Engineering our way out of climate change
Posted by: Maven on November 30, 2007 at 5:47 pmFrom the Island of Doubt blog, a post about “geo-engineering”. Some sectors of the scientific community have given up trying to reverse global warming and instead, are trying to figure out ways to deal with it instead. From the blog:
Among the ideas floating around — and considered at a recent conference in Cambridge, Mass. — are injecting into the atmosphere enormous quantities of heat-reflecting aerosols, sending millions of tiny mirrors (or building a few very big ones) into orbit to divert some of the sunlight, installing floating pipes in the ocean to drawn down CO2-rich waters to the depth, and seeding those same oceans with plankton to absorb carbon in hopes they fall to the seabed when they die.
No one really knows exactly how any of these ideas will actually work or what unintended consequences come with them. All very theoretical, at this point. The thing they all have in common is degree of confidence in science and technological R&D to solve the problem of climate change. Sheril describes proponents of such plans as “folks who believe ‘science will solve all our problems, so why worry?’ which sounds to me like suggesting we need not take responsibility for our actions in the here and now.” And she’s bang on.
The obvious problem with any approach that relies on tinkering with the planetary ecosystem is we know so little about the thing in the first place. We just have no bloody clue what will happen to our air if we fire millions of tonnes of sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere. Did someone mention acid rain? And what about the oceans? Counteracting the effects of greenhouse gases in the air will be do nothing to stop the falling pH of the oceans, with the likely massive loss of biodiversity that will bring.
To read the rest of this article from the Island of Doubt science blog, click here.
Holy smokes! The most important drought story of the year and somehow I missed it!
Posted by: Maven on November 30, 2007 at 5:42 pmI heard it from JFleck Inakstain, who heard it from Waterblogged, and I have to agree, it is, like, the most important drought story missed by Aquafornia! This, from ABC News:
Sheriff Garrett Roberts hasn’t needed a machete to cut any of the scrawny marijuana plants he has confiscated this year. A severe drought that has parched corn and soybean fields across the Southeast has also scorched marijuana crops, leaving plants that should be 10 feet tall so puny that Roberts and his deputies simply pull them up.
“The plants we’ve seen have been anywhere from 2 inches to 5 1/2 feet tall,” said Roberts, the chief law enforcer in eastern Kentucky’s Lawrence County. Kentucky, one of the nation’s top producers of marijuana, has seen a sharp decrease in production of the illegal crop this year. The weather there and in neighboring states is cutting into the supply, and street prices for the drug could rise, authorities say.
For the rest of this news story from ABC News, click here.
And, well, while I’m at it, what’s cool about a drought? Waterblogged asked the same question:
… We were puzzled when we saw it, not only because we don’t recall using the word cool in any of our entries, but also because dude, what could possibly be cool about a drought? After an emergency meeting about the matter, the Waterblogged.info editorial team determined that either this visitor is an idiot, or worse, knows something about long periods without normal precipitation leading to severe water shortage that we don’t. After putting our crack team of researchers to work we’re embarrassed to report that the latter is true. The web abounds with cool facts about Georgia’s drought and, with deep apologies for not having done so earlier, proudly present the ten coolest.
Click here to read the rest of Waterblogged’s post about what is cool about the Georgia drought.
Salton Sea, part 2: An open waterway (or pipeline) from the Gulf of California
Posted by: Maven on November 30, 2007 at 10:15 am
Options for saving the Salton Sea have been being discussed for nearly forty years now. At one time, there was even discussion dating back to 1971 about building a shipping canal to the area. Pipelines and canals that would draw water from the Gulf of California in various forms are alternatives that are still favored by many local residents.
Back in August, I wrote an article regarding the feasibility of a pipeline from the Gulf of California to the Salton Sea. In my post, I quoted Indio resident Richard B. Speed, who believes passionately in an open waterway solution to the Salton Sea. Read on for Richard’s remarks about my article, my response to Richard, and even read comments from Rick Daniels on the canal/pipeline idea. Continue reading “Salton Sea, part 2: An open waterway (or pipeline) from the Gulf of California” »
Friday’s odds and ends from the blogosphere
Posted by: Maven on November 30, 2007 at 9:00 amIt’s Friday desktop cleaning time, so here are some interesting blogs I’ve come across this week.
My new favorite blog, Waterblogged, has a story about the most dangerous dam on the planet, which happens to be in Iraq. The dam is so bad, a concrete mixture must be continuously injected into it so that it doesn’t collapse. Now that’s bad! They follow it up today with a post about the most hated dam on the planet.
How much water is used to download a song? Doesn’t seem connected at first, although it is true that there is a big connection between power and water use, as water is a necessary component for electrical generation – and I’m not talking about hydropower. Check it out watercrunch’s blog about water use and song downloading by clicking here.
Officials are starting to use the “R” word (rationing), but this blogger says maybe they should be using the “M” word – for moratorium. Is excessive development straining our limited resources? Check out this Westchester Parents blog post by clicking here.
Finally, check out this potentially life-saving inflatable bikini, brought to Aquafornia’s attention by the always refreshing Trout Underground blog – another one of my favorites, and I don’t even fish. Hey, I don’t even eat fish! Click here for a life-saving device that will ensure you’ll have a seat on the rescue boat (if you’re a woman, that is) …..
Weblinks & resources for today’s Delta Vision Meeting
Posted by: Maven on November 29, 2007 at 7:47 amMeeting materials, weblinks, and other resources regarding today’s Delta Vision meeting are available by clicking here (http://deltavision.ca.gov/).
The website has links to watch the meeting over the web if you are interested but cannot attend.
California’s early water plan – just 13 pages! plus land-use and GIS data for the Delta
Posted by: Maven on November 28, 2007 at 10:03 pmTake a trip through early California history and check out this old water plan posted on the Department of Water Resources website. It’s just thirteen short pages – and the first five are practically a biography of the author. This brief plan was written in 1919 – which was prior to the Central Valley Project (& of course, the State Water Project). The Owens Valley aqueduct had already been completed, and the Hetch-Hetchy project was under construction.
Colonel Robert Bradford Marshall, the author of the plan, envisions irrigating 12 million acres of farmland, saying:
“The people of California, indifferent to the bountiful gifts that Nature has given them, sit idly by waiting for rain, indefinitely postponing irrigation, and allowing every year millions and millions of dollars in water to pour unused into the sea, when there are hungrty thousands in this and other countries pleading for food and when San Francisco and the Bay Cities, the metropolitan districit of California, are begging for water. Is it indifference or unreasonable procrastination that makes the people of California neglect this wealth, or do they not know what they have or how to use it?”
Regarding population expansion – something being actively encouraged at the time, he writes:
“Consider also that our west coast, particularly that of California, needs protection, and that there can be no better propaganda for patriotism than to place owned homes in the hands of present and prospective citizens, for it is well known and recognized the world over that every man will defend to the death his tract of land, his home, his castle. Place 3,000,000 more in happy country homes in the Valley of California, and she will forever defend herself from invasion”.
You can check it out by clicking here.
GIS fans rejoice! Updated land use data and GIS coverage is now available, and just in time for Christmas! Just the thing for the GIS analyst on your list. Check it out by clicking here.
The Delta as photographed from space
Posted by: Maven on November 28, 2007 at 6:29 amHere’s an interesting link sent to me via jfleck at Inkstain. It is a picture of the Delta from space. From the website:
On April 30, 2006, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) flying onboard NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. In this image, red indicates vegetation—the brighter the red, the more lush the vegetation. Dark blue indicates water, including the Sacramento River in the west, the San Joaquin River in the east, and a network of smaller tributaries and reservoirs in between. Blue-gray areas indicate buildings and paved surfaces, appearing in their customary rectangular shapes. The “islands” between these waterways don’s rise above the water but survive below it, thanks to levees surrounding them.
For more information on the Delta, or to view more satellite pictures, click here.
‘Greenies’ position on desalination is all about growth, says Cheat Seeking Missiles blog
Posted by: Maven on November 28, 2007 at 6:22 amFrom the Cheat Seeking Missiles Blog:
You’d think Greenies would be big fans of desalination since the alternative is big dams creating reservoirs where natural valleys once stood.
You’d be wrong.
Environmentalism is a zero-like game; you don’t have to like any solution whatsoever. It’s OK to oppose everything — and opposing desalination has become a major cause fund-raiser for California environmental groups.
The day after my project’s Coastal Commission hearing, Poseidon’s proposal for a desalination plant in Carlsbad CA came before the Commission. Eight and a half hours later, the proposal passed — with 20 ball-breaking conditions that mean the project is anything but slam-dunk approved.
Why 8 1/2 hours? Here’s the public excuse Greenies give for fighting desal, as told in a San Diego Union Tribune article:
The most stringent condition is a requirement that Poseidon devise a plan to offset the number of tiny marine organisms – fish eggs, larvae and plankton – the desalination plant would kill while processing seawater.
Note that the article does not say “fish kill.” We are talking, rather, about tiny critters that would slip through the mesh over intake pipes and are sacrificed so we can get some fresh water.
But the writer does not see the plankton as the real issue:
Smart readers will ascertain by now that this is not about plankton, fish eggs or greenhouse gases. It’s about growth.
To read the full text of this post from the Cheat Seeking Missiles blog, click here.
DWR sets 2008 initial allocation for water deliveries at 25%
Posted by: Maven on November 27, 2007 at 2:05 pmNot surprising news from Department of Water Resources today. Here’s the press release:
SACRAMENTO – The Department of Water Resources (DWR) has announced its initial allocation for water delivery to the State Water Project (SWP) contractors in calendar year 2008.
The initial allocation is 25 percent of the water contractors’ total requested amounts, or 1,038,861 acre-feet, and may increase during the winter months. This is significantly less than the initial allocation for calendar year 2007 of 60 percent, which remained unchanged throughout the year.
Hydrologic conditions this year resulted in a “dry” water year in the Sacramento region and a “critically dry” water year in the San Joaquin region. Subsequently, SWP storage conditions going into the 2008 water year are less than average.
DWR records indicate that 25 percent is the lowest initial allocation since 2003. Should California experience another dry winter, more severe water delivery shortfalls and associated impacts to end water users will result next year.
To assure water supply for California’s future, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is urging passage of a comprehensive water bond measure that includes new funding for above and below ground water storage. Additional funding would go to Delta restoration, water supply reliability and specified watersheds throughout the state.
SWP water is distributed among 29 long-term SWP contractors who serve more than 25 million Californians and about 750,000 acres of irrigated farmland.
In making this allocation of SWP water, a major source of water for many Californians, the department considered a conservative projection of hydrology, SWP operational constraints and 2008 contractor requests. SWP Contractors’ Table A water for 2008 totals 4,165,931 million acre-feet, of which 4,145,124 million acre-feet were requested. Table A water is the maximum contractual amount that SWP contractors can request each year. The department will revise the allocation as hydrologic and water supply conditions develop and provide for additional deliveries.
A Notice to SWP contractors appears on DWR’s State Water Project Analysis Office Web site at: http://www.swpao.water.ca.gov/notices/#
The Department of Water Resources operates and maintains the State Water Project, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local water districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for future statewide water needs.
Press Release can be found by clicking here.
So what does this mean to you?
Note that this does not necessarily mean that there will be only 25% of your normal water supply available to you next year. It really depends on how much the water contractor that serves your area relies on State Water Project water. Depending upon where you live, your contractor likely utilizes a combination of groundwater, Owens Valley water, Colorado River water, and/or State Water Project water.
Here in Santa Clarita, Aquafornia’s home base, 40 to 50 percent of water here is from groundwater sources, and the rest is from the State Water Project. It would mean that my water contractor can expect 25% of the approximate half of the State Water Project, or 62.5% of the normal water supply will be available. Now, my water contractor could decide to pump more groundwater, purchase water from other districts if they have any, or withdraw water from a water bank, so no need for me to panic.
And likely no need for you to panic either. Chances are your water contractor has some reserves they might choose to draw on, so just be aware that it is pretty much guaranteed to be less water around next year, and conservation will remain important. The more water we conserve now, the more that can remain in reserves.
And, who knows, if the winter surprises us all and ends up being very wet, DWR will likely adjust these numbers upward (subject to restrictions by the Wanger court ruling, but this has yet to be worked out.)
You can find out where your water comes from by visiting this website: Where Does My Water Come From? More specific information can be found by reading your contractor’s water plan, which nowadays is likely posted on their website.
G.O.P. ‘Obstructionists’ blow up water plan compromise, says California Progress Report
Posted by: Maven on November 23, 2007 at 1:09 pmFrom the California Progress Report:
The G.O.P. obstructionists have struck again. A tentative agreement between Democratic leader, Senate Pro Tem Don Perata, and the Governor on a bond issue designed to protect both the San Joaquin Delta and transfers of water South has been blown up by Republicans in the Senate.
The Republican Senators want to add the contentious issue of a peripheral canal to the package. They also want the bond money appropriated “continuously” as opposed to through the budget in the manner of all other appropriations. Both objections aren’t serious. They are simply another effort to punish the Governor for his neglect of the members of his party. Petty politics and peevishness submarine important public policy goals – again!
Why not make all appropriations “continuous”? Republicans would oppose that because it would deny them the ability to get publicity by holding up the budget which requires at least two Republican votes in the Senate. They want bond money for storage to be continuously appointed because they fear Democrats would act in the same obstructionist way they act.
But Democrats are not obstructionist.
To read the full text of this article from the California Progress Report, click here.
Senator Cogdill releases statement regarding water bill negotiations
Posted by: Maven on November 23, 2007 at 9:13 amFrom the LA Chronicle:
Senator Dave Cogdill (R-Modesto) released the following statement yesterday regarding the progress and future of water bond negotiations:
“Discussions about California’s fragile water system have dominated a good portion of the year. The spotlight has been focused on water and with good cause – our water system is failing and it isn’t going to be able to support California’s people, businesses, and environment.
“While I was initially disappointed when the Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata cancelled session for next Monday, when we were supposed to consider a water bond, I remain optimistic because of his decision to withdraw his initiative. We cannot walk away from the table on this critical matter.
To read the rest of this article from the Los Angeles Chronicle, click here.
Web resources for upcoming Delta Vision meeting
Posted by: Maven on November 22, 2007 at 10:51 amFrom ACWA Water News:
A third draft of the Delta Vision report was released yesterday and will be the subject of a two-day meeting on Nov. 29-30 in Sacramento.
The third and final draft report, A Vision for California’s Delta, and a summary version of the CALFED Science Program’s State of Science of the Bay-Delta System will be presented to the Governors Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force. The Task Force will recommend a vision and near-term actions for the Delta and surrounding ecosystem.
The third draft report and near-term action memo have undergone substantial revisions since the second draft released in October.
Delta stakeholders and interested parties are encouraged to attend the two-day meeting.
Meeting materials, weblinks, and other resources are available by clicking here (http://deltavision.ca.gov/). The website has links to watch the meeting over the web if you are interested but cannot attend.
Bureau of Reclamation strands thousands of fish on island
Posted by: Maven on November 22, 2007 at 12:05 amFrom Dan Bacher, posted on IndyBay.org:
I just got back from investigating an impending massive fish kill at Prospect Island in the northern section of the California Delta between Miner Slough and the Sacramento Deepwater Channel. Bob McDaris, owner of Cliff’s Marina in Freeport, Bob Boffitt, a KFBK Radio reporter, and another KFBK reporter and I went by boat to the area where the levee is being repaired by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamatation.
We slogged through the mud in waders and saw large schools of stripers with their dorsal fins, backs and tails out of the water as they struggled to survive. I saw a dozen dead striped bass, along with one dead bluegill and a couple of dead pike minnows. Of course, we walked through just a tiny fraction of Prospect Island – McDaris on Tuesday estimated that there were thousands of fish stranded in a larger area that he pointed to after we took photos and videos.
The massive stranding of fish came to McDaris’ attention when he and a local hay farmer, John Soto, went out prospecting for ducks on the island on Tuesday. Instead of finding ducks they found a fish kill in progress.
“We saw thousands of striped bass, two sturgeon, hundreds of bluegill and two 15 to 18 pound salmon stranded in the remaining water,” said McDaris. “We also saw two steelhead and lots of carp. I was amazed by the number of fish that were stranded on the island and I figured that somebody should do something about it.”
To read the rest of this article from Dan Bacher, posted on IndyBay.org, click here.
Notes from the Blogosphere: Another great water blog, dam politics, dam statistics, and development
Posted by: Maven on November 21, 2007 at 9:04 amHow did I miss this? Here’s a great water blog I recently added to my RSS reader. The Waterblogged blog has a more national focus as compared to Aquafornia, and thus provides an excellent companion blog to this one! This blog has a sense of humor, evident in this post on “Water Music”, or this one “Ten water-related reasons to leave California”. The blog also tackles serious issues, such as desalination and the drought in Georgia. Check it out here! Waterblogged’s Home Page.
The Calitics blog is discussing the Democrats and the dams issue – click here for their political analysis on this issue. This post references another post by Friends of the River about dams, which discusses some statistics. There are a few statistics here that surprised me, but the author lists references, and so I had planned to check them out myself before I posted it. However, turkey day is coming and I must head out the door this morning, so I will post it now and follow up on it later. Click here for the Friends of the River Dam Facts, Dam Lies and Statistics post.
Finally, is the cause of our water woes due to development? This blogger writes, “With all of the building permits being issued for the ten of thousands of new high density housing units and affordable housing you have to wonder if the cities residents are really being encouraged into conservation because of the ongoing drought or herded into a permanent rationing program because of over development?” You can read it here: Westchester Parents “Water Conservation or Rationing”.
Happy Thanksgiving! Have a safe and enjoyable holiday. Aquafornia will still be posting over the holiday weekend; water issues take no holiday as you know, so it’s business as usual, although perhaps somewhat more sporadically.
Nuclear-powered desalination could be the wave of the future
Posted by: Maven on November 21, 2007 at 7:23 amFrom Science Daily:
Meenakshi Jain of CDM & Environmental Services and Positive Climate Care Pvt Ltd in Jaipur highlights the energy problem facing regions with little fresh water. “Desalination is an energy-intensive process. Over the long term, desalination with fossil energy sources would not be compatible with sustainable development; fossil fuel reserves are finite and must be conserved for other essential uses, whereas demands for desalted water would continue to increase.”
Jain emphasizes that a sustainable, non-polluting solution to water shortages is essential. Renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, and wave power, may be used in conjunction to generate electricity and to carry out desalination, which could have a significant impact on reducing potential increased greenhouse gas emissions. “Nuclear energy seawater desalination has a tremendous potential for the production of freshwater,” Jain adds.
The development of a floating nuclear plant is one of the more surprising solutions to the desalination problem. S.S. Verma of the Department of Physics at SLIET in Punjab, points out that small floating nuclear power plants represent a way to produce electrical energy with minimal environmental pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Such plants could be sited offshore anywhere there is dense coastal population and not only provide cheap electricity but be used to power a desalination plant with their excess heat. “Companies are already in the process of developing a special desalination platform for attachment to FNPPs helping the reactor to desalinate seawater,” Verma points out.
To read the rest of this article from Science Daily, click here.
Surfin’ Mesa, Arizona?
Posted by: Maven on November 21, 2007 at 6:50 amFrom the WaterWired Blog:
Mesa, AZ, (outside of Phoenix), which bills itself as the nation’s largest suburb (home to 460,000), has decided to help fund the Waveyard, a 125-acre facility that will allow desert dwellers to surf, kayak, and scuba-dive when the thermometer hits #$!* degrees. Voters (65% approval) recently passed a measure to give the developers $35 million in tax incentives. No one apparently mounted much opposition to it.
The Waveyard is expected to generate $1 billion in rvenues and 7,500 jobs. It will require 50 million gallons of water to fill, and lose about 60 to 100 million gallons per year due to seepage and evaporation. It will not use drinking water, but non-potable (elevated arsenic) ground water that will have to be treated because of humans will be immersed in it.
Real-estate developer Richard Mladick, the ‘brains” behind this, grew up in Virginia Beach, VA, and has surfed in Morocco, Hawaii, Indonesia, and Brazil. “I couldn’t imagine raising my kids in an environment where they wouldn’t have the opportunity to grow up being passionate about the same sports that I grew up being passionate about,” he said. “It’s about delivering a sport that’s not typically available in an urban environment.” Say what?
Actually, such sports are available in an urban environment (Hey, Richard, try Los Angeles, San Diego, etc.). What he should have said is “not typically available in an interior continental desert environment.”
To read the rest of this post from the WaterWired blog, plus the link to the story, click here.
Ants may hold the key to Lake Tahoe’s clarity, researchers say
Posted by: Maven on November 19, 2007 at 1:57 pmFrom Yuba.net:
Ants are often considered nuisances, pests that are to be quickly eradicated and forgotten. Yet, according to a team of scientists that includes Monte Sanford, a Ph.D. student, and Dennis Murphy, a professor in the Biology Department at the University of Nevada, Reno, ants could hold important keys to improving water clarity at Lake Tahoe and in maintaining ecological health in the Lake Tahoe basin.
Sanford says that one of the more common types of ants at Tahoe, “aerator ants” — which are ant species that construct nests and extensive tunnel networks in the ground — “can play a substantial role in facilitating water infiltration in forests, which can affect the clarity of the lake’s waters. The study reminds us that we tend to overlook the little things that run the world,” Murphy said.
The ants’ contribution is simple, but important.
To read the rest of this article from Yuba.net, click here.
The effect of climate change discussed in 7-part series on KQED’s California Report
Posted by: Maven on November 18, 2007 at 7:27 amKQED’s California Report is running a six-part series on the effects of climate change on California’s water supply. From the website:
California’s water supply has been stable for centuries thanks to a consistent and reliable source: snow. Yet, scientists predict that if greenhouse gases continue to accumulate at the current rate and force temperatures up, the state could lose as much as 90% of its snow-pack by the end of the century. A change in climate this big could lead to failures in water-management systems throughout the state, affecting every one of us. In our documentary series, Climate Change and California’s Water, we explore the implications of global warming on our levees, our plants and animals and our lives.
Part 1, titled “Field Notes”, aired last week:
Scientists are already seeing the affects of climate change on plants and animals in California. We travel to a bird refuge where migrating songbirds are arriving earlier in the spring and to Sequoia National Park where researchers have seen the mortality rate of trees double over the last 25 years.
Part 2, Our Mediterranean climate, is scheduled to air on Monday & Tuesday:
California is known for a stable, relatively benign climate of wet winters and dry summers. We explore how the air, ocean and land create our climate, and talk about what could change as the ocean warms and air temperatures rise with global warming.
Part 3 will look at Central Valley Flooding, rising sea levels will be covered in part 4, water conservation part 5, part 6 will look at Imperial Valley water issues, and part 7 will detail steps that water managers are taking to prepare for climate change in our future.
As each show airs, additional web resources will be listed on the website. Check it all out by clicking here.
KQED is a Northern California public broadcasting station.
Webcast links for coastal commission’s hearing today
Posted by: Maven on November 15, 2007 at 7:12 amThe desalination plant proposal is scheduled to be heard today as part of Agenda Item 7.
The hearing will be webcast. The link for the webcast and the agenda for the meeting can be found at the California Coastal Commission website, or by clicking here.
You can read the staff report by clicking here.
I won’t be able to watch the hearings much today, as I have other, paying work to be done, but I will keep an eye out and post the latest news as it comes across the wires.
Check this out! The Los Angeles River, in pictures, from start to end
Posted by: Maven on November 14, 2007 at 11:09 pmI got this from one of my favorite blogs, From the Archives.
The Los Angeles River. Once a real river, it was channelized for flood control purposes many, many years ago, and now is a mere shadow of itself, a concrete structure that winds through neighborhoods and under freeways as it heads towards the ocean. It is what passes for a river here in the southland.
Here is someone who actually admires the river, or what is left of it, in it’s concreted (and sometimes putrid) state. He has created this photo journal of the Los Angeles River, taken from the beginning of the river, which apparently is near the intersection of Basset and Owensmouth, in Canoga Park. The web page is called “Friends of Vast Industrial Concrete Kafkaesque Structures.” From the website:
This is my photo journal of industrial photographs I’ve taken of the Los Angeles River flood control channel.
As an amateur ‘Industrial Archaeologist’, I love the LA River as a bizarre curiosity. Many groups have formed in attempt to beautify or revert the “river” to a previous state. But I like it the way it is; a weird, massive flood control channel.
This unusual structure is testimony to the local geology, seasonal rains, and the vast urbanization of the LA area. It is mainly the urbanization in the 20′s and 30′s which severely modified the drainage of the Los Angeles basin and San Fernando Valley, creating the immediate need for the necessarily large, ominous flood control system that we see today.
To check out this website Friends Of Vast Industrial Concrete Kafkaesque Structures, with many, many pictures of the LA River, click here.
Cloud seeding: does it work?
Posted by: Maven on November 14, 2007 at 11:16 amFrom Wired News:
Once upon a time, shamans danced to bring the rains. Now we send pilots into the clouds, bearing a sacrifice of silver iodide.
Okay, so there’s a bit more science to cloud seeding than rain dancing. But despite being around for decades, the mainstream scientific community’s still skeptical. Why? In part because it’s so difficult to do rigorous, double-blind, case-controlled studies on something so variable and long-term and poorly understood as the weather itself.
While researching the possibility of using cloud seeding in the drought-stricken southeast, I ended up talking to Joe Golden, a researcher who’d actually seeded clouds in Florida. He told me about the experiment, run by Bill Woodley in the late 1970′s, designed to confirm an earlier experiment that suggested cloud seeding success.
Over the course of an entire season, pilots took to the skies at every sign of rainclouds; they wouldn’t know until they delivered their load whether it was silver iodide or sand. But one of the placebo days also happened to fall on a day of widespread torrential downpours. It swamped the experiment. Take that day out, said Golden, and the cloud seeding was a success; keep it, and it’s not clear whether it worked.
To read the rest of this article from Wired News, click here.
Desalination water wars
Posted by: Maven on November 13, 2007 at 10:57 pmFrom the Calitics blog:
Desalination is poised to become one of the next big things in California, and already is becoming a major political issue. In Carlsbad, located a few miles north of San Diego on the coast, a consortium of cities and water agencies has allied with Poseidon Resources to plan the nation’s largest desalination plant, to be co-located with the Encina power station. The plant would create 50 million gallons of water per day, and 56,000 acre feet per year – “enough for 300,000 residents of San Diego County,” touts the project website.
As promising as desal is with our water crisis, however, it has potentially damaging effects on ocean life and on global warming – which led the California Coastal Commission staff to recommend the Poseidon plant be denied its necessary permits. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday to determine the ultimate fate of this project. Similar fights are brewing or have already begun in Orange County, Marin County, and here on the Monterey Bay.
The growing controversy surrounding desalination reveals a deeper truth about our future. The problems we face with water, global warming, and energy are not separate. They are, in fact, facets of a broader crisis of civilization. A solution to one facet must not aggravate another. Like pieces on a chessboard, or blocks in a late-night Jenga game, each piece exists relationally to the others. Building an energy-sucking, pollution-spewing desalination plant is likely to have some unpleasant blowback.
To read the full text of this post from the Calitics blog, click here.
Learning the Worth of Water
Posted by: Maven on November 13, 2007 at 10:53 pmFrom the Center for American Progress website, this story regarding national water issues:
The Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s fourth international assessment released earlier this year predicted that “drought-affected areas will likely increase” by mid-century due to global warming. But recent droughts in the southern portion of the United States suggest that this prediction is already coming true. The normally wet Southeast is suffering from the worst drought of the past 100 years.
The normally wet Southeast is suffering from the worst drought of the past 100 years. The most affected areas are in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and portions of Florida and South Carolina. In October, the National Drought Mitigation Center classified more than half of this area as suffering from exceptional or extreme drought—the two driest categories. Not coincidentally, the Southeast also experienced record high temperatures.
The IPCC reported that the last three decades have seen “a spring/summer warming of 0.87°C,” caused by global warming, and “earlier spring snowmelt has led to longer growing seasons and drought.” The IPCC also found that “warming in [U.S.] western mountains is projected to cause decreased snowpack, more winter flooding, and reduced summer flows, exacerbating competition for over-allocated water resources.”
What’s more, a new United Nations report has stated that the effects of global warming are exacerbated by a growing human population. As the population continues to grow, our consumption rate is growing with it, and consumption now exceeds the resources available. Recent studies suggest that some U.S. regions are already “past peak water,” a milestone that suggests that water levels could continue to decrease. “It is wrong to assume that cities could continue to grow without experiencing something akin to a religious awakening about the scarcity of water,” according to Aurora, Colorado city water manager Peter Binney.
The article covers the three big national water stories in-depth: Atlanta, the Southwest, and the Great Lakes. It then talks about conservation, and gives some practical tips. To read the full text of this article from the Center for American Progress, click here.
Point/Counterpoint: Pacific Institute’s Desalination Report, and Poseidon’s response
Posted by: Maven on November 13, 2007 at 8:52 amTHE PACIFIC INSTITUTES’S REPORT:
In the Pacific Institute’s “Desalination, with a Grain of Salt – A California Perspective”, the report discusses the potential benefits and impacts of implementing desalination in California. Desalination offers a potentially limitless supply, but the advantages and disadvantages need to be evaluated, and the plants must be carefully planned and sited.
Worldwide, desalination is used in the Persian Gulf, on islands with limited supplies, and in selected other locations where options are limited and the public is willing to pay the higher prices. Interest in California has intensified in recent years due to rapidly growing populations and diminishing supplies. Twenty desalination plants are proposed for California coastal areas; if all were built as proposed, the total desalinated water would have supplied about 6% of California’s year 2000 urban demand.
The report concludes that most of the desalination plants proposed for California appear to be premature, as alternative water management options have yet to be substantially developed, the plants are not properly sited, nor have the ecosystem impacts been identified and mitigated.
The report gives a number of specific conclusions and recommendations:
- 1. Desalination is expensive.
Although the cost of desalination has fallen in recent years, it still remains expensive relative to other current water supply sources. Less costly and environmentally damaging conservation and efficiency improvements are still possible in many areas, and these options should be fully pursued first.
- 2. Future desalination costs are uncertain.
Desalination costs are influenced by many factors, and the assumption that desalination costs will continue to fall cannot be relied on. Further cost reductions may not come to fruition; and future costs could potentially increase, due to changes in energy costs, construction materials, membrane performance, and other factors.
- 3. Desalination is energy-intensive.
Desalination requires more energy to produce water than any other water supply option, and the future cost of desalinated water will be sensitive to changes in energy prices.
- 4. In some cases, desalination may offer the same advantages as other available water supply sources.
Desalination plants offer both reliability and water quality advantages, but other options may provide these same advantages at a lower cost. All available water resources should be compared against the cost of desalination.
- 5. Contamination of desalinated water is possible.
Desalination can produce high-quality water, but can potentially contain biological or chemical contaminants. All water produced from desalination plants must be monitored and regulated.
- 6. Desalinated water can damage existing distribution systems.
Desalinated water can be corrosive and damaging to water distribution systems, so water service providers must ensure their distribution systems are not adversely affected.
- 7. Disposal of the brine byproducts can pose potential problems.
Safe disposal of the highly-concentrated salt brines associated with desalination is a challenge, and more comprehensive studies are needed.
- 8. Open water intake systems can trap and kill aquatic species.
Marine organisms can be trapped in the intakes, which remains one of the most significant environmental threats associated with desalination. Subsurface and beach intake wells can mitigate some of these impacts, but the advantages and disadvantages are site-specific.
- 9. Desalination can affect climate change.
Desalination can both help reduce and add to climate change problems. On the one hand, it can help reduce the dependence of local water agencies on imported water, but on the other hand, can lead to a greater dependence on fossil fuels, increasing greenhouse emissions that contribute to climate change.
- 10. Desalination can induce undesirable growth.
Desalination can induce growth in sensitive coastal areas by removing the constraint of limited water supply resources. Desalination plants must be carefully thought out so as not to permit increasing coastal development beyond limits spelled out in local planning ordinances.
- 11. Co-location of power plants with desalination plants poses advantages and disadvantages.
Coastal power plants utilize sea water for cooling generators; and the co-location of a desalination facility has the potential to utilize this water for its intake. Using this water has economic and environmental advantages; however, the power plant’s seawater intake is subject to the same environmental concerns as any other open-water intake. Better cooling systems are being developed that will soon eliminate the need for the use of water for cooling, and co-location of a desalination plant should not be the reason to keep these systems in operation any longer than would otherwise be permitted.
“The potential benefits of ocean desalination are great, but the economic, cultural, and environmental costs of wide commercialization remain high. In many parts of the world, alternatives can provide the same freshwater benefits of ocean desalination at far lower economic and environmental costs. These alternatives include treating low-quality local water sources, encouraging regional water transfers, improving conservation and efficiency, accelerating wastewater recycling and reuse, and implementing smart land-use planning.”
MR VOUTCHKOV’S REBUTTAL:
Nikolay Voutchkov, Senior Vice President and Corporate Technical Director for Poseidon Resources disputes many of the conclusions made by the Pacific Institute’s report. His rebuttal, “California Desalination Report with More than a Grain of Subjectivity” was published in the January 2007 issue of Water Conditioning & Purification (a periodical).
He points out that the Pacific Institute report, (hereinafter designated as PI Report) ignores the successful track record of desalination worldwide, as well as the recent advances made in applied research here in California. The report also fails to mention that California’s DWR has recognized that reliance on existing fresh water resources, aggressive conservation and water reclamation may not be adequate to meet demand in the long-term. Here are some of his key points:
- 1. Growth Inducement.
The PI report foresees desalination as an inducement to growth. However, as the PI report points out, if all 20 of the plants were built as proposed, it would only supply approximately 5% of urban water demand. Statewide, population is expected to increase 12.6% by 2015, so the addition of 5% could only meet less than half of this expected growth. The main purpose of the proposed plants is to reduce reliance on imported water, or to curtail further over-pumping of depleted groundwater sources. Furthermore, if more water is made available through aggressive conservation efforts or water reclamation, this water would also have equal potential to create growth inducement.
- 2. Affordability.
Mr. Voutchkov acknowledges that currently, the cost of desalinated water is relatively higher than other sources. However, he points out that the quantity of such lower-cost sources is limited. He also points out that the initial low-cost/high-effect water reclamation and conservation measures have already been implemented, and that additional effort and more expense will be necessary to implement further measures, which will bring the price closer to that of desalinated water. Additionally, if desalination is replacing over-pumping of groundwater resources and eliminating stress on the environmentally sensitive areas (read: The Delta), than the higher cost of desalinated water would be offset by its environmental benefits.
- 3. Energy Consumption.
The California-based Affordable Desalination Collaboration recently completed a study regarding energy use and desalination, and determined that electrical energy accounts for 44% of the cost of reverse osmosis desalination, and 60% of thermal distillation. But this figure is site-specific, argues Mr. Voutchkov; power costs for desalination in California will only be 20% to 30% of costs. The State Water Project is one of the state’s largest consumers of electricity, so fluctuations in fuel markets will affect not only desalination, but all other water supply alternatives as well.
- 4. Environmental Impact.
The PI report points out two key impacts on the environment: the potential entrainment of aquatic organisms at the plant intake facilities, and the effect of the high-salinity discharge on the marine environment.
a. Entrainment of aquatic organisms. The PI report calls this the most significant threat, but this claim is not supported by any data nor any full-scale studies of existing facilities, says Mr. Voutchkov. Other countries, such as Spain, Israel, & Australia, have similar stringent regulations, and these countries have not encountered problems.
b. High Salinity Discharges. The report ignores that there are already over two decades of experience with desalination in the US and worldwide, and there are no known cases where discharges from desalination facilities have harmed the aquatic environment.
The key fatal flaw of the report, says Mr. Voutchkov, is that “it fails to recognize the wealth of international and domestic desalination experience, and to understand the applicability of this experience to site-specific conditions of California.”
“Although existing fresh water sources, conservation and reuse will continue to play a central role in the state’s long-term water supply strategy, seawater desalination has unique appeal to many coastal communities because it allows access to a reliable and drought-proof source of drinking water that can be developed and controlled locally at costs competitive to incremental expenses associated with the development of other water supply alternatives.”
—————————————–
Cooley, Heather, Gleick, Peter H. and Wolff, Gary. Desalination With A Grain of Salt, the Pacific Institue, June 2006. Click here. (http://www.pacinst.org/reports/desalination/desal_exec_summ.pdf)
Voutchkov, Nikolay. California Desalination Report with More than a Grain of Subjectivity. Water Conditioning and Purification, January, 2007. Click here. (http://www.wcponline.com/PDF/0701Voutchkov.pdf).
Rising sea levels could impact coastal aquifers more than previously thought
Posted by: Maven on November 13, 2007 at 7:11 amFrom Science Daily:
As sea levels rise, coastal communities could lose up to 50 percent more of their fresh water supplies than previously thought, according to a new study from Ohio State University. Hydrologists here have simulated how saltwater will intrude into fresh water aquifers, given the sea level rise predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC has concluded that within the next 100 years, sea level could rise as much as 23 inches, flooding coasts worldwide.
Scientists previously assumed that, as saltwater moved inland, it would penetrate underground only as far as it did above ground. But this new research shows that when saltwater and fresh water meet, they mix in complex ways, depending on the texture of the sand along the coastline. In some cases, a zone of mixed, or brackish, water can extend 50 percent further inland underground than it does above ground. Like saltwater, brackish water is not safe to drink because it causes dehydration. Water that contains less than 250 milligrams of salt per liter is considered fresh water and safe to drink.
Motomu Ibaraki, associate professor of earth sciences at Ohio State, led the study. Graduate student Jun Mizuno presented the results October 30, 2007, at the Geological Society of America meeting in Denver.
“Almost 40 percent of the world population lives in coastal areas, less than 60 kilometers from the shoreline,” Mizuno said. “These regions may face loss of freshwater resources more than we originally thought.”
To read the full text of this article from Science Daily, click here.
California Coastal Commission links for Thursday’s hearing
Posted by: Maven on November 12, 2007 at 7:57 amThe California Coastal Commission hearing is scheduled for three days. There are many items on the agenda. The hearings begin on Wednesday, with the commission considering several other items. The desalination plant proposal is scheduled to be heard on Thursday as part of Item 7.
The hearing will be webcast. The link for the webcast and the agenda for the meeting can be found at the California Coastal Commission website, or by clicking here.
You can read the staff report by clicking here.
Comments are due by Tuesday morning, and can be emailed to PoseidonDesalComments@coastal.ca.gov.
Got something to say about Poseidon’s desalination plant? Here’s your chance …
Posted by: Maven on November 9, 2007 at 9:09 amFrom the California Progress Report:
Next week in San Diego, Poseidon Resources will try to explain to the California Coastal Commission why they should be granted a permit to build and operate a desalination facility in Carlsbad after the Commission’s own staff report recommends denying their request.
The staff report, released last Friday, is spot on in its description of the potential negative effects of the desalination facility proposed by Poseidon. As we noted here last week, the project would cause serious environmental impacts, sucking in marine organisms through an open water intake and increasing stress on marine communities at the site of the facility’s brine discharge. In addition, there are significant concerns about the project’s contribution to global warming; while Poseidon Resources has recently claimed that the facility’s greenhouse emissions will be offset, no detailed plan has yet been made available.
Please help us protect California’s coastal environment by attending the upcoming California Coastal Commission hearing in San Diego to ask the Commissioners to follow their own staff’s recommendation and reject the Poseidon proposal.
Poseidon’s permit application is currently Item 7a on the Commission’s three-day agenda and should be heard on Thursday, November 15th. A webcast of the hearing will be available through the Coastal Commission website.
If you can’t make it, written comments are due by the morning of Tuesday, November 13th and may be e-mailed to: PoseidonDesalComments@coastal.ca.gov.
To read the full text of this article from the California Progress Report, click here.
Pacific Garbage Patch covered on the Today show
Posted by: Maven on November 8, 2007 at 9:16 amCurious about that garbage patch story? The Today show covers this story, bringing back video of the mess. Yuk!!!
Check it out by clicking here.
The Today Show has been running an interesting series from the ‘ends of the earth’. Want to see where Santa Lives? Footage, stories & pictures from the North Pole, Equator and South Pole can be found by clicking here.
California’s water issues the subject of the Jim Lehrer news hour
Posted by: Maven on November 8, 2007 at 7:25 amCalifornia water issues are making national news, featured on the Jim Lehrer news hour. You can view the 10 minute show, courtesy of the Down to a Science blog, by clicking here.
Here’s what the blog has to say about California’s water crisis:
Water is the new oil. This is probably the biggest issue facing California over the next 10 years. The biggest issue at hand is population growth, we just don’t have the water to keep up with growth and maintain the huge agricultural industry. By most accounts, conservation won’t make a big enough dent and no one is willing to say stay out to new Californians. Bet on this: there will be a bond measure re: California Water system in the fall of next year. My prediction: water rates will go up, the environment will suffer, and voluntary conservation calls will continue (I expect a mandatory conservation to happen next year).
Delta to get road signage & hopefully more public awareness
Posted by: Maven on November 7, 2007 at 10:59 pmFrom the Central Valley Business Times, news that signs are being installed on the eight state highways crossing the Delta. The maroon colored “Welcome to the California Delta” feature artwork by the late Delta artist Marty Stanley. The signs are part of a program to increase public awareness of the Delta:
The entrance signs are part of the multi year effort to increase the awareness of the California Delta, according to Martens, who says the foundation is considering promoting signs on bridges that provide names of the rivers, sloughs and other waterways.
“If the Delta is to be protected over the long term, the recognition needs to be improved dramatically – including not only the geography of the Delta, but also its problems and importance as an environmental and economic asset to its residents,” Mr. Martens says.
To read the full text of the story from the Central Valley Business Times, click here.
Tom Martens led the League To Save Lake Tahoe for six years, and was part of the successful “Keep Tahoe Blue” campaign which persists to this day – hey, I see those bumper stickers occasionally down here in the southland! Here’s the article from Stockton’s RecordNet, announcing Martens addition to the staff at the Discover the Delta foundation – click here.
NBC’s Today show goes to the ends of the earth
Posted by: Maven on November 6, 2007 at 10:19 pmAlthough it’s not really water related, the Today show has sent correspondents to ‘the ends of the earth’, looking into climate change. Matt Lauer’s in the North Pole, Al Roker is at the Equator, and Anne Curry is in Antarctica.
If you’ve ever been curious about what the North Pole, or Antarctica looks like, check out the slideshows on the website. There’s videos you can watch of the various segments they’ve been showing, and information on things you can do to help reduce your impact on the climate.
Check it all out by clicking here.
Podcast interview with U.C. Berkeley Professor Henry Vaux from “Bloomberg on the Economy”
Posted by: Maven on November 6, 2007 at 5:37 pmSubmitted today from Aquafornia reader Heidi:
Last evening on Bloomberg Radio®, “Bloomberg on the Economy” host Tom Keene spoke for an hour with U.C. Berkeley Professor Henry Vaux on the economics of water desalination and on what Dr. Vaux sees as a “very serious” world water problem. They discussed global supply and demand for water, population growth and water-purification efforts, and then they brought the conversation back to our own front lawns. We thought you might find the interview of interest. Please feel free to follow the link below to listen to their conversation:
http://www.bloomberg.com/tvradio/podcast/ontheeconomy.html
“Bloomberg on the Economy” is podcast at Bloomberg.com and also on iTunes under Business News.
Thanks for the link! Aqua Blog Maven will be happy to post any relevant links or articles, so if you have anything water-related of interest, please send me the link!
The Blogosphere: Ag water, power water, and deadly dam water
Posted by: Maven on November 6, 2007 at 2:51 pmIt might be a little early in the week for a Friday feature, but I have run across some interesting blogs worth mentioning.
From the From the Archives blog, one of my favorites, a discussion on agricultural water use and its future here in California. The writer sees the situation to be rather bleak:
When people ask me if California has enough water, I never know what to say. Enough water for what? Enough water for us to maintain healthy rivers and give everyone a generous health and safety allotment? Oh yeah. More than plenty. Enough water for us to have healthy rivers, live in verdant cities and supply half the nation’s fruits and vegetables? No. We do not have enough water for that. We’re about to have dramatically less water than we’ve known since the west was settled. We will not have enough water to do what we’ve done for the past sixty years. Water use is going to shift dramatically, and if demographics are destiny, agriculture is going to get the shaft.
Far as I can tell, California agriculture will soon be getting the shaft from both ends. Cities have all the people, and urban folk will insist on using water. They also seem to insist on environmental uses for water, ‘cause they’re sentimental like that. As water gets scarcer, it will be drawn away from agricultural uses and put to urban and environmental purposes.
Less water for agriculture generally means fallowing of land, at least that is what always seems to be threatened. I don’t know if agriculture can use water more efficiently; the issue seems rarely discussed in the mainstream media. Certainly advances have been made, and more can be made, I’m sure, but to what extent that will free up more water for cities, who knows.
This summer, as I drove through Fillmore, there are many agricultural plots which are being cleared and graded to make way for more homes. This to me is a disturbing trend, because I, for one, like eating, and I especially enjoy the variety and quality of fresh fruits and vegetables available at my Southern California supermarket. With world population burgeoning, I don’t see how we can afford to start losing agricultural land. Once it is paved over, it will be lost forever. No one ever seems to un-build anything.
To read the full text of this blog post from From the Archives, click here.
Here’s a highly technical blogpost about water and energy from The Oil Drum blog, where the writer discusses current and historical conditions in North America, and relates this to the use of water for cooling power plants:
So there are two points that can be made from this, the first is that power stations can be engineered to use water that is not currently viable as potable water for use domestically and by industry, and the second is that, in the processing of the water for their own use, industry is already cleaning up the water, so that the resulting condensed steam and clean product can then be fed back to society to remediate some of the coming problems with water shortage. Consider, if you will, that this is converting power plants into concurrently becoming desalination plants.
Hard to believe that no one has come up with the idea of using reclaimed water for power plant cooling. The post is full of facts and charts and links to various things. You can check out the full text of this blog from The Oil Drum by clicking here.
This blogger traveled up to the San Francisquito Dam site, and discusses it in this poston the Any Given Sundry blog:
Mom and I took a drive today. Headed out Lake Elisabeth Road from Palmdale and ended up on San Francisquito Canyon Road, heading south.
I’ve had a long fascination with the Saint Francis Dam disaster of March 12, 1928, probably because the dam was built to contain water brought here via the Los Angeles Aqueduct from the Owens Valley. I dunno, I find big public works very moving… While they are impressive, they usually occasion great loss for a few people while creating something intended to provide a greater good to a large population (usually by investors and public officials who get to put their names on plaques.)
Anyway, it’s called the greatest civil engineering disaster of the 20th century. More than 400 people died in the flood after the dam broke. Waters raged toward the ocean from this spot about 15 miles north of Saugus, through what’s now Valencia, Fillmore, Santa Paula, all the way to Ventura.
Some links to fill you in on the history of the disaster. To read the full text of this article from Any Given Sundry, click here.
Poseidon desalination plant: No!
Posted by: Maven on November 5, 2007 at 9:02 amFrom the California Progress Report:
This past Tuesday, the California State Lands Commission delayed final judgment on Poseidon Resources’ proposed ocean water desalination facility in Carlsbad, California.
The project, which would be the first large-scale reverse osmosis facility in California and the largest in the United States, would suck in and kill countless ocean organisms each year and consume massive amounts of energy.
Poseidon, a multinational corporation based in Connecticut, made waves prior to the hearing by proposing to use carbon offsets, energy efficiency, and other methods to eliminate the global warming impact from the plant operations.
However, their carbon-neutral claims came under fire when Poseidon Resources representatives flubbed basic questions about how they would eliminate the substantial energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions of the project.
The North County Times reported that California Lieutenant Governor and State Lands Commission Chair, John Garamendi, scolded Poseidon representatives, stating, “If you haven’t figured [it] out, I suggest you get on it quickly.”
Poseidon also failed to address other fundamental flaws in their proposal, most notably the assumption that the desalination plant will be able to use, indefinitely, the Encina Power Station’s damaging once-through-cooling water intake and discharge pipes which are already out of compliance with the Clean Water Act. In addition, Poseidon’s proposal ignores more cost-effective and less energy intensive water supply tools available to the area, including water recycling and water conservation..
To read the full text of this article from the California Progress Report, click here.
Website highlights Borrego Springs water situation
Posted by: Maven on November 3, 2007 at 10:10 pmThis summer, on my way to the Salton Sea, I drove through the mountains past Julian and through the Anzo-Borrego Desert. Along the way, I saw off in the distance a town with an improbable patch of green in the midst of desert browns and scrub. That town was the town of Borrego Springs.
The town of Borrego Springs is completely dependent on groundwater, so remote is it that imported water is not an option. And like many places in California and nationwide, they are depleting their aquifer far more than it is being recharged. Shortly after I returned, the LA Times ran an article on the situation. Somehow I had thought it was a recent development, but apparently not.
An Aquafornia reader sent me this link to a website called “The Borrego Water Underground” which details the problems and includes a long list of related news articles going back nearly three years.
From the website:
Borrego Springs is located in the Borrego Valley, a seventy square mile area in northeast San Diego County, CA surrounded by the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (ABDSP). It is the County’s only self-sufficient, desert community. The Valley is a remote, isolated basin and importing water is not an option. The Borrego Valley Aquifer is, therefore, the sole source of water for the Valley.
The aquifer is being drawn down at a rate nearly five times the recharge rate. The water table has been dropping over two feet per year for the past twenty years. The loss rate is increasing over time. Water quality is already adversely affected. Wells near the periphery of the aquifer are running dry and being abandoned. At projected extraction rates, the aquifer may reach a critical point in as few as 30 years.It is a classic zero sum gain situation. Simple arithmetic demonstrates the hard truth that no solution can satisfy all, or even most, of the conflicting interests involved. Yet there is no willingness to compromise; so all attempts to find a solution have failed. The future of Borrego Springs, the Borrego Valley, and significant portions of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park are bleak indeed.
To visit this website regarding the Borrego Springs water situation, click here.
Possible imminent eminent domain initiative bad for California
Posted by: Maven on November 2, 2007 at 9:25 pmFrom the California Progress Report:
Last year, Californians successfully fought off a statewide ballot initiative that used the rhetoric of eminent domain abuse to attempt to undermine a swath of laws protecting our health and environment. Well get ready; it looks like we’ll have to fight even harder this year.
Wealthy owners of apartments and mobile home parks are currently collecting signatures to place another initiative on California’s June 2008 ballot that they’d like you to believe is about eminent domain. And once again, they’re hiding their anti-environment agenda. Tucked into the text of the initiative are provisions that would effectively prohibit laws and regulations that are intended to protect our air, land, water, and coasts from pollution, as well as laws that regulate development and prevent sprawl.
As if this weren’t bad enough, the landlords are also using the populist issue of eminent domain reform in an attempt to wipe out rent control laws in California, hurting seniors, single mothers, veterans, and other working families who would lose the only housing they can afford.
A broad-based coalition of environmentalists, local governments, seniors, business, and labor has formed to defeat this measure – with PCL stepping up as an early coalition endorser and supporter. This coalition is promoting a strong, honest eminent domain reform proposal, which would prevent the government from using eminent domain to take a home to transfer to a developer.
To read the full text of this article from the California Progress Report, click here.
Odds and ends and Aqua Blog Maven out in the field this weekend …
Posted by: Maven on November 2, 2007 at 5:15 amI’m hitting the road early today, and I’ll be out in the field for the weekend. I don’t know how much time I’ll have or what kind of internet connection will be available, so updates may be sporadic over the weekend. Everything will be posted up and ready for Monday morning!
Thank you for your visiting! Readership is growing steadily as more people become aware of the critical water issues our region is facing. I hope that this blog will be a source of information for all sides of the issues as we navigate the rough waters ahead.
So here’s some odds and ends … Rough waters ahead for the Imperial Valley as the committee selected to decide how to divide the water shortage (called a water imbalance) between various farmers. Some suggested they take their time and wait until June 1st to start cutting back on water. Finally they decided that they couldn’t decide, and will meet again next month. Click here for the KXO Radio story.
Meanwhile, water is an issue in Baja California, discussed in this post from the HispanicVista.com:
Baja California like California is mostly desert from which cities were carved out. Both have played Russian roulette with water sources and supplies. But Baja is the poor cousin and its rich cousin does long range planning and has first dibs on supplies from common source – the Colorado River. Other than that, Baja mostly depends on rain, and that is very spotty as is the present experience.
Lack of funds plays an important role in what can or cannot be done so as long as it is not an immediate problem, typically the Baja administration in power ignores the issue. Since the last major rainfall of 2004-2005 filled the (real) reservoirs and underground water tables, coupled with a dependable supply of Colorado River water piped from Mexicali to the Pacific Coast, not much thought has been given to solving the looming water shortage.
The time to continue ignoring the problem has come to an end – that is if Baja is to continue its economic growth and be a first rate player in meeting vacation and retirement housing for the burgeoning Baby Boomers.
Like most issues, there are both good and bad news. The bad news is 1. that since 2005 there has been no significant amount of rain replenishing what is used and needed and periods of draughts are more common than non-draught periods; and 2. the US has won, due to lack of action from the outgoing Baja California governor’s office, the right to cement the American Canal that will deprive the seepage of Colorado River water from entering the water tables that run into the Mexicali valley historically providing a significant percentage of their agricultural irrigation and residential needs. This will set off a fight to lower the amount of water transferred to the Pacific Coast in turn affecting the Tijuana, Rosarito and Ensenada municipalities.
There are multiple dynamics to the good news. In my opinion, awareness of the problem and commitment to long term solutions being the most important dynamics that will bring about the solutions.
To read the rest of this article from HispanicVista.com, click here.
The From the Archives blog has an interesting post about subsidized water and low-value crops:
Subsidized water growing cheap alfalfa and silage is the underpinning of cheap meat. I wouldn’t care one whit if cheap meat vanished tomorrow, but if you aren’t already buying grassfed beef and you like meat more than once a week, then I don’t think you really mean it. Alfalfa in the desert! goes in straight line to a conventional meat diet; you can’t end the outrage of subsidizing water to grow a thirsty, low-value crop in the desert without eating much less meat than you do. But if that’s what you really meant, well, cool.
To read the rest of this post from the From the Archives blog, click here.
Enjoy your weekend!!!
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