January 2011 Archives

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The beginning of 2011 has been devastating in regions of Australia, Brazil, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka where large scale floods have caused hundreds of deaths and left thousands displaced or homeless. International aid has come from hundreds of organizations and independent relief efforts, providing flood victims with food, shelter, and most importantly water. A primary concern for those evacuated and displaced is access to safe drinking water, and flood aid has focused on how to address issues of water transportation and filtration.

In Queensland, Australia flooding began before Christmas. Around forty towns have experienced massive flood damages, and over 4000 people were evacuated. Some towns, such as Condamine, still do not have drinking water and have been warned of the risk of waterborne diseases. Those living in and around Queensland's capital city of Brisbane have been urged to boil water before drinking it as clean water supplies have been tainted by the floods.

In Brazil, floods and mudslides have left more than 700,000 people displaced. Much of the area in and around the state of Rio de Janeiro are still without electricity or drinking water including the town of Teresopolis, which has been inundated with mudslides.

In the Philippines, unseasonal rain has flooded 17 cities and more than 170 towns with the total number of people affected around 1.7 million. Approximately 10,000 liters of drinking water has already been transported to refugee sites, although more aid and assistance is necessary to ensure those impacted by the floods have access to clean water.

Sri Lanka has been experiencing the heaviest rains for the nation in over thirty years, which has left thousands of people without access to power and water. Relief efforts have been providing over 1500 elderly citizens with drinking water daily, but additional help is still needed.

These four regions have faced many recent hardships and millions of people have lost temporary access to clean water. Pakistan is also still recovering from flooding in 2010, from which around 166,000 people are still displaced. For those interested in donating to organizations providing aid to those effected, or for those who want to participate in clean-up and other relief efforts, listed below are some organizations involved.

American Red Cross 
Australia: Queensland Government Donate and Volunteer
Brazil: Waves for Water to Get Flood Victims Clean Water
Pakistan: List of Organizations Addressing Floods in Pakistan
Philippines: List of Organizations Addressing Floods in the Philippines
Sri Lanka and Brazil: UNICEF


Photo Credit: Brisbane Floods- Gaines Queensland By Martinhoward on Flickr used under the Creative Commons Copyright

The Canadian Bottled Water Company Redleaf Water has just introduced the industry's first truly biodegradable water bottle. Utilizing an organic compound that is mixed with the same PET plastic found in common non-biodegradable bottles, Redleaf's Bio Bottle can be recycled and repurposed like other PET bottles, or left to decompose into a fully organic microbial state.

 

Many other biodegradable plastics already exist within the bottled water industry, so what makes Redleaf's Bio Bottle superior in comparison? The organic additive that allows the plastic to biodegrade is made from oil and other nutrients found in the environment. This additive does not change the physical characteristics of the PET in the bottle, which allows it to be recycled within the same waste stream as standard PET bottles.

 

This is not the case for other "biodegradable" plastic bottles. Other plant-based bottles are made from a blend of petroleum-based PET and up to 30% plant-based material. This plant-based material changes the physical characteristics of the PET, thus these plant-based plastics must be exposed to a product specific chemical process at a composting facility, and have to enter a waste stream separate from PET bottles. This specialized recycling method requires further resources, and if not properly recycled, these bottles will not decompose and will become a permanent part of a landfill.

 

Surely the best solution to bottled water is to utilize low-cost and low energy tap water and a reusable water bottle. But in a country where 1500 plastic water bottles are consumed every second, Redleafs's Bio Bottle is still a welcomed alternative to a problem of  epic proportions. 

 

Since 2003, NASA has been perfecting its water recycling mechanism, which turns gray water into clean drinking water for use on shuttles and at the International Space Station. This technology was investigated in order for water at the Space Station to be more environmentally efficient as well as less costly. Between 2000 and 2005, sending water to the International Space Station cost around $60 million. The new water filter development effectively recycles 93% of all input water, allowing nearly all of the water used at the Station to be recycled.

NASA's purification system uses a process called forward osmosis. This process enables the purification of sweat, urine, and gray water into clean drinking water. The filtration system is expected to cut back the need for shipping water to the Space Station by around 65% and has the capacity to produce 6,000 gallons of water per year. The amount of fresh water recycled is enough to support six crew members as opposed to three. NASA also hopes to improve the capacity and efficiency of the water recycler so that it can be used for longer-term shuttle travel in the future.

NASA's water recycler opens new doors for water purification. Should this technology prove useful and cost effective on a smaller scale, it could mean clean drinking water for more people and advanced reuse of a finite resource. SmartPlanet recently spoke with Michael Flynn, a researcher at the NASA Ames Research Center, who works on improving the water purification system. A video of Flynn explaining the device and the process of forward osmosis is located below.

 



Photo: "Space Shuttle Launch" By CosmoBC from Flickr used under Creative Commons Copyright

Video: "How NASA is Recycling Urine into Drinking Water" by SmartPlanetCBS from YouTube

 

San Diego based non-profit organization Hug it Forward is working with communities to help build schools made from discarded plastic bottles and other non-biodegradable trash in an effort to create more educational infrastructure in Guatemala. This collective effort to advance impoverished communities is not only creating environmental change but also teaching students the importance of being environmentally aware.

 

The "Bottle School" concept is simple, effective, and holds numerous benefits: they repurpose non-biodegradable trash and create an incentive for cleaning up littered streets, which, in turn educates the community on the importance of recycling and encourages an environmental outlook. They create jobs for local tradesmen and filter new capital into the community's economy by purchasing all of the schools building material locally. They give the students a hands-on learning experience and a sense of pride in the school that they helped to build.

 

The technology behind the "Bottle Schools" economical and eco-friendly construction method was pioneered by the Pura Vida organization.  Instead of commonly used cinder-block, these "eco-blocks" (plastic bottles stuffed with trash) are adhered between layers of chicken wire and covered with concrete. These trash filled plastic bottles serve as a form of insulation for the new school and greatly cuts building material costs.

 

The first "Bottle School" was built in 2009 and made use of over 5,000 plastic bottles that contained more then 2053lbs of trash. This school, located in Granados, Guatemala now serves a municipality of 13,860 people and currently 297 students attend the school. Hug it Forward has already completed 6 schools, has three underway, and a goal to have built 100 schools by the end of the year.

 

To help Hug it Forward reach its goal of 100 schools in 2011 all you have to do is give a hug. "We spread our message with a hug tracking system on our website, HugItForward.com. Every hug someone registers raises money for the construction of more bottle schools. Everyone is capable of giving or receiving a hug; therefore getting people involved is easy and feels good." - Hug it Forward website

 

Photo Credit: Tree Hugger

 

 

New Speaker of the House, John Boehner (R-Ohio), announced his intention last week to budget House spending by cutting back on bottled water. The waste-reducing idea, which is projected to save Congress almost $800,000 a year, is part of a new plan to cut the House of Representative's spending by $35 million.

The innovative idea was applauded by DC Water General Manager George Hawkins in a letter sent to Speaker Boehner. Hawkins saluted Boehner for his interest in putting an end to budget spending on bottled water, which cost approximately $190,000 in the first quarter of 2010 alone. Should Congress choose to abandon the bottle, DC Water will supply each member of Congress a free reusable water bottle as well as offer free water quality testing in any congressional building. Hawkins also noted in his letter that tap water only costs around a penny a gallon, while bottled water costs hundreds of times more. Learning to love the tap would be both an environmentally conscious and financially savvy decision for Congress.

Those interested in promoting this eco-friendly budget cut can sign an online petition to eliminate House spending on bottled water by going here.

Photo Credit: "Bottles in a row" by Xavi Taleda from Flickr used under the Creative Commons Copyright

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has just released its 2011 study of bottled water labels to determine the level of transparency they give to the public.  There are four basic questions that the EWG was looking for the companies to answer: What is the water's source? Has it been purified and how? Has it been tested and what were the results? Has it gone through advanced treatment?  They took this information to create a Bottled Water Scorecard which graded each label with a score from A (full transparency of information) to F (very little to no information given).

Of the 173 labels included in the study, none of them received an A score with full transparency on all three questions, 3 received a score of B that included most information given, 27 scored C and gave some information, 47 received a D and 96 labels--more than half--failed the test entirely with an rating of F.

There was only one brand, Nestle Pure Life Purified Water, that actually showed consumers directly on its label what the source of the water was, how it was treated, and a toll free number to call to request a water quality test report.  This bottled water received a B score, along with Gerber Pure Purified Water and Penta Ultra-Purified Water.

Most of the top brands, including Aquafina, Dasani, and Crystal Geyser do not even answer at least one of the four questions.  Nearly a third of the labels give no information about the purity of the water or how the water is treated.  With titles like "Vintage Natural Spring Water" (score: F) and "Voss Artesian Water," (score: F) and prices exceeding 1000 times the price of tap water, you would expect the most pure water available. However, not only are most bottled waters simply bottled tap water, but most companies refuse to disclose even these elementary questions about testing, contaminants, source, and treatment methods.

None of the bottled waters received a score of A--so why even include it as a possibility? Well, that honor was saved for a different type of water--filtered tap water. EWG recommends your own filtered tap water right from home.  Information on all these four questions about source, purification, and test results is available at the EPA's website. All of that, without the price tag of bottled. So kick the bottled water habit and switch over to tap today.

Mostafa Bonakdar, a design student from Tehran, recently launched a design for a solar powered rainwater catchment system. The Hydroleaf is a unique device that collects rainwater, then uses solar energy to power a water purification system which supplies a fountain on the same device.

This past week, during a City Council work session, Aspen City Councilman Torre urged the cities environmental health officials to explore options for potentially banning, or at the very least discouraging the use of single-use plastic bottles within the City of Aspen. Motivated by a recent sailing expedition in the British Virgin Islands, Councilman Torre hopes his endeavors will "start the conversation about bottled water" and persuade the plastic bottle industry to listen.

 

During his recent travels, the volume of plastic bottles  that blanketed the otherwise crystal clear waters of the Virgin Isles shook Torre. "I couldn't believe the waste and the pollution. Even though it's not floating around Aspen, it's still here." Taking this profound new outlook on the environmental impact of single-use water bottles home, Torre hopes to enlighten Aspen citizens and start a movement that will lead to the end of all single-use containers in Aspen.

 

Other council members, present at the meeting, agreed to support further development and research into reducing Aspen's plastic waste. City environmental health specialist, Ashley Cantrell, is currently looking into the actions of other municipalities in regards to the banning of bottled water.

 

 Many local governments around the country have made strides in banning single-use water bottles within their cities. North Carolina has passed a law requiring all plastic bottles to be recycled, and Concord, Massachusetts also made an attempt to ban bottled water from being sold within its city limits. Scheduled to go in effect on the first of January, the Concord bottled water ban was considered unenforceable by the states attorney general, but many are convinced it will make a profound impact within the community.

 

Torre's main goal is to create and promote a demand for green technologies amongst Aspen citizens, in the hopes that the plastic bottle industry will meet the expectations of the environmentally motivated consumers, and ultimately eliminate the production of environmentally harmful products.

 

"I'd like this to be a conversation that the plastic bottle industry listens to and changes what it does." -Torre

 

Photo: Colorado Mountains 02, PhotoBobil from Flickr used under Creative Commons Copyright.

 

The Indian car manufacturer Tata Motors, owner of the better-known Fiat brand and producer of the world's cheapest cars, have invested $15 million into developing technologies that will utilize water as a replacement for fuel. If successful, this breakthrough technology will provide an affordable solution to the ever-rising price of petroleum, thus allowing Tata to produce vehicles with lower maintenance costs then any other car manufacturer in the world.

The revolutionary project was entrusted to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Daniel Nocera, who will spearhead the research team for Tata. Tata Motors and the abetting MIT scientific community believe that by creating a mechanism to heat up the water, they will be able to split the water molecules and generate enough hydrogen to propel the vehicle, thus transforming the utilization of fossil fuels into an obsolete practice. Nocera plans to begin construction on a working prototype that will test all the technologies developed by the MIT institute, within the near future.

Along with the obvious fiscal opportunity, Tata Motors is also aware of the positive environmental impact this technology would bring. Scientist C.N.R. Rao stated that "the challenge is to develop an eco-friendly and efficient energy at low-cost as an alternative to depleting fossil fuels. Water and hydrogen as an alternative source of energy can help us in reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere." Ratan Tata, partial owner of Tata Motors, has always dreamed of running his cars solely on water, and believes that it is a necessary step in environmental innovation.

The ability to end our dependence on fossil fuels and turn to water as a main source of fuel would certainly revolutionize the auto industry as well drastically decrease the worlds enormous carbon footprint. Yet one could argue whether water is a practical long-term source for the world's fuel demand. With water being essential to human survival and with China, Abu Dhabi and many other parts of the world facing severe water shortages due to rapid consumption, should such a precious source of sustenance be consumed in sizable quantities for auto fuel?


Photo Credit: TopNews.in 

The Sixteenth Conference of the Parties (COP 16) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change met in Cancun, Mexico late last year. The UNFCCC was first adopted as an environmental treaty at the Earth Summit meeting in 1992 with the goal of reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions. Since 1995, an annual COP has convened in order to negotiate climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. What has been largely missing from the agreements and conversations is discussion of water issues.

Water and climate change are not often linked in the media, although the damaging impacts of climate change on freshwater supplies are severe. There is already evidence of the impact climate change is  freshwater supplies. A few recent examples include glacial melt in the Himalayas, drought in the Western U.S. causing low water levels in Hoover Dam, and catastrophic floods in Bangladesh. Even with such visible consequences, the annual COP agreements did not adequately address greenhouse gas emissions connection to water.

Climate change is projected to greatly increase the number of people without access to clean water, which is currently around one billion people. Despite efforts by experts and over 2,000 water organizations to call for the UNFCCC to establish a water program, water issues remained marginalized in negotiations in Cancun. The suggested program would utilize Integrated Water Resource Management to address climate change. The water program would include creating networks of dams and using water-saving technologies to ensure access to clean water where it has previously been unavailable. The program would also make adaptation funding available to the  water sector. There is hope that next year's COP will link these two crucial issues together.

Experts agree that without the inclusion of water issues in negotiations, there will be no long-term solution to climate change.

Photo: Cop16 Plenary, UN Climate Talks, Flickr used under Creative Commons Copyright  

A $40,000 prize has recently been awarded to a group of engineering students attending the University of Washington (UW) for their technical advancement regarding a widely practiced means of purifying water: solar water disinfection.

 

Solar water disinfection, also known as SODIS, is a simple and effective way to deactivate the bacteria found in unsafe or untreated water. Utilizing clean PET water bottles, the user simply fills the bottles with the contaminated water and exposes the bottled water to direct sunlight for an extended period of time. After the water has been exposed to this solar radiation, the water can be safely used for drinking and cooking.

 

The SODIS method may seem ineffective, but it has been proven to remove more than 99.9% of the bacteria and viruses from contaminated water. With results comparable to that of the chlorination process. Practiced heavily in parts of the world where the regulation of drinking water is nonexistent, the SODIS method has been recommended by the World Health Organization as a viable method of water treatment at a household level. Unfortunately the global adoption of the SODIS method has been slow, simply because it is impossible to identify when the polluted water has acquired enough solar radiation to become potable. Recognizing this issue, the SODIS foundation, a Bolivia based nonprofit, created a competition through InnoCentive Inc. to help solve this shortcoming.

 

Utilizing "the same components that you'd find inside a dirt-cheap solar calculator," the engineering team at UW created the winning design entry. When a bottle is inserted into the UW indicator (similar in shape to a cup holder) the device recognizes its presence and electronics begin to monitor how much light is passing through the water. The device also considers other factors such as the material of the bottle, and the turbidity of the water needing purification. By analyzing all of these variables, the SODIS indicator is able to alert the user as to when the water is potable. Taking away the uncertainty of the waters safety.

                                                                                   

One of the most appreciated aspects of the UW team's device is its economical price. With the device's estimated parts retailing for $3.40, the SODIS indicator could be  easily manufactured and dispersed to those in need of water distillation systems. Patrons of the SODIS Foundation have already offered the UW student team $16,000 to further develop their SODIS indicator, with the hopes that it could one day save the lives of millions of people who are forced to consume contaminated water.

Photo Credit: EurekAlert

A known carcinogen, hexavalent chromium has been found in water supplies all over the United States. The chemical, also known as hex chrome, is used in the production of stainless steel and as an anti-corrosion substance.

Some experts are worried about the findings, including the chairman of the department of environmental medicine at New York University's School of Medicine Max Costa who calls the levels "disturbing."

Currently, the EPA does not regulate the amount of hexavalent chromium in drinking water, though they are considering whether to establish a limit.  California is also proposing a "public health goal" to limit the chemical to .06ppb (parts per billion)--a number that some industries consider unreasonably low.

Others, however, are unconcerned with the current rates in drinking water.  Berkley's School of Public Health epidemiology professor Dr. Allan Smith notes that "the public should not be alarmed by the very small concentrations being reported for most cities."  He feels that worrying about hexavalent chromium "diverts energy and resources from more important public health concerns."  He notes that nobody is paying attention to much larger problems in our nation's water supply such as the "large number of private wells in the U.S. [that] contain arsenic at much higher concentrations than the...drinking water standard."

Photo Credit water drops, Rene Ehrhardt, Flickr used under Creative Commons Copyright.