WETLAB BlogWestern Environmental Testing Laboratory

WETLAB Preparing for SME Conference

Western Environmental Testing Laboratory - will be heading to the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, & Exploration (SME) February 2012 conference. Please stop by our booth (2037) and say hello!

Lessons in Metallurgy - Whoa (Photo credit: Chris Hardie)

Waiting for Water – A Dry Start to Winter

Finally SNOW!

Over a century ago, our region was characterized by booms and busts in gold and silver. Now it’s water - last year hit the motherload with snowfall in the Sierra for the record books. This year - so far - has been a bust, with the second driest December on record in the northern Sierra - the driest for Reno in 130 years.
While Wetlab’s work is water quality, as a part of the region we’re all watching water quantity too. Reno and Sparks depend on the snowfall in the Sierra slowly melting in the spring and coming down the Truckee River. So no snow has some people concerned.

The first snow survey by the California Department of Water Resources happened just after the first of the year in the Sierra.
The results weren’t surprising to anybody looking up at the bare mountains above Northern Nevada: 21 percent of normal water content for Jan. 3, and 8 percent of where we want to be by April 1, according to the Tahoe Daily Tribune.

The National Integrated Drought Information System rates much of Northern Nevada between “abnormally dry” and “Drought - moderate” and the Northern Sierra to the west in “Drought - Severe” as of January 10.

The good news, according to the Truckee Meadows Water Authority, is there is still plenty of water for its customers, according to a report on KOLO News.
“We know we can withstand at least a nine year drought,” Senior Hydrologist Bill Hauck said to KOLO.

Last year’s huge snowfall helped, leaving enough water stored in Lake Tahoe and area reservoirs for the community, he said.
The dry spell could still effect Northern Nevada residents in the costs of food as scarce water has affected agriculture, according to the report.
And  the dry weather put firefighters on high alert during a red flag warning on Sunday when the wind picked up, according to the National Weather Service.
The culprit has been a large high pressure front blocking storms and sending them both to the north and the south since around Thanksgiving.
But things  have started to change this week, with a the high pressure front being displaced north and a cold front moving into our region, according to the Weather Service.

“A short period of light to moderate rain should spill into the most populated areas by late Thursday afternoon,” according to the forecast discussion. “The strongest storm is still on track to affect the region Friday thru (sic) Saturday. Confidence is quite high for a period of heavy precipitation in eastern California and far western Nevada as subtropical moisture plume with 1.5 inches PW values points straight at the Sierra.”

Let’s hope the trend continues as the winter progresses, and the winter turns into another strong one!

Sensible Water Use With WaterSense

Here at WETLAB Western Environmental Testing Laboratory, water quality is our business. It effects everybody - from healthy drinking water to a healthy environment. But today everybody also needs to think about water quantity, not just water quality.

Water shortages are growing larger and becoming more frequent. The World Bank reports that 80 countries are experiencing water shortages and more than 2 billion people don’t have access to clean water, according to The University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

The problem is the inevitable consequence of a growing world population - doubling the demand on water every 21 years, according to the University.

Most of us use know the basics of using water wisely - from not running the tap while brushing your teeth to making less water intensive choices when landscaping. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is aiming to up your knowledge on how to save water through easy education and simple guidelines, available at  www.epa.gov/watersense/.

Educational tools great for the whole family include a quiz titled “ Test Your WaterSense,” a calculator will let you figure out how much you can save at home, a guide shows you local rebates for saving and more.

Their guidelines for flushing, for example, could reduce toilet flush rates by 20 percent and urinal flush rates by 50 percent, according to the Green Education Foundation.
“If one in every 10 homes in the United States were to install WaterSense labeled faucets or faucet accessories in their bathrooms, it could save 6 billion gallons of water per year, and more than $50 million in the energy costs to supply, heat and treat that water,” according to the EPA.

Those fixtures and appliances have been independently tested for efficiency and performance to meet the EPA WaterSense standard.

And it’s already working, saving 125 billion gallons of water and $2 billion in utility bills in the last five years, according to Stephanie Thornton, as quoted by the Green Education Foundation.

Here in Northern Nevada, the Truckee Meadows Water Authority also offers guidelines for saving water and implementing assigned day watering for landscaping.
We’re in a high desert environment, subject to the snow pack of the Sierra Nevada, so while last winter may have left our region relatively flush, we never know what Mother Nature has in store for us in the next year.

In Southern Nevada, the Las Vegas Sun has set up a count down to when Las Vegas could theoretically run out of water (2021!) if water usage isn’t changed.

Wetlab Expands into Las Vegas

Viva Las Vegas!  As for Vegas, the lease is completed and we're currently setting up and going through the certification process for the test we will perform in Vegas. We will perform locally Total Coliform, Quant Tray, Fecal Coliform, pH and BOD5.

The address is 3230 Polaris Ave. Unit 4, Las Vegas, NV 89102.
For additional information please contact Nick Ross at (775) 355-0202.

Looking out for Pharmaceuticals in Water Quality

Water quality testing is constantly changing and evolving to keep up with new and changing potential contaminants - and at WETLAB we work hard to insure we have the knowledge and the equipment to keep up.
For example, beyond the usual suspects of industrial and agricultural pollutants, pharmaceuticals and personal care products are making their way into the drinking water supply in some places around the world - not just from manufacturing but from what goes down average people’s drains and what’s flushed down their toilets.

Incompletely metabolized hormones, antibiotics and other over-the-counter and prescription drugs have been detected in sewage treatment plants, rivers, lakes and aquifers.
Nitro musks - a fragrant or preservative component in cosmetics have also been detected and are of concern due to possible negative environmental impacts, and sun screen agents have been found in lakes and even fish.
Researchers Christian G Daughton and Thomas A. Ternes described the amount of pharmaceuticals and personal care products going into the environment each year is similar to the amount of pesticides, in fact, according to The University of Arizona’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

As of 2008, the Truckee Meadows Water Authority hasn’t reported any pharmaceutical contamination in Reno drinking water - testing for 31 compounds at a sensitivity of one part per trillion, “or one drop in 1,000 Olympic-size swimming pools,” according to tmwa.com.

But it’s an issue that water quality specialists like WETLAB need to keep an eye on, as more and more such contaminants are being found around the country and around the world.
A United States Geological Survey nation-wide assessment has found caffeine, codeine, cholesterol-lowering agents, anti-depressants, and estrogen replacement drugs in tested waters.
This has already had measurable affects on aquatic life - for example, British research found that estrogen has deformed reproductive systems in fish, according to The University of Arizona.

But the effects on human’s aren’t as clear, according to the university document, with some experts believing levels are generally too low to pose a risk to people, while others believe long-term exposure could  potentially cause problems from interfering with hormone production to the creation of more antibiotic-resistant disease-causing bacteria.

Arid western regions, where streams can be more reliant on effluent, could be more susceptible, which is why water quality monitoring will continue to be critical in our region.

Wetlab Hits The Road

National Association of Abandoned Mine Land Programs October 9-12^th in Squaw Valley.

Lake Tahoe’s New Standard for Water Quality – TMDL

At the 15th annual Lake Tahoe Summit in Homewood, Ca this summer, hosted by Senator Dianne Feinstein and attended by Senator Harry Reid, Senator Dean Heller, California Governor Jerry Brown and Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, policy makers came up with an important plan for Lake Tahoe.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to restore the lake’s clarity to 97.4 feet by 2076, a lofty goal aiming for historic levels before runoff and pollution clouded the mountain lake’s clear waters.

Most recent measurements have the lake’s clarity - measured by lowering a white disk (called a Secchi disk) into the water and seeing how far down it can still be spotted - at 64.4 feet.

The plan, developed by the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board and the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection, is called the Total Daily Maximum Load (TMDL), capping the amount of pollution and runoff working its way into the lake - particularly from urban storm water runoff.
It calls for area jurisdictions - the City of South Lake Tahoe, the bordering county governments in both California and Nevada and their respective road departments to reduce sediment going into the lake by 32 percent over the next 15 years - and that’s where precise water quality monitoring comes into play.
Not only do sediments and pollutants have to be monitored, but nutrients as well, which can cause algae blooms that dramatically cloud the water. The plan targets fine sediments (which tend to “hang” in the water rather than settling to the bottom of the lake), phosphorus and nitrogen pollutants.
Top sources of those contaminants being targeted include urban and forest storm water runoff, stream channel erosion and atmospheric deposition.
When government agencies take steps like stabilizing and re-vegetating road shoulders and eroding slopes, street sweeping, better landscaping, runoff treatment and filtration, the creation of wetlands, the revegetation of ski slopes and other projects - close monitoring while be necessary to measure success.
And success is critical, considering the plan could cost as much as $100 million per year for the next 15 years, according to the Lahontan regional Water Quality Control Board, so monitoring will insure that is money well spent.

WETLAB’s Work Critical as Price of Gold Continues to Grow

It’s no secret - economic turmoil has sent the price of comparatively secure gold skyrocketing - with the precious metal fetching over $1,700 an ounce.

Gold’s S&P-500 stock index is at its highest since 1988, according the Reuters.

“Gold’s safe-haven allure has attracted investors fleeing the risk of debt crisis contagion in Europe and slowing global growth,” according the the Aug. 11 Reuters article. “Prices of cash gold have risen as much as 21 percent since the end of June.”

And that’s good news for Northern Nevada, where Elko has become the primary gold-producing region in the United States.

But all that demand on gold requires caution from an environmental standpoint.

Gold mining is an environmentally-challenging task, and both our state-of-the-art Sparks laboratory and Elko office work with our mining clients to make sure they stay in compliance with environmental regulations, operating in a clean and environmentally sound manner.

And that’s important, given what it takes to mine for gold.

According to mining watchdog group Earthworks, mining the gold for a standard 18-karat wedding band leaves behind 20 tons of ore and waste rock.

Disturbing that much earth can lead to toxic runoff from a mine if not properly controlled - long-buried chemicals and minerals exposed to air can produce acids and leach toxic metals like sulfuric acid and arsenic.

Extracting gold from the ore can release mercury as well, and some processes use cyanide to complete gold extraction. Cyanide is obviously very toxic on its own, but can also degrade into byproducts like nitrates that can contaminate groundwater.

If those toxins aren’t properly monitored and captured, that’s bad news for the environment and anybody using water down stream.

That’s why it’s critical for us at WETLAB to work with mines to track water and soil quality, to make sure that this new gold rush doesn’t leave any negative impact - just a positive impact on the economy of northern Nevada.

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