Great news for all you beach-loving sun worshippers out there. An agreement reached this week between the city of Malibu, Santa Monica Baykeeper and the Natural Resources Defense Council, aims at improving the quality of Maibu’s beachwater by reducing stormwater before it reaches the ocean.

All across America, beachwater pollution causes waterborne illnesses ranging from stomach flu and skin rashes to hepatitis and neurological disorders. Malibu is just one of the cities seeking a solution to stormwater runoff.

The Quench Weekly Water Top 10 recaps the week’s top stories on drinking water issues. Come back each week for the latest news!

• Water Conservation Month – April is one of the highest water demand months and, coincidentally, it’s also water conservation month. Start building better water habits with these helpful and quick tips!

• Sixty Year Old Problem Laid to Rest – The Dewey Loeffel dump has been leaking PCBs since the 1950s. General Electric Co. and chemical company SI Group will now have to pay up to $10 million to clean up the toxins.

• Savannah Harbor to Receive $30 Million, 75 Million-Gallon Reservoir – As part of the state’s harbor deepening plan, the reservoir will be the solution to a drinking water problem brought on by additional dredging.

• University of Iowa Denied – The school’s fifteen-year agreement with Coca Cola recently forced advocates looking to ban disposable water bottles on campus to find another solution.

• Des Plaines Longs for Simpler Days – As water prices in Chicago skyrocket, the city of Des Plaines reminisces via old photos and video a time when they could simply draw their water from a well.

• Lord Stanley’s Cup Overfloweth – To celebrate the beginning of the NHL 2012 playoffs, the league erected a 21 foot-tall, 6,600 lb. replica of the Stanley Cup right in the middle of Times Square. Best part is, it’s also a water fountain so now anyone can take a drink from the cup.

• Oklahoma City to Expand Water Capacity – The town of Enid will raise two water towers thanks to the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund at the cost of a mere $6 million.

• Tapping the Pacific – Ninety-five percent of the drinking water in Southern Orange County is imported from somewhere else. A coalition of five cities and water agencies has been working towards a better solution: drilling deep into the ocean floor, pumping up brackish water, super-filtering it and voila- drinking water, locally sourced.

• Clean Water Costs About to Ramp Up in Minnesota – Some Minnesota towns may face a rise in drinking water costs because of the high costs to clean up the water from runoff pollution from farms.

• Chalk One More Up for the Bans – The Vassar Student Association just passed a resolution banning bottled water from the college’s dining services and now the Tap That initiative is working to prepare students for the upcoming Committee on College Life’s referendum vote.

Drinking plenty of water each day prevents dehydration, cleans out the body and promotes healing processes.
A steady diet of 8 glasses of water a day (ideally, half your body weight in ounces of water), when it’s pure and free of contaminants, will:

• Improve your energy
• Remove toxins and waste products from your body
• Allow for proper digestion
• Increase your mental and physical performance
• Help you lose weight
• Reduce headaches and dizziness
• Keep skin healthy and glowing

There is a difference between drinking pure water and beverages that contain water. Coffee, soft drinks, tea and fruit beverages may contain substances that are not only harmful, but actually contradict some of the positive effects of the added water.

For each cup of coffee you consume, your body needs 3 cups of water to compensate for the water loss that occurs due to coffee’s diuretic effect.

Other caffeinated beverages, such as soft drinks and tea, also stimulate the adrenal glands and act as diuretics, robbing your body of necessary water. Soft drinks contain phosphorus, which can lead to depletion of bone calcium, and various acids, which can cause erosion of the enamel on your teeth. A 12-ounce can of regular soda contains the equivalent of 10 teaspoons of white sugar and loads of empty calories.

Fruit beverages or drinks such as PowerAde, Gatorade, lemonade, etc. may be fortified with vitamins or calcium, but usually has 10% or less real fruit juice. Sugar is the added sweetener. If you are drinking too much of these beverages daily, you may be unknowingly adding extra unwanted pounds to your waistline.

Chicago, New York and D.C. are all doing it and now Philadelphia adds itself to the list of cities that are embracing green infrastructure to manage stormwater flows and overflows.

While the city isn’t installing a City Hall rooftop garden like Chicago, it is planning on investing major money on some major infrastructure changes.

A two billion dollar agreement signed by the EPA and the city of Philadelphia aims to install porous pavements, rain gardens, grassy swales (or ditches) and other green infrastructure techniques to control the overflows of stormwater over the next eighteen years.

At least 60% of the human body is made of water. For example,

• Blood is 83% water
• Muscles are 75% water
• The brain is 74% water
• Bone is 22% water
• The total amount of water in the body of an average adult is 37 liters.
• A reduction of 4-5% in body water will result in a decline of 20-30% in work performance.
• An athlete commonly loses four or five quarts (of water) in a practice session.
• A person can live about a month without food, but only one week without water.
• Humans drink an average of 2,000 gallons of water throughout their life.
• Water intake may reduce the risk of heart attack.
• A six-year study of more than 20,000 healthy men and women aged 38-100 in the May 1, 2002, American Journal of Epidemiology found that women who drank more than 5 glasses of water a day were 41% less likely to die from a heart attack than those who drank less than two glasses.
• The protective effect of water was even greater in men.

The Quench Weekly Water Top 10 recaps the week’s top stories on drinking water issues. Come back each week for the latest news!

• New Probes Aim to Improve Well Water – Rural water system users in Colorado are working on water protection plans that will ensure a long, cool drink for many years to come.

• Athens Bans Oil and Gas Drilling – In an effort to protect the city’s drinking water, the City Council introduced an ordinance four days ago that would ban the drilling of oil and gas.

• Recent Texas Rains Not Enough – The recent spring rains in Texas have not been enough to pull the state out of a drought, so new organization Texas Water Smart tries to educate citizens on curbing wasteful water habits.

• Curbing a One Hundred and Eighteen-Year-Old Habit – With the simple push of a button Cape Girardeau’s water source changed from (heavily treated) Mississippi River water to well water. The city had been reliant on the river for drinking water for one hundred and eighteen years!

• Third Time’s a Charm? – For the third year in a row Concord, Massachusetts residents will vote on whether or not to ban the sale of plastic water bottles in town.

• Chronic Water Problems Forces Owner to Buy Bottled for His Pet – The city of Bunnell‘s water problem has been going on for eight years, residents will have to wait twenty-one more months.

• Better Bottle Bill Reaps $5 Million – New York’s Senator Grisanti and Assemblyman Latimer presented a proposal that would direct bottle deposit revenues to the Environmental Protection Fund, helping fill the gap between funding and long-term needs.

• Good News for Llano – Residents can stop boiling their water and start enjoying it again.

• Berkeley Residents Boil Your Water – Due to a main break Berkeley, New Jersey residents are warned to boil their water. The break is being fixed immediately.

• Our Nation’s Water System – Check out this cool interactive infografic on the history of the water infrastructure in America.

A new battle has broken out over water and this time it isn’t about  the latest institution to ban bottled water.

Palm Beach County bagel vendor, The Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Co., claims to have devised a new water treatment method that produces an exact chemical replica of  New York City’s “famously pure” tap water.

Others, namely one Boca Raton franchisee says the treatment process is a fraud. The OBWBC has been sued over its secret process three times since 2009, begging the question- is it really possible to Brooklynize your water?

The Quench Weekly Water Top 10 recaps the week’s top stories on drinking water issues. Come back each week for the latest news!

• Toxic Algae Visual – OK, so the toxic algae bloom that is in Lake Erie has been affecting the locals’ tap water. How exactly? Check out this video to see! Lake Erie Tap VS Regular Tap

• Salmon Falls To Be Fixed – Recently recognized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as being the most threatened water source in the nation, the Salmon Falls in Maine are undergoing a process to fix this issue.

• Sewage Overload – After over fifteen years of attempting to correct the city’s sewage overflow problems, the City of Lockport finally approved a plan to remedy the situation.

• New  York Tops New Jersey – In polluted bodies of water that is…the Hudson River remains the 24th most polluted river in America even after 40 years-worth of laws meant to clean it.

• New Hampshire Is Fed Up – A coalition of Great Bay area communities are banding together to sue the Department of Environmental Services for requiring “unnecessary multi-million dollar wastewater treatment upgrades.

• Prison Releasing More Than Ex-Cons – The Sierra Conservation Center in California was recently fined over thirty thousand dollars for releasing too much aluminum, chlorine and pH in its wastewater emmissions over the course of ten years.

• Youngstown Water Fit To Drink – The boil water advisory in Ohio was just lifted so drink up!

• Miami Water Outage – About six hundred Miami residents will go without water or have low water pressure, a main water line broke but will be fixe shortly.

• Water Will Be Radium-Free By 2013 – The Hammonton Town Council recently approved a $2.1 million bond to take the radioactive element out of the public drinking water supply.

• Iowa Files Suit – In an effort to curb the excess nutrients released from farms and cities into the local drinking water supply the city of New Orleans is suing the EPA.

If you read our blog you will remember the recent ban-repeal-ban story about the Grand Canyon National Park and it’s (final) decision amidst a flurry of accusations that the park was being influenced by Coca Cola to ban the sales of bottled water.

Well listen up, this is one instance away from becoming a trend. As of March 21, the Saguaro National Park in Arizona banned not just bottled water, it’s getting rid of every plastic bottle and all its vending machines.

The companies involved in this affair are Pepsi and Gatorade, both of which negotiations were made to ensure an amicable parting.

Hikers in search of precious electrolytes will be able to purchase powdered Gatorade in packages while thirsty travelers can visit the many refilling stations installed and being installed on the park’s grounds.

The Quench Weekly Water Top 10 recaps the week’s top stories on drinking water issues. Come back each week for the latest news!

• World Water Day: A Pictoral Retrospect – Check out this awesome slide show celebrating World Water Day in photos! Here’s a (very) small preview:

• UC Berkeley and Emerson College Fall In – They are the two latest schools to ban the sales of bottled water on campus.

• Can Ask, Won’t Tell – A new Pennsylvania law prohibits doctors from sharing helpful information about the harmful carcinogens found in fracking fluids and the effects they have on the human body.

• New Tool Has Local Uses – Check out this awesome tool that gives you local TDS levels of your drinking water!

• Extent of Nitrogen Pollution in California Drinking Water Laid Out – A group of scientists laid out exactly how much nitrogen pollution from intensively farmed areas affects the local drinking water quality.

• World Water Day Discoveries – According to a new Public Water Works report, it doesn’t matter which party you belong to, everyone supports investing in the nation’s public water systems.

• More Corruption in D.C. – The city’s inspector general found that the city lied to the EPA back in 2000 to 2003 about testing for lead levels in the drinking water. For shame.

• Funny Tasting Water Just A Routine – If you live in the District, Falls Church or Arlington Counties your water may taste funny from March 26 – May 7. Why? It’s an annual disinfection process.

• EPA Working With Small Communities – In order to lower levels of arsenic in the water, the EPA is working on affordable ways for smaller communities to meet the federal standard.

• World Water Day Summit Finds Work Still Needed – One finding that the summit came to on Thursday was that we need more global efforts to provide cleaner drinking water.