Odds and ends: the peripheral canal, hugging a Delta smelt, Tim Brick’s blog and incredible wildfire pictures
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 26, 2008 at 8:28 amReally quick odds and ends this morning as I am on the road to Reno for the holiday:
Who Steinberg picks for key positions could determine fate of the peripheral canal, says the Sacramento Bee’s Swarm blog: Pavley? Wolk? Hancock? Check it out from The Swarm by clicking here.
Say it isn’t so, Sunne: Jon Mendelson of the Tracy Press says Sunne hasn’t learned the lesson: The underlying factor to the state’s water crunch — namely, that too many people and farms exist in an unsustainable fashion in places where water doesn’t naturally occur in abundance — will not be addressed by a Peripheral Canal. he writes. From the Second Thoughts blog - click here.
It’s hard to hug a Delta smelt, says a letter posted at the Madera Tribune’s Red Line blog: Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, it is said. It appears as though the state government is doing just that. The world’s economy is the most important problem and we can’t fix it as a whole, but we can help it locally. The state plan to cut water deliveries 15 percent, (not down 15 percent but down to 15 percent) of the amount requested annually. This just shows me that the state is either uninformed or unconcerned about the economy and agribusiness, and how they interrelate to each other. Read more from the Red Line blog by clicking here.
Check out Tim Brick’s blog over at the Obama-Biden website (guess there’s no question about Mr. Brick’s political alliance) by clicking here.
Check out the most incredible California wildfire pictures from the Boston Globe by clicking here.
Happy Thanksgiving from Aquafornia! Aquafornia will continue to be updated over the holiday weekend, so all you water news junkies can get your fill …. If you’re traveling this weekend, travel safe! Rumor is the CHP is out in full force, so take care.
Weekend highlights: peripheral canal, federal water rights, groundwater management, rising sea levels, water and growth policies, and Owens Lake dust mitigation making news
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 24, 2008 at 7:33 amFor those of you who didn’t check in over the weekend, here are some weekend highlights:
Support for new aqueduct comes from unexpected source - an article about how Sunne McPeak’s position on the peripheral canal has changed over the years.
What if water rules change? Water users who rely on federal projects to deliver water may think they know what their rights are, but they could be wrong.
Critics blast report on state regulation of groundwater use: San Joaquin farmers & water interests are not happy with the Legislative Analyst Office’s report which recommends statewide management and monitoring of California’s groundwater.
The Rising Tide in California: It’s not the extra few feet of water that make sea level rise so dangerous; It’s the extra few feet during a storm during El Niño during high tide, say researchers at the Scripps Institute.
Water policies channeling resources in wrong directions: should we be building dense developments in Los Angeles and other urban areas with little or no groundwater, instead of areas such as San Bernardino, which has groundwater resources?
Inyo County Board of Supervisors hears Great Basin’s side of the Owens Lake saga - The Inyo Register gives some great details on the ongoing dust mitigation effort by DWP at the dry Owens Lake bed.
Check out the latest issue of DWR’s Weather and Climate News by clicking here.
Bloggers react to dam deal, naked DWR, Delta exports, sustainable camping, Maldive’s options, and California’s mysterious “North Fork Polygon”
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 21, 2008 at 8:06 amLots to post today:
Bloggers weigh in on the dam deal: and under closer scrutiny, no one seems to be impressed. The Red, Green & Blue blog wrote “Bush wanted the deal to remove the dams, yet his administration has always backed farmers in the dispute over water rights, such as when irrigation was shut off to under the Endangered Species Act in 2001. Even after the Klamath dams’ removal deal was announced on November 13, 2008, Bush released a statement saying, “Together, we have produced an agreement that will greatly reduce the risk of future shutdowns of the irrigation system.“ The GOAT blog wrote “The linked dam and water deals are likely the last attempt by the Bush Administration to lock in its vision of how to end conflict over water in the Klamath River Basin. That vision would return those who get water from the Bureau of Reclamation’s Klamath Project to the head of the line for Klamath water in exchange for a promise of dam removal in the future. It has been effective in splitting the coalition of tribes, environmental, river and fishing groups which previously stood together for restoration of the Klamath River and recovery of Klamath Salmon.” John Soares of the Northern California Hiking Trails blog is not sure either, and Tom Chandler of the Trout Underground says too much bad enviro news this week, so he’s headed out to the river to fish for BWO’s (whatever they are) …
Naked DWR? From the always interesting Aguanomics blog: Blogger David Zetland decries the absence of a mention of increasing prices as a response to climate change in DWR’s latest report in his post DWR has no clothes (Les, cover up please!), and a commentor suspects that something is ‘going on behind the scenes’…..
Delta exports only account for 15% of statewide water use, says Spreck Rosekranz of the Environmental Defense Fund. He writes “were the remainder more uniformly distributed, the urgency of maintaining those exports would be greatly diminished.” From the On the Waterfront blog, Delta Exports and Statewide Water Supply in California.
Go camping in sustainable style with the $129,000 Verdier Solar-Powered Camper! The RV is based on the classic VW camper style, and has a hybrid engine, solar panels, an on-board computer, a projector, 6 speaker surround sound, and a roll-down screen. But wait! That’s not all! It also comes with built-in trash containers, composting and recycling, and a refrigerator/freezer. Check it out from the Clean Technica blog by clicking here.
Maldivian citizens looking for new homeland on higher ground: The Economist looks at the options for the 370,000 citizens who face their homeland going under. Since the richer greenhouse-gas burning countries got them into this, isn’t it reasonable to think that maybe they’ll just be offered citizenship elsewhere? “Reasonable, but wrong. Australia’s government has already turned down a request to offer citizenship to the 12,000 people of Tuvalu, another small, drowning island; so a few hundred thousand Maldivians knocking on rich-country doors seem likely to get even shorter shrift. Anyway, they may not want to be absorbed into a larger nation. They might prefer to stay together to maintain their community spirit and traditions of folk-dancing and imprisoning political dissidents. So a solution as radical as Mr Nasheed’s may be the only answer.” Dark humor from the Economist: O give me a home…
The most interesting not-really-water related link to Aquafornia comes from the blog Rural Mysteries, which talks about the “North Fork Polygon” - a sort of Bermuda Triangle in Northern California. The website explains: “The “North Fork Polygon” is an irregular, non-triangle-shaped area encompassed by the northern California foothill communities of Colfax, Applegate, Foresthill, Iowa Hill, Weimar, Auburn, and Meadow Vista (aka the C.A.F.I.W.A.M. area). For some reason, all these mysteries are located within a few miles of the North Fork of the American River. This Web site documents the investigation of unsolved mysteries and local legends that occur in and around the “North Fork Polygon”. Oooooo, go check it out (if you dare) at www.ruralmysteries.com.
Odds and ends: water transfers, reflections on a trip down the Central Valley, redefining rivers, Australia and desalination, a naughty octopus, and more!
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 15, 2008 at 7:40 amHere’s the latest interesting stuff out there on the ‘net:
How water transfers work in California: David Zetland of the Aguanomics blog asked the State Water Resources Control Board for some details about water transfers and posts their response here.
Aguanomics reader travels the San Joaquin Valley from top to bottom: He writes: the real conclusion is that there are two different Valleys and the demarcation is as sharp as if Winston Churchill sat down with a ruler and a pen and a map of Persia. Everything north of Sacramento, e.g. the Delta, is rich and prosperous. The fields are neatly harrowed for spring planting. The hedgerows are neat and clean. The houses and barns are painted and well maintained. The cars, trucks, tractors, etc. are relatively new and well maintained. South of Sacramento everything is simply shabby. That is where all of the fallowed land and the deserted orchards are located. Read more of this post from the Aguanomics blog by clicking here.
Living on Earth, a radio show on public radio, reported on the possible revisions to the Clean Water Act this week: Two years ago, the Supreme Court made a landmark ruling on America’s rivers that limited the reach of the Clean Water Act. The ruling has many repercussions, especially in the arid Southwest. Living on Earth’s Ingrid Lobet reports. .. you can read a transcript, listen online or download an mp3 by clicking here.
Is Australia’s push for desalination making their problems worse? The Grist says yes in this article about droughts, desalination and feedback in the land down under - click here.
Pictures, pictures: Here’s a picture of salt evaporation ponds in the Central Valley from Lloyd Carter’s Chronicles of the Hydraulic Brotherhood blog, the 12 most astonishing hot springs in the world from Life in the Fast Lane, and drought tolerant landscapes from the O.C. Register.
Bad octopus, bad bad octopus! Whats an aquarium to do with a misbehaving octopus? An octopus has caused havoc in his aquarium by performing juggling tricks using his fellow occupants, smashing rocks against the glass and turning off the power by short-circuiting a lamp. From Radio Wammo off the wireless - click here.
Honorable mentions for interestingness: Everything you wanted to know about eutrophication, Mariposa County’s water history, and the latest issue of the Santa Clara River Watershed Times.
Odds and ends: bloggers react to water allocation, but forget about Oregon says the USGS, some eco innovations, why isn’t groundwater in CA regulated, and more!
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 31, 2008 at 5:25 am
My cup simply runneth over with interesting odds and ends today….
Housing meets its ultimate adversary - water, says the Westchester Parents blog, who points out that this is a disaster that city leaders themselves have created: Our city leaders need to now come to grips with the problem and recognize that their policies have contributed significantly to the problem. Regardless of desktop projections that the city will need ten’s of thousands of new housing units, the reality is that there are not enough water resources to fulfill that fantasy. Ignoring the practical limits of supply, cities have built-out so significantly that they have finally reached the point where consumption exceeds supplies. It’s a fantasy, he says, that we can build enough homes to accommodate the expected increase in population forecasted for Southern California. From the Westchester Parents blog - click here.
Meanwhile, Spreck Rosekranz of the Environmental Defense Fund says the allocation figure released by DWR is meaningless, as it will be revised later anyway after we see what precipitation actually occurs. So why are they really doing it? The reason for issuing a forecast earlier than ever before appears to be that it is simply one more opportunity to advocate for new dams and a peripheral canal. Lester Snow, DWR’s Director of the Department of Water Resources is clear on that point, stating that the initial allocation “… further dramatizes the urgent need for additional investments in water storage and conveyance infrastructure to assure an adequate and reliable water supply…”. From Spreck Rosekranz of the Environmental Defense Fund’s On the Waterfront blog - click here.
Don’t look north to that groundwater in Oregon, says the USGS, as it’s already spoken for: Water Wired has a response from the USGS taking an issue with the recent article in the Oregonian that implied that there was a vast, unused amount of groundwater that could be available for use or for export: the concept of a “secret stockpile” of water that “someone, someday may want to use” is not only incorrect, but troubling because it implies that ground water in the Cascade Range is not already being used. In reality, ground water from the Cascades supplies much of the flow to major streams on both sides of the range, and, consequently, is already being relied upon by communities, irrigators, and important aquatic ecosystems. More from the USGS via the Water Wired blog by clicking here.
Water your lawn With your *ahem* waste? No, I’m not talking about a “Women & Sitters Only” policy for your bathroom: Biokube, a Danish company, is bringing the BioKube Venus to America. The Venus is a septic tank advanced enough that it can make your waste water clean enough for use in agriculture (i.e. watering your lanw.) The device would produce more than the 15,000 gallons used by most households. The excess would just be released into groundwater like current septic systems. But, I suppose you’d want to limit the amount of frolicking in the sprinklers your kids were doing. The product will debut right here in California. More from the Eco-Geek blog by clicking here.
First solar thermal plant in 20 years launches in Bakersfield: Only serving 3500 homes homes right now, this plant could serve as a gateway to a much larger plant in the future. Here’s how it works: Unlike solar photovoltaic systems that convert sunlight into electricity, this plant will focus sunlight on tubes that contains water. The light heats the water, creating steam, thus turning turbines. This is important because steam storage will allow the plant to run after sunset. From the Clean Technica blog - click here.
GOAT blog asks why California does not regulate groundwater (only CA & TX don’t, by the way) and says “the environmental establishment has become much too cozy with the purveyors of environmental destruction”. Why? … in the wine country north of San Francisco stream flow is decreasing at an alarming rate. Groundwater pumping is implicated along with illegal surface diversions and the rapidly expanding wine industry is known to be the main culprit. Yet the environmental and fishing group Trout Unlimited recently accepted over a million dollars in state funding to “form partnerships” with the wine industry. Trout Unlimited is unlikely to support limits on groundwater pumping which would surely be seen as a threat to its new wine industry partners. Also, the blog discusses how irrigators and some farmers in the Klamath region have been selling groundwater at unsustainble rates. Check it out from High Country News’ GOAT blog by clicking here.
San Francisco’s Proposition R to rename the sewage plant in honor of George Bush just oozes respect, says the Golden Gate Xpress: “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it,” he [the chairman of the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco] wrote in his proponent’s argument. “President Bush has left us with a gigantic mess, and this facility symbolizes the city’s deft ability to clean up its share of the financial and diplomatic mess left in the administration’s wake…we think President Bush deserves immediate recognition for his eight years of public service.” Before you dismiss it as silly, the Xpress wants you to remember the wooden dummy named Brendan O’Smarty. From the Golden Gate Xpress - click here.
For all of you storm water and urban runoff people, bookmark this new blog from the Los Angeles Stormwater Quality Partnership: Stormwater Trends.
Pictures, pictures, pictures! Here’s a great article about Mono Lake, the most unique & bizarre lakes from around the world - and there’s a lot of them, Imperial Valley officials and their secret twins, and a the BBC has a slideshow of Prix Pictet winners featuring amatuer & professional photos of water.
Odds and ends: Cascades water farm, doomed California, Las Vegas’s toxic & illegal water, how much is Trinity County’s water worth, and snails that walk on water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 22, 2008 at 4:00 pm
“Water and power have made our arid land flourish, may we keep faith with the pioneers who brought us these gifts” says the writing on this wall in downtown Los Angeles….
Water Wired weighs in on the Cascades groundwater: Referring to it as the “Cascades Water Farm”, Michael Campana of the Water Wired blog has a post about Monday’s article on the groundwater in Oregon, writing we do need to study these systems so that we can determine their transient responses to stresses and simulate the systems with fracture-flow models. We also need to distinguish between the amount of water stored in the systems and the amount that can be recovered; the two are not equal. More from the Water Wired blog by clicking here.
Is California Doomed because of gay marriage? This blogger reponds to a letter in the Fresno Bee that blamed California’s drought and wildfires on gay marriage, writing The Drought has been going on since 2006. Was God punishing us for things we hadn’t done yet? What’s the real problem, according to this blogger? California is a friggin desert, not that you’d know because Californians insist on having lawns greener than those in Wisconsin. We ought to be growing cactus and other low water using plants. [and] This arid wasteland has over 30 million people, to name a few. Check out this post on the Fourth Dimensional Blog by clicking here.
Las Vegas’s water is toxic and illegal! From the Las Vegas CityLife blogs, this blogger responds to a recent report on bottled water, which included the news that bottled water from Wal-Mart tested high for contaminants, writing: where’s Wal-Mart getting at least some of that tasty beverage to pour into its bottles? The Las Vegas Valley Water District. So, you know that old joke about bottled water companies just putting tap water into fancy bottles with pictures of islands and glaciers and dolphins in sunglasses fanning themselves under palm trees? In this case, it’s true. Until Las Vegas’s water quality improves, he’s sticking with the horchata. Check it out from the Las Vegas City Life blog by clicking here.
How much money is Trinity County’s water worth? If Trinity County were to get an extremely conservative whole sale price of $133 per acre foot, as based on the California’s Environmental Water Account Plan for 2007- 2008 (actual open market price for June 2008 is $500 - $1000 per acre-foot dependent on extraction, transport, treatment and other costs), the county would collect over $111 Million in revenues. Additionally, if the county were able to produce its own power from these waters there would be an additional $150 million in revenues, based on $0.12 per kWh (statewide average charge for all sectors by PG&E). All that power and water is now going to the Westlands Water District by way of the Central Valley Project, and the water district’s in much better shape than Trinity County, says this commentary. Read all about it in the CSPA News blog by clicking here.
Snails that walk on water? “How the snails were dragging themselves across a surface that they could not even grip was absolutely perplexing to us,” said lead author Eric Lauga, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California, San Diego. Find out how they do it in this article from National Geographic by clicking here.
Odds and ends: How many hamburgers does a reservoir hold, track wildfires online, eco-insanity, what’s in the riverbed that didn’t make the news, realtor tours SWP, plus online groundwater resources for free!
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 17, 2008 at 7:52 am
Happy Friday to all!
How many hamburgers does a reservoir hold? Kelly Zito of the San Francisco Chronicle’s Village Green blog asks himself after a visit to the dwindling mud puddle that is now the San Luis Reservoir: The reservoir also has a visitor center, where helpful rangers answer questions, point our landmarks and give out fact sheets. One pamphlet that I’d picked up popped into my mind the other day while I was eating a hamburger and contemplating California’s drought (Yes, I think about these things during my off hours…). Essentially, the sheet highlights the fact that everything we eat can be boiled down (harhar) and measured by the amount of water needed to produce it. It’s the carbon footprint idea, using water instead. According to this handout, it took nearly 700 gallons… …of water to grow the ingredients and produce the hamburger I was enjoying so much. At 13% full, Zito calculates the San Luis Reservoir holds about 121 million hamburgers! More from the Village Green blog by clicking here.
Track wildfires online - not water-related (forgive me!) but I’ve been looking for something like this for a long time! The O.C. Register’s Sciencedude informs: A small Redding company has created an online “wildfire viewer” that allows the public to see the changing perimeter of large brush fires in Orange County and the rest of Southern California. I could have used something like this when wildfire swept very close to our neighborhood last year. Check it out and bookmark that site, and I hope you won’t need to use it in the upcoming fire season. Click here for Sciencedude article.
Government eco-insanity intensifies, environmentalists out of control, says Laer of the Cheat Seeking Missiles blog, responding to a recent Capital Ag Press article about how a ruling in New York could affect irrigation systems out west. While Clean Water legislation in the 1970’s brought pollution and big polluters under control, he writes: What’s not under control are environmentalists intent on using these laws to bring down our nation, so they came up with the idea of calling water a pollutant. If New York City buys water from upstate New York and puts it into its pipe, these guys want New York to have to consider that water a pollutant and get a discharge permit. It’s literally costing New York millions of dollars, and the irrigation systems of the west could be next, says the Capital Ag Press article. More from the Cheat Seaking Missiles blog by clicking here.
Watch out for that linty white stuff in the riverbed, warns Santa Clarita blogger who attended the River Rally event - an event to pick up trash in the riverbed held on the same day as the Coastal Cleanup Day: A friend and I got to the River Rally early, and we were part of the advance guard moving north through the wash. I started picking up pieces of white, linty paper when my friend yelled “That’s used toilet paper!” Unfortunately, I hadn’t noticed the used part before picking it up. Now the good news was that I was wearing gloves. The bad news is they were basically loosely-woven garden gloves, not exactly ideal for handling…y’know. Other cleaners also went on to encounter the discarded toilet paper. Two high school girls showed remarkable ingenuity when confronted with this challenge. Like in a documentary about primitive man, they improvised tools from sticks, spearing the toilet paper with a sharp branch before putting it in the trash bag. I was duly impressed. Find out more of what else he found in the riverbed in this blog post from I Heart SCV by clicking here.
Realtor follows the water on a recent Metropolitan Water District tour: In a series of three posts rich with pictures, realtor Gene Wunderlich toured the State Water Project with the MWD. Stops included the Edmonston Pumping Plant, Lake Oroville, and the Delta. Check it out from the Southwest California Homes blog: Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3. You can also check out Aquafornia’s desk chair tour of the California Aqueduct by clicking here.
Free Water Geek Groundwater literature online! The USGS has put out a new circular on groundwater, titled Ground-Water Availability in the United States, and Water-Wired blog alerts you to the fact that a textbook, Unsaturated Zone Hydrology for Scientists and Engineers, is also available online at no cost!
Odds and ends: Dam discussion, cows and water, Economist debate closes, Yale Environment 360, wine on tap, and the real cause of droughts!
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 12, 2008 at 7:34 am
Forgive the non-water related picture, but I just had to share Aqua Spouse’s incredible dragonfly picture!
An interesting post on the effectiveness of dams in the new emerging California climate. One of my favorite bloggers returns to the blogosphere with an interesting discussion on the proposed dams and how they might be operated in the face of climate change. This post discusses the projected changes to California’s hydrology and how those changes would affect reservoir operations; the new dams might even have environmental benefits. However this blogger remains undecided about whether we should build them: So, do we hate these dams? Should enviros fight them forever? Well, we don’t love them for the old-school reason. They won’t produce new water. The big cities in the south have realized this; they aren’t offering to pay or even lobbying for new dams. Both dams would destroy a beautiful valley. They’ll be expensive. On the other hand, they’ll have downstream environmental benefits in ways that old dams never provided. We have more of a need to catch floods, because that’s what we’re going to get in the new hydrology. They may give us a way to keep more of the ag we have now, if that is the goal. There’s a lot more to this post, so go check it out at the Rhubarb Pie blog. If you enjoyed that post, check out this one on how our infrastructure is optimized for the old climatology, and how we are moving from the Age of Abundance into the Age of Management.
Cows are guzzling the West’s Water: the Wuerthner on the Environment blog, written by ecologist and writer George Wuerthner, has an extremely long post on the effects of irrigation on the ecosystem in the west, starting with the cow: When people think of California and water, they often imagine sprawling cities dotted liberally with swimming pools and watered lawns; legions of vain auto owners washing their SUVs, sports cars, and minivans; and endless acres of verdant golf courses - all sucking down rivers both near and far. This image is partly correct - rivers are going dry. But the major reason is not direct consumption by humans - urbanites running sprinklers on their front yards and the like. In California, the major user of water is agriculture, and within agriculture, the thirstiest commodity is the cow. Check out this post at Wuerthner on the Environment blog.
Results are in on the Economist debate: After a torrent of incisive statements and comments over the past two weeks, our debate has now reached a close—and we have a winner. You have voted against the proposition by 59% to 41%. Vandana Shiva prevails. This house does not believe that “water, as a scarce resource, should be priced according to its market value”. Check out the results from the Water Wired blog. Not surprisingly to those who know him, Aguanomics blog writer David Zetland does not agree, saying “We will suffer from “supply-demand imbalances” for as long as water prices fail to reflect its scarcity value“. He gives his thoughts here.
Aguanomics blog reviews the site Yale Environment 360: David Zetland says the posts are “relevant, thorough and accurate”. He reviews and summarizes three of them. From the Aguanomics blog.
Sparkling white wine on tap in Italy: At the heart of the town’s famous Sagra dell’Uva, or Grape Festival, is the moment when sparkling white wine flows from the fountains in the main square. But this year locals and tourists had to make do with water, as bad plumbing meant the wine supply was switched by mistake to local homes. Oops! From the BBC News.
The real cause of drought, in case you didn’t know it, is Daylight Savings Time! Six months of DST is too much for the environment to cope with, (seriously!) says this letter writer in this humorous post, also from the Aguanomics blog.
Odds and ends: Praise for DWP & Nahai, a stream for Griffith Park?, DWR podcasts, salinity management guide, for whom the toll roads, international perspectives on water, and that gotta-go event, the World Toilet Summit & Expo!
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 27, 2008 at 1:42 pmLong overdue, more odds and ends!
LA Creek Freak attends DWP Forum on Sustainable Water Supplies, says he is encouraged by the plan and by the leadership of David Nahai: One of the mayor’s very best environmental moves was to hire him to run the DWP. David Nahai is up-front, clear, principled and generous. He continually emphasized that water solutions would be based in partnership and collaboration - with an array of city departments, other governmental agencies, neighborhood councils, community groups, and an engaged public. He frequently voiced praise of (and deferred credit to) the work being done by his staff. He uttered the most stark (for a public official) assessment of the damage caused by L.A.’s thirst for imported water, saying that, in the Owens Valley “we left in our wake an environmental calamity.” Find out more about the forum by clicking here.
Restoration of a running stream through Griffith Park? It’s possible, according to an official who is quoted in the Griffith Park Interrupted Blog: At this time we are having a geotechnical consultant perform an engineering feasability study to intercept the groundwater from hydrogeological formations upstream of the landfill and restortation of a running stream through Griffith Park below the landfill. This may be an opportunity to restablish a water resource through the park and reduce the formation of leachate within the landfill. Find out more from the Griffith Park Interrupted Blog by clicking here.
Check out podcasts from DWR: They are short audio podcasts that answers informative and entertaining questions on a variety of subjects from the many experts in the department on a variety of subjects including carbon capture farming, how much does an acre-foot of water cost, and how water is pumped over the Tehachapi’s. Click here for the DWR Podcast webpage.
Salinity Management Guide, updated for 2009, now available online: The guide is intended for landscape designers, park managers and anyone else using recycled water for landscape irrigation, and is the only database of its kind that provides information on the effects of water quality on plants, soils and water application systems. Check it out by clicking here.
First person accounts of the San Onofre Toll Road hearing: For whom the toll roads, posted on IndyBay: a humorous account of the hearing experience, and Tollway Hearing Theater: Catcalls, dollar-wavers and thumb war amid scores of steadfast speakers, by the Laguna Press Independent.
16 unusual international perspectives on water gives you a look at how this resource is viewed around the world in pictures and text from Eco-Worldly. Click here to check it out.
Not to be missed! The World Toilet Summit & Expo: The premier gotta-go event is coming to Macau November 4 through the 6th. Find out more from Water Wired here.
Odds and ends: Water bank a no-brainer says one blog, build more dams says another, water & growth in the West, and can you answer the great hydrogeologic question of our era!
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 7, 2008 at 8:03 amSlow news day… good day for odds and ends!
Snow bank is a no-brainer, says Spreck Rosekranz in a post on EDF’s On the Waterfront blog, who wonders why this program only happens in drought years: The distribution of water throughout California is based on a historically derived water rights system that does not well serve today’s economic, social or environmental needs. While a State-run water bank may be most useful and active in a drought, it would provide incentives in all years to make long-term investments in conservation that are necessary to support our growing state’s economy while protecting our environment. Read more from Spreck Rosekranz’s post by clicking here.
Even better than the water bank would be to complete two other projects in Northern California, says the Parkway blog: Along with the obvious solution for our area, the building of Auburn Dam (which would double our storage capacity), supported by groups—including us—like the Auburn Dam Council, there is another that would solve the water problems for the larger region and that is the raising of Shasta Dam to its originally engineered height of 200 feet higher than it now is, tripling its water supply. Read more from the Parkway blog by clicking here.
Water, land and growth in the Western U.S. - a commentary: From Water Wired, a link to a commentary in Planning & Environmental Law. Water Wired quotes from the summary: We conclude that the current growth management debate continues to accept growth as inevitable and seeks only to accommodate it through conservation, reallocation of agricultural supplies, and possibly denser urban development. Nonetheless, the exit of the federal government from subsidizing regional development, along with state inaction, is forcing urban areas to begin linking land use and water resources planning for the first time. Western cities may not stop growing, but growth accommodation will be more difficult and more expensive than it has been in the past. Read more from this Water Wired post by clicking here.
OK, now for the really serious stuff: The great hydrogeologic question of our era! Groundwater - one word or two? Yes, believe it or not, Water Wired’s Michael Campana pens an entire blog entry on the subject. He writes: One advantage to using one word: there is no ambiguity about hyphenation when it is used as an adjective. Is it “ground-water hydrology” or “ground water hydrology”? Again, be consistent. But don’t ever write “surface and groundwater” when you mean “surface water and groundwater”. However, “surface and ground water” is okay, as is “surface water and ground water”. Ah, English! Got that? Read more from the Water Wired blog by clicking here.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Labor Day odds and ends: Poseidon and privatization, ‘brown’ western politics, Delta in distress, and predictions for the epic budget battle ahead
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 1, 2008 at 7:55 amPoseidon: An ‘investor’s dream’ but raises other issues, says this blogger: ” … once built and once we depend on this new water supply, these plants become virtual monopolies with guaranteed survival. Induced by this profit potential, corporations will agitate for more access, less regulation, larger plants. Peering into the crystal ball can you see the day when Poseidon’s Carlsbad plant and the 50 million gallons of water it provides would be turned off? Shut down? Can you imagine the day when we no longer need the water? I can’t. So Poseidon is now a risk free investment with a guaranteed return; an investor’s dream. But by allowing our water supply to become privatized, we will pay in many ways, says this blogger. From the O.B. Rag blog: The Poseidon Adventure Begins.
Western politics and the Colorado River Compact: … the one political defining characteristic of the western U.S. that I have observed in about eight years of residence (primarily in Colorado, now in Arizona) is that the people this side of the 100th meridian think for themselves, make choices that are best for their wallets and their land, and don’t want the Federal government to interfere in the loose “controls” that the states have established for regulatory and administrative authority. The West is neither red nor blue, and almost certainly not green (though there are LEED-approved pockets here and there). The color of western libertarianism is brown, the color of the parched landscape on which they make their living. And libertarianism is not a political party out here, it’s a lifestyle. The blogger discusses politics, climatology, and the Colorado Compact in this post from Hydro-Logic: Politics and the River. (Note: you will need to scroll down past the references, which are given first for some reason, to read the post.)
The history and background of the Delta: This blogger, a state scientist in Sacramento, has a post on the history of the Delta and the threats it is facing now. An informative post with a lot of references. Check it out from the Chimaera Contemplations blog: Delta in Distress.
Legislative session closes, still no budget, but no one’s going home just yet. No convention parties either, as Perata says the Senate will meet every day until a budget is passed, and Bass has ordered the Assembly to reconvene on Wednesday (Sacramento Bee story). So what’s next? Jerry Roberts at the Santa Barbara Independent makes some ‘whimsical’ predictions for the epic budget battle, including this: Democratic leaders offer new tax plan, “The Peripheral Canal of Money,” asking taxpayers to toss cash once a month into the California Aqueduct, to be pumped upstream through the Delta directly to the Treasurer’s Office in Sacramento. “Throw in $1, $5, $20—whatever you can afford,” says Speaker Karen Bass, “because it’s all for the children.” More predictions by clicking here.
Odds and ends: groundwater links, dam arguments, deconstructing the WaterCube, funny TV ads to save water, and a look inside pumping stations
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 26, 2008 at 8:50 amBringing you some of the latest in the blog world….
Waterblogged.info gets serious about groundwater in this comprehensive list of groundwater resources available on the web. Getting serious about groundwater is the way for you to move quickly up the ranks from water wanabee to water wonk, and essential for refining your wretched water table manners, as well. There’s even YouTube videos. Check it all out by clicking here.
Actually, dams are attractive, rebuts the Parkway Blog to this recent column in the Sacramento Bee: … dams are the most attractive way to solve the water problems in the state of California—and specifically addressing the provision of a stable water supply to Southern California with water stored behind those dams in Northern California—it is necessary to build the peripheral canal. Build the Auburn Dam and raise Shasta Dam too, he says. Click here for the Parkway Blog.
Aguanomics blog, however, debates economics of the dam question, saying Pricing is the first answer to dealing with water issues. Efficient use is next, and that doesn’t just mean efficient drip systems; it means being efficient in not growing low value, water intensive crops like cotton with subsidized water. The Bee argues for building new dams now (undoubtedly having Sites and Temperance Flat in mind), but fails to mention that the pending studies on the costs, yields and environmental effects of those dams are not complete. That is like having expensive surgery before the Doc has looked at the X-rays. Check out the always interesting Aguanomics blog by clicking here.
Why was the Water Cube so fast? The watercrunch blog deconstructs why so many world records were broken there in this post.
Kudos to the Denver Water Company for these funny water conservation TV ads posted on YouTube: Drunken Flowers and Stop Running Toilets. Not so sure about this one, though: Shower.
A look inside Metropolitan’s Colorado River Aqueduct pumping stations - a photo hound after my own heart! If you like my photo library, you’ll enjoy this look at the nuts and bolts of the system: Click here for Ron’s Log photo gallery.
News tidbits: Fresno’s Mayor Autry self-sacrifices for water bond, Lance Armstrong the water guzzling champion, red lionfish invade Caribbean, and professional car washes take action
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 16, 2008 at 6:21 amFresno Mayor Autry’s mad about the lack of a water bond, so he’s taking matters into his own hands: Yup, folks, he has pledged to not wear a suit and tie until a water bond is passed. Shocking! From the Sacramento Bee: “Every meeting until this water deal is done, you’ll see old Bubba in jeans and work shirt,” he said. Self-sacrifice, thy name is Bubba. Yeah, sure, that’ll get some action….
Lance Armstrong, bicycle champion, is also a champion water user, reaching the top of the list of Austin, Texas water users. 38 times the average household use, or 330,000 gallons last month. Armstrong has a long history of high water use, and the city has ruled out a water leak. New York Times article.
Red lionfish, an adaptable predator, has invaded the Caribbean: The fish are believed to have been released into Florida’s Biscayne Bay in 1992 when Hurricane Andrew shattered a private aquarium and sent six of the fish swimming. The adaptable predators corner fish & crustaceans up to half their size and swallow them in one gulp. “This may very well become the most devastating marine invasion in history,” said Mark A. Hixon, an Oregon State University zoology professor and marine ecology expert who compared lionfish to a plague of locusts. “There is probably no way to stop the invasion completely.” Los Angeles Times article.
Professional car washers, unite! California is a state that likes to be first, and is leading the way with imposing restrictions on car washing. Here’s an article on four lessons learned by car wash owners on how to protect their businesses. “It is my hope that operators will start educating their local water purveyors and municipalities as to the benefits of professional carwashing,” Nix said. “The carwash industry is a solution to the problem of water conservation and water quality.” Professional Carwashing & Detailing article.
New blogs and web resources to check out!
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 14, 2008 at 5:40 pmI’ve added a number of new blogs to the Blogroll recently:
Lloyd G. Carter’s Chronicles of the Hydraulic Brotherhood - Lloyd Carter’s been around for 35 years, reporting and writing on California’s water issues. This blog is relatively new, consisting of links to various news articles, as well as archives of his news career as well as current articles, radio commentaries, and random thoughts. http://www.lloydgcarter.com/
Environmental Defense Fund’s On the Waterfront blog features posts by a group of bloggers, including Thomas Graff and Linda Harnish. The blog advocates for A balanced approach to western water policy—protecting California’s ecosystems and providing reliable water supplies for our farms and cities. http://environmentaldefenseblogs.org/waterfront/
I didn’t know Aquafornia had a cousin, but apparently so… SanJoaquinValleyfornia bills itself as An Online Chronicle of Policy and Politics in the San Joaquin Valley. The site is very active, posting three times a day - news & political briefing in the morning, mid-day post on Valley issues, as well as an afternoon update. They even post on Saturdays and Sundays, too. (This person, like myself, has too much time on their hands!) A great collection of links. http://www.sanjoaquinvalleyfornia.com/
For those of you concerned about development and water supply, the California Water Impact Network has an 81-page downloadable book called ‘A Community Guide to California’s “Show Me the Water Laws” Including the Urban Water Management Planning Act And Senate Bills 610 & 221. This book is intended to be a layperson’s introduction to California’s water supply system and to the set of laws that govern how local governments must incorporate water supply reliability issues into their planning decisions. Citizens have always played an important role as watchdogs over local decision-making about growth and development. Citizens groups can play an equally important role in protecting their own water supply reliability, by ensuring that land use planners thoroughly consider whether new growth will impact supply reliability for existing residents. Check it out at this California Water Impact Network webpage: http://www.c-win.org/Publications.html
Check out the Water Education Foundation’s redesigned website, where you can download articles, subscribe to Western Water Magazine, and purchase inexpensive booklets on important California water issues. The non-profit Water Education Foundation’s mission is education, and to that end they offer a variety of variety of publications and videos, three day tours of California’s water infrastructure, as well as programs for school kids. There’s even a calendar of upcoming water-related seminars and events. http://www.watereducation.org/
If you haven’t already, you need to check out the Water SISWEB
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 13, 2008 at 8:35 am
I’ve plugged for the Sisweb before, but now an article posted on IndyBay really tells you what makes the Sisweb so cool:
Have you ever had problems finding scientific water resources news, articles, videos, images, papers, etc.? Have you ever found interesting material over the internet that you wanted to share with others? No worries! Now, you can use WaterSISWEB.org. WaterSISWEB allows users to interact by posting interesting links, voting, and commenting.
WaterSISWEB is a place for the water resources professionals to share information. Scientists, researchers, students, and industry professionals can use this free community service to find what is new and popular in the water resources area and share, store, organize, and search the bookmarks of web pages in this area.
The Sisweb is not a blog, but a bookmarking site. What is that, you ask? The article explains how a bookmarking site works:
The format of this bookmarking website is different than a blog. According to Madani “the difference between a blog and a bookmarking site is that a blog has a moderator to decide what is good and what is not. Here the users control the content. If they are interested in something, they post it there, but because the taste of one person may be completely different from the taste of the entire community, other users are given a chance to vote.” WaterSISWEB is not run by the WaterSISWEB team, but by its users. Registered users can post links to water resources content on the web, and other registered users have the opportunity to vote for or against them to appear more or less prominently on WaterSISWEB. These users also have the opportunity to comment on posts, reply to comments, vote for comments, save posted links for later references, and even recommend what they find interesting to others who may not be WaterSISWEB’s members. When a link is first submitted, it appears in the Upcoming (under review) section. It can then be prompted to the Top (front) page through a user-based ranking system. The numbers of positive and negative votes of users on each link determine the rank of that post. WaterSISWEB’s team does not decide which links should become popular. Members’ votes train a filter that determines which posts deserve to be seen by other visitors.
You can read more about the Sisweb by clicking here.
It sounds a bit more complicated than it really is, and it might take some getting used to. I find it a little easier to follow now that I have added it to my RSS Reader.
So, if you haven’t check it out yet, go ahead, take the plunge! http://www.siswebs.org/water/
Odds and ends: Another desal approval, peripheral canal: yes, no maybe so, millions of dollars of bird balls, and a trip to a landfill
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 10, 2008 at 7:59 amAnother desalination plant approved: Poseidon’s Carlsbad desalination plant was not the only one approved by the Coastal Commission. Approval was granted for a much smaller desalination plant in Monterey to supply the needs of an oceanside development. The plant will produce 25,000 gallons of water per day. Story from the San Jose Mercury News - click here.
Peripheral Canal - Yes! says David Zetland of the Aguanomics blog, who was asked to sit on an a panel discussion. He writes: The case for the PC is all the more powerful because business as usual will NOT continue — either because the pumps will be shut down to protect endangered fish, because rising sea level will bring more salt to the Delta, and/or an earthquake will cause catastrophic levee failure. (Farmers in the west and central Delta are going to be out of business no matter what.) The PC is “better” because it will reduce the chance of a sudden interruption of exports due to levee failure, increase the quality of that water (less salt), and improve the chances of endangered fish (and the Delta ecosystem) recovering. Read more from the Aguanomics blog by clicking here.
Peripheral Canal - No! says Wes Rolley in the Morgan Hill Times: The PPIC places all of our hopes for a reliable water supply on the construction of a peripheral canal routing water around the Delta, changing the nature of that resource forever and doing it in a manner from which it can not recover. …. The PPIC’s report seems incomplete. The data backing up its conclusions was in appendices which will not be made public until later in the summer. I am told that Schwarzenegger pushed to have the report out before it was ready. The story is being scripted. Read more of Wes Rolley’s commentary in the Morgan Hill Times by clicking here.
Peripheral Canal - Maybe! Spreck Rosencranz of the Environmental Defense Blog, On the Waterfront, says the benefits to water users of a peripheral canal are clear. The murky part: Less clear is how a peripheral canal would affect the Delta, either as a natural environment or as a farming and rural community. PPIC asserts that a canal would be better both for resident fish such as Delta smelt and for salmon that spend only part of their lives within the Delta. While PPIC acknowledges that the amount and timing of water withdrawals from the natural environment is critical to fish survival, it sheds little light on how to ensure that these withdrawals allow for the fish to survive. We need to determine if and how a peripheral canal would be operated without destroying the Delta before we start digging, he says. Check it out from the EDF’s On the Waterfront blog by clicking here.
What does a million bucks of bird balls look like? The Griffith Park Interrupted blog gives us a look with a photo essay - click here, the watercrunch blog has a YouTube Video - click here, and the AWWA has an article - but you have to be a member to read it. You can get a summary and read discussion comments, though, by clicking here.
This is not your momma’s landfill, says the LAist: A land fill is very different than the dump that we still picture from days of yore, with the trash unloaded everywhere, rife with vermin. Puente Hills is carefully structured not to impact the environment. On the approach, it’s a terraced green hill, with trees and grass, even flowers. It’s full of wildlife — deer and squirrels and coyotes (though in the landfill itself, between the methane generate and the pulverizing of the trash to compact it, no vermin can survive). The plantings get younger and younger until you reach the crest, and just over the top, it turns into dust. The Puente Hills landfill is the largest landfill in the U.S., at least for now. It uses methane to generate power for the landfill and sells the excess to Southern California Edison. They pull out anything recyclable and send it to China. Take a bus tour with the LAist and check it out by clicking here.
Odds and ends: the cost of desalination, why we squander water, private wells for pools, water dancing, & your opportunity to flood Buckingham Palace
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 7, 2008 at 7:45 amInteresting posts found out and about on the internet:
How much would it cost if all of California’s water was supplied by desalination: The Daily Kos’s NNadir pencils it out: According to this link California consumes about 8.7 million acre-feet of water per year for urban use (including the tract housing that blankets the state) and about 44 million acre feet per year for agriculture. The energy cost of providing California’s water through desalination could thus range between 0.6 exajoules to a whopping 2.3 exajoules of electricity. Because electricity is generally produced at about 33% of thermal efficiency, we should multiply these numbers by 3 to get the primary energy cost. Thus we range from about 2 exajoules to about 7 exajoules. For comparison purposes, US total energy consumption is about 100 exajoules. He calculates this cost to be $18 billion to $80 billion a year - that is, if the electricity could be generated. Read more from the Daily Kos by clicking here.
Blogger asks the question, why do Americans squander so much water, the most essential thing to life? Answer: “Right now, they have no incentive to use water more wisely – because it’s so cheap. But what’s changing is, locally, municipalities are looking at full-cost pricing to reflect how much it takes their water service providers to actually deliver it, having that reflected in the price of water.” Only then will consumers start to conserve, he says, underscoring the adage that people don’t change their destructive behavior until it hits them in their wallets.” Read more from the Green Right Now blog by clicking here.
Residents in drought-stricken Southeastern U.S. are beating water restrictions by drilling their own wells to water their landscaping or fill their swimming pools apparently without guilt: Referencing this Wall Street Journal story, Michael Campana of Water Wired points out the short-sightedness of their attitudes: The water they pump ultimately would flow to some surface water body, Faux well pix perhaps in the Chattahoochee River basin (for those pumping in the Atlanta area), or perhaps some other stream system far away from Atlanta. But the truth is that these folks are in fact using someone else’s water. By pumping ground water, they are likely reducing the discharge somewhere else. More from the Water Wired blog by clicking here.
“Take me to the river and drop me in the water” … the AWRA Water Blog has a list of water songs, with plenty more added in the comments section. This should be an iMix on iTunes. Did you know there is even a song about the St. Francis Dam disaster? Check out the Water Dance Playlist & comments from the AWRA Water Blog by clicking here.
Ever wanted to make important decisions affecting millions of people, while flooding out major cities in the process? You can now play policy God: FloodSim puts you in control of all flood policy decisions and spending in the UK for 3 years. Whether its deciding how much money to allocate to flood defences, deciding where to build houses, or how best to inform people about the risk of flooding, you are in control. It’s actually a serious game intended to promote citizen awareness of flood issues & government expenditures - check out FloodSim by clicking here. (Hat tip to the Sisweb!)
Odds and ends: Our delusional salmon reality, water wasting rules different for different folks, are wildfires a result of weather modification?, and renaming San Francisco’s sewage treatment plant after George Bush heads to the ballot!
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 20, 2008 at 8:03 amBreaking news and information from the blogosphere:
Delusional reality about the salmon: Dr. Robert Lackey, a senior scientist for the EPA says we’ve got to get real about dealing with the salmon crisis. If we really want to save the salmon, we need to deal with the growing population in California. Dr. Lackey writes: If the human population levels increase as expected, options for restoring salmon runs to significant, sustainable levels are greatly limited. Consider the demand for houses, schools, stadiums (PDF), expressways, automobiles, malls, air conditioning, drinking water, consumer goods, golf courses, and sewer treatment plants. Society’s options for sustaining wild salmon in significant numbers would be just about non-existent. Read more from Dr. Lackey on the Greenversations blog, the official blog of the EPA by clicking here.
Wasting water, wasting fuel, wasting your money — there’s different rules for different folks writes Ron Kaye of the RonKayeLA blog after spending some time over at Griffith Park: A city employee was hosing leaves off the asphalt and had been at his task for a long while from the looks of the mud puddles and mini-ponds forming downhill as he inched forward with his hose. Isn’t it illegal for you and me to hose down our driveways, or at least regarded as an anti-social waste of water, especially as we are faced with a water shortage crisis later this year and are being forced to pay higher rates so we can drink recycled toilet water one of these days. Clearly, the rules that apply to ordinary people don’t apply to the city. And that goes for just about everything. Read more from Ron Kaye by clicking here.
Is weather modification and chemtrails connected with California wildfires? Or maybe they’re pagan rituals? The Sonoma Chemtrails blog speculates: … isn’t it interesting that scientists have been working on weather modification for several decades and are using it to create ‘perfect weather’ for the China Olympics but they can’t muster up some rain clouds to help with the California fires? Plus did you know that the unusual and unprecedented multiple dry lightning strikes causing hundreds of fires began on June 20-21, 2008, the summer solstice or midsummer which is a high holy day for pagans and the occult as they celebrate with bonfires? Or maybe it’s barium from chem trails in the sky… Read more from the Sonoma Chemtrails blog by clicking here.
Ballot measure to rename San Francisco’s sewage treatment plant in honor of George Bush is headed to the ballot in November: Congratulations, crazy poop plant renaming people, says the SFist, who has the official press release, which gives us a glimpse of what’s ahead: The Presidential Memorial Commission is planning a creative, art-driven general election campaign, and is putting out a general call for support from artists who want to design flyers, billboards and other attention-getting devices. “We’re hoping for an election campaign like no other,” said Mr. McConnell. More from the SFist by clicking here.
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 amRoundup 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.
Odds and ends: More on those black balls in the DWP reservoir, showers vs. baths, carbonate aquifers, and why you shouldn’t give your urine away for free
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 12, 2008 at 8:57 amAnother occasional trip around the blogosphere to see what’s up:
More on the safety of DWP’s bird balls: Last month, DWP began dumping black balls into Ivanhoe Reservoir as a way to meet the requirement of covering the reservoir. The Griffith Park Interrupted Blog has a post regarding their safety, which seems to be rather unproven: the balls have not been tested for 10 years, or 10 months, or for longevity at all. And they are NOT made to survive in a hot sunlight environment; the test they passed is only for 73.4 degrees. Read more from the Griffith Park Interrupted Blog by clicking here.
Which conserves more, a shower or a bath? The Green Routine blog answers the question: Since one of the highest household uses of water is bathing, it’s a good place to start conserving water in your home. So, we know from the statistics that most of you prefer taking a shower to a bath. But, for those who are curious, or may currently prefer to bathe, we answer the age old question of shower vs. bath and throw in a few water conservation tips along the way. More from the Green Routine blog by clicking here.
Water Wired weighs in on Nevada’s carbonate aquifers that SNWA plans to draw from: Carbonate aquifers are different than other types, writes Michael: the nature of the flow in carbonate aquifers may be such that the traditional equation (Darcy’s equation) used to simulate ground water flow may be invalid. Read more from the Water Wired Blog by clicking here.
Disaster looms, but Californians keep fighting about water is the title of blogger Jim Gogek, who writes: It’s sad that so many Californians seem oblivious to to the realities of water supply in their own semi-arid state. For example, some ask why we don’t just spend a couple billion on desalination, not understanding that desal can’t possibly provide the amount of water our state needs, that water created on the coast cannot economically be pumped inland or that desal uses a lot of energy. We don’t know enough about desal yet. The fact is, there’s no one solution; the only solution is a broad array of solutions. So, instead of arguing over the deck chairs on the Titanic, Californians need to unify behind the Dianne/Arnold $9.3 billion water bond initiative and then move on to what needs to be done next to improve water supply and protect the environment, cities and ag. Read more from Jim Gogek’s blog by clicking here.
Giving your urine away for free? Why public toilets should pay you: From Slate Magazine, an article that provides a unique perspective on pay toilets. The City of Los Angeles enters into a contract whereby the toilets are installed by companies essentially without cost to the city in exchange for posting ads on them. The City of LA is guaranteed $150 million over the life of the contract: So the company pays the city, and in exchange, the city provides eyeballs. The eyeballs are yours. Do you get a cut? A free flush, at least? Nope. You pay. Read all about it from Slate Magazine by clicking here.