Planetizen Newswire
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Wastewater
Blog post
Some scientists and city officials are moving ahead with a different way to track the virus’s spread: wastewater testing.
Low-income Alabama residents who can't afford the cost of a functional septic tank run the risk of heavy fines and even arrest in addition to extremely unsafe conditions.
The New Yorker
Wastewater testing is being hailed as a success at the University of Arizona, credited for stopping a COVID outbreak. In Utah, wastewater analysis forced almost 300 students to quarantine for four days while awaiting their test results.
The Arizona Republic
Using treated waste as an agricultural fertilizer is controversial, but the practice has several climate-related benefits.
Yale Climate Connections
The state’s aging sewage infrastructure is failing, but the cost to replace it would be monumental.
GateHouse Media
In California, a billion gallons of water ends up in the ocean every day. A new bill seeks to curb this practice by requiring treatment facilities to increase recycling and reuse efforts.
Los Angeles Daily News
Using treated wastewater for snowmaking would have dual benefits for Big Sky, Montana.
Water Deeply
Only one coastal city has a sewer system that must handle stormwater as well as wastewater. San Francisco's efforts to adapt its combined sewer-stormwater system has put it on the vanguard of the city's climate adaptation efforts.
San Francisco Chronicle
The state of Colorado is growing quickly, and that means planners and developers will have to actively implement more efficient water infrastructure.
The Journal
The city of San Jose and designers from the University of California, Davis have completed a community-led design process to raise awareness about the connections between the kitchen, sewers, and the environment.
The Confluence
President Trump's budget for 2018 has the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency take the steepest hit—31 percent. Funding for two vital programs, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and Chesapeake Bay Program, will have their funds eliminated.
E&E News [Subscription]
While billed as an "anti-fracking initiative," Measure Z in Monterey County, the 4th-largest oil-producing county in California, does far more. It bans new oil drilling and requires the cleaning of wastewater from current drilling operations.
KSBW
A writer for the Tampa Bay Times critiques the city of St. Petersburg's response to repeat storm events that have sent millions of gallons of untreated wastewater into its public waters.
Tampa Bay Times
The bad news for Biscayne Bay is the latest in a string of bad news for the Turkey Point nuclear plant.
Miami New Times
Disposal of wastewater from fracking has long been associated with earthquakes in Oklahoma as well as Ohio and Texas. A new study shows they were likely the cause of a swarm of quakes in 2005 in the capital of oil in California, Kern County.
San Francisco Chronicle
A controversial application by the small Wisconsin town of Waukesha would allow treated wastewater to flow the Root River and then into Lake Michigan. The proposal has provoked a far-reaching outcry of opposition.
The Political Environment
Existing grey infrastructure in China cannot cope with rapid urban expansion and frequent droughts and floods. Several cities, with Beijing's approval, are experimenting with rainwater capture methods as an alternative.
Environment & Energy Publishing (E&E)
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, toxic wastewater from oil industry fracking operations has been illegally injected into Central Valley disposal sites, posing a threat to water supplies of nearby residents.
DeSmogBlog.com
If you really want to know how prevalent drug use is in your community, don't ask people–just test their wastewater.
Environmental Health News
London's wastewater problems go at least as far back as the 19th century, before a 1,100-mile system of tunnels was built to divert the city's waste downstream. A plan to fix that system with a tunnel financed by customer fees is raising a stink.
The New York Times
