In July 1999, I visited central Tanzania with a Lutheran church delegation, and experienced life without significant safe water (except our bottled water - which was OK, wasn't it?) and Third World waste disposal for the first time in some decades (since back when I helped my ultra-rural uncle bail hay). If you are complacent about the needs of others in the world, you should be zapped into such a circumstance for three weeks. You'll see women carrying big carboys of water down dusty roads -- the day's washing requiring hours to fetch this water. When the need occurs, you'll learn how to aim strategic body parts at that amazingly tiny target and figure out how to stay clean. You might (as I did) become obsessed with small points of being clean, finding a clean shirt, and shaving. When you come back to them, you thank God and ask eternal blessings on the inventors of the shower, flush toilet, washing machines, and clean tile floors.

My secondary response was that I became "Tanzanized" (as we put it) - motivated to get involved (or Tanzicrazed as some colleagues might put it). Since then, work to improve physical life in the Dodoma region (mostly involving Lutherans and friends from Northwest Ohio, Minnesota, Germany and Sweden, as well as Tanzanians), has progressed, sometimes with maddening slowness, but we're determined to stay at it and do it right.

I had the opportunity to return in late September 2002, visiting places with more basic and rural conditions than those where I visited before. I was also better prepared mentally from prior experience. We know that better days lie ahead. There is more commercial interest in this beautiful, politically stable and democratic land. Its people are (for the most part) gentle, religious, very friendly and hard-working. It is also only one place that is deserving of your interest and involvement.

An article on your editor's Tanzania impressions and a call for involvement in water, agriculture and development (a version first printed in National Driller). SAS

Other ways to respond

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Excellence: We often hear about standard methods in well cleaning or "conventional"  designs of water treatment plants, and similar phrases. They sound very confidently professional and comforting when presented to those who have to fund them. "Standard" designs and processes sail through regulatory approval processes.

A problem occurs when the "standard" method is not up to the task or appears to work for a while, until it is found out that the process has contributed to the ultimate destruction of the asset. Likewise "conventional" plant designs may not take into consideration the subtleties of specific source water quality. A typical example is the "conventional" iron removal plant consisting of aerators, contact chamber tank, and rapid sand filters. When wells have significant biofouling, the contact chambers can quickly become fouled and FeII and FeIII sequestered so that it can actually "grease" through the filters. The task in each case, then, calls for excellence in the planning and execution: taking time to understand the problems and their causes, adjusting and innovating to solve the problems, and explaining and defending what is proposed or planned. In other words, actually "do engineering" and serve the client's needs. These ideals require the service provider to stay current, learn new ideas, advocating improved processes inside your organization, and spending time making new and improved processes your own and a legacy for your clients and customers. Excellence in service providing also means that if a process or service better than you can provide is available, make it available to your customer instead of resisting it.

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The WPD/Ground Water Science Links Page!

Determined not to be a dead-end commercial site, we offer a long list of links to many aspects of water and its acquisition, admittedly weighted to our practical and sentimental favorite: Ground water, but also much in public water supply and microbiology. Includes many informative sites. Bookmark it is a convenient navigation tool. Please feel free to suggest links. If sites are of a commercial nature, be prepared to link back to us for us to consider linkage.

WaterTech® Online A service of National Trade Publications (copyrighted).

Iraqi thug alert edition: Attempt by Iraqi agents to poison water for U.S. troops uncovered in Jordan (April 2, 2003 ed.)

According to the New York Times and the Wasington Post, a group of men were involved in a scheme to poison a water tank that supplies hundreds of United States troops at a military base in Khao, in an arid region of Jordan's eastern frontier near the Jordanian industrial town of Zarqa. Six Iraqi men were arrested and Jrdan expelled five Iraqi "diplomats" as a result of the incident. No one was sickened or injured, officials said, the Times reported.

Iraqi water problems at home: Both due to war and pre-war problems (April 1, 2003, ed.)

As brought to our attention by WaterTech Online, USA Today reports that the war in Iraq has humanitarian consequences, principally disruption of clean water supplies. If you are not aware, urban Iraqis are as dependent on and benefitting from public water supply as any in the West, although these systems have been degrading due to official neglect in the 1990s. The following is based on USA Today's article by Tim Friend (April 1, and assumed to be no joke).

Most of Basra's 1.5 million people had no access to safe water for four or five days due to damage to the city's electric power grid after the ground war began on March 21. After a week, only half the city had service restored and the situation remains unstable. There are still too many Iraqi fighters in Basra and too much combat there for engineers to get in and restore service to everyone. British forces stretched a pipeline from Kuwait into southern Iraq to Umm Qasar, capable of supplying 500,00 gal/day, but the water doesn't reach as far as Basra. Update (03/04/03): water is beginning to be available in Basra but other scenes of fighting still will require work. 

Now, officials fear repeats of the Basra crisis in Baghdad and other cities where battles rage or will soon begin. They warn of potential outbreaks of diarrhea and other diseases that will hit children and the elderly particularly hard.  ''This conflict will have more people dying from water treatment plants going down than from the war itself,'' said Geoff Keele, a spokesman for UNICEF, from Amman, Jordan. He was based in Baghdad until the start of the war.

Iraqis dump 500,000 tons of raw sewage a day into the Tigris, Euphrates and key tributaries. Loss of power and damage to water treatment plants is linked to outbreaks of cholera and a malaria-like condition that Iraqis call ''black water fever.'' Neglect by the government has resulted in a degraded infrastructure. ''The water purification and distribution systems of Iraq are very dilapidated,'' Keele said. ''The pipes are crumbling and the sewage treatment plants are in dire repair.'' Before the war, more than 5 million people, about 20% of Iraq's population, lacked access to safe drinking water. As a result, bouts of diarrhea suffered by a typical Iraqi child have risen from an average of four per year in 1990 to 15 per year in 2002, Keele said. Diarrhea is the leading cause of malnutrition because children are unable to retain fluids and nutrients in their bodies. ''There are 100,000 children in Basra at risk for severe fever and death because one treatment plant stopped functioning.''

Aid groups don't try to assess who's responsible for such damage but do try to prepare for the consequences. UNICEF has plans to truck in water, and has water stored in Baghdad, but the supply is not expected to be sufficient in case the city water supply is interrupted. 

American troops are not dependent on Iraq's water system for their needs. Their needs can be met with mobile reverse osmosis units that can treat nearly any source, and bottled supplies provide water for fast-moving mobile units. 

Editor's note: The Tigris and Euphrates are among the largest rivers in southwest Asia, and served as the stable water resource underlying civilization building that goes back to pre-Babylonian times. The region is littered with world-heritage archaeological sites. The rivers and the land feature heavily in Hebrew and Islamic writing. The juction of the two rivers in the Shatt al Arabi bears a resemblance to the description of the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2. However, no reliable sightings of angels with flaming swords have been reported. 

The Shatt al Arabi has been a land of marshes that were vital for a coastal way of life, and migratory birds. The land was drained by Iraqi forces in 1991 in an effort to drive out hundreds of thousands of people in retribution for an uprising after the 1991 Gulf War I.  The area is regarded as an environmental disaster. The Iraq Foundation's Eden Again project, partially funded by the State Department, plans to restore the wetlands. 

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Good ideas hitting snags: Aquifer storage and recovery tests to relieve Green Bay, Wisconsin, area ground water overdrafting hits water quality snags (20 Jan 2003)

Green Bay, WI -- Green Bay Press-Gazette - Green Bay and surrounding communities are attempting to develop an aquifer storage and recovery system to counteract ground water resource drafting in the area. However, Green Bay ran into higher than expected levels of contaminants, including arsenic and radionuclides, in the 10 million gallons of Lake Michigan water it injected into a well, the newspaper said. Action on a proposed study and test of aquifer storage in the suburbs was delayed, a decision prompted by uncertainty about possibly soaring costs of the project if state regulators make well testing requirements more stringent.

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U.S. Water News On-Line

Aside from its newspaper version, U.S. Water News maintains one of the longest-running and most ambitious on-line water information services.

Currently: Nevada retains right (for now) to limit water to the Yucca Mountain site where the U.S. Department of Energy plans to build its permanent high-level radioactive waste repository; drought-related thinking in Nebraska, and so forth... Always something interesting.

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AGWSE Newsletter (NGWA)

Highlights of Pharmaceuticals Conference (April edition)

"New findings showing widespread detection of pharmaceuticals and endocrine disrupting chemicals in surface and ground water and advances in treatment technology were highlights of NGWA’s 3rd conference on emerging contaminants, held last month in Minneapolis. The conference featured a strong international presence both on the speaker’s platform and in the audience, with representation from Austria, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, and Germany. Representatives from eight major drug manufacturers were also in attendance.  

“'The fact that estrogen was recently deemed a human carcinogen and the growing evidence of reproductive disorders in wildlife from EDCs promise to keep these compounds interesting,' said Bob Masters, conference coordinator. The next pharmaceuticals conference is scheduled for September 2004.

"Full proceedings of this year’s conference are available on CD ROM through the NGWA bookstore. In addition, a special 2004 issue of Ground Water Monitoring & Remediation will be dedicated to 'the occurrence and fate of EDCs and pharmaceuticals during ground water recharge'." 

Spread Ground Water Info with Awareness Week

Do private well owners in your town understand the importance of annual water testing? Do they understand the concept of ground water? Here's your chance to enlighten your community.  "Schedule Your Water Well Checkup" is the theme for this year's Ground Water Awareness Week, which was March 16-22, 2003 (competing with World Water Week and Agriculture Week),  making consumers aware of the need for annual maintenance checks, including water tests. Information and materials to aid in Awareness Week activities are available.

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The Groundwater Foundation Recharge Report

FREE!  Technology Primers

The Groundwater Foundation collected the evaluations by citizens in five communities  of technology valuable for conducting contaminant source inventories in a book, Using Technology to Conduct a Contaminant Source Inventory: A Primer for Small Communities.  The Primer can be downloaded free from the Foundation website.  A limited number of print copies are available for free distribution in the US and Canada.  Request one by contacting Rachael Herpel at rachael@groundwater.org.

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Announcements:
Miscellaneous and Noteworthy - How's the hormones? and BBC News World Service site on world water issues

Water Operations Training:

The Operator Training Committee of Ohio (OTCO) offers its 2002-2003 Training Bulletin, listing over 35 different programs in water and wastewater. Some are provided by correspondence. For your copy, see the OTCO web site or contact OTCO, tel: 614/268-6826, fax: 614/268-3244.

Small Systems financial and technical assistance available from US EPA

As reported in WaterTech Online, the US EPA offers a booklet on technical and financial assistance for small public water systems for download at its Small Systems Information and Guidance web page.

Outstanding AWWA publications now available:

The 20th edition of Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater is now published and ready for your lab shelf. In addition to the substantial hard copy edition, it is now available in CD-ROM format, which has the complete text and is searchable by a table of contents or key words. AWWA reports significant additions and revisions in sections on metals, inorganic nonmetallic constituents, and pathogens, and improvements to quality control and quality assurance throughout the text.

The fifth edition of Water Quality & Treatment, a 1423-page compendium of water supply information, is now available from AWWA. Described as 90 % new (the "groundwater" source water part, written by your editor, Stu Smith, surely is), topics include the inevitable  drinking water quality standards (predominantly US, but European are now included), health and aesthetics of water quality, selecting water treatment processes, source water quality management, disinfection (with new information on preventing E. coli and Cryptosporidium outbreaks), a wide range of treatment options in great detail (including much up-to-date information on membranes), and microbiological quality control in distribution systems. Only $98 + S&H to AWWA members.

To order either one, contact the AWWA publications department (1800-926-7337 or 303/795-2114).

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BBC News World Service.com has launched an informative web site on the looming 21st Century water crisis, in honor of the Year of Fresh Water (2003).

"Endocrine Disruptors: What are they doing to you?"  

That was the cover and feature article of the National Drinking Water Clearinghouse's Winter 2003 issue of OnTap. Your editor's daughter, who usually ignores what he does professionally, noticed the cartoon of a fish on the cover - looking into his underwear with astonishment. The assumption is that the fish was seeing changes in what is being hidden by underwear - if fish wore them. The point is - There have been changes due to chemicals in water, and that might affect humans as well. As a drinker of treated surface water downstream of farms and at least two wastewater treatment plants - it has your editor's attention.

Summarizing: "Science has found that certain chemicals disrup the endocrine systems of wildlife... Because humans also have an endocrine system, these findings have led scientists to ask a serious question: If these chemicals affect wildlife, what are they doing to humans?" Endocrine disrupters are "synthetic or naturally occurring chemicals that interfere with the normal hormone functions of animals, including humans" There are chemicals that mimic natural hormones, hormone blockers, and triggers that attach to receptors, triggering an abnormal response. These include a variety of herbicides, insecticides and antifungals, and other synthetic organic compounds, including perchlorate. Some may leach into ground water and run off into surface water. Active levels of compounds are not really known. Effects include elevated TSH causing hyperthyroidism in babies exposed to perchlorate, increases in testicular cancer in England and Wales, Denmark and other Baltic countries (except Finland), and declining sperm counts in Europe and the U.S. On the other hand, men in Finland have the highest sperm counts in Europe. Rural life, especially if poor, including pesticide exposure, is implicated. Fewer males are being born than would be expected statistically. Breast cancer in women is going up (linked to hormone-disrupting chemicals), and girls in the U.S. are entering puberty earlier, with girls whose mothers were exposed to DDE and PCBs starting earlier than other girls. References are cited.

• The federal US EPA is getting into motion on the subject. Visit the relevant web site.  
• The USGS report on occurrence of pharmaceuticals, hormones, and other organic waste contaminants in U.S. surface waters is found here.

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For Fun

Some of the very few water jokes can be found at this page posted by Law Associates, Auckland, New Zealand, involved in water planning, contract operations and related services.

GOD ON GRASS

Note: As is often the case, this is being passed on through e-mail forwards without attribution. If you are, or know the source, let me know so I can credit. Warning: You may feel criticized by the subject matter. If so, too bad. Suggested penance: Use your lawn maintenance chemical money this year to support bringing clean water to people or helping your local source water protection program.

"The other day I was working in my greenhouse thinking about Christmas when the Lord spoke to me: "Gardener, you know all about gardens and nature. What in the world is going on down there? What happened to the dandelions, violets, thistle, and stuff I started eons ago? I had a perfect, no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the long-lasting blossoms attracted butterflies, honey bees, and flocks of songbirds. I expected to see vast garden colors by now. But all I see are these green rectangles."

"It's the Suburbanites, Lord. They started calling your flowers 'weeds' and went to great extent to kill them and replace them with grass."

"Grass? But it's so boring. It's not colorful. It doesn't attract butterflies, birds and bees, only grubs and sod worms. It's
temperamental with temperatures. Do these Suburbanites really want all that grass growing there?"

"Apparently so, Lord. They go to great pains to grow it and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing grass and poisoning any other plant that crops up in the lawn."

"The spring rains and cool weather probably makes grass grow really fast. That must make the Suburbanites happy."

"Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little, they cut it-sometimes twice a week."

"They cut it?" Do they then bale it like hay?"

"Not exactly, Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags."

"They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?"

"No, sir. Just the opposite. They pay to throw it away."

"Now let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so it will grow. And when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?"

"Yes, Sir."

"These Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when we cut back on the rain [there in North America] and turn up the heat. That surely slows the growth and saves  them a lot of work."

"You aren't going to believe this, Lord. When the grass stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it."

"What nonsense! At least they kept some of the trees. That was a sheer stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow leaves in the spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn they fall to the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the soil and protect the trees and bushes. Plus, as they rot, the leaves form compost to enhance the soil. It's a natural circle of life."

"You better sit down, Lord. The Suburbanites have drawn a new circle. As  soon as the leaves fall, they rake them into great piles and have them hauled away."

"No! What do they do to protect the shrubs and tree roots in the winter and keep the soil moist and loose?"

"After throwing away your leaves, they go out and buy something they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it around in place of the leaves."

"And where do they get this mulch?"

"They cut down trees and grind them up."

"Enough! I don't want to think about this anymore. Saint Catherine, you're in charge of the arts. What movie have you scheduled for us tonight?"

"Dumb and Dumber, Lord It's a real stupid movie about   ......"

"Never mind-I think I just heard the whole story."

Acronymia

U.S. government, agency and environmental organizations generate hundreds of acronyms and everybody else reflects it, eventually turning them into words in American English. Example: "What do you know about Mayor Frank?" "She's one of those nimbies." From a long discussion string starting with a "what does this mean?" question, came some authoritative acronym items. Many thanks to multiple participants for their contributions:

BADCaT = Best available demonstrated control technology (used in Arizona)
BANANA = "Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone" (see NIMBY)
BARF = Best Available Retrofit Facility.  It speaks for itself!
BATNEEC = Best available technology, not entailing excessive cost (UK)
BLEVE = Boiling-Liquid, Expanding-Vapor Explosion -- It sounds great but it's hard to work into a conversation. "Hey Ma, ya better tend to that soup or you'll have a BLEVE to clean up."
CATNAP = Cheapest available technology, narrowly avoiding prosecution (UK, tongue in cheek) Emily Whitehead: "I was recently taught that instead of following the lawful (UK) approach to choosing environmental technology, which is known as BATNEEC, many companies prefer to use CATNAP."
CERCLA (tongue in cheek definition): Comprehensive Employment & Retirement Compensation for Lawyers Act.
FATES = FIFRA and TSCA Enforcement System. "You have to love an acronym that contains acronyms!  Perhaps we should call it a nested acronym! (FIFRA - Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act)(TSCA - Toxic Substances Control Act)."
FOL =  Field Operations Leader,  pronounced "fool."
FONSI =  Finding Of No Significant Impact -- "It's always Happy Days [ancient TV reference] when you find no impact."
FUDS - Formerly Utilized Defense Site ("just kinda sounds funny!").
GOCO = Government owned contractor operated.
GOGO = Government owned government operated.
GOPO = Government owned privately operated.
GRAS = Generally recognized as safe.
HAZWOPER = An amendment of OSHA (here we go again, Occupational Safety and Health
Act) standards for HAZardous Waste OPerations and Emergency Response, regulates safety and health of employees involved in cleanup operations at uncontrolled hazardous waste sites under RCRA, and in any emergency response to incidents involving hazardous substances.  "I just like the sound of it (pronounced hazz-whopper)."
LUST = Leaking Underground Storage Tank One contributor noted: "I always wanted to write a report about a leaking tank in an aeolian silt so I could call it 'Lust in the Dust.'"
NIMBY = Not In My Back Yard.
NOPE =  Not On Planet Earth.
NOTE = Not Over There Either (see BANANA).
TACO = Tiered Approach to Corrective action Objectives.  It's the Illinois EPA's version of the USEPA's RBCA (Risk-Based Corrective Actions) procedures.  Plenty of jokes have been made about it. . . "Would you like a burrito with that TACO?"  "What we have here is a TACO supreme."
TSCA = Toxic Substances Control Act ("'cause Tosca is a great opera")
WAD = Work Allocation Document (What it is or what you do with it?).
WIPP WAC = Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Waste Acceptance Criteria.  Its just fun to say.

James Milne (Michigan): "The Michigan Dept. of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), Underground Storage Tank Division, recently changed its name to the Storage Tank Division to reflect our adding aboveground storage tank registration & inspections as well as underground storage tanks. So our new division acronym is STD. Of course this acronym also has another meaning w/ an unpleasant meaning-sexually transmitted disease. Would you believe that the division staff had to explain the other meaning to upper management?!? So, the natural outcome of LUST (leaking underground storage tanks) without adequate secondary containment is STD! Words to live by."

Michael Campana (Arizona): "We all know that no agency, regulation, program, etc., will catch on
unless it has a good APE (Acronym-Producing Expression)." 

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• AWWA Water for People:  6666 W. Quincy Ave., Denver, CO 80235, tel: 303/761-9194.
• Water for People Canada (De L'Eau Pour Tous-Canada): 45 23rd St., Toronto, ON M8V 3M6.
• Also look for your AWWA Section WFP committee.
• LifeWater International:  15854 Business Center Dr., Irwindale, CA 91706, tel: (626)962-4187.
• Water for Life (focus on Haiti): Contact Willis Miller, P.O. Box 456, Kalona, IA 52247 (319)656-2125.
• Waterlines (focus on "Latin" America): Contact David Douglas, 302 E. Coronado Rd., Santa Fe, NM 87501 (505)988-5642.
• NGWA, has a list of volunteer organizations involved in international water supply projects (800/551-7379 or c/o Water Well J.). If you have other organizations you would like WPD to list here, please send information.
• Our list may be found on our links page.

Click here to return to Main Ground Water Science Page!