In The news

The “thumb” of Michigan, outlined by Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron, is a peninsula rich in lakes, rivers and streams. Given the ecologically sensitive territory, smaller towns with limited resources can find it challenging to meet state mandated wastewater discharge permit levels. The Population 1,035 village of North Branch, about 30 miles northeast of Flint, faced problems of excessive phosphorous in its four-pond facultative system.

ST. HELENS - Last February, the City of St. Helens was looking for a way to reduce costs at its primary treatment lagoon, while ensuring the lagoon was still properly aerated and mixed. The city found its answer in the purchase of two Solar Bees, solar-panel-run sludge mixer. That decision recently won them the state award from the Oregon Leaders Award.

Newcastle • Scientists at Newcastle Reservoir are stirring things up to see if a new technique using a solar-powered pump will reduce high mercury levels in the water. If it works, the procedure may be used on other contaminated bodies of water in Utah.

Newcastle is one of 16 bodies of water in Utah that have mercury levels high enough to prompt advisories about eating fish caught in them.

Hydrologists with the U.S. Geological Survey placed the platform pump in July near the dam of the reservoir, which is about 30 miles west of Cedar City.

Award-winning circulation technology reduces blue-green algae.

Greenfield Lake, an idyllic cypress swamp surrounded by walking paths and bridges, is a popular recreation area in Wilmington, North Carolina. Residents and visitors enjoy picnicking, gardens, an amphitheater, boating and fishing.

But when blue-green algae took over the swamp, the water turned to pea soup and weeds grew thick along the shore. The shallow, 100-acre reservoir is primarily fed by stormwater via several drainage pipes throughout the basin. Boaters preferred to go elsewhere.

Solar-powered device to be tested for improving water quality

Something new is floating in the Inner Harbor. Not litter this time, but a space age-looking gadget meant to see whether new life can be breathed into the troubled body of water.

SolarBee and H2O Logics have begun to install their water circulation devices in the valleys reservoir. The new devices were purchased by the town to help improve the quality of water entering the towns water plant.

SolarBees are designed to circulate water and control the growth of blue and green algae. The state of the art machines are programed to run at different speeds, adjusting to the time of day or season.

The magnetic motors for the water circulation devices are powered by solar panels, requiring no outside power source, and helping keep costs low.

There is a little piece of paradise in the foothills of the upper Piedmont area of North Carolina, but most residents just call it Eden. Like many small towns, Eden is prized for its unique attractions—a vintage drive-in movie theater, annual bluegrass concert and rubber duck regatta, to name a few—as well as proximity to big-city conveniences.

Glendale (Calif.) Water & Power (GWP) operates and maintains a potable water system serving approximately 210,000 people with 380 miles of distribution system piping and 28 storage facilities. The potable storage facilities consist of in-ground reservoirs, aboveground steel tanks and partially buried reservoirs with storage capacities that range from 80,000 gal to 57 million gal. The tallest storage facility is a more-than-50-ft aboveground tank with difficult road access.

Wiconisco WWTP buys 3 SBs to replace the operation of 6 grid-powered aerators. Over 20 years, the plant will save $251,205 in operation expenses, eliminate consumption of 2,496,000 kWh electricity, and eliminate 1,072,800 kg CO2 emissions to air, thereby reducing operating expenses and helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and global climate change.

Public access to fisheries is under assault, but that’s not the only threat to sportfishing. Here’s how you can help

WASHINGTON — Threats to fishing change and evolve over time.

Through the 1980s, anglers mostly worried about and worked to stop pollution. Although occasionally slow moving and ineffective, the federal government proved a valuable ally, providing an arsenal of weapons that included the Clean Water Act and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Oh, how times have changed.

More than pesky surface scum, new algae blooms are killing fish, poisoning wildlife and harming humans

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — As pollution degrades our water, it also feeds a toxic outbreak that threatens our fisheries and our future.

“We are approaching a tipping point where we might not be able to get back to what used to be,” said Dr. Ken Hudnell, a neurotoxicologist and adjunct associate research professor at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.

METAMORA — Metamora village’s Downtown Development Authority plans to fund an energy-conscious improvement to the village’s sewer system. Council members discussed the project at Monday’s meeting, along with other village business.

Village president John Clark says the DDA will underwrite the cost of a SolarBee system for the sewer lagoon. The SolarBee is a solar-powered circulating unit that sits in the sewer lagoon. The moving paddles of the SolarBee aerate the lagoon and help to reduce odors as well as help to decrease phosphorous levels.

MIDDLEPORT — A maintenance and support plan for the four-unit Solar-Bee system in Middleport’s sewage lagoon system has been approved by village council.

Meeting Monday night, council approved unanimously a three-year service contract with Solar-BeeKeeper on recommendation of the committee chairman Rae Moore and village administrator Fayman Roberts.

The Solar-Bee system, brushless mixers which operate on solar power, was installed last fall. It came at no cost to the village, having been completely paid for with federal stimulus grant money, according to Roberts.

Commerce officials plan to buy or lease three solar-powered devices to prevent algae from causing foul-tasting water each spring at the city’s reservoir.

Three SolarBee mixers in the city’s 300-acre reservoir could eliminate the dirty taste that plagues the reservoir during “turnovers” each spring. This past spring’s event was the worst on record, lasting 10 days.