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All toilet paper from across the globe checked for toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” contained the compounds, and the waste flushed down toilets and sent to sewage treatment plants probably creates a significant source of water pollution, new research has found.

Roughly half of the human population lives near the coast, and coastal water pollution (CWP) is widespread. Coastal waters along Tijuana, Mexico, and Imperial Beach (IB), USA, are frequently polluted by millions of gallons of untreated sewage and stormwater runoff. Entering coastal waters causes over 100 million global annual illnesses, but CWP has the potential to reach many more people on land via transfer in sea spray aerosol (SSA)

After a rainstorm passes, the air coming off the ocean just feels different – cleaner and fresher. But a first of its kind study shows how bacteria from sewage in the ocean can get whipped up in salt spray and blow into coastal communities miles away, a phenomenon exacerbated by storm runoff.

This report is a call to action. It outlines the current state of WASH financing in the Pacific and highlights the need for increased investment in the sector. We must bridge the funding gaps and invest in the WASH sector if we want to make significant progress towards achieving the SDGs.

On Feb. 3, 2022, a train loaded with toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, igniting a fire and forcing the controlled release and burn of vinyl chloride, a known cancer-causing compound, to avert a disastrous explosion. The environmental catastrophe killed thousands of fish in nearby streams and has triggered growing concerns over the impact on residents’ health and on the village’s surface, ground, and well water.

Millions of gallons of raw sewage from Mexico are gushing into San Diego through two canyons along the border, according to federal officials. The spill is coming from at least two pump stations that were forced to shut down after a construction crew last week inadvertently ruptured a major pipeline south of Tijuana.

The United Nations Water Conference will be held in New York in March this year and is the first UN meeting solely about water since 1977.Water is a fundamental human right and a critical discussion for the Water Conference will address how governments, corporations and organizations can provide safe drinking water and sanitation to communities.

Pollution from livestock farming, pharmaceuticals and healthcare is threatening to destroy a key pillar of modern medicine, as spills of manure and other pollution into waterways are adding to the global rise of superbugs, the UN has warned.

There are nearly 50,000 community water systems in the United States that serve 90 percent of the population. And despite the importance of water to health, safety, economic mobility, and overall well being, we do not have a comprehensive, accurate map of who those systems serve.

"As development and urbanization around the Great Lakes increases, more pollutants (“more poop, more car pollution, more road salt, more agricultural waste”) enter the water and disrupt the natural hydrological process."

GAO is making three recommendations, including that EPA set goals and measures to show progress toward implementation of long-term control plans and water quality improvement. EPA generally agreed with these recommendations.

Combined sewer systems collect sewage and storm runoff in the same pipes for treatment. This means heavy rainfall can overwhelm system capacity, causing raw sewage to overflow into waterways. About 700 U.S. municipalities have such systems.

Helping communities make informed choices about innovative, alternative, and reuse wastewater technologies.

An alternative to septic tanks, Circular sanitation is the process of treating human waste with other bio-waste (food scraps, agricultural waste, etc.) and converting it into compost, water, and energy. It strengthens cities, communities, and businesses by providing local, renewable resources that increase as populations grow and businesses scale.

Climate change is contributing to electric-green algae blooms. Massachusetts wants a cleanup of the antiquated septic systems feeding the mess, but it could cost billions.

The open-source data portal WIMS is under way as a part of the CReW+ project. It will include water-related data, including spatial information and apps, to inform water sector stakeholders and national decision-makers in the Caribbean.

A guide for small island managers to understand how to improve wastewater treatment.

A guide to enable water utilities to work to improve their racial equity practices and outcomes—both internally and externally.

In an effort to help educate communities, homeowners and decision makers about how sewage pollution gets to the beach and to inspire action to stop pollution at the source, Surfrider developed a series of awareness building resources. For instance, as a society, when we flush our toilets, we rarely think about where that water ends up, and what happens to it before it gets released back into the environment. As part of Surfrider’s Stop Sewage Pollution Campaign, this series aims to help people better realize that our actions upstream can and do significantly impact water quality and coastal resources at the coast.

From the study, the researchers have shown there is a clear relationship between virus concentration and the amount of dissolved organic carbon present in the effluent water of wastewater treatment plants.

Spills happen all the time from overloaded plants and pipes, not just after a hurricane

A crucial aquifer is running low, so officials are pumping in treated sewage. It’s an increasingly common strategy as heavy demand and climate change strain water supplies.

Rapid development, heavier rainfall, and aging infrastructure are combining to deliver 9 billion gallons of sewage and stormwater into Pennsylvania’s Three Rivers each year.

Increasing sea levels and more intense storms may result in rising groundwater levels in coastal towns and cities, possibly leading to sewage tanks leaking into homes.

Building green infrastructure and protecting forests can reduce the amount of stormwater that overwhelms Allegheny County's sewage system and pollutes the region’s waterways.

Roughly 80% or more of the world’s sewage enters the oceans completely untreated or poorly treated, stressing many ecosystems to the point of collapse. This challenge goes largely unnoticed until a crisis happens – a fishery is lost, beaches get closed, or, worse, people get seriously ill. The Ocean Sewage Alliance was formed to break the silence about ocean sewage pollution and bring a sense of urgency to public discourse on the issue. We do so by simultaneously raising awareness about the problem and highlighting the many opportunities that arise from addressing sewage pollution – opportunities in the form of resource recovery, job creation, and risk avoidance.

See the most recent information regarding sewage spills and pollution in Florida.

Amid climate change and mega drought in the southwest, Las Vegas water managers see promise in recycled wastewater.

Over half (55%) of global GDP, equal to USD 41.7 trillion 1, is dependent on high-functioning biodiversity and ecosystem services. However, a staggering fifth of countries globally (20%) are at risk of their ecosystems collapsing due to a decline in biodiversity and related beneficial services, reveals a new study by Swiss Re Institute.

Other residents told The Associated Press on Friday that their water remains too discolored to count on, so now they’ll have to rely on water distribution by community-run charities or buy water again themselves, adding insult to injury.

Discusses how onsite sanitation systems treat human pathogens and how that treatment may be diminished by climate change. Outlines disease implications of sea level rise when onsite systems are used for wastewater treatment.

Considering the presence of 274 dusty days in 2021 in Zabol city, Iran, the present study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of using treated sewage effluent (TSE) for dust mitigation with natural methods of increasing land cover.

A new study by San Diego State University scientists finds that the bacterial outbreaks in the San Diego River that force frequent local beach closures are caused primarily by leaks in aging sewer pipes, not by homeless encampments or failing septic tanks.

Historic flooding and record droughts are already stressing water systems across the country, but as the threats to infrastructure posed by climate change intensify, experts warn that what happened in Jackson may be just the beginning.

Hawaii faces significant challenges with its goal to convert 88,000 cesspools by 2050, but there's a rare opportunity for national leadership in new sanitation technologies and policies.

The nutrients in human waste are drifting into our oceans and landfills instead of back into soils. But there are much better uses for human poo than flushing it down the drain.

When the ominous rust-colored cloud of red tide begins to saturate coastal waters in Southwest Florida, it means beach closures. Asthma attacks. Itchy skin and watery eyes. Dead fish and a wretched smell that can spoil the salty breeze. Now, scientists also know it means pollution made the scourge worse.

Removing urine from wastewater and using it as fertilizer has the potential to decrease nutrient loading in water bodies and boost sustainability by making use of a common waste material.

This guide is part of a World Bank suite of tools and other material to support World Bank teams and their government counterparts in the planning, design, and implementation of sanitation projects in urbanizing areas. Addressing the specific context of small towns, the format of this guide begins with an introduction of key concepts for a decision maker to understand and then applies a suggested five-step approach to exploring appropriate wastewater treatment technologies, culminating with case studies from three regions applying this approach. It delves into the unique considerations for small-town wastewater treatment and the exploration of corresponding technologies. Before demonstrating the application of the approach, the guide also navigates: (a) factors external to the technologies that define the characteristics and environment of a given small town and that will affect technology choice; and (b) technology-specific information that will ultimately influence decision making. Before embarking on the formal planning and design process, the user is highly encouraged to become familiar with the guide methodology in its entirety while drawing on the principles of the Citywide Inclusive Sanitation approach.

Cliff Kapono, Mara Dias, Terry Gibson, Don Fujiyama, Ian Masterson, Lauren Blickley,

The problem of human sewage is enormous on a global scale and has devastating effects on the environment and human beings. In this episode of Mongabay Explains, we try to understand the problem and show some of the solutions being implemented around the world.

Dr. Stephanie Wear

Free database of global digital data layers to support hydro-ecological research. The data product HydroWASTE has spatial information on 58K+ wastewater treatment plants and their characteristics, including effluent flow estimates from outfall locations.

Along the Puakō coastline in Hawaii, hundreds of inadequate wastewater treatment systems are releasing sewage into the marine environment. The Coral Reef Alliance partnered with the local community to begin transitioning to improved wastewater treatment.

A guide to help nonprofit organizations and community groups interested in transitioning away from cesspools to improved wastewater treatment. The guide provides a high-level “lay of the land” for cesspool transition and remediation.

The Conservation Planning Database provides a platform to systematically compile and provide access to key information about systematic conservation planning (SCP) initiatives and thus contribute to exchanging scientific advice, best practices, tools, and lessons learned.

Water Warriors training programme is a public education initiative under the Adopt A River programme developed with the aim of sensitizing communities throughout Trinidad and Tobago on the importance of water, the impact of human activities on the resource and the different ways individuals can contribute to the long term conservation and preservation of this vital resource.

An integrated approach to water and wastewater management in the Wider Caribbean Region using innovative solutions and sustainable financing mechanisms.

Authors map six human (non climatic) pressures on coral reefs using the latest quantitative data on fishing, water pollution (nitrogen and sediments), coastal population, industrial development, and tourism.

Podcast with Dr. Stephanie Wear

We find that just 25 watersheds contribute nearly half of all wastewater N, but wastewater impacts most coastlines globally, with sewered, septic, and untreated wastewater inputs varying greatly across watersheds and by country.

The Wastewater Pollution Online Course is designed to help marine managers understand how wastewater pollution threatens ocean and human health and what strategies and solutions are available to mitigate wastewater pollution in the ocean.

A collaborative effort among the OSA partners, "A Practitioner's Guide for Ocean Wastewater Pollution" introduces the ocean wastewater problem to individuals new to this issue, especially marine conservationists and natural resource managers. It explains how wastewater pollution has serious repercussions on ecological health and human well-being, as well as its interactions with climate change. Not only does the guide build the case for action, it also explains the need for cross-sector collaboration, discusses the policy component, explores emerging technologies and solutions, identifies future needs in the solution space, and provides a crash course on sanitation.

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This article from the Surfrider Foundation resource Beachapedia introduces wastewater infrastructure and sewage, along with causes, solutions and additional resources.

Dr. Aaron Jenkins, Dr. Sangeeta Mangubhai, and Suli Batikawai

Interactive tools and info to learn about cesspool problems and solutions in Hawaii

You may not be able to see it, but sewage pollution is a pervasive global threat to our oceans, with ripple effects to both ecological health and human well-being.

Seaweed aquaculture is capable of removing large quantities of nitrogen and phosphorus from coastal ecosystems. This research uses the Gulf of Mexico as a case study to assess the potential for native seaweed aquaculture to augment upstream pollution control with downstream nutrient assimilation. Results suggest that given growing market demand, new product pathways, and nutrient pollution markets, seaweed aquaculture may be a feasible tool for nutrient assimilation that could subsidize, if not pay for itself.

Password: 856308

America’s sewage system is total crap, but there’s a new plumber in town.

Universal access to adequate sanitation is a fundamental need and human right. The data reveal pronounced disparities, with two thirds of people who still lacked even basic services lived in rural areas. Nearly half of them lived in sub-Saharan Africa.