Didn't see this posted, but if I missed it I apologize for the repost. Important News to say the least.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19991211/tc/usa_water_2.html

Saturday December 11 1:18 AM ET
Y2K Study Says Water Utilities Not Ready for 2000
By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Many U.S. drinking water providers and sewage treatment plants have failed to complete their preparations for the Year 2000 computer glitch, two private watchdog groups said on Friday, which could result in overtreated tap water and sewage overflow.

"There are serious doubts that the 55,000 drinking water utilities and the 16,000 publicly owned wastewater facilities in the United States will be well prepared for Y2K," said a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Center for Y2K & Society.

The report said fewer than half of the drinking water utilities had completed all phases of Y2K preparations, including contingency planning and testing, as of June 1999, the date of the last industry survey.

Only 14 percent of wastewater plants had wrapped up the repair phase of their Y2K programs, the report said, citing the most recent survey of the Association of Metropolitan Sewage Agencies.

The American Water Works Association, the oldest and largest professional group dedicated to safe drinking water, disputed the new report and said its members were "well on the way if not fully prepared for Y2K."

"Our professional opinion is that the industry will be fully ready," said Doug Marsano, a spokesman in Denver. "We don't foresee a problem."

Botched Reporting Of Y2k Readiness The report faulted the industries and government for botched reporting of water facilities' readiness for Y2K, a design flaw that could trip up older automated systems when computer clocks roll from 1999 to 2000.

"Official White House and congressional reports have misinterpreted a key utility readiness survey because the wording of the survey results was unintelligible," said Erik Olson, senior attorney for public health at the Resources Defense Council, a private advocacy group in Washington.

Water services could be disrupted in several ways by computer tangles, including overtreated or undertreated tap water and a loss of water pressure.

The General Accounting Office, the audit and investigative arm of Congress, also warned of the danger of "an overflow of untreated sewage into public waterways," the report said.

The watchdog groups also said the noncompliance was omitted from the "President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion" report, which oversaw the government's Y2K preparations.

In November the President's Council said, "Most drinking water and wastewater systems have the ability to convert to manual operations when automated processes are disrupted."

A spokesman for the President's Council said he would not comment on Friday's report until he spoke to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Norm Dean, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Y2K & Society, a nonprofit group seeking to cushion Y2K impact, said the industry data presented a "real cause for concern."

Since the report did not predict which water suppliers may be disrupted by Y2K, the center recommended households store 10 gallons of water per person for the date change, or enough to last 10 days.

-- flb (fben4077@yahoo.com), December 11, 1999

Answers

Thanks flb for the post!

This goes right in line with earlier reports and expected scheduling of remediation efforts...

This problem will be painful--at the least!

-- (Kurt.Borzel@gems8.gov.bc.ca), December 11, 1999.

Thanks for the post. It does not surprise me at all. It just reaffirms my faith in my decision to buy several cases of bottled water earlier today to "top off" my other water related preps.

Holy smokes...we have gone from three, to four and now TEN days of suggested water preps. Hmmm!

-- Irving (irvingf@myremarq.com), December 11, 1999.

Am I reading this right? This report is based on the way two "advocacy groups" interpret an "unintelligible" survey? That's over 6 months old anyway?

Uh, I might just want to wait for better data, presented by someone not being paid to spin it.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), December 11, 1999.

Help, Help, will some pollie throw me a life ring, the toilet is backing up and our condo maintainence man has headed for the hills--"How high's the Ca-ca momma?" 3 feet high and rising.

-- O.Bearly Treadingwater (Lost@in a sea of ca-ca.com), December 11, 1999.

Sure, sure, Flint, by all means wait for better data. Take your time, no rush, no hurry. We have all the time in the world or three weeks, which ever occurs first....

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), December 11, 1999.

The only other thing that I remember the National Resource Defense Council recommending is to not eat apples during their "Alar" scare. Has this group recommended anything else? Has any other group used the same survey/data to come up with a ten day water supply notice? BTW, I am a doomer with lots of stored water. Just curious.

-- Pete (phytorx@lanset.com), December 11, 1999.

I loVes it! Witnesseth: "Official White House and Congressional reports have misinterpretted a key utility readiness survey becaus the wording of the survey was unintelligible" !!!! Too perfect for this adminstration. "Sorry ... we misinterpretted the key data because it was unintelligiBill."

>"<

-- SH (squirrel@huntr.com), December 11, 1999.

Misinterpretted?

translation: but I told those boys to CHANGE those numbers!!!

cya

-- Hokie (nn@va.com), December 11, 1999.