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Odds and ends: Bond worries, hot stains, conservation, and aliens and the Las Vegas pumping plan - and more!

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 15, 2008 at 8:47 am

Roundup from assorted blogs on water issues:

Bad news for San Diego foretold if this bond proposal fizzles out: San Diego realtor William Johnson sees a negative outcome for San Diego if the $9.3 billion bond proposal championed by Schwarenegger and Feinstein does not pass. The judicial decision to restrict pumping from the Delta severely restricts water imports for San Diego, who is 90% dependent on imported water (there is basically no groundwater in San Diego). This will create a ’stunning shortfall’ for San Diego that won’t be able to be met by conservation alone. Writes Mr. Johnson: We of course can be hopeful for rain showers but the weather man says the forecast is for more drought. So good luck with that. Desalination is opposed, recycling plan not ready, importing more water seems to off the table. So if this proposal doesn’t get done, we best hope someone has some connections with the rain gods and start praying. More from “The Real Estate Textbook” blog by clicking here.

Welcome to Hot Stain Nation blogs the FireDogLake blog: What’s a hot stain you ask? A “hot stain” is an area that is running out of safe water to drink, and this blogger says that definition includes many parts of the USA. And who is to blame for this? Agribusiness, and the DFS: the Dirty Fanatical Suits from the Chicago Cult who sacrificed our economy, our health care, our food security, and our national security as offerings to the Great Ghoul Of Globalization and the megacorps who spawned the Ghoul. The Dirty Fanatical Suits who will sacrifice any community, species, or people just to get bigger quarterly profits — and hence bigger bonuses. The Dirty Fanatical Suits who kill us off with mass poisoning they call “pollution” and kill off our Republic with the corporatist power grab they call “FISA”. The Dirty Fanatical Suits: traitors within our nation, our communities, and our common biosphere. What can we do about it? While the DFS is being vanquished, we all need to figure out how to reduce our ‘water footprint’. More from the FireDogLake blog by clicking here.

Dumb Question Dept.: If Earth is a Closed System and We’re Running Out of Water, Where’s it All Going? The Treehugger blog answers the question with a basic lesson on the water cycle, and notes this: For one thing, the tremendous and unprecedented rise in our global population — especially in lesser developed countries — has put significant pressure on our finite supplies of freshwater. Whether it be through our contamination of some of the water supply, our relentless urbanization or our aggressive extraction of its reservoirs for agricultural irrigation, anthropogenic influences have sparked major variabilities in the Earth’s water cycle whose implications we do not yet fully understand. More from the Treehugger blog by clicking here.

Save water, ditch your lawn! says the Verde Vivo blog: Why is a green lawn even an option when drought conditions exist? Hello, Sacramento, ever hear of Xeriscaping? Xeriscape landscapes aren’t just cactus and rock gardens nor do they require vast “seas of gravel and plastic”. They can be green, cool landscapes full of beautiful plants maintained with water-efficient practices. Find out more about Xeriscaping from the Verde Vivo blog by clicking here.

More on conservation: 9 simple ways to save water from Real Simple - click here.

Water Wired weighs in on the Las Vegas pumping plan, and makes this prediction: My take on all this: Las Vegas may not get all the water it wants, but it will get what it needs. Like it or not, Las Vegas is Nevada’s economic engine. It’s the gambling (ooops - gaming) revenues that allow Nevadans freedom from state income taxes. And having a powerful politician like Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) does not hurt. But it will be interesting to see what happens if severe impacts do result from the pumping. More from the Water Wired blog by clicking here.

PRO Nevada blog asks where the environmentalists are? Where are the environmentalist protesters? Where are the discussions on fish, turtles, rabbits and plants that will be destroyed with this water drainage. I don’t understand how all the all this can happen without hundreds of lawsuits filed by US Fish and Wildlife, Sierra Club, Forestry Services and even Indian Reservations! This doesn’t just effect the farmers and ranchers. (The PRO Nevada blog also wants you to know that “Rural Nevada is more than aliens.” How they will be affected by this is not known.) More from the PRO Nevada blog by clicking here.

July 15, 2008 · Filed Under Odds and Ends, Uncategorized

Comments

One Response to “Odds and ends: Bond worries, hot stains, conservation, and aliens and the Las Vegas pumping plan - and more!”

Ray Walker on July 15th, 2008 11:10 am

Regarding the Las Vegas information:

The numbers need some attention: For planning purposes the in-house domestic use in one single family dwelling is generally 350 gallons per day. After consumption and traveling through the septic system or central sewage facilities 10% is considered consumed primarily by evaporative processes.

Therefore, 18755 AF or 6,112,254,500 gallons provides enough water for 47,845 such dwellings, but only 10% is considered to be consumed. Therefore the number of dwellings served could be 478,450 !

In the article, the 64000 homes was arrived at with usage at 260 gallons/day/dwelling and no return flow credits.

Note: Some jurisdictions use a 5% consumptive use factor which would double the number of dwellings again to 956,900.

Using 260 gallons/day/dwelling and a 5% consumptive use factor would equate to 1,288,135 dwellings served from the 18,755 AF awarded.

Any outside lawn irrigation, swimming pools or other water use changes these numbers significantly !

Ray Walker (Retired Water Rights Analyst) waterrdw@yahoo.com … promotes the investigation of a truly new fresh water Source for the region that will yield a million acre feet a year without damage to the environment or the water rights of anyone.