In other news below:
-- American States Water announces approval by CPUC of rate increases
-- Study examines economic impacts of East Bay water supply disruption
-- Calif. DWR schedules January scoping meetings on IRWM Grant Program
-- Wataire to appear on Norman Schwarzkopf's World Business Review TV series
-- Pennichuck acquires community water system in Bow, NH
-- Ohio group seeks green solutions to Great Lakes erosion
-- Center for Watershed Protection to teach online university course on urban watersheds
-- USDA announces over $9 million in university water quality grants
-- Global innovator Water Standard Company retains Armanasco
-- Texas CEC honors Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam with engineering award
-- ETV publishes briefs to summarize performance outcomes for targeted technologies
• Clorox names Larry Peiros executive VP and COO for Clorox North America -- It also names Beth Springer executive VP for strategy and growth and Frank Tataseo executive VP for functional operations -- OAKLAND, CA, Jan. 5, 2007 -- The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX) today announced the following executive changes. A 25-year Clorox veteran Lawrence S. "Larry" Peiros has been named executive vice president and chief operating officer -- Clorox North America. Beth Springer has been named executive vice president -- strategy and growth. Frank A. Tataseo has been named executive vice president -- functional operations. The three executives will continue reporting to chairman and CEO Don Knauss as members of the company's executive committee. The other members of the company's executive committee remain in place...
• American States Water announces approval by CPUC of rate increases -- SAN DIMAS, CA, Jan. 4, 2007 -- American States Water Company announced that the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved rate increases for all water service areas of its Golden State Water Company (GSWC) unit. The authorized rate increases are effective Jan. 1 and will provide GSWC additional annual revenues of approximately $5,978,000 in 2007. The increases include interim rates for GSWC's Regions II and III service areas, totaling approximately $1,357,000 annualized. Due to a delay in issuing decisions on the General Rate Cases for rate increases in Region II and to cover general office expenses at the corporate headquarters, the Administrative Law Judge of the CPUC assigned to these cases issued an order for the interim rate increases. By the CPUC statute, once the final rates are approved, they will be made effective retroactive to the date the interim rates are in effect. Additionally, the CPUC approved temporary surcharges in Region I water service areas of GSWC to recover previously incurred supply costs of approximately $2,019,000 and $744,000 of discounts and costs incurred for the California Alternative Rates for Water (CARW) Program, a program that benefits low-income customers of GSWC...
• New study examines economic impacts of disruption to East Bay water supplies -- MORAGA, CA, Jan. 4, 2007 -- Failure of a major levee in the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta could cause major disruptions to the supply of water to the East Bay as well as to the Central Valley and Los Angeles, according to a new study by the Center for the Regional Economy at Saint Mary's College of California. The report -- the first to be released by the new interdisciplinary research center -- was commissioned by the Contra Costa Council Water Task Force and funded by the Contra Costa Economic Partnership. Its purpose was to survey the East Bay's water supply and consumption patterns and to assess the economic impacts of possible disruptions on the East Bay business community. The report emphasizes that the Delta is a vital feature of California's water distribution system and will become an even greater source of water to the Contra Costa Water District in particular over the next 25 years to accommodate the area's rapid growth. That finding comes amid rising public concern over the Delta's deteriorating levee system. Over two-thirds of the region's water either comes directly from the Delta or through pipes that cross the Delta...
• Calif. DWR schedules January scoping meetings on IRWM Grant Program -- SACRAMENTO, CA, Jan. 4, 2007 -- The State Department of Water Resources (DWR) has scheduled two January scoping meetings to gather public and stakeholder input on the Integrated Regional Water Management (IRWM) Grant Program (funding from Propositions 50, 84, and Prop 1E). They'll be Jan. 23 in Sacramento and Jan. 31 in Alhambra, CA. DWR and the State Water Resources Control Board are currently administering the Proposition 50 IRWM Grant Program. Proposition 84 provides additional funding for IRWM Grant Program and a portion of Proposition 1E fund will support certain types of projects, if consistent with an IRWM Plan. DWR is seeking public and stakeholder input on IRWM process improvement and program development. These meetings will be the initial public forum for providing public input. Additional opportunities for public input will be scheduled in the future...
• Wataire International to appear on Norman Schwarzkopf's World Business Review TV series -- Program to air Jan. 7 on CNBC as paid programming -- BOCA RATON, FL, Jan. 4, 2007 -- Multi-Media Productions (USA) Inc. announces that Wataire International will appear on World Business Review, hosted by Norman Schwarzkopf. As global warming issues magnify and pollution to our environment continues unabated, the world is facing a shortage of clean drinking water. This segment of World Business Review explores how Wataire International helps with their water harvesting solution...
• Pennichuck acquires community water system in Bow, NH -- MERRIMACK, NH, Jan. 3, 2007 -- Pennichuck East Utility Co., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pennichuck Corp., recently announced that it has acquired a newly constructed community water system in Bow, NH. The system provides water service to 120 customers in a new subdivision known as Stone Sled Farm. To date, Pennichuck provides service to over 500 residents in Bow. Since 2004, Pennichuck Vice President, Bernard Rousseau has served as an active member of the town's Drinking Water Protection Committee...
• Banking on Shoreline Restoration: Ohio group seeks green solutions to Great Lakes erosion -- By Andy Guy, Michigan Land Use Institute -- BEAULAH, MI, Jan. 3, 2007 -- Jim White has a billion-dollar idea to help transform the outdated economy of the Great Lakes region. It has nothing to do with any of the trendy new growth sectors outlined in most of the economic rescue plans being discussed throughout the region. Instead, it's about building and installing new, environmentally smart, anti-erosion bulkheads along many miles of Great Lakes waterways and shoreline -- an activity that could play a major role in the $20 billion Great Lakes restoration project that leaders from across the Upper Midwest proposed to the federal government 13 months ago...
Also see:
-- "Stewart Udall: A Letter to my Grandchildren - My generation's mistakes, your generation's epic challenge"
• Center for Watershed Protection to teach online university course on urban watersheds -- ELLICOTT CITY, MD, Jan. 4, 2007 -- For the first time, the Center for Watershed Protection is bringing its instruction right to your computer through the University of Maryland University College (UMUC) online education program. Introduction to Urban Watersheds (Environmental Managment 360) is a 15-week, 3-credit undergraduate university course conducted entirely online. The course introduces participants to the basics of watersheds and why their management is important...
Also see: "Article 1 of the Wetlands and Watershed Series released"
• USDA announces over $9 million in university water quality grants -- WASHINGTON, DC, Jan. 3, 2007 -- U.S. Deputy Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner announced last fall that more than $9 million in grants will be awarded to universities nationwide to address water supply and water quality issues such as improving drinking water quality, enhancing lawn care practices and protecting watersheds. The largest, $1.23 million, goes to Texas A&M. Duke, Iowa State, Kansas State, Purdue, Nebraska, Colorado State, Rutgers, Arizona, Idaho, Maryland, Rhode Island and Wisconsin each earned over $500,000...
• Global innovator Water Standard Company retains Armanasco -- MONTEREY, CA, Jan. 3, 2007 -- Armanasco Public Relations Inc. (APR) has been hired to manage Water Standard's global PR program. Through the design and construction of Seawater Conversion Vessels (SCV), the company is committed to providing a steady and reliable supply of water, on-demand, worldwide. Its environmentally friendly process of open ocean desalination has been designed to minimize impacts on the marine ecosystem, produce ultra clean emissions, and relieve stress on aquifers and rivers enabling them to recharge...
• Texas CEC honors Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam with top engineering award -- HOUSTON, Jan. 3, 2007-- The Texas Council of Engineering Companies is awarding its prestigious Gold Medal Award for Special Projects to the planning, engineering and program management firm Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam Inc. The award recognizes the firm's work on the Greenspoint Waterline and Grid Extension Project in Houston, part of the city's Surface Water Transmission Program. It was adopted on a fast-track design and construction schedule to meet the January 2006 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency groundwater quality mandates. The award will be presented at the Engineering Excellence Awards Gala in Austin, TX, on March 23...
• ETV publishes briefs to summarize performance outcomes for targeted technologies -- WASHINGTON, DC, Jan. 3, 2007 -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) Program is targeting technology categories and topical areas to create two-page summaries of technologies verified, or in- process of being verified, and their performances, according to the December edition of the online e-newsletter ETV Voice. If available, environmental, human health and regulatory, as well as other, outcomes of technology verification are also discussed and are taken from the in-depth case studies published as ETV Program Case Studies: Demonstrating Program Outcomes, Volumes I and II. To date, ETV has published technology briefs for the following technology areas: fuel cells, microturbine/combined heat and power technologies, ETV for green buildings, ETV for energy, and baghouse filtration products. It's in-process of developing briefs for these additional areas: arsenic drinking water treatment, arsenic test kits, continuous emission monitors for mercury, dioxin emission monitoring, ambient ammonia monitors, stormwater, ETV for combined animal feeding operations, and residential nutrient reduction. All technology briefs will be posted to the ETV Web Site and will be used by ETV centers and the Program to conduct outreach of verification results to targeted audiences...
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