Towing icebergs and catching fog from the air are among ideas governments are considering and practicing to solve water scarcity.

By Wilson Chapman

1/9

 Credit

Confronting Water Shortages

Satellite imagery of Chennai that circulated across the internet in June starkly demonstrates how drought is affecting the Indian city. The pictures show how the reserves that provide the city with most of its water are nearly dry, contributing to a water scarcity crisis that has hit the 7 million residents hard.

The images from Chennai highlight how water scarcity is reaching into a growing number of countries. An estimated 600 million people across India face high to extreme water stress, according to a 2018 report by NITI Aayog, a think tank affiliated with the government. More than 2 billion people in 53 countries are experiencing high water stress, according to a report from the United Nations released earlier this year.

To combat these crises, many countries are taking measures to conserve water and find solutions to ongoing droughts. And while many of the measures are conventional strategies, from restricting public consumption of water to fixing faulty pipe systems, some of the solutions that have been proposed or implemented have been more creative. Here are five unusual solutions to global water shortages.

Next: Towing Icebergs

2/9

Towing Icebergs

The 2017-18 water shortage in Cape Town, South Africa was one of the worst in recent memory, attracting international attention as people tried to find solutions to the crisis before the city would be forced to shut down its water taps. One idea that was considered by experts was the unusual plan to tow an iceberg from Antarctica across 2,500 miles as a new freshwater source for the struggling region, according to Bloomberg.

Nick Sloane, an expert in marine salvage, came up with the idea, and although the crisis was ultimately averted, concerns about South Africa’s water supply remain and he is still planning to carry out the idea. The project, which is estimated to cost more than $200 million, would use two tugboats to encircle an iceberg in a net fashioned with the supermaterial dyneema. The iceberg would then be towed by tankers to South Africa’s western coast, where it would be harvested for fresh drinking water. Sloane is currently working on developing a deal with South Africa to sell the water to them.

View as article

Table of Contents

1/9

 Credit

Confronting Water Shortages

Satellite imagery of Chennai that circulated across the internet in June starkly demonstrates how drought is affecting the Indian city. The pictures show how the reserves that provide the city with most of its water are nearly dry, contributing to a water scarcity crisis that has hit the 7 million residents hard.

The images from Chennai highlight how water scarcity is reaching into a growing number of countries. An estimated 600 million people across India face high to extreme water stress, according to a 2018 report by NITI Aayog, a think tank affiliated with the government. More than 2 billion people in 53 countries are experiencing high water stress, according to a report from the United Nations released earlier this year.

To combat these crises, many countries are taking measures to conserve water and find solutions to ongoing droughts. And while many of the measures are conventional strategies, from restricting public consumption of water to fixing faulty pipe systems, some of the solutions that have been proposed or implemented have been more creative. Here are five unusual solutions to global water shortages.

Next:Towing Icebergs

2/9

Towing Icebergs

The 2017-18 water shortage in Cape Town, South Africa was one of the worst in recent memory, attracting international attention as people tried to find solutions to the crisis before the city would be forced to shut down its water taps. One idea that was considered by experts was the unusual plan to tow an iceberg from Antarctica across 2,500 miles as a new freshwater source for the struggling region, according to Bloomberg.

Nick Sloane, an expert in marine salvage, came up with the idea, and although the crisis was ultimately averted, concerns about South Africa’s water supply remain and he is still planning to carry out the idea. The project, which is estimated to cost more than $200 million, would use two tugboats to encircle an iceberg in a net fashioned with the supermaterial dyneema. The iceberg would then be towed by tankers to South Africa’s western coast, where it would be harvested for fresh drinking water. Sloane is currently working on developing a deal with South Africa to sell the water to them.

Next: Moroccan Fog Catchers

3/9

Moroccan Fog Catchers

Since 2013, Morocco has been utilizing a system of nets that catches fog and converts it to water, in response to climate change and a lack of rainfall in the Southern Moroccan region. According to New York Magazine, the fog nets, which were developed by the sustainability non-profit Dar Si Hmad, are installed in the Mount Boutmezguida region, where fog is periodic.

Condensation builds up in the mesh netting and collects in troughs directly under the nets, which is then transported via a piping system. The nets have been greatly beneficial for Morocco; 800 people in 15 nearby villages receive water pumped from the nets.

View as article

Table of Contents

1/9

 Credit

Confronting Water Shortages

Satellite imagery of Chennai that circulated across the internet in June starkly demonstrates how drought is affecting the Indian city. The pictures show how the reserves that provide the city with most of its water are nearly dry, contributing to a water scarcity crisis that has hit the 7 million residents hard.

The images from Chennai highlight how water scarcity is reaching into a growing number of countries. An estimated 600 million people across India face high to extreme water stress, according to a 2018 report by NITI Aayog, a think tank affiliated with the government. More than 2 billion people in 53 countries are experiencing high water stress, according to a report from the United Nations released earlier this year.

To combat these crises, many countries are taking measures to conserve water and find solutions to ongoing droughts. And while many of the measures are conventional strategies, from restricting public consumption of water to fixing faulty pipe systems, some of the solutions that have been proposed or implemented have been more creative. Here are five unusual solutions to global water shortages.

Next:Towing Icebergs

2/9

 Credit

Towing Icebergs

The 2017-18 water shortage in Cape Town, South Africa was one of the worst in recent memory, attracting international attention as people tried to find solutions to the crisis before the city would be forced to shut down its water taps. One idea that was considered by experts was the unusual plan to tow an iceberg from Antarctica across 2,500 miles as a new freshwater source for the struggling region, according to Bloomberg.

Nick Sloane, an expert in marine salvage, came up with the idea, and although the crisis was ultimately averted, concerns about South Africa’s water supply remain and he is still planning to carry out the idea. The project, which is estimated to cost more than $200 million, would use two tugboats to encircle an iceberg in a net fashioned with the supermaterial dyneema. The iceberg would then be towed by tankers to South Africa’s western coast, where it would be harvested for fresh drinking water. Sloane is currently working on developing a deal with South Africa to sell the water to them.

Next:Moroccan Fog Catchers

3/9

 Credit

Moroccan Fog Catchers

Since 2013, Morocco has been utilizing a system of nets that catches fog and converts it to water, in response to climate change and a lack of rainfall in the Southern Moroccan region. According to New York Magazine, the fog nets, which were developed by the sustainability non-profit Dar Si Hmad, are installed in the Mount Boutmezguida region, where fog is periodic.

Condensation builds up in the mesh netting and collects in troughs directly under the nets, which is then transported via a piping system. The nets have been greatly beneficial for Morocco; 800 people in 15 nearby villages receive water pumped from the nets.

Next: Solar-Powered Irrigation

4/9

Solar-Powered Irrigation

One group hit hard by the recent Indian droughts are farmers, who frequently struggle to find water for their crops. A company called Khethworks, which started as a project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is located in the city of Pune, aims to help farmers through their solar-powered irrigation system. According to the company, switching from diesel irrigation methods to the solar-powered irrigation system will increase a farmer’s annual profits by 170 percent.

View as article

Table of Contents

1/9

 Credit

Confronting Water Shortages

Satellite imagery of Chennai that circulated across the internet in June starkly demonstrates how drought is affecting the Indian city. The pictures show how the reserves that provide the city with most of its water are nearly dry, contributing to a water scarcity crisis that has hit the 7 million residents hard.

The images from Chennai highlight how water scarcity is reaching into a growing number of countries. An estimated 600 million people across India face high to extreme water stress, according to a 2018 report by NITI Aayog, a think tank affiliated with the government. More than 2 billion people in 53 countries are experiencing high water stress, according to a report from the United Nations released earlier this year.

To combat these crises, many countries are taking measures to conserve water and find solutions to ongoing droughts. And while many of the measures are conventional strategies, from restricting public consumption of water to fixing faulty pipe systems, some of the solutions that have been proposed or implemented have been more creative. Here are five unusual solutions to global water shortages.

Next:Towing Icebergs

2/9

 Credit

Towing Icebergs

The 2017-18 water shortage in Cape Town, South Africa was one of the worst in recent memory, attracting international attention as people tried to find solutions to the crisis before the city would be forced to shut down its water taps. One idea that was considered by experts was the unusual plan to tow an iceberg from Antarctica across 2,500 miles as a new freshwater source for the struggling region, according to Bloomberg.

Nick Sloane, an expert in marine salvage, came up with the idea, and although the crisis was ultimately averted, concerns about South Africa’s water supply remain and he is still planning to carry out the idea. The project, which is estimated to cost more than $200 million, would use two tugboats to encircle an iceberg in a net fashioned with the supermaterial dyneema. The iceberg would then be towed by tankers to South Africa’s western coast, where it would be harvested for fresh drinking water. Sloane is currently working on developing a deal with South Africa to sell the water to them.

Next:Moroccan Fog Catchers

3/9

 Credit

Moroccan Fog Catchers

Since 2013, Morocco has been utilizing a system of nets that catches fog and converts it to water, in response to climate change and a lack of rainfall in the Southern Moroccan region. According to New York Magazine, the fog nets, which were developed by the sustainability non-profit Dar Si Hmad, are installed in the Mount Boutmezguida region, where fog is periodic.

Condensation builds up in the mesh netting and collects in troughs directly under the nets, which is then transported via a piping system. The nets have been greatly beneficial for Morocco; 800 people in 15 nearby villages receive water pumped from the nets.

Next: Solar-Powered Irrigation

4/9

 Credit

Solar-Powered Irrigation

One group hit hard by the recent Indian droughts are farmers, who frequently struggle to find water for their crops. A company called Khethworks, which started as a project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is located in the city of Pune, aims to help farmers through their solar-powered irrigation system. According to the company, switching from diesel irrigation methods to the solar-powered irrigation system will increase a farmer’s annual profits by 170 percent.

Next: Filtering Salt Out of Seawater

5/9

Filtering Salt Out of Seawater

In 2018, scientists at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Sydney developed a filter that will help desalinate water. The filtration system is made out of graphene, a material that researchers describe as being more effective at separating multiple contaminants from water. The researchers are hoping to find partners to help scale the technology so it can be used for household and urban water filtration.

View as article

Table of Contents

1/9

 Credit

Confronting Water Shortages

Satellite imagery of Chennai that circulated across the internet in June starkly demonstrates how drought is affecting the Indian city. The pictures show how the reserves that provide the city with most of its water are nearly dry, contributing to a water scarcity crisis that has hit the 7 million residents hard.

The images from Chennai highlight how water scarcity is reaching into a growing number of countries. An estimated 600 million people across India face high to extreme water stress, according to a 2018 report by NITI Aayog, a think tank affiliated with the government. More than 2 billion people in 53 countries are experiencing high water stress, according to a report from the United Nations released earlier this year.

To combat these crises, many countries are taking measures to conserve water and find solutions to ongoing droughts. And while many of the measures are conventional strategies, from restricting public consumption of water to fixing faulty pipe systems, some of the solutions that have been proposed or implemented have been more creative. Here are five unusual solutions to global water shortages.

Next:Towing Icebergs

2/9

 Credit

Towing Icebergs

The 2017-18 water shortage in Cape Town, South Africa was one of the worst in recent memory, attracting international attention as people tried to find solutions to the crisis before the city would be forced to shut down its water taps. One idea that was considered by experts was the unusual plan to tow an iceberg from Antarctica across 2,500 miles as a new freshwater source for the struggling region, according to Bloomberg.

Nick Sloane, an expert in marine salvage, came up with the idea, and although the crisis was ultimately averted, concerns about South Africa’s water supply remain and he is still planning to carry out the idea. The project, which is estimated to cost more than $200 million, would use two tugboats to encircle an iceberg in a net fashioned with the supermaterial dyneema. The iceberg would then be towed by tankers to South Africa’s western coast, where it would be harvested for fresh drinking water. Sloane is currently working on developing a deal with South Africa to sell the water to them.

Next:Moroccan Fog Catchers

3/9

 Credit

Moroccan Fog Catchers

Since 2013, Morocco has been utilizing a system of nets that catches fog and converts it to water, in response to climate change and a lack of rainfall in the Southern Moroccan region. According to New York Magazine, the fog nets, which were developed by the sustainability non-profit Dar Si Hmad, are installed in the Mount Boutmezguida region, where fog is periodic.

Condensation builds up in the mesh netting and collects in troughs directly under the nets, which is then transported via a piping system. The nets have been greatly beneficial for Morocco; 800 people in 15 nearby villages receive water pumped from the nets.

Next:Solar-Powered Irrigation

4/9

 Credit

Solar-Powered Irrigation

One group hit hard by the recent Indian droughts are farmers, who frequently struggle to find water for their crops. A company called Khethworks, which started as a project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is located in the city of Pune, aims to help farmers through their solar-powered irrigation system. According to the company, switching from diesel irrigation methods to the solar-powered irrigation system will increase a farmer’s annual profits by 170 percent.

Next:Filtering Salt Out of Seawater

5/9

 Credit

Filtering Salt Out of Seawater

In 2018, scientists at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Sydney developed a filter that will help desalinate water. The filtration system is made out of graphene, a material that researchers describe as being more effective at separating multiple contaminants from water. The researchers are hoping to find partners to help scale the technology so it can be used for household and urban water filtration.

Next: Recovering Water from Power Plants

6/9

Recovering Water from Power Plants

Infinite Cooling is a U.S based company that started at MIT that seeks to recover water from power plants’ cooling tower exhausts. According to the company, power plants use nearly 39% of the country’s total water withdrawals. Their patent-pending technology uses electric fields to capture the water from the plumes leaving the towers. The company says this technology will reduce the water wasted by plants by 20-30%.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/slideshows/countries-considering-different-strategies-to-confront-water-shortages?slide=7

Nearly a tenth of the nation’s drinking water service lines contain lead, new data shows.

TNS

A piece of old lead pipe is seen in 2016 in Chicago.

In a first-of-its-kind report, the Environmental Protection Agency has released a comprehensive assessment on lead pipe infrastructure across the United States, revealing that an estimated total of 9.2 million lead pipes serviced American homes in 2021.

According to the report, lead service lines are estimated to make up over 9% of the entire national service line infrastructure, exposing much of America’s drinking water to lead contamination.

The EPA says there are no safe levels of lead in children’s blood, as lead exposure has been tied to an array of adverse health effects in children, including behavioral problems, lower IQ and slowed growth. In adults, lead exposure is linked with decreased cardiovascular health and kidney function, and lead exposure in pregnant women is linked to premature births.

The bulk of the nation’s lead pipe infrastructure is concentrated in a handful of states, including many of the Rust Belt states in the Great Lakes region. Florida has the most lead service lines in the country, with its 1.16 million lines accounting for 12.6% of the country’s total. Over 50% of the national service lines are concentrated in six states: Florida, Illinois (11.4%), Ohio (8.1%), Pennsylvania (7.5%), Texas (7.1%) and New York (5.4%).

Lead service lines are far less common west of the Mississippi River, with Texas as the lone exception. Notably, California’s service line infrastructure, which serves the largest state population over the third-largest area, has less than 13,500 lead service lines, or about 0.15% of the national total.

Federal law prohibits installing new lead plumbing because of its dangers to health. In 2021, the Biden Administration announced an aggressive plan to replace all lead service lines in the next decade as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and earlier this year the EPA announced that $1.2 billion had already been distributed to 23 states to address that goal. But the costs associated with such an effort are significant. Over the next two decades, the EPA report estimates that $625 billion is needed to address the challenges with drinking water infrastructure.

[ EXPLORE: More on Public Water System Violations ]

Lead exposure does not impact all American demographics evenly. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a study in 2021 indicating that non-Hispanic Black or African American children were at particular risk, as well as children living in areas with higher poverty rates.

Although the Safe Drinking Water Act, which was enacted 1974 and amended most recently in 1996, aims to ensure the public’s access to contaminant-free water, large-scale issues with drinking water distribution systems are still prevalent. Spikes in the rates of lead in children’s blood in 2015 sparked the start of a years-long water crisis in Flint, Michigan. The city of Jackson, Mississippi, which endured days with a full water outage last August and September, has ongoing projects to reduce elevated levels of lead in its water supply, and lead contamination has led to crises in Newark, New Jersey, Chicago and Washington, D.C., among other communities.

These are the states with the most lead pipes, according to the EPA:

1. Florida
2. Illinois
3. Ohio
4. Pennsylvania
5. Texas
6. New York
7. Tennessee
8. North Carolina
9. New Jersey
10. Wisconsin

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/states-with-the-most-lead-pipes

By Reuters

Sept. 13, 2024, at 7:04 a.m.SaveCommentMore

Reuters

A woman sits outside her home after water was delivered during water shortages, in Havana, Cuba September 11, 2024. REUTERS/Norlys Perez

HAVANA (Reuters) – Water shortages in Cuba are increasingly flaring tempers, including in capital Havana, as problems mount for hundreds of thousands of residents already ragged from shortfalls in food, fuel and electricity.

Upwards of 600,000 people – more than 1 in 20 on the Caribbean island of 10 million citizens – are suffering from water supply issues, officials said earlier this month.

Havana is the worst affected by water shortages, though most of the country’s largest cities report over 30,000 customers without water, the government has said.

Officials blame the growing problems on crumbling infrastructure and a persistent lack of fuel, symptoms of a festering economic crisis that has blighted growth and left the Communist-run country nearly bankrupt.

Rachel Trimiño, 32, said the root causes are no mystery, even in her Havana neighborhood of Vedado, a comparatively upscale district of the capital.

“All of the streets are full of leaking pipes, clean running water … but nothing in our homes,” she said.

The problem defies quick fixes.

Spare parts for outdated water infrastructure, like pipes and pumps, are in short supply, officials said. And without fuel and adequate transportation, even emergency water supply by cistern truck has been limited, according to residents.

Frequent blackouts only make matters worse.

“When they cut off power, we can’t give water,” said San Miguel de Padron resident Pedro Martino, who works with a church group that offers residents small quantities to stem the shortfall. “One thing depends on the other, and that’s the game we play.”

Isolated protests have erupted in some areas, as residents overwhelmed by the growing list of problems and shortages lose patience in the still blistering heat of the tropical summer.

Cuba’s economy has been decimated by a combination of factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic, stiffened U.S. sanctions and a state-dominated business model plagued by bureaucracy, mismanagement and corruption.

The social and economic crisis is widely seen as among the worst since Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution, leading to a record-breaking exodus of Cuban migrants in the past two years.

(Reporting by Carlos Carrillo and Alien Fernandez, writing by Dave Sherwood, editing by Sandra Maler)

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2024-09-13/hundreds-of-thousands-in-cuba-without-water

Officials are optimistic after conducting the first Sierra Nevada snowpack measurement of 2020.

By Casey Leins

Getty Images|Aurora Open

California officials measured the Sierra Nevada mountain range’s snowpack for the first time in 2020, and the results are promising.

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California’s water supply for this year looks promising, with the statewide Sierra Nevada snowpack standing at its tallest in four years for early January, according to the state’s Department of Water Resources latest measurement on Thursday.

The Sierra Nevada mountain range supplies nearly a third of California’s water supply as it melts and sends billions of gallons of water into the state’s rivers, according to The Mercury News. On Thursday, state officials conducted their first snowpack measurement of the season at Phillips Station near Lake Tahoe and determined that the snow was 33.5 inches deep and its water content was 97% of the historical average for this time of year.

“It’s a good start,” Chris Orrock, a spokesman for the state Department of Water Resources, told The Mercury News. “It’s better than it was last year. But it’s still early. We’re cautiously optimistic.”

Now, the state must wait to see if January and February, which account for a large portion of California’s precipitation, will be as fruitful as was December.

In early December, rains reduced the portion of the state considered to be abnormally dry from 85.3% to 3.6% in just a week.

“It’s still too early to predict what the remainder of the year will bring in terms of snowpack,” Sean de Guzman, chief of the agency’s snow surveys and water supply forecasting area, told the Los Angeles Times.

After California’s historic drought of 2012 to 2016, the state also has some policies in place to help preserve the water supply. Due to legislation signed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown, officials in areas with some of the most over-pumped groundwater basins must tell the state this month how they will replenish their supplies. There are also a number of dam projects in the works, including one to raise the height of the Los Vaqueros Reservoir.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2020-01-03/california-water-supply-looks-promising-in-2020-state-officials-say

What is Alkaline Water?

What’s the difference between Alkaline Water and Ionized Alkaline Water?

Water that has a pH higher than 7.0 is considered Alkaline Water. Minerals, such as baking soda, or other chemicals can be added to water to alter the water’s pH. This process is often confused as meaning Ionized Alkaline Water; however, they are entirely different.

Alkaline Water Ionizers are what create the Ionized Alkaline Water that we’ve come to enjoy. Ionized Alkaline Water is created during the electrolysis process, which gets rid of the low-quality water rather than altering it. 

Quick Answer: Water that has a pH higher than 7.0 is Alkaline Water. Generally, this is created with chemicals, minerals and buffers, which lack the antioxidants needed to truly heal. 

Kangen Water™ Benefits

“Kangen Water™ is a trademarked term by Enagic®, a multi-level-marketing company based in…”Learn More

Uses and Benefits

“Different alkaline levels allow you to choose the perfect pH whether you are cooking, drinking, or brewing…”Learn More

Antioxidants

“Antioxidants are substances that slow down and prevent cellular damage caused by…”Learn More

Here’s why Ionized Alkaline water is better than Bottled Alkaline Water

Alkaline Ionized Water (from a water ionizer machine) and Bottled Water are different because:  

• Additives, Chemicals, and pH buffers are often used to create a positive ORP Value. By creating Alkaline drinking water with our Water Ionizers, you’ll be drinking chemical free, natural water  
• With ZERO antioxidant value and a positive ORP value, Bottled Water lacks any molecular hydrogen.  
• Ranging from $2 to $5 per liter, bottled water is vastly more expensive compared to less than a penny per liter with our Water Ionizer, which will also generate nearly limitless amounts of Alkaline Ionized Water. 

Alkaline Water Ionizers, such as our Aqua Ionizer Deluxe 9.5, also provide the benefit of less waste materials, effectively creating a smaller carbon footprint. Bottled water is expensive due to transportation costs, and materials. They also create more waste since they’re only used once then thrown away, making it a very short life-cycled product and wasteful. 

What is Positive ORP and Negative ORP?

Liquids, such as Soda, Water, Green Tea, and Coffee, all have an ORP, which is the measure of oxidation reduction point.

Antioxidants have a Negative (-) ORP measurement, thus helping eliminate free radicals and help repair the body.

Quick Answer: ORP is the measure of Oxidation Reduction Potential of a substance.

ORP Measures Antioxidants, and Antioxidants HELP YOU HEAL!

Green Tea has a -ORP of 120mV, meaning it is high in antioxidants.

Opposite of the -ORP is the positive ORP. This positive ORP creates excessive oxidation, and free radicals in your body. Most carbonated beverages, such as soda (acidic) have a positive ORP.

Interestingly, most bottled water will contribute to oxidation since it has a positive ORP.

Ionized water is recommended to be consumed immediately after it’s been produced, due to Negative ORP being highly reactive and dynamic. It will also return to it’s neutral or positive state over the course of a few days- demonstrated by it “going flat.”

When ionized water is sitting around for a few days, you’ll begin to see the “off gassing” effect on the water container, where bubbles start to collect on the container. Negative ORP will drop with the increase of apparent bubbles being “off gassed.”

Our Aqua Ionizer Deluxe 7.0™ creates a -ORP of up to 800, a high antioxidant rich solution, depending on the water source. Consuming this water immediately after it’s produced by the water ionizer machine, will ensure that you’re receiving a substantially high oxidation reduction potential (ORP) water.

Our Aqua Ionizer Deluxe 9.0™ creates a -ORP of 860, which is approaching the high end of the spectrum. This unit features the “Daily Drinking” setting, which will allow you to enjoy a -ORP of 300. Comparing that to a cup a green tea, water created from our Water Ionizer machine will ensure you’re receiving more than 3 times the antioxidants!

Alkaline Water Benefits

Health Benefits of Alkaline Water

Toxic substances find their way into our bodies, and Alkaline Water can help combat and counteract that by helping neutralize the acid in our bodies. In an Alkaline environment, your body can focus on healing and fighting back against those toxic substances.

Acidic water can help rehydrate skin and can act as an astringent to help prevent skin problems such as acne, wrinkles, and other skin problems. Acidic water is also great for cleaning glass, and other surfaces in your kitchen. Most plants and flowers also thrive with a lower pH water and actually prefer this environment over a higher pH water.

Antioxidants are created simultaneously while both high and low pH waters are being produced. Molecular hydrogen, antioxidants, and oxygen allow the body to recover and heal effectively and efficiently. Molecular hydrogen helps combat free radicals in the body and helps boost your immune system by working deep within the cell walls.

• Reduce or Eliminate GERD (Acid Reflux Indigestion)
• Improve sleep quality and sleeping patterns
• Stay young and youthful with Antioxidants
• Reduce Inflammation in the body, joints, and muscles
• Remove free radicals from your body
• Stimulate and Promote Weight Loss
• Daily Detoxification of your body
• Natural astringent so it can reduce wrinkles, acne, fine lines, eczema, rosacea, and help tighten skin
• Improve reaction time and memory
• Creates more flavorful food when cooking pasta, rice, and when brewing coffee and tea

• Promotes hair growth and scalp rebuilding
• Micro-clustering and antioxidants increase hydration levels in the body
• Reduced soreness and cramping
• Reduce body acidity overall
• Donates electrons that allow your body to rebuild and recover
• Decrease recovery times and increase athletic performance
• Boost energy and metabolism levels
• Eliminates that “full” water feeling
• Helps with dry skin and irritation due to allergies
• And so much more!

Uses

Alkaline

pH 13 or higher – Helps remove oil stains, grease, and blood. Use when cooking or heating water for a long time

pH 12 – Best for cooking or heating water for a long time. Lessen pesticide residue on food, as well as reducing bacteria.

pH 11 – HOT brewing tea and coffee, or making stews and soups as well as tenderizing meats, carpet cleaning and washing fruits and veggies.

pH 10 – Ice cubes, working out, hangover, and COLD brewing coffee and tea.

pH 9 – Everyday drinking water for those who have acclimated to alkaline water

pH 8 – When just starting out, you’ll need to get acclimated to the water for about 1-2 weeks. Pets love this water.

Neutral

pH 7 – Use when making baby formula or taking any time-released medication

Acidic

pH 6 – Perfect for Plants!

pH 5 – Great for washing your hair scalp and soaking your feet/hands. Also great for bug bites and sunburns.

pH 4 – Use as an astringent or toner for your body and face.

pH 3 – Excellent at cleaning glass surfaces, stainless steel, counter tops, and for mixing cleaning supplies with

pH 2 and lower – Sanitize and disinfects

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

https://aquaionizerpro.com/pages/alkaline-water-education?gad_source=5&gad_campaignid=2011206156&gclid=EAIaIQobChMItoSEqbiIjgMVY0H_AR0fGhNLEAAYAiAAEgK1v_D_BwE

By Jamie Sudler, Executive Producer

In 1860, when Colorado was still a territory and the gold rush was on, farmers who settled on the eastern plains were looking for another source of wealth—water.

The state’s prairie is mostly without rivers, but many creeks flow out of the Rocky Mountains. So, to irrigate their crops, one group of farmers set their sights on a creek known as the Left Hand—a name given to the stream that was also the English name of Chief Niwot of the Arapaho tribe that lived in the area not far from present-day Boulder, Colorado. The farmers formed the Left Hand Ditch Company and began using the water.

When drought struck the region, the farmers had to look for alternative sources to irrigate their crops. The legend is that a Native American called “Indian Jack” showed them that they could get more water high up in the Rockies from a different creek now called the South St. Vrain and divert it over a ridge. The Left Hand Ditch group built a small dam and dug a half-mile-long ditch that took all of the water, drying up the stream, and eventually dumping it into the Left Hand Creek, and so, their problem was solved—or so they thought.

Unbeknownst to them, their diversion would send a ripple through the expectations of some who thought they could use water simply because it crossed their property, a system called riparian law that’s used in eastern states. Also, they were moving water from one watershed to a completely different one, even though it was close by.

A 12-foot dam on the St. Vrain Creek diverts water to the Left Hand ditch. When water is not needed by the ditch company, a gate closes to allow the creek to flow in its natural channel. Starting this year, the gate can be operated remotely by cellphone.  |  Credit: Jamie Sudler, H2O Media, Ltd.

Sean Cronin, the executive director of the St. Vrain and Left Hand Water Conservancy District (SVLHWCD), said, “Moving water around in ways that weren’t quite what people had been accustomed to on the East Coast with riparian law was something that was very new, different, and radical at that time.” SVLHWCD is a government entity that works to conserve and protect water in a 500-square-mile area from high in the Rocky Mountains down to the plains with many farms. As its name shows, the district includes both the St. Vrain and Left Hand Creek watersheds as well as the city of Longmont.

Today, Cronin and other officials are at the location of the dam, not far from Ward, Colorado, which, when it was first built, was just trees, logs, and dirt but is now a 12-foot-long steel structure mounted in concrete. Back in the 1800s, it did the job—so well that farmers down on the plains who depended on the St. Vrain for water began to notice.

Water War Leads to Colorado Doctrine of Prior Appropriation

Cronin tells the story of Rueben Coffin, who in the 1860s homesteaded at what is now called the Standstone Ranch in Longmont. One day, Coffin saw that the St. Vrain Creek running through his property had dried up. He and some of his fellow farmers ventured into the mountains—about a day’s trip on horseback—and found the South St. Vrain, a tributary of the St. Vrain Creek, was dammed and realized the water was no longer going down the creek but rather into a ditch. So, Coffin and his colleagues tore up the dam—some say they blew it up with dynamite—igniting a water war.

Learning what happened, the Left Hand Ditch group rebuilt their structure and stationed armed guards to defend it. Cronin says that legend has it weapons were involved, but that can’t be verified.

Terry Plummer, the superintendent of the Left Hand Ditch Company today says he has the original minutes from the company describing the earthen dam structure and that armed guards were stationed to defend it from being destroyed at night. He says the records don’t indicate that gunshots were fired.

Fortunately, bloodshed was avoided, and ultimately the controversy ended up in court when the Left Hand Ditch Company sued the Coffin-led farmers for destroying their dam.

The case (Coffin v. Left Hand Ditch Co.) went to the Colorado Supreme Court, which in 1882 upheld the right of the Left Hand farmers to build their dam and take water—even though they didn’t own the adjacent property. The ruling completely rejected the riparian law of water that existed in the East. The court said that, while the prior appropriation doctrine was recognized in the Colorado Constitution in 1876, it had existed from the date of the earliest appropriations of water within Colorado, which by European settlers was likely in about 1859. The decision gave birth to the Colorado Doctrine of Prior Appropriation, sometimes called “first in time, first in right,” which has been the basis for water allocation in nine states in the West ever since.

140 Years Later Collaboration Leads to Modernization

In 2024, more than 140 years later, the Left Hand Ditch Company still maintains the dam, which sends water from the South St. Vrain down to about 460 farmers. The diversion off the creek and into the ditch has a gate that can be lowered when not all the water is needed by the ditch company shareholders. The creek is then rewetted as water flows over the dam and down the South St. Vrain.

Up until spring of this year, the ditch owners had to travel up the mountain—a three-hour round trip by car—and manually lower or raise the gate, cranking it with a hand winch. Now, Plummer opens and closes the large metal plate using electricity from solar power—and a cellphone. He can operate the gate on a real-time basis from anywhere instead of having to drive up to the diversion. If there’s a storm dumping water and he doesn’t need it, he will lower the gate.  

A collaboration between Plummer’s ditch company, the SVLHWCD, and the Left Hand Water District paid for this year’s modernization. The use of smartphone technology in this area was the challenge. Bruce Bacon of the firm Hydrologik installed the equipment and said that the location is about as remote as you can get using cell technology, and they had to spend time tweaking the antennas on the device trying to figure out if they could get a signal.

Plummer says the threat of violence is not a thing of the past, especially when you’re traveling on someone else’s land to protect your water right. He said he’d had a .38 caliber pistol pulled on him on the road to the diversion. He talked the person down, and then attorneys worked it out. Plummer said it’s not uncommon for guns to be pulled, although it’s rare. Another person had a shotgun pulled on him down in the valley. “The old adage, that ‘whiskey’s for drinking, but water’s for fighting’ is really true in the water industry,” Plummer added.

The new technology also makes accounting for every drop of water accurate, something Plummer is focused on for good reason. He said that he has been in meetings with the assistant district attorney, who pointed her finger at him and said they would come after him if he takes one drop of water that is not in priority, meaning his ditch company is not entitled to it.

Now, technology may save both time—and conflict. 💧

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Children with higher concentrations of a certain chemical in their blood are more likely to get cavities, according to a new study by West Virginia University School of Dentistry researchers.

Manufactured chemical groups called perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances are universal as a result of extensive manufacturing and use. Although manufacturers no longer use PFAS to make nonstick cookware, carpet, cardboard and other products, they persist in the environment. Scientists have linked them to a range of health problems — from heart disease to high cholesterol — but now R. Constance Wiener and Christopher Waters are exploring how they affect dental health.

They investigated whether higher concentrations of PFAS were associated with greater tooth decay in children. One of them — perfluorodecanoic acid — was linked to dental cavities. Their findings appear in the Journal of Public Health Dentistry.

“Due to the strong chemical bonds of PFAS, it is difficult for them to breakdown, which makes them more likely to be persistent within the environment, especially in drinking water systems,” said Waters, who directs the School of Dentistry’s research labs. “A majority of people may not be aware that they are using water and other products that contain PFAS.”

The 629 children who participated in the study were 3 to 11 years old and were part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Samples of the children’s blood were analyzed for PFAS in 2013 and 2014. Their tooth decay and other factors — such as their race, their BMI and how often they brushed their teeth — were assessed.

Of the seven PFAS that Wiener and Waters analyzed, perfluorodecanoic acid was the one that correlated with higher levels of tooth decay.

“Perfluorodecanoic acid, in particular, has a long molecular structure and strong chemical bonds; therefore, it remains in the environment longer. As a result, it is more likely to have negative health consequences such as dental caries,” said Dr. Wiener, an associate professor in the Department of Dental Practice and Rural Health.

But how does that influence happen? Wiener and Waters have a hypothesis. According to other research, perfluorodecanoic acid may disrupt the healthy development of enamel, which is what makes teeth hard. That disruption can leave teeth susceptible to decay.

However, when it comes to cavities, scientists haven’t parsed perfluorodecanoic acid’s mechanism of action yet. The topic warrants further investigation.

“While the findings of this study are important, there are some study limitations, and more work is needed to fully understand how this molecule impacts normal tooth formation,” said Fotinos Panagakos, the School of Dentistry’s vice dean for administration and research.

“The good news is that, in our study, about half of the children did not have any measurable amount of PFAS. Perhaps this is due to certain PFAS no longer being made in the US,” Wiener said.

Another piece of good news is that the study reaffirmed the importance of dental hygiene and checkups. Children who brushed once a day or less frequently had significantly higher tooth decay than those who brushed at least twice daily.

Likewise, children who had not been to the dentist within the previous year were twice as likely to have higher rates of tooth decay than kids who hadn’t.

So, even though parents cannot control what is in their children’s drinking water, they can still protect their children’s teeth by fostering thorough, regular brushing and scheduling dental exams.

The School of Dentistry will hold Give Kids a Smile Day on Friday, Feb. 7, at the Pediatric Dentistry Clinic. Dental students will treat more than 100 children for free that day. Each visit includes an exam, a cleaning, a fluoride treatment and — if appropriate — X-rays.

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The 1972 Clean Water Act has driven significant improvements in U.S. water quality, according to the first comprehensive study of water pollution over the past several decades, by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and Iowa State University.

The team analyzed data from 50 million water quality measurements collected at 240,000 monitoring sites throughout the U.S. between 1962 and 2001. Most of 25 water pollution measures showed improvement, including an increase in dissolved oxygen concentrations and a decrease in fecal coliform bacteria. The share of rivers safe for fishing increased by twelve percent between 1972 and 2001.

Despite clear improvements in water quality, almost all of 20 recent economic analyses estimate that the costs of the Clean Water Act consistently outweigh the benefits, the team found in work also coauthored with researchers from Cornell University. These numbers are at odds with other environmental regulations like the Clean Air Act, which show much higher benefits compared to costs.

“Water pollution has declined dramatically, and the Clean Water Act contributed substantially to these declines,” said Joseph Shapiro, an associate professor of agricultural and resource economics in the College of Natural Resources at UC Berkeley. “So we were shocked to find that the measured benefit numbers were so low compared to the costs.”

The researchers propose that these studies may be discounting certain benefits, including improvements to public health, or a reduction in industrial chemicals not included in current water quality testing.

The analyses appear in a pair of studies published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Cleaning up our streams and rivers

Americans are worried about clean water. In Gallup polls, water pollution is consistently ranked as Americans’ top environmental concern — higher than air pollution and climate change.

Since its inception, the Clean Water Act has imposed environmental regulations on individuals and industries that dump waste into waterways, and has led to $650 billion in expenditure due to grants the federal government provided municipalities to build sewage treatment plants or improve upon existing facilities.

However, comprehensive analyses of water quality have been hindered by the sheer diversity of data sources, with many measurements coming from local agencies rather than national organizations.

To perform their analysis, Shapiro and David Keiser, an assistant professor of economics at Iowa State University, had to compile data from three national water quality data repositories. They also tracked down the date and location of each municipal grant, an undertaking that required three Freedom of Information Act requests.

“Air pollution and greenhouse gas measurements are typically automated and standard, while water pollution is more often a person going out in a boat and dipping something in the water.” Shapiro said. “It was an incredibly data and time-intensive project to get all of these water pollution measures together and then analyze them in a way that was comparable over time and space.”

In addition to the overall decrease in water pollution, the team found that water quality downstream of sewage treatment plants improved significantly after municipalities received grants to improve wastewater treatment. They also calculated that it costs approximately $1.5 million to make one mile of river fishable for one year.

Comparing costs and benefits

Adding up all the costs and benefits — both monetary and non-monetary — of a policy is one way to value its effectiveness. The costs of an environmental policy like the Clean Water Act can include direct expenditures, such as the $650 billion in spending due to grants to municipalities, and indirect investments, such as the costs to companies to improve wastewater treatment. Benefits can include increases in waterfront housing prices or decreases in the travel to find a good fishing or swimming spot.

The researchers conducted their own cost-benefit analysis of the Clean Water Act municipal grants, and combined it with 19 other recent analyses carried out by hydrologists and the EPA. They found that, on average, the measured economic benefits of the legislation were less than half of the total costs. However, these numbers might not paint the whole picture, Shapiro said.

“Many of these studies count little or no benefit of cleaning up rivers, lakes, and streams for human health because they assume that if we drink the water, it goes through a separate purification process, and no matter how dirty the water in the river is, it’s not going to affect people’s health,” Shapiro said. “The recent controversy in Flint, MI recently seems contrary to that view.”

“Similarly, drinking water treatment plants test for a few hundred different chemicals and U.S. industry produces closer to 70,000, and so it is possible there are chemicals that existing studies don’t measure that have important consequences for well-being,” Shapiro said.

Even if the costs outweigh the benefits, Shapiro stresses that Americans should not have to compromise their passion for clean water — or give up on the Clean Water Act.

“There are many ways to improve water quality, and it is quite plausible that some of them are excellent investments, and some of them are not great investments,” Shapiro said. “So it is plausible both that it is important and valuable to improve water quality, and that some investments that the U.S. has made in recent years don’t pass a benefit-cost test.”

Water pollution from surface coal mining has degraded more than 22 percent of streams and rivers in southern West Virginia to the point they may now qualify as impaired under state criteria, according to a new study by scientists at Duke and Baylor.

The study, published this week in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science & Technology, documents substantial losses in aquatic insect biodiversity and increases in salinity linked to sulfates and other pollutants in runoff from mines often located miles upstream.

“Our findings offer concrete evidence of the cumulative impacts surface mining is having on a regional scale,” said Emily S. Bernhardt, associate professor of biogeochemistry at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment. “The relationship is clear and direct. The more mining you have upstream, the higher the biological loss and salinity levels will be downstream, and the farther they will extend.”

Numerous recent studies have demonstrated the water-quality problems caused at or near the site of individual surface coal mines, Bernhardt noted. She and her team “set out to understand how the large and growing number of surface mines is affecting water quality throughout Appalachia.”

They used NASA satellite images and computer data to map the extent of surface mining taking place across a 12,000-square-mile area of the southern West Virginia coalfields between 1976 and 2005.

They found that companies had converted more than five percent of the land into mine sites and buried 480 miles of streams beneath adjacent valley fills during this period.

Chemical and biological data from 223 streams sampled by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection between 1997 and 2007 were combined with mapping to help the researchers determine that pollution runoff from the mines could substantially degrade more than 1,400 miles of streams in the region. That’s four times the length of streams buried by the valley fills.

“It’s important to recognize that surface coal mining pollution doesn’t stop at mine-permit boundaries,” said Brian D. Lutz, a postdoctoral associate in Bernhardt’s lab.

“Our analysis suggests that mining only five percent of the land surface is degrading between 22 percent and 32 percent of the region’s rivers,” he said.

Substantial declines in insect diversity began to occur when companies had mined as little as one percent of upstream land, the analysis showed. In areas where companies had converted about five percent of the land into mines, sensitive species such as mayflies and stoneflies had vanished or declined to an extent that the streams would qualify as biologically impaired under criteria set by the state of West Virginia.

The designation means the streams could be placed on a list of waterways that the state must take steps to rehabilitate.

“What is so compelling is that we found many different types of organisms are lost downstream of surface coal mines, and most of them begin to disappear at similar levels of mining,” said Ryan S. King, associate professor of biology at Baylor. “Our analysis shows that coal mining is leading to widespread declines in aquatic biodiversity in Appalachian streams.”

The search for renewable energy sources, which include wind, solar, hydroelectric dams, geothermal, and biomass, has preoccupied scientists and policymakers alike, due to their enormous potential in the fight against climate change. A new Tel Aviv University study finds that water vapor in the atmosphere may serve as a potential renewable energy source in the future.

The research, led by Prof. Colin Price in collaboration with Prof. Hadas Saaroni and doctoral student Judi Lax, all of TAU’s Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, is based on the discovery that electricity materializes in the interaction between water molecules and metal surfaces. It was published in Scientific Reports on May 6, 2020.

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“We sought to capitalize on a naturally occurring phenomenon: electricity from water,” explains Prof. Price. “Electricity in thunderstorms is generated only by water in its different phases — water vapor, water droplets, and ice. Twenty minutes of cloud development is how we get from water droplets to huge electric discharges — lightning — some half a mile in length.”

The researchers set out to try to produce a tiny low-voltage battery that utilizes only humidity in the air, building on the findings of earlier discoveries. In the nineteenth century, for example, English physicist Michael Faraday discovered that water droplets could charge metal surfaces due to friction between the two. A much more recent study showed that certain metals spontaneously build up an electrical charge when exposed to humidity.

The scientists conducted a laboratory experiment to determine the voltage between two different metals exposed to high relative humidity, while one is grounded. “We found that there was no voltage between them when the air was dry,” Prof. Price explains. “But once the relative humidity rose above 60%, a voltage began to develop between the two isolated metal surfaces. When we lowered the humidity level to below 60%, the voltage disappeared. When we carried out the experiment outside in natural conditions, we saw the same results.

“Water is a very special molecule. During molecular collisions, it can transfer an electrical charge from one molecule to the other. Through friction, it can build up a kind of static electricity,” says Prof. Price. “We tried to reproduce electricity in the lab and found that different isolated metal surfaces will build up different amounts of charge from water vapor in the atmosphere, but only if the air relative humidity is above 60%. This occurs nearly every day in the summer in Israel and every day in most tropical countries.”

According to Prof. Price, this study challenges established ideas about humidity and its potential as an energy source. “People know that dry air results in static electricity and you sometimes get ‘shocks’ you when you touch a metal door handle. Water is normally thought of as a good conductor of electricity, not something that can build up charge on a surface. However, it seems that things are different once the relative humidity exceeds a certain threshold,” he says.

The researchers, however, showed that humid air may be a source of charging surfaces to voltages of around one volt. “If a AA battery is 1.5V, there may be a practical application in the future: to develop batteries that can be charged from water vapor in the air,” Prof. Price adds.

“The results may be particularly important as a renewable source of energy in developing countries, where many communities still do not have access to electricity, but the humidity is constantly about 60%,” Prof. Price concludes.

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