Indian reservation asks judge to determine their water entitlement; ruling could affect 6 water agencies & 2900 property owners
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 29, 2008 at 6:26 amFrom Riverside’s Press-Enterprise:
On the edge of a dirt road, Anthony Madrigal Jr. peers over the same sage-covered, boulder-strewn land that his Cahuilla ancestors have lived on for thousands of years. But it’s not the tribal land that’s got residents of Southwestern Riverside County so concerned as much as the water beneath it — and who will get the right to use it.
Cahuilla Creek, a mostly dry riverbed that snakes through the reservation near Anza, belies the amount of water in an aquifer below. Concerned that development in the area will draw on groundwater that belongs to them, the Cahuilla Band of Indians and a smaller nearby tribe asked a federal judge to establish just how much water they’re entitled to.
Although it is unclear what that amount will be, the tribes’ request comes at a time of drought and legal restrictions that have cut water supplies to the Inland region. The ruling could affect thousands of property owners and as many as six major water agencies across much of the 750-square-mile watershed of the Santa Margarita River that stretches from the Anza Valley to Camp Pendleton.
The tribes recently notified the agencies and some 2,900 property owners along the rural back roads of Anza, Aguanga and Sage to the vineyards and avocado groves of Temecula and beyond that they are being added as defendants in the decades-old court case.
Madrigal said tribal members want to legally define the amount of water they are entitled to so they have certainty and the necessary resources to live on their homeland for generations to come. “The tribe can’t sell the reservation. We don’t have the luxury of picking up and moving,” he said.
Some homeowners who are nervous about losing some of their water have formed groups to share legal fees and hire attorneys. The Anza-Aguanga Citizens for Water Rights already counts 1,700 members. The rural areas near the tribal reservations depend solely on local water supplies for drinking and to irrigate crops, and don’t have the infrastructure to import supplies like most urban areas.
“More than anything else, there is this honest fear they have their life savings in their home and they’ll be left without water,” said Jackie Spanley, who used to be an Anza Valley Municipal Advisory Council member and is organizing another citizens group.
Read the rest of this story from Riverside’s Press-Enterprise by clicking here.
Dry year fuels early water war; Delta farmers, coalition spar over water diversion
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 29, 2008 at 6:20 amFrom Stockton’s Record:
A coalition of water users claims that farmers in the south Delta are illegally diverting water and asks state regulators to step in and protect water supplies during this dry year.
The San Joaquin River Group, representing mostly irrigation districts south of the Delta, said in a letter to the state earlier this month that it is “well known” that farmers in the south Delta take water to which they are not entitled. At times, not enough water flows down the San Joaquin River to irrigate all those farms, the May 12 letter says.
Delta farmers responded with a letter of their own earlier this week, calling the accusations “unsupported and false.” “It’s just rubbish,” Manteca farmer and water engineer Alex Hildebrand said Wednesday.
Tides ensure that there is always at least some water in the south Delta that can legally be diverted for crops, the Delta farmers say. The effect of these diversions is far less than the nearby state and federal pumps that send water as far south as San Diego, Hildebrand said.
Both letters were sent to the State Water Resources Control Board for review; the board has some authority over water right disputes.
Read more on this story from Stockton’s Record by clicking here.
Water district considers suing Department of Water Resources
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 29, 2008 at 6:16 amFrom the Highland Community News:
The San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District (Muni) may be going to court against the Department of Water Resources, its source for state imported water from central California. The Muni Board of Directors voted May 21 to conduct a workshop, inviting attorneys to discuss the possibility.
Board President Patrick Milligan said although “we have gotten some good things and had some great dealings with the Department of Water Resources, that’s not always the experience.” He cited charges against state water contractors, like Muni, which were questionable. “They put things in that they knew had no bearing whatsoever on the items that we could be charged for,” Milligan said, calling the DWR practices “almost dishonest in their relationship with the contractors that they supposedly represented.”
Milligan said, “The whole state is oblivious to all these conservation lawsuits that have wound up against the State Water Project, and they are going to just decimate that project in the next four or five years if everybody sits by and treats it like we have treated the Delta smelt.”
Read the full text of this article from the Highland Community News by clicking here.
Malibu violating beach bacteria limits, but city officials are working to counter pollution
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 29, 2008 at 6:12 am
From the Malibu Times:
Heal the Bay’s 18th annual Report Card for California Beaches had alarming, bad and good news for Malibu. The report, covering water quality from April 1 of last year to March 31 of this year, was released last week on Wednesday during a press conference at the Santa Monica Pier.
In alarming news, the city is one of 20 municipalities along with the county to receive a Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, or RWQCB, notice threatening tens of thousands of dollars in daily fines.
In bad news, Puerco Beach landed on Heal the Bay’s list of California’s 10 most polluted beaches for the third year in a row.
The good news is that Southern California’s historic drought last year resulted in stretches of very good to excellent summer water quality in a stretch of beach from Leo Carrillo to Topanga, with the exception of the Marie Canyon drain at Puerco Beach.
The city of Malibu has been working hard to clean things up:
The city is working with various parties to address beach water quality, interviews with officials revealed. “We’ve been pretty proactive,” Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich said last Thursday. “We’ve committed $50 million, almost twice the size of our budget, toward various pollution cleanup projects.”
She ticked off action such as the city’s 2006 purchase of Legacy Park and the proposal for it to be part of the city’s storm water treatment program, the 2007 completion of the Civic Center storm water treatment plant, the proposal for a wastewater treatment plant in the Civic Center area and development of storm water treatment at Paradise Cove.
Last year’s fires in Malibu clogged pumps at the county’s treatment facility on Malibu Road, accounting for the poor showing at Puerco Beach, Heal the Bay President Mark Gold said. Once those pumps are replaced next month, “you should see an A grade at that beach every day,” said Mark Pestrella, county assistant deputy director of public works, who is lending technical support for the design of Legacy Park.
Read the full text of this story from the Malibu Times by clicking here.
Workshop for local planners and officials focuses on landscape conservation ordinances
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 29, 2008 at 6:04 amFrom the San Bernardino Sun:
It’s time Southern California civic planners, city officials and residents rethink how they use water. In fact, water needs to a bigger part of every decision, said Brad Buller, a Rancho Cucamonga-based consultant specializing in municipal land and water uses. “About 70 percent of the water we use is put into our landscaping,” Buller said. “The state is going to tighten this up.”
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill into law in 2006 mandating that cities implement new landscape conservation ordinances to comply with strict water-saving standards by 2010. With that deadline fast-approaching, Cal State San Bernardino’s Water Resources Institute scheduled four educational sessions aimed at providing local city planners and staff with ideas and plans to meet new requirements.
The first informational session was held on Wednesday:
With cities scrambling for tactics to meet the coming toughened state requirements, water conservation experts hope laws help to usher in a new era of water conservation in a way that prices have not. While costs for energy, especially gasoline, have soared and made major dents in personal behavior and energy consumption, relatively cheap water bills provide little incentive to rein in use. “We know we don’t have water to waste,” WRI Director Susan Lien Longville said to about 20 people, mostly planners and other government staff from surrounding cities. “It’s all about changing (public) behavior.”
Read the full text of this article from the San Bernardino Sun by clicking here.
Old idea that’s new again: Rainwater harvesting
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 29, 2008 at 5:54 amFrom the Sacramento Bee, this column by Daniel Weintraub:
With California on the edge of drought and water restrictions already beginning in some areas, the state might soon be looking toward an ancient practice that is attracting renewed interest around the world: rainwater harvesting.
In Australia, rainwater harvesting has been widespread for years, and in parts of the country it is the only source of fresh water. The government of Texas is an aggressive proponent of the idea. And in Washington’s San Juan Islands, residents have overwhelmed a state agency that grants permits for the installation of harvesting systems. But in California, the notion of capturing rainwater for use in irrigating landscape still has not reached the mainstream. Using rainwater for toilet flushing or even drinking is almost unheard of.
Dylan Coleman would like to change that. Coleman, from the town of Mount Shasta, is a consultant and seller of rainwater harvesting equipment. With his wife, he also runs a nonprofit foundation – Save The Rain – that raises money to pay for the installation of rainwater harvesting systems in Africa.
Lately, he has been much busier with the Africa project than he has been selling systems here under his company’s Wonder Water brand. “I’ve become more of an educational institution than an actual business,” Coleman told me. “I do a lot of talks. Rainwater harvesting has skipped over a couple of generations. We’ve lost the knowledge. We are having to be reawakened to what it can do and how effective it can be.”
Read the rest of this story from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.
Unfunded mandate: Lots in Krekorian bill – except enough money, says editorial
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 29, 2008 at 5:41 amFrom the San Diego Union-Tribune:
Localities have come to expect mandates imposed by the Legislature, with no money attached to pay for them. Cities and counties often pay for these state mandates with local taxes disguised as fees. That way, legislators avoid adding to the state’s deficit or raising taxes directly. So it is with the “Water Efficiency and Security Act” introduced by Paul Krekorian, D-Burbank.
In this instance, legislators also would sidestep the state’s main water problem, which is insufficient supply. Instead, they would dump much of the burden of conservation on developers.
In the name of water conservation, Krekorian’s bill would require new residential and commercial projects to “implement all feasible and cost-effective water efficiency measures,” inside and outside. If, however, such measures don’t keep a new project’s estimated water use from rising above the previous level, the developers would have to spend up to 1 percent of the total price of the project to “mitigate” that additional water consumption “within the same hydrologic region.”
The editorial points out that the bill does not solve the root problem, which is increasing water supply. Conservation is great, the editorial says, but:
… California can’t save enough water to supply its anticipated 60 million residents by 2050. Building reservoirs, recycling non-potable water for irrigation, purifying brackish water and desalting ocean water into potable water – all can increase supply and jobs. Krekorian’s bill would stop projects that create jobs. Just one more reason the Legislature should stop it.
Read the full text of this editorial from the San Diego Union-Tribune by clicking here.
May 29, 1935: Hoover Dam set in concrete
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 28, 2008 at 11:00 pm
From Wired Magazine:
Hoover Dam was conceived in the early 1920s as a way of reclaiming California’s flood-prone Imperial Valley, improving water supply to the seven Colorado River-basin states, and generating electric power for Southern California, which was already growing rapidly.
Because the site chosen — on the Colorado River about 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas — was adjacent to Boulder Canyon, the undertaking was christened the Boulder Canyon Dam Project.
It was a formidable project. At the time of its completion, Hoover Dam was the world’s largest concrete structure, a distinction it held until 1942 when the Grand Coulee Dam opened. It was also, at the time, the largest public-works program in U.S. history.
Check out that photo - that is the view of the upstream side of the dam before Lake Mead was there. You can see more historic photos of Hoover Dam by clicking on the picture. And you can read the full text of this article from Wired Magazine by clicking here.
Reminder: Delta Vision today and tomorrow
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 28, 2008 at 6:35 amJust a reminder for those interested:
The Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force will once again be meeting on Wednesday & Thursday to continue discussions on developing a strategic plan for implementing the Delta Vision. The meeting will be webcast. You can find links to the webcast, plus a meeting agenda with links to materials by clicking here.
Salton Sea air still up in air; there is concern for air quality in the region as the shoreline recedes
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 28, 2008 at 6:33 am
From the Imperial Valley Press:
The future restoration of the Salton Sea is a $9 billion question mark in the hands of the state. Last week a bill that would have established the governance for the Salton Sea Restoration Council died on the state Senate floor for lack of a vote.
The Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors heard from an environmental attorney Tuesday on the implications of air-quality issues along the receding shoreline.
Ellen Spellman, whose firm is contracted by the district to oversee the 2003 Quantification Settlement Agreement legalities, spoke about liability, emissions and restoration. Spellman said environmental studies have shown the exposure of the shoreline is inevitable but predicting what kind of emissions will be mixed into the air is unknown. “This is an area of great uncertainty,” Spellman said.
Air quality in the Imperial County already has difficulty meeting state and federal standards, and the eventual shrinking of the Salton Sea is only bound to make things worse:
An estimated 45,000 acres will be exposed in the next 70 years due to the transfer of water and the diminishing inflows to the sea. Determining who is legally liable for the emissions, Spellman told the board, will depend on why the shoreline receded. “IID is responsible for mitigating air quality impacts from shoreline exposed by the transfer,” Spellman said.
Read the full text of this story from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.
Krekorian’s AB 2153 legislation would require developers to prove their projects have no net gain water use or pay water impact fees
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 28, 2008 at 6:15 amFrom the San Diego Union-Tribune:
The Assembly plans to take up legislation that would force developers to pay to offset increased water use at new projects, much like school impact fees.
The legislation, believed to be unprecedented nationally, comes as water supplies are shrinking, Californians are questioning potential rationing while new homes continue to spring up and lawmakers are in gridlock over building more reservoirs. “The idea is to create a framework by which California can continue to accommodate the need for growth while staying within the inherent limits of our water supply,” said Assemblyman Paul Krekorian, D-Burbank, who is carrying the measure.
An intense lobbying campaign is under way leading up to the floor vote, with builders and business interests marshalling forces to block the bill and environmentalists mounting an aggressive campaign to push the measure along to the Senate. Water agencies are divided. “It’s going to be tough – very tough,” Krekorian said.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has not taken a position on the bill.
It would definitely signal a shift in the way we think about water, but not everyone is on board:
Krekorian’s measure would require developers to prove their projects have no net gain in water use or pay into a fund to finance conservation projects elsewhere, such as fixing leaky pipes, cleaning up groundwater and recycling. The fee would be capped at 1 percent of the cost of a house, roughly $3,000 on a $300,000 home, or less than $10 a month over the life of a 30-year mortgage, supporters counter.
To Krekorian, that’s a small price to guarantee water for homes. Without the bill, he said, projects could be blocked under existing law that allows water agencies to declare that there is not enough supply to meet the increase in demand. Or ratepayers and taxpayers would continue to subsidize growth, he said.
Builders say that more fees would be another drag on their slumping industry. The California Chamber of Commerce is pitching in to help kill the legislation. “AB 2153 further exacerbates a suffering economy and dismal housing market by imposing an untold tax on new home buyers,” opponents wrote. Business interests argue that new homes and buildings are water-efficient.
Read more from the San Diego Union-Tribune by clicking here.
IID not quite ready to implement Garcia’s compromise 6 point-plan
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 28, 2008 at 6:09 amFrom the Imperial Valley Press:
The Imperial Irrigation District board delayed implementing the six-point plan reached with Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, on Tuesday. At the urging of the Energy Consumer Advisory Committee, the board tabled the plan until the organization can make some recommendations on the compromise.
The ECAC, which will be reconstituted as part of the agreement, discussed the energy action plan. “It’s time for her to back away and allow the ECAC to discuss a long-term plan,” said Gil Perez, a member of the committee.
There seems to be some confusion about representation on the committee, which is to be reformed as a result of the compromise. The committee wants more time to make it’s recommendations:
“We strongly believe there is a lot of merit in the six-point plan,” Perez said. “But there is room for improvement.” A subcommittee of the ECAC is scheduled to work on recommendations before the board’s next meeting in La Quinta on June 10.
“Clearly she is concerned about allowing the community to become more involved in the IID policy development. So we believe she should also be able to detect the basic hypocrisy of denying community input in a plan designed to get more community input,” Perez said.
Read the full text of this article from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.
Looking for invasive stowaways; inspections begin at Lake Tahoe
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 28, 2008 at 6:01 amFrom the Nevada Appeal, the third in a four-part series on the efforts to keep invasive mussels out of Lake Tahoe. This segment discusses the inspections and the important role boaters have to play:
The first line of defense is getting boaters to comply with boat inspections happening at all private and some public piers around the lake. While the inspections are not mandatory (but may be after today’s Tahoe Regional Planning Agency meeting), they are vital to keeping Lake Tahoe’s waters clear. “As boaters become aware of this problem they become more sympathetic,” said TRPA Executive Director John Singlaub. “People should know that if they have a contaminated boat they will be stopped and required to get it cleaned. The smart thing to do is if they have the potential of a contaminated boat is to turn it around and clean it out.”
The onus to keep mussels out of the lake falls mainly on boaters, said Dennis Zabaglo, TRPA senior environmental specialist and watercraft program manager. “Boating is the main push,” Zabaglo said.
While a stronger emphasis is placed on boaters coming from out of the Tahoe region, Zabaglo said even people who have boats that stay in Tahoe year-round can be part of the process. “You can tell all of your boater friends about the danger,” he said. “Outreach is crucial.”
Part of that outreach is a more than $18,000 campaign to educate the public about the dangers of the mussels. The TRPA and the Tahoe Resource Conservation District have spent $12,000 on a 30-second commercial airing in the basin area and $6,000 on a billboard on Highway 50 to alert boaters. They have also spent a significant amount of money on pamphlets and brochures as part of the $1.3 million campaign, Zabaglo said.
One of the main messages both organizations, and a working group of other state, local and federal agencies, is trying to push is to “clean, dry and drain” your boat. “Clean after you leave, drain all the live wells and make sure everything is dry because the microscopic larvae can live in standing water,” Zabaglo said.
Read more on this story from the Nevada Appeal by clicking here.
China considers earthquake danger of dams; their presence has complicated rescue and recovery efforts; some even say that dams can cause quakes
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 28, 2008 at 5:55 am
From the Los Angeles Times:
Mao Tse-tung famously declared “man must conquer nature,” and his political heirs have followed his dictum zealously by building dams and other gigantic projects that have altered the landscape of China. But this month’s deadly earthquake may tilt the balance of public opinion in favor of a more cautious and environmentally conscious approach to such development.
China has more dams than any other country, about half of the world’s total, and the presence of so many near the epicenter in Sichuan province has been a huge complication in the quake’s aftermath. After two weeks of downplaying the problem, the Water Resources Ministry acknowledged Sunday that 69 reservoirs and dams were on the verge of collapse, and nearly 3,000 in China had sustained damage.
The threat of flash floods from dams and “quake lakes” formed from landslides blocking rivers has forced tens of thousands of already traumatized quake survivors to relocate, some more than once. The dams also prevented rescue workers from navigating the rivers to reach victims in areas made inaccessible after roads were washed out.
Many Chinese hold the mystical view that natural disasters are the result of human failings and point to the widespread construction of dams as a possible culprit. The Min River, a tributary of the Yangtze that runs through the path of destruction, is one of the most dammed rivers in the country. “Chinese ancient culture has a philosophy of a cohesive connection between people and nature. What we did to that river shows no respect for nature, and now nature is taking its revenge,” said Ai Nanshan, a professor of environmental sciences at Sichuan University in Chengdu.
It is not pure superstition. Geologists have long warned of the danger of building dams in earthquake-prone locations. Not only can the structures collapse, but some temblors — most famously one in 1967 in Koyna, India — also are believed to have been triggered by the weight of a dam’s reservoir.
“We don’t want to appear to benefit from human catastrophe by pushing an agenda, but we are making information about earthquakes and dams available,” said Peter Bradford, an official with International Rivers Network, a Berkeley environmental group. Bradford said that three people he met on a visit to Beijing this week separately predicted that the Chinese government would reconsider its aggressive dam-building program.
This article was posted yesterday evening and already - 342 comments! Find out more about the earthquake’s effect on China’s many dams from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
GE releases white paper on best practices for recycling and reusing water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 28, 2008 at 5:43 amFrom Business Wire:
GE Water & Process Technologies released today — Addressing Water Scarcity Through Recycling and Reuse: A Menu for Policymakers — a white paper outlining the policies and best practices currently being used to increase and implement successful water conservation programs in water scarce regions of the world.
“Policymakers are looking for ways to expand water recycling and reuse initiatives, but until now finding information on how best to do that was tough,” said Jeff Garwood, president and CEO, GE Water & Process Technologies. “By providing a menu of policy tools ranging from less intensive mechanisms, like public outreach programs, to more proactive, regulatory approaches, our paper will help governments, communities and businesses effectively evaluate their options.”
Addressing Water Scarcity Through Recycling and Reuse: A Menu for Policymakers is built around a variety of policies that are being used in different locations of the world, including efforts to:
* Provide more information on and recognition of water recycling and reuse efforts
* Reduce or remove regulatory or cost barriers that prevent more water reuse or recycling
* Provide financial, regulatory or other incentives for water recycling and reuse
* Require more water recycling and reuseExamples of how these policies are being applied in communities around the world are included in the report, which can be downloaded at www.ge.com/water.
Today, GE also announced its own commitment to reduce its own fresh water use by 20% by 2012. The new initiative is one of the world’s most aggressive corporate water target to date and is expected to free up 7.4 million cubic meters (2 billion U.S. gallons) of fresh water a year – enough water to fill over 3,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. GE expects to implement water reuse technologies and/or process efficiencies at over 100 company facilities to meet the absolute water reduction target. GE is also using the same portfolio of water-saving solutions to help reduce municipal, industrial and agriculture customers’ water footprints.
“Green technology offers a brighter future for our Blue Planet,” said EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Benjamin H. Grumbles. “Ecomagination and others are growing green collar jobs and seizing on this changing climate of opportunity for water sustainability. EPA commends citizens, companies, and communities who are reducing water waste and increasing recycling because efficiency and reuse are the true blue wave of the future.”
For more information on GE’s water commitment please visit www.ge.com/ecomagination.
ABOUT GE WATER & PROCESS TECHNOLOGIES
A world leader in membrane and filtration, diagnostic tools, specialty chemicals, mobile water, service, and financing, GE Water and Process Technologies, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), offers the broadest portfolio of global expertise and local capabilities. We invest in forward looking water and process technologies, leveraging the best practices of GE’s ecomagination, to help customers balance environmental and economic goals. Our innovative team develops unique partnerships and delivers reliable, long-term solutions for communities, governments and industry that maximize water and energy resources. www.ge.com/water.
GE (NYSE: GE) is Imagination at Work — a diversified technology, media and financial services company focused on solving some of the world’s toughest problems. With products and services ranging from aircraft engines, power generation, water processing and security technology to medical imaging, business and consumer financing and media content, GE serves customers in more than 100 countries and employs more than 300,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit the company’s Web site at www.ge.com.
New government climate report foresees big changes
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 28, 2008 at 5:19 amFrom the New York Times:
According to the report, Western states will face substantial challenges because of growing demand for water and big projected drops in supplies.
From 2040 to 2060, anticipated water flows from rainfall in much of the West are likely to be well below half the average from 1901 to 1970, and much lower in places like the fast-growing Southwest. In contrast, runoff in much of the Midwest and East is expected to increase that much or more. Alaska is projected to see a doubling of runoff from precipitation over the same periods.
Farmers, foresters and ranchers nationwide will face a complicated blend of changes, driven not only by shifting weather patterns but also by the simultaneous spread of non-native plant and insect pests. Some invasive grasses, vines and weeds, for example, do better in higher temperatures and carbon dioxide concentrations than do crops and preferred livestock forage plants.
Corn and soybean plants are likely to grow and mature faster, but will be more subject to crop failures from spikes in summer temperatures that can prevent pollination, said one of the authors, Jerry L. Hatfield, a plant physiologist with the United States Department of Agriculture, in a conference call with reporters.
David E. Schimel, a lead author and director of a federal system of ecological monitoring stations, said there was relatively high confidence in the report’s forecasts because it focuses on the next 25 to 50 years, a period when efforts to curb emissions of greenhouse gases are unlikely to have much effect. “Mitigation is very important,” he said in the phone call. “But over the next few decades, independent really of what happens to concentration trends, the word the physics community uses is we’re ‘committed’ to a certain amount of temperature change.”
Read the full text of this article from the New York Times by clicking here.
A much more extensive article from the San Diego Union-Tribune adds this:
Besides focusing on farming, the report addressed the likely future of the nation’s natural resources. Among other things, it predicted that forest and range fires will become more common, soil erosion will increase and signature plants in the Southwest – including Joshua trees – could disappear.
Unlike many climate reports that make projections for 2100, this research team limited its time frame to the next 25 to 50 years. Scientists’ climate models show much more certainty in the shorter time period than they do for a century or more. They said the world is locked into some amount of warming in the near term because of past greenhouse-gas emissions, but that the long-term future could be different if those emissions are lowered. “Slight changes in things like temperature and precipitation can potentially have dramatic effects,” said Steven Archer, a lead author of the new report and a professor of natural resources at the University of Arizona.
Climate change looks to be a mixed bag for California: in some cases, California might be able to grow more heat-tolerant crops, but on the other hand, rising temperatures will affect fruit size, reduce dairy production, and may necessitate relocation of certain crops. Some crops, such as corn, rice and beans, may become less productive, while other crops such as cotton and peanuts might benefit. However:
Whatever happens to specific crops, the overarching issue will be water – a commodity that’s in increasingly short supply in the West. The USDA report said a trend toward earlier snowmelt challenges irrigation systems that rely on the mountains releasing water slowly over several months. “If politically it continues to be impossible to build more water storage in (California), then that bodes ill for having enough irrigation water,” Sumner said.
Read the article from the San Diego Union-Tribune by clicking here.
From the U.S. Climate Change Science Program at www.climatescience.gov: The report referenced in the article can be found by clicking here; the press release from the US Department of Agriculture can be found by clicking here.
Life, liberty, and water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 28, 2008 at 5:10 amFrom Yes Magazine, an article written by Maude Barlow, the national chairperson of the Council of Canadians and author of Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water:
It’s a colossal failure of political foresight that water has not emerged as an important issue in the U.S. Presidential campaign. The links between oil, war, and U.S. foreign policy are well known. But water—whether we treat it as a public good or as a commodity that can be bought and sold—will in large part determine whether our future is peaceful or perilous.
Americans use water even more wastefully than oil. The U.S relies on non-renewable groundwater for 50 percent of its daily use, and 36 states now face serious water shortages, some verging on crisis.
Meanwhile, dwindling freshwater supplies around the world, inequitable access to water, and corporate control of water, together with impending climate change from fossil fuel emissions, have created a life-or-death situation across the planet.
Both Democrats and Republicans have emphasized loosening U.S. dependence on nonrenewable energy resources in their platforms, but neither party gives significant air time to the threats posed by water shortages. This is not to say that no one is paying attention. In fact, water has become a key strategic security and foreign policy priority for the United States government.
Recently, a series of 6 meetings were held by the U. S. Center for Strategic & International Studies, bringing together representatives from Canada, Mexico & the United States to discuss a wide range of issues, water being one of them:
“As … globalization continues and the balance of power potentially shifts, and risks to global security evolve, it is only prudent for Canadian, Mexican, and U.S. policymakers to contemplate a North American security architecture that could effectively deal with security threats that can be foreseen in 2025,” said a leaked copy of a CSIS backgrounder.
On the agenda for one of two meetings in Calgary were, “water consumption, water transfers, and artificial diversions of bulk water” with the aim of achieving “joint optimum utilization of the available water.”
The water and security connection deepens with the fact that Sandia National Laboratories, a vital partner with CSIS in its Global Water Futures Project, also plays a major role in military security in the United States. While Sandia is technically owned by the U.S. government, and reports to the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration, its management is contracted out to Lockheed Martin, the world’s biggest weapons manufacturer.
Ralph Pentland, water consultant and primary author of the Canadian government’s Federal Water Policy in 1987, believes that the purpose of these cross-border discussions is to secure sufficient water for Alberta tar sands production in order to ensure uninterrupted oil supplies to the United States. Energy extraction would be far more attractive if a new source of water—potentially from northern Canada—could be brought to the tar sands through pipelines or other diversions. As long as the water doesn’t cross the international border, it is within Alberta’s power to do this.
The article then discusses the right to water, noting that the United States and Canada are the only countries actively blocking efforts to recognize water as a human right. Is there a conspiracy here? Decide for yourself - read the full text of this story from Yes! by clicking here.
Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force to meet tomorrow & Thursday
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 27, 2008 at 6:23 am
It’s Delta Vision time again!
The Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force will once again be meeting on Wednesday & Thursday to continue discussions on developing a strategic plan for implementing the Delta Vision.
The meeting will be webcast. You can find links to the webcast, plus a meeting agenda with links to materials by clicking here.
Federal aid on its way to West Coast salmon industry
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 27, 2008 at 6:11 amFrom the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
Fisherman Doug Fricke has been catching salmon off the coasts of Oregon and Washington for more than three decades — but he’s bracing for his worst year ever. Because sharp declines in the number of salmon returning to spawn in the Columbia and Sacramento rivers have devastated the West Coast fishing industry, federal fishery managers have drastically cut commercial salmon fishing in the coastal waters, at the same time that soaring fuel costs have led to higher boat expenses for many fishermen.
Fricke, of Westport, says he’s “pretty lucky” because he can dip into his savings to stay afloat this year. But newer fishermen still paying off hefty loans on their boats are unlikely to fare so well, Fricke predicts. “A lot of folks, particularly the younger guys who are new into the fishery and haven’t had a lifetime on the ocean to put some assets away,” will be hurting, Fricke said. Many of them “will probably lose their boats if they don’t get some help.”
Cue the federal government.
Congress last week approved $170 million federal aid to fishermen and businesses hurt by the salmon failure. The money was part of the nearly $300 billion farm bill that became law Thursday over a veto by President Bush. An additional $75 million in aid for fishery disasters around the country could be included in an emergency war spending bill pending in Congress. In both bills, the salmon money is an “earmark” — spending that is targeted to a specific program and is unrelated to the overall measure.
The money can come none too soon for those impacted by the closure of the salmon season, some of whom are still reeling from poor salmon catches in 2006.
The federal government will distribute the money among California, Oregon and Washington based on a formula designed by their governors. Randy Fisher, executive director of the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, which will take a lead role in divvying up the funding, said the expected breakdown is 72 percent for California, 16 percent for Oregon and 12 percent for Washington.
Virtually any business that can prove they are losing money — from icehouses and charter boat operations to restaurants and commercial fishermen — are eligible.
Read more on this story from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer by clicking here.
Residents warned not to drink water after water tank is vandalized; water tests high for mercury
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 27, 2008 at 6:01 amFrom the Salinas Californian:
Monterey County sheriff’s officials are investigating whether someone contaminated water in a storage tank in the greater Las Lomas area, causing higher-than-normal mercury levels. The Sheriff’s Office and California Water Service Co. are warning residents who live between Sill to Garin roads not to drink the tap water until the water company says otherwise. The tank, at the end of Las Lomas Drive, serves about 3,000 people.
On Saturday morning, Monterey County sheriff’s deputies responded to reports of vandalism at the tank and found its hatch was forced open. Mike Jones, assistant district manager for the California Water Service Co., said the company noticed the vandalism during a routine visit to the water tank Saturday.
Jones said the lock to the ladder was missing, and when a California Water Service employee checked the tank, he noticed the hatch at the top had been forced opened. The water company notified the Sheriff’s Office, took a sample of the water for testing and started flushing the system by moving water through it, he said. The company also contacted the county Health Department.On Sunday, when test results came back with heightened mercury levels, California Water Co. went door to door, notifying residents not to drink from their faucets. Jones said that further testing from the tank is expected this week but that it’s unclear when the warning will be lifted.
More on this story from the Salinas Californian by clicking here.