IIT-K Alumnus From Canada Gets World Water Prize

Asit K Biswas, a Canadian citizen of Indian origin and a graduate of IIT-Kharagpur, has been conferred the World Water Prize for 2006.

The prize ceremony in Stockholm was attended by Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz, who is leading an official delegation to the 16th World Water Week being held in that city during August 23-26.

For more information, visit: Hindustan Times

Bio-Terrorism Scientist Enters Water Market

OLIVER SPRINGS - A scientist who did water bio-terrorism research has made the leap into private business, selling purified water and filtering systems from a former bank building.

Dr. Shannon Eaker left a job at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico in December to help his mother, Becky Eaker, start Cool Springs Water LLC. Launching a business, Shannon Eaker said, isn't for the risk-averse.

"Small business is tough. It's an eye-opening experience," he said. "It definitely is a leap, paycheck-wise, too."

Now nearly nine months old, Cool Springs Water is at the break-even point with a base of several hundred customers.

For more information, visit: KnoxNews

CSE Releases New Study On Pesticides In Soft Drinks

Three years ago, CSE found unsafe levels of pesticides in soft drinks. The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), constituted to judge the CSE report, endorsed the CSE study (see JPC report) and asked for soft drinks standards to be set.

After three years of deliberations and 20 meetings, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has finalised a standard for soft drinks but has abstained from notifying it. CSE, a member of the BIS committee, has fought hard to get the standard notified.

For more information, visit: CSE India

U.S. EPA Announces $82 Million Sewage System Agreement With City Of San Diego

SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today an $82 million consent decree with the city of San Diego, Surfrider Foundation and San Diego Baykeeper regarding improvements to the city’s sewage collection system.

The consent decree was lodged with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

This consent decree, the second such partial settlement in two years, specifies actions the city will take through 2007, while the parties prepare for approval of a long-term agreement to prevent future spills of raw sewage from San Diego’s system.

For more information, visit: EPA Newsroom

Tritium In Water Under Nuclear Plant

The release of tritium underneath the Kewaunee nuclear plant doesn't pose a health risk because the radioactive substance hasn't been found in drinking water, federal nuclear regulators said.

The radioactive isotope of hydrogen was found in four groundwater samples taken from narrow shafts underneath the nuclear plant, located in the Kewaunee County Town of Carlton, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Dominion Resources Inc., which owns Kewaunee, stressed that no unsafe levels of tritium have been detected at monitoring wells near the plant or outside the plant's boundary.

For more information, visit: JS Online