International experiences in stormwater fee.

Stormwater management (SWM) includes a wide range of services aimed at environmental protection, enhancement of water resources and flood control. Local governments are responsible for managing all these aspects within their jurisdiction, but they often present limitations in generating revenues. Thus, many municipalities have been seeking a dedicated funding source for these programs and practices. This publication provides a brief overview of current legal issues associated with stormwater funding focusing on the most used method: fees. It is a successful mechanism to fund legal obligations of municipalities; however, it must have a significant value to motivate the reduction of runoff. Through literature, we found stormwater fees in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, France, Germany, Poland, South Africa and the United States (USA). France had the highest average monthly fee, but this financing experience was suspended in 2014. Brazil has the lowest fee by m², comparable to the US fee. While in Brazil overall SWM represents low priority investments, the USA represents one of the most evolved countries in stormwater funding practices. It was noticed by reviewing the international experience that charging stormwater fees is a successful mechanism to fund the legal obligations and environmental protection.

[The necessity of new approaches to the elaboration of the projects for the sanitary (mountainous sanitary) protection districts around the therapeutic and health-promotion facilities, health resorts and their natural medical resources].

The international experience gained during the past two centuries indicates that the most efficient and rational way to ensure the protection of the territories occupied by the therapeutic and health-promotion facilities, spa centres, and health resorts together with their natural medical resources is to set up sanitary (mountainous sanitary) protection districts or zones along the perimeter of these territories. Beginning from 2000, numerous changes and amendments have been annually introduced in the Russian legislation intended to ensure efficacious control over the rational exploitation of the territories of therapeutic and health-promotion value and their natural medical resources. These initiatives have negative effect on the activities of these organizations and the quality of the services they are expected to provide. Taken together these effects lead to the degradation of the spa and health resort business. Bearing in mind the current conditions for economic activities, it is proposed, in contrast to the former global approach, to envisage in the aforementioned projects the establishment of the sanitary (mountainous sanitary) protection districts or zones and determine their borders based on the results of the assessment of their potential for the protection of therapeutic factors and other valuable resources. Equally important is the maximum reduction of the areas of the second and third zones taking into account their relevant objective characteristics. In certain cases, the protective district may coincide with the second zone. As far as the federal health resorts and large territories of special health-promotion value are concerned, some of them may have two or more sanitary (mountainous sanitary) protection districts. Both the owners and the users of these territories should be provided the necessary and sufficient possibilities for the rational nature use at the grounds and in the adjacent water areas suitable for the development of health resort business in the conditions guaranteed by the national legislation.

Compliance work for food contact materials: feasibility of the legally required safety assessment of an epoxy/amine-based coating for domestic water pipe restoration.

Options were explored for fulfilling the legally required safety assessment for a widely applied epoxy/amine coating used for restoring corroded domestic drinking water supply systems. The coating was made up of two components mixed shortly before application, the first mainly consisting of bisphenol A diglycidyl ether (BADGE), the second of various amines. The analytically identified starting substances were all authorised, but only constituted a small proportion of the low molecular mass material left after curing and potentially migrating into water. Reaction products synthesised from constituents of the starting components (expected oligomers) could not be eluted from GC even after derivatisation, indicating that standard GC-MS screening would miss most potential migrants. They were detectable by size exclusion chromatography (SEC) after acetylation. HPLC with MS or fluorescence detection was possible for constituents including a BADGE moiety, but phenalkamines could not be detected with adequate sensitivity. Possibilities for determining long-term migration relevant for chronic toxicity are discussed. Analysis in water shortly after application of the coating overestimates migration if migration decreases over time and requires detection limits far out of reach. Analysis of a solvent extract of the coating is easier and provides an upper estimate of what could migrate into the drinking water over the years. However, to satisfy the regulatory requirements, components of the complex mixture need to be identified at lower proportions than those accessible. In vitro testing of the whole mixture for genotoxicity is expected to fail because of the required sensitivity and the glycidyl functions probably wrongly resulting in positive tests. The difficulties in dealing with this situation are discussed.

Student-reported school drinking fountain availability by youth characteristics and state plumbing codes.

INTRODUCTION: Caloric intake among children could be reduced if sugar-sweetened beverages were replaced by plain water. School drinking water infrastructure is dictated in part by state plumbing codes, which generally require a minimum ratio of drinking fountains to students. Actual availability of drinking fountains in schools and how availability differs according to plumbing codes is unknown. METHODS: We abstracted state plumbing code data and used the 2010 YouthStyles survey data from 1,196 youth aged 9 through 18 years from 47 states. We assessed youth-reported school drinking fountain or dispenser availability and differences in availability according to state plumbing codes, sociodemographic characteristics, and area-level characteristics. RESULTS: Overall, 57.3% of youth reported that drinking fountains or dispensers in their schools were widely available, 40.1% reported there were only a few, and 2.6% reported that there were no working fountains. Reported fountain availability differed significantly (P < .01) by race/ethnicity, census region, the fountain to student ratio specified in plumbing codes, and whether plumbing codes allowed substitution of nonplumbed water sources for plumbed fountains. "Widely available" fountain access ranged from 45.7% in the West to 65.4% in the Midwest and was less common where state plumbing codes required 1 fountain per more than 100 students (45.4%) compared with 1 fountain per 100 students (60.1%) or 1 fountain per fewer than 100 students (57.6%). CONCLUSION: Interventions designed to increase consumption of water may want to consider the role of plumbing codes in availability of school drinking fountains.

Copper disinfection ban causes storm.

Since 1 February this year, under the EU's Biocidal Products Directive, it has been illegal to sell or use water treatment systems that use elemental copper, a practice employed historically by a significant number of UK healthcare facilities to combat Legionella. Alan Lester, managing director of specialist supplier of 'environmentally-friendly' water treatment systems, Advanced Hydro, says the ban has caused 'a storm of giant proportion,' with advocates of copper ion-based treatment systems arguing that this disinfection method dates back 3,000 years to Egyptian times, making it an 'undoubtedly proven' technology. Here he explains why the ban came into force, considers why the UK's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is seeking a derogation, looks at the ban's likely impact, and gives a personal viewpoint on the 'pros and cons' of some of the alternative treatment technologies, including a titanium dioxide-based system marketed by Advanced Hydro itself in the UK.

Environmental impact assessment of structural flood mitigation measures by a rapid impact assessment matrix (RIAM) technique: a case study in Metro Manila, Philippines.

In recent decades, the practice of environmental impact assessment (EIA) in the planning processes of infrastructure projects has created significant awareness on the benefits of environmentally sound and sustainable urban development around the world. In the highly urbanized megacities in the Philippines, like Metro Manila, high priority is given by the national government to structural flood mitigation measures (SFMM) due to the persistently high frequency of flood-related disasters, which are exacerbated by the on-going effects of climate change. EIA thus, should be carefully and effectively executed to maximize the potential benefits of the SFMM. The common practice of EIA in the Philippines is generally qualitative and lacks clear methodology in evaluating multi-criteria systems. Thus, this study proposes the use of the rapid impact assessment matrix (RIAM) technique to provide a method that would systematically and quantitatively evaluate the socio-economic and environmental impacts of planned SFMM in Metro Manila. The RIAM technique was slightly modified to fit the requirements of this study. The scale of impact was determined for each perceived impact, and based on the results, the planned SFMM for Metro Manila will likely bring significant benefits; however, significant negative impacts may also likely occur. The proposed modifications were found to be highly compatible with RIAM, and the results of the RIAM analysis provided a clear view of the impacts associated with the implementation of SFMM projects. This may prove to be valuable in the practice of EIA in the Philippines.

[Analysis of differences among hygienic requirements of habitable garrets in Italian regions]. / Analisi delle differenze fra i requisiti igienico-sanitari dei sottotetti abitabili nelle diverse regioni italiane.

Recently the Italian Supreme Court has sentenced that garrets not suitable for common usage belong to the owners of the dwellings positioned below. These spaces may be transformed into living areas, which is particularly convenient in this moment of housing shortage. In this study the authors analyze the minimum hygienic requirements for transformed garrets established by each regional law, and underline the considerable differences authorized by the laws. For example, there is a tolerated difference of +/-0,4 m for the the minimum height, and therefore there is a large variability accepted for the volumes of the rooms, namely a tolerated range of 3,6 m3 per capita in single rooms and 2,8 m3 per capita in double rooms; such accepted values are very close to (and sometimes below) the limits for living spaces that have been recommended by the international community. Finally, the authors stress the importance of planning sanitary interventions to protect the health of the inhabitants of those dwellings.

Public­private partnerships in solid waste management: sustainable development strategies for Brazil.

An often overlooked issue in the discussion of sustainable development is that of municipal solid waste management. Yet solid waste management is pervasive in all sustainable development objectives: its management, or lack thereof, can have major implications for the health of the environment, economy and society. This article argues the need for a governance dimension in the sustainability model, taking into account implementation strategies, monitoring and institutional controls. This focus heavily relies on integrated public­private partnerships and deliberative democracy approaches in order to achieve sustainability within the solid waste management sector. In this article, national and local policies in Brazil are analysed, primarily focusing on the inclusion of informal waste collection into municipal solid waste management schemes. The city of Curitiba, in the state of Paraná, which is world-renowned for its innovative sustainable development policies, is used to frame and illustrate the case.

From source to sink: "official" and "improved" water in Delhi, 1868­1956.

This article examines the making of a modern colonial city through the rhetoric of 'improvement' and 'progress' in relation to water. The reference is to the history of water in the city of Delhi and what may be called 'the first science of environment' in a colonial urban context, with a focus not so much on the 'extent' of water supply and drainage, and its (in)adequacy in the colonial city, as on concerns around the '(im)purity' of water, narratives of pollution, technologies of purity and the transformations they effected in a colonial context. In doing so it hopes to build upon a rich tradition of writings on urban water, its modernisation as also its location within a colonial regime, being suggestive of a framework in which we may consider water both as infrastructure and as environment, as much a network of pipes and drains as matters of pollution and well-being, as much a story of the search for and protection of the source as of the fate of the sink into which it ultimately flows.

The influence of the operational environment on the efficiency of water utilities.

Adjusting for the operational environment in studies of performance measurement is very important, otherwise the analysis may lead to unrealistic scores, especially when its influence on costs is high, such as in the water utilities. In this paper, we study the influence of exogenous variables on the water utilities performance by applying conditional efficiency measures based on the order-m method and its probabilistic formulation. We use a sample of 66 water utilities operating between 2002 and 2008, representing about 70% of the Portuguese population. Our research suggests that inefficiency of Portuguese water utilities is substantial for some utilities: several exogenous variables might influence it considerably. For example, regulation has a positive influence on efficiency but when drinking water supply and wastewater services are provided by the same utility or when the wholesale and retail activities are provided together, the performance is lower. The effect of ownership is inconclusive and the variables residential customers, water source, peak factor, and density of customers have a mixed influence on performance which varies according to their scores.

Safe hot tap water: knowledge, attitude and practice of plumbers, students and regulatory authorities following the introduction of plumbing regulations in NSW, Australia.

Regulations to restrict the temperature of domestic hot tap water were introduced in NSW in 1999. This study investigates the impact of the regulations on the knowledge, attitude and practice of workforce professionals responsible for their uptake and enforcement. Telephone surveys were conducted with a random sample of 110 plumbers and 30 regulating authorities. Surveys were recorded, transcribed and coded. Written questionnaires were completed by 151 plumbing students. The regulations are well known and supported by the majority of plumbers, students and regulators; however 75% of plumbers reported customer dissatisfaction with them. Only a minority of plumbers (11%), students (7%) and regulators (27%) correctly appreciated the impact of a decrease in water temperature in reducing burns. This study identifies the need to improve plumbers and students' understanding of the safety issues underlying the regulations in order to promote more effective advocacy for homes not currently covered by the regulations, and to provide more public education to increase acceptance of them. As only houses built or substantially renovated after June 1999 are likely to have been impacted by the current regulations, there is a need to increase the scope of the regulations to include not only new installations, but also the replacement of existing heated water units if the goal of universal protection is to be achieved.

"Cholera forcing". The myth of the good epidemic and the coming of good water.

It has been frequently claimed that cholera epidemics, both in the 19th century and today, were and can be the key stimulus for procurement of safe water and sanitation, an idea that I call "cholera forcing." "Technology forcing" refers to imposition of exogenous factors that suddenly make possible achievements that had not seemed so; cholera has been seen in this light. I argue that this view oversimplifies and underrepresents the importance of industrialization in securing water supplies. Careful study of the financial, political, and administrative foundations of such changes will be more fruitful.

The lead industry and lead water pipes "A Modest Campaign".

Lead pipes for carrying drinking water were well recognized as a cause of lead poisoning by the late 1800s in the United States. By the 1920s, many cities and towns were prohibiting or restricting their use. To combat this trend, the lead industry carried out a prolonged and effective campaign to promote the use of lead pipes. Led by the Lead Industries Association (LIA), representatives were sent to speak with plumbers' organizations, local water authorities, architects, and federal officials. The LIA also published numerous articles and books that extolled the advantages of lead over other materials and gave practical advice on the installation and repair of lead pipes. The LIA's activities over several decades therefore contributed to the present-day public health and economic cost of lead water pipes.

Volatile organic compound emissions from wastewater treatment plants in Taiwan: legal regulations and costs of control.

This study assessed volatile organic compound (VOC) emission characteristics from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in five Taiwanese industrial districts engaged in numerous manufacturing processes, including petrochemical, science-based industry (primarily semiconductors, photo-electronics, electronic products and biological technology), as well as multiple manufacturing processes (primarily pharmaceuticals and paint manufacturing). The most aqueous hydrocarbons dissolved in the wastewater of Taiwanese WWTPs were acetone, acrylonitrile, methylene chloride, and chloroform for the petrochemical districts; acetone, chloroform, and toluene for the science-based districts; and chlorinated and aromatic hydrocarbons for the multiple industrial districts. The aqueous pollutants in the united WWTPs were closely related to the characteristics of the manufacturing plants in the districts. To effectively prevent VOC emissions from the primary treatment section of petrochemical WWTPs, the updated regulations governing VOC emissions were issued by the Taiwanese Environmental Protection Administration in September 2005, legally mandating a seal cover system incorporating venting and air purification equipment. Cost analysis indicates that incinerators with regenerative heat recovery are optimal for treating high VOC concentrations, exceeding 10,000 ppm as CH(4), from the oil separation basins. However, the emission concentrations, ranging from 100 to 1,000 ppm as CH(4) from the other primary treatment facilities and bio-treatment stages, should be collected and then injected into the biological oxidation basins via existing or new blowers. The additional capital and operating costs required to treat the VOC emissions of 1,000 ppm as CH(4) from primary treatment facilities are less than USD 0.1 for per m(3) wastewater treatment capacity.