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Odds & ends: Drought uncovers ancient city, Lake Shasta, new water treatment plant & groundwater get some blog love, bloggers on the latest PI report, reforming water governance, onerous stormwater regs, plus pictures of salmon migration, 4th of July in the Delta & more!

Posted by: Maven on August 4, 2009 at 8:21 am

European drought uncovers ancient city: Drought stress on agricultural fields near the edge of Venice lagoon has unveiled the urban infrastructure of the city of Altinum, which dates back to 100 B.C.: The researchers used aerial near-infrared photography which is exquisitely sensitive to vegetation stress to reveal archaeological features such as streets, bridges and buildings underlying the crop fields and a “digital elevation model” to fill in the urban topography. Check it out from the Discovery Channel: A good for something drought

Lake Shasta gets some love …. The League for the Love of Lake Shasta has started a blog at www.keepshastafull.org. They want to remind you to do your part to conserve water and keep Lake Shasta full because “The lake looks amazing when it’s full. And when it’s full at the beginning of the summer recreation season, we all houseboat, wakeboard and fish a little bit happier. So whether you live in California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada or even Colorado, do your part wherever you are and love this lake, and all that beautiful water, for all it has to offer. ” Check it out here: http://www.keepshastafull.org/

And how about some love for the new Tesla Water Treatment Facility, perhaps the only water treatment plant with it’s own blog! Think I’m kidding? Where else can you find posts about pipes and excavations … Follow all the action here: Hetch-Hetchy Water System Improvement Program blog

All about groundwater that you didn’t learn in school: Check out this blog dedicated to groundwater: Hydro365. The blog delivers technical information on groundwater, like this post on drilling wells in the Sierra Nevada foothills, or this post on the hardpan in the Central Valley.

Pacific Institute’s approach could lead to more water use than less, says the Aguanomics blog: we need some empirical evidence to help us understand which outcome is more likely to happen. Conveniently, some researchers at my old department at UC Davis have looked into this question, and this [PDF] is what they find: “We consider two voluntary, incentive-based groundwater conservation programs and estimate their effects on groundwater extraction for irrigated agriculture. We find that the programs do not have the intended effect; the subsidization of more efficient irrigation technology induces the production of more water-intensive crops, thus increasing total extraction, and land retirement programs are generally not utilized on irrigated land, thus having little effect on groundwater extraction.” So the Pacific Institute’s proposal to subsidize the use of technology to reduce agricultural water use is more likely to increase use than decrease it. Read more from the Aguanomics blog: Technology Use Up, Water Use Up

There is an alternative to the market-based, capitalistic agricultural economy envisioned by the Pacific Institute, says the On the Public Record blog: We could have a healthy agricultural economy that produced sufficient food for California by capping farming production to something scaled to sustainable practices, buying that food, plus subsidizing farmers for farming the way we want them to. … I no longer want to export California’s environmental quality, its water, sun and salmon, bundled into almonds and apricots. I don’t want to do that even if a market supports it, even if people on the East Coast would like to eat what we grow*. I don’t want to depend on a growth economy when I think we’re approaching the physical limits of our stocks and flows. Read more here from the On the Public Record blog: Of course that would require a functional state government.

New publication on water governance from the International Union for Conservation of Nature: This toolkit will introduce readers to the central role played by policy, law and institutions in designing and implementing good governance for water resources. It will guide users through approaches to reforming water governance, including useful mechanisms for incorporating environmental considerations into water laws and policies. It is intended for use by water professionals, working in water management, who do not have a law background. Check it out here: Rule: reforming water governance

New stormwater regulations will drive up cost of new construction considerably, only making “new homes, factories, schools and hospitals more expensive to build, more difficult to finance, and ultimately less likely to ever happen”, says the Cheat Seeking Missiles blog: If run off is such a problem, why not treat it as sewage and send it to a treatment plant? We tried to get that cost effective and reasonable idea approved by any number of regional boards, but they said they wanted the conveyance systems – be it a creek or a concrete-lined channel – to be “fishable” and “swimable.” We had some fun with that, creating this image of what every Southern Californian would rather do than go to a nearby beach. Up and down the state, Regional Boards are foisting this kind of insanity, pretending its normal human behavior. And they’re getting away with it. Read more from the Cheat Seeking Missiles blog: Crazifornia: Imperial Imperviousness

Pictures of salmon migrations, the Delta & more: Check out Environmental Graffiti’s picture essay of migrating salmon, photographer Adrian Mendoza spends 4th of July in the Delta, here’s more of Adrian’s fabulous aerial shots of the Delta, incredible waterfall cavern pictures, and not water related but cool: mind boggling photo manipulationsand The Big Picture blog does lightning. Enjoy!

August 4, 2009 · Filed Under Aquafornia News & Exclusives

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