You are currently browsing the monthly archive for September 2009.
There is a new link in our side bar – to a new water website. The WaterHub is a project of Water Futures and was “created as a vehicle to allow free exchange and provision of water cycle information – everything from source through to final end point – an integrated water information centre.”
The site is new, and still under development, however a couple of features look particularly promising. One is the Photo Hub, a collection of photos on various aspects of the water cycle licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia License. These photos can be downloaded and used under the condition of the CC license.
Another interesting feature is Incidents Online, a database of water contamination incidents which will be a useful resource for providers, regulators and researchers. The database includes incidents from around the world, from the E. coli outbreak in Burdine Township, Missouri, US which killed 4 people in 1990, to the fluoride overdose in Queensland this year.
Water Shock
The New York Times is running a feature, called Toxic Waters, on water pollution and regulatory responses in the USA. One of the first articles featured concerns the lack of regulatory response to pollution discharges. The feature includes an interactive maps of clean water act violations and of facilities that have permits to discharge pollutants.
Water Futures
A poll which surveyed 1,000 people in each of 15 countries, and probed 500 in Canada, China, India, Mexico, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States on specific questions found that people around the world view water issues as the planet’s top environmental problem, greater than air pollution, depletion of natural resources, loss of habitat and even climate change.
Water Prize
The inaugural Imagine H2O Prize competition has opened for submissions. The competition offers prizes of $70,000 in cash and in-kind services, which will be awarded to the business plans that promise the greatest breakthroughs in the efficient use and supply of water.
The Imagine H2O Prize is designed to encourage entrepreneurs, investors, inventors and academics around the world to address water challenges. This inaugural business plan competition focuses on solutions to improve water efficiency in agriculture, commercial, industrial or residential applications, such as water demand reduction, improved water use, water recycling and/or reuse.
Entries will be accepted from around the world beginning September 1 through November 16, 2009. Winners will be announced at a showcase event in early 2010. The annual competition will feature a different water-related prize topic each year. More details.
The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in the US has published a new report on concentrations of Atrazine detected in surface and ground waters. There is an interesting interactive map and a link to the pdf at their website.
Interestingly, the controversy at the heart of this report is one familiar to many reclaimed water researchers: missing peaks and averages.
