Portland City Council will consider this week a proposal to build a water treatment plant (LT2) for our pristine Bull Run water. The plan is, we are told, designed to address a US EPA requirement that all drinking water in the US be treated/filtered for Cryptosporidium. While this cookie cutter approach will likely add to the safety of water in other cities, it is not appropriate in Portland because our Bull Run system supplies water with virtually no possibility of contamination. Cryptosporidium in a form that is lethal to humans has never been found in the Bull Run water system. There has been no demonstrated need for treatment/filtration.

The construction of a water treatment plant will be very expensive, $385 million, all of it to be paid for by the city water users. The $385 million would be financed via the issuance of bonds; interest payments due and paid for by water users would increase that figure to close to $1 billion dollars.

Alliance for Democracy has joined others in calling for the Portland city council to postpone a decision until later in August, and to hold public meetings scheduled it a time when citizens can attend. Ask the Portland city council now to postpone a decision until the public can gain knowledge of what is at stake and can get their voices heard. In addition to the letter below from Oregon Wild, please see the editional comment by the Oregonian where they write "The best solution, of course, is the one that would cost nothing: Leave Portland's water alone."

[Background Article:  http://friendsofreservoirs.org/background.html]

There is a massive campaign underway to “turn on the pumps” and deliver additional water to corporate agribusiness in the western Central Valley. Agribusiness interests and their allies claim environmental and water activists care more about fish than people and are demanding more water, now!

Corporate agriculture’s campaign is being run by Burson-Marsteller (B-M), the astroturfing Public Relations firm that has been hired by the California Latino Water Coalition. MSNBC talk show host Rachel Maddow, in a March telecast, called B-M “the PR firm from hell” and said it had been hired to improve the “image” of AIG, the company that has received $170 billion in taxpayer bailout money. B-M has also represented the private security firm Blackwater, Union Carbide in the Bhopal India incident, and Babcock & Wilcox, manufacturers of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant. Read More

Earth Day 2009 was cause for celebration with festivals in Sunnyvale and Santa Cruz, but also cause for concern. While elementary school students in the East Bay cleaned up pollution along the Albany waterfront, university students at Stanford addressed the problem of access to water in Africa. More than 60 students carried water in buckets across Stanford's campus to bring attention to the fact that daily clean water access is not a reality for 1.1 billion people around the world. Read More | | | Related: So Pac R/R blesses Ashland Earthday w/poison! | Oly Celebrates Earth Day

Captain Paul Watson writes: The Oceans are like the Goose that Laid the Golden Egg. As long as it was alive it laid a golden egg each day but then the greedy farmer decided to kill it to get all the gold inside and found nothing and the Goose laid no more golden eggs because it was dead.... We humans have waged an intensive and ruthless exploitation on practically every species of fish in the sea and they are disappearing. If we don't put an end to industrialized fishing vessels and heavy gear very soon, we will kill the oceans and in so doing, we will kill ourselves.

Time is of the essence to urge and press Portland City Council to vigorously seek legislative relief from the onerous and misdirected requirements of the EPA's Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule (LT2). Otherwise, the result will be the costly loss of our open reservoirs and costly filtration of our pristine Bull Run water. There is a critical public hearing on March 25, 2009 at 2:30, at City Hall downtown. There, the Water Bureau will be asking City Council to accept and include in the budget plans to eliminate all 5 open reservoirs & build a filtration plant.

Southern and Western Maine communities and their allies have united in their efforts against Nestlé's water mining in the region. They will rally and hold a press conference to support the people of Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, Wells and Ogunquid who are opposed to the Trustees of the Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Wells Water District signing a contract with Nestlé. Contract would allow Nestle to pump millions of gallons of water for bottling from recently preserved highly sensitive ecological land.

Following the lead of Howard Dearborn, a crowd packed onto a small bridge, and with a countdown overturned their bottles of Poland Spring water. They watched gleefully as it poured into a stream to flow back to where it belonged.

In all, about fifty people turned up at Lovewell Pond in Fryeburg, Maine on December 8th in order to draw attention to the impact of large-scale water extraction on the watershed. Folks of all ages, from Fryeburg and the surrounding communities, talked about their concerns over the ecosystem and their opposition to Poland Spring's proposed bottling plant in Fryeburg. Two representatives from Poland Spring were also present, in order to present "their side" of the story. Ron Dyer, environmental manager for Poland Spring, claimed "It broke my heart to see water being dumped out." Read More >> | Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Come party and celebrate with us on September 15th at AREA 57 Studios, 5701 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami (Doors Open 2pm) and over 350 locations worldwide in a global convergence of peace, music, art and environmental awareness. Earthdance features a synchronized “Prayer for Peace” (7PM EST) followed by a Global OM as we focus on our intentions simultaneously with people across the globe. This year’s global theme is water. Come be a part of the world’s biggest global party and give peace a dance.

Water for the Wells brings together Baltimore poets and musicians who are organizing benefit performances to raise $1,200 to build a single village well in Mali, East Africa. This may only be the beginning, says organizer Marcus Colasurdo

The small community of Felton is going toe to toe with the nation's largest private water company, American Water, which bought Felton's water system in 2002. American Water serves some 18 million customers in 29 states, including California, Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois, and Ohio. The community of Felton voted overwhelmingly to buy their water system back, but the company refuses to sell. Now the people of Felton plan to use eminent domain to buy back their water system, but American Water has spent millions of dollars resisting.

Oregon House Bill 3099, a mandatory water fluoridation bill which seeks to force the introduction of industrial toxic waste products into our drinking water, is very close to becoming law. After initial opposition was too strong to pass the original bill, "opt-out" clauses have been added, but this is still a wolf in sheep's clothing -- just a few extra phone calls and/or e-mails could make the difference. If you are familiar with the issue already, please take a few minutes to take action now, otherwise find out more now!