declared a state of emergency over the situation. The mayor said that while the crews had made significant progress repairing the first water main break, they were struggling with the second break in Midtown.

Newsday,  Atlanta water system still in repair on Day 5 of outages

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Pyjamarama up at The Other McCain.