Officials Try to Calm Fears over Toxic Water in U.S. N.Y. Jets Q.B. Sucker Punched
ASHER: U.S. federal officials say a truck driver had been awake 28 hours before he was involved a deadly car crash that serious injured comedian, Tracy Morgan. Investigators say that Kevin Roper had driven 12 hours to work even before he started his 14-hour shift. The Walmart truck he was driving rear-ended a limo van on the New Jersey Turnpike last year.</s>BARNETT: The crash killed comedian, James McNair, and injured four passengers in the van including the "Saturday Night Live" star, Tracy Morgan, who suffered a brain injury. The passengers were not wearing seat belts, which did contribute to their injuries.</s>ASHER: Time for a little weather. Officials in Los Angeles are resorting to interesting measures to retain as much water as possible in the city's reservoirs. We are joined now by our Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri. Pedram, basically, 96 million black plastic balls.</s>PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: that's right.</s>BARNETT: What?</s>ASHER: To prevent evaporation, among other things.</s>JAVAHERI: The size of an apple. They are filled with water. They are weighed down and they've dispersed them across the city of Los Angeles over four reservoirs because they cover the surface area. The city's mayor posting this on his Facebook page, saying, "Take a look. We have come up with this. It keeps algae out and water in." They estimate they will preserve 300 million gallons of water a year from evaporating in to thin air.</s>ASHER: Desperate times. Desperate times.</s>BARNETT: Is the plastic safe, though.</s>JAVAHERI: They are saying it is BPA free, but on the Facebook page, so many people have questions about chemicals leeching in to the water, is it safe? How long will they last, the answer to that 10 years, and they will be recycled. Fascinating as the city is trying to preserve a billion liters of water, 300 million gallons of water across Los Angeles. Here we go with the perspective. With the sun radiating and bouncing off of this. They are tightly packed. They have done it before. It worked. And scientists behind this are saying it's a pretty good estimation to save a tremendous amount of water from what is happening in California. Also water issues out of Europe. Take a look. Very much on the hot side in recent days. Since the 1st of August, 11-day stretch where temperatures have been five degrees Celsius above the norm. Look at the footage coming out of Germany. The river level impressive to see this. Dropping to historic lows in a few areas. We know this is impacting tourism industry and the hydrological efforts to create hydro electricity as well, and shipping routes affected across Romania and Germany with the drought in place. Look at the last three months, the tremendous heat evaporating a lot of water over this region. Exceptional drought over areas of Poland as well as Germany.</s>BARNETT: Serious drought conditions there. Pedram, thank you very much. There are new fears over the water supply in three U.S. states after a toxic waste spill that turned a river in Colorado this mustard color. We'll show you before and after images which make the point. Staggering.</s>ASHER: The Animas River is returning to normal color, but many residents still worry about the potential long-term health effects. Officials are trying to ease those concerns. Here's our Dan Simon with more.</s>DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The governor of Colorado touring the aftermath of the three million gallons of contaminated water that spilled in to the Animas River and neighboring states. It turned the typically clear water in to ominous mustard color. But there are positive signs the toxins may not pose the dangers some feared. Wildlife officials placed fish in the water to see how they would fair with the contamination. Only one died, and they don't know if it is related to the water.</s>DR. LARRY WOLK, COLORADO DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH & ENVIRONMENT: At this point, we don't feel there is any potential risk for human health but based on the preliminary results the levels of the metals appear to have returned to pre-incident levels.</s>SIMON: It sent arsenic levels to 26 times higher than normal and a lead levels 12,000 times higher than those set by the EPA, leading toxicologist to call this shocking, fearing that health effects could be seen for years to come. The EPA is warning residents not to drink the water. There are also concerns about crop irrigation as many local farmers rely on the river.</s>JOHN HICKENLOOPER, (D), COLORADO GOVERNOR: To have one of your major rivers yellow orange with all of that oxidized iron and sync in the water that is the worst thing you can imagine.</s>SIMON: The spill occurred when an EPA team was sent to clean an abandoned gold mine that had been spewing contaminated water. The good intention backfired. The team caused it to flow into the river. The EPA is under intense criticism for not issuing a public alert until a day later.</s>HICKENLOOPER: We're ticked off. We're furious. We are past that. Now what do we do?</s>SIMON: Communities up and down the river depend on it for water, recreation and fishing and farming.</s>TOM BARTLES, RANCHER: This is a main artery of the region and it goes for the same, everybody lives and uses this river.</s>SIMON: David Bowler owns a river rafting company. His business shut down with no one allowed on the water. DAVID BOWLER, RIVER RAFTING COMPANY OWNER. This is our lifeline. We're a rafting business that's been established for over 32 years. This will negatively impact our bottom line.</s>SIMON: The water color has returned to normal and Colorado officials say the water chemistry levels are where they should be, but residents see remnants of the toxic sludge in the water and are nervous about this, and feel the EPA still has a lot of explaining to do. Dan Simon, CNN, Durango, Colorado.</s>BARNETT: The starting quarterback for the New York Jets had his jaw broken on Tuesday after the coach said he was sucker punched by a teammate. Geno Smith will need surgery and is expected to be out for about two months. The back-up linebacker who threw the punch has been cut from the team.</s>TODD BOWLES, HEAD COACH, NEW YORK JETS: We're not going to tolerate anything like that from anybody. I told the team that. I addressed them. I don't care who you are. As far as them in the locker room, the redskins have to take care of themselves and they have to police the locker room, as well. When someone just walks up to you and takes a shot, that can't be warranted nowhere.</s>ASHER: Geno Smith is taking it in stride. He posted quite a comedic selfie on social media after the incident, echoing Arnold Schwarzenegger, vowing that he will be back.</s>BARNETT: The International Governing Body of Track and Field said it may soon change record books and medal counts because new technology has uncovered at least 28 cases of athletes using performance- enhancing substances at the 2005 and 2007 world championship. The IAFF are not revealing the names, nationalities or athletes under suspicion, but many are eastern European. Most have since retired from competition.</s>ASHER: Coming up next on CNN NEWSROOM, more than seven decades after World War II ended, the conflict still echoes in London. Up next, more details on the bomb dropped in the blitz that construction workers uncovered.