Governor Schwarzenegger signs legislation to improve water supply reliability and conservation

Posted by: Maven on September 30, 2008 at 2:36 pm

From the Office of the Governor, this press release:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed SBx2 1 by Senator Pro Tempore Don Perata (D-San Francisco), which appropriates $842 million in funding from two initiatives passed by voters in 2006 – Proposition 84 and Proposition 1E. While these funds will help water agencies address the current statewide drought and provide a first step toward investing in water supply reliability, a much more comprehensive plan is needed in order to update California’s water system, which urgently needs increased storage, improved conveyance, a restored and better protected Delta ecosystem and greater water conservation. The Governor also signed four additional bills that will help address our state’s water crisis and further increase water conservation.

“This funding is a band-aid measure that will help water agencies improve their conservation efforts in the face of the state’s current drought but will not solve our long-term water supply problems, which require a more comprehensive solution to ensure that California has the water it needs to keep our environment and economy healthy,” Governor Schwarzenegger said. “I encourage each and every Californian to look at ways to reduce their water usage whenever possible, and this package of legislation will further aid in those conservation efforts which are so critical to California’s water supply right now.”

SBx2 1 also includes $200 million to help stabilize the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta, help prevent catastrophic failure of the Delta’s levees and accommodate pumping restrictions mandated by a federal court ruling. Additionally, the legislation provides $100 million to help clean up ground water basins in Southern California.

In a signing message on the bill, the Governor expressed disappointment that it provides $200 million less than his proposed January 2008 budget, and because more than $580 million in funding was taken out of his budget and placed into a special session bill, money that would have been available immediately will not be available until March 2009.

In addition to SBx2 1, the Governor has also signed the following bills:

AB 2882 by Assemblymember Lois Wolk (D-Davis) encouraging public water agencies throughout the state to adopt conservation rate structures that reward consumers who conserve water. Current state law authorizes water agencies to promote conservation using rate structures; however, some agencies are concerned that such structures may not meet the requirements of Proposition 218, a state law enacted by voters in 1996 to restrict the use of revenue tools such as water rates to finance local services. This legislation clarifies the allocation-based rate structures and establishes standards that protect consumers by ensuring a lower base rate for those who conserve water and requiring that higher rates for use in excess of the base rate do not exceed the reasonable cost of providing the water service.

AB 3030 by Assemblymember Julia Brownley (D-Santa Monica) clarifies the procedures a local public water district is able to employ when faced with an increase in wholesale water rates. Ultimately, the bill will allow these agencies to respond to rate increases more quickly and efficiently by allowing for automatic adjustments corresponding to changes in the wholesale cost of water.

AB 2356 by Assemblyman Juan Arambula (D-Fresno) will help low-income rural communities avoid a cash-flow crisis by giving the State Water Resources Control Board the authority to disburse up to twenty-five percent of a wastewater infrastructure grant to a disadvantaged community in advance of costs incurred to help them pay their contractors.

SB 27 by Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) requires the Office of Emergency Services to establish an interagency “Multi-Hazard Coordination Task Force” to develop an emergency response strategy for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

While these bills signed by the Governor will help further the state’s conservation efforts and make some incremental improvements to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, they represent only one component of the comprehensive package that is needed to upgrade California’s water infrastructure. The Governor continues to urge legislators to pass a comprehensive water plan that can go before California voters.

In July, he and Senator Dianne Feinstein proposed a compromise plan to the legislature to update California’s water system and put the state on the path toward restoring the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, expanding water supplies and promoting conservation efforts

The $9.3 billion bond proposal that the Governor and Senator Feinstein have proposed includes the following elements from all stakeholders and is a compromise approach that will move California toward a reliable water future:

• Increased water storage to ensure our water supply is more reliable year-to-year and we’re able to capture excess water in wet years to use in dry years
• Improved water conveyance to reduce water shortages
• Restored Delta ecosystem to allow California to take control of its own water systems
• Increased conservation and tools to use water more efficiently

Find out more about Governor Schwarzenegger’s stance on California’s water issues by clicking here.

Starting today, the Economist debates water: “The Value of H20″

Posted by: Maven on September 30, 2008 at 8:44 am

Received directly from the Economist:

Starting today, September 30th The Economist will start a two-week long Oxford-style online debate on the value of water. The proposition is “This house believes that water, as a scarce resource, should be priced according to its market value.”

Some of the issues the debate will cover include: Would water supplies be better managed if it were treated as a commodity, and priced accordingly? Or is water a basic human right that governments should secure for their citizens? As both an industrial input and a prerequisite of life, water has become extremely scarce for roughly a billion people who do not have a constant supply of clean and safe water, so the issue is of extreme importance.

We thought that the topic was highly relevant and that you and your readers would want to know about this debate. Would you be interested in helping us spread the word by posting about the debate? To help, I’ve included opening statements from the Pro and Con notable speakers, and listed the guest participants below.

It’s a great opportunity to engage your readers in a discourse on this timely topic. It’s free for anyone to vote and comment – the only requirement is to register for a pen name first.

Debate Schedule

· September 30th. Opening statements and comments and voting open to the public

· October 1st. Guest Participant post by Dr. Michael W. Hanemann, chancellor’s professor, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, University of California

· October 2nd. Guest Participant post by Anup Jacob, partner, Virgin Green Fund

· October 3rd. Rebuttal statements and Guest Participant post by Colin Chartres, director general, International Water Management Institute

· October 6th. Guest Participant post by Dr. Peter Gleick, president and co-founder, Pacific Institute

· October 7th. Guest Participant post by Peter L. Cook, executive director, National Association of Water Companies

· October 8th. Closing statements

· October 9th. Guest Participant post by Dr. Ashok Gadgil, senior scientist and deputy director, Environmental Energy Technologies Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

· October 10th. Winner announced

Read the Pro and Con opening statements by clicking here: Continue reading “Starting today, the Economist debates water: “The Value of H20″” »

Nov. 4th Election: ‘The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly’: the ugly being no water measure; Jeff Kightlinger of MWD comments

Posted by: Maven on September 30, 2008 at 8:34 am

From the California Planning Report, an article about three bond projects, one good, one bad, and one UGLY – ugly because it didn’t happen – the water bond. Jeff Kightlinger from Metropolitan Water District comments:

The UGLY (No Water Bond)

This summer, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Senator Dianne Feinstein proposed a compromise plan to update California’s water system by increasing storage, improving conveyance, protecting the Delta’s ecosystem, and promoting water conservation. Given such bipartisan recognition of a water crisis and the need for an immediate solution, why isn’t there a state water bond on the November 4th ballot?

Jeff Kightlinger, General Manager MWD: The proposal from the governor and Senator Feinstein was a very good proposal. It was balanced and fair. There were also a number of legislative proposals that were quite similar in scope that had some tweaks and changes, but by and large, they were similar. Logic would have said we should be able to get together and find a consensus on one of these bonds. There were a number of reasons we didn’t. One of those reasons was the budget impasse. It became hard to work on water in addition to the budget. The fact that we couldn’t put together a budget until 70 or 80 days late had a definite impact on the water bond.

Another major reason was that some felt it was premature. We know we have a water crisis and a need for water infrastructure; we know we need a water bond and we need the financing for those water projects. However, the governor had launched the Delta Vision project, which is due to come out with a report in October 2008. I think there was some reluctance to put together a bond that was going to deal with Delta issues and move it forward when the Delta Vision’s final report hasn’t yet been released.

Read more from Jeff Kightlinger in the California Progress Report by clicking here.

New documentary highlights nation’s water infrastructure: Urge your local PBS station to put “Liquid Assets” on the air in your area

Posted by: Maven on September 30, 2008 at 8:30 am

From the ACWA:

A new documentary hitting PBS stations in October educates viewers about the critical role that our water infrastructure plays in protecting public health and promoting economic prosperity. A friendly reminder to your local PBS affiliate can help ensure the program airs in your area.

Liquid Assets, a 90-minute documentary produced by Penn State Public Broadcasting, tells the story of essential infrastructure systems: water, wastewater and stormwater. These systems — some in the ground for more than 100 years — provide a critical public health function and are essential for economic development and growth. However, largely out of sight and out of mind, these aging systems have not been maintained, and some estimates suggest this is the single largest public works endeavor in our nation’s history.

The documentary explores the history, engineering challenges, and political and economic realities in urban and rural locations, and provides an understanding of the hidden assets that support our way of life. It tracks how cities and regions are confronting infrastructure rehabilitation, both economically and politically.

Visit http://liquidassets.psu.edu/ for more information and to view the trailer.

Liquid Assets will be released for broadcast on Oct. 1. To request that your PBS station air Liquid Assets, send a letter to your local station. A sample letter and PBS station contact information can be found at http://www.acwa.com/issues/liquid_assets.asp. A community toolkit is available in conjunction with the documentary to facilitate local involvement.

Synthetic sea: We are turning our oceans into a chemical soup – the result being misery and death for billions of organisms, and serious health implications for ourselves

Posted by: Maven on September 30, 2008 at 8:16 am

From the Permaculture Research Institute:

When we throw things away, we must ask ourselves “where is away?” The clip below [take the link to view it], one of the most frightening I have ever seen, will give you an idea of where at least one of these ‘away’ locations is. Much of our oil-based plastic products end up in our oceans, where they slowly break down into smaller and smaller pieces. Although this may sound like a good thing, in reality all it means is that they are more readily taken up by fish, dolphins, whales, turtles, birds and a myriad other organisms. The plastic molecules never actually disappear. Plastic diminishes in size until in appearance it almost perfectly imitates plankton – resulting in a situation where creatures actually compete with each other to eat it. And, worse, in some parts of the ocean the ratio of plastic to plankton is 6:1, and rising.

Read more of this comprehensive article from the Permaculature Research Institute of the USA by clicking here.

Obama & McCain answer DISCOVER’s questions on the environment

Posted by: Maven on September 29, 2008 at 9:00 am

From Discover Magazine:

While there’s little doubt the economy will be the defining issue in this election, the candidates’ positions on environmental issues can’t be downplayed (after all, what good are $700 billion bailouts if our coastlines are underwater). With the goal of keeping the environment front and center during this election season, best-selling author and DISCOVER contributor Thomas Kostigen put five questions to the two candidates, on topics including climate change, the dwindling water supply, hazardous waste, alt-energy investments, and the private sector’s role in contributing to the clean-up.

As you may recall, both Obama and McCain recently answered 14 questions on science policy from ScienceDebate 2008. While the Obama camp’s answers concerning climate change and alt-energy investments are largely consistent with what ScienceDebate received, this time he includes more detail, including his plans for allocation of the revenue generated by cap-and-trade auctions as well as his proposal to create a $10 billion venture capital fund to bolster clean technology development.

Similarly, McCain’s responses on energy and global warming echo what he told ScienceDebate, including his pledge to instate permanent alt-energy tax breaks (a promise that Obama makes as well) and a vow to “lead by example” in the “greening of the federal government.”

Read more from Discover Magazine by clicking here.

On California’s coast, farewell to the king salmon; For the first time there’s no fishing for chinook salmon on the California coast

Posted by: Maven on September 29, 2008 at 8:50 am

From the Smithsonian Magazine:

The salmon-boat cemetery in Fort Bragg, a fishing port tucked into shaggy pines about 150 miles north of San Francisco, is full of bleached and peeling hulls. Over the years many California vessels have landed in Bruce Abernathy’s front yard, pitched at steep angles among the weeds, some still rigged with trolling poles. The Anita II, the Dag. Eventually Abernathy’s son David takes them apart with a tractor and chain saw and sells what he can for parts. Sometimes all that’s left is a scrap with a painted-on name: My Pet.

Bruce Abernathy himself doesn’t watch the demolitions. He finds somewhere else to be, or he stays inside his house, with its many framed prints of trim little ships atop frisky seas. The fisherman turned resale man, and lately junk dealer, has “a lot of remorse” about what’s happening outside his window beyond the hot pink rhododendron bush. “I know almost everybody who owned these boats,” he said. “Boats become part of you, like a wife.”

Thirty years ago there were several thousand salmon boats in California. More recently, as the fish became scarce, only a few hundred worked the coast. Then salmon populations crashed, and this year for the first time U.S. officials canceled all ocean salmon fishing off California and most of Oregon, and curtailed it off Washington, a $300 million loss. When I visited Fort Bragg, in late May, the harbor felt about as cheerful as a junkyard. The docks should have quaked with activity, but the mooring basin was quiet except for the hoarse bark of sea lions. The fishermen with the biggest boats hoped to go way out after tuna later in the season; others had already joined roadwork crews or cobbled together odd jobs. Disaster relief money would be on the way, but to many second- and third-generation fishermen, a summer without salmon felt like the end of the line. For the better part of a century the fish supported Fort Bragg, home of the World’s Largest Salmon Barbeque, at which local politicians flip fillets on the grill and tourists come from far and wide to taste one of the most sought-after fish in the sea, the chinook salmon, a.k.a. the king.

Read more from the Smithsonian Magazine by clicking here.

Purifying Water with Nano-Particles: A company says 3-D nanoparticles boost the efficiency of water purification

Posted by: Maven on September 29, 2008 at 8:44 am

From the MIT Technology Review:

Adding nanoparticles to a water purifying membrane can double its efficiency, according to a startup company based in Los Angeles. With global water usage on the increase and fresh water in limited supply, the company, NanoH2O, says its novel approach could make such purification technology a viable solution to a growing problem.

Reverse osmosis–feeding water through a semipermeable membrane to filter out impurities–is widely considered to be the most effective way to desalinate water. But it is very energy-intensive, and therefore expensive, because water has to be forced through the membrane under pressure. A key way to reduce the costs involved is to increase the water throughput for the same pressure. But for many years, improvements in membrane technology have been incremental at best, says Jeff Green, NanoH2O founder and CEO.

NanoH2O has found that adding porous nanoparticles to membranes can dramatically increase the efficiency with which water can be filtered. “Under similar pressure, twice as much water goes through,” says Green. In a desalination plant, this increased permeability would reduce energy requirements by 20 percent, or increase water productivity by 70 percent for the same cost, he adds.

Read more from the MIT Technology Review by clicking here.

Peter Gleick to next president: Deal with the water crisis now

Posted by: Maven on September 28, 2008 at 6:14 am

From Wired Magazine:

Among the challenges facing the next president, few are more complex—scientifically, politically, and economically—than the unsustainable global demands on fresh water supplies. Sources are drying up in the US and worldwide, raising the specters of hunger, disease, and international conflict. No one has a clearer view of these issues than Peter Gleick, president and cofounder of the Pacific Institute, an Oakland, California-based environmental think tank. So what will the new president need to understand about water? Here are eight slides from Gleick’s hypothetical PowerPoint presentation.

View Gleick’s hypothetical PowerPoint presentation from Wired Magazine by clicking here.

Odds and ends: Praise for DWP & Nahai, a stream for Griffith Park?, DWR podcasts, salinity management guide, for whom the toll roads, international perspectives on water, and that gotta-go event, the World Toilet Summit & Expo!

Posted by: Maven on September 27, 2008 at 1:42 pm

Long overdue, more odds and ends!

LA Creek Freak attends DWP Forum on Sustainable Water Supplies, says he is encouraged by the plan and by the leadership of David Nahai: One of the mayor’s very best environmental moves was to hire him to run the DWP. David Nahai is up-front, clear, principled and generous. He continually emphasized that water solutions would be based in partnership and collaboration – with an array of city departments, other governmental agencies, neighborhood councils, community groups, and an engaged public. He frequently voiced praise of (and deferred credit to) the work being done by his staff. He uttered the most stark (for a public official) assessment of the damage caused by L.A.’s thirst for imported water, saying that, in the Owens Valley “we left in our wake an environmental calamity.” Find out more about the forum by clicking here.

Restoration of a running stream through Griffith Park? It’s possible, according to an official who is quoted in the Griffith Park Interrupted Blog: At this time we are having a geotechnical consultant perform an engineering feasability study to intercept the groundwater from hydrogeological formations upstream of the landfill and restortation of a running stream through Griffith Park below the landfill. This may be an opportunity to restablish a water resource through the park and reduce the formation of leachate within the landfill. Find out more from the Griffith Park Interrupted Blog by clicking here.

Check out podcasts from DWR: They are short audio podcasts that answers informative and entertaining questions on a variety of subjects from the many experts in the department on a variety of subjects including carbon capture farming, how much does an acre-foot of water cost, and how water is pumped over the Tehachapi’s. Click here for the DWR Podcast webpage.

Salinity Management Guide, updated for 2009, now available online: The guide is intended for landscape designers, park managers and anyone else using recycled water for landscape irrigation, and is the only database of its kind that provides information on the effects of water quality on plants, soils and water application systems. Check it out by clicking here.

First person accounts of the San Onofre Toll Road hearing: For whom the toll roads, posted on IndyBay: a humorous account of the hearing experience, and Tollway Hearing Theater: Catcalls, dollar-wavers and thumb war amid scores of steadfast speakers, by the Laguna Press Independent.

16 unusual international perspectives on water gives you a look at how this resource is viewed around the world in pictures and text from Eco-Worldly. Click here to check it out.

Not to be missed! The World Toilet Summit & Expo: The premier gotta-go event is coming to Macau November 4 through the 6th. Find out more from Water Wired here.

At the new California Academy of Sciences, Cinnabar’s climate change exhibits speak up about state’s environment and future

Posted by: Maven on September 27, 2008 at 11:21 am

From BlooLoop, this press release from Cinnabar:

“Climate change doesn’t have a fixed outcome – what we do as individuals and as a community will affect the next part of the story,” says Jonathan Katz, CEO of Cinnabar Inc., Los Angeles. “That’s why it was important to design and produce the new “Altered State” exhibits – which account for 10,000 square feet of the 35,000 square feet of exhibits we created for the new California Academy of Sciences – as a participatory guest experience. The issue becomes real in terms of people’s daily lives – the choices we make – and how we perceive California.”

Katz is the executive producer responsible for assembling the team that conceptualized, designed, wrote, fabricated and installed the new exhibits for the Kimball Natural History Museum in the main hall of the new California Academy of Sciences, including “Altered State.” A man with a strong bond to his home state of California, Katz is particularly well-qualified to produce “Altered State,” with twin passions for design and conservation, and professional credentials in each. As part of the Jerry Brown gubernatorial administration in the 1970s, Katz helped implement conservation initiatives such as the Office of Appropriate Technology and the California Conservation Corps. And, as a producer/fabricator of scenery and special effects for movies, television and commercials as well as museums, Katz is known for a bold approach to content delivery, straightforward project management and a track record of getting things done.

“Altered State” provides a museum visitor experience that conveys the urgency and power of its subject with a contemporary approach to information delivery. The exhibits draw upon the findings of research scientists and the institution’s formidable specimen collection, along with live animal displays, media, interactives, and graphic panels to present information authoritatively about how unchecked climate change will alter California in regard to its weather, water, wildlife, wildfires, vegetation, recreation, tourism and economic production. The exhibits invite the museum visitor to join the conversation in a variety of ways.

The new $488 million, 410,000 square-foot Academy is home to the Steinhart Aquarium and the Morrison Planetarium, in addition to the Kimball Museum. The new building itself is a celebrated structure and model of “green” principles – Pritzker Prize winner Renzo Piano’s “non-museum” (his words) is expected to earn a LEED Platinum certification.

To read the rest of this press release, click here.

Secretary Kempthorne announces $48 Million contract for Folsom Dam and reservoir modification project to improve flood control & safety

Posted by: Maven on September 27, 2008 at 8:56 am

From the Department of the Interior, this press release:

Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne today announced that the Bureau of Reclamation has awarded a $48,745,838 contract for Phase II of the Joint Federal Project at Folsom Dam and Reservoir. The award, which is the second in a series of construction contracts for a new auxiliary spillway at Folsom, went to Oregon Mt. Construction of Redding, California.

“This project significantly enhances flood control and dam safety for downstream communities, including Sacramento,” Kempthorne said. “Because we are doing this work as a joint federal-state effort, the project creates cost efficacies that save American taxpayers a significant amount of money.”

The auxiliary spillway, or Joint Federal Project, represents an unprecedented partnership among Reclamation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Central Valley Flood Protection Board, and the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency. When completed, the project will address the hydrologic risk to Folsom Dam identified through Reclamation’s Safety of Dams evaluation program. Hydrologic risk refers to possible overtopping of the dams and dikes during an extreme storm event. The project also achieves the Corps’ objective of increasing flood control at Folsom.

The initiative consists of a water-side approach channel, a control structure with six submerged gates, a concrete-lined spillway chute about 3,000-feet long, and a stilling basin which acts as an energy dissipation structure prior to discharges converging with the American River below the main concrete dam. The project will be constructed in three successive phases by Reclamation and the Corps.

The Phase II contract with Oregon Mt. Construction Company includes additional spillway excavation, construction of a stilling basin coffer dam, relocation of a 42-inch water supply pipeline, and ancillary access roads. Work will begin in mid-winter 2008-2009 and will be completed in the summer of 2010. Phase III construction by the Corps will follow shortly thereafter, and the project is expected to be completed by 2015.

In addition to the Joint Federal Project, Reclamation will complete additional dam safety work on Dikes 4, 5, and 6, and the Mormon Island Auxiliary Dam. Additional information on the project is available on Reclamation’s website at http://www.usbr.gov/mp/jfp/index.html.

# # #

Reclamation is the largest wholesale water supplier and the second largest producer of hydroelectric power in the United States, with operations and facilities in the 17 Western States. Its facilities also provide substantial flood control, recreation, and fish and wildlife benefits. Visit our website at http://www.usbr.gov.

Dan Bacher commentary: Schwarzenegger: A ‘green economy’ in the wake of a dead delta?

Posted by: Maven on September 27, 2008 at 8:48 am

From Dan Bacher at IndyBay, this commentary:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose horrendous environmental policies have resulted in ecological catastrophe for the California Delta and the collapse of Central Valley salmon runs, today again attempted to delude the media and the public about his environmental record by mouthing off about his “committment to building a green economy.”

Schwarzenegger announced his alleged committment to “green jobs” after he signed AB 3018 by Speaker Emeritus Fabian Nuñez that creates a Green Collar Jobs Council to develop a “comprehensive approach” to address California’s emerging workforce needs associated with its budding “green economy.”

“The green-friendly business climate we are building in California continues to attract more clean-tech and green-tech companies to the state and is ensuring that the job growth in this booming industry will happen in California,” Governor Schwarzenegger claimed. “The Green Collar Jobs Council established by this legislation will capitalize on our state’s clean-tech boom and help transform of California’s workforce to meet the demands of an emerging green economy.”

Unfortunately, anybody who has studied the governor’s actual environmental record knows that the only “green” that Schwarzenegger knows is the money of the powerful, heavily subsidized agribusiness corporations and water developers that he serves.

When he signed California’s long overdue state budget on Tuesday, Schwarzenegger, true to his role as the “Fish Terminator,” blue penciled $3.1 million in funding from a key program run by the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) to restore endangered and threatened salmon, steelhead and other species.

Read more of Dan Bacher’s commentary from IndyBay.org by clicking here.

San Diego Museum of Natural History Exhibit: WATER: H2O=Life

Posted by: Maven on September 27, 2008 at 7:01 am

From the Navy Compass:

Visitors to the San Diego Natural History Museum can now explore the culture, history, and future of water—the essential ingredient in life—in a captivating new exhibition entitled Water: H2O=Life.
The exhibition runs through Nov. 30 and is the exhibition’s only West Coast venue. A special section of the exhibition devoted exclusively to southern California’s water issues will be on display at the Museum for at least two years. That section, titled Water: A California Story, was designed and developed by the Museum.

Water affects the lives of every creature and plant on Earth. Every language has a word for water, and this ubiquitous yet precious substance influences art and cultures around the globe. And even though two-third of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, only three percent of it is fresh water. Out of that three percent, only a small fraction is usable water to sustain life on Earth—much of the Earth’s fresh water is either ice or underground.

Water: H2O=Life is curated by Dr. Exequiel Ezcurra, provost and director of the Museum’s scientific research division, the Biodiversity Research Center of the Californias. “We are part of a complex ecosystem,” says Ezcurra, “and we need to remember that water is a service provided by nature. Just like any other species, we cannot survive without water. However, in order to have water in the future, we need to change how we use water now.”

Aqua Blog Maven has three pictures from the Aquafornia displayed at the museum, which are part of the California display. That’s worth the admission price alone, if you ask me :) Read more from the Navy Compass by clicking here.

Popular Mechanics “Geek the Vote” series: Where McCain and Obama stand on water issues

Posted by: Maven on September 26, 2008 at 6:05 am

From Popular Mechanics:

From offshore drilling (and Sarah Palin) to plug-in cars (and inflated tires), alternative energy has been the uncontested behemoth of environmental issues in the presidential campaign’s homestretch. But when Sen. John McCain suggested renegotiating a key water conservation agreement last month, the ensuing political firestorm reminded voters just how important other “green” topics have become.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt the major, major issue is water and can be as important as oil,” McCain told the Pueblo Chieftain after announcing his support for a rethink of the 1922 Colorado River Compact. “I think that there’s a movement to … adjust to the new realities of high growth, of greater demands on a scarcer resource.”

Sen. Barack Obama fired back, hoping to court Colorado residents angered by McCain’s implication that he would divert water resources from their state. “Opening the compact would pit the seven basin states against one another in extended negotiations, instead of facilitating cooperative efforts to address water supply challenges facing the arid west,” read a statement posted on Obama’s Web site. “I will respect the work the seven states have done and honor the Compact.”

Scientific evidence leaves little doubt that America’s fresh- and saltwater ecosystems are in dire need of protection: Recent studies indicate that climate change-induced droughts could threaten water supplies for up to 25 million Americans, and that global fish stocks could be wiped out by 2050. Meanwhile, a smorgasbord of assaults—Hurricanes Ike and Katrina not the least among them—have damaged miles of fragile Gulf Coast ecosystem. With help from analysts closely watching the preservation of water resources—and environmental advocates who were more inclined to be quoted for this article in PM’s Geek the Vote series— we’ve unearthed the substance (or lack thereof) behind the candidates’ promises.

Get the rundown on the presidential candidates’ position on water issues from Popular Mechanics “Geek the Vote” series by clicking here.

An Update on the Cadiz project from the Village Green Blog

Posted by: Maven on September 25, 2008 at 2:35 pm

Last week, Cadiz Inc. announced in this press release that an agreement had been reached to run a underground pipeline alongside the Arizona & California Railroad Company’s right-of-way. The pipeline would be used to bring in excess Colorado River water to the remote basin for storage & recharge operations; the plan also includes groundwater pumping. The press release was intended to alleviate Diane Feinstein’s concerns, but apparently this was not the case, as Kelly Zito fills us in with an update on this story from the Village Green blog:

Feinstein is no stranger to big water projects. She supports additional surface storage (read: reservoirs and dams) in California and she stood with Gov. Schwarzenegger in proposing a $9 billion-plus water bond for such projects, as well as recycling and some kind of improved “conveyance” system for routing water around the failing Delta, the hub of the state’s water system.

However, in a striking letter to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, Feinstein said she found the Cadiz Valley Dry-Year Supply Project “very troubling.” Specifically, Feinstein questioned whether the project would result in over pumping of the aquifer (whose supply of water has built up over millions of years), which could damage local habitats. What’s more, Feinstein said the water may not be adequately “recharged” to the aquifer, particularly with some climate models comparing the Southwest of the not-too-distant future with the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.

Feinstein said she plans to hold a Senate hearing on the matter, and will ask Kempthorne to testify.

Read more from the Village Green blog by clicking here.

For more information on the Cadiz project: Cadiz, Inc. website

Celebrating with sips: We’re starting to conserve, but not nearly enough for the shortages ahead

Posted by: Maven on September 25, 2008 at 6:36 am

From the Long Beach Press-Telegram, this editorial:

Thanks to drought-conscious consumers, water usage in Long Beach is the lowest in a decade. The best way to celebrate is to use even less of it.

You won’t be surprised to learn that there isn’t going to be enough water to go around despite our best efforts so far. Water experts, who met this week at a conference at the Aquarium of the Pacific, offer a variety of solutions, but they all agree that shortages are worsening.

Charles Keine, a manager with the California Department of Water Resources, said state and local agencies must increase water storage capacity and repair dams and levees that bring water to farms and cities. But that won’t be enough.

Ryan Alsop, government and public affairs director of the Long Beach Water Department, said there has to be a paradigm shift throughout the region in our relationship with water. In other words, we need an attitude adjustment. If we don’t do it, somebody else will do it for us, and it won’t be cheap. Water and sewer rates in Long Beach go up 18.5 percent Oct. 1, which is a moderate warning about what likely lies ahead.

Read more of this editorial from the Long Beach Press Telegram by clicking here.

Plastic ocean: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Posted by: Maven on September 25, 2008 at 6:10 am

From BlueFlipper Diving (a scuba diving website):

A vast swath of the Pacific, twice the size of Texas, is full of a plastic stew that is entering the food chain. Scientists say these toxins are causing obesity, infertility…and worse…

Fate can take strange forms, and so perhaps it does not seem unusual that Captain Charles Moore found his life’s purpose in a nightmare. Unfortunately, he was awake at the time, and 800 miles north of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean.

It happened on August 3, 1997, a lovely day, at least in the beginning: Sunny. Little wind. Water the color of sapphires. Moore and the crew of Alguita, his 50-foot aluminum-hulled catamaran, sliced through the sea.

Returning to Southern California from Hawaii after a sailing race, Moore had altered Alguita’s course, veering slightly north. He had the time and the curiosity to try a new route, one that would lead the vessel through the eastern corner of a 10-million-square-mile oval known as the North Pacific subtropical gyre. This was an odd stretch of ocean, a place most boats purposely avoided. For one thing, it was becalmed. “The doldrums,” sailors called it, and they steered clear. So did the ocean’s top predators: the tuna, sharks, and other large fish that required livelier waters, flush with prey. The gyre was more like a desert—a slow, deep, clockwise-swirling vortex of air and water caused by a mountain of high-pressure air that lingered above it.

The area’s reputation didn’t deter Moore. He had grown up in Long Beach, 40 miles south of L.A., with the Pacific literally in his front yard, and he possessed an impressive aquatic résumé: deckhand, able seaman, sailor, scuba diver, surfer, and finally captain. Moore had spent countless hours in the ocean, fascinated by its vast trove of secrets and terrors. He’d seen a lot of things out there, things that were glorious and grand; things that were ferocious and humbling. But he had never seen anything nearly as chilling as what lay ahead of him in the gyre.

It began with a line of plastic bags ghosting the surface, followed by an ugly tangle of junk: nets and ropes and bottles, motor-oil jugs and cracked bath toys, a mangled tarp. Tires. A traffic cone. Moore could not believe his eyes. Out here in this desolate place, the water was a stew of plastic crap. It was as though someone had taken the pristine seascape of his youth and swapped it for a landfill.

A comprehensive article that gives a lot of background information on plastic. Read more from Blueflipper Diving by clicking here.

Politics and Pipelines: If it’s relevant to California’s water history, past or present, it’s on the shelves of Berkeley’s Water Resources Center Archive

Posted by: Maven on September 25, 2008 at 5:44 am

From the U. C. Berkeley News:

California is beset by a two-year drought. Water rationing is spreading, while a thirsty population swells. Sea levels are rising, and levees protecting low-lying land from flooding are under siege.

Water, a charged issue as long as California has existed, faces a crisis that has parallels to the current meltdown on Wall Street in that the stakes are high, powerful interests are fighting for position, the outcome is potentially catastrophic, and solutions are murky. One big difference, besides the obvious: There’s no bailout for the state’s water problems.

An invaluable resource at this critical time — for the many minds at work on California’s water woes, as well as those studying climate change — is Berkeley’s Water Resources Center Archive, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

“For anybody looking into the history of water use and water development in California, it’s probably the premier research facility,” says Stephen Wee, president of JRP Historical Consulting. The Davis firm is currently using the archive to help the state Department of Water Resources plan levee reinforcement in the Delta with an eye on the tide-raising effects of global warming.

Find out more about the Water Resources Center Archive by clicking here.

Commentary: The ‘green governor’ slashes funding for endangered species; Schwarzenegger continues his war on fish and the environment

Posted by: Maven on September 24, 2008 at 6:01 am

From Dan Bacher, this commentary:

When he signed California’s long overdue state budget today, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, true to his role as the “Fish Terminator,” blue penciled $3.1 million in funding from a key program run by the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) to restore endangered and threatened salmon, steelhead and other species.

Although some deluded reporters and editors in the corporate media still portray Governor Schwarzenegger as the “Green Governor” for his grandstanding over global warming and “sustainability,” more and more Californians are waking up to the fact that the Schwarzenegger administration has been an unprecedented environmental disaster.

In the latest episode in his apparently relentless zeal to destroy California fisheries, Schwarzenegger has axed critical funding for DFG’s Biodiversity Program staff. This staff is responsible for administering and enforcing California’s Endangered Species Act (CESA) as well as reviewing and approving timber harvesting plans and applications for “incidental take” permits. The state’s efforts for recovery of threatened and endangered species, including CESA-listed species of declining salmon, are also budgeted under this program, according to a statement from California Trout.

California Trout, a prominent watershed and fish conservation group, strongly opposes Governor Schwarzenegger’s line item veto of $3.1 million in funding for these critical DFG activities.

“We are deeply disappointed that the governor would opt to severely limit DFG’s ability to protect our environment at this critical time,” said California Trout Chief Executive Officer Brian Stranko. “Particularly given the dramatic recent reductions in salmon populations and other threatened and endangered species, this action seems especially short-sighted. His action is particularly troublesome given the relatively minor savings achieved to our multi-billion dollar state budget.”

Continue reading “Commentary: The ‘green governor’ slashes funding for endangered species; Schwarzenegger continues his war on fish and the environment” »

LADWP begins citywide dialog on expanding water recycling, including groundwater replenishment, to help create a sustainable water supply

Posted by: Maven on September 23, 2008 at 3:06 pm

From the LADWP, this press release:

As the City’s water supply outlook becomes more critical, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) hosted a public forum on Friday, Sept. 19 to begin a dialogue on developing sustainable water supplies for Los Angeles, with a focus on increasing the use of recycled water.

More than 250 people-including representatives of neighborhood councils, community groups, environmental activists and members of Los Angeles, Orange County and state water agencies-gathered at the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant to discuss recycled water, including groundwater replenishment, from both a policy and health standpoint. Groundwater replenishment involves taking highly treated wastewater–purified through state-of-the-art processes including reverse osmosis–and sending it to spreading basins to replenish groundwater.

Expanding recycled water is a key component of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s “Securing L.A.’s Water Supply,” a 20-year water supply action plan for Los Angeles. “We now have the wisdom, the technology, and proven ability to purify water for high quality drinking water over a several-year and several-filtrations process,” Villaraigosa said. “Orange County has just opened the largest groundwater replenishment system in the nation. The water is clean, it’s safe, and we want it here in LA.”

Continue reading “LADWP begins citywide dialog on expanding water recycling, including groundwater replenishment, to help create a sustainable water supply” »

CSPA sues City of Stockton over waste water treatment plant

Posted by: Maven on September 23, 2008 at 3:01 pm

From IndyBay:

After numerous, letters and meetings with the City of Stockton regarding Stockton’s waste water treatment plant, all without a proper response or effort to adequately correct deficiencies, CSPA has filed suit under the Clean Water Act. The CWA provides for civil penalties of up to $27,000 for each violation occurring from 4 November 1999 to 15 March 2004 and up to $32,500 for each violation occurring since 15 March 2004.

“Stockton’s wastewater control system is a public health and environmental hazard,” said CSPA Executive Director Bill Jennings. “The City’s failure to provide adequate facilities and acceptable levels of maintenance for wastewater control indicates an outrageous and egregious disregard for the health of Stockton’s residents and poses a clear threat to the integrity and survival of the Delta’s fish and wildlife resources,” Jennings observed, adding that, “the spills and effluent violations evidence incredibly poor environmental management.”

Several years ago, Stockton privatized its wastewater collection and treatment system by transferring the system to OCI/Thames. Citizens vigorously opposed the effort and subsequent litigation voided the deal and the city recent resumed control. Since June of 2003, Stockton’s 900 miles of sanitary sewers have experienced almost 1,500 overflows/spills of raw sewage.

For example, in 2005, there were 335 spills or 37.2 per 100 miles of pipe. In 2006, there were 371 spills or 41.2 per 100/miles. In 2008, there were already 95 spills by 7 April. A well-run collection system experiences 0 to 3 spills per 100 miles per year and California’s median spill rate is about 4 spills per 100 miles.

Sewage spills and overflows are serious health and environmental hazards. Because local business and industry discharge into Stockton sewage system, sewage can contain numerous dangerous chemical solvents, heavy metals like lead and mercury and wastes that can impair immune and reproductive systems of Delta fish and wildlife. Pathogens in untreated sewage can cause a multitude of illnesses in humans. Stockton residents may be exposed to these pathogens when swimming, waterskiing, wading, fishing or boating in local waterways and the Delta, as well as when sewage spills into homes, streets, parks, schools and businesses.

Read more of this story from IndyBay by clicking here.

Public Television Stations to Air ‘THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST: ARE WE RUNNING DRY?’ A New One-Hour Documentary

Posted by: Maven on September 23, 2008 at 6:35 am

From the California Chronicle:

The Chronicles Group and presenting station Vegas PBS announce that beginning this fall, public television across the United States will air the new documentary, THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST: ARE WE RUNNING DRY?, about drought and water management hosted and narrated by actress Jane Seymour. Viewers learn about conservation, land use planning, how relentless drought and low precipitation have depleted water levels on vital sources throughout the western United States, such as Lake Powell, Lake Mead, the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta system, the Rio Grande and the Colorado River. A web page dedicated to THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST: ARE WE RUNNING DRY? is available at http://www.runningdry.org/ that contains more information, downloadable photos, trailers and content.

Desalination, rainwater harvesting, green construction, and individual conservation are discussed. Find out more from the California Chronicle by clicking here.

Bush withholds salmon disaster money as he pushes for corporate bailouts!

Posted by: Maven on September 23, 2008 at 6:11 am

From Dan Bacher at IndyBay:

While George W. Bush wants taxpayers to give Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson a $700 billion blank check to bail out Wall Street for its reckless speculation and greed, the administration announced last week that it would release only $100 million of the $170 million appropriated to salmon fishermen and businesses impacted by this year’s salmon fishing closure off the California and Oregon coasts and in Central Valley rivers.

Representatives Peter DeFazio (OR-04) and Mike Thompson (CA-01), along with 10 other members of Congress, wrote to President Bush on September 19 urging him to distribute the full $170 million in disaster aid to fishermen and businesses suffering from the closure of the salmon fishing season on the West Coast caused by the collapse of the Sacramento River fall run chinook salmon population.

“Playing games with the livelihood of fishers across the Pacific Northwest is yet another sign that the Bush Administration has no commitment to protect our valuable river systems, and no interest in helping the fishing communities and economies that rely on them,” the letter stated. “It is also completely unacceptable. We insist that you comply with congressional intent and immediately release the full $170 million in federal disaster aid for Pacific Northwest fishers.”

The other Representatives who signed the letter were Baird, Blumenauer, Capps, Eshoo, Farr, Hooley, Matsui, Woolsey, Wu and George Miller.

“The Bush Administration has once again put politics ahead of people,” said North Coast Congressman Mike Thompson (D-CA). “Because of the Administration’s disastrous policies, Pacific coast fishing families have been devastated. Congress appropriated $170 million in federal disaster relief, but this latest proposal by the Bush Administration to withhold a large portion of these funds shows no regard for hardworking fishing families nor their livelihood.”

Read more from Dan Bacher at IndyBay by clicking here.

The district that went from drought to excess in just one summer – California big ag has water to store after earlier calling for a state of emergency?

Posted by: Maven on September 22, 2008 at 5:37 am

From the California Progress Report:

Earlier this month, Westlands Water District (WWD), the largest single recipient of water from the Central Valley Project south of the Delta, filed an application to store 50,000 acre feet of water from this year’s water supply for the District to use in future years.

While water storage is not unusual, this particular action is perplexing given that the same water district reported severe water shortages, resulting in lost crops and lost jobs earlier this year. In fact, the district’s shortages were the primary motivation for the Governor’s declaration of a state of emergency for several California counties. In response to the emergency declaration, water quality standards were relaxed for the Bay Delta as well as the California Aqueduct. In both cases, water quality for the environment and urban users was degraded in an effort to help the district get through the growing season.

Read more from the California Progress Report by clicking here.

California water quality: the role of agriculture

Posted by: Maven on September 21, 2008 at 7:30 am

Here is a report by Hossein Farzin, a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at UC Davis, and Kelly Grogan, a Ph.D. student in the ARE department at UC Davis. It is published by the Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics, University of California. I found this on the Sisweb:

While California’s agriculture has been vibrant and growing, the quality of the state’s water bodies has weakened. However, despite the common perception that agricultural production is a principal culprit, our study shows that this is not generally true. It shows that only a very small portion of water pollutants attributed to agricultural production are actually positively correlated with agricultural production while the majority of the pollutants have no relationship, and some of them are even negatively correlated.

Read the four-page article by clicking here.

Plastic islands in the sea

Posted by: Maven on September 20, 2008 at 6:48 am

From the American Chronicle:

While sitting in my dentist´s office last week, I happened to pick up a copy of the October 2007 edition of National Geographic Adventure, ´The Green Edition´. While casually leafing through it I came across an interesting half page article (page 68) concerning plastic islands in the middle of our oceans – floating garbage patches thousands of miles from land covering vast areas.

The subject of the short article was an individual named Charles Moore, a transpacific sailor of note. Moore was and is the Captain of the Oceanographic Research Vessel Alguita. It seems that Captain Moore was returning from a transpacific race in 1997 to his homeport of Long Beach, California when he noticed an unusual phenomenon – these islands of plastic – in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in an area commonly referred to as ´the doldrums´.

I had previously come across some information on this unnatural occurrence while doing research for other plastic pollution articles. However, I passed it by as not very reliable. This recent browsing happenstance piqued my imagination in that it was prominently featured in a magazine of impeccable credentials. There had to be something there – something I could sink my teeth into. Not many of us are ocean going sailors who might see this abomination up close as did Captain Moore. But apparently these islands exist – huge mid ocean garbage dumps created by plastic and other waste discarded at sea or washed into it from land, driven by wind and currents to mid ocean where they join up to form this mass of pollution.

Read more from the American Chronicle by clicking here.

California’s numbers on the drought

Posted by: Maven on September 20, 2008 at 6:40 am

From the AccuWeather Western U.S. Weather Blog:

I have received a few emails lately about my claim that California had a very dry winter last year. One of those questioning this was Steve who said that precipitation last rainfall season was 70 to 100 percent of normal. While not completely correct, the year long rainfall statistics do fall in the 70 to 90 percent range. But this really does not tell the story.

Its not always how much rain that falls over a year but when the rain falls. This was certainly the case last rainfall season. December 2007 was pretty close to normal and January was a very wet month with totals up to 250 percent of normal. But by February the rainfall spigot was being turned off and from March to the end of the rainfall season on June 30 only a few drops dribbled from that spigot.

Read more from the AccuWeather Western U.S. Weather Blog by clicking here.

Is drinking from the toilet bowl the best way to deal with water shortages?

Posted by: Maven on September 20, 2008 at 6:24 am

From AlterNet:

Before I left New York for California, where I planned to visit a water-recycling plant, I mopped my kitchen floor. Afterward, I emptied the bucket of dirty water into the toilet and watched as the foamy mess swirled away. This was one of life’s more mundane moments, to be sure. But with water infrastructure on my mind, I took an extra moment to contemplate my water’s journey through city pipes to the wastewater-treatment plant, which separates solids and dumps the disinfected liquids into the ocean.

A day after mopping, I gazed balefully at my hotel toilet in Santa Ana, Calif., and contemplated an entirely new cycle. When you flush in Santa Ana, the waste makes its way to the sewage-treatment plant nearby in Fountain Valley, then sluices not to the ocean but to a plant that superfilters the liquid until it is cleaner than rainwater. The “new” water is then pumped 13 miles north and discharged into a small lake, where it percolates into the earth. Local utilities pump water from this aquifer and deliver it to the sinks and showers of 2.3 million customers. It is now drinking water. If you like the idea, you call it indirect potable reuse. If the idea revolts you, you call it toilet to tap.

Opened in January, the Orange County Groundwater Replenishment System is the largest of its type in the world. It cost $480 million to build, will cost $29 million a year to run and took more than a decade to get off the ground. The stumbling block was psychological, not architectural. An aversion to feces is nearly universal, and as critics of the process are keen to point out, getting sewage out of drinking water was one of the most important public health advances of the last 150 years.

Read more from AlterNet by clicking here.

Water board sued over desalination approval

Posted by: Maven on September 20, 2008 at 6:21 am

From KPBS in San Diego:

Two environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board. The suit charges the board didn’t properly study how a Carlsbad desalination plant would harm marine life. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce has details.

San Diego Coastkeeper and the Surfrider Foundation filed the civil lawsuit in San Diego Superior Court.

The lawsuit says the regional water board should have done a detailed analysis of how the desalination plant would affect marine life before conditionally approving a plan by Poseidon Resources to deal with those affects.

More from KPBS by clicking here.

Santa Clarita Valley water suppliers declare water supply alert and call for voluntary actions to conserve water supplies

Posted by: Maven on September 19, 2008 at 11:40 am

From the Santa Clarita Family of Water Suppliers, this press release:

On June 4, 2008, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a statewide drought proclamation in response to continued dry weather conditions which have resulted in below normal water supplies. This is the first drought declaration issued in California in over 16 years. Therefore, the Santa Clarita Valley Family of Water Suppliers has prepared a Voluntary Water Conservation Action Plan which calls on residents and businesses in the Santa Clarita Valley to take reasonable actions to reduce water use and eliminate waste.

This Water Alert is aimed at increasing awareness of the critical water supply conditions throughout California and the immediate need for conservation. The Voluntary Water Conservation Action Plan provides simple and easy steps for residents and businesses to take. If successful, this plan could reduce water usage by up to 10 percent. The water suppliers will continue to assess water supply conditions through the end of 2008 and into next year. If water supply conditions worsen in 2009, further actions may be necessary to ensure available water supplies for Valley residents.

Continue reading “Santa Clarita Valley water suppliers declare water supply alert and call for voluntary actions to conserve water supplies” »

Klamath River tribes and fishermen: No business as usual at PacifiCorp!

Posted by: Maven on September 19, 2008 at 5:55 am

From Dan Bacher:

A coalition of Klamath River Indian Tribes, fishermen, conservationists and local supporters ramped up their campaign to remove four fish-killing dams on the river today when they held a spirited protest in front of PacifiCorp’s headquarters in Portland.

The “Day of Action Against PacifiCorp” started off at 8:30 a.m. today when local activists hung a banner proclaiming “Warren Buffett Kills Salmon, Jobs and Communities” over Interstate-84 in solidarity with the Tribes. Around 200 people marched from Holiday Park in Portland at noon to converge in front of PacifiCorp for a press conference at 1 p.m.

After the conference, 70 people occupied the area in front of the headquarters, effectively shutting down the front entrance to PacifiCorp after company staff locked the doors. Police decked out in riot gear guarded the building, but no arrests were made. The dam removal advocates, including American Indian Movement (AIM) activists, commercial fishermen and other local supporters, pounded on the doors of the building, disrupting business at the power company.

“We are here to let PacifiCorp and Warren Buffett know that there will be no business as usual for PacifiCorp as long as there is no business as usual for Klamath River communities,” said Chook Chook Hillman of the Karuk Tribe and a member of the Klamath Justice Coalition, who carried two bottles of toxic algae from Klamath River reservoirs to the front door of PacifiCorp.

Continue reading “Klamath River tribes and fishermen: No business as usual at PacifiCorp!” »

We’re paying the price today for decades of relentless dam building

Posted by: Maven on September 19, 2008 at 5:51 am

From AlterNet:

Between 1950 and 1970, three new dam projects were started every single day in the world. Today, primarily in China, Turkey, Brazil, Japan and India, one new dam project begins daily with an average completion date of four years. Fifteen hundred dams are currently under construction worldwide.

Dams fragment, divert and subjugate the world’s rivers. In one long lifespan, beginning with the inauguration of Hoover Dam in 1936, the engineering marvel of the 20th century, civilization has altered the most important function that makes the earth work, water. Thus, transmuting humanity into something foreign to the earth it inhabits — a stranger to the very system which gave rise to our species.

The late Carl Sagan was among precious few visionary humans who shared the extraordinary ability to differentiate between deep thought and deep nonsense and recognized the persistence of a satisfying delusion to perpetuate the latter. Dr. Sagan wrote, “We go about our daily lives understanding almost nothing of the world. We give little thought to the machinery that generates the sunlight that makes life possible, to the gravity that glues us to an earth that otherwise sends us spinning off into space or to the atoms of which we are made and on whose stability we fundamentally depend.”

Without some sense, some outline of how the earth works and our relationship to it, one is deprived of knowing, let alone of asking, the really important questions that promote regenerative life and prevent massive-scale destruction and degeneration.

Read more from AlterNet by clicking here.

Congressman Jim Costa applauds Cadiz Inc. for dry-year supply project

Posted by: Maven on September 18, 2008 at 4:10 pm

From the Office of Congressman Jim Costa:

Today, Congressman Jim Costa (D-Fresno) applauded Cadiz Inc. for their continued efforts to build a groundwater banking project in southern California. Cadiz announced today that they had entered into an agreement with Arizona & California Railroad Company to utilize a portion of the railroad’s right-of-way for a conveyance pipeline and power line as part of the Cadiz Valley Dry-Year Supply Project.

“California needs more innovative projects like this one to help us prepare for dry years,” said Costa. “The current water crisis highlights this need more than ever. Water banking projects are a key piece to ensuring our future water supply.”

The project is a water storage and supply program based on Cadiz’s 35,000-acre landholding in the Cadiz and Fenner valleys of eastern San Bernardino County. The Project utilizes this aquifer to store water that can then be used during periods of drought. Cadiz estimates that the project will be able to provide southern California with as much as 150,000 acre-feet/year of water during years of droughts.

According to the company, the aquifer system that underlies the Project area has the ability to provide both a new supply of indigenous groundwater and to store approximately 1 million acre-feet of Colorado River water that could be imported from the Colorado River Aqueduct in wet years. This stored water and indigenous groundwater could be delivered to the Colorado River Aqueduct in dry years for distribution to participating water providers throughout southern California. The right-of-way agreement announced today will allow the project to connect to the Colorado River Aqueduct.

Cadiz is in the process of completing the environmental review for the project. It is expected that the County of San Bernardino will serve as California Environmental Quality Act lead agency and will oversee a comprehensive Groundwater Monitoring and Management Plan for the project.

Cadiz announces agreement with Arizona & California Railroad Company for new water pipeline; 99-year lease agreement will provide Southern California with as much as 150,000 acre-feet/year of clean and reliable water

Posted by: Maven on September 18, 2008 at 8:27 am

This press release from Cadiz, Inc.:

Cadiz Inc. (NASDAQ:CDZI) announced today the execution of a 99-year lease agreement with the Arizona & California Railroad Company (ARZC). The agreement will allow Cadiz to utilize a portion of the railroad’s right-of-way for a conveyance pipeline as part of the Cadiz Valley Dry-Year Supply Project.

The Cadiz Valley Dry-Year Supply Project (Project) is a water storage and supply program, which will provide Southern California with as much as 150,000 acre-feet/year (49 billion gallons) of clean and reliable water during years of droughts, emergencies, or other periods of urgent need by utilizing the aquifer system that underlies Cadiz’s 35,000-acre landholding in the Cadiz and Fenner valleys of eastern San Bernardino County. Historically, such dry periods occur in approximately three out of every ten years. In any given dry year, this water would be enough to serve more than 1.2 million people.

This past August, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) announced that it may implement mandatory rationing in 2009 since it does not have enough water to meet demand. Furthermore, state water agencies will receive only 35% of their normal water allocations for 2008 – down from 60% in 2007 – and they expect to only receive between 10% & 20% in 2009.

“Southern California is facing chronic water shortages,” said Richard Stoddard, CEO of Cadiz Real Estate LLC. “The Cadiz Project is an innovative and environmentally responsible way to help meet the region’s need for new water supplies and more water storage.”

As part of the agreement with ARZC, Cadiz now has the right to construct an underground pipeline within the railroad right-of-way to connect the Project area to the Colorado River Aqueduct (CRA) rather crossing U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands, as was considered in earlier iterations of the Project. Although this alignment is significantly more costly, it is considered to be more environmentally friendly than routes that would have crossed federal lands because the railroad right-of-way is already active and disturbed.

“We are excited to hear about this new alternative pipeline alignment that would enable the Cadiz Project to deliver water to Southern California,” said Fern Steiner, Chairwoman of the San Diego County Water Authority. “Given the current water crisis affecting the entire region, San Diego County Water Authority is interested in exploring all possible supply opportunities including projects like the Cadiz Project which could accelerate the delivery of much needed supplies to the region.”

“In the ensuing years, the Southern California region has need of projects like Cadiz to responsibly and efficiently meet an unprecedented demand for “new” water supplies. Along with increased recycled water and desalination, the Cadiz Project presents an important alternative that can add to the region’s water supply reliability,” said Floyd Wicks, CEO of American States Water, whose subsidiary, Golden State Water Company, provides retail water service to more than a million Californians. “We are pleased with the news that the Project has advanced to the point which may yield an alternative that could quickly deliver these supplies to the region.”

Construction of the Project facilities could begin as soon as the environmental review for the Project is completed. It is now anticipated that the County of San Bernardino will serve as California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) lead agency and that it will oversee a comprehensive Groundwater Monitoring and Management Plan for the Project. Cadiz is currently engaged in discussions with a group of public water providers interested in participating in the Project.

“I look forward to the County playing the lead role on the Groundwater Monitoring and Management Plan and in helping to implement this important project,” said San Bernardino County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt. Supervisor Mitzelfelt’s District is the largest in San Bernardino County and includes the Cadiz Project area.

The Groundwater Monitoring and Management Plan will be similar to one previously authored by San Bernardino County, the U.S. Geological Survey, National Park Service, BLM, and MWD in 2001.

This Plan was originally designed to alleviate concerns raised by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and it will maintain those principle objectives: protect the desert environment in and surrounding the Project area, ensure groundwater quality, and maintain the long-term yield and storage capacity of the aquifer system.

Information on the Aquifer System

The aquifer system that underlies the Project area has the ability to provide both a new supply of indigenous groundwater and to store approximately 1 million acre-feet of Colorado River water that could be imported from the CRA in “wet” years. This stored water and indigenous groundwater could be delivered to the CRA in “dry” years for distribution to participating water providers throughout Southern California. The aquifer system is recharged by precipitation (both rainfall and snow melt) that occurs within a regional watershed of 1,300 square miles. For this reason, any transfers of indigenous groundwater will be naturally replenished over time.

History of the Project

The Cadiz Project has been a decade-long effort to bring a new, clean and reliable water supply to Southern California. Cadiz’s original partner, MWD, together with the BLM prepared a Final Environmental Impact Report/ Environmental Impact Statement (FEIR/ FEIS) for the Project in 2001. The FEIS for the Project, including a right-of-way for the conveyance pipeline, was approved by the US Department of the Interior (DOI) in a highly supportive Record of Decision issued in August 2002:

“By providing storage of surplus Colorado River water, and the export of indigenous groundwater under specified conditions, the Cadiz Project will help ensure needed dry-year water supply reliability and will assist California in efficiently managing its water supplies. Future water supply needs in Metropolitan’s Southern California service area, without implementation of the Cadiz Project, would substantially exceed demands by the year 2020. The public benefits of the Cadiz Project are compelling reasons for the Department of the Interior to cooperate to the greatest extent possible in assisting California in meeting its water supply goals.”

However, MWD refused to accept the right-of-way offered by the DOI and decided not to proceed with the Project in October 2002. MWD is currently facing unprecedented water shortages, which would have been significantly mitigated by implementation of the Cadiz Project in 2002.

Metropolitan initially approved a $1-billion, 50-year project to pump water from the remote aquifer, as well as use it for storage of surplus Colorado River water. However, environmentalists vowed to fight, citing concern that Cadiz had overestimated the amount of water in the aquifer, and that the operations would dry up the natural springs vital to the survival of desert wildlife, such as the bighorn sheep and the desert tortoise.

Eventually, Metropolitan backed off the project and a lawsuit was filed in 2002. Just recently, a trial date was set for May 5th of this year, pending the outcome of settlement meetings, but that trial did not take place. The most recent update on the lawsuit I can find says this (from an SEC filing)

The initial mandatory settlement conference was held on April 30, 2008. Following the conference, Judge Johnson issued a 30 day stay of all proceedings while Judge Lichtman continues his ongoing mediation. If the parties do not ultimately reach an agreement through the settlement conference process and Judge Lichtman declares an impasse, the Court will set a new trial date. As is normal in such legal proceedings, applicable dates will be set and, if necessary, revised by the Court based upon availability within the Court’s calendar.

For more information on the Cadiz project:

• Cadiz, Inc. website
• L.A. Times: MWD OKs Plan to Pump Desert Aquifer’s Water, April 11, 2001
• Will the Met wring the desert dry?, from High Country News, May 21, 2001

Delta Vision Task Force to meet Thursday (18th) and Friday (19th)

Posted by: Maven on September 17, 2008 at 3:23 pm

It’s Delta Vision time again, folks…..

The Delta Vision Task Force will be meeting this Thursday & Friday, the 18th & 19th, to discuss the fourth draft of their strategic plan. The finalized plan is due to the governor by October 31st.

Meeting agenda and weblinks can be found by clicking here.

The fourth draft of the Strategic Plan can be found by clicking here.

Drought, water shortages force ranchers to downsize

Posted by: Maven on September 17, 2008 at 6:35 am

From the California Farm Bureau Federation:

There are fewer mouths to feed on Stanislaus County cattle producer David Absher’s ranch, because there is precious little feed to begin with. Two years of skimpy rainfall and poor grass growth left little for his cows to eat, and like many California farmers and ranchers, Absher has had to make drastic changes to his operation to conserve resources in light of the state’s current drought.

He thinned his herd by 30 percent earlier in the year to take pressure off his range and now plans to reduce another 10 percent because there won’t be enough water in his allotment for the year to keep his summer pastures growing and his cows fed.

“Essentially we’re stockpiling feed on the pastures that we already have,” said Absher, who is among nearly 200 farmers and ranchers who responded to a survey conducted by the California Farm Bureau Federation about how producers are coping with current water shortages. “The fewer cows that you have on it, the less is consumed, so we’re reducing the impact on the pasture over the grazing season to extend the grazing season.”

Although Absher raises cattle, he said he considers himself a grass farmer first because only with proper management of this resource can he sustain his herds. But the extended drought has made range management much more difficult this year.

Walking through his ranch near Modesto, where his cows graze on irrigated pastures during summer months, Absher noted the “holistic” approach his ranch manager, Jonathan Hjelmervik, must take to meet the needs of the cattle while maintaining the health of the land.

Continue reading “Drought, water shortages force ranchers to downsize” »

Farmers prepare for termination of water program

Posted by: Maven on September 17, 2008 at 6:22 am

From the California Farm Bureau Federation:

In a move that will affect crop production across much of the region, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California plans to end its discount program for agricultural irrigation water. The move, expected to be approved in October, will open the door to increased water costs for many Southland farmers. If adopted by the MWD board of directors, the proposal could reduce food production, as farmers struggle to pay higher water costs on top of soaring costs for fuel, fertilizer and other supplies.

Under the discount program, participating farmers now save about $100 an acre-foot of water in exchange for agreeing to cutbacks of as much as 30 percent when MWD water supplies are low. MWD imposed the 30-percent cuts for the first time this year. Non-discount water sells for about $700 an acre-foot through MWD member water agencies.

Discussion about eliminating the program has been going on since the beginning of 2008. “We got grower reaction before this proposal was announced,” said Eric Larson, San Diego County Farm Bureau executive director. “Some of our county Farm Bureau members sat on a committee with MWD staff to help craft this program’s exit strategy. Before the proposed phaseout was sent for review to the MWD board, our own Farm Bureau board considered and approved the proposal.”

Continue reading “Farmers prepare for termination of water program” »

California Coastal Clean-Up Day presented by the California Coastal Commission and Whole Foods Market

Posted by: Maven on September 17, 2008 at 5:56 am

From Web Wire:

The California Coastal Commission and Whole Foods Market are proud to announce that the 24th Annual California Coastal Cleanup Day will take place on Saturday, September 20th, from 9 am to Noon at over 750 locations around the state. Volunteers will clean trash and debris from 1,100 miles of the California coast as well as another 1,000 miles along the inland shorelines of bays, creeks, rivers, and lakes throughout California.

The 2008 Cleanup will look to build on the success of last year’s event, when 61,112 volunteers turned out to remove just under 1 million pounds of debris – the largest Cleanup in California’s history. The 2007 Cleanup not only eclipsed the previous record for volunteer turnout by more than 20 percent, but was also the largest Cleanup in terms of geographic reach. 48 of California’s 58 counties participated in the 2007 Cleanup. The Coastal Commission has been working to steadily expand the effort; data gathered from cleanups in the past few years reveal the need to continue this expansion. 60 to 80 percent of the debris found on California’s beaches originates from inland or urban areas and washes out to the ocean.

“California Coastal Cleanup Day is among the largest of many efforts that the state undertakes to safeguard our coast and ocean,” said Eben Schwartz, Statewide Director of the Cleanup. “The key to the success of the Coastal Cleanup Day, though, is the dedication of the volunteers who give their time and effort to this cause. Cleanup volunteers not only help remove debris from our state’s beaches and waterways; they also take away a powerful message of the need to prevent pollution year-round.”

More from Web Wire by clicking here.

How you can participate: There are locations throughout the state, both on the coast and inland. To find a coastal cleanup event near you, click here.

HUGE Beach Clean Up at Long Beach’s Bluff Park! Live Music, Good Food, Refreshments, Games, Give-a-ways -THIS SATURDAY!

Posted by: Maven on September 17, 2008 at 5:51 am

From the Long Beach Water Department:

The Long Beach Water Department is again hosting the city’s biggest beach clean-up party this Saturday, September 20th, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., at Bluff Park, at the intersection of Ocean Blvd., and Coronado Avenue. The event is part of the statewide California Coastal Cleanup Day, an all out assault on the trash that pollutes our beautiful California coastline.

Start your Saturday morning off right! Bring the entire family! Stay for 30-minutes, or stick around for a while. In either case, enjoy live music, eat breakfast or lunch, let the kids run around, and enjoy the view…all at Bluff Park, Ocean Blvd., and Coronado. We’ll see you there!

For more information, contact: Melissa Keyes at (562) 570-2309.

The Long Beach Water Department is an urban, southern California, retail water supply agency and the standard in water conservation and environmental stewardship.

Ryan J. Alsop
Director of Government & Public Affairs
Long Beach Water

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