Daniel Salzler No. 1096 EnviroInsight.org Six Items April 2, 2021
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Enhance your viewing by downloading the attached pdf file to view photos, etc.
The attached is all about improving life in the watershed.
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1. History Of “April Fools” Day. On April 1, 1700, English pranksters begin popularizing the annual tradition of April Fools’ Day by playing practical jokes on each other.
Although the day, also called All Fools’ Day, has been celebrated for several centuries by different cultures, its exact origins remain a mystery.
Some historians speculate that April Fools’ Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563. People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1 and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1 became the butt of jokes and hoaxes.
These pranks included having paper fish placed on their backs and being referred to as poisson d’avril (April fish), said to symbolize a young, “easily hooked” fish and a gullible person.
April Fools’ Day spread throughout Britain during the 18th century. In Scotland, the tradition became a two-day event, starting with “hunting the gowk,” in which people were sent on phony errands (gowk is a word for cuckoo bird, a symbol for fool) and followed by Tailie Day, which involved pranks played on people’s derrieres, such as pinning fake tails or “kick me” signs on them.
More recent April Fool’s Day pranks include:
In modern times, people have gone to great lengths to create elaborate April Fools’ Day hoaxes. Newspapers, radio and TV stations and websites have participated in the April 1 tradition of reporting outrageous fictional claims that have fooled their audiences.
In 1957, the BBC reported that Swiss farmers were experiencing a record spaghetti crop and showed footage of people harvesting noodles from trees. In 1985, Sports Illustrated writer George Plimpton tricked many readers when he ran a made-up article about a rookie pitcher named Sidd Finch who could throw a fastball over 168 miles per hour.
In 1992, National Public Radio ran a spot with former President Richard Nixon saying he was running for president again… only it was an actor, not Nixon, and the segment was all an April Fools’ Day prank that caught the country by surprise.
In 1996, Taco Bell, the fast-food restaurant chain, duped people when it announced it had agreed to purchase Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell and intended to rename it the Taco Liberty Bell. In 1998, after Burger King advertised a “Left-Handed Whopper,” scores of clueless customers requested the fake sandwich. Google notoriously hosts an annual April Fools’ Day prank that has included everything from “telepathic search” to the ability to play Pac Man on Google Maps.
2. Achieving Strict Regulatory Standards In An Ever-Growing Population: Western Wake Region WRF. Gain insight into achieving strict regulatory standards in growing population: Registration Open for the Webunar, Wednesday, April 7, 2-21. 3 p.m. ET/ 2 p.m. CT.
ABOUT THE WEBINAR
The Western Wake Regional Water Reclamation Facility’s biological treatment process is an advanced five-stage process for biological removal of nitrogen and phosphorus followed by secondary clarifiers. In this webinar, you will find out how Veolia’s Hydrotech Discfilters are implemented to achieve a peak influent TSS of 20 mg/l and an average TSS of 10 mg/L and how the BioCon™ Dryers serve to not only minimize the amount of sludge to be removed, but allows the facility to produce a desirable and marketable end product. To Register, go to https://www.workcast.com/register?cpak=3235460988623441&referrer=epromo
3. Public Notices & 30-Day Public Comment Period | Preliminary Decision to Issue Individual APPs
ADEQ welcomes comments on the decision to issue an Individual Aquifer Protection Permit (APP) to the following located in La Paz County:
- La Posa Long Term Visitor Area | View Public Notice/Related Documents >
- Buckskin North Wastewater Treatment Plant | View Public Notice/Related Documents >
ADEQ encourages and values your input and participation
4. Tribal Leaders Ask For More Funding, Less Meddling For Water Projects. WASHINGTON – Arizona tribal officials told a Senate committee Wednesday that the federal government can help address a crisis with water infrastructure on their lands through more funding, and less meddling.
Navajo Department of Water Resources Director Jason John and Colorado River Indian Tribes Chairwoman Amelia Flores made the comments during a Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing on water infrastructure for Native communities. Leaders of Oregon and Alaska tribes also testified at the hearing.
John told the committee that the Navajo Nation has identified water development “as one of its highest needs,” and has put $200 million of tribal funds toward water projects in recent years. But that barely puts a dent in the nearly $4 billion in projects the tribe has identified, for everything from drinking water to irrigation to drought response.
“Although Indian Health Service has done good work to provide water with limited funding and staffing, the needs far exceed what the program can accomplish without additional staffing and project funding,” John testified.
“Adequate funding must be provided to get projects shovel-ready so that projects can be built in less time when funding becomes available,” he said.
John said the tribe needs more than funding for construction projects. More staff are needed to best assess the needs of the tribe and to most effectively plan the projects, he said.
“Overcoming the legacy of neglect and infrastructure deficits on the Navajo Nation will require an aggressive water development program,” said John, who told the committee there were “far too many projects” to discuss in a single hearing.
A Colorado River showdown is looming: Let the posturing begin Flores said that if her tribe spent all of the funding it is scheduled to receive under the American Rescue Plan, it would cover only about half of the need for water resources and leave nothing for pandemic relief or government operations.
“The programmatic, annually appropriated funding for this work is not sufficient to provide access to clean water for all tribal nations,” Flores said.
But she also said it’s not just lack of money that’s holding tribes back, but federal laws that hamstring their ability to make decisions for themselves.
“You don’t just need to throw federal money at the problem,” Flores told the committee. “It helps of course, but it’s not the only thing holding tribes back.”
She pointed to laws like the Indian Non-Intercourse Act, one of the “many legal and government hurdles that make efficient water infrastructure challenging.” She said the law makes it impossible for her tribe and others to lease water without first getting congressional approval.
“Congress has given that right to many tribes in their water settlement, but for those of us with decreed water rights, we still can’t lease our water,” Flores said. “If given that right, we would use it to preserve the life of the river.”
Flores also criticized the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ management of the Colorado River Irrigation Project, which she said had led to maintenance shortfalls that, in turn, have resulted in the tribe not getting water it deserved.
The hearing comes as the Biden administration weighs a massive infrastructure bill that has sustainability at the forefront of its design.
It also comes as Arizona and the Southwest struggle through a historic drought that has lowered availability of water from the Colorado and other rivers even as demand has steadily increased. This year, a drought contingency plan was partially put into action for the first time.
Flores said it was her tribe and the Gila River Indian Community that “brought solutions to the table” when water was needed under the drought contingency plan. She stressed the importance of including tribes in any discussion of water rights, and expressed hope the newly sworn-in Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to head a Cabinet agency, will listen.
“As prolonged drought and climate change continue to impact our basin, it is my hope that the committee will insist that Secretary Haaland and her staff engage tribal leaders as they rework these guidelines in coming years,” she said.
5. Fourty Percent. As 40 percent of the American West continues to grapple with “exceptional drought,” eight states are now exploring cloud seeding as a way to avoid a worst-case scenario, the Guardian reports. Cloud seeding is the process of adding small particles of silver iodide, which are structured similarly to ice, to clouds to increase the chance of precipitation. Experts are quick to emphasize that cloud seeding is difficult to successfully implement—and doesn’t solve systemic causes of drought. However, the process can provide a short-term solution to states suffering from widespread dry conditions. Source: “The Stream”
6. Filter Made From A Tree Branch Cleans Contaminated Water. Engineers at MIT have developed a water filter made from cross-sections of tree branches that can filter bacteria from contaminated water.
The filter takes advantage of the natural sieving abilities of xylem — thin, interconnected membranes found in the sapwood branches of pine, ginkgo and other nonflowering trees.
Researchers previously demonstrated the filtering capabilities of xylem cross-sections in the lab, but the for the latest study, the team of engineers wanted to test the technology in real-world situations.
After traveling to India to make and test filters using local trees, engineers created a prototype filtration system with replaceable xylem filters.
They described their technology Thursday in the journal Nature Communications.
But the science journal isn’t the only place readers can learn more about the tree-based water filter. Researchers also created a website and published instructions for developing xylem filters using the cross-sections of different types of trees.
“For places where the only option has been to drink unfiltered water, we expect xylem filters would improve health, and make water drinkable,” said Karnik, a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT.
While developing their prototype, researchers ran into two problems. The xylem sieves dry out easily in storage, sticking to the walls of the filter and slowing water filtration. The sieves also gum up after being used multiple times.
Researchers were able to solve the problem by soaking the sapwood cross-sections in warm water and then dipping them in ethanol. After being allowed to dry, the filters proved much more durable.
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