Let the Water Wars begin...

Idaho Press-Tribune
US Water News

BOISE, Idaho -- The state's top water official has given hundreds of farmers, dairymen and other groundwater users in southern Idaho until July 6 to quit pumping or satisfy the demands of two trout farms that say they've been forced to slash fish production because they aren't getting water they're legally due.

The order from Dave Tuthill, state Department of Water Resources director, covers 591 water rights over 16,638 acres, fewer than the 771 water rights on 33,000 acres discussed when Tuthill announced a proposed curtailment in April.

Lynn Tominaga, director of the Idaho Ground Water Appropriators:["...The problem that you run into is the lending institutions," he told The Associated Press. "If a bank knows that you don't have the water to finish out your crop and harvest, are you going to get a loan to farm?"

Great Seafood Choices...sustainably!

from the Chicago Sun-Times
BY JENNIFER OLVERA


Seafood choices for healthy oceans
Your consumer choices make a difference. Support fisheries and fish farms that are healthier for ocean wildlife and the environment.

BEST CHOICES

Catfish (U.S. farmed)

Salmon (wild caught from Alaska)

Shrimp (trap caught)

Tilapia (U.S. farmed)

Rainbow trout (farmed)

GOOD ALTERNATIVES

Cod (Pacific)

Crab (imitation/Surimi)

Scallops (Bay)

Tuna (canned light)

Tuna (canned white/Albacore)

AVOID

Chilean sea bass (tooth fish*)

Flounder (Atlantic Groupers*)

Halibut (Atlantic)

Shrimp (imported farmed or trawl-caught)

Soles (Atlantic)

*Limit consumption due to concerns about mercury or other contaminants. Visit www.oceansalive.org/eat.cfm

Got Interviewed by Wall Street Reporter...

They got wind of our oxygen/ozone patent filings, and I got a phone call. This, after after spending a weekend putting together a video clip. I guess once you get the concepts down it's easy, but it's a whole different bag o' tricks. I've got eyestrain, but I couldn't of done the thing at all without a friend. Thanks, Mr. Peter! (I'll post that clip soon).

I guess I prattled on for the reporter a bit about the history of this process of diffusing gas streams into water, as well as the newest trials. Also covered an agreement with a DOD company for licensing this technology.

This interview can now be accessed by clicking: http://www.wallstreetreporter.com/profile.php?id=24910

Camp Lejeune Cancer Link

In Congressional testimony, Jerry Ensminger, a Marine for 24 years, lost his 9-year-old daughter to leukemia.

AP Photo by Susan Walsh

HIGHLIGHTS
• 75,000 Marines, families exposed to toxic tap water, health official said
• Chemicals in water may be carcinogens
• Children on based have had cancer and other disorders
• 850 former Camp Lejeune residents have filed legal claims

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Some 75,000 Marines and their families at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina were exposed to toxic tap water that may have caused cancer and birth defects, a federal health official testified Tuesday.

Results of a new study of the base's water were released Tuesday, the same day lawmakers heard emotional testimony from families who were affected by the water, which contained 40 times the amount of toxins considered safe by today's standards.

Camp Lejeune's water supply was polluted from 1957 until 1987 by TCE, a degreasing solvent, and PCE, a dry cleaning agent. The chemicals apparently came from a dry cleaning store near the base, according to the government.

The substances are possible carcinogens.

Camp kids have cancer, disorders

Jerry Ensminger, a 24-year Marine Corps veteran, said his daughter, Jane, born in 1976 at Camp Lejeune, was diagnosed with leukemia at age 6 and died at age 9.

Jeff Byron, a former Marine air traffic controller, moved with his family into base housing in 1982, three months after his first daughter Andrea was born and two years before his daughter Rachel was born.

Rachel is developmentally disabled, has spina bifida and was born with a cleft palate, he said. Andrea has a rare bone marrow syndrome known as aplastic anemia, according to Byron's testimony.

Dr. Michael Gros, a Navy obstetrician at Camp Lejeune in the early 1980s, was diagnosed with lymphoma after living in Camp Lejeune housing, he said.

Gros said he has had to give up his medical practice and his treatment has cost more than $4.5 million.

Thomas Sinks, deputy director of the National Center for Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the reports are anecdotal and that there has been no proven link between specific cases of illness and the contaminated water.

At least 850 former Camp Lejeune residents have filed legal claims. (From CNN.com)

***Executive Fish says: The poison in question was pumped to Marine households from 1957 and 1987, and was discovered in 1982. Why did they not cap those two wells immediately upon discovery, and take action? Test your water. Filter your water.

More on Plastics...

By Jane Akre - Common Ground

Phthalates are plasticizers, chemicals that make our pipes more flexible and our upholstery more comfortable.

But phthalates are also one of about 70 suspected endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) present in products ranging from makeup to detergents to children's toys. EDCs are now present in the bodies of every man, woman, child and fetus in the United States.

Pioneer zoologist Theo Colborn, in her book Our Stolen Future, reported countless examples of reproductive disorders among wildlife. Colborn traced the disorders to chemical exposure, and suggested that EDCs profoundly affect the endocrine system by mimicking natural hormones and blocking their uptake to the receptor sites.

This can disrupt everything from development and behavior to reproduction and immunity.

Even the tiniest hormone variation at certain critical points in fetal development can affect a child's future health. Two years ago, a study showed that pregnant women with higher urine concentrations of phthalates were more likely to give birth to sons with incomplete male genital development, a disorder that previously had been seen only in lab rats.

In December 2006, San Francisco became the first city in the nation to ban baby products containing certain levels of phthalates.

From The Common Ground

Bill Totten - great content!

I just stumbled on a great weblog by Bill Totten, in Japan.

He and I converge on a number of the same points. He too, is a businessperson who remains aware of the environment and our impact on it.

Kudos to you Bill - and a place in my blogroll!

Highly recommended!

I Speaketh...

Saul Albom interviews Brett Swailes, CEO of Shine Holdings, and they discuss the company's patented device works by "smashing" water in a high-pressurized cylinder. The output of this process are bubbles no bigger than 5 microns in size - too small to be seen by the naked eye - which super-oxygenates the water. Naturally, this device is perfect for America's growing aquaculture industry, as well as for wastewater cleaning businesses and even biodefense purposes, where gases such as ozone are diffused into water as a way of examining anthrax. Shine Holdings has executed a formal letter of intent to license its technology to U.S. BioDefense Inc., a Department of Defense Central Contractor developing homeland security and leading-edge biotechnologies. Under the agreement, U.S. BioDefense expects to secure an exclusive licensing agreement from Shine Holdings for an annual fee of $100,000. Listen to this podcast to learn more.

Oxygen Breakthrough!

There she sat.

Although already granted the provisional patent, after so many months of "talk-talk," (press releases and such), mostly in the fabrication and development stage, we have finally witnessed first light in our initial tests of the super-oxygenation prototype.

This device will be, we hope, the bedrock technology of the patents we filed. If it works out, it ought to produce the highest efficiency Dissolved Oxygen in the markets we targeted.

"Could you fill her up with 55 gallons - of water?"

The next photo is my first shot after doing all the plumbing with David, my brother-in-law. (I'm a klutz, he's the mechanical brain.) We just primed the thing, and got regular old bubbles - good for aquariums and such, but no cigar, at this point:

But wait! Lookie here:



That isn't dirty water, and it isn't milk, either. That is what I call first light.

For those in the know, SOTE = 60%+, bubble size ~5 microns.