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WATER SUPPLY

California:  Coalition Formed To Protect State's Water Supply
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   December 6 2004
   TheKCRAChannel
   http://www.thekcrachannel.com/news/3976057/detail.html
 
System Would Monitor For Bacteria, Viruses, Protozoa

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, Calif. -- In an effort to help monitor water
supplies and protect them from terrorist threats, a Northern
California lab and two private businesses have joined forces. 

Sandia National Lab -- under the Department of Energy, Tenix
-- Australia's largest defense contractor, and CH2M Hill -- a global
engineering firm have signed an agreement to develop equipment that
would look for bacteria, viruses and protozoa that could threaten
the public water supply. 

"It's designed to monitor the water supply every 30 minutes, or so
that a utility could shut off the water, the contaminated parts,
so it would not get to the public," said Sandia Labs spokesman
Arthur Pontau. 

Sandia Labs has already developed a handheld tester, but it needs
to take that technology and put it into a water system. 

"We know we can do it. We just have to actually do it in the field,"
said Sandia Labs spokeswoman Yolanda Fintschenko. 

Much of the state's water supply runs through the Central Valley.
The monitoring system may eventually be put into place at water
sources such as the California Aqueduct and reservoirs, but it will
first be put into place at treatment plants. Contra Costa Water
District will be testing a system within six months. 

"Our goal is to put high-quality water out. And something like this
product can help us in the long run by providing more information.
We would be real pleased about that," said district spokesman
Tom Linville. 

Sandia expects a monitoring system can be developed for wide use
within a couple of years. 



Copyright 2004 by TheKCRAChannel. All rights reserved.