Peanut husks, one of the biggest food industry waste products, could be used to extract environmentally damaging copper ions from waste water, according to researchers in Turkey. Writing in the Inderscience publication the International Journal of Environment and Pollution, the team describes how this readily available waste material can be used to extract toxic copper ions from waste water.

A new membrane that mimics pores found in plants has applications in water, energy and climate change mitigation.

Faculty and students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are setting out to discover whether applying business principles to public health problems can result in solutions that will save lives in developing countries with limited access to safe drinking water.

Bathing beaches and lakes could fail the new cleanliness standards set by the 2006 Bathing Waters Directive, but a new risk assessment tool developed by rural studies and water management experts may help reduce the transfer of disease causing bacteria from the farmed environment, according to scientists speaking today at the Society for General Microbiology’s 161st Meeting at the University of Edinburgh, UK, which runs from 3-6 September 2007.

A simpler technique for testing public drinking water samples for the presence of the radioactive element radium can dramatically reduce the amount of time required to conduct the sampling required by federal regulations. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved use of the new testing method.

Streams, lakes, and bays may soon be cleaner thanks to an innovative approach to managing stormwater runoff being developed at Virginia Tech and funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The state Department of Health issued a boil water advisory Thursday for residents served by the town of Springdale’s public water system after E. coli bacteria was confirmed in the water during routine testing.

A group of researchers from the University of Granada (Universidad de Granada) have come up with a wastewater treatment system which has three clear advantages with respect to systems currently used: it is possible to obtain cheaper water of a higher quality, it considerably reduces the size of treatment plants (by more than half) and it minimizes the resulting mud production.

Although the addition of nutrients to soil helps to maximize crop production, fertilizer can leach nutrients, polluting the water supply. A recent study by researchers at the University of Minnesota shows alternative cropping practices may help to protect the environment by reducing high nitrate levels in surface and ground water caused by conventional fertilizer use.

In research that will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) in Chicago (July 7-11, 2007), scientists implemented a successful bioeradication program of an invasive water weed in Africa’s Lake Victoria. Two insect biocontrol species, weevils in the genus Neochetina, were used, along with mechanical removal, to control the highly invasive water hyacinth, which has also plagued waterways in the southern United States.

The levels of potentially harmful waterborne microorganisms in rivers, lakes and other recreational waterways may be highest when the water is most crowded with swimmers.

Two Michigan State University professors, Volodymyr Tarabara and Tom Voice, are leading an ambitious project to purify the world's waters.