Salmon collapse as Delta water exports top record
Posted by: Maven on January 31, 2008 at 10:40 pmFrom Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org:
John Beuttler, conservation director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, in his latest advisory emphasizes the catastrophic nature of the sudden and unprecedented crash of Central Valley fall run chinook salmon to the California environment and economy.
Could it be that this salmon collapse, along with the crash of delta smelt, longfin smelt, juvenile striped bass, and threadfin shad, has been engineered by the Bush and Schwazenegger administrations to destroy what is left of the commercial and recreational sport fishing industry? By removing the commercial and recreational anglers from the water, the Bush and Schwarzenegger administrations will effectively remove the strongest opponents of their environmentally destructive water policies.
The state and federal governments exported 7,000,000 acre feet of water out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in 2007, a record year for water exports. So whatever garbage you have heard in the media about “poor farmers” suffering from mythical “water cuts,” subsidized agribusiness in the San Joaquin Valley and southern California received record water shipments in 2007.
“The Department of Water Resources and federal Bureau of Reclamation cannibalized the storage in our northern California reservoirs to provide the largest amount of water exported from the Delta in California history last year,” said Bill Jennings, chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.
With the opposition to their water policies removed or seriously weakened, subsidized agribusiness and greedy developers will see their ultimate dream fulfilled: the construction of the peripheral canal, the building of more dams and the destruction of the Bay-Delta Estuary as an ecosystem. The Delta then will be maintained by the state and federal governments as just a water supply for the corporate water barons and southern California, with no pesky delta smelt, chinook salmon, striped bass or fishermen in their way.
Click here to read the rest of this article from Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org.
Scripps Institute researchers say people are to blame for climate change in the west
Posted by: Maven on January 31, 2008 at 5:10 pmThanks to Aquafornia reader Daniel, who sent me this link from Yahoo News:
Human activity such as driving and powering air conditioners is responsible for up to 60 percent of changes contributing to dwindling water supplies in the arid and growing West, a new study finds. Those changes are likely to accelerate, says the study published Thursday in Science magazine, portending “a coming crisis in water supply for the western United States.”
The study is likely to add to urgent calls for action already coming from Western states competing for the precious resource to irrigate farms and quench the thirst of growing populations. Devastating wildfires, avalanches and drought have also underscored the need.
Researchers at Scripps Institute studied climate changes in the west during the latter half of the twentieth century and determined that human activity was the cause:
The changes they observed differed significantly from trends that could be attributed to natural fluctuations between wet and dry periods over time, they said. “The climate’s changing in the West. We’ve known that. The question is why, and no one’s really addressed that,” Barnett said in an interview. According to his study, “The answer is it is us.”
“The picture painted is quite grim so it’s time to collectively sit down and get our act together,” Barnett added, suggesting the need for conservation, more water storage, and a slowdown on development in the desert Southwest. “The building is just going crazy, so it would be a pretty good idea to put a curb on that unless they can figure out how to get more water,” he said.
To read the full text of this article from Yahoo News, click here. And read on to the article below for more coverage on this study.
Second snow survey shows snowpack is about 119% of normal
Posted by: Maven on January 31, 2008 at 3:32 pm
From the Department of Water Resources:
SACRAMENTO – Results of the manual snow survey completed today by the California Department of Water Resources off Highway 50 near Echo Summit are as follows:
Location
Elevation
Snow Depth
Water Content
% of Long Term Average
Alpha
7,600 feet
89(e) inches *
26(e) inches *
123
Phillips Station
6,800 feet
73.1 inches
23.6 inches
123
Lyons Creek
6,700 feet
81.8 inches
23.5 inches
120
Tamarack Flat
6,500 feet
74.3 inches
21.9 inches
115
* (e) electronic sensor reading
Today’s survey was DWR’s second of the 2007-2008 snowfall season and shows the Echo Summit area’s snow pack water content to be about 75 percent better than this time last year.
“January is typically the wettest month of the water year,” said DWR Hydrology Branch Chief Arthur Hinojosa, “and this month’s storms have been an excellent shot in the arm to the State’s water supply. January’s precipitation has bolstered the snow pack and made up for a sub par December. Season to date is just above average and 65% of the April 1 average peak.”
In addition to the snow survey results issued today, reporters can find real-time readings of statewide water content posted on the Internet at http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/snow/DLYSWEQ. The latest electronic sensor readings show Northern Sierra snow water equivalents at 119% of normal for this date, Central Sierra at 102%, and Southern Sierra at 122%. Statewide, the percentage of normal is at 111%.
The next manual survey is scheduled for early March. DWR’s Public Affairs Office will issue a news advisory before the event.
Importance of Snow Surveying
Snow-water content is important in determining the coming year’s water supply. The measurements help hydrologists prepare water supply forecasts as well as provide others, such as hydroelectric power companies and the recreation industry, with much needed data.
Monitoring is coordinated by the Department of Water Resources as part of the multi-agency California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program. Surveyors from more than 50 agencies and utilities visit hundreds of snow measurement courses in California’s mountains each month to gauge the amount of water in the snow pack.
For more information on snow surveys and California’s snow pack, click here.
Builders see profit in installing smart water management systems
Posted by: Maven on January 31, 2008 at 7:38 amFrom Greener Buildings:
As American consumers and businesses look for new ways to reduce the environmental impact of daily life, the notion of green buildings is extending beyond their four walls and into the surrounding landscape. Certifications such as LEED and others provide a suite of standards for environmentally sustainable construction, including landscaping and grounds keeping.
Developers, builders and contractors can leverage smart water management technology to gain points necessary to achieve LEED certification of their outdoor areas. Smart water management uses smart irrigation controllers that monitor and use information about site conditions (such as soil moisture, rain, wind, slope, soil, plant type and more), and apply the right amount of water to the landscape based on those factors. Once the smart controller is installed and set up, it automatically makes seasonal weather and site-specific adjustments, and does not require ongoing monitoring.
Water consumption is being targeted because, quite simply, it is becoming a scarce commodity — and its price is rising. More than half the U.S. suffers from drought conditions and, as a result, water rates are rising faster than energy costs. In fact, water use also consumers energy; every one billion gallons of water consumed requires 4 billion watt-hours of power, and results in an environmentally unfriendly 5.4 million pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
Awareness of water conservation is growing, particularly in western states, some of which are enacting laws to enforce recommendations to lower consumption. Conservationists have zeroed in on landscapes, which typically contribute 20 percent of a property’s value, because they account for 58 percent of all urban water usage. Landscapes are routinely over-watered by 30 to 300 percent, presenting a high-value target for sustainability programs.
In addition to water, energy and cost savings, any reduction in over-watering also lowers the damaging environmental effects of runoff, which transports landscape chemicals and other contaminants into the local water supply.
There are sound business reasons for building houses with water-saving landscapes, too. Click here to read the rest of this article from Greener Building.
Delta Vision Task Force meets tomorrow and Friday (Jan 31st – Feb 1st)
Posted by: Maven on January 30, 2008 at 5:34 pmThe Delta Vision Task Force will be meeting tomorrow and Friday in Sacramento. The meeting will be webcast. Agendas, meeting materials and links for the webcast can be found by clicking here.
The blogosphere: scary ads, worldwide water discussion, and a new plan for rising sea levels
Posted by: Maven on January 29, 2008 at 6:58 amWelcome back to Eric from Water Words That Work! He’s been taking a break with the blog to launch Water Words That Work as a company. The blog has also been completely redesigned. For one of his first posts upon returning, he weighs in on the apocalyptic ad campaign for the new National Geographic special on global warming. Check it out by clicking here. Glad to see you back, Eric!
World Economic Forum discusses water. Another one of my blogging buddies, Michael Campana, has a post on his Water Wired blog about the World Economic Forum. The forum discussed water issues in depth at its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. To read his post, click here.
Finally, some one with a plan for rising sea levels. And yet another water blogging buddy over at the Water Crunch blog has a story about a Carl Hodges, who has a plan for rising sea levels: he wants to put the water into drained coastal aquifers. “Hodges says the process is not only safe, but it would actually boost the remaining freshwater supply further inland. And he’s got the science to back it up.” Check it out by clicking here.
Department of Water Resources releases State Water Project Delivery Reliability Report – available online
Posted by: Maven on January 28, 2008 at 5:46 pmSACRAMENTO –The Department of Water Resources (DWR) today released the Draft State Water Project Delivery Reliability Report 2007. This report updates DWR’s estimate of its ability to maintain current (2007) and future (2027) State Water Project delivery reliability.
The report, issued every two years, also identifies factors that may impact water availability and changes that can be made to improve future water supply reliability. The draft will be available for public comment and review for 45 days.
The report concludes that continued declines in water supply reliability are likely if water delivery through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta remains unchanged. Additional factors that could inhibit water delivery include Delta pumping restrictions to help protect threatened and endangered species and the near-term effects of climate change.
Based on historical data, the analysis shows that annual SWP deliveries would decrease virtually every year in the future, and by as much as 20 percent from current levels one-quarter of the time.
Though California faces an uncertain water future if adjustments aren’t made to current practices, DWR is committed to finding solutions that meet the supply needs of all sectors of water users. Discoveries made through Gov. Schwarzenegger’s Delta Vision process and the Bay/Delta Conservation Planning process have reached important conclusions about the need to change the way water is conveyed across or around the Delta. Investigations to address new methods of conveyance that will protect fish and improve water supply reliability will continue into 2008.
The full Draft State Water Project Delivery Reliability Report 2007 may be reviewed online at http://baydeltaoffice.water.ca.gov/swpreliability/. Local agencies and State Water Project contractors can incorporate this information into their water management plans as appropriate as information in the report may affect local land use decisions.
Comments are encouraged and may be submitted through March 13, 2008 to comments-on-2007drr@water.ca.gov.
Early projection of water deliveries for Central Valley Project set at 25%
Posted by: Maven on January 28, 2008 at 7:35 amFor the uninitiated, there are two major water projects operating in the Central Valley. The State Water Project, which delivers water to cities and farms, and the federal Bureau of Reclamation’s Central Valley Project, which delivers water primarily to agricultural users in the San Joaquin Valley. The Central Valley Project is twice the size of the Satate Water Project in terms of both reservoir storage and average water deliveries.
Here’s the forecast for water deliveries from the CVP, from the Central Valley Business Times:
Water shortages loom for many Central Valley farmers, according to a preliminary forecast Friday by the federal Central Valley Project. The CVP estimates it can deliver only 25 percent of contract water supplies to its farm customers. Its forecast reflects uncertainty about changes in operations required to benefit a protected fish, the Delta smelt, it says. But the Bureau of Reclamation, which runs the CVP, says allocations could rise because of storms that have boosted the Sierra snowpack.
Like the State Water Project, the Central Valley Project also operates pumps in the Delta, and so the CVP pumps are also subject to the same smelt restrictions as the SWP:
Reclamation is implementing interim court-ordered measures this year to provide additional protection for Delta smelt. The minnow-like fish were thought to be killed when sucked into the giant water pumps near Tracy. The actual actions will vary depending on a real-time assessment of Delta conditions and the location and maturity of the Delta smelt, the Bureau of Reclamation says.
This current allocation of 25% does not factor in the recent storms. The official allocation for the CVP will be made on February 15. To read the full text of this story from the Central Valley Business Times, click here.
Central Valley Agriculture photo by flickr photographer dadoll.
Orange County’s Recycled Water Plant: article gives the technical details of the process
Posted by: Maven on January 28, 2008 at 7:20 amFrom Chemical & Engineering News:
PERHAPS YOU’VE SEEN the signs: “This property is irrigated with reclaimed water. Do not drink.” Reclaimed or recycled water is wastewater—sewage—that has been purified for reuse, most commonly for irrigation.
But with water woes growing in parts of the U.S.—a nearly two-year drought has parched the Southeast, while drought, environmental concerns, and population growth have put pressure on water supplies in western states—water utilities are scrambling to find new ways to meet the demand for one of life’s essentials.
One option is to recycle waste for drinking water. Yes, that means drinking water reclaimed from sewage.
Some communities have used reclaimed water for decades to recharge their drinking water supplies. In Virginia, recycled water is added to a stream feeding the Occoquan Reservoir. In Los Angeles, treated wastewater is added to the Montebello Forebay, where it percolates through the soil to replenish the groundwater supply. Also in California, the Orange County Water District‘s (OCWD’s) Water Factory 21 facility reclaims wastewater that is then injected into aquifers to provide a pressurized barrier against seawater intrusion into groundwater.
To meet additional need to prevent such intrusion and to meet increased demand for drinking water, the California Department of Public Health, along with the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board, approved OCWD’s new state-of-the-art water reclamation facility on Jan. 10. The Advanced Water Purification Facility (AWPF) will yield 70 million gal of drinkable water per day, or about 10% of the district’s daily need for 2.3 million residents. “It will give us a supply unaffected by drought,” notes Mehul Patel, OCWD’s principal process engineer.
AWPF is the largest water reclamation plant in the U.S. The water goes through multiple purification steps designed to reduce levels of organic chemicals, pathogens, and emergent chemicals of concern such as endocrine disruptors and pharmaceuticals. The product is as clean as and probably cleaner than standard tap water, Patel says.
Ever wondered how they get the water so clean? For a technical discussion of the process from Chemical & Engineering News, click here.
More on recycled water from Live Science - click here.
Take a photo tour of the Orange County recycled water plant
Posted by: Maven on January 26, 2008 at 7:37 amFrom Wired Science:
As Southern California faces a worsening water crisis, Orange County has implemented a $480 million microfiltration system so advanced it can turn waste water into drinking water. The Groundwater Replenishment System, which started pumping purified water on Jan. 10th, is the largest of its kind in the world and will provide water to more than 100,000 Orange County families for the same or less than buying it wholesale. And because sewage is diverted to the purification system, less waste is dumped into natural water supplies.
The new plant is likely to be the first of many as other cities in California, Texas and Florida consider similar plans. Read on as we follow the filtration process on 70 million gallons a day from beginning to end, where it’s pumped into the Orange County basin aquifer.
Click here for a photo tour of the plant from Wired Science.
Here’s a desalination blog for those of you who might be interested.
Posted by: Maven on January 26, 2008 at 7:25 amI came across this desalination blog yesterday, called “Desalination Research and Development”. The posts are written casually, and seem to be commentary on current desalination events, plus articles from other sources on the desalination process.
The blog has been running since June of 2006, but that is about all I can tell you. There is no “About” page or anything that identifies who this blogger is. So, take it with a grain of salt, and check out “Desalination Research and Development” blog, if you are interested.
Stakeholders weigh in on Delta Vision report with mixed reaction
Posted by: Maven on January 25, 2008 at 5:58 pmFrom the California Farm Bureau Federation, written by Ching Lee:
Debate on how to fix the ailing Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and California’s water supply problems will intensify this year as stakeholders from around the state weigh in on the best approach to protect the delta ecosystem while ensuring reliable water deliveries to the 25 million Californians and 7 million acres of irrigated farmland that depand on delta water.
To help guide the debate is a 70-page report released last month by the governor-appointed, seven-member panel known as the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force. This committee developed 12 recommendations and several near-term actions that are intended to serve as a framework for a more detailed plan due in October.
While the report’s sweeping proposals attempt to address the needs and concerns of a variety of interests, stakeholders in different parts of the state remain divided over key issues that pit those who receive water directly from the Sacramento River and delta and those that depend on state and federal pumping facilities in the south delta and the state’s extensive, man-made water distribution system to the south.
The panel agreed that repairing the estuary’s health and maintaining a reliable water supply are equally important. To achieve these goals, it recommends that more water conservation is needed, as well as possible reductions in the amount of water taken out of the delta, or at least changes to when that water is exported. Continue reading “Stakeholders weigh in on Delta Vision report with mixed reaction” »
Recent rain and snow storms have officials “cautiously optimistic” about snowpack conditions
Posted by: Maven on January 25, 2008 at 3:43 pmWe’ve been getting plenty of rain down here, but how are things going upstate in the mountains? It’s also been raining hard up north of us, creeks and streams are overflowing, causing some local flooding. More rain and snow in the forecast up north. From the Modesto Bee:
A stronger storm could move into the Northern San Joaquin Valley late Saturday through Sunday afternoon, bringing strong wind and heavy rain to the valley, according to the weather service. There is a possibility of heavy snowfall in the mountains.
Reservoirs, which depend on snowmelt, remain low. While the moisture is a good sign, a more telling measure will be available next week when state water officials conduct a manual snow survey, said Steve Boyd, assistant general manager of Turlock Irrigation District. He judged the mood among water officials after the dry season last year: ” ‘Improving’ is a great way to say it; another may be ‘cautiously optimistic’ with this last storm,” he said.
Rain is forecast for the Modesto area through tonight and then again Saturday night through Sunday night. Snow is forecast into tonight in the high country.
The district’s snow sensors suggest the watershed above Don Pedro Reservoir has a snow level 90 percent to 100 percent of normal. But, Boyd said, only the survey next week can estimate water content of that snow. “The more water content there is, the more water ends up in the reservoir, and that’s where we really get a good sense of what’s up there.”
Don Pedro, which also serves the Modesto Irrigation District, had a water level of 758.5 feet Thursday. That included 2.5 feet gained during the storm earlier this month, Boyd said. That compares with a level of 795 feet this time last year, said MID spokeswoman Kate Hora.
“No one is saying the drought is over, and no one is saying it has come to an end as of yet,” she said. “It is very early in the season.” January, she said, is an unpredictable month and often a poor predictor of the overall season. “I could give you any number of examples where we had very wet Januaries but came out dry as a whole for the year,” she said.
To read the full text of this story from the Modesto Bee, click here.
Delta Vision report the focus of the Southern California Water Dialog meeting
Posted by: Maven on January 25, 2008 at 10:32 amOn Wednesday, I attended the Southern California Water Dialogue, which is a monthly meeting hosted by Metropolitan Water District and open to anyone with an interest in water issues. The meetings feature a guest speaker who gives a presentation on a relevant water issue. This month’s speaker was Leo Winternitz, Deputy Director of CalFed, and staff member of Delta Vision Task Force.
Leo’s presentation was on the Delta Vision report. I found out more than a few interesting things I’ve not seen elsewhere. Read on for a recap of what was discussed, plus some rare Aqua Blog Maven commentary. Continue reading “Delta Vision report the focus of the Southern California Water Dialog meeting” »
Heavy storms batter Southern California, but it’s not over yet
Posted by: Maven on January 25, 2008 at 8:59 amHeavy rain all night at my house as storms continue to batter Southern California, dropping snow in our local mountains and closing the I-5 through the Grapevine. The storm even spawned some tornadoes. But so far, no bad news from the burn areas, including the burned area around my neighborhood, which doesn’t even rate a visit from the news trucks anymore.
But it’s not over yet, folks. From the Los Angeles Times:
Much earlier in the day, Los Angeles County saw light snowfall as low as 3,000 feet, with up to a foot sticking at 3,500 feet and 18 inches sticking at 4,500 to 5,500 feet, according to Stuart Seto, a weather specialist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. Nearly 2 feet of snow fell in the Lockwood Valley. Forecasters expected another 1 to 2 feet of snow to fall above 4,000 feet by tonight with a few inches falling between 2,500 and 4,000 feet. The mountains of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties can expect 5 to 10 inches of rain; coastal and valley areas 2 to 5 inches.
This week’s snow is a product of cold storms moving south from the Gulf of Alaska and is expected to raise precipitation totals closer to normal annual levels, said state climatologist Michael Anderson. Last year, the Southland experienced its worst dry spell in more than a century. Now a tropical storm laden with moist air is headed north from Mexico. It is likely to drop rain and snow in the mountains this weekend and drive up snow totals, Anderson said.
In the San Bernardino National Forest on Thursday, ski resorts were basking under several feet of powder. “It’s a winter wonderland right now, awesome conditions, perfect packed powder and more on the way,” said Chris Riddle, director of marketing at Big Bear Mountain Resorts, which got 10 inches of snow Thursday.
Even non-skiers can appreciate the benefits of what is shaping up to be a normal winter, Riddle said. “Fresh snow in Southern California is kind of like the Holy Grail,” he said. “It’s good for skiing, great for the forest; helps replenish the water table. It’s good for all of us.”
To read the full text of the article from the Los Angeles Times, click here.
However, according to the Associated Press, despite the heavy rainfall, the storms are not expected to improve local water supplies, as most of our water is imported from points north and east of us.
Mono Lake Committee posts snowy pictures of Mono Lake
Posted by: Maven on January 25, 2008 at 7:06 am
From the Mono Lake Committee website, some beautiful pictures of Mono Lake after this recent snowstorm.
The area received 40 hours of continuous snow; more snow than the Mammoth Lakes area, due to the effects of the lake on local weather patterns.
See more pictures by clicking here to visit the Mono Lake Committee website.
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.
Ad campaign for National Geographic special depicts an apocalyptic future for Southern California
Posted by: Maven on January 24, 2008 at 2:42 pmCheck out this futuristic TV news spot on Spike TV: click here.
It’s really an ad for the website www.isthisourfuture.com, which is advertising an upcoming National Geographic Channel special called “Six Degrees Could Change the World”. Judging by the apocalyptic images used by the website, it looks to be like a real uplifting show.
Wonder what Eric would have to say about this.
Cal Trans to clean up stormwater from 1000 miles of roadways
Posted by: Maven on January 23, 2008 at 6:19 pmFrom the Environment News Service:
Millions of gallons of polluted stormwater that runs off state highways each year will be kept out of Southern California waters and off the region’s beaches after two environmental groups and the California Department of Transportation came to an agreement in federal court on Friday.
The state agency, known as Caltrans, will reduce runoff from 1,000 miles of highway across Los Angeles and Ventura counties under the agreement with the Natural Resources Defense Council, NRDC, and Santa Monica Baykeeper.
“Highways are the backbone of Southern California’s economy, but they are also a major source of toxic pollution in our waterways,” said David Beckman, director of NRDC’s Coastal Water Quality Project and lead attorney for the plaintiff groups.
“Every rainstorm sends a toxic soup of oil, grease, lead and other dangerous ingredients that accumulate on our roads, rushing into Santa Monica Bay. This agreement means cleaner water and safer beaches for everyone in the region,” Beckman said.
Cal Trans will examine over 1000 miles of roadways, and come up with plans to clean them up by 2011. Why is this needed?
When fully implemented, the new measures are expected to keep more than millions of pounds of pollution out of area waters every year. Toxic metals like lead and zinc will be reduced by almost 24,000 pounds per year, the NRDC says.
When it rains currently, the stormwater drains off quickly, but the runoff is not filtered, so toxic metals, oil, grease and other contaminants on the pavement are carried into the region’s waters and eventually to the ocean. In an average year, the California Environmental Protection Agency says, more than six million gallons of oil run into California’s waters from roads and sidewalks. Tests of some Caltrans drains have revealed contamination that qualifies as hazardous waste.
David Beckman, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, had this to say about CalTrans:
“Polluted runoff is the number one water pollution problem in America,” said Beckman. “Caltrans deserves credit for blazing a pathway that other agencies and cities should now follow.”
To read the full text of this story from Environment News Service, click here.
NPR: Imperial Valley farmers still battling over Colorado River water
Posted by: Maven on January 23, 2008 at 7:44 am
From National Public Radio, this story about the Imperial Valley and the still-controversial QSA agreement. The Imperial Valley’s 400 farmers hold water rights to about 1/5th of the flow of the Colorado River, which irrigates about 500,000 acres of farmland. However, in 2003, the Imperial Irrigation District entered an agreement to sell about 10% of its water to San Diego, a move that has pitted farmer against farmer.
There is an issue over water rights, with some farmers believing that the individual farmers own the water rights, and others feeling that IID owns the water rights. The farmers pay $17 per acre foot for water from IID; IID is selling that water for over $300 per acre-foot to San Diego. Some farmers think that the individual farmers should be able to sell their water directly, if they choose to. Others say the in-fighting that would cause would destroy the community.
No transcript is available online at the time of posting, although it may be posted later on today; however, there is an audio link to listen to the broadcast. Click here.
Researchers warn that levee conditions in California are ‘the next big disaster waiting to happen’
Posted by: Maven on January 22, 2008 at 10:51 pmFrom Science Daily:
While flooding in California’s Central Valley is “the next big disaster waiting to happen,” water-related infrastructure issues confront almost every community across the country, according to engineers at the University of Maryland’s Clark School of Engineering in separate reports to California officials and in the journal Science.
An independent review panel chaired by Clark School Research Professor of Civil Engineering Gerald E. Galloway said the area between the Sacramento and San Joaquin river floodplains faces significant risk of floods that could lead to extensive loss of life and billions of dollars in damages. The panel’s report, “A California Challenge: Flooding in the Central Valley,” was commissioned by California’s Department of Water Resources.
The panel pointed out that many of the area’s levees, constructed over the past 150 years to protect communities and property in the Central Valley, were poorly built or placed on inadequate foundations. Climate change may increase the likelihood of floods and their resulting destruction. The panel recommends that state and local officials take swift action to reduce the risk to people and the environment.
The comprehensive flood-risk abatement strategy the panel recommends focuses on land-use planning and integration with other basin water management activities.
To read the full text of this article from the Science Daily, click here.
Picture of levee break courtesy of the Department of Water Resources.
World Economic Forum: water will be a main topic
Posted by: Maven on January 22, 2008 at 9:09 amThanks to Wes Rolley of California Greening for sending this to me. From J. Carl Ganter, posted on the Huffington Post:
The annual World Economic Forum kicks off Wednesday in Davos, and already there’s a buzz building about this year’s emerging focus on the global freshwater crisis. The Forum hosts seven sessions on water, from market mechanisms for pricing to the tragic health consequences of poor sanitation and dirty water. (Note: I’ll be reporting all week from Davos.)
In a prelude to the Forum, Klaus Schwab, its chairman, and Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, chairman of Nestle, today published a compelling op-ed argument for rapid response and a call for “an unprecedented, high-impact public-private coalition to find ways to manage our future water needs before the crisis hits.”
(See the full op-ed below.)
It will be interesting to monitor the outcomes. As my friend and colleague Peter Gleick notes, we can solve many of today’s water problems. “We know how,” he says. “It’s just not clear that we’re going to make the commitment.”
Will this be a week of commitments? Schwab and his colleagues seem determined to take the discussions to a higher level than before. Stay tuned.
Ganter lists the seven sessions on water being held at the forum, plus more. To read the full text of this post from J. Carl Ganter & the Huffington Post, click here.
Desalination: many companies think it’s a good investment
Posted by: Maven on January 22, 2008 at 7:03 amFrom Public Radio’s Marketplace:
Schools may be out for the holiday today, but here’s a pop quiz. Where does your tap water come from? If you didn’t immediately answer, you have company. Most of us take our drinking water for granted, but the smart money doesn’t. Predictions of drought and dwindling supplies are turning investors’ attention to the oceans as a reliable drinking source.
Desalination isn’t cheap, but as Sarah Gardner reports from the Marketplace Sustainability Desk, a host of companies are diving in.
JOHN F. KENNEDY: If we could ever competitively, at a cheap rate get fresh water from salt water, that it would be in the long-range interest of humanity, which would really dwarf any other scientific accomplishment.
SARAH GARDNER: Turns out John F. Kennedy wasn’t just intrigued with flying to the moon. He also poured federal dollars into finding an affordable way to de-salt ocean water. Turns out landing on the moon was easier.
TOM PANKRATZ: The biggest rap against desalination has been the energy requirements.
That’s Tom Pankratz, an industry consultant. He says flushing the salt out of ocean water still takes boatloads of energy. That’s why desalinated water costs at least three times more than water from traditional sources, and why it’s often seen as a technology of last resort for parched countries like Saudi Arabia or Israel — but that’s changing.
To read the rest of this story from Public Radio’s Marketplace, click here.
Photo of glass of water by flickr photographer youkeo. Click on the picture to visit the flickr website, where you can see lots of great pictures from this & other flickr photographers.
Delta fish crisis covered by High County News
Posted by: Maven on January 17, 2008 at 11:19 pmFrom High Country News:
Fish populations continue to tank in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, according to figures released last week by the California Department of Fish and Game. After tossing the trawl nets and tallying the numbers, the agency found a record low population of longfin smelt in the Pacific Coast’s largest estuary. Populations of Sacramento splittail, American shad, striped bass and the threatened Delta smelt also neared their lowest since the annual fall survey began in 1967.
“These data are just one more clear indication that the overall ecosystem of the Delta is in dire straits,” says Christina Swanson, senior scientist at The Bay Institute, a nonprofit that protects the San Francisco Bay. “Longfin and Delta smelt are teetering on the brink of extinction. They could be gone next year.”
The article notes the amount of water exported from the Delta to support California’s agriculture, but also notes that water exports are not the only problem:
“Clearly these data are confirming that we regularly take too much water out of the Delta and rivers,” says Swanson. The Bay Institute recommends that the state consider higher water efficiency, better management of groundwater, and water recycling to ease Delta demand.
Other problems threaten the Delta’s fish as well. Non-native species, such as the overbite clam, tend to out-compete natives and create less suitable habitat for them. Additionally, the water contains unhealthy levels of herbicides and pesticides from upstream agriculture and ammonia from sewage.
Habitat loss is another important factor in the Delta. Over the past 150 years, most of its marshes and waters have been leveed, drained and rerouted for agricultural and urban development.
To read the full text of this story from High County News, click here. The page also has many links to previous High Country News articles on Delta issues.
Picture of Sacramento River Water Intake by flickr photographer 1flatworld. Click on the picture to visit the flickr website and see more great pictures for this & other flickr photographers.
Southern Nevada Water Authority reaches agreement with Moapa Indians, removing another obstacle to pipeline project
Posted by: Maven on January 16, 2008 at 6:44 amThe Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) finalized an agreement Wednesday with the Moapa Band of Paiute Indians (Tribe) resolving the Tribe’s protests related to the SNWA’s request to draw upon untapped groundwater supplies within Cave, Delamar and Dry Lake valleys in Lincoln County. This accord comes on the heels of an agreement reached earlier this week between the SNWA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs and National Park Service.
“The Moapa Band of Paiute Indians wanted assurances that our pumping would not harm their existing water rights,” said SNWA Deputy General Manager Kay Brothers. “Given our commitment to responsible groundwater development, we were happy to agree to terms that provide that security.”
The SNWA’s applications in the three basins total 34,752 acre-feet per year. A portion of any water permitted to the SNWA by the Nevada State Engineer in those basins will be transferred to Lincoln County under a separate agreement. In addition to the Tribe’s groundwater rights — which are within the same flow system but not in the Cave, Delamar or Dry Lake hydrographic basins — it holds a lease for surface water rights to the Muddy River, as well as additional groundwater applications pending before the Nevada State Engineer. The Tribe also has claims to federally reserved water rights pursuant to a settlement agreement that is awaiting federal approval.
Under the agreement, the SNWA agreed to several measures should the Tribe’s water rights be harmed, including but not limited to reducing or ceasing groundwater withdrawals, augmenting regional groundwater tables or other mutually agreeable actions. The SNWA also agreed that while the Tribe is not a party to the recent agreement with the federal agencies, the SNWA will share access to data, reports and other analyses related to the basins being monitored as part of that accord.
With those assurances in hand, the Tribe agreed to withdraw its protest to the SNWA’s applications at the upcoming water rights hearing before the Nevada State Engineer, scheduled to begin Feb. 4.
The Drying of the West: National Geographic covers the western drought, and what it all may mean
Posted by: Maven on January 15, 2008 at 9:40 amFrom National Geographic, here is an article on droughts, tree ring data, and the effects on the west. It’s a great read, worth the click through. It is very hard to excerpt it properly, so here are some snippets:
The Colorado supplies 30 million people in seven states and Mexico with water. Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, Los Angeles, and San Diego all depend on it, and starting this year so will Albuquerque. It irrigates four million acres of farmland, much of which would otherwise be desert, but which now produces billions of dollars’ worth of crops. Gauges first installed in the 19th century provide a measure of the flow of the river in acre-feet, one acre-foot being a foot of water spread over an acre, or about 326,000 gallons. Today the operation of the pharaonic infrastructure that taps the Colorado—the dams and reservoirs and pipelines and aqueducts—is based entirely on data from those gauges. In 2002 water managers all along the river began to wonder whether that century of data gave them a full appreciation of the river’s eccentricities. With the lawns dying in Denver, a water manager there asked Woodhouse: How often has it been this dry?
The article talks in-depth about tree ring data – how it is done, and what it all means.
The wet 20th century, the wettest of the past millennium, the century when Americans built an incredible civilization in the desert, is over. Trees in the West are adjusting to the change, and not just in the width of their annual rings: In the recent drought they have been dying off and burning in wildfires at an unprecedented rate. For most people in the region, the news hasn’t quite sunk in. Between 2000 and 2006 the seven states of the Colorado basin added five million people, a 10 percent population increase. Subdivisions continue to sprout in the desert, farther and farther from the cities whose own water supply is uncertain. Water managers are facing up to hard times ahead. “I look at the turn of the century as the defining moment when the New West began,” says Pat Mulroy, head of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. “It’s like the impact of global warming fell on us overnight.”
Climate change models predict that the native vegetation will change as the climate warms and precipitation patterns change:
Over the next few decades, Allen predicts, people in the Southwest will be seeing a lot of death in the old landscapes while waiting for the new ones to be born. “This is a dilemma for the Park Service,” he says. “The projections are that Joshua trees may not survive in Joshua Tree National Park. Sequoias may not survive in Sequoia National Park. What do you do? Do you irrigate these things? Or do you let a 2,000-year-old tree die?”
While the trees die, the subdivisions proliferate. “Our job was to entice people to move to the West, and we did a darn good job,” says Terry Fulp, who manages water releases at Hoover Dam. The federal Bureau of Reclamation built the dam in the 1930s primarily to supply the vegetable farms of the Imperial Valley and only secondarily to supply the residents of Los Angeles. Farmers had first claim to the water—they still do—but there was plenty to go around. “At Lake Mead, we basically gave the water away,” says Fulp. “At the time, it made perfect sense. There was no one out here.” After Reclamation built Hoover and the other big dams, more people came to the desert than anyone ever expected. Few of them are farmers anymore, and farming, crucial as it is to human welfare, is now a small part of the economy. But it still uses around three-quarters of the water in the Colorado River and elsewhere in the Southwest.
An interesting and yet somewhat discomforting read. To read the full text of this article from National Geographic, click here.
Oceans on tap: Is desalination the answer to water scarcity?
Posted by: Maven on January 15, 2008 at 8:41 amFrom AlterNet:
El Paso, Texas, cut the ribbon in August 2007 on the largest inland desalination plant in the world, which mostly benefited the city’s Fort Bliss army outpost, which is expanding to accommodate the nation’s already depleted military forces. A joint Israeli venture is building a plant for drought-stricken Australia, and Bahrain, awash in oil income and undergoing a construction boom also sweeping other countries in the Middle East, is fielding offers for a massive plant to cope with its rising water needs. India is commissioning General Electric to study the possibility, and the list goes on. “A number of private companies are proposing more than two dozen ocean desalination plants for the coast of California alone,” added Hauter. “Most of these proposed plants are near the last remaining open-space corridors where the lack of water has limited development.”
The article points out that the Tampa Bay desalination facility has not produced water as promised, but nonetheless, desalination plants are moving forward. The article notes that this is happening in areas where there is lots of cash, not necessarily thirsty people.
“Even with current plans to triple global production, including nuclear-powered desalination plants, this technology cannot meet the demand for fresh water in the world,” Barlow asserted. “This is partly because desalination is a very expensive technology, which is why these plants are found in Saudi Arabia and Israel but not Africa, and partly because humans are destroying our freshwater heritage faster than any technology can catch. Governments and corporations are embracing desalination as if it is some kind of savior, which is understandable for the private sector: There is a great deal of money to be made from blue gold. But it is a huge problem that governments are not stepping back and looking at this so-called miracle solution with more scrutiny.”
Recently, it was reported that the acidity of the ocean is rising. The article discusses this, pointing out that the current desalination plants have not taken this into consideration.
“As a serious answer to the global water crisis, desalination is not the answer,” Barlow concluded. “The plants are polluting behemoths, use an incredible amount of energy, add to our climate crisis, and produce toxic brine that kills aquatic life for miles.”
Hauter agrees. “Rather than solving water scarcity issues, desalination is an expensive technology that has the potential to cause many unintended consequences. Instead, we should be taking the proactive steps to stop polluting, diverting and wasting water.” And while conservation and more efficient, conscientious management of the water we have left may not be as sexy an option for capitalists and technologists, it is so far the most inexpensive and least dangerous proposition on the table. “We are actually destroying the hydrologic cycle with our mismanagement” Barlow warned. And you can add desalination, at least in the near term, to that very long list of bad management plans.
To read the full text of this article from AlterNet, click here.
Photo by flickr photographer youkeo. Click on the picture to check out more photos from the flickr website. No registration required!
Friday’s odds and ends early!
Posted by: Maven on January 15, 2008 at 7:49 amYes, I know it’s a little early in the week, but I have some interesting stuff accumulating on my desktop, figured I’d just go ahead and post it now …
The WaterCrunch blog has a post showing ads for water conservation, including the sucessful “Be a Water Saving Hero” ads from the Bay Area that feature everyday people conserving water. They have been credited with reducing demand by 13%. Check out this post on watercrunch by clicking here. Also, check out the “Be a Water Saving Hero” website by clicking here – what a great campaign!
Head buried in the sand in regards to climate change? I was jaw-droppingly shocked when my father told me at Thanksgiving that climate change was just a bunch of baloney – words of course cleaned up for this G-rated blog. Rising sea levels, polar ice sheets melting, all of that a bunch of bunk, he says. Now, I have heard people argue, er, debate whether or not climate change was being caused by humans or not, but I was unaware there was still a segment out there that didn’t think climate change was happening at all. Michael Campana over at the WaterWired blog was curious about this, so he has a post about climate change skepticism & the ostrich syndrome. Check it out by clicking here.
Hey water districts! This blogger feels your pain. I liked this post from the From the Archives blog about the difficulties that face water district officials – you know, the ones who actually have to tell the people that there isn’t enough water to go around. Megan writes: Water districts don’t have a lot of the authority to make the changes they want. They aren’t the first line of land-use decision-making; all they can do is inform the county planning commission about their supplies. They can’t directly regulate customer water use. They can raise prices, but only to cover their own costs. They aren’t allowed to make a profit; most water district bylaws forbid that. The district boards are elected from the district. Even necessary price increases can cost directors their seats. They can’t refuse to serve people that are already in the district. If they have any excess water, they are obligated to serve new customers who ask for district service. They have very little direct authority to make people use less water. They also don’t have much power to get more water. They can’t grow new rivers. They can try to buy from a wholesaler, but even the big wholesalers are just about fully committed and expecting cutbacks. They can try to look for unconventional new sources, like buying from ag in northern California. That is so complex as to be barely possible. It may be their only option, but it is not an easy one. Check out the From the Archives blog by clicking here.
Winning the Water Infrastructure Battle is the title of this post from a blog called “Permanent Water”, which cites a new report called “6 Strategies for Success” in dealing with the $276 billion investment in water & wastewater infrastructure that will be needed over the next 20 years. This post summarizes the report, and provides a link where you can get a copy (for a price). Check out this post from the Permanent Water blog by clicking here.
More investment news regarding the water sector. Here’s a blog, Energy and Capital, which discusses an innovative technology being used in Africa. He’s not really pushing any particular stock that I can tell, but again, as always, no endorsement implied or given. You can check out the Energy and Capital blog by clicking here.
In regards to the Delta, we Californian “consensus wimps” could learn a thing or two from Holland
Posted by: Maven on January 14, 2008 at 10:48 pmFrom NPR’s All Things Considered, here’s a story about climate change, flood risk, and how we can learn a thing or two from our counterparts in Holland. From the article, which first gives background information (the Holland part comes later):
California’s water problems are largely focused in an area called the Sacramento Delta. It’s a flood-prone triangle of land just northeast of the San Francisco Bay area. Climate change is going to make flooding worse, but deciding on a plan to do something won’t be easy. Part of the reason is that there are a lot of federal agencies with opinions.
Phil Isenberg, a veteran California politician, has tracked water issues for decades. According to Isenberg, between federal agencies and state agencies, “any decision that gets taken in the delta in one sense or another involves over 200 different government agencies.”
There are also environmentalists, agribusiness companies, developers and cities in the mix, all at odds about what to do. Jeffrey Mount, a geologist at the University of California, Davis, says California can’t possibly make everyone happy.
“You have this situation in California where we are a bunch of consensus wimps,” says Mount. “And frankly this is one of those problems where there’ll be winners and losers, and we’re never going to come up with consensus in this.”
Mount says building higher walls to keep back the flood waters won’t work. It would be ruinously expensive and is probably not the way to keep up with the sea level rise climate change is bringing. In considering solutions, California could benefit from the example of the Netherlands.
“They’re actually cognizant that they’re on a trajectory of change. And they’re trying to adapt to that change. Rather than simply trying to make it work for today, they’re trying to make it work for tomorrow as well,” Mount says. “We haven’t got there yet.”
To read the rest of this story from NPR’s All Things Considered, click here.
Schwarzenegger the “Fish Slasher” Proposes DFG Budget Cuts, Closing Parks
Posted by: Maven on January 14, 2008 at 2:39 pmBy Dan Bacher:
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has always styled himself as the “action hero,” but he is looking more like a bad actor in a bloody slasher/horror movie, based on his proposed budget cuts to the Department of Fish and Game, California State Parks and the State EPA.
Schwarzenegger, after calling for support for his $9 billion water bond to bail out corporate agribusiness in his “state of the state” address on January 8, announced a proposed budget cut of $2.6 million in the Department of Fish and Game’s budget on January 10. This fall of the budget ax would reduce 38 Fish and Game warden positions. “We are facing a very tough situation, but with tough times come historic opportunities,” said Schwarznegger upon announcing his budget cuts. “I am convinced the legislature will help turn today’s temporary problem into a permanent victory for the people of California by joining me to enact true budget reform.
What is the Governor thinking? If he is going to slash the already besieged DFG’s budget like this, drastically reducing the number of wardens in the field to supposedly save some money, why is he calling on the taxpayers to indebt their children’s children’s children with a fiscally irrresponsible water bond that includes two new dams and the peripheral canal?
If he wants to slash the Department’s budget so much, wouldn’t it make sense for him to issue an executive order to suspend the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) process until there is money to enforce the existing and future no-fishing zones? How will MPAs be enforced when an already demoralized and underfunded department is eviscerated by his budget cuts? Continue reading “Schwarzenegger the “Fish Slasher” Proposes DFG Budget Cuts, Closing Parks” »
NPR: Story on Delta highlights the many challenges and viewpoints to fixing the critical issues
Posted by: Maven on January 14, 2008 at 9:45 amFrom NPR’s Morning Edition:
If you’ve never heard of the Sacramento Delta, you’re not alone. Even people who live in California aren’t too sure where it is. But the Sacramento Delta is crucial to the health of the state, and climate change is threatening the delta’s very existence.
The Sacramento Delta is a small triangle of land just inland from the San Francisco Bay Area. It’s where the fresh water from California’s major rivers and the salt water from the Pacific Ocean meet. More than 20 million Californians get some of their drinking water from the delta. It also provides much of the water for California’s huge agribusiness.
But rising sea levels threaten to turn the delta into a salty marsh, contaminating all that freshwater and flooding the homes and farms of delta residents.
“The delta of today is not sustainable even under today’s conditions, never mind climate change,” says geologist Jeffrey Mount.
Here’s the problem. On one side of the delta is saltwater from the ocean. On the other side is freshwater coming down from California’s mountain. And in the middle is the low-lying delta land, much of it below sea level. About 1,100 miles of earthen walls called levees keep the land dry, and keep the salt- and freshwater from mixing. The situation is shaky now, and it’s going to get worse. With climate change, sea level will rise, and there will be more rain and less snow in the mountains. That means there will be more water in the rivers.
Engineer Jay Lund says something has to be done, because he’s certain of what will happen if nothing is done. “The levees will fall down, the saltwater will come in, and you will not be able to pump water from the delta,” he says. And that means the freshwater Californians depend on could be lost.
“The forces arrayed against those levees are inexorable,” Mount adds. “They will inevitably go.”
Fixing the problems in the Delta has no easy answers, and there seems to be obstacles to any solution. A great article, worth the click through. To read the rest of this story from NPR, click here.
Picture of boat in the Delta by flickr photographer clairity. Click on the picture to visit the flickr website and see more great photos by this & other flickr photographers.
The picture of the levee break is courtesy of the Department of Water Resources. I’m sorry it’s so big, for some reason, can’t make it smaller this morning. Must need more coffee.
Delta wetlands project builds up soil and stores carbon
Posted by: Maven on January 14, 2008 at 9:32 amFrom Environmental Research Web:
Researchers looking to stem land subsidence in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta – a former tidal wetland in California that was drained for agriculture from the mid-nineteenth century onwards – have come up with a technique that can also sequester carbon.
The team from the US Geological Survey (USGS) California Water Science Center reckons that the method could sequester around 3 tons (US) of carbon per acre each year. If implemented over the whole 1,150 square miles of the Delta, that would be equivalent to storing the emissions of all the electricity used for residential air conditioning in California.
The technique works by flooding the Delta’s peat soil to a depth of roughly half a metre. This water prevents oxygen from reaching the ground so that when the bulrush and reed species growing there die, they decompose very slowly. The resulting mat of degradation-resistant organic material gradually increases in size, raising the ground level by 1.5 to 2 inches a year and storing carbon. Without the technique, land in the region typically sinks by one to three inches a year as the organic carbon in the peat soils decomposes through microbial oxidation.
To read the full text of this story from the Environmental Research Web, click here.
Photo of tule at Twitchell Island by USGS.
“When Harry met Vegas” or How Senator Reid has aided Las Vegas’s runaway growth
Posted by: Maven on January 14, 2008 at 9:26 amFrom Conde Nast Portfolio Magazine:
Harry Reid, the Democrats’ Senate leader, is a darling of national environmentalists. But in his home state of Nevada, where runaway growth portends a ruinous water crisis, Reid is an enabler for developers and pit miners—and a desert ecosystem is at stake.
In a city running out of water, massive housing projects rise in clouds of dust on the outer reaches of the Las Vegas Valley like stucco ramparts built by some demented desert king. Just over the hills to the east, Lake Mead, which is on the Colorado River, the area’s main water source, is literally drying up. Runaway population growth and a historic drought have rendered the nation’s largest reservoir a virtual drainage ditch, down to a skeletal 48 percent of capacity. Yet construction in Las Vegas continues unabated. The city’s latest megaproject is a master-planned “sustainable community” of 16,000 homes—anchored by a high-rise “neighborhood” casino—to be built about 15 miles northwest of the Las Vegas Strip, at the gateway to beloved Mount Charleston, part of the region’s only national forest.
The method to this head-in-the-sand madness has its roots in faraway Washington, D.C., in a plan quietly aided by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. (View slideshow.) In 2004, with the water level at Lake Mead plummeting and panic setting in that Las Vegas might actually need to curtail its blistering growth, Nevada’s senior senator helped to push through a reprieve. He co-sponsored a law granting the Southern Nevada Water Authority a free right-of-way on federal land to pipe groundwater into Las Vegas from central Nevada, hundreds of miles away. The $3 billion plumbing plan would tap the Great Basin aquifer, a vast underground sink that runs from Death Valley, in California, across central Nevada and into western Utah. Think Muammar Qaddafi and his Great Man-Made River Project in the Libyan Sahara, or Roman Polanski’s Chinatown, the 1974 film based on what happened when a similarly thirsty Los Angeles turned California’s Owens Valley into a dust bowl a century ago. As the Great Basin’s groundwater is drained, desert springs and seeps will dry up, endemic plants and wildlife will die off, and farms and ranches will wither away, according to several scientists who have studied the plan. Eventually, the aquifer, which took millennia to fill, will run out, like other Nevada mother lodes mined into oblivion. What then for Las Vegas, whose civic boosters won’t accept that the driest desert in North America isn’t the best place for another million people in addition to the nearly 2 million already there?
To read the full text of this story from Conde Naste Portfolio, click here.
Biotech industry seeks to develop more drought-tolerant crops
Posted by: Maven on January 13, 2008 at 11:26 pmFrom Australia’s “The Age” website:
Outside the headquarters of Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc, the pavement is iced over and workers arriving for the day are bundled up against the cold. But inside a laboratory, a warm, man-made drought is in force, curling the leaves of rows of fledgling corn plants as million-dollar machines and scientists in white coats monitor their distress.
This work is part of a global race pitting Pioneer, Monsanto Co and other biotech companies against each other in a race to develop new strains of corn and other crops that can thrive when water is in short supply. “Equipping plants to be able to maintain productivity in the driest years is of critical importance,” said Bill Niebur, global vice president for research and development at Pioneer, a division of DuPont. “Drought is a global problem and we recognise the threat that comes with climate change. We’ve got our top talent in our organisation working on this.”
This line of research has been underway for years, but it has taken on added urgency as scientists predict a trend of worsening drought and hotter temperatures around the globe. Water shortages are already costing billions of dollars a year in crop shortfalls around the world, and are likely to grow more costly, according to academic and government forecasters.
To read the rest of this article from Australia’s “The Age” news website, click here.
NPR Story: Reports of 11 feet of snow from the recent storm were overblown
Posted by: Maven on January 11, 2008 at 11:11 pmFrom NPR, a story on the recent Sierra storms. Only a synopsis of the story is posted; but there is a link to hear the broadcast of the story. In it, Dave Hart from the Department of Water Resources says that media coverage of the recent storms claiming 11 feet of snow were overblown; “not that huge”, says Dave. However, he does say we’re in good shape right now, but it’s the next 6 to 8 weeks that will tell the story.
Check it out by clicking here.
Friday’s odds and ends ….
Posted by: Maven on January 11, 2008 at 2:36 pmOkay, going to clear out my story queue and post up these miscellaneous odds and ends… oh where to start?
U.S. Cities Find New Sources of Drinking Water! The Onion (this should be your first clue) has posted a list of proposals for increasing water supplies in various cities, with such ground-breaking suggestions, such as Passing legislation mandating that people be composed of only 45 percent water, or requiring a doctor’s prescription to buy bottled water. How about a little water humor for today? You can check it out here on this WaterWired post. He’s added a few of his own suggestions….
Want to know how much your “water footprint” is? Check out this H2O calculator! Click here for the water calculator.
Looking for a way to profit from the water situation? Invest in water rights, says this blogger, who has written a piece about water rights, the southwest, and the emerging water market. Click here to check out “Investing in Water Rights”. (Note: no endorsement given or implied.)
Some new water blogs to check out. Here is a blog that is more about national and international water issues, despite that at first glance it looks like a commercial website. Well, actually it is, but this section is a blog which highlights interesting water issues from around the globe. Click here to check out the Water Secrets blog. And while you’re looking around at other blogs, check out Coyote Gulch blog. It has the same mission as Aquafornia – providing news and information about Colorado’s water supply. Click here to check out the Coyote Gulch blog.
Have a great weekend!
Restore the Delta posts report, A Water Plan for the 21st Century: Regional Self-Sufficiency Scenario
Posted by: Maven on January 11, 2008 at 8:00 amFrom the Restore the Delta website:
As mentioned in our December post, Restore the Delta is releasing its Healthy Delta Communities Plan throughout 2008.
In today’s post, we are featuring a special report authored by Tom Zuckerman, an attorney with the Central Delta Water Agency and resident expert on the California Delta and California water needs. Mr. Zuckerman’s A Water Plan for the 21st Century: Regional Self-Sufficiency Scenario is the substance behind Restore the Delta’s assertions that the restoration of floodplains could significantly increase water storage during rainy periods which could then be drawn on during dry periods for agricultural use.
Such water management practices and storage options would not only help to reduce current levels of water exports, which ironically increase when the Delta needs the water the most, but such programs would also improve reserves and delivery of water for agriculture use in dry periods. We believe that the implementation of Mr. Zuckerman’s plan could be an important component of innovative water management practices that would protect the Delta’s ecosystem and save the state the multi-billion dollar expense of building a peripheral conveyance system.
To read a copy of the report or for more information, click here to visit the Restore the Delta – Healthy Delta Communities page.
DFG considering uplisting Delta smelt from “threatened” to “endangered”; seeking public comment
Posted by: Maven on January 11, 2008 at 7:13 amFrom IndyBay.org:
Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail, American shad and juvenile striped bass populations on the California Delta continue their downward decline, according to the results of the fall midwater trawl survey released by the Department of Fish and Game on Wednesday, January 8.
The Department of Fish and Game (DFG) is now requesting data and comments on a petition to uplist Delta smelt under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA) from “threatened” to “endangered,” according to Marty Gingras, Supervising Biologist of the DFG Bay Delta Region (209) 948-3702.
The Bay Institute, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Natural Resources Defense Council filed the petition in April 2007, arguing that an uplisting of the fish was needed as the fish hovers on the edge of extinction. The California Fish and Game Commission is considering the petition to uplist the species.
The Delta smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus) is a small native 2 to 3 inch fish listed as threatened under both CESA and the Federal Endangered Species Act. It is regarded as an indicator species that shows the health of the Bay-Delta Estuary.
Delta smelt, once the most abundant fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, live only in the Delta. Because the fish is listed as threatened under CESA, California law already prohibits take of Delta smelt unless authorized by DFG.
To read the rest of this story from IndyBay.org, click here.
ACWA Applauds Governor’s Focus on Water: State budget proposal shows commitment to fix Delta, improve water system
Posted by: Maven on January 11, 2008 at 7:00 amFrom Business Wire:
The Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) today applauded Governor Schwarzenegger’s call for improvements to the state’s water system and a comprehensive solution for the Delta as part of his proposed state budget for 2008-’09.
“We commend the governor for keeping water issues high on the radar even as the state faces major budget challenges,” ACWA Executive Director Timothy Quinn said. “Nearly every day there are new signs that the Delta and our water system are in crisis, and the current budget shortfall will not make that crisis go away. We can’t wait to address our water problems – there is too much at stake for the environment and our economy.”
As part of his Strategic Growth Plan for the state, the governor proposed an $11.9 billion bond measure to fund investments in the state’s water system, improve Delta sustainability, restore key ecosystems and expand water use efficiency efforts.
“ACWA is pleased to see the governor’s commitment to move forward with a comprehensive approach to water that includes investments in local resources, improvements in our water system and restoration of the Delta’s ecosystem. In particular, we are pleased that the governor remains committed to improving Delta conveyance and investing in additional groundwater and surface water storage,” Quinn said.
“ACWA stands ready to work with the administration, the Legislature and all interested parties to make these investments as part of a comprehensive water package.”
ACWA is a statewide association of public agencies whose 450 members are responsible for about 90% of the water delivered in California. For more information, visit www.acwa.com.
Long Beach sets another record low for water use
Posted by: Maven on January 9, 2008 at 10:56 pmFrom Business Wire:
Today, Bill Townsend, President of the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners, announced that Long Beach has hit yet another record low for water consumption, this time for December. Water use in December was 5 percent below the lowest use for any December in the last decade and 10 percent lower than the 10-year-average. For the 1st Quarter of FY2008 (Oct-Dec), Long Beach is trending nearly 8 percent lower than the 10-year-average, and is trending nearly 3 percent lower than the previous 10-year-low. In December of 2002, the previous record low, Long Beach received over 6-inches of rainfall, as opposed to December 2007′s less than 1-inch.
On September 13th, the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners issued a Declaration of Imminent Water Supply Shortage and activated the City’s Emergency Water Supply Shortage Plan. As a result, the Board has issued mandatory prohibitions on certain uses of water. “The Board took the action it did to lessen the impact of an expected water supply shortage,” according to Bill Townsend. “Long Beach will be among the very best prepared cities in southern California to deal with a regional water supply shortage. We are very encouraged by the response we are getting from our community and are hopeful others in southern California will join the effort.”
Read the media release, HERE (http://www.lbwater.org/pdf/PressReleases/01-09-08PR.pdf)
Review citywide illegal water uses, HERE (http://www.lbwater.org/pdf/conservation/wateruseprohib.pdf)
Learn more by visiting www.lbwater.org.
Picture of Long Beach from the Bureau of Reclamation photo gallery.
Aquafornia's Information Desk
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | |||
Click here for full-sized calendar
Aquafornia's Photos on Flickr
Aquafornia's Mission
Aquafornia's mission is to educate readers about the complex and often controversial issues surrounding water in California.
Aquafornia is affiliated with the Water Education Foundation, an impartial, nonprofit organization, whose mission is to create a better understanding of water resources and foster public understanding and resolution of water resource issues through facilitation, education and outreach.
E-mail Newsletter
To receive email announcements from the Water Education Foundation, sign up here.
Web Resources
Agriculture
Climate Change & Water
Conservation
Current Conditions
Delta & SF Bay Resources
- Bay Delta Developments
- Bay Institute
- Bay-Delta Conservation Plan
- Delta Atlas
- Delta Protection Commission
- Delta Stewardship Council
- Delta Vision Foundation
- Delta WaterMaster
- Discover the Delta Foundation
- Restore the Delta
- San Francisco Bay and Delta (Access USGS)
- San Francisco Baykeeper
- San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science website
- San Francisco Estuary Partnership
Employment & Water
Environmental Organizations
Fishing Blogs/Organizations
Investing & Water
Landscaping
Legal Blogs
Legislative Committees - State & Federal
- California State Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife
- California State Senate Committee on Natural Resources & Water
- House Natural Resource Committee, Water & Power Subcommittee
- New State Water Legislation Mandates (KMTG)
- Senate Commitee on Environment & Public Works, Water and Wildlife Subcommittee
- The California Channel
Los Angeles River
Maven's Other Websites
News
Public Policy Organizations
Regional Water Associations
Salton Sea
Stormwater & Flood Control
Water Agencies
- ACWA – Association of California Water Agencies
- Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency
- Contra Costa Water District
- East Bay Municipal Utility District
- Imperial Irrigation District
- Kern County Water Agency
- Long Beach Water Department
- Los Angeles Department of Water & Power
- Metropolitan Water District
- Municipal Water District of Orange County
- San Diego County Water Authority
- Santa Clara Valley Water District
- Sonoma County Water Agencies
- South San Joaquin Irrigation District
- State Water Contractors
- West Basin Municipal Water District
- Westlands Water District
Water Agencies - State & Federal
Water Blogs
- ACWA's Voices in Water blog
- Aguanomics
- Alex Breitler's Blog
- American Water Resources Assn. Blog
- Barry Nelson at the NRDC Switchboard
- Bay Delta Blog
- California Water Blog
- California Water Wars blog
- Chance of Rain
- Chronicles of the Hydraulic Brotherhood
- Delta National Park Blog
- EDF's On The Waterfront
- Greed, Green & Grains
- Green Roots Blog (PCL)
- GrokSurf's San Diego blog
- Inkstain – jfleck
- Klam Blog
- L. A. Creek Freak
- On the Public Record
- Peter Gleick’s City Brights blog
- Restore the Delta's blog
- Southern California Water Committee Blog
- Spouting Off – Mark Gold of Heal the Bay
- State of the Planet Blog
- The California Spigot
- Thirsty in Suburbia
- Tom Philp's Blog
- Valley Economy Blog
- Water Cooler Blog
- Water Librarian's Blog
- Water SISWEB
- Waterblogged (Shawn McKinnon)
- Watering the Desert
- WaterWired
Water Information
News Article Archives
- Agriculture
- Aquafornia News & Exclusives
- Central Valley Project
- Climate change & water supply
- Conservation
- Delta Issues
- Desalination
- Development & Population
- Drinking Water & Bottled Water
- Drought Tolerant Landscaping
- Drought, Weather & Snowpack
- Energy & Water
- Events
- Flood Control/Stormwater
- General Water Issues
- Groundwater
- History
- Indian Water Rights
- Infrastructure
- Innovative Ideas
- International Water Issues
- Invasive Plants & Species
- Investing in water
- Legislation – State & Federal
- Levees
- National water news
- Oceans & Beaches
- People in the News
- Politics of Water
- Recycled Water
- Regional Water Issues
- San Joaquin River Restoration
- State Water Project (DWR)
- Storage and supply
- Transfers
- Uncategorized
- Water Agency News
- Water Banking
- Water Quality
- Water Rights
- Weird & Wacky Water News
- Wildlife & Endangered Species