Nearby super-earth may be a waterworld
Posted by: Maven on December 22, 2009 at 2:45 pm
From Space.com (with a hit tip to the Water Sisweb!):
“A rocky and water-rich planet, not much heftier than our own, has been discovered so close to our solar system that astronomers one day may be able to study its atmosphere.
And though astronomers are pretty certain the water exists, they don’t know its state, with speculations ranging from liquid water to water ice and an exotic state called a superfluid.
The extrasolar planet, now named GJ 1214b, is about 40 light-years away. It orbits a red dwarf star. It is the only known “Super-Earth” exoplanet worlds that have masses between Earth and Neptune with a confirmed atmosphere.
“Astronomically speaking, this [planet] is on our block,” meaning it’s in our cosmic neighborhood, said study leader David Charbonneau of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Mass. “For perspective, our own TV signals have already passed beyond the distance of this star.” … “
Read more from Space.com by clicking here.
Couple’s water-saving invention uses fish feces
Posted by: Maven on December 18, 2009 at 8:08 amSuch an intriguing title, isn’t it This, from San Diego’s channel 10:
“A San Diego couple said they have an invention that could help solve the state’s water woes and end world hunger, 10News reported.
Phyllis and Collie Davis’ Bay Ho back yard has a unique garden that has no soil. It has a little peat moss, and the only water required is in the heated tank that houses a secret ingredient — white fish tilapia.
The feces of the well-fed fish are sent into a pumping system that isolates the good nutrients. That nutrient-rich water is then pumped through the gravel bed several times a day. Seedlings with a bit of peat moss are rooted in the gravel. … “
Read more from San Diego’s channel 10 by clicking here.
Blog commentary: Columbia River water next export to California (?)
Posted by: Maven on December 12, 2009 at 9:09 am
From Oregon Catalyst:
“Speculation is high that Oregon has, for the first time, begun formal exploration into the feasibility of sending surplus water from the Columbia River south to thirsty California. The success of the recently announced giant wind farm has water export proponents salivating at the chance to tap just a small portion of the average 265,000 cubic feet of water per second that slips by Oregon, unused but for power generation, fish habitat and limited shipping.
Closed-door sessions have been held privately in recent months to discuss the very future of the Columbia River as we know it today. People have been asking for Oregon's water for a long time. In 1990 Kenneth Hahn, an LA County Supervisor, formally requested water from Oregon via pipe to offset the severe water shortages they were experiencing. Then governor Neil Goldschmidt said no to the request, as did then Washington governor Booth Gardner.
Oh, how times have changed. With Oregon now leading the way in green power exports with the proposed Shepherds' Flat Wind Farm, many around the state see the opportunity to export water as the next logical export. … “
Read more of this blog commentary from the Oregon Catalyst by clicking here.
Picture of Columbia River Gorge by flickr photographer WSK 2005.
Photo gallery: The most psychedelic lake on earth
Posted by: Maven on December 9, 2009 at 8:07 am
Check out this lake, which has got to be the world’s weirdest water body:
“The Spotted Lake near the city of Osoyoos in British Columbia, right at the Washington state border, is not the result of someone's too vivid imagination but of the many different mineral deposits found in it: The lake is rich in calcium, sodium and magnesium sulphate (Epsom salts) and even silver and titanium. It is called Kliluk by the Okanagan Indians who have known of the lake's therapeutic powers for generations.
The lake changes colour throughout the year and therefore is beautiful to look at in any season. But it is only in the summer from about June to mid September that the lake water level lowers due to evaporation and reveals the “walkways\” and different pools, the lake's “spots. Osoyoos in fact means “narrowing of the waters\” in the Okanagan language. … “
Egads! Gigantic 450 lb. jellyfish!
Posted by: Maven on December 8, 2009 at 7:52 am
From Environmental Graffiti, the “eeeww” story of the day! No, that’s not photoshop there… that’s a 450 lb. jellyfish!!!
“They came from the deep : swarms of giant jellyfish that can sink trawlers and strike fear into the hearts of fishermen. Growing to almost seven feet wide, weighing a sumo-sized 450lb (200kg), and armed with myriad stinging tentacles, Echizen kurage sound like the stuff of Japanese sci-fi, yet the threat they pose is as real as it gets. Since 2005, these slimy horrors have been wreaking havoc in the waters off the coast of Japan : and how to stop them is anyone's guess.
Over recent summers, the gelatinous giants, known as Nomura's Jellyfish in English, have mysteriously materialised in the Korean peninsula and Yellow Sea off China before drifting across the oceanic void to terrorise the people of Japan. These huge marauding armadas have caused devastation due to their habit of clogging up and destroying fishermen's nets with their sheer bulk, or poisoning and besliming catches with their toxic tentacles, leaving the fish inedible and worthless. … “
Read more from Environmental Graffiti by clicking here.
Jon Stewart on Climategate
Posted by: Maven on December 6, 2009 at 8:16 amFrom Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show: A story that Aquafornia has not been covering, but certainly you’ve heard of it. Here’s Jon Stewart’s take on it (hat tip to Water Wired):
Thirsty in Suburbia covers the Golden Poo Awards. Really.
Posted by: Maven on November 3, 2009 at 6:47 amHere’s one of those ‘odd posts’ I’ve been known to post, but hey, I think we can all use something a little humor to break up the day’s news, and who else but the clever Thirsty in Suburbia blog to provide that for us! Check this out:
“Toilet humor (humour) has moved out of the school yard and into the studios of some of the UK's most creative animators. I thought I was good at the potty puns and chuckles, but the threshold has been raised to astounding heights with the winners of the short film “Golden Poo Awards\” announced October 15th. In fact, it's so over the top, I spent a few minutes pondering if it could be some sort of prank!
PooP Creative (really!) and The London International Animation Festival (LIAF) jointly promoted the competition to tackle the serious issues of sanitation and hygiene in an edgy, irreverent and humorous way. …”
Like how Check out this video which won second place:
See the winning video & find out more from the Thirsty in Suburbia blog by clicking here.
Schwarzenegger’s veto message appears to have gone above and beyond
Posted by: Maven on October 28, 2009 at 11:04 pmThis one reminds me of the 70s stories about playing records backwards and hearing satanic lyrics…. but it’s being batted around the internet, and even though it’s not water-related, here goes…. From the Silicon Valley Mercury News:
“SACRAMENTO Tell us, governor, how you really feel.
In what’s either a sly jab at a critic or just an improbably “weird coincidence” one of the scores of tart veto messages issued by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this month apparently contained an extra-special statement of rejection.
As in, a certain four-letter curse word, followed by its familiar friend “you.”
The phrase leaps out when reading the first letter of each line in the printed veto message apparently the only one like it in the batch sent out Oct. 11. The hidden acrostic, first spotted by the San Francisco Bay Guardian, has since been splayed across the Internet and even on cable television. (You can check it out at gov.ca.gov/pdf/press/2009bills/AB1176_Ammiano_Veto_Message.pdf.)
“It’s just a weird coincidence,” Aaron McLear, the governor’s spokesman, said Wednesday, doing his best to play it straight. “We do hundreds of vetoes every year, so something like this was bound to happen.” …”
Read more from the Silicon Valley Mercury News by clicking here. Then go play some Led Zeppelin backwards….
Fossilised skull of ‘sea monster’ pliosaur found on Dorset coast: Ferocious prehistoric predator’s skull is 2.4 metres and could belong to creature measuring up to 16 metres in length
Posted by: Maven on October 27, 2009 at 12:41 pm
From the Guardian.co.uk (hat tip to the Chance of Rain blog!):
“The fossilised skull of a “sea monster”, which may be the largest of its type ever found, has been unearthed on the Dorset coast.
The skull from the ferocious prehistoric predator the pliosaur is 2.4 metres long and could belong to a creature measuring up to 16 metres in length from tip to tail and weighing up to 12 tonnes.
Pliosaurs were a form of plesiosaur, a group of giant aquatic reptiles that terrorised the ocean 150m years ago, around the same time that dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
They had short necks and huge, crocodile-like heads that contained immensely powerful jaws and a set of huge, razor-sharp teeth. …”
Read more from the Guardian.co.uk by clicking here.
Last minute Halloween costumes for the water obsessed
Posted by: Maven on October 26, 2009 at 6:39 am
From Thirsty in Suburbia:
“Halloween is this Saturday! You haven't gotten your costume together yet, you say Thinking you're “too serious\” to dress up at all Here are some costume ideas that will show the world you're thinking about water all the time, all day every day, holidays included. (It goes without saying that many of these hunks of polyester and foam do not come in “green\” and are quite unsustainable.) …”
For Thirsty in Suburbia’s costume ideas, click here.
Monday’s top of the scroll is …
Posted by: Maven on September 21, 2009 at 7:54 amWould you believe it is actually a slow news day … I can’t find any story of statewide interest today. There was, of course, plenty over the weekend. However, here’s a few interesting non-California stories.
From NPR:
“The construction of mobile floodgates aims to safeguard the 1,300-year-old island city of Venice. It’s an ambitious engineering project, but some scientists say it may not be sufficient to protect Venice from rising sea levels due to climate change.
Venice rose from mudflats in the middle of a lagoon which forms the largest wetland in the Mediterranean. One of the world’s most endangered cities, it has been subject to increasing flooding due to sinking land but also to rising sea levels.
It’s known as “aqua alta” high water and it brings city life to a standstill for several hours. Big boats can’t go under low-hanging bridges, and water seeps into buildings through the sewage system. Venetians have not lived on the ground floor for decades. …”
Read more from NPR by clicking here.
From the Peninsula Daily (Washington):
“The giant Humboldt squid that invaded North Olympic Peninsula waters earlier this month apparently have taken to beaching themselves.
Observers in Clallam Bay and Sekiu say that hundreds of the large squid which can grow to six-feet-long and weigh up to 70 pounds have littered the beaches each morning since Wednesday.
“There had to be 100 of them laying all over the beach,\” said Chris Mohr, owner of Van Riper's Resort in Sekiu on Friday.
“It was like a graveyard out there. …”
More from the Peninsula Daily by clicking here.
Jumbo squid invade San Diego shores, spook divers
Posted by: Maven on July 17, 2009 at 6:29 amFrom the Associated Press:
Thousands of jumbo flying squid aggressive 5-foot-long sea monsters with razor-sharp beaks and toothy tentacles have invaded the shallow waters off San Diego, spooking scuba divers and washing up dead on tourist-packed beaches.
The carnivorous calamari, which can grow up to 100 pounds, came up from the depths last week and swarms of them roughed up unsuspecting divers. Some divers report tentacles enveloping their masks and yanking at their cameras and gear.
Veteran divers are staying out of the water, while others are venturing in to view the creatures up close, and are getting quite the experience:
On a recent night, Magill [a diver] watched in awe as a dozen squid with doleful, expressive eyes circled her group, tapping and patting the divers and gently bumping them before dashing away. One especially large squid suspended itself motionless in the water about three feet away and peered at her closely, its eyes rolling, before it vanished into the black. A shimmering incandescence rippled along its body, almost as if it were communicating through its skin.
But the next night, things were different: A large squid surprised Magill by hitting her from behind and grabbing at her with its arms, pulling her sideways in the water. The powerful creature ripped her buoyancy hose away from her chest and knocked away her light. When Magill recovered, she didn’t know which direction was up and at first couldn’t find the hose to help her rise to the surface. The squid was gone. “I just kicked like crazy. The first thing you think of is, ‘Oh my gosh, I don’t know if I’m going to survive this. If that squid wanted to hurt me, it would have,” she said.
Other divers have reported squid pulling at their masks and gear and roughing them up.
More from the Associated Press by clicking here.
There’s goo in them thar Alaskan waters
Posted by: Maven on July 17, 2009 at 6:20 amFrom Inside Bay Area:
Something big and strange is floating through the Chukchi Sea off the Alaska coast.
Hunters from Wainwright, Alaska, first started noticing the stuff early last week. It’s thick and dark and “gooey” and is drifting for miles in the cold Arctic waters, according to Gordon Brower with the North Slope Borough’s Planning and Community Services Department. Brower and other borough officials, joined by the U.S. Coast Guard, flew out to Wainwright, on Alaska’s north coast, to investigate. The agencies found “globs” of the stuff floating miles offshore Friday and collected samples for testing.
Later, Brower said, the North Slope team in a borough helicopter spotted a long strand of the stuff and followed it for about 15 miles, shooting video from the air. The next day the floating substance arrived offshore from Barrow, about 90 miles east of Wainwright, and borough officials went out in boats, collected more samples and sent them off for testing too.
Nobody knows for sure what the gunk is, but Petty Officer 1st Class Terry Hasenauer says the Coast Guard is sure what it is not. “It’s certainly biological,” Hasenauer said. “It’s definitely not an oil product of any kind. It has no characteristics of an oil, or a hazardous substance, for that matter. It’s definitely, by the smell and the makeup of it, it’s some sort of naturally occurring organic or otherwise marine organism.”
Read more from Inside Bay Area by clicking here.
Giant squid wash up on La Jolla Beach after earthquake (with video!)
Posted by: Maven on July 13, 2009 at 8:55 amFrom NBC Bay Area:
The quake was felt all over the county, which isn't uncommon in San Diego — but what happened just minutes later was a little fishy. “We just got here about 15 minutes ago and Lilly, what did you see on the beach\” John Feher asked his little daughter. “Squid, squid, squid, squid, squid. she replied.
Dozens of dazed Humboldt squid that were about three to four feet long and weighed close to 40 pounds were flapping around on La Jolla Shores beach.
“It's like their equilibrium is all messed up and they don't know what they're doing and they can't back out there,\” Bill Baumann said. “It was like they got — I don't know — all shook up.
It didn't take long for the seagulls to swoop in and start feeding on the squid, so beachgoers ran to the rescue and tried frantically to save them by throwing them back in the water. That proved to be a difficult task for several reasons — they were extremely heavy, very slippery, and when the good Samaritans did manage to get them back them in water, the squid didn't know where to go and kept washing back up.
“Some people were saying it was the earthquake this morning that caused them to get disoriented but who knows Feher said.
More from NBC Bay Area by clicking here. And if you liked that weird animal story, how about this from NPR: Birds’ Survival Relies On World’s Largest Crab Orgy
The alligator gar is one ugly fish, with few friends but new fans
Posted by: Maven on June 30, 2009 at 6:32 am
Check out that picture of the ‘sadly misunderstood’ fish as you read this story from the Wall Street Journal:
The sadly misunderstood alligator gar, reviled for its frighteningly huge and prehistoric appearance and rows of razor-sharp teeth, has been hunted for centuries. Fishermen despise the gar because they believe the fish devour prized bass and crappie. Swimmers and boaters fear the gar’s alligator-shaped jaws could take a chunk out of them in the water.
But in recent times, alligator gar have experienced a kind of trash-to-trophy renaissance as sportsmen discovered the thrill of hunting the beasts, which can weigh up to 300 pounds and reach 8 feet in length. Gar hunting, with rod-and-reel as well as crossbow, has spawned a booming market for guides who charge as much as $750 a day to lead their clients deep into the muddy backwaters of Texas where the monster fish thrive.
In the rural South, the prospect of bagging a trophy gator gar inspires a special brand of enthusiasm. “I don’t consider myself a redneck, but sometimes I do redneck stuff,” says Mark Malfa, a gar guide in central Texas.
Paula Boudra, an athletic 32-year-old, drove nearly six hours from Sheridan, Ark., one night earlier this month for the chance to kill her first alligator gar with a crossbow. Armed with stainless-steel, prong-tipped arrows that can pierce the gar’s thick scales, her guides, Sam Lovell and Steve Barclay, steered their flat-bottom boat into the brambly creeks of East Texas’s Trinity River.
Read more from the Wall Street Journal by clicking here.
Dead Sea peril: sinkholes swallow up the unwary
Posted by: Maven on June 23, 2009 at 7:52 am
A story for the Weird and Wacky category from the Associated Press:
EIN GEDI, Israel (AP) Eli Raz was peering into a narrow hole in the Dead Sea shore when the earth opened up and swallowed him. Fearing he would never be found alive, he scribbled his will on an old postcard.
After 14 hours a search party pulled him from the 10-meter-(30 foot-) deep hole unhurt, and five years later the 69-year-old geologist is working to save others from a similar fate, leading an effort to map the sinkholes that are spreading on the banks of the fabled saltwater lake.
These underground craters can open up in an instant, sucking in whatever lies above and leaving the surrounding area looking like an earthquake zone.
The phenomenon, Raz said, stems from a dire water shortage, compounded in recent years by tourism and chemical industries as well as a growing population. “This is the most remarkable evidence of the brutal interference of humans in the Dead Sea,” he said.
Read more from the Associated Press by clicking here.
Like water for money – The Phillips machine uses water to predict the economy … really!
Posted by: Maven on June 5, 2009 at 2:48 pmFrom the New York Times:
Two weeks ago, while visiting Cambridge University, I arranged to have lunch with my friend Allan McRobie. He's a professor of engineering, so it seemed a bit strange that he kept insisting we meet at the department of applied economics. “There's something there you've really got to see,\” he said in his Liverpudlian lilt. “It's utterly fab. Just brilliant. The Phillips machine it uses water to predict the economy.
Skeptical but willing to go along with the gag, I met him at the appointed place. He led me inside and stopped at the receptionist's window. “We're here to see the machine,\” he said. She nodded and handed him a key. We made our way through a maze of corridors to the Meade Room, where the machine is housed.
You can find out how it’s done in this interesting article from the New York Times by clicking here. You can even see a video of the machine in action by clicking here.
Hat tip to the Sisweb!
Weekend humor: Invasive species you REALLY need to be worried about!
Posted by: Maven on April 11, 2009 at 9:15 amTalk about invasive species!
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M – Th 11p / 10c | |||
| Florida Pythons on the Loose | ||||
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And you were worried about quagga mussels…..!
Hat tip to the EnvJournal, a new web/blogsite I came across which follows issues related to the Truckee River system (the east side of Lake Tahoe, Reno area) – they’ve got an interesting mix of articles and videos, like this one on zebra mussels, or this presentation on calculating your water footprint.
What to do with a dead whale? Santa Cruz wants to know
Posted by: Maven on April 3, 2009 at 9:08 amThe headline just begs for this, I’m sorry…! First, the story from the Contra Costa Times:
It’s tempting to call it a whale of a problem. After a dead California gray whale washed back to shore Wednesday evening, just hours after wharf workers towed it about a mile out to sea, away from the wharf, city officials and marine mammal experts Thursday again began plotting a return to sea for the pungent yearling.
Marine biologists said there is no obvious sign of trauma on the 25-foot whale and they are not sure why the young female died. California gray whales are close to shore at this time of year, as they migrate from their winter home in the warm waters off Mexico to summer feeding grounds surrounding Alaska.
Thursday, the plan was to use the buoyancy of an early Friday high tide to tow the whale at least 10 miles offshore, said Dan Buecher, the city’s wharf supervisor.
The tricky part will be the surf conditions in the rocky cove just west of Its Beach where the whale washed up, he said.
Later Thursday, when high surf predictions began rolling in, a back-up plan was hatched to use a tow truck to haul the whale up the cliff to a low-boy trailer, and drive it out to the city landfill, Buecher said. “It’s an evolving plan,” he said. “It’s looking like the land way is safer, but we won’t know until we are there.”
Read more from the Contra Costa Times by clicking here.
Okay, now for the fun…. I can’t believe I get to pull this one out again, but hey, the headline did ask for this, you have to admit. What to do with a dead whale Here’s what’s NOT to do in this video classic:
More April Fool’s fun
Posted by: Maven on April 2, 2009 at 5:18 am
Yesterday, power was out at Aquafornia headquarters for most of the day, so I missed these other fun articles for April Fool’s Day. From The Bright Green Blog:
In an unprecedented move Wednesday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee rescinded the Peace Prize it awarded in 2007 to former US vice president Al Gore and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, amid overwhelming evidence that global warming is an elaborate hoax cooked up by Mr. Gore.
A press release from the committee quotes a chagrined Rajendra Pachauri, the UN climate panel's chair, who claims that he was the victim of a “cunning deception spanning decades\”:
“I am deeply ashamed for having unwittingly perpetuated such a massive fraud on the governments of the world,\” said Mr. Pachauri.
“It turns out that all that data from satellites and radiosondes, surface temperature readings, borehole analysis, measurements of rising sea levels, melting glaciers and permafrost, phenological data, and proxy reconstructions of paleoclimatic conditions were all fabricated out of thin air by my former friend, Al Gore. Now that I think about it, I suppose that we should have instituting some sort of peer-review process before publishing such alarming conclusions. Once again, I'm very sorry.
After revoking the 2007 prize from Gore and the IPCC, the Nobel committee retroactively awarded it to the more than 31,000 people who signed the Oregon Petition : an appeal challenging the notion that there exists a scientific consensus regarding global warming : “for their efforts to pursue pure, objective science that is free from the influence of any special interest group.
And from Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org:
In an epic conversion like that of Saint Paul of Tarsus, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger this morning apologized to the public for his role in the destruction of California’s fish populations during a hastily assembled press conference at the State Capitol in Sacramento. Central Valley chinook salmon, steelhead, green sturgeon, delta smelt, longfin smelt and other fish populations are in an unprecedented state of collapse, due to massive water exports out of the California Delta and declining water quality – and Schwarzenegger vowed to do everything in his power to reverse the decline.
“I greatly apologize to recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, California Indian Tribes, environmentalists and the public for the damage that my administration’s policies have caused to California fish populations,” said Schwarzenegger, with tears streaming down his face. “Starting today, I will begin a new initiative to make the restoration of California’s rivers, the Delta and coastal waters the number one priority of this administration.”
He announced a number of immediate measures that will go in effect today. These include:
\Ӣ imposing a ban on suction dredge mining on California rivers until new restrictions are developed by the DFG
\Ӣ instructing the Central Valley Regional Water Control Board to adopt tough new water quality standards for agricultural dischargers
\”¢ setting up a meeting with President Obama and Warren Buffett, owner of the PacifiCorp’s dams, to immediately begin dam removal on the Klamath River.
\Ӣ rescinding the layoff notices of 98 Department of Fish and Game wardens and cadets
In a stunning break with his previous positions, Schwarzenegger said that his plan to construct a peripheral canal around the Delta and Temperance Flat and Sites reservoirs was ill advised and “wrong.”
Read more from IndyBay.org by clicking here.
Army Corps of Engineers unleashes FART
Posted by: Maven on April 1, 2009 at 7:38 amBreaking news from Water Wired:
In an April 1, 2009 New Orleans press conference, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District Supervisor Col. R.P. ‘Pat’ McGroin announced a mammoth engineering project – the world’s largest – that would completely straighten, widen, and concrete-line the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The project, formally titled FART – Fix America’s River Transportation – has been sought by petrochemical and shipping companies for years, whose many facilities line that reach of the river.
“Let’s clear the air: FART is real, red-blooded, kick-butt, take-no-prisoners American engineering at its best,” McGroin said. “It’ll make Boston’s Big Dig look like moving sand in a cat box. Heck, we may even find more bodies than they did! Maybe Hoffa’s there!” McGroin stated that the project would “dwarf any previous engineering project” and give many Corps employees “something to do for the next 16 years.”
The FART project, estimated to cost $600B and to be completed by 2025, will completely straighten, widen, and line 130 river-miles and shorten the distance between New Orleans and Baton Rouge by 35 miles. It will permit supertankers not even on the drawing boards to sail effortlessly up and down the river. These tankers will be over one kilometer long and carry up to 8 times the fluid volume than current ones.
“FART will make my job a helluva lot easier,” said J.R. ‘Craw’ Dattie, long-time river pilot who hailed the project. “That reach of river has more curves than Britney Spears and is even more treacherous,” stated Dattie.
Read more from Water Wired by clicking here.
Massive water discovery ends California drought
Posted by: Maven on April 1, 2009 at 7:36 amBreaking news from A Verdant Life:
April 1, 2009 – Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) today lifted the state’s year-long drought emergency order on the news that an enormous water reservoir has been discovered along California’s western border.
Although the exact size of the aquifer has yet to be determined, reports indicate it may be hundreds of miles across and more than 10,000 feet deep, billions of gallons in total. “We are delighted to say, the drought is over,” Schwarzenegger proclaimed at a beachfront press conference, a gleaming drinking glass on his podium. “This discovery will provide enough water for every man, woman, child, farmer, rancher, business, school and park in our great state to live the California lifestyle without ever again worrying whether there is enough water to waste.”
California’s $36 billion agriculture industry applauded the announcement. “Our crops, orchards and ranches have been in decline for well over a decade now,” said Andrew Simon of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). “This [discovery] means we will be able to get back to our business of feeding the world.”
Indeed, the state’s farmers may be able to not only regain lost ground, but even expand into new markets: low lending rates, coupled with property foreclosures throughout the state, are fueling a new era of agricultural expansion as farmers buy entire subdivisions and convert them to arable land. “We’re processing a record number of loan applications,” said banker Toiya Dobrov, whose clientele includes family farms throughout the Central Valley. “Water is going to be the new gold.”
Read more from A Verdant Life by clicking here.
Rancher proposes water pipeline from Missouri to Colorado
Posted by: Maven on March 23, 2009 at 7:17 amFrom the Durango Herald:
At first, Gary Hausler’s idea sounds like a practical joke. The Gunnison rancher wants to build an 18-foot-wide water pipeline from the Mississippi River to a hill south of Denver and bring in enough water for millions more people.
But it’s no joke. Some state lawmakers are intrigued by the idea.
“Why go to the Mississippi Because that’s where the water is,” Hausler told the Legislature’s agriculture committees Wednesday.
Hausler has a lot of water in mind – 1 million acre-feet a year, about twice the annual flow of the Dolores River at the Utah border. He has been working on his plan for eight years, but in the last six months or so, people have started listening.
If Colorado doesn’t build it, its rapid population growth will continue to dry up farms, he said. “When I started out, people laughed in my face a lot. That doesn’t happen near as much now,” Hausler said.
Colorado’s population is expected to grow by 2 million more people by 2030, creating a need for an additional 630,000 acre-feet of water. So what’s he got in mind
His numbers are staggering: a 1,200-mile-long system with a 7,000-foot vertical lift; numerous reservoirs and canals; an 18-foot-diameter pipeline; and the equivalent of three new power plants to run the pumps. Hausler thinks it would take 30 years to permit and build, and he admits it wouldn’t do anything to solve short-term water troubles.
He envisions a Central Plains Compact among Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri to set the legal framework for the project.
Not that Hauser has actually talked to anyone in those states about it…. Read more from the Durango Herald by clicking here.
Monterey Bay sea otter finds video camera, turns tables on photographer
Posted by: Maven on February 20, 2009 at 6:29 am
And now for something lighthearted from the San Jose Mercury News:
Wildlife photographer Enrique Aguirre makes a point of visiting Monterey Bay once a month to capture images of herons, seals and sea otters.
But on Feb. 3, the San Francisco-based freelancer found himself on the other end of the lens with an otter apparently looking at the photographers through a video camera viewfinder.
Aguirre was on Capt. Yohn Gideon’s Elkhorn Slough Safari boat with several other professional photographers when the group spotted an otter in the distance. Gideon steered closer as Aguirre framed the shot. Then, Aguirre noticed something odd.
“I was like, did I actually see an otter with a video camera or was I hallucinating” he said.
Read more from the San Jose Mercury News by clicking here.
Everything’s in season for squid along Pacific Coast
Posted by: Maven on December 7, 2008 at 7:37 amHere’s the “ew-yuck” story for your weekend:
Out of Half Moon Bay, 100 miles out to sea, the ocean surface erupted for a half mile in a froth of white water and tentacles. “The squid were eating a school of fish,” said commercial fisherman Bob Longstreth. “I’ve seen them out there. Serious predators.”
In another episode, a gang of Humboldt squid had circled the boat New Salmon Queen from Emeryville. The squid were in full attack, with the anglers aboard hooking up on every drop. Capt. Craig Shimukuzu got out his video camera to film the action and as he pressed the record button, the ocean “blew up” – a pod of 10 killer whales came to the surface in a feeding frenzy of their own, slashing the squid to bits with their teeth.
The Humboldt squid are one of the fastest growing creatures, gaining 100 lbs. in a year and growing up to six feet long. And they are voracious eaters:
The chain of amazing episodes reported by those on the sea tells you this: They eat everything in their paths.
One night, for instance, when the lights were left on aboard the commercial boat Promise, the glow on the night sea attracted needlefish, anchovies and sardines around the boat. That’s when the Humboldt squid showed up and attacked, Longstreth said. By morning, 800 pounds of squid were stuck to the side of the boat and the skipper had to gaff them one-by-one to get them off.
On the Huli Cat, in the middle of a similar frenzy, Mattusch found what he thought was a two-headed squid. On close inspection, however, he saw “one had actually eaten the body of another, and only the head was sticking out.”
Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.
A little humor for your Monday: Preemptive memorial honors future victims of the imminent Folsom Dam disaster
Posted by: Maven on September 8, 2008 at 12:00 pmA little humor for your Monday …. From the Onion, via the water sisweb, enjoy this video, which covers the opening of a preemptive memorial to honor the future victims of the imminent Folsom dam disaster:
Preemptive Memorial Honors Future Victims Of Imminent Dam Disaster
San Francisco to vote on George W Bush sewage works
Posted by: Maven on June 27, 2008 at 9:21 amI found this on the Water Sisweb site (http://www.siswebs.org/water/). From the Times UK:
San Francisco is to hold a vote on whether to rename one of its largest sewage treatment facilities after George W. Bush, in what supporters describe as “a fitting monument to the President's work\”.
More than 8,500 signatures have already been gathered in support of the plan 1,300 more than the minimum required to get the proposal on the November ballot. The scheme was devised by an official-sounding group called the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco.
“On matters ranging from foreign relations to fiscal and environmental stewardship, no other president in American history has accomplished so much in such a short time,\” says the group on its website. “We believe this is an appropriate honour for a truly unique president. If you think so too, join this grassroots movement to rename this important and iconic landmark in his honour.
The official renaming ceremony the sewage facility is currently named the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant would take place in January, when the next President is sworn in. Part of it would include a “synchronised flush\”, described as a way to send a gift to the renamed plant.
Read the full text of this article from the Times UK by clicking here. And if you haven’t checked out the Water Sisweb yet, you should – click here. There is a lot of great information there – and much more serious than this article, I might add.
California desalination effort info release: Sea of Cortez to the Salton Sea channel
Posted by: Maven on May 25, 2008 at 7:22 amPlease, folks, take this with a grain of salt. No, on second thought, grab the whole salt shaker…. From Helium.com:
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
To be placed in all California Newspapers as an informational news releaseAnnouncing the release of information on a US & Mexico joint effort project known as the Sea of Cortez to the Salton Sea Desalination Channel
Let me point out that this “press release” is posted on Helium.com and not from the State of California. So what is this ‘channel’
The Channel is a proposed project, a large canal actually, proposed to be built from the Sea of Cortez, Mexico, to, and as far north as, Palm Springs, California. Though, proposals vary, on its width, from between one to two miles wide, it will be deep enough for the largest of ships to travel. It is called a channel, instead of a canal, because that is the legal definition for such a project. On the United States side, it will run from the United States/Mexico border, just west of Calexico, northerly to Palm Desert, CA; 115 miles through Imperial County and, at least, 66 miles through Riverside County and, further if it goes to Palm Springs, CA. Upon the commitments of former President Fox and current President Lopez of Mexico, and Governor Eugenio Elorduy of the State of Baja, Mexico, the proponents, the National Outdoor Recreation Council (NORC), correctly assumed that there will be built, concurrently, a matching Mexican channel from the Gulf of California to the United States/Mexico border.
Okay…. a shipping channel from the Sea of Cortez to Palm Springs. An earlier post by the same person months ago talked of cruise ships docking in Indio and heading towards Indian casinos, along with a port 2 miles wide in El Centro…. This ‘press release’ continues, and tells of how the Clinton administration dissed the channel, but not Governor Schwarzenegger:
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was first made aware of NORC’s Channel Proposal by DR. Abe Beagles on August 18, 2005. Dr. Beagles and a team of six international scientists had done an extensive reclamation study to see if either Electro-coagulation or the Plasma Incubator Reactor System, a revolutionary desalination process, could restore the Salton Sea.The report was then delivered to the Governor in 2003. Shortly after his personal examination and meetings with key individuals, throughout the United States and Mexico, he soon became convinced of both its validity and its potential but, was forewarned by the California Legislature against releasing it to the public until further, more thorough, examination by them. He acquiesced to their experienced judgment, in part. Indirectly, though, on January 5, 2006, he released, the Channel’s income potential, and some other aspects, in his State of the State address.
Hmmm… Schwarzenegger talking about the channel in his 2006 State of the State address I guess me, you, and the entire media industry must have somehow missed that….
Throughout the following two years, the Governor only hinted, in public, about the forthcoming green technologies but, it wasn’t until his most recent State of the State address, on January 8, 2008, that he began to unveil the Channel. Therein, he revealed the need to re-build (to modernize) California’s antiquated water production and distribution system.
Ha! And you & I thought the Guv was only talking about a couple of new dams, but really he’s talking about the Salton Sea channel with the “Plasma Incubator Reaction System”! Talk about bait and switch…. So now, says this post, they need to set up “Harbor Improvement Districts” in Riverside, Imperial & San Diego counties, but they need public support for this:
Private Donations are Required to Form the Harbor Improvement Districts
NORC plans to process the Petitions to Form the Harbor Improvement Districts that are necessary, by law, to govern the construction and management of the Channel. They do not, however, have the funding to complete this monumental task, at present. As such, they will require significant (tax exempt) donations to perform this great task. Please support the Channel, and the development of its green technologies, by sending your donations directly to NORC.
And there’s even an address you can send your money to! (But first, send some to me, okay)
And now, let’s talk benefits: 30 million acre-feet of per year of desalinated water; electricity produced and sold to the Harbor Improvement Districts for only 1 cent per kilowatt hour; but wait! there’s more!
At maximum build out, the Channel is estimated, by NORC, to generate, approximately, $92.12 trillion dollars per year, net profit, in private income from the sales of water, hydrogen, electricity, development, precious metals retrieval, and the manufacture of new automobiles. That’s correct, hydrogen will be sold, as well. This is because hydrogen is a by-product of the desalination method Dr. Beagles proposes. Not only can the Channel produce as much as 300 million acre feet, per year, of desalinated water but, it can also produce 4 million acre feet, per year, of compressed hydrogen. This is more than 20 times that needed to fuel all the passenger vehicles expected to be on the road in California in 2020; that is, if they are all hydrogen powered vehicles, of course. Though, there are expected to be a number of other profitable sources, NORC only estimated these. At a simple one (1) percent tax, this would mean, a maximum yearly expected revenue of $1.24 trillion dollars per year. Even at 10 percent of maximum build out, the Channel is expected to generate additional revenue, for the State of California, the affected Counties, and the United States, of $92.4 billion dollars per year.
92 trillion dollars per year in private income, and 92.4 billion in revenue for the government! Bye bye budget deficit!!! And by the way, didn’t he say 30 million acre-feet of desalinated water earlier and now it’s 300 acre-feet Ahh, but who cares, we’ll all be rolling in the trillions of dollars anyway, while driving our hydrogen powered cars to board cruise ships in Palm Springs.
But what about the environmentalists Rejoice, tree huggers everywhere! The channel will reduce environmental impacts to insignificant!
In accordance with the vast body of environmental law, today, any new water production and distribution system would have to be designed, in such a way, as to reduce environmental impacts to insignificance. Prior to the Channel, this was considered an impossible task. The Channel exceeds these expectations. It will not only maintain environmental impacts below threshold but, it will allow for the restoration of the many significant negative environmental impacts that the prior existing water production and distribution system caused. It is an environmentalists dream come true.
Yeah, right…. Earlier versions of this post mentioned removing every single dam in the Western United States, because the Salton Sea channel would provide enough water for all. Of course they didn’t give any details on how they would distribute that water to everyone….
Coming next week, Aqua Blog Maven will unveil a enormous investment opportunity to solve world hunger while eliminating global warming and unwanted facial hair!
You can read the full text of this ‘press release’ by clicking here.
Farmed salmon being subjected to excercise regimes to stay fit
Posted by: Maven on May 22, 2008 at 5:51 amFrom AlterNet, this rather bizarre story about farmed salmon:
Sit-ups, crunches, weightlifting, interval training — sounds like a rigorous workout for anyone trying to get in shape. Could this be a fitness regimen for salmon too That’s what the scientists in Norway are trying to prove.
Since training and exercise are essential in maintaining good health for humans, could the same be applied to fish In order to make farmed salmon stronger and more resistant to disease once they are transferred to ocean cages, a research group in Norway is trying to get farmed juvenile salmon in shape for ocean water using some techniques from the top football team of Spain (we here in the U.S. call it soccer). Scientists from the project discovered that the heart capacity in wild salmon is greater than in farmed salmon, so they put the farmed salmon on a strict training regime to make their hearts stronger.
The exercise They say the equivalent of jogging — swimming faster with increased water velocity in their tanks. The fish in the trial were divided into three groups — one was a control group (normal fish tank conditions), one group was put in a tank with increased water velocity throughout the day, and one group was put in a tank for “jogging” or intervals of increased water velocity (what the scientists call “high intensity training”).
They actually put heart rate monitors on the fish….! Read more from AlterNet by clicking here.
Ojai’s scantily-clad Pastie Lady touts healing benefits of water
Posted by: Maven on April 26, 2008 at 6:29 am“Girls”, he said. “If you want to increase your readership, you need pictures of pretty girls.”
OK, but how to do that, I think, drumming my fingers on my desk. I mean, post pictures of girls in bikinis Naw, that’s just too yesterday. You’ve all seen that before. Aquafornia needs something different. Maybe Aquafornia needs ….
The Ojai Pastie Lady!
From the Los Angeles Times:
Cars were whizzing past one of Ojai’s busiest corners when Jennifer Moss decided to do a headstand, clad in only a G-string and flower-shaped pasties.
Why
“Headstands are good for you!” she said, beaming, as she pulled a yellow smiley-face pillow out of her bicycle’s small trailer. With athletic grace, Ojai’s “Pastie Lady,” a self-described social artist and environmental activist, quickly pulled her legs up to salute her adopted hometown.
Not that this artsy, liberal-leaning city of 8,000 is all that impressed. In the year since Moss began pedaling her bicycle down Ojai’s main street in barely-there attire, she’s been arrested twice and ticketed repeatedly for obstructing traffic. Irate parents have asked the City Council to force Moss to put on more clothes. Now she may face prosecution for public indecency.
“The issue we’re looking at is exposure,” said Jim Ellison, Ventura County’s chief assistant district attorney. “We’ve assigned an attorney to do some research.”
Ojai’s citizens, meanwhile, have divided into pro- and con-Pastie Lady camps, venting their opinions in the local newspaper nearly every week. “Ojai tolerance is not eternal,” local filmmaker Leland Hammerschmitt wrote in a guest editorial in the Ojai Valley News, in which he scolded Moss for her “naked narcissism.” “You’ve had more than your day. Go away. Just stop.”
But Moss, whose social activism appears to revolve around natural-fiber clothing and the healing powers of water, also has ardent defenders. They say “Earth Friend Jen” is not hurting anyone and that naysayers should leave her alone. “In the South, they actually embrace you if you are eccentric or even a little crazy. . . .,” Dusty Fernandez, an Oak View resident, wrote in the paper. “So lighten up people! Enjoy the view or turn the other way.”
(Note the vague reference to water which nonetheless means I can post it and still be considered staying on topic…) Read more about Ojai’s Pastie Lady in the LA Times by clicking here.
Meanwhile, I’ll be sitting here, watching my sitemeter count soar ….
Who needs Great Lakes water when Canada can supply us with all the water we’ll need!
Posted by: Maven on March 8, 2008 at 7:29 amFirst, I read yesterday that some Nevada officials are pressing for a ‘water initiative’ to bring ‘surplus unallocated fresh and desalinated ocean waters to the more arid regions of the West’, and then I wake up this morning to find that there is another project being talked about that would make such a national water system look puny in comparison. Cadillac Desert readers will remember the old NAWAPA, and now … we have NAWA, which would bring us all the water we could ever need! Honey, call up that contractor and build that pool! From the Water Wired blog, Michael Campana gives us the details of this latest grandiose plan:
Imagine, in the not-too-distant future lush Kentucky bluegrass lawns in Phoenix, Tucson, Albuquerque, and Las Vegas with no guilt feelings. Fountains and verdant gardens gracing the Las Vegas Strip. Pat Mulroy of the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) halving water rates with a broad grin on her face. Georgia cheerfully donating Lake Lanier water to Alabama and Florida, and building a pipeline to supply Tennessee with all the H2O it needs.
You’d say, “What have you been smoking” Or worse.
Well, looks like something similar to NAWAPA is in the works, again exporting water from the Great White North. So how does it work Dam the southern half of James Bay, the southern arm of Hudson Bay, run the water through helical turbines, then dump it in the Great Lakes for distribution to the USA and Canada’s prairie provinces. The scheme will provide Canada with hydroelectricity and almost $8B in revenue.
Colleague Paul Godfrey of the University of Massachusetts sent me some slides prepared by Canadian Romain Audet that describe how all this will work. It’s pretty awesome.
Check it out by clicking here to visit the Water Wired blog, and while you’re doing that, I’m going to call up the contractor to get that pool put in, and get my yard resodded with Kentucky Bluegrass – to heck with fescue!!!
I think I need a new category …. “Grandiose Water Schemes”
A grandiose plan for meeting Nevada’s water needs
Posted by: Maven on February 23, 2008 at 8:31 amOh, how did I miss this! I have so many news alerts and places to look and here’s one that got by me, but didn’t get by Michael over at WaterWired. I just love grandiose solutions to water problems, and here’s another one. This guy has a plan for securing water for Nevada – all of Nevada, now – not just Las Vegas. From the Nevada Appeal, written by Fred Kessler, a general contractor in Carson City:
Given the impending effects of global climate change, the time has come to plan for Nevada's future water needs, which will be substantial given the past three decade's population growth. In Roman times when emperors did not have to run for re-election it was much easier to finance, design and construct large-scale public works projects than it is today, when politicians are more concerned with short-term political gain than long-term societal goals affecting future generations.
What is needed is an independent public water authority with a nine-member board to take charge of the situation. The governor, Assembly and Senate should each appoint a single member, and three members should be elected at-large from Southern Nevada and three members from Northern Nevada. This will ensure both equal representation and accountability to all of the people of Nevada. Once constituted, the independent public water authority should be relatively immune from political interference and be able to focus upon long-term intergenerational solutions to Nevada's future water needs.
The water authority will have to begin the process of raising capital from (1) federal funds, (2) state funds and (3) private capital markets through the sale of public bonds for design, acquisition of land and right-of-way, and construction of public water works projects. The water authority should be a wholesaler of potable water selling to local municipal and private water districts, charging and collecting user fees for the water that they provide. These fees will be the revenue source from which to pay bond holders. The water authority bonds will range from 30 to 50 years in term depending upon financing requirements. User fees also will pay for ongoing operations, maintenance and administrative costs.
The water authority will need to develop vast uninterruptible supplies of drinking water to feed the growing Nevada population. The closest supply to both Northern and Southern Nevada of raw material from which to process potable water is of course the Pacific Ocean. Desalinization plants on the Pacific coast, cross-country pipelines and pumping stations across California and Nevada can produce a steady supply of potable water that is limited only by the maximum flow rate of the system. A northern leg running from the Pacific along the I-80 corridor to service the northwestern Nevada counties, and a southern leg running from the Pacific coast across California to service Clark County will provide potable water to Nevada's main population centers.
Read the rest of Mr. Kessler’s plan in the Nevada Appeal by clicking here. You can check out Water Wired thoughts on it all by clicking here.
A channel to the Salton Sea? Profitable and going to happen, says engineering firm. “\”¦ both Parties [Dems/Reps] have been ditching, openly, on it; yet, in private, competing, viciously, to own it\”?
Posted by: Maven on February 1, 2008 at 9:59 amI stumbled upon the last installment on a series of articles last night, and have found the other segments. The material is too much for me to go through right now, so I’m going to set these aside for the weekend, and hopefully put together a synopsis to post next week.
This should be an interesting read! For those of you who are interested, here are the links:”The Environmental Effects of the Plasma Incubator Reactor Desalination System when applied to the Sea of Cortez to the Salton Sea Desalination and shipping channel project of Southern California” – click here. This segment scopes the project. What would the channel being proposed look like
The Channel coming out of the Sea Of Cortez will be one mile wide and over 200 feet deep. This width and depth will be maintained up to the El Centro Harbor, which will be half in the US and half in Mexico. It will be approximately two miles in diameter to allow large ocean going container ships to maneuver, to dock, and off load cargo in this area.
Interstate 8 runs through this area and access to shipping routes will be of prime importance. Along the two miles on either side of the channel on the Mexican side, which is being reserved for the development of industrial and commercial business, there is expected to me a migration of manufacturing businesses needing access to better shipping routes than can be obtained within the interior of Mexico.
Another user of the channel will be the cruise line companies who will be able to bring their ships all the way up the channel to the area around Indio and Palm Springs California where their compliment of passengers will be able to disembark and go to the Indian Casinos of this area. It is anticipated that a few cruise lines will utilize this area as a starting point for cruises into the Pacific. Interstate 10 passes through this area and container ships are anticipated to utilize the Harbor located in the Indio Area to offload cargo which will open up the area for more jobs and will relieve the pressure currently being experienced at ports along the west coast of California.
“What benefit will California derive if the Indian tribes back the channel” – click here. This installment talks of the profit potential of increasing gaming along this channel – and seems to indicate that this channel is indeed in the works, even though publicly officials have said such a channel, or even a pipeline, is not a possibility:
Had the Las Vegas Consortium known that the Channel was real, they wouldn't have placed the four Anti-Indian Gaming Referendums on the February 5, 2008 ballot. Instead, they would have done what the Tribes can't do; invest heavily in the Channel. Had the Big 4 known that the Channel was real, they would have not invested their time and money elsewhere. Neither group can be blamed. How could they have known The Channel was more than a well kept secret.
The major Political Parties have been extremely effective at spinning the Channel so that no one learned of, or rather, became convinced of, it's reality. For two years, now, both Parties have been ditching, openly, on it; yet, in private, competing, viciously, to own it. The Republicans thought they won that battle when they got Gov. Schwarznneggar re-elected. Not too hard to do that when you find nearly 400 billion dollars you lost. How did he put it Oh, yea; this is money the State didn't know it had. They still haven't revealed, to the public, where they found that money; have they Even more astounding, the Democrats ain't having a cow about it; are they Did the Democrats acquiescence in defeat. Not by a long shot! It only convinced them, that much more, why it is so important for them to win this next up and coming Presidential Election. So, the race to own the Channel is still on; and, it is a hot one. After all, 40 billion a year in new government revenue, what to speak of the trillions in private profits to be made, is nothing to sneeze at.
Oooo, a conspiracy theory. I’m just flying on the seat of my pants as I scan these very long posts. Are we having fun yet I am! The third installment, “Is there money in desalinating water for California” – click here. This article reviews the profit potential of the channel, of which there would be many ways to generate profit, including the sale of desalinated water:
Utilizing the Plasma Incubator Reactor System, the Channel is estimated to produce as much as 300 million acre feet (maf) of desalinated fresh water, per year, from the desalination of 306 maf of seawater. Less is probable. More is possible. Never-the-less, 300 maf/yr is the figure we based our estimates upon.
For this estimate, we make eight other assumptions: (1) that, the sales of water will pay for all of the cost of infrastructure of the Channel, including all its ports, etc.; (2) that, the sales of water will pay for all the cost of desalination facilities; including all its distribution networks; (3) that, the sales of water will pay for all the cost of electric generation facilities, including all its distribution networks; (4) that, given the choice, the end consumer will pay as much, for water, as they are paying today; (5) that, the real and total, unsubsidized, cost of water, today, is, on average, approximately $3000/ac ft.; (6) that, the predominant, ongoing, cost of producing this water is the cost of electricity; (7) that, the, ongoing, cost of producing this water will be factored into the cost of producing electricity; and, (8) that, the Channel and all its associated infrastructure would have a useful life of 70 years.
That would mean a potential profit of $60.82 quadrillion from the sale of water, over its lifetime or, $868.79 trillion/yr, [(300 maf/yr x $3000/af x 70yrs - $2.19 quadrillion)/70] , from the sale of Channel water each year.
How interesting, and the Legislative Analyst Office report didn’t even mention it. More on this next week, after I have had some time to look these over.
Canadian water and the NAWAPA : is the idea making a comeback?
Posted by: Maven on January 25, 2008 at 6:53 amThose who have read the book Cadillac Desert will undoubtedly remember the North American Water And Power Alliance, the grandiose scheme to route Canadian water all over the Central and Western United States. Is NAWAPA making a comeback
Check out this WaterWired post on the subject.
When good rain barrels go bad …
Posted by: Maven on January 8, 2008 at 7:16 amSent to me by Eric Eckl, of the excellent Water Words That Work blog:
You try to do the right thing. You get a rain barrel for your house. And then this.
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