Dwindling water supplies: political leaders need to get moving on solutions, says commentary
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 31, 2008 at 12:29 pmFrom the Western Farm Press, this commentary by Richard Comett, Communications Director of the Western Plant Health Association:
One has to wonder these days just exactly what it’s going to take to get more water storage in California — empty faucets?
This state of 38 million thirsty Californians continues to teeter on disaster as the likelihood of global warming and actual drought conditions promise to make water a more precious commodity than oil.
While Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger continue talks on a state water bond to be placed on this November’s ballot, legislative water solutions remain beyond arm’s reach as the problem mounts. Feinstein has long pushed for state money for dams, parting ways with other leading Democrats who have strongly opposed using public money to pay for surface water storage. To the senator’s credit, she has called for a “comprehensive solution” that would include money for dams and groundwater storage, as well as repairs to the deteriorating Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Meanwhile, while Feinstein and Schwarzenegger are busy crafting some kind of water bill for the fall, a proposal sponsored by the California Chamber of Commerce and other business and farm groups is gathering names to place an $11.7 billion water bond initiative on the ballot. Among the water projects is $3.5 billion set aside for dams. The group has until July 14 to collect 433,971 valid signatures from voters.
I realize that it is hard to get worked up about water shortage concerns when the ground is saturated from the several recent storms we’ve had in California, but when I speak with my association members the subject of water storage remains a hot topic that members consider a top priority. And, of course, they too are scratching their heads over the stalled negotiations.
The commentary urges political leaders to get moving on solutions to the water crisis, before the effects become serious and more widespread. You can read the rest of this commentary posted on the Western Farm Press by clicking here.
Blogger finds 1989 draft report of Southern Nevada Water Authority pipeline project; document “has lots of ugly implications for the environment, the economies and the governments of rural Nevada”
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 31, 2008 at 12:18 pmFrom Rake’s Green Vegas Blog:
Hey, remember how the Southern Nevada Water Authority bought up just about every ranch in White Pine County’s huge Spring Valley and claimed that it was doing so to “manage” groundwater levels? And remember how we thought that was a lot of cowflop because the SNWA doesn’t do anything if it doesn’t serve the interests of the Las Vegas developers who call the shots?
Well, funny enough, I found a document last week that dates way back to the antediluvian days of 1989. It appears to be the first draft of the study of the impacts of the Southern Nevada Water Grab, and lays out a road map for the exportation of many billions of water from the rurals to the urban area.
The study notes that if the state Water Engineer denies a large portion of the SNWA request (then under the auspices of the Las Vegas Valley Water District) the agency will buy up ranches and take the water anyway in what the authors call “water ranching.”
“In the event the District (the SNWA) is unable to win approval of enough of it’s (sic) applied for water, outright purchase of existing water rights within Lincoln, Nye, Clark and White Pine counties is another vehicle available to acquire enough water to meet the anticipated needs of Las Vegas,” it says.
Find out more of what this blogger has to say about this by clicking here.
California’s agricultural output tops most nations
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 31, 2008 at 5:32 am
From the Fresno Bee:
So, what’s the big deal about this farming stuff in California, anyway? Let’s put it this way: If California were a country, its agricultural output would rank fifth to ninth in the world, ahead of countries like Canada, Mexico and Spain.
Those are among facts contained in the unpublished report “Agriculture’s Role in the Economy,” by the University of California Agricultural Issues Center. It can be found on the Web at www.aic.ucdavis.edu.
The report is intended as the fifth chapter in a forthcoming book, “The Measure of California Agriculture.” Center staff posted it online so other researchers and policy analysts can begin to use the data right away.
“California agriculture is large, diverse, complex and dynamic,” said center director Daniel Sumner, a professor of agricultural and resource economics at UC Davis. “It contributes significantly to the economies of the state and nation.”
The report found that California farms and related processing industries generate 7.3% of the state’s private-sector jobs and account for 5.6% of labor income. The calculations include ripple effects. They are based on an analysis of data from the 2002 U.S. Census of Agriculture, the most recent one available.
Read the rest of this article from the Fresno Bee by clicking here. Read the report from U.C. Davis by clicking here.
Scientists breeding smelt in case the species goes extinct in the Delta
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 31, 2008 at 5:18 amFrom the Sacramento Bee:
Inside a makeshift collection of modified shipping containers lined up on a patch of asphalt, a system of gurgling pipes and buckets holds the Delta’s future. Or, at least, one future. These faded steel boxes house the beginnings of a new refuge population of threatened Delta smelt. The fish, only finger-length at adulthood, could be used one day to restore the population if their wild kin go extinct.
Unfortunately, extinction is all too likely after five years of steep population declines for the smelt and four other fish species in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. All are known as “pelagic” fish because they live in the Delta’s moving water column.
Scientists have been unable to explain the decline, much less solve it. So the refuge smelt are intended as a last-ditch effort to save the species, long considered a bellwether for the health of the estuary as a whole. If the smelt disappear, scientists believe, other species will follow, along with a decline in water quality that could make Delta water undrinkable for the 25 million Californians who depend on it.
Smelt, in other words, are the lead car in an ecological train that’s in danger of derailing. “It’s bigger than smelt,” said Bradd Baskerville-Bridges, a marine biologist and co-director of the UC Davis Fish Conservation and Culture Laboratory, where the smelt are being raised. “It’s affecting all the pelagic species right now, and there’s no easy solution.”
Read the rest of this article from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.
Report details alternatives to Colorado River water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 31, 2008 at 5:07 amFrom the Las Vegas Review Journal:
The ideas range from tearing out thirsty groves of salt cedar to towing icebergs down from the Arctic, from seeding clouds over the Rockies to filtering salt from seawater. When it comes to squeezing every drop from the shrinking sponge of the Colorado River, few options, it seems, are too complicated or expensive.
A new report examines 12 ideas for augmenting the river’s flow, and not even the most audacious of the plans — importing icebergs, for example — has been rejected out of hand.
Bill Rinne, director of surface water resources for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said he took two things away from the report: All options are still on the table, and none of them seem to provide the perfect solution. “I don’t see a real silver bullet,” he said.The report, paid for by the Southern Nevada Water Authority and compiled by an outside panel of experts, was delivered to Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne last week. Water managers in the seven Western states that share the Colorado will use the findings to help them decide which of the 12 options to pursue first and when. Rinne said he expects those talks to begin before the end of the year.
The stakes are high for Nevada, which stands to receive the first 75,000 acre-feet of water created through so-called augmentation of the Colorado River. If expanded through reuse, that’s enough water to supply more than a quarter of a million homes.
The report cost about $750,000 and took more than a year to complete. It evaluates options in terms of water quality, reliability, relative cost, projected water yield, technical difficulty, environmental concerns, and permitting issues.
Among the more promising options: cloud seeding and tamarisk (salt cedar) removal. Read the rest of this article from the Las Vegas Review-Journal by clicking here.
Palo Verde farmers to fallow 26,000 acres of farmland under Metropolitan’s water transfer deal
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 30, 2008 at 11:02 am
From the Riverside Press-Enterprise:
Thirsty Southern California cities are turning to water-rich farmers on the eastern edge of Riverside County for additional supplies to make up for the ongoing drought and other restrictions on the life-sustaining resource.
Starting this summer, farmers in the Palo Verde Valley along the Colorado River will forgo planting crops on nearly 26,000 acres, the most land yet under a little-known fallowing agreement with Metropolitan Water District. The pact will double the amount now being sent to MWD and its 18 million urban customers.
In exchange, MWD will pay the farmers $16.8 million each year for 115,000 acre-feet of water — almost 37.5 billion gallons. That’s on top of startup fees the district has already paid the farmers, making it more costly than the water the district traditionally relies on from the Colorado River and the Sacramento Delta.
Metropolitan Water District has to notify the farmers a year in advance of their request for more water, and that decision was made after the Wanger smelt decision in August:
The region, he said, will still be short of water. MWD is projecting a 300,000-acre-foot loss from the Delta decision, and the Palo Verde transfer accounts for only about one-third of that. But MWD officials said the injection of new supplies will help prevent the water district from drawing even more on its stored reserves in such places as Diamond Valley Lake near Hemet.
Read the rest of this story from Riverside’s Press-Enterprise by clicking here.
For a fact sheet from Metropolitan Water District on the Palo Verde water transfer deal, click here.
Well-drillers doing booming business in the Central Valley as farmers prepare for water cutbacks
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 30, 2008 at 11:02 amFrom the Sacramento Bee:
Steve Arthur loves a good drought. But trouble in the Delta serves him just as well. Arthur, a stocky 48-year-old, runs one of the biggest agricultural well-drilling operations in the state. This year, he has enough orders to launch himself into early retirement. “Everybody’s planning ahead, because they know the water situation’s not going to get anything but worse,” he said.
A well-drilling boom not seen since California’s last big drought in the early 1990s is under way in the San Joaquin Valley, as farmers chasing high crop prices tap the region’s vast, largely unregulated groundwater reserves in the face of an increasingly bleak outlook for water from the state’s rivers and reservoirs.
“Business is unbelievable,” Arthur said on a recent morning in a field soon to be planted with almond trees. Through sunglasses splattered with mud, he watched the hoses on his drill rig buck as they spat water and sand from 700 feet underground.
California’s reservoirs will be filling up this spring, thanks to an average winter snowpack. But court-ordered pumping restrictions intended to protect fish populations in the Delta mean that many San Joaquin Valley farmers won’t get as much water this year as they would have in the past.
Read the rest of this story from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.
Assemblywoman Garcia defends her bills to potentially change water codes; if passed, it could see two seats added to the IID from Coachella Valley
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 30, 2008 at 10:18 amFrom the Imperial Valley Press:
On Friday, Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia defended two bills she has authored that could potentially change California Water Codes and directly affect the Imperial Irrigation District. During a meeting held at the El Centro Chamber of Commerce on Friday, Garcia took on a barrage of questions and concerns by IID representatives and local business people about the bills.
One of the issues was in regard to a 99-year agreement between the IID and the Coachella Valley Water District that expires in 2033. “Why is it important for you, as an outgoing elected official, to bring this up now?” El Centro Chamber chief executive officer Cathy Kennerson asked.
“When the issue was first brought up a few years ago, it was decided that it was not a good time to bring it up,” Garcia said. “Now, this was an issue raised by the consumers, not the water districts. “This is about doing what’s best for the community and not waiting until we have a lawsuit,” she said. “I don’t need to load my own gun and shoot myself on the way out.”
Part of the legislature could also see two seats added to the IID Board of Directors from the Coachella Valley.
IID Director John Pierre Menvielle said by introducing her bills, Garcia would be pitting the Coachella Valley against the Imperial Valley. She called the IID reckless, but I believe she is the one being reckless in trying to pass this legislation on changing the water code,” Menvielle said.
Read the rest of this story from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.
Lake Cachuma open again as boaters heed new regulations
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 30, 2008 at 10:04 am
From the Lompoc Record:
Lake Cachuma opened Friday to boaters just happy to get back in the water. It was the first day the new rules were in place to protect the lake from the Quagga mussel, which can quickly destroy a lake’s ecosystem, clog water pipes and cause costly maintenance for water resource agencies.
Although boats were subjected to a visual inspection at the main entrance, a high-powered wash at the west marina parking lot area and a final double-check from a park official at the launch site, boaters agreed that the process was better than a closed lake. By noon, more than 40 boats had passed through the process, but three were turned away for not being clean and dry, said park naturalist Liz Mason-Gaspar.
Gaspar and other park employees performed duties outside of their normal job description to help with the new regulations.
Read the rest of this story from the Lompoc Record by clicking here.
Picture of Lake Cachuma by flickr photographer Visual Thinker.
Salton Sea: A great time for bird-watching at one of the nation’s best spots
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 30, 2008 at 9:43 am
With the Colorado River rarely reaching the Gulf of California most months of the year, the Salton Sea has become a critical link on the Pacific Flyway. Over 400 species have been documented there, many of them endangered or threatened. The Salton Sea is home to eared grebes, endangered brown pelicans, great blue herons, ospreys, burrowing owls, gulls, ducks, geese and terns; and not to mention the hundreds of thousands more birds that make the stop on their annual migration.
From MyDesert.com:
More than 380 species of birds have flocked to the Salton Sea for mating season, drawing hundreds of binocular-toting spectators to the state’s largest lake. “People love it because there’s so many different species,” said Jose Renteria, biological science aid at the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge. “We tell them to come in the morning because it’s a great time to explore.”
The Salton Sea is an important stop along the Pacific Flyway - a sort of freeway for millions of migratory birds as they travel south for the winter and north in the spring every year.
The most popular bird, Renteria said, is the burrowing owl often found in the Imperial Valley. Birders also have the chance of spying Caspian Terns, California Brown Pelicans, American White Pelicans, White-Faced Ibis, flamingos, ducks, Yellow-Footed Gulls, Soras and Abert’s Towhee.
Read the rest of this story from MyDesert.com by clicking here.
For more on birdwatching at the Salton Sea, as well as information on other Salton Sea issues, click here or click here.
The proposed Sites Reservoir could have captured a lot of runoff this year, says editorial
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 30, 2008 at 8:33 amFrom the Chico Enterprise-Record, and editorial which essentially points out that just because we had a decent - not spectacular, but utterly normal - winter snowpack, this is not a reason to be complacent about water issues. From the editorial:
Without an abundance of snow and with the rapid decline of several threatened species in the delta, requiring more water from reservoirs, there’s not enough water to go around. The cities and farmers that contract with the state will get about 35 percent of what they want.
This fickle rainfall year just goes to prove, once again, how unstable our water supply is. We can’t help but point out that an off-stream reservoir at Sites, west of Maxwell, would have been a perfect place to store runoff from high water in the Sacramento River in January. That reservoir is still the best solution to add capacity to the state’s water storage system. It has been discussed for a decade. Several water bonds have been passed since then, but nothing has been spent on work at Sites.
So why isn’t anything done? Because our state’s leaders would rather argue and pontificate than act.
Schwarzenegger’s water plan in the past has included building two new dams, Temperance Flat and Sites, and raising the height of a third, the Los Vaqueros Dam in Contra Costa County. For whatever reason, the one project which has always gotten the most attention has been Temperance Flat.
Read the rest of this editorial from the Chico Enterprise-Record by clicking here.
Looking ahead, Denver Water prepares for climate change
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 30, 2008 at 7:43 amFrom the Summit Daily News (Colorado):
Although this cold and snowy winter has spelled good short-term news for Dillon Reservoir and the rest of Denver Water’s supply, global warming is keeping the Front Range utility modest. Climate change is real, and it’s here, so Denver Water recently tried to determine how increasing temperatures would affect stream flows and water supplies, said Marc Waage, manager of water resource planning.
Waage said Denver Water considered two different scenarios:
• With a temperature increase of two degrees over a 50-year stretch — assuming no change in precipitation — streamflows and water supplies would decrease by 7 percent.
• The second scenario plugged a 5 degree temperature increase into the model. Streamflows would drop by 19 percent, with a 14 percent impact to Denver Water’s supply.
Both temperature scenarios are “modest” compared to what many climate change models are predicting, he added. Most of the decrease in stream flows and supplies is due to increased evaporation and sublimation. The bottom line is that Denver Water’s system is very sensitive to warming temperatures, Waage said.
Read more of this article from the Summit Daily News by clicking here.
Water is the Great Lake’s prize, but depsite assurances otherwise, some remain concerned of massive water diversions to the Southwest
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 30, 2008 at 7:38 amFrom the Cleveland.com, a blog/news site:
They’ve been praying for rain in the thirsty American South. Will they prey upon the Great Lakes next? Whether diverting Lake Erie or other Great Lakes water to bail out our dried-up fellow states is preposterous or possible is a matter of dramatically different opinions.
But when Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue and some state lawmakers bowed their heads last November, they illustrated the continuing desperation as drought persists in parts of the United States. “That picture — the governor of Georgia praying for rain on the Statehouse steps — has been burned into my memory, that’s for sure,” said Sean Logan, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. “It was a reminder of an important message: Water issues can bring you to your knees.”
Despite assurances from Pat Mulroy that she isn’t eyeing the great lakes, the fears still continue:
Some are worried that the South might soon take matters into its own hands by petitioning the federal government for help. “I think a large-scale diversion of water from the Great Lakes is fairly likely sooner than later,” said Noah Hall, an environmental law professor with Wayne State University in Michigan. “There are a lot of frightening developments out West and in the Southeast and the climate change models don’t offer much hope.”
David Naftzger, executive director of the Council of Great Lakes Governors, said a water grab is virtually assured. “Look at a map showing water shortages and population growth and see how they match up,” he said. “Now look at us and you can see a concern that, as time moves on, those areas will be looking at the Great Lakes to bring them water — either through a tanker, pipeline or natural channels.”
But others dismiss entirely any idea that Lake Erie water is going anywhere. Las Vegas Water Department General Manager Patricia Mulroy, head of a water department where drought is a constant threat, said it would take “an Armageddon-like series of events” to force Western states to start sniffing around the Great Lakes to solve their water crisis.
Julius Ciaccia, until recently her counterpart in the Cleveland Water Department, agreed. “In 20 years of discussing and debating water issues at a national level, I’ve never once heard a utilities director in the South or West say one word about tapping Lake Erie for water,” said Ciaccia, now head of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District. “Those cities are more interested in water reclamation, re-use or even desalination than in coming to get our water.”
Mulroy said Las Vegas is now recycles all of its waste water, for example. There are also now more than 13,000 desalination plants worldwide, producing more than 12 billion gallons of drinkable water daily from salty ocean water, according to the International Desalination Association.
But as for long-distance water diversions: “It’s not technically impossible, but it’s also not economically feasible,” Ciaccia said.
The rest of this comprehensive article discusses national water issues and how this might impact the Great Lakes. It’s worthy of the click through, so to read the rest of this interesting article from Cleveland.com, click here. Here’s a related article, also from Cleveland.com, about other massive water diversion efforts that have occurred worldwide - click here.
Weekend odds and ends from the blogosphere
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 29, 2008 at 11:01 am
It’s time once again to clear off all the interesting tidbits I have collected over the week.
Water Wired Wisdom: As always, there’s been some interesting posts on the astute Water Wired blog. Michael weighs in on California’s salmon crisis, the price of ignoring our ecosystems, and a story about how some Oregon farmers are installing pipes instead of using leaky canals, and how this might help the salmon.
Climate Change: adaptation vs. mitigation debate: Such a busy week, I haven’t had time to catch up on all of this until now, but Aqua Blog Maven doesn’t want you to miss a good debate. Is it cheaper to adapt to climate change, or should we try and stop it? It all starts with this article from the LA Times where Roger Pielke argues that it is indeed cheaper and perhaps a better alternative than to try and stop climate change. But not everyone agrees: “You can’t adapt to melting the Greenland ice sheet,” said Stephen H. Schneider, a climatologist at Stanford University. “You can’t adapt to species that have gone extinct.” The Daily Grist responded, saying Pielke’s remarks were mischaracterized. John Fleck at Inkstain takes a different view, saying: Over and over, I see climate change in the west used as an argument in favor of greenhouse gas reductions, and over and over I have seen the necessary political and policy discussions of what might be needed for adaptation either implicitly or explicitly off the table, most often because of a fear that such discussions will somehow sap the political will needed to change our energy habits. John Fleck follows it all up this morning in this post about New Mexico’s climate change policy, and yet again in this post about the latest report from California’s state government interagency Water-Energy Subgroup of the Climate Action Team (WET-CAT). In order for it to make sense, though, you’ll have to start at the beginning!
Bottled Water Woes: I am proud to say I have kicked my bottled water habit. I’ve purchased regular water bottles and have the family trained to fill up a bottle here before heading out. I’ve discovered the added advantage of being able to fill it up with ice, ensuring a long cool drink on my travels - yum! Tom Chandler over at the Trout Underground wraps up the latest news in the bottled water wars in this post from the Trout Underground.
Are beavers good or bad? Good, says this group, whose blog is about beavers in Southern California. According to beaverdam.info, “A keystone species is one that modifies the natural environment in such a way that the overall ecosystem builds upon the change. The ponds, wetlands, and meadows formed by beaver dams increases bio-diversity and improves overall environmental quality.It is our opinion that many environmental decision makers do not fully understand the positive effects that beavers and dams bring to ecosystems.” Check out Martinez Beaver’s Blog by clicking here.
Just for fun: Ok, I admit it: these next two have nothing to do with water. I just thought they were funny! Only in Los Angeles would you have a blog solely dedicated to abandoned couches. And I thought this post from the Borowitz Report was funny: Bush to phase out environment by 2009.
May I suggest you get out and enjoy the wildflowers if you haven’t already done so, but above all, enjoy your weekend!
Water & Landscaping in Southern California: the benefits of going drought-tolerant
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 29, 2008 at 7:29 am
From the Going Green in Orange County Blog (although this blog really applies to Southern California as a whole):
How do we keep Orange County so green in what is, more or less, a desert region and at what cost are we paying for such extravagance?
As our population in Orange County continues to grow, we’ll need to use more water for the things we need to have and less water for things we’d like have. To my knowledge, the amount of fresh water on earth has not changed much in recent history. So with the same amount of water being available to us year after year and more and more people demanding it, those who control water rights and the communities that use their resources most efficiently will reap the rewards. Which is why many argue that the wars of tomorrow will be fought over water rights instead of oil.
Why should Orange County become more water efficient?
The benefits in becoming water efficient as an individual, a city, a county and a state are massive! Besides the destruction to wild habitats we cause by importing water to support our excessive lifestyles, it’s COSTING US A LOT MONEY and putting our well being in unnecessary jeopardy! As tax payers and consumers of water, we’re subject to higher energy and water rates. The more water and energy needed to push it to us in order to sustain our lifestyle, the more costly infrastructure we need to support our thirst.
The rest of this entry covers landscaping tips and has a multitude of useful links on reducing your water use and applying drought tolerant landscaping to your yard. Read more from the Going Green in Orange County blog by clicking here.
Want more ideas about water savvy landscapes? How about edible front yards, xeriscaping and permeable hardscapes. Check out the LA Times Emerald City blog, which also has links to useful web resources, by clicking here.
Shark sightings in Southern California: Is it “Jaws” in real life, or is there another explanation?
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 29, 2008 at 6:59 am
From the Los Angeles Times:
Tom Larkin is convinced that a shark jolted his surfboard and left what looks like a bite mark on the back end while he waited for a wave in the waters near Bolsa Chica State Beach earlier this month. After paddling in as his damaged surfboard took on water, the 26-year-old stock analyst from Manhattan Beach said he “proceeded to freak out in the parking lot. I don’t know what else it could have been.”
But Huntington Beach lifeguards dismiss the reports as hogwash — even though great whites have been spotted in the area in years past. “As far as we know, there’s not any evidence there’s great whites in our vicinity,” said marine safety officer Steve Reuter of the Huntington Beach city lifeguards.
And Los Angeles County lifeguard patrols haven’t recorded any unusual sightings, said Capt. Terry Harvey. “It’s springtime; people are saying ’shark’ and they’re freaking out,” Reuter said.
So, is it a real-life version of Jaws occurring in Southern California waters?
Alison Sheltrown, a marketing manager for www.surfline.com, has another theory: The rumors, she said, are just a ploy “to keep everyone out of the water because it’s spring break.” Local surfers, she said, want to keep the waves for themselves.
Read the full text of this story from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Picture of Laguna Beach by flickr photographer Shannon Bullard.
California’s plan to reduce water use and the connection to global warming
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 29, 2008 at 6:53 amFrom the California Progress Report:
Last Thursday, representatives of the Governor’s interagency Water-Energy Subgroup of the Climate Action Team (WET-CAT) unveiled five broad strategies to reduce global warming pollution from water use in California.
The strategies, which will be submitted to the California Air Resources Board for inclusion in the Scoping Plan for AB 32 implementation, include increasing water recycling, water conservation, water infrastructure efficiency, and the use of renewable energy, along with better management of storm water in urban areas.
The WET-CAT has also proposed two specific targets: increasing water recycling to 23 percent by 2030 and increasing urban water use efficiency by 1.76 million acre-feet (MAF) by 2020.
Although the WET-CAT has received detailed recommendations by PCL and other organizations about the creative water management tools at their disposal, they have released few details about how they plan to carry out their strategies. And while their targets are a good start, the latest State Water Plan and several other statewide evaluations show that they could be substantially more aggressive.
WET-CAT co-chair Fran Spivy-Weber has asked for outside input, particularly suggestions for measures that state agencies should be taking. You can email Fran and her co-chair Mark Cowin or contact PCL’s Global Warming Program Manager, Matt Vander Sluis for more information.
Click here for more information on legislative bills which will aid in reaching the governor’s 20% conservation mandate, and an update on proceedings at the State Water Resources Control Board.
Snow surveyors: brave souls that peer into our watery future
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 29, 2008 at 6:32 amFrom Stockton’s RecordNet.com:
Snow surveyors are a happy bunch. Once a month each season, dozens of them strap on skis or snowshoes and gallivant through the frozen Sierra Nevada while everyone else, it seems, is sitting at a desk. But let’s not trivialize their task.
These hardy hikers give us our first glimpse of the state’s water fortunes for the coming year. Their work is relevant to anyone who uses water to drink, bathe, wash, rinse, irrigate or play.
A maddeningly dry March is nearly over, and so comes the realization that we’re not likely to get much more snow. What started out as a superstar water year is now a ho-hum average - and average isn’t much when you consider climate change, reservoirs that are already lower than normal and legal clashes over how much water should be available for cities, farms and fish.
“What’s amazing is you look all around at all this snow, and it’s still not enough,” said Mike Hewitt, 61, of Pioneer, a volunteer who helps with snow surveys on federal lands each winter.
Stockton, incidentally, is on pace for the driest March since 1956, when the city got precisely zero inches of rain. This year, as of Friday afternoon, the city had seen two-hundredths of an inch.
But the focus this week is on the Sierra snow, which is more valuable than rain since it slowly melts during the spring and summer and can be stored more efficiently in reservoirs.
Read the rest of this story from Stockton’s RecordNet.com, which also includes a video of the snow survey process, by clicking here.
Agriculture is one of America’s success stories
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 29, 2008 at 6:29 am
From the Western Farm Press:
Most likely, a lot more people around the country guzzled green beer to celebrate St. Patrick’s day than celebrated National Ag Day this past Thursday, March 20.
It’s a pretty good bet that the average man or woman on the street didn’t even know about the Ag Day observance, or that this week is National Ag Week.
U.S. agriculture quietly goes about its job of producing ample food and fiber for our own citizens and a good portion of the rest of the world, but it gets little attention except when the mainstream media are berating farm bills or sensationalizing some issue related to farming.
Despite the boom-and-bust cycles and market vagaries that have characterized agriculture for decades, the American farmer has persevered and become a true success story. Few sectors of the economy can match the tremendous gains in productivity and efficiency that have taken place in agriculture, aided in the last couple of decades by remarkable advances in science, machinery, technology, and biotechnology that allow farmers to get more, high quality yield from each acre with fewer inputs, less labor, less land, and a greatly reduced environmental footprint.
And fewer people: today’s agricultural cornucopia is produced by only about 3 million farmers, less than 2 percent of the population.
Read the rest of this story from the Western Farm Press by clicking here.
Survey shows consumers are ignorant of farmer’s role in the food chain
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 29, 2008 at 6:27 amFrom the Western Farm Press:
A recently released survey by The Center for Food Integrity shows an alarming number of U.S. consumers are oddly unaware of the role farmers play in providing food to the world. The findings may bolster those claiming agriculture must do a better job of getting its positive message to the masses.
But in some instances the chasm between fact and public perception is so large one hopes those surveyed aren’t indicative of the general population. The chickens may be coming home to roost in the current “gut-versus-science” rhetorical environment.
Titled “Consumer Trust and the Food System,” the Web-based survey was conducted last August and September among 2,008 U.S. adults (3.6 percent vegetarians) who are the primary buyer of food in the home and shop at least weekly. According to the authors, the survey provides a 95 percent confidence level with a sampling error of plus-or-minus 2.2 percent.
“All of us recognize the way food is produced today is dramatically different from the way it (once was),” said Charlie Arnot, CEO of The Center for Food Integrity (largely supported by agricultural advocacy groups and several food companies – see http://www.foodintegrity.org/current-supporters.php) in early February. “Times truly have changed.”
If the majority of those surveyed are on the level, they don’t believe many of the changes have been for the better. The 2007 research objectives were to gauge consumers’ levels of concern regarding the following five issues: food safety, nutrition, environmental protection, the humane treatment of farm animals, and treatment of workers in the food system.
Within each of the five issues, respondents were asked to assign 100 points of responsibility. “For example, if you had farmers and producers, grocery stores, advocacy groups and restaurants as groups that were responsible and you thought each was equally responsible for food safety, they’d each get 25 points.” Further, with some questions the level of competence, confidence and trust were judged on a scale of zero to 10.
Key takeaways
Among the remarkable things in the findings: consumers believe it’s more important for groups in the food system (processors, producers, retailers) to do the “right thing” from an ethical perspective than to demonstrate their level of technical skills and abilities.
“This is a bit of a change for us in agriculture because we tend to want to focus on science. But the research results say that it’s confidence (ethics and value similarity) more than competence (technical capacity, skills and ability and science) that drives trust. Frequently, that’s by a factor of five. So it really is the ethical perspective and the commitment to do the right thing that drives consumer trust.
“That tends not to be where we’ve focused agriculture communications historically.”
The survey also showed that consumers ranked “Humane farm animal treatment” above “Worker Care”. For the rest of this story from the Western Farm Press, click here.
Aquafornia's Information Desk
Aquafornia Photos on Flickr
Upcoming Events
Check out the upcoming events from the Water Education Foundation.
Recent Posts
- C-WIN, CSPA file suit to end wasteful Delta diversions, protect public trust resources
- Angelenos heed water warnings
- Indian tribes awaiting Klamath Dam removal
- Whitaker-Bermite facility: The perchlorate cleanup plan is a reality, says commentary
- Suppliers seek approval for the “Delta Habitat Conservation and Conveyance Program”
- Salmon-tracking network challenges conventional wisdom
- State panel floats ‘litter tax’ to curb debris along coast
- Delta smelt closer to extinction
- Water settlement knots finally untangling
- Normal rainfall predicted for north state this winter
- Should we recycle urine on Earth, too?
- Who will be Delta’s keeper?
- Increasingly scarce water is the new California gold
- Californians need to worry about food security, says commentary
- Court rejects POWER appeal of All-American Canal case
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 non-profit organization, whose mission is to create a better understanding of water issues and help resolve water resource problems through educational programs.
Find It
Save / E-mail / Share Aquafornia
E-mail Newsletter
To receive email announcements from the Water Education Foundation, sign up here.
News Article Archives
- Agriculture
- Aquafornia Exclusives
- Biofuels
- Bottled water
- Climate change & water supply
- Commentary
- Conservation
- Delta Issues
- Desalination
- Development & Water
- Drinking Water
- Drought Tolerant Landscaping
- Drought, Weather & Snowpack
- Endangered Species & Wildlife
- Environment & Water
- Events
- General Water Issues
- Grandiose water plans
- Great Green Ideas
- Groundwater
- Indian Water Rights
- Infrastructure
- International Water Issues
- Invasive Species
- Levees
- Monterey Agreements
- National water news
- Oceans and Beaches (all)
- Odds and Ends
- Recycled Water
- Regional Water Issues
- All-American Canal
- Antelope Valley
- Bakersfield
- Bay Area
- Coachella Valley
- Colorado River Basin
- Imperial Irrigation District & Imperial Valley
- Lake Tahoe & the Sierra's
- Las Vegas
- Los Angeles River
- Northern California
- Orange County
- Owens Valley & Mono Lake
- Riverside - San Bernardino
- Sacramento
- Salton Sea
- San Diego
- San Joaquin Valley
- Southern California
- Southwest Water Issues
- Westlands Water District
- Stromwater & Urban Runoff
- Uncategorized
- Water & Energy
- Water & Investing
- Water Agency News (all)
- Water Banking
- Water History
- Water Legislation
- Water Quality
- Water Rights
- Water Storage
- Water Supply
- Water Technologies
- Water Transfers
- Weird & Wacky Water News
