BEAM ME UP, SCOTTIE

Looking for water in all the wrong places? Scientists report finding a cloud of water surrounding a giant black hole in a galaxy. It is said to be the oldest and largest amount of water in the universe, holding an amount equal to the mass of at least 100,000 suns. The vapor disk is estimated to be 3,500 light years across (Science, September 10, 2011, p.4).

Although no one has yet found clear evidence of water on Mars, some scientists have concluded that salt water oozing from rocks causes seasonal dark streaks at some locations on that planet. The assumption is that the water freezes below ground and later boils above ground (Id. at p. 8)

Studies in California and Wisconsin reportedly suggest that many urban sanitary sewers are leaking and permit raw sewage to enter into storm sewers that drain into waterbodies that serve as sources of water supply (Id. at p.13).

I am not sure what all this means. But these stories could suggest that if we continue to avoid needed upgrade of sewer infrastructure, and if we want to avoid brine water on Mars, maybe we should seek water in another galaxy.

INTIMIDATION AND THE REGULATORY PROCESS

Regulatory agencies permeate daily living, including the operations of water and wastewater utilities. Administrative agencies not only make rules but they also enforce them. Accordingly, they may exercise both legislative and judicial type functions, although they are neither a legislature nor a court. Moreover, they generally are not bound by precedent or the strict rules of evidence.

In reality, the administrative processes of regulatory agencies can be subjected to, and affected by, pressures outside the scope of any record before them. Consider, for example, the current toxicology review being conducted by U.S. EPA as to whether to establish a drinking water compliance standard for hexavalent chromium (chromium 6).

California, on its own, in July established a "public health goal" for chromium 6. While a "goal" is not yet a compliance standard in California, the action suggests a "tail wagging the dog" attempt which may offer pressure on U.S. EPA. Indeed, it has been reported that one of California's U.S. senators has filed a bill in Congress to force U.S. EPA to set a compliance standard for chromium 6 and will hold hearings on the bill in January.

The California developments apparently have given rise to media pressure as well. Recently, a major newspaper carried an article alleging that testing of Chicago water found levels of chromium 6 substantially higher than the California "health standard" adopted in July. The article acknowledged potential pressure on U.S. EPA from the California action. Of course, California has not yet adopted a compliance standard for chromium 6.

The article also alleged that U.S. EPA has been slow to act because municipal utilities and industrial polluters object to a new standard that could cost them money. In point of fact, several water associations have urged U.S. EPA simply to include in its risk assessment for chromium 6 important current research on health effects of chromium 6, expected to be completed shortly.

In this one example, there appear to be efforts by an activist state, a senator and media to pressure an administrative agency to adopt a compliance regulation. None of these efforts, it would seem, are a matter of the record before the agency.

THE PARADOX OF WATER

While enjoying hours of delay at my O'Hare gate recently, I cracked open my book "Homesteading in the Badlands-1912." Attempting to fly somewhere these days and homesteading in the badlands of South Dakota seemed to have a great deal in common.

Water, of course, had and continues to have great involvement in the formation of the badlands. Originally the product of sea, river and stream deposits, then the carving and erosion by water and wind.

In 1912, the author of my book, Earnest Bormann, began homesteading at the age of 21 on a quarter section of land about 12 miles southwest of what is now Wall Drug, still the home of 5 cent coffee. Under the law at the time, a homesteader could acquire title to such a parcel if the person lived on the land and cultivated it.

The author's parcel comprised 80 acres of flat ground, which he cultivated with the help of his horse "Ike." The other 80 acres were badlands-peaks and gulches of moonscape that today help to make up the Badlands National Park. His house was an 8 foot by 12 foot tar paper shack.

Water in the badlands is an extremely scarce commodity. When found, generally it is alkali in nature and unfit to drink. The author found a good water spring in his 80 acre badlands in a deep crevice, one-half mile from his shack. He had to haul water containers up a steep peak by holding on to Ike's tail as the horse tried to scramble up the slippery slope. He then hauled the water on foot the one-half mile to his shack-in all sorts of weather.

Sometimes, water came to close, as in the form of three day blizzards in the winter. In fact, a late blizzard came in May that killed many cattle in the area, wiping out several local ranchers.

After homesteading for 18 months, the author acquired title to his 160 acres. He then rented his land and returned to his parents in eastern South Dakota. In 1948, he sold his homestead to an adjoining neighbor. With the money, he bought a 1949 Ford.

Water helped to make the badlands, helped to enable living there and helped to make that living difficult. For most in the United States today, drinking water is readily available by a twist of a faucet. But for millions in the world, water still is hauled on foot from great distances, and for everyone everywhere, water in the form of floods, snow and ice still can be difficult.

As I finished my book, my flight began boarding. On the last page, the author quoted a sign he saw in 1912: "Please do not ask any questions. If we knew anything we would not be here." Guess where I was going-the Badlands!

WHAT IS WATER?

At least since 1805, when Gay-Lussac and Humboldt discovered that water is comprised of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, people have been trying to figure out exactly what is water. What we commonly know is that water can be a liquid, a solid, a gaseous vapor and even a supercritical fluid having properties of both a gas and a liquid.

But the discovery beat goes on. Recently, researchers at MIT have been examining the transition of water between two liquid states. According to MIT's press release, the lead author of a paper on their findings, Yang Zhang, stated that water is "probably the most weird substance on Earth."

The study found that water can be "supercooled" so that it remains a liquid well below the normal freezing temperature. Or, it can be "superheated" to well above the normal boiling temperature without boiling. "Normalization"-freezing or boiling at the normal temperatures requires a nucleation point, such as a bubble or ripple, to start the expected freezing or boiling.

The research appears to suggest that it may be possible to lower the transition points of the various states of water so as to protect animal and plant life as well as certain types of buildings and roads.

So, what is water? It can be in the sky and come down as rain, snow and hail; it can be in the air as fog; it can be on the ground as oceans, lakes, rivers, ponds; it can be in the ground as aquifers. It is in us and all other life; it makes our food; heats our homes; runs our industry; and puts out our fires. What is water? A gift.

SOCIAL ENGINEERING OF UTILITY RATES

The governing principle for water and wastewater utility rates is that rates should be based upon costs of service. These costs are to be assigned and recovered respectively from classes of customers who create such costs. Cross-subsidiztion of one class of customers by another is contrary to the cost of service concept. Well-established case law and AWWA Manual M-1 enunciate this ratemaking principle.

Social engineering of rates can occur when charges are based upon perceived social objectives and/or subsidization instead of costs of service. Recent media stories about federal government subsidization of ticket prices for flights to rural airports provide an example. According to the Wall Street Journal, taxpayers subsidize air service at 109 airports at a cost of $175 million per year. Allegedly, these subsidizes can be as much as $200 to $3,000 per ticket.

Now, it appears that federal social engineering may be entering utility ratemaking. In July, 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) entered an order which apparently allows non-utility developers to construct segments of interstate electric transmission lines to connect remote wind and solar generators to the grid. The obvious purpose of the order is to promote wind and solar generation. FERC asserts that the costs of such new transmission lines are to be borne by utility customers who benefit. It is to be noted that these costs will not be created by utility customers but by developers and the wind and solar generators. Further, determination of who benefits from these costs can be questioned, particularly if the costs of wind and solar generation coupled with the new transmission costs are not competitive with other electric sources of supply. It also should be kept in mind that some jurisdictions may require electric utilities to purchase a portion of their supply as higher-priced wind/solar generation, which suggests that ultimate customers may be bearing no benefit.

There may be another consideration. Currently, some federal regulatory agencies appear to be extending rules and authority into areas where Congress has not spoken. Apparently, there was a Senate bill to socialize the costs of new electric transmission lines. After the Senate bill stalled, FERC initiated its regulatory proposal culminating in the July order. That order, therefore, seems to do what Congress refused to do.

The potential implications of social engineering for water and wastewater ratemaking are not wholly speculative. Simply stated, costs of service can be manipulated to be vulnerable to social "adjustments." Diligent utilities, and their customers, should remain vigilant in their application and acceptance of appropriate cost of service ratemaking.

TOILETS: AT THE SEAT OF TECHNOLOGY?

A hot topic today, along with the debt ceiling, climate change and weather, apparently is the toilet. Suddenly, something that seems to be useful but mundane has become quite exciting.

One of the lesser publicized achievements of the recent, and last, voyage of the shuttle Atlantis was the astronauts' testing of the "baggie system." This system is intended to recycle sweat and urine on the mission into drinkable water. It has been reported that the system can make about a litre of "sports drink" in 4 to 6 hours. The energy potential for such drinks in sports and politics may have no limits.

This month, the Gates Foundation announced a new program to "reinvent the toilet." A spokesperson for the foundation acknowledged that there are no silver bullets in reinventing the toilet. Given the price of silver, that is understandable. The concern, of course, is that over 2 billion people in the world are said to have no access to flush toilets.

A university scientist who received a $400,000 grant from the foundation is reported to have developed a solar-powered portable toilet as a solution. The sun powers an electro-chemical reaction to break down water and waste into hydrogen gas that in turn could be stored in fuel cells to provide energy for cloudy days and night use. In one of those useless catalogs that clog one's mailbox, I once saw an automatic toilet seat that went up or down depending on use and user. I wonder whether sun power could be used for that, too.

All this news again causes me to reflect upon the cottage outhouse days of my faded youth. The outhouse worked on both sunny and cloudy days and at night. It required no maintenance except for some painting, which was my job. It also provided shelter for many spiders and other varmints. Frankly, the current "modern" toilets sometimes frighten me. They remind me of the system of pneumatic tubes that were used to send messages to different departments in department stores years ago. The toilets today flush with such a whoosh that it causes me to fear loss of flesh were I not jump up quickly.

And so the mundane can be exciting.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF WATER

Recently, I lumbered through an antique shop, in my most serious hunter-gathere mode, grazing for whatever might catch my eye and release my checkbook In one jumbled booth, I spied a vintage cast iron hand water pump--you know the kind that would tower over kitchen sinks in most rural houses many years ago. It had been painted many times over its many years, but was primarily red, peppered by rainbow chips peeking through.

The paint on the handle was worn where many hands had grabbed it. Excitedly, I grabbed the handle, too, and vigorously pulled and pushed it up and down. But, only air flowed from the spout. How silly! A pump sitting on a shelf in an antique store can produce no water.

One of my college philosophy professors enjoyed repeating that "philosophers bake no bread." In other words, they do not produce anything tangible except for thoughts. In a way the vintage hand pump on a shelf in an antique store is like a philosopher. It pumps no water. But, what stories it could tell if it could talk. Who grabbed its handle over its many years of use? Where was it used? Why is it now on a shelf in an antique store?

Of course, answers to such questions are unlikely, and so the pump's history remains mysterious. But then again, water, which it once pumped, remains mysterious as well. A recent study has found that in the top layer of a water surface, about a quarter of water molecules have one hydrogen atom which actual vibrates in the air. (Science News, July 2, 2011, page 13.) "Despite covering roughly 70 percent of Earth's surface and constituting about 60 percent of the human body, water still puzzles scientists. For example, according to water's structural properties, it shouldn't be liquid, but rather gas, at everyday temperature and pressures." (Id. at p.13).

Well, who knows--maybe when I grabbed that handle of the pump on the shelf, I may actually have been pumping water in some form! Oh yes, I did not purchase the pump after all that--but, I may be back.