From October issue of Watertechonline.com

MIAMI — Nestlé Waters North America is threatening to sue Miami-Dade County in southern Florida if it continues to run a radio ad featuring a talking faucet that promotes the county’s tap water over bottled water, according to an October 12 article in The Miami Herald.

The ad was aired for five weeks. In the radio spot, the talking faucet claims that Miami-Dade County utility's water is “cheaper, purer and safer” than bottled water, according to the article.

Nestlé spokesman Jim McClellan said in the article, “It’s an attack on the product we produce — and it’s blatantly wrong.”

The county is not taking the lawsuit threats seriously; there are no plans to revive the 30-second ads, which stopped running last month, according to the article.

John Renfrow, director of the county Water and Sewer Department, told the Herald, “Basically, the message is that our water is fine. … This is just one of many different spots we’ve done.”

According to the Herald, “McClellan said Nestlé — which contacted The Miami Herald to publicize its complaint — has never challenged utilities hawking tap water as cheap and safe. But Miami-Dade, he argued, had stepped over the line in besmirching bottled water.”

jacksonvillenews.com By Steve Patterson February 10, 2009

Aquifer levels will drop seriously in Northeast Florida within 20 years if a growing population doesn’t waste less water, new estimates by water managers warn.

That change could draw saltier water into some wells JEA uses to supply its customers, making them unacceptable for public use, say the projections by scientists at the St. Johns River Water Management District.

It could also have far-reaching effects on the region’s natural environment, from harming plants to lowering lake volumes in Putnam and southern Clay counties.

“This is a fairly significant projected impact,” said Hal Wilkening, director of the agency’s resource management department. “When we look at it cumulatively … this is not going to be sustainable.”

The management district regulates water use in 19 counties and has been planning consumption through 2030.

A review that’s still in draft form says the entire region may become a “caution area,” a designation that means existing supply plans may not meet water needs safely.

That would require utilities and local governments to develop new plans to meet water needs. In principle, that could force development of more expensive alternative water sources, such as desalinated saltwater.

Florida’s aquifer, a deep layer of porous rock where water has percolated down over a span of centuries, currently supplies the area’s drinking water.

There’s saltier water above and below the freshwater layer. Wilkening said he believes fresh ground water can be protected readily and cheaply through increased conservation and more use of recycled water.

“Everyone’s concerned about water conservation and making better use of water,” he said. “This planning process just highlights it.”

In fact, Northeast Florida’s total water use fell between 1995 and 2005, management district figures show.

That was helped by large reductions at Georgia-Pacific’s Putnam County paper mill and expanded use of recycled water elsewhere, particularly by the Clay County Utility Authority, which began promoting recycled water in 1994 as a way to avoid putting nitrogen-rich treated sewer water into the river.

Recycled water has become a common feature of new development in the fast-growing county, and by 2007 the utility authority was pursuing deals to get treated sewer water from neighboring communities.

Wilkening said fairly simple conservation measures, such as using more efficient plumbing and limiting lawn watering, might save 15 to 20 percent of the water used daily, though that will vary home by home.

The management district issues permits for communities to use water, and has pushed some to pursue sprinkler restrictions or other conservation measures as their permits are renewed.

The management district’s demand projections anticipate almost a 65 percent population increase between 2005 and 2030 in Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau, Putnam and St. Johns counties.

That same forecast envisions a potential 47 percent increase in overall water use, and a slightly higher jump in ground water use. Steps to avoid that could start soon.

The estimates will be studied and debated through next year as the agency talks with utilities and local governments about a 20-year plan. JEA managers projected their well use through 2050 and found no hint of harm to the aquifer, said Karl Hankin, JEA’s manager of water and sewer system planning.

But that didn’t incorporate the effects of water taken by other communities throughout the region because the utility didn’t have those projections. JEA will now study the management district’s cumulative projections, he said.

JEA wants to increase the amount of water being recycled from its sewage treatment plants and piped in separate supply lines to developments where it can be used to water lawns, Hankins said. Right now, JEA could distribute 26 million gallons of recycled water daily, but last year only 10 million gallons per day was used, he said.

The unused capacity equals nearly one tenth of the ground water used in Duval County in 2005. The management district has previously urged JEA to increase its water recycling, which had not been mandated in as many new developments as in other counties.

The utility is also planning $2.4 million in projects this year to increase its water recycling capacity and add lines.

Hankin said JEA is studying new water sources in case they’re needed, but says each gallon produced would cost anywhere from four to 12 times as much as the current system.

The management district forecast warns that a series of wells in the Southside and Beaches could become contaminated with salt if the aquifer’s fresh water layer is drained too severely.

JEA began worrying about that years ago. To limit its risk, the utility built pipes to carry water from Northside and Westside wells across the St. Johns River.

Hankin said the utility plans a project in the next few years to make it easier to distribute that water throughout the Southside.

Still, the management district projects well levels could drop appreciably on both sides of the river.

Located under heavy rock, the aquifer is under enough pressure that a well bored through the rock in much of Northeast Florida will fill with water 25 to 35 feet above the aquifer’s normal level.

But the management district projects that could change as wells siphon away more and more water. By 2030, levels in parts of Duval, Clay, Nassau and St. Johns counties could fall more than 10 feet below 1995 levels, according to those projections.

Only two locations — near Palatka and near the St. Marys River in Nassau County and Camden County, Ga. — are expected to have higher well levels than in 1995.

Those are because of reduced water use at Georgia-Pacific’s mill and the 2002 closing of a mill in St. Marys, Ga.

If consumption matched the management district’s forecasts, the water supply for some lakes in southwestern Clay County and in western and southern Putnam County could drop by 2030 to a point that would cause environmental damage.

The management district said some native plants could also suffer, and that the natural spring from which Green Cove Springs is named could lose half of its daily flow.

From January 13th issue of Watertechonline.com

WASHINGTON — The US Supreme Court on January 12 denied the state of Georgia’s request to review a lower court’s decision that handed the states of Alabama and Florida a major victory in the three states’ years-long water war, according to a January 13 article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Last February, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington threw out a 2003 agreement Georgia reached with the US Army Corps of Engineers for water rights to Lake Sidney Lanier, metro Atlanta’s primary water source. That decision overturned an earlier ruling that said Georgia could receive about a quarter of Lake Lanier’s capacity over the coming decades as a drinking water source.

The appeals court found that the 2003 agreement constituted a major operational change at the federal reservoir that would require congressional approval it doesn't have, as WaterTech Online® reported. Because of the Supreme Court’s decision, the appeals court ruling stands.

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue said in a January 12 statement that the Supreme Court’s decision “simply maintains the status quo” and that Georgia will continue to negotiate a water-sharing plan with Florida and Alabama.

On the other side of the dispute, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley said in a January 12 statement that the Supreme Court’s decision delivered “a major victory to Alabama in the long-running water war litigation.” He is quoted as saying, “I hope that today’s decision will cause Georgia to reassess its position and provide a catalyst to reach a workable agreement on how the three states can share the water in the basin.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said in a January 12 statement that he applauds the decision by the Supreme Court and looks forward to working with governors Perdue and Riley “in continuing our work to address the water issues facing our states.”

Georgia, Alabama and Florida have been sparring over rights to Lanier’s water for two decades; Alabama and Florida, arguing that Georgia’s withdrawals would dry up river flows into their states, havebeen successful since 1990 in blocking the Corps of Engineers from giving Georgia any legal claims over Lake Lanier.

Georgia, Alabama and Florida are expected to meet this spring in a Jacksonville federal courtroom in a case that could resolve whether metro Atlanta has a legal right to Lake Lanier’s water, the Journal-Constitution reported.

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Existing Aqua Finance dealers must complete the program signup documents to be eligible for these plans. New dealers are accepted and are subject to Aqua Finance’s normal dealer approval process.

Judi Anderson, Business Development Manager, ext. 1171

Shanna Bucki, Business Development Manager, ext. 1341

Kirsten Skadahl, Sales & Marketing Assistant, ext. 1191

Molly Doran, Sales & Marketing Assistant, ext. 1212

Doug Haring, President, Atlantic Filter Corporation