WEEKLY WATER NEWS

WEEKLY WATER NEWS

DataStreme WES Week Six: 6-10 October 2008

Water in the News

Celebrate Earth Science Week -- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to include the National Weather Service, along with NASA, the US Geological Survey and several professional scientific organizations such as the American Geological Institute have recognized next week (12-18 October 2008) as Earth Science Week to help the public gain a better understanding and appreciation for the earth sciences and to encourage stewardship of the Earth. This year's theme for the 10th annual Earth Science Week is " No Child Left Inside", designed to encourage young people to learn about the geosciences, by going outdoors, leaving behind the indoor activities involving the television or computer. [American Geological Institute]
Eye on the tropics -- Several tropical cyclones formed last week over the Atlantic and Pacific:
- In the North Atlantic basin, Subtropical Storm Laura formed at the start of last week over the central North Atlantic as a hybrid storm, but gained tropical characteristics. This system traveled northward and while passing east of Newfoundland by late in the week, lost its tropical characteristics. The NASA Hurricane Center has a description along with satellite images of Tropical Storm Laura.
- In eastern North Pacific, a tropical depression became a tropical storm and eventually Hurricane Marie off the coast of Mexico last week. This category 1 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) was the sixth hurricane of the 2008 hurricane season in the eastern North Pacific basin. As of Sunday, the hurricane had weakened to a tropical storm that was continuing to the northwest, well off the coast. Several satellite images and a discussion of Marie are on the NASA Hurricane Page.
  Another named tropical cyclone formed this past weekend off the southwestern Mexican coast, to became Tropical Storm Norbert. As of Sunday, this tropical storm was traveling to the west.
- In western North Pacific, Supertyphoon Jangmi (category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) crossed the north end of Taiwan one week ago, then weakened as it curved to the north to pass just off the coast of mainland China before curving toward the northeast to dissipate just south of the southern Japanese islands. Satellite images of Jangmi and additional information on this system can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
  Tropical Storm Mekkhala organized over the South China Sea one week ago and traveled to the west-northwest before making landfall in northern Viet Nam by midweek.
  Tropical Storm Higos formed just east of the Philippines early last week, traveled across this island nation and continued to the west-northwest across the South China Sea. By Sunday, this storm had weakened to a tropical depression as it was about to make landfall along the southern China coast near Hong Kong. The NASA Hurricane Page has additional information and satellite images for Tropical Storm Higos.
Shortage of marine scientists foreseen -- A new joint report to Congress by the US Departments of Commerce and Education warns that a serious shortage of research scientists trained to rebuild fish stocks and restore marine species will occur in the next decade. [NOAA News]
Series of open houses scheduled on potential marine conservation areas --The federal government recently released a schedule for a series of open houses in Washington, DC, Honolulu, HI, Pago Pago, American Samoa and Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands within the next month that will be designed to seek public discussion on the recognition and protection of three specific marine areas in the Pacific west of the Hawaiian Islands, in American Samoa and in the western Pacific around the Northern Marianas. [NOAA News]
Applicants sought for advisory councils to national marine sanctuaries -- Several of NOAA's National Marine Sanctuaries are actively seeking applicants to the advisory councils for the individual sanctuaries that represent the public's interest in sanctuary matters and provide advice to the superintendents of these sanctuaries. The openings on the advisory councils are for the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary surrounding the main Hawaiian Islands [NOAA News]; the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary off California's Golden Gate to San Francisco Bay [NOAA News]; the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary off the central California coast [NOAA News] and Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary off the Georgia coast [NOAA News].
Saharan aerosols used to study climate change -- Scientists at Spain's University of Granada have discovered that a new airborne aerosol type called "iberulites" could be used to study atmospheric reactions involving cloud formation in the troposphere as they are carried from the Sahara to the Americas and to Europe, which could be useful for the study of climate change. [EurekAlert!]
Treating wastewater with commercial aquatic plants -- Researchers at Clemson University have found that commercially available aquatic plants can be used as cost-effective alternatives to natural wetland plants for wastewater treatment. [EurekAlert!]
Groundwater storage and drought relationships studied -- Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Germany's Bonn University have been studying how the amount of groundwater storage, as described by the depth of the water table, during a drought contributes to how the region responds to the changes in precipitation and temperature. These researchers also generated three simulations of future climate that were designed to study the response of the groundwater storage to variations in temperature and precipitation across central sections of North America. [EurekAlert!]
Record Arctic ice retreat noted - NASA scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center report that during a four-week interval in August 2098, the Arctic sea ice melted at a rate faster than previously seen during the nearly 30 years of satellite surveillance; by mid September, the extent of the Arctic sea ice was the second smallest on record. [NASA GSFC] The European Space Agency recently reported that the annual freeze-up of the Arctic Sea ice was underway by the end of September. [ESA]
Air then ocean contributed to thinning of Greenland glacier -- Scientists from New York University, NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Canada's Memorial University, the Danish Meteorological Institute, and the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources attribute the thinning of the Jakobshavn Isbræ glacier on Greenland to subsurface ocean warming that was preceded by changes in the atmospheric circulation pattern over the North Atlantic. [EurekAlert!]
Ice loss tracked on Greenland -- Researchers from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and the University of Texas at Austin have used data from the GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellites to track the contribution of the shrinking Greenland ice cap to the annual rise in global sea level. [Delft University of Technology]
Effects of Ike still apparent -- Recent images obtained from the ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) and the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) instruments on NASA’s Terra satellite from over the Upper Texas Gulf Coast help show the magnitude of the devastation from the storm surge and coastal flooding across the region when Hurricane Ike made landfall near Galveston in mid-September. [NASA Earth Observatory] [NASA Earth Observatory]
Gulf Coast bays are vulnerable to flooding -- An oceanography professor at Rice University and colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill warn that the bays along the Gulf Coast from Texas to Alabama could be flooded rapidly and often during this century because of a combination of rising sea levels and the sediments from the number of dammed rivers. They think that the bays could reach conditions similar to those experienced earlier in the Holocene (9600 to 7000 years ago). [EurekAlert!]
Paleozoic "sediment curve" helps track movements of sea-floor sediments -- Geologists with the National Science Foundation and Murphy Oil International of Houston, TX claim that a new sediment curve showing where marine sediments have been deposited during the Paleozoic Era (542 to 251 million years ago) can be used to derive predictive models for the migration of sediments along continental margins and in interior seaways. [EurekAlert!]
Back when the Sahara was green -- Scientists from Germany's Center for Marine Environmental Research in Bremen and the Alfred-Wegener-Institute in Bremerhaven report that their reconstruction of the vegetation cover and the hydrologic cycle of Africa's Sahara and Sahel regions from a marine sediment core obtained from off the coast of Northwest Africa indicate three episodes during the past 120.000 years when the region occupied by the current Sahara Desert contained extensive grasslands, lakes and other water bodies. [Kiel University]
An All-Hazards Monitor -- This Web portal provides the user information from NOAA on current environmental events that may pose as hazards such as tropical weather, drought, floods, marine weather, tsunamis, rip currents, Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and coral bleaching. [NOAAWatch]
Global and US Hazards/Climate Extremes -- A review and analysis of the global impacts of various weather-related events, including drought, floods, and storms during the current month. [NCDC]
Global Water News Watch -- Other water news sources can be obtained through the SAHRA Project at the University of Arizona [SAHRA Project]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Concept of the Week: Bottled Water

During the 1990s, bottled water soared in popularity among Americans. Today, they spend more than $7 billion a year on bottled water. Although 120 to 7500 times more costly per gallon than tap water, the demand for bottled water (especially in individualized containers) continues to climb for several reasons including convenience, health concerns, and dissatisfaction with the quality and taste of municipal tap water. Furthermore, clever ad campaigns have been very successful at persuading consumers of the advantages of drinking bottled water.

Although enamored by bottled water, the U.S. consumer must navigate through a variety of different brands (more than 900), and a potentially confusing terminology on labels mostly having to do with the source of the water. According to the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA), bottled water is defined as drinking water that is sugar-free, calorie-free, and contains no sweeteners or chemical additives other than small amounts of flavors or extracts. Bottled water may also have trace amounts of sodium. Beverages containing 1% or more by weight of flavors or extracts are classified as soft drinks. Soda water, seltzer water, and tonic water are considered soft drinks not bottled water because they may contain sugar and are not calorie-free.

About 75% of all bottled water comes from the subsurface. Bottled water from a well that taps a confined aquifer under hydrologic pressure is artesian water or artesian well water. Mineral water is groundwater that contains at least 250 parts per million (ppm) of dissolved solids from natural sources (i.e., dissolved bedrock, and sediment). Sparkling water contains dissolved carbon dioxide undiminished in concentration from its natural source. Spring water is groundwater that flows naturally to the surface of the Earth where an aquifer intercepts the ground. Well water is bottled water withdrawn from a hole drilled or bored into an aquifer. Collectively, all bottled water from subsurface sources is called natural water.

The quality of bottled water from the subsurface benefits from natural filtration as groundwater slowly seeps through permeable Earth materials. Nonetheless, in many cases bottlers employ additional purification steps such as applying ozone and/or ultraviolet light as disinfecting agents. Bottled water producers who use municipal sources (about 25% of the supply) typically (but not in all cases) reprocess the water for improved quality and taste through distillation, reverse osmosis, deionization, filtration, and/or ozonation. Labels on their products may include the terms purified water or distilled water. These same labels may include the statement "from a community water system," or "from a municipal source" meaning tap water.

While efforts at quality control of bottled water are designed to protect public health, a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) published in March 1999 raised some questions about whether enough is being done. The NRDC tested the quality of 1000 bottles of 103 brands of bottled water and found that not all the tested water was of high quality and some samples contained contaminants (http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/nbw.asp). Although the industry has strict standards and both federal and state governments regulate bottled water quality, the NRDC argues that existing regulations are not adequate. The NRDC recommends that the Food and Drug Administration set strict limits for contaminants in bottled water and that bottled water standards be at least as strict as those applicable to municipal (tap) water supplies.

Concept of the Week: Questions

By convention, bottled water is drinking water that is both sugar-free and calorie-free. [(True)(False)]
The source of most water in bottled water is [(subsurface)(surface)] reservoirs.

Historical Events

6 October 1967...Canada's 24-hour rainfall record was established at Ucluelet Brynnor Mines on Vancouver Island in British Columbia with 19.24 in. (Accord Weather Calendar)
7 October 1737...A furious cyclone in the Bay of Bengal caused a major disaster at the mouth of the Hoogby River near Calcutta, India. As many as 300,000 people were killed, mainly as the result of the storm's forty foot high surge. (Accord Weather Calendar)
8 October 1871...Prolonged drought and dry winds from the southwest led to the great Chicago fire, the Peshtigo horror, and the Michigan fire holocaust. Fire destroyed more than seventeen thousand buildings killing more than 200 persons in the city of Chicago, while on the same night a fire consumed the town of Peshtigo, WI killing more than 1100 persons. In Wisconsin, a million acres of land were burned, and in Michigan, 2.5 million acres were burned killing 200 persons. In northeastern Wisconsin, "tornadoes of fire" generated by intense heat caused houses to explode in fire, and burned to death scores of persons seeking refuge in open fields. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
9 October 1903...New York City was deluged with 11.17 in. of rain in 24 hours at Central Park to establish a state record, while 9.40 in. fell at Battery Park. Severe flooding occurred in the Passaic Valley of New Jersey where more than fifteen inches of rain was reported. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel) (Intellicast)
9 October 1936...The first generator at Boulder Dam, later renamed Hoover Dam, began generating electricity for Los Angeles. From 1939 to 1949, the Hoover power plant with 17 main turbines was the world's largest. (Today in Science History)
9 October 1967...A cyclone of relatively small dimension with a surface width of only 31 miles hit India's coast at Orissa and moved to the northeast along the coast for 75 miles. As many as 1000 people and 50,000 head of cattle died. A surge in the storm's wake penetrated 16 miles inland. (Accord Weather Calendar)
10 October 1973...Fifteen to 20 inches of rain deluged north central Oklahoma in thirteen hours producing record flooding. Enid was drenched with 15.68 inches of rain from the nearly stationary thunderstorms, which established a state 24-hour rainfall record. Dover, OK reported 125 of 150 homes damaged by flooding. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
10-16 October 1780...The most deadly Western Hemisphere hurricane on record raged across the Caribbean Sea. "Great Hurricane of 1780" killed 22,000 people on the islands of Martinique, St. Eustatius, and Barbados. Thousands more died at sea. (The Weather Doctor)
11 October 1737...Deadly cyclone and storm surge of 42 ft raced up the Hooghly River in India and through the city of Calcutta destroying an estimated 40,000 boats and drowning as many as 300,000 people. (The Weather Doctor)
11 October 1846...A very intense hurricane caused great destruction on the Florida Keys. Key West was virtually destroyed with 5 feet of water reported in the city. Fort Taylor was reduced to ruins. (Intellicast)
11 October 1954...A deluge of 6.72 inches of rain in 48 hours flooded the Chicago River, causing $10 million in damage in the Chicago area. Unofficial reports indicated as much as 12 inches of rain fell. (9th-11th) (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
11-12 October 1995...Heavy rain contributed to flooding along parts of I-75 near Ocala, FL. Five sinkholes up to 10 feet deep and 15 feet wide turned I-75 into a parking lot, as traffic was backed up for more than 5 miles. (Accord Weather Calendar)
12 October 1886...A hurricane made landfall between Sabine Pass, TX and Johnson's Bayou, LA. Tidal waves were said to be as high as 2-story buildings. The surge extended 20 miles inland, with 150 people killed. Survivors clung to trees or floated on mattresses. Only two of 100 homes in Sabine Pass were reparable. (Accord Weather Calendar)
12 October 1954...Hurricane Hazel pounded Haiti and the island of Hispaniola with winds of 125 mph. Many villages were reported totally destroyed and more than 1000 Haitians die. (The Weather Doctor)
12 October 1962...Remnants of Typhoon Freda struck the Pacific Coast of British Columbia's Vancouver Island. Wind speeds at Victoria reached 44 mph with gusts to 87 mph. Seven people died as a result of this storm that also caused $10 million in damage. (The Weather Doctor)
12 October 1979...The lowest observed sea-level barometric pressure (870 mb or 25.69 inches of mercury) was recorded near Guam in the western Pacific Ocean at the center of Typhoon Tip. (The Weather Doctor)
12 October 1982...Angoon, AK received 15.20 inches of precipitation, to set a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the 49th State. (NCDC)