Water News

EPA works on Great Lakes

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has allocated $13 million in federal funding to prevent Asian carp from migrating further toward the Great Lakes.

In February 2009, President Barack Obama proposed $475 million for a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, an unprecedented investment in the nation’s largest fresh surface water ecosystem. Congress approved that funding level and President Obama signed it into law in October.  The funding for immediate carp control measures would come from the $475 million initiative.

For more information, see www.epa.gov

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EPA rates country’s lakes

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released its most comprehensive study of the nation’s lakes to date.

The draft study, which rated the condition of 56% of the lakes in the United States as good and the remainder as fair or poor, marked the first time EPA and its partners used a nationally consistent approach to survey the ecological and water quality of lakes. A total of 1,028 lakes were randomly sampled during 2007 by states, tribes, and EPA.

For more information, see www.epa.gov

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Water conservation gains in prominence

VISTA, Calif.—Most facilities managers, fully 89%, think that concerns about water conservation will increase in 2010, according to a survey by AlturaSolutions Communications for Waterless Co.

The survey found that:

• 43% believe water costs will go up 15% or more.
• 30% foresee costs going up about 10%.
• 23% believe costs will go up about 5%.
• 4% do not believe water costs will go up 2010 or the near future.

For more information, see www.waterless.com

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Organizations develop lighting standards

IRVINE, Calif. — Space observations reveal that researchers from the University of Colorado and the NOAA's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science, to develop a more holistic approach to improving climate and air quality prediction models.

For more information, see www.cmu.edu

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