Wednesday Roundup: Bacteria, Water Reuse, Restoration, and More

Five stories and resources from the last week you don't want to miss:

EPA's proposed bacteria standards let 1 in 28 swimmers fall ill
The LA Times covered U.S. EPA's proposed update to safety criteria for bacteria in swimming waters. The story does a great summary of what these standards are coming under fire:

"Under the 1986 standards, the EPA itself calculated that the acceptable level of pollution (35 colony-forming bacterial units per 100 milliliters of marine water) would cause serious gastrointestinal illness in 8 out of 1,000 persons. That means diarrhea and nausea with fever. Since those numbers were produced, however, new science says that other, more basic belly illnesses – without fever – total 36 per 1,000 at those contamination levels. That’s 1 in 28. The new EPA proposal acknowledges these numbers but does not change its recommendations for beach closures or postings."

For more on EPA's proposal, check out this blog post.

Reclaimed wastewater: the technology is there, but is public opinion?
National Geographic ran a great article called Reclaimed Wastewater for Drinking: Safe but Still a Tough Sell as part of their Clean Water For All series.

U.S. EPA offers webinar on the Recovery Potential Screening tool
U.S. EPA is offering free training in how to use their new Recovery Potential Screening tool, as described in this blog post. To RSVP for the February 22nd webinar, visit the EPA's Watershed Academy page.

The Clean Water Act at 40: looking back and looking forward
I may be a bit biased, but I encourage you to check out this blog from River Network's President -- Forty Thoughts for Forty Years: Four Decades of the Clean Water Act. While not exactly news, it provides a motivation for all of us to stop and think about how the Act has helped protect and restore our river habitats, and how much more it needs to do to get the job done.

New NRDC report looks at creative financing for stormwater retrofits
For you stormwater control geeks out there (you know you are), NRDC's new report Financing Stormwater Retrofits in Philadelphia and Beyond is a must read. NRDC summarizes the report this way:

"Philadelphia encourages property owners to install green infrastructure techniques with a flagship stormwater billing structure that includes a significant credit (up to nearly 100 percent) for non-residential owners if they manage to keep the first inch of rainfall on their property rather than letting it runoff into the drain."

If you think this model is too small potatoes to think about, consider this excerpt from the report and ponder what it might mean in your city:

"Philadelphia has taken the lead among cities nationwide by establishing a parcel-based stormwater billing structure that provides a very significant credit (up to nearly 100 percent) for non-residential owners who can demonstrate onsite management of the first inch of rainfall over their entire parcel. Philadelphia’s fee and credit structure and the incentive it creates for private property owners to install stormwater retrofits complements the city’s Green City, Clean Waters program, which recently received approval from state regulators. That program requires the city, over the next 25 years, to retrofit nearly 10,000 impervious acres of public and private property to manage an inch of stormwater runoff onsite."