Water Wired assessment: Clean Water America Alliance’s call to action – Integrated National Water Policy
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 24, 2010 at 8:15 amFrom Michael Campana at the Water Wired blog:
“The Clean Water America Alliance (CWAA), a 501(c)(3) educational organization founded in 2008 by water utilities and private corporations (law firms, consultants, etc.), released a brief report, A Call to Action: The Need for an Integrated National Water Policy.
The report summarizes the results of a Dialogue held on 14-15 September 2009 that was attended by 27 water leaders in the clean water community “to discuss urban water sustainability and how to meet the nation’s growing demands despite increasingly stressed water resources.”
[Shill alert: Let me mention that my organization, the AWRA, held four National Water Policy Dialogues.] … “
So what’s in the report? Michael Campana tells you and gives some commentary in this post at the Water Wired blog.
Why the Great Lakes fears the brutal Asian carp: “I feel like I was in a [bleeping] prize fight”
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 15, 2010 at 7:12 amFrom Josh Mogerman at the NRDC Swithcboard blog:
“Folks outside the Midwest might be scratching their heads wondering what all the hubbub is about with these Asian carp… Here on Switchboard, we’ve talked a lot about the ecosystem, legal, and infrastructure issues around the problem. But we haven’t really talked much about their impact on quality of life—that’s the easiest part to show.
I ran into the clip below on the TwentyNow blog’s posting entitled, “Why is this boater wearing a helmet…” That question is answered in the first 90 seconds of this video (but be warned, you might want to turn off your speakers at work or around kids)… I love the “That was like a [bleeping] right cross to the chin!” comment… ”
Read more from Josh Mogerman at the NRDC Switchboard blog by clicking here.
Saturday morning top of the scroll: CBS News: Where America stands on water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 9, 2010 at 8:30 amFrom CBS News:
Water Wired blog: Should the USA have a water ethic?
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 4, 2010 at 8:21 amFrom the Water Wired blog:
“A few days ago I posted about AWRA’s interest in learning what you think of a national water vision for the USA: Should the USA Have a National Water Vision? If So, What Should That Vision Be?
But perhaps what we should have is a water ethic. This was raised the other day by one of my colleagues. She specifically was thinking of something similar to Aldo Leopold’s land ethic, promulgated over 60 years ago:
Water ethic? What would that look like? … “
Continue reading this post at the Water Wired blog by clicking here.
Fight to keep Asian carp out of Great Lakes reaches Supreme Court
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 22, 2009 at 7:29 amFrom the Los Angeles Times:
“Reporting from Chicago – The fight to keep invasive Asian carp out of the Great Lakes reached the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, as Michigan’s attorney general filed a lawsuit seeking closure of two shipping locks near Chicago.
Claiming Illinois officials have been lax, Michigan Atty. Gen. Mike Cox asked justices for immediate action to seal off the most direct route for fish entering Lake Michigan, in hopes of protecting the region’s $7-billion fishing industry.
“We don’t want to have to look back years later . . . and say, ‘What was the matter with us? We should have done something,’ ” Cox said. Closing the locks, he said, was “the easiest, the most reliable and the most effective” short-term step officials could take.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn declined to say whether he favored closing the locks, but added: “We have to protect the ecology of the Great Lakes; we also have many, many jobs that depend on shipping, so there has to be a proper balance. … “
Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Asian carp raises fear and loathing on Great Lakes
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 10, 2009 at 10:57 pmFrom the Fresno Bee:
“After nearly four decades as a fishing guide on the Great Lakes, Pat Chrysler has seen enough damage from invasive species to fear what giant, ravenous Asian carp could do to the nation’s largest bodies of freshwater.
“It’s like introducing piranhas to the Great Lakes,” Chrysler said from South Bass Island in Lake Erie, which teems with walleye, perch and other fish that draw anglers from near and far.
Federal and state officials are mounting a desperate, last-ditch effort to prevent the marauding carp from breaching an electrical barrier and slipping into the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River. Michigan is drawing up a lawsuit demanding the closing of shipping locks on a waterway that links the lakes with the Mississippi. And last week, Illinois officials poisoned a six-mile stretch of a canal to wipe out any of the carp.
The prospect of a carp invasion alarms environmentalists and people whose livelihoods depend on a strong fishing and tourism economy, from charter boat skippers to those who sell bait and tackle, rent personal watercraft and operate lakefront restaurants and motels. The Great Lakes fishing industry alone is valued at $7 billion a year.
“I’m afraid they can wipe us out in a hurry,” said Jim Conder, a charter boat operator on Michigan’s St. Joseph River, which flows into Lake Michigan. “We need to spend all we can to keep them out.” … “
Read more from the Fresno Bee by clicking here.
Launch of America’s Great Waters Coalition underscores commitment to restoring America’s estuaries
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 9, 2009 at 8:24 am
From Water World:
“WASHINGTON, DC, Dec. 8, 2009 — An alliance representing more than 30 organizations came together today with lawmakers from across the nation to launch America’s Great Waters Coalition, representing 9 of the largest water ecosystems in 27 of the lower 48 states — and involving nearly half of the country’s population.
From the Chesapeake to Puget Sound, from the Great Lakes to the Everglades — the nation’s great waters are the backbone of America’s economy and way of life. However, America’s great waters face urgent threats, including sewage contamination, invasive species, habitat destruction and climate change. The nation’s commitment to our great waters has not kept pace with these urgent threats, impacting people, businesses, communities and wildlife.
“The degradation of our nation’s great waters has a serious environmental and economic impact on our communities,” said Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX). “I look forward to working with America’s Great Waters Coalition to improve these important ecosystems.”
To restore the water ecosystems that sustain people, wildlife and the economy, America’s Great Waters Coalition is speaking with a united voice to act now, before the problems get worse and the solutions more costly.
“Research has found that cleaning up the Great Lakes and its waterways — by improving water and sewer infrastructure, restoring and preserving wetlands and coastal habitats, and cleaning up toxic areas — would create jobs and inject billions of dollars into the regional economy,” said Jennifer S. Vey, fellow, Brookings Institution. “This indicates that directing public investments toward improving the health of all of the nation’s Great Waters — from the Chesapeake to the San Francisco Bay — simply makes good economic sense.” … “
Read more from Water World by clicking here.
Draft project standards for Army Corps put resource goals on par with economic development
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 5, 2009 at 7:17 amFrom the New York Times:
“The White House today released a draft (pdf) of new standards for federal water projects that for the first time put environmental goals on the same plane as economic development concerns.
The proposed overhaul of 1983 standards for the Army Corps of Engineers directs the agency to fold non-monetary benefits into project assessments by measuring improvements to wildlife habitats and biodiversity.
It also aims to improve transparency in federal water planning, said Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, which coordinated the rewrite.
“It is expected that the use of best science, peer review and full transparency will ensure that projects undergo a more rigorous study process, which should inform authorization and funding decisions,” she said. … “
Environmentalists, shippers criticize ballast plan
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 4, 2009 at 6:44 am
From the Associated Press:
“TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — A government plan to prevent foreign species carried in ship ballast tanks from invading seacoasts, the Great Lakes and inland waterways is riddled with loopholes and would take effect too slowly, environmentalists say.
Shipping companies, meanwhile, contend the regulations proposed by the U.S. Coast Guard would make costly and unreasonable demands while adding to a confusing patchwork of federal and state requirements for handling ballast water.
The Coast Guard is accepting public comments on the rules through Friday and could make changes before issuing a final version, said Cmdr. Tim Cummins of the 9th District Prevision Division in Cleveland. No deadline has been set for completing the regulations.
More than 300 comments had been submitted by Thursday.
Environmentalists have long demanded a crackdown on the dumping of ballast — millions of gallons of water and muck that ships carry to help keep them stable in rough seas. The soupy mixtures often harbor microorganisms, fish and other aquatic life scooped up in overseas ports. … “
Read more from the Associated Press by clicking here.
Effects of judge’s Katrina ruling could be huge: The finding that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is liable for much of the New Orleans flooding could change how levees are designed nationwide
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 20, 2009 at 7:54 amFrom the Los Angeles Times:
“Reporting from Los Angeles and New Orleans – The harshly worded legal ruling that held the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers responsible for much of the flooding during Hurricane Katrina could have a far-reaching effect on national flood-control policies and on the federal government’s long-standing refusal to take responsibility for its errors.
U.S. District Judge Stanwood R. Duval Jr. issued the stinging rebuke to the corps late Wednesday for its failure to properly manage a navigation channel and levees, which he ruled were directly responsible for much of the flooding that devastated New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish.
Although only a handful of homeowners shared in about $700,000 in damages, city officials said the principles established in the ruling would open the door to more than 100,000 claims by residents and businesses pending against the government in the areas covered by the ruling.
But more than just deciding this lawsuit, the power and depth of Duval’s 156-page opinion could influence the design of levees that protect communities against rivers and shorelines in almost every state. … “
Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Federal Court rules Army Corps of Engineers liable for Katrina flooding
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 19, 2009 at 7:51 am
From CNN:
“New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) — The Army Corps of Engineers’ failure to properly maintain a shipping channel linking New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico led to catastrophic flooding during Hurricane Katrina, a federal court ruled Wednesday.
“It is the court’s opinion that the negligence of the Corps, in this instance by failing to maintain the MRGO properly, was not policy, but insouciance, myopia and short-sightedness,” U.S. District Court Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. wrote in his lengthy ruling, referring to the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet canal.
“For over 40 years, the Corps was aware that the Reach II levee protecting Chalmette and the Lower 9th Ward was going to be compromised by the continued deterioration of the MRGO. … The Corps had an opportunity to take a myriad of actions to alleviate this deterioration or rehabilitate this deterioration and failed to do so. Clearly, the expression ‘talk is cheap’ applies here.” … “
More from CNN by clicking here.
Dolphins will be deployed at Bangor starting next year, Navy says
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 19, 2009 at 7:49 amNot California water related, but I thought this story was very interesting – I hadn’t heard about this before. From the Kitsap Sun:
“Specially trained Atlantic bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions will help guard Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor starting next year, the Navy announced Wednesday.
Their job will be to stop swimmers or divers from infiltrating the Trident submarine base. Marine mammals are already being used to find possible intruders at other Navy bases, including at King’s Bay, Ga., the home of the rest of the nation’s Trident fleet.
It is the culmination of a 3 1/2 year environmental process to clear the way for what the Navy calls a swimmer interdiction security system.
The Navy looked at several options to protect against possible attack from swimmers, but officials said they couldn’t find a better way of meeting new terrorism-driven security requirements. The marine mammals were its preferred alternative from the beginning. … “
Read more from the Kitsap Sun by clicking here.
Storm threat to New Orleans out of our control, says general: “we cannot stop levees being overtopped and the city flooded”
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 26, 2009 at 7:54 am
And while we’re on the subject of flooding, here’s some cheery news for New Orleans residents from the Guardian.co.uk:
“New Orleans can no longer be protected from hurricane storm surges, according to the US army general in charge of the city’s defences.
General Robert Van Antwerp, chief of the US Army Corps of Engineers, said his team was in “persistent conflict” with the Mississippi river.
“If you ask can I protect the city, the answer is no. Can I reduce the risk? Yes.
“We can develop better early warning systems, better evacuation plans, better levees to hold back most of the water, but we cannot stop levees being overtopped and the city flooded.” …”
Read more from the Guardian.co.uk by clicking here.
E.P.A. vows better effort on Clean Water Act enforcement
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 16, 2009 at 7:11 amFrom the New York Times:
“The Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday that it would overhaul enforcement of the Clean Water Act, as lawmakers sharply criticized the agency’s decade-long lapses in punishing polluters.
At a daylong hearing before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, the E.P.A. administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, said that agency officials “are falling short of this administration’s expectations for the effectiveness of our clean water enforcement programs.”
“The time is long overdue for E.P.A. to re-examine its approach to Clean Water Act enforcement,” said Ms. Jackson, who was confirmed to her position in January. She added that the agency would set strict benchmarks for state regulators, eventually compel companies to submit electronic pollution records so violations could be detected and punished more easily, and “develop more innovative approaches to target enforcement to the most serious violations and the most significant sources.” …”
Read more from the New York Times by clicking here.
Cleansing the air at the expense of waterways
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 13, 2009 at 8:01 amThe New York Times continues it’s coverage of worsening pollution in the country’s waterways in this article:
“MASONTOWN, Pa. — For years, residents here complained about the yellow smoke pouring from the tall chimneys of the nearby coal-fired power plant, which left a film on their cars and pebbles of coal waste in their yards. Five states — including New York and New Jersey — sued the plant’s owner, Allegheny Energy, claiming the air pollution was causing respiratory diseases and acid rain.
So three years ago, when Allegheny Energy decided to install scrubbers to clean the plant’s air emissions, environmentalists were overjoyed. The technology would spray water and chemicals through the plant’s chimneys, trapping more than 150,000 tons of pollutants each year before they escaped into the sky.
But the cleaner air has come at a cost. Each day since the equipment was switched on in June, the company has dumped tens of thousands of gallons of wastewater containing chemicals from the scrubbing process into the Monongahela River, which provides drinking water to 350,000 people and flows into Pittsburgh, 40 miles to the north.
“It’s like they decided to spare us having to breathe in these poisons, but now we have to drink them instead,” said Philip Coleman, who lives about 15 miles from the plant and has asked a state judge to toughen the facility’s pollution regulations. “We can’t escape.” …”
Read more from the New York Times by clicking here.
USGS: The role of hydrography in the national map
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 28, 2009 at 7:51 amFrom the USGS (hat tip to the Sisweb!):
“Water is vital to our Nation and the U.S. Geological Survey plays an important role in the tracking and mapping our water resources. The National Hydrography Dataset component of The National Map supports this mission and is widely used in the study of hydrology, natural resources, and pollution control. Users of USGS geospatial data discuss the role of the National Hydrography Dataset in water rights management in California, fisheries management in Michigan, and drinking water threat analysis nationwide.”
San Diego Union Tribune’s spin meter: Biden’s water projects claim a stretch
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 17, 2009 at 8:14 amFrom the San Diego Union Tribune:
“Under pressure to show quick results from the economic stimulus, the White House is taking credit for starting to build hundreds of rural water systems nationwide.
But don’t look for construction crews anytime soon. At most job sites, it could be awhile. Sometimes, a long while.
It all depends on what the definition of “starting” is.
–––
THE SPIN: Vice President Joe Biden said two weeks ago, “We set a goal of starting to build 200 water sanitary systems and wastewater treatment facilities in rural America. We’ve met that goal.” The White House Web site says “We are pleased to report that new waste and water systems are underway in 200 communities in rural America.” …”
Find out what the facts are from the San Diego Union Tribune by clicking here.
Robert Glennon: Our water supply, down the drain
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 23, 2009 at 11:00 amFrom the Washington Post, this commentary by Robert Glennon:
“In the United States, we constantly fret about running out of oil. But we should be paying more attention to another limited natural resource: water. A water crisis is threatening many parts of the country — not just the arid West.
In 2008, metro Atlanta (home to nearly 5 million people) came within 90 days of seeing its principal water supply, Lake Lanier, dry up. Rainstorms eased the drought, but last month a federal judge ruled that Georgia may no longer use the lake as a municipal supply. The state is now scrambling to overturn that ruling; but Alabama and Florida will oppose Georgia’s efforts.
In Florida, excessive groundwater pumping has dried up scores of lakes. In South Carolina, a paper company recently furloughed hundreds of workers because low river flows prevented the company from discharging its wastewater. That state’s battle with North Carolina over the Catawba River has reached the U.S. Supreme Court. Water has become so contentious nationwide that more than 30 states are fighting with their neighbors over water.
Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes, is too shallow to float fully loaded freighters, dramatically increasing shipping costs. North of Boston, the Ipswich River has gone dry in five of the past eight years. In 2007, the hamlet of Orme, Tenn., ran out of water entirely, forcing it to truck in supplies from Alabama.
Droughts make matters worse, but the real problem isn’t shrinking water levels. It’s population growth. Since California’s last major drought ended in 1992, the state’s population has surged by a staggering 7 million people. Some 100,000 people move to the Atlanta area every year. Over the next four decades, the country will add 120 million people, the equivalent of one person every 11 seconds. …”
Read more of Robert’s commentary by clicking here.
Once again, lawmaker introduces bill to study Snake River dam breaching; but some say breaching the dams will turn fertile farmland into desert
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 20, 2009 at 7:39 amFrom McClatchy News:
“Rep. Jim McDermott says he’s no Don Quixote. But for the fifth time the Seattle lawmaker has introduced legislation that likely will go nowhere, puts his Democratic colleagues from Washington in an awkward position and sharpens the focus on Snake River dam breaching just as the Obama administration prepares its salmon recovery plan.
“This is not some wild, crazy children’s crusade,” McDermott said of his bill, which requires the National Academy of Sciences and four federal agencies to study if removing four lower Snake River dams would restore salmon runs in the rivers and authorizes the secretary of the Army to remove the dams, although it doesn’t require the secretary to act.
McDermott faces fierce opposition on Capitol Hill.
“It irritates me when a member who doesn’t live in my district wants to do something like this,” said Rep. Doc Hastings, a Republican from eastern Washington, who said the dam breaching campaign is being orchestrated by “extremists” who won’t be satisfied until the dams are removed. …”
More from McClatchy News by clicking here.
Not everyone thinks it’s a good idea, says an Arlington Times columnist:
“It is hard to imagine Napa or the Central Valley without water. The same is true for the lower Snake River Valley in Washington. The fertile farm belt is home to hundreds of vineyards, apple orchards and crop lands. Without water, however, the area would revert to barren sagebrush, suitable only for jackrabbits and rattlesnakes.
That is why it is hard to figure out why politicians like Congressman Jim McDermott, a Seattle Democrat, continue to push for removing the four lower Snake River dams — dams that provide critical irrigation water to the Snake River Valley.
Without the dams, thousands of jobs would evaporate and an important food producing region would dry up, along with state and local government revenues. Power bills would jump again with the loss of additional hydropower facilities, which supply 70 percent of our state’s electricity.
Thankfully, Gov. Chris Gregoire opposes McDermott’s effort to remove the dams. She realizes that without the Snake River reservoirs, the region would become an arid wasteland.
Breaching the Snake River dams just doesn’t make sense, especially when environment-conscious California is doing just the opposite. Elected officials there are considering raising the 602-foot Shasta Dam to provide more water, food and power for the state’s 36 million people….”
Read more of this column from the Arlington Times by clicking here.
Columnnist: Atlanta needs a water/growth intervention
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 20, 2009 at 7:30 amFrom the Savannah (Georgia) Morning News, this editorial:
“If some Georgia officials could inhale as hard as they blow when it comes to Atlanta’s water woes, the Atlantic Ocean would be lapping at Decatur.
Talk about wind power. If some Georgia officials could inhale as hard as they blow when it comes to metro Atlanta’s water woes, the Atlantic Ocean would be lapping at Decatur.
Gov. Sonny Perdue and other Georgia officials expended a considerable amount of energy this week, suggesting there might be a national solution to Atlanta’s water shortage problem – a nationwide policy that allows municipalities to stick their straws into all federally managed reservoirs and drink to their heart’s content.
“There are some things Congress must address and some things that the state must address,” the governor told reporters Monday at the Governor’s Mansion after meeting with Georgia’s two U.S. senators and eight of the state’s 13 congressmen.
To which any reasonable lawmaker in Washington should respond, “You first.” …”
Read more of this commentary from the Savannah Morning News by clicking here.
Hat tip to Water Wired, who contrasts Atlanta with Las Vegas:
Atlanta seems to have assumed the mantle of the ‘800 pound gorilla’ of Southeastern water, just as Las Vegas has that well-deserved reputation in the Southwest. The big difference is that metro Las Vegas has options and the money to pursue them, whereas metro Atlanta seems to me to be a bumbling giant.
They could use Pat Mulroy.
You can read Water Wired’s post by clicking here.
Georgia lawmakers try for national solution to water squabble
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 14, 2009 at 11:13 pmFrom the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
“Members of Georgia’s congressional delegation are considering floating legislation as early as September that could make it legal for municipalities to draw drinking water from not only Lake Lanier but nearly 80 other federally managed reservoirs in 27 states.
Question is, would such a national water policy get through Congress? And even if it did, would it make a difference?
Probably not, say many leading water experts. “This is a national issue — no question about that,” said George Sherk, who taught water law at Georgia State University and wrote a book on interstate water conflicts. He now teaches at the Colorado School of Mines. “Does that mean there’s a national solution?” Sherk added. “The answer is probably no.” …”
Why would this be a national issue, you ask?
“Just like Lanier, an estimated 77 other Corps of Engineers-managed lakes in 27 states are used for municipal water supplies even though they aren’t specifically authorized for that purpose, according to researchers in U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s office. Five other Georgia lakes are also on the list, including Allatoona Lake and Lake Hartwell. The Corps of Engineers hasn’t verified those numbers. …”
Read more from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution by clicking here.
Tri-state water fight spurs questions on growth
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 8, 2009 at 2:53 pmFrom NPR’s All Things Considered:
“Georgia, Alabama and Florida have been bickering over water for nearly two decades. The focus: a reservoir at Lake Lanier, north of Atlanta.
Georgia believes it deserves the water. Alabama and Florida say it is needed downstream. A federal judge recently ruled that Georgia doesn’t have the right to take drinking water from the reservoir, but that is where 3.5 million Atlanta residents get their water. Now, some wonder whether the area can continue to grow without it.
Some 35 miles northeast of Atlanta, not far from Lake Lanier, is the town of Suwanee, Ga. In 1990, 2,400 people lived there; now, there are nearly 17,000. The growth was planned, but there is no doubt that the city benefited from a plentiful water supply. …”
The Georgia-Alabama ‘water war’ isn’t really about water at all, says columnist
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 5, 2009 at 7:01 amFrom the Atlanta Journal Constitution, this column:
“Look, let’s be honest. Georgia’s ongoing battle with neighboring Alabama and, to a lesser degree, with Florida, isn’t really about the appropriate use of shared water resources. It’s about prosperity: We’ve got it, they want it, and by restricting our water supply, they hope to divert some of that prosperity in their direction.
Alabama officials in particular seem to be enthralled by that theory, which is probably why Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue and Alabama Gov. Bob Riley are at such loggerheads. What Perdue can’t say but probably believes is that Riley’s goal is not to protect Alabama but to harm metro Atlanta. The difference between those two motives explains why negotiations have been fruitless so far.
If you look at the water consumption numbers, Alabama’s interests are not harmed by the amount of water consumed by metro Atlanta, and Riley cannot seriously make the argument that it is. Even in drought years, the amount of water consumed by metro Atlanta has little impact on the amount of water available downstream for use by Alabama. …”
Read more from the Atlanta Journal Constitution by clicking here.
Future Ogallala aquifer water supplies could be in jeopardy
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 30, 2009 at 7:11 amFrom U. S. Water News:
Future water supplies from the High Plains aquifer could be in jeopardy if large amounts of water are pumped out of it and if farmers continue using chemicals on land above the vast underground reservoir, the U.S. Geological Survey said in a report.
While the aquifer’s water quality is good, there will have to be “some substantial changes” in how the aquifer is used “if we want to extend the life of it,” said Jason Gurdak, lead author of the study. Gurdak said prolonged irrigation pumping of the aquifer, also known as the Ogallala, and use of fertilizers on crops in the region could lead to higher contaminant concentrations.
The aquifer is the most heavily used groundwater resource in the United States, supplying water to Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming. Most of the water is used for irrigation, but about 2 million people also depend on it for drinking water. “There is a concern over the ongoing sustainability of this resource,” Gurdak said. “People around the world know about the Ogallala; they know it’s the poster child for water resources that are being challenged because of use.”
Read more from U.S. Water News by clicking here.
World’s waters choking from meat consumption and other human activities
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 29, 2009 at 7:52 amFrom Water Efficiency:
Greater meat consumption and demand for fossil fuels worldwide are expected to cause increasingly more harmful algal blooms and dead zones in coastal and freshwater areas.
“Nutrient pollution in aquatic ecosystems, or eutrophication, is a rapidly growing environmental crisis,” said Mindy Selman, the lead author of a new report released today by the World Resources Institute (WRI). “Nearly 500 coastal areas already suffer from hypoxia. Our research indicates that number is expected to rise in the foreseeable future.”
Eutrophication: Sources and Drivers of Nutrient Pollution, the second report of a three-part series, finds that developing countries will see more nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in coastal and freshwater areas in the coming decades as a result of population and economic growth.
“More people and rising incomes will increase the demand for food, energy, land and other natural resources, which will ultimately lead to greater agricultural production and burning of fossil fuels to heat homes, power cars, and fuel industry,” added Selman, a senior associate and water-pollution expert at WRI.
Read more from Water Efficiency by clicking here. Read the report from World Resources Institute by clicking here.
What is the Gulf of Mexico dead zone? From red tides in the Atlantic to a furry blob in Alaska, seaweed seems to be invading the U.S. from all sides, but the country’s worst algae onslaught, even after a quiet summer, still lingers at the mouth of the Mississippi
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 28, 2009 at 7:09 amFrom Mother Nature Network:
The Mississippi River is America’s aquatic aorta, pumping life through 2,350 miles of U.S. heartland. Its network of tributaries covers more than 1.2 million square miles, drains water from 30 states and is the third-largest river basin on Earth, behind only the Amazon and the Congo.
But thanks to a confluence of factors, the Mississippi has also become an accomplice in the deaths of countless shrimp, crabs and other sea life. As the river empties its contents into the Gulf of Mexico, it inadvertently feeds the area’s annual “dead zone” — a low-oxygen, underwater wasteland that flares each spring and fades each winter.
The gulf dead zone is the largest in the United States and second-largest of more than 400 worldwide, a total that has grown exponentially since the 1960s, according to a 2008 study. Smaller dead zones have appeared in other American waterways such as Lake Erie, Chesapeake Bay, Long Island Sound and Puget Sound in recent years, as well as on a variety of global coastlines. Some are natural in origin, but many of the most visible and destructive ones are the results of human activity. And the lifeless expanses south of the Mississippi Delta have become their poster child.
Read more from Mother Nature Network by clicking here.
Senate begins debate on $34.3B energy and water appropriations bill
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 27, 2009 at 7:48 amFrom the New York Times:
The Senate this afternoon will begin debate on a $34.3 billion fiscal 2010 energy and water spending bill as environmental groups press lawmakers to strip provisions they say will damage wetlands and fish habitat in Missouri.
Overall, the Senate bill, S. 1436 (pdf), would provide $27.4 billion to the Energy Department, $5.4 billion to the Army Corps of Engineers and $1.1 billion to the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation.
The amendment picture was not clear at press time, however a coalition of environmental groups was pressing for changes they say are necessary to protect fish and wetlands near the Mississippi River in Missouri.
Read more from the New York Times by clicking here.
Bureau barred from further water reclamation funding
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 27, 2009 at 7:19 amFrom Desalination & Water Reuse:
The US Department of the Interior will not authorize any further Title XVI water reuse projects to receive support from the Bureau of Reclamation “at this time”, Michael L Connor, commissioner of the bureau told the Subcommittee on Water and Power of the US House of Representatives’ Natural Resources Committee on 21 July 2009.
Pointing out that there were 53 Title XVI projects already authorized and numerous competing mission priorities and demands on Reclamation’s budget, the commissioner rejected a request for funding for a US$ 21.5 million wastewater reuse project for the city of Hermiston in Oregon, which would be used for irrigation.
Read more from Desalination & Water Reuse by clicking here.
Atlanta’s main water access placed on 2012 deadline
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 23, 2009 at 7:33 amFrom the Atlanta Examiner:
“Georgia, and the city of Atlanta in particular, could be facing dry days ahead if leaders from two other neighboring states can’t negotiate an agreement within the next three years.
According to the Associated Press, Florida, Alabama, and Georgia remain in a deadlock over the fate of Lake Lanier, but could be forced to the bargaining table, leaving Georgia politicians in a tight situation – either succumb to strict demands by neighboring states, such as tight water efficiency standards, costly construction and infrastructure projects, and round-the-clock checkpoints, or leave Georgia out to dry by cutting water supplies to levels they were decades ago.
District Court Judge Paul A. Magnuson ruled July 17 that Georgia was required to cease all activity and water withdrawals from the lake immediately, as the water reservoir is protected for alternative uses of power, and does not exist as an unrestricted supply for the city. Usage of Lake Lanier, Atlanta’s primary water source to over 5.5 million as of 2009, must undergo permission by Congress if the city wants access to it.
Larry Sanders, Interim Director of the Turner Environmental Law Clinic at Emory University Law School, stated that the tri-state predicament is unusual, and that Judge Magnuson’s district court ruling is based on issues of legality, not on who needs or wants the water most. “The case is framed by the city of Atlanta as who deserves or owns the water,” Sanders said Wednesday. “The question is based more on legal aspects, like how the federal Army Corps of Engineers manages its reservoir, not about the city’s desperate need.””
Read more from the Atlanta Examiner by clicking here.
Southeastern state’s water debate over Lake Lanier’s water now in Congress’ hands
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 19, 2009 at 7:15 am
From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Governors of Georgia, Alabama and Florida had 19 years to reach to an agreement over how to share the water from Lake Lanier. Now a federal judge has given Congress three years to work out the dispute. But if getting three governors to agree on something as important and contentious as drinking water wasn’t hard enough, getting more than 500 politicians in Congress to reach an agreement could be exponentially harder.
“Now we’re going to have to deal not with just two other states — we’re literally going to have 50 states involved,” said Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia. “It’s going to be a real challenge.”
Georgia’s entire congressional delegation meets Tuesday to discuss what to do next, and it may map out a way to stay out of the disagreement — and instead pitch the issue back to the three governors who were unable to resolve it in the first place.
What is the real issue here?
In his ruling Friday, U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson said it was illegal for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates Lake Lanier, to draw water from the lake to meet Atlanta’s needs. The Corps has been making such withdrawals for decades, and Lanier is now the chief source of drinking water for millions of people in metro Atlanta. The court said Lanier was not intended to be Atlanta’s water supply, and the Corps may not use it that way unless Congress authorizes it to do so.
If Congress fails to pass a water-sharing bill in three years, Magnuson said he would order Atlanta’s withdrawals cut to 1970s levels, a measure that the judge acknowledged would be draconian.
Read more from the Atlanta Journal Constitution by clicking here.
Peter Gleick weighs in on this situation in his latest post on the City Brights blog: click here.
Photo of Lake Lanier by flickr photographer kelleyclark.
Peter Gleick: An Eastern judge points the way to solving Western water problems
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 18, 2009 at 12:55 pmFrom Peter Gleick and the City Brights blog:
A District Court judge in the southeastern United States has just described our water problems with stunning clarity. Not only that, in one sentence, he offered the solution.
You think we only fight over water in the western U.S.? No, we’re not alone. For many, many years, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida have been quarreling over water. The details are complex and the legal issues are muddled by Congressional decisions, past court rulings, and the vast complications that result when three states with different interests, needs, and objectives start to fight.
Without going into all the gory details here, the basic issue is whether Georgia can use as much water from the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River (ACF) system, and especially from Lake Lanier reservoir, as it wants to meet the rapidly growing needs of Atlanta and neighboring suburbs. Florida and Alabama say no — their interests must also be considered, and since they are downstream on the ACF basin and would suffer as Georgia takes more and more, they sued.
The issue has been in the courts for decades. But today, US District Court Judge Paul Magnuson issued a stunning ruling — Georgia has been taking more water for water supply than permitted under the law and they have three years to either get permission from Congress to take this water or they must stop.
Read more of Peter Gleick’s post by clicking here.
Bid to cut Army Corps’ project spending a net loss for taxpayers
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 12, 2009 at 8:33 amFrom the New York Times:
The White House has drawn a hard budget line for the Army Corps of Engineers in a bid to corral federal spending and harness what its critics say is a runaway agency. The Office of Management and Budget wants to nix funding for any Army Corps projects that fail to meet minimum cost-benefit standards. While the agency has always had cost-benefit thresholds for starting new projects, the new rule applies to ongoing work, including long-running enterprises.
The first victim: a northwest Arkansas hydropower plant.
Federal taxpayers have provided the Ozark-Jeta Lock and Dam Power Plant with more than $40 million and utility ratepayers $20 million to renovate the plant over the past four years. But the corps’s calculations show the project won’t provide adequate returns on the federal investment — reaping $1.70 for every tax dollar. The administration wants every dollar to bring at least $2.50 in benefits.
Ironically, shutting down the Ozark-Jeta project won’t save taxpayers a dime, since the government would pay a $12 million cancellation fee and reimburse utility ratepayers for their $20 million share. Bottom line: Federal taxpayers would spend $32 million to kill the project — $4 million more than it would cost to complete it.
Read more from the New York Times by clicking here.
Environment groups find less support from Supreme Court justices
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 4, 2009 at 7:53 am
From the New York Times:
The Supreme Court heard five environmental law cases in the term that ended Monday, and environmental groups lost every time. It was, said Richard J. Lazarus, a director of the Supreme Court Institute at Georgetown University Law Center, “the worst term ever” for environmental interests.
The court allowed Navy exercises using sonar that threatened whales off California. It limited the liability of companies partly responsible for toxic spills. It made it harder to challenge Forest Service regulations and easier to dump mining waste into an Alaskan lake. And it allowed the Environmental Protection Agency to use cost-benefit analysis to decide how much marine life may be killed by cooling structures at power plants.
Business groups expressed measured satisfaction with the decisions. “The court does seem to be bringing more common sense back to environmental law,” Robin S. Conrad, a lawyer with the United States Chamber of Commerce, said at a recent news briefing.
Read more from the New York Times by clicking here.
Photo of the Supreme Court by flickr photographer dbking.
Can the Mississippi Delta survive rising seas?
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 4, 2009 at 7:51 amFrom NPR:
Reporting in Nature Geoscience, two coastal scientists write that rising sea levels, combined with slow Mississippi Delta growth, could drown the Louisiana coast by 2100. Delta expert Ivor van Heerden, who is not involved with the research, discusses the findings.
Listen to the show from NPR by clicking here.
Nebraska’s increase in irrigated acreage puts state first in the nation; but some areas of the state are over-irrigated, however, and significant limitations on future irrigation are looming
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 22, 2009 at 6:23 am
From Media Newswire:
LINCOLN, Neb. — While the number of irrigated acres is dropping in many parts of the country, it continues to rise in Nebraska, which now ranks first in the nation. Some areas of the state are over-irrigated, however, and significant limitations on future irrigation are looming, said Bruce Johnson, University of Nebraska-Lincoln agricultural economist.
By the end of 2007, Nebraska had 8.5 million acres under irrigation, Johnson wrote in the June 10 issue of “Cornhusker Economics.” Nebraska added 560,000 acres from 1997 to 2002 and another 930,000 acres between 2002 and 2007.
The most recent U.S. 2007 Census of Agriculture, released in February, shows Nebraska now has more irrigated farmland acres than any other state, accounting for about one of every six acres of U.S. irrigated farmland. The increase puts certain areas of the state at risk for being over-appropriated, Johnson said. Some 30,000 irrigated acres may have to be changed to dryland acres as a result. “We have a very precious water resource in this state … and we’re developed pretty much to the max,” he said in an interview.
While it is not surprising that Nebraska has been in an irrigation expansion mode for several years, what is surprising is that other major irrigation areas of the country have reduced irrigated acreage, Johnson said. California, which historically has been first in irrigated acres, dropped 900,000 acres between 1997 and 2007, with the bulk of that decline between 2002 and 2007. Johnson attributed the drop to multiyear drought conditions and an ever-growing demand for water by the state’s metropolitan areas. California’s irrigation acres stood at 8.2 million in 2007, down from 8.71 million in 2002.
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