San Diego announces end to drought emergency; Court rules Des Moines water utility not entitled to damages; Calif. water provider cuts ribbon on advanced nitrate removal system; Tanzania gets $225M for water supply, sanitation
The following is a transcript of the WaterWorld Weekly Newscast for January 30, 2017.
Hi, I'm Angela Godwin for WaterWorld magazine, bringing you water and wastewater news headlines for the week of January 30. Coming up...
San Diego announces end to drought emergency
Court rules Des Moines water utility not entitled to damages
Cali. water provider cuts ribbon on advanced nitrate removal system
Tanzania gets $225M for water supply, sanitation
Last week, the San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors declared an end to drought conditions in the region and asked California Governor Jerry Brown to rescind the statewide drought emergency regulations for regions with sufficient supplies.
Owing to wet winter conditions and recent heavy rainfall, as of January 23, San Diego's official rainfall measurement station recorded 172 percent of average rainfall since the start of the water year on Oct. 1.
Water Authority Board Chair Mark Muir said that it would undermine water agencies' credibility with the public to continue emergency conservation measures "when the drought emergency no longer exists."
Over the past 30 years, the San Diego region has invested heavily in diversifying its water supply portfolio, incorporating a number of strategies including seawater desalination, additional water storage capacity and upgraded conveyance systems.
Last week, an Iowa Supreme Court ruled that Des Moines Water Works was not entitled to damage payments from three local drainage districts.
Des Moines Water Works was suing drainage districts in three Iowa counties over elevated nitrate levels.
The utility maintained that nitrate levels in the Raccoon River are nearly five times higher than the legal limit because of agricultural runoff upstream of the Des Moines treatment plant.
When nitrate levels spike, Des Moines must use a costly nitrate removal system to meet drinking water regulations.
In its decision, the court said that a lawsuit was not the right way for the utility to recoup costs. Rather, that should happen through the state legislature via policy changes.
For Pasadena's Sunny Slope Water Company, which relies 100% on groundwater, cost-effectively reducing high nitrate levels has been a major objective.
Last week at a ribbon cutting ceremony, Sunny Slope unveiled its new nitrate removal system, which mimics nature to treat groundwater.
The technology, called Denitrovi, converts nitrate in water into nitrogen gas through a natural process that results in no byproducts or sludge production.
Ken Tcheng, general manager of Sunny Slope Water Company, said the system, manufactured by Microvi, "not only provides the water quality regulators demand and our customers expect, but also solves the costly waste disposal problem of a conventional system.”
The system will enable Sonny Slope to provide more than 200 million gallons of potable water annually for its 30,000 households.
In international news, the World Bank has approved $225 million in new financing to support water supply and sanitation in Tanzania.
Major objectives include strengthening of capacities for integrated water resources planning and management, as well as improving access to water supply and sanitation services in an efficient manner in Dar es Salaam, where the city’s non-revenue water reached a high of 53 percent in 2016.
In total, up to 1.9 million Tanzanian citizens stand to benefit from the new financing.
For WaterWorld magazine, I'm Angela Godwin. Thanks for watching.
