Odds and ends: Salmon vs smelt, bloggers react to drought, Judge Wanger a workaholic, snow to water ratios, another great website for water news, check out the water jet pack, and awesome aerial shots of the Delta & more

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2009 at 8:22 am

Something other than drought news to lead the blog today…. let’s have some fun!

Salmon over smelt: Relaxing the Delta outflow rules to be considered, says Spreck Rosekranz of the EDF’s On the Waterfront blog: The request will be officially made by the Water Operations Management Team (WOMT), comprised of representatives of fishery and water project agencies. They are expected to cite the extremely low storage volumes in principal State Water Project and Central Valley Project reservoirs, and explain that it is essential to conserve cold water in those reservoirs to protect endangered salmon later in the year. It could also mean a little more water for cities and farms. Check it out here from On the Waterfront: Smelt vs. salmon: Agencies to consider proposal to relax Delta outflow rules

Bloggers react to the drought – here’s a sampling: California’s water woes are of our own making, says a realtor from Redding, while the Leakbird blog says it’s both a service crisis and a resource crisis. California’s turning into a dust bowl, says the Calitics blog, while the Nature Conservancy wonders what it will take to get us to change our water wasting ways, and this blogger, well he’s just pissed.

Judge Wanger shatters the criteria required of Federal court judges, notes the Fresno Bee’s political notebook: As judge on senior status, for instance, Wanger was to have presided over five trials this past year. Wanger’s number: 48. His trial hours were 16 times the expected amount for a judge on senior status, and he closed 25 times the number cases expected of him. Wanger works nights and weekends, as do the other two district judges. Check it out from the Fresno Bee’s Political Notebook: Wanger’s caseload shows Fresno needs for more federal judges

All about snow to water ratios: The CoCoRaHS blog (not a breakfast cereal, mind you) tells you all about it: The standard that most people learn in a science class is 10 to 1, written was 10:1. This means every ten inches of snow typically melts to about an inch of water. It is ok to use that standard for classroom purposes, and I think in real life more times than not that comes out to be true for many. BUT — location, time of the year, temperature, the source of water and the upper air connection to that source of water — all these factors play a big role in what the ratio will actually be. Check it out here: Snow to Water Ratios

Does reading Aquafornia leave you thirsting for more? This website has to be the mother of all water news sites, putting together links from numerous water news sources, including Aquafornia & more. Check it out here: All the top water news Also, check out the newly redesigned Revive the San Joaquin website.

Check out the Water Jet Pack: who doesn’t want a toy like this?

For a less elegant version and a few chuckles, check out this Japanese video: click here.

From the beautiful to the bleak: Beautiful aerial shots of the Delta taken just days ago from former Modesto Bee photographer Adrian Mendoza. Check it out here: Logo en la Cabeza from Amenphoto. Contrast the Delta to the bleak pictures from the Salton Sea from the Apertura Photography blog: Salton Sea

January 31, 2009 · Filed Under Odds and Ends

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Septic bill is put on hold by State Water Resources Control Board; Public flush with comments about septic tank rules

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2009 at 7:44 am

Good news for you, if you’re a rural property owner with a septic tank. From the Paradise Post:

It appears the Town of Paradise wasn’t the only one with concerns over the State Water Resources Control Board’s planned septic law. The State Water Resources Control Board, Division of Water Quality placed planned septic regulations, AB 885, on hold this week, according to North State Assemblyman Dan Logue.

AB 885, authored by then-Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson in 2000, regulates onsite wastewater treatment systems. The lprocess is currently in the Draft Environmental Impact Report stage. According to the EIR, there are an estimated 1.2 million households statewide that would have to comply, Logue stated.

The new regulations are supposed to be in place by Jan. 1, 2010, but AB 885 included an automatic six-month delay, making the regulations official by July 2010.

The bill’s implementation was put on hold as a result of a public’s outcry that it would cause a significant threat to rural communities, Logue said. The Town of Paradise addressed concerns over the bill at Tuesday night’s Town Council meeting and planned to bring their issues to the state water board. Items of particular concern to the town were regulations like the bill’s requirement for all dispersal systems not be placed under traffic areas. The town has a long standing success rate for placing dispersal fields under pavement in high traffic areas of commercial developments. If the bill was passed, this would have an adverse affect on the town’s commercial development, Onsite Official Doug Danz said at the meeting.

Logue said the bill would significantly affect more than a million California homes, with more stringent requirements that could require many homeowners and businesses to replace their septic systems. The water board supposedly crafted the bill to protect ground and surface water quality from wastewater discharge, he said. But to Logue, and other citizens and local officials, AB 885 over regulates California citizen’s septic systems.

Read more from the Paradise Post by clicking here.

The public had voiced its opposition to the new rules at several meetings around the state, reports the Capital Press:

A Jan. 22 workshop held in Fresno by the State Water Resources Control Board drew a large crowd – as have previous hearings in other parts of the state – and protests over a proposal to require septic system inspections. The board was also criticized for the lack of advance notice about the proposed rules.

Most of the comments questioned the cost estimates for the inspections and the need for a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. Real estate industry representatives argued that the 600-foot setbacks asked in the proposal would further cut property values.

“Those setbacks are going to make a lot of property unbuildable,” said plumbing contractor Rick Marklee. “They don’t need to be 600 feet, 100 is plenty.”

Many questioned the estimated costs of the septic tank inspections – $325 plus the requirement that domestic wells on the property be tested every five years.

Currently, tests or inspections on systems are not required unless the property is sold.

Many people at the meeting said the inspection costs would be a burden to many low-income rural property owners. They also questioned the value of an inspection if pumping the system isn’t required.

“Is there a problem with wells being contaminated? How do you justify these costs?” asked Ron Taylor an Auberry property owner.

Read more from the Capital Press by clicking here.

January 31, 2009 · Filed Under Groundwater

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Days warm but drought is hot topic; Showers fail to douse woes

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2009 at 7:37 am

Note to new readers: This is the obligatory second day post about California’s worsening drought. The drought has led the blog for the last couple of days, so today we needed something different at the top. For more drought stories, click here and here.

For the agricultural view of the drought, this from the Capital Press:

The spitting, dribbling rain that fell on northern and central California last week wasn’t nearly enough to stop the doomsday drought scenarios that are now in the minds of many farmers and meteorologists.

Rainfall totals between Jan. 21 through Jan. 25 ranged from 1.75 inches in Stockton to 0.26 inches in Bakersfield – hardly enough to pull the region to within sight of its normal rainfall for the season.

The misty rain broke a spell of dry and unseasonably warm weather, and now a new dry period is expected to linger at least until the end of next week.

The pattern has weather experts beginning to issue dire warnings of drastic water cutbacks this summer as the state endures its third straight year of drought.

“The consensus is it’s going to be another bad water year for us,” said Robert Baruffaldi, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Sacramento. “Maybe we can get enough in the remainder of the winter to mitigate that,” he said, “but things still look like they’re going to be well below normal this year again.”

Read more from the Capital Press by clicking here.

For an urban view of the drought, this story from the Contra Costa Times:

Southern California temperatures this month were the envy of many in the Midwest and the East, where temperatures have fallen well below freezing on many days. But the warmer weather also spells trouble for Southern California residents, who face an increasing chance of water rationing.

California Department of Water Resources officials announced Thursday that they would be getting less water from this winter’s snowpack, which could lead to restrictions on outdoor watering.

With the smaller snowpack, low water levels in the state’s reservoirs and only two months of winter remaining amid record heat, water conservation plans are likely to be announced in the coming months, experts said.

“We may be at the start of the worst California drought in modern history,” said Department of Water Resources Director Lester Snow in a statement on Jan. 29.

In February, the Department of Water and Power will likely recommended a second phase of water-waste ordinances, which would limit outdoor water use to three days a week. Since June, officials have issued fines to residents who leave hoses and sprinklers running, said Jim McDaniel, a senior assistant general manager with the DWP.

“Everyone needs to conserve more water this year,” he said. “It’s a very serious situation.”

Read more from the Contra Costa Times by clicking here.

Here’s KCRA’s coverage of the drought:

January 31, 2009 · Filed Under Drought, Weather & Snowpack

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Dan Bacher commentary: Schwarzenegger uses snow survey as opportunity to push peripheral canal

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2009 at 7:26 am

From Dan Bacher of the Fish Sniffer:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday used the announcement by the California Department of Water Resources, showing a statewide Sierra snowpack water content at only 61 percent of normal, as yet one more opportunity to campaign for the peripheral canal and more dams.

“California is entering a third straight year of drought, and today’s snow survey is just one more piece of evidence that we urgently need comprehensive water reform to protect our economy, our jobs, our communities and our quality of life,” said Schwarzenegger, who continually touts himself as the “Green Governor.” “California is headed toward one of the worst water crises in its history, underscoring the need to upgrade our water infrastructure by increasing water storage, improving conveyance, protecting the Delta’s ecosystem and promoting greater water conservation.”

“Improving conveyance” means construction of a peripheral canal, a bad idea that was voted down by California voters in 1982. A coalition of environmentalists, commercial fishermen, recreational anglers, Delta farmers and California Indian Tribes is strongly opposing the canal because it would create the infrastructure to export even more water out of the imperiled California Delta.

The Governor claimed that California’s snowpack water content is “particularly significant” this year “because the state has endured two years of drought and our reservoirs are low.” Because less-than-normal water supply conditions exist, the initial State Water Project allocation for 2009 was placed at only 15 percent of water contractors’ requested amounts. The results of this survey could impact future allocations.

January 31, 2009 · Filed Under Peripheral Canal

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California State Lands Commission stops renewed oil drilling off the California coast; editorial says lack of disclosure to blame

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2009 at 7:23 am

From YubaNet.com:

On a two-to-one vote, the California State Lands Commission, chaired by Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, today denied the first new oil lease in state waters in almost 40 years.

Garamendi, former Deputy Interior Secretary under President Bill Clinton, argued strongly that the plan would signal that California wants to open offshore drilling and supporters would push for more oil exploration on the West Coast.

“I refuse to let this lease move forward,” Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi said. “Approving a drilling proposal will undercut congressional efforts to reintroduce a federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling earlier lifted by the Bush Administration.”

The Lieutenant Governor chairs the three-member State Lands Commission, which considered the request to lease land to the Plains Exploration & Production Company to expand drilling off the coast of California.

The Lieutenant Governor, who has consistently opposed offshore drilling, recently spoke with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and other members of the California congressional delegation who had significant concerns about the lease undercutting their attempts to reintroduce a federal moratorium on oil exploration off the coast.

Read more from YubaNet.com by clicking here.

The deal between the environmentalists and the oil interests was a ‘jaw-dropping’ moment, says the LA Times editorial, but lack of disclosure is what really killed the deal:

No new drilling in state waters has been approved since 1969, under a very sound philosophy that the things that would be harmed by drilling — the marine life and beaches destroyed by spills — are more valuable than the oil that would be extracted. Yet it’s possible to craft compromises that compensate for environmental damage and provide economic benefits. The Santa Barbara deal came within a hairbreadth of achieving that but was rightly rejected because of bad tactics and a lack of enforcement mechanisms.

Under the publicly disclosed terms of the deal, Plains Exploration & Production Co., which owns a platform in federal waters just beyond the three-mile limit controlled by the state, would have drilled several wells from the platform into oil reserves on state property. In return, it would have closed that platform, three others it operates off Santa Barbara and two onshore processing facilities by 2022 and donated 4,000 acres of land for preservation. Over the life of the project, the state would have collected up to $5 billion in tax revenues.

Bizarrely, the company and the environmental groups that were parties to the bargain kept the rest of its terms confidential. It is not unheard of for environmentalists to sell out the public interest for political or financial reasons, and no elected official should ever approve a secret deal that affects public resources. The company finally announced that it would disclose the full agreement during Thursday’s Lands Commission hearing, but that was months too late.

Read more of this editorial from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.

January 31, 2009 · Filed Under Other Oceans & Beaches Stories

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California’s MLPA Initiative continues to complete recommendations for Marine Protected Areas

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2009 at 7:13 am

From the California Department of Fish & Game:

California’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative will continue its public process to complete recommendations for a statewide network of marine protected areas. The MLPA’s planning budget has not been impacted by the state’s current fiscal issues.

In response to the state’s temporary freeze of bond funds, the MLPA Initiative has secured private funding through its public-private partnership to complete a habitat-mapping project that will support the marine protected area (MPA) planning process in Southern California. The initiative is also seeking additional private support for scientific monitoring along the central coast and north central coast, as well as to supplement public funding as necessary to successfully achieve the goals of the MLPA.

“The task force is charged with developing recommendations for MPAs in the south coast, as well as identifying ways to improve state and federal coordination,” said Don Benninghoven, chair of the MLPA Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force. “I am confident that we will continue to meet the objectives of the public-private partnership during these tough economic times.”

The California Natural Resources Agency and California Department of Fish and Game have partnered with the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation and others to achieve the MLPA goals. This public-private partnership combines both state and private funding to conduct the planning work leading up to implementation. The planning process is guided by the advice of scientists, resource managers, experts, stakeholders and by members of the public.

“We owe it to our stakeholders, scientists and members of the public who have dedicated their valuable time and energy to carry this public process forward,” said MLPA Initiative Executive Director Ken Wiseman. “Today Secretary for Natural Resources Mike Chrisman confirmed the Governor’s commitment to meeting the statutory goals of the MLPA, and working together we will ensure that this stakeholder-driven process is successfully completed.”

Read more of this press release from the California Department of Fish & Game by clicking here.

January 31, 2009 · Filed Under Other Oceans & Beaches Stories

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Amargosa River’s Wild & Scenic designation will only affect California

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2009 at 7:11 am

From the Pahrump Valley Times:

The passage in the U.S. Senate of the Omnibus Public Lands Bill of 2009, including the designation of wild and scenic river status for the Amargosa River in California, was like a dream come true for the newly-formed Amargosa Conservancy.

Across the state line, however, Nevada District 36 Assemblyman Ed Goedhart, R-Amargosa Valley, who has seen the influence of environmental designations like Death Valley National Park and Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge on water rights applications in Amargosa Valley, sees a possible nightmare.

Goedhart said a “wild and scenic river” conjures up images of people rafting through white water rapids in scenic national parks. The segment of the Amargosa River under wild and scenic river protection extends from four miles north of the Tecopa Hot Springs road, south to just past the Dumont Dunes access road crossing.

“Any time you want to make wilderness, national monuments, wildlife refuges, wild and scenic rivers, it’s like dropping a pebble on a pond. These ripples go a long ways,” Goedhart said. “It’s an expansion of locking people out of not only public lands but also being able to utilize their own property and water rights, such as people in Amargosa Valley.”

Read more from the Pahrump Valley Times by clicking here.

January 31, 2009 · Filed Under Southwest Water Issues

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Some environmental scientists seem to have a grudge against the oceans

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2009 at 7:07 am

From Scientific Blogging:

Dumping tires in the water to create an artificial reef sounds either inspired or crazy. It turned out to be crazy but there was a scientific hypothesis to it. You just had to buy into their chain of logic.

There was also a lesson. Not everything needs to be done in a large experimental setting but the justification to go ahead and do it is always cost and the protecting the environment right now. ‘You care about the environment, right?’ I can’t think of a single time a question has been phrased that way that someone hasn’t tried to sell me something. And the cost savings are always framed to be immediately practical, though in the case of the artificial reef made of tires, the cost to clean up was 5000 times as much as it was supposed to save.

That’s just an example, of course, one failed experiment does not mean all experiments are failures but it does mean we should learn from mistakes so as to make fewer failures.

A few weeks ago I wrote about the LOHAFEX experiment to dump iron sulphate in the Southern Ocean, the hypothesis being that iron fertilization on a mass scale would drag a lot of CO2 to the bottom of the ocean. Like with building an artifical reef, the tires were not the concern, landfill space was – incorrectly, it turned out. Like those tires, iron fertilization is one of the few areas where environmental activists, practically all scientists except the ones who want to do it (and in the case of iron fertilization, have already done five similar experiments in the Southern Ocean without creating convincing data) and 191 UN countries all agree it is a bad idea. Why? Because the ecosystem is complex and if it turns out we are warming because of more than just CO2, the cost to fix a bunch of garbage in the ocean could be 5000 times what we think we are saving. Since I wrote about it, the mainstream media has also caught on and a new Nature article casts even more doubt on its viability.

Read more from Scientific Blogging by clicking here.

January 31, 2009 · Filed Under Other Oceans & Beaches Stories

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Looking for some drought-tolerant landscape choices? Try Manzanita. Want grass? Try Eco Lawn.

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2009 at 6:58 am

From the Los Angeles Times:

Now that our new president has called us to service, Southern Californians have another reason to pitch in and avert a looming water crisis. We can do it now, and the first step couldn’t be simpler or cheaper or more beautiful.

Plant manzanita.

In contrast to lawn, manzanita needs little more than an occasional pass with the hose. You’d have to succumb to an epic daydream to create run-off while watering it. That alone should close the argument. But manzanita is so worthy, only an infomercial format could do justice to its virtues.

First, the plant’s signature gray-green foliage will be erupting in clusters of white and pink flowers through February.

Second, the more manzanita you plant, the lower your water bill goes — as low as half if you plant it in place of lawn. Do that, and your yard maintenance bill would drop to close to zero.

Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.

If you have kids or pets, you might still need a lawn, so what to do? Here’s a blogger who has been planting Eco-Lawn seed and is getting great results. Needs little water, tolerates pets and kids, and doesn’t need mowing – what more could you ask for? This blogger has been growing it since November, and has numerous posts about her progress. Check it out here from the California Gardens blog: Drought Tolerant Eco Lawn

January 31, 2009 · Filed Under Drought Tolerant Landscaping

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Mare Island dredging is final hurdle delaying use of dry docks

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2009 at 6:36 am

From the Contra Costa Times:

Mare Island’s Dry Dock No. 2 is idle now, but that may be about to change.

After years vying to reopen the former naval base’s watertight dock inlets, the end finally is in sight, said California Dry Dock Solutions President Jay Anast.

Company workers’ last big concern involves dredging the Mare Island Strait deep enough for the passage of large merchant ships. The needed removal permit is subject to approval by the state Department of Toxic Substances Control —- an agency concerned about hazardous materials on the strait bottom.

The ships whose passage remains in question are in the federal government’s “Mothball Fleet,” formally the National Defense Reserve Fleet in Suisun Bay. The decaying ships, which threaten to pollute the Suisun marsh area are to be removed and dismantled.

California Dry Dock Solutions has a $4 million federal contract to take apart the vessels, which have toxic materials in paint and chemicals that are slowly leaking into their anchorage east of the Benicia Bridge.

Read more from the Contra Costa Times by clicking here.

January 31, 2009 · Filed Under Bay Area

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What’s emitted in Tahoe, stays in Tahoe; Pollutants from San Francisco, Sacramento contribute to our local pollution, but our own cars are mostly to blame

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2009 at 6:33 am

From the Sierra Sun:

It’s like they say, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” The same is true for pollutants in the Tahoe Basin, says Thomas Cahill, the air quality expert for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 9 Sierra Nevada Public Land Management Association, and member of the University of California at Davis “Delta Group” that regularly audits Tahoe’s most challenging environmental issues.

During the winter months, an inversion layer traps a pocket of warm air in valley areas where the air contracts and creates a lower ceiling keeping pollutants from escaping the alpine ranges. Winter aerosols include wood smoke, sand transport, industrial and transportation-related emissions, and even Dust from Asia.

But nitrogen oxides, a greenhouse gas and precursor to hazardous ozone, are increasing in the summer, Cahill said, emitted from the tail pipes of traffic along Interstate 80.

“We’re thinking this is because of the increased truck traffic. Nitrous oxides are really only produced at that level by trains and trucks, and much less so with cars. The use of 87 octane was a major victory toward cleaner emissions for automobiles,” Cahill said, explaining that diesel fuel is “inherently dirty.”

Read more from the Sierra Sun by clicking here.

January 31, 2009 · Filed Under Lake Tahoe & the Sierra's

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Santa Cruz Water Department customers face rationing

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2009 at 6:31 am

From the San Jose Mercury News:

City water customers are staring at a possible water use cutbacks of 35 percent, as this year’s lack of major storms has left rivers, streams and Loch Lomond Reservoir with much less water than normal. Meanwhile, no rain is in sight. That was the word from Santa Cruz Water Department on Friday, as officials look ahead to summer in a “critically dry” year.

The department should decide in mid-March what type of action its customers must take to ration the city’s water supply, said department Director Bill Kocher. But barring a deluge of rain between now and March, the 90,000 people who depend on the district could be forced to cut water use by more than one-third, or pay steep fines. “If the skies don’t open up, we’re pretty much … done,” Kocher said.

For example:

- The San Lorenzo River, which provides 60 percent of the city’s water supply, is flowing at 19 cubic feet per second, according to a report from the Santa Cruz Water Department. Average flow for January is 300 cubic feet per second.

- The 2008-09 water year continues to be classified as “critically dry.” Only 4,400 acre-feet of runoff has been recorded in the San Lorenzo River since Oct. 1. In a dry year, runoff still exceeds 29,000 acre-feet. In a normal year, 49,000 acre-feet flows down the river. An acre-foot is roughly equal to a football field covered a foot deep in water.

Read more from the San Jose Mercury News by clicking here.

January 31, 2009 · Filed Under Bay Area

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Monterey County regional water plan needs work, says the Public Utilities Commission

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2009 at 6:29 am

From the Monterey County Herald:

A three-volume environmental impact review of potential sources of water for the Peninsula released Friday reveals snags in all of the plans.

The state Public Utilities Commission report says there are several unresolved issues with each of the three projects it evaluated: California American Water’s Moss Landing desalination plant; the North Marina Project, a desalination plant using slant wells; and the Regional Water Supply Project proposed by the Water for Monterey County Coalition.

Water officials and the public have a little more than a month to analyze the massive report before the first of four public meetings, beginning March 2, is held to discuss the issues.

The public comment period ends April 1, and a final report will be prepared afterward.

Although water officials, including those at Cal Am, haven’t had time to go through the report, some obstacles to the desalination projects were pointed out.

January 31, 2009 · Filed Under Bay Area

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No fishing zones off OC? Discussion begins

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2009 at 6:25 am

From the O. C. Register:

A months-long effort that could result in no-fishing zones off the Southern California coast, including Orange County’s, intensified Thursday as emissaries from a variety of interests met in Los Angeles to discuss “areas of importance.”

The “stakeholders” group, which includes recreational and commercial fishing advocates, environmental activists and government regulators, had previously identified important sites up and down the coast.

But it is not a list of likely locations for Marine Protected Areas, which are limited or no-fishing zones being created as part of a state effort to address concerns about declines in marine habitat and species. Preliminary ideas for such zones will likely be released in March.

Instead, the areas discussed Thursday are important to one or more of the stakeholders. In some cases, for example, they are areas considered important for recreational fishing, which fishing advocates are urging the state not to designate as Marine Protected Areas, or MPAs.

“Today was an important first step to ultimately redesigning Southern California’s existing MPAs,” said Melissa Miller-Henson, program manager for the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative.

Read more from the O. C. Register by clicking here.

January 31, 2009 · Filed Under Southern California

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Ex-irrigation district worker charged in Truckee Carson Irrigation District case in Fallon dies

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2009 at 6:18 am

From the San Jose Mercury News:

A former irrigation district worker facing federal charges that he conspired to defraud the U.S. government of water has died.

Shelby Cecil, who was suffering from lung cancer, was hospitalized a week ago with an infection and died from complications Thursday at Renown Medical Center, his lawyer and longtime family friend Don Evans said Friday. He was 65.

Cecil, of Fallon, was on oxygen when he appeared with three other Truckee Carson Irrigation District employees in U.S. District Court in Reno on Jan. 6 to be arraigned on charges of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation by allegedly falsifying records to secure extra water supplies.

“His family thanks all of the people in the community of Fallon who have expressed their support for Shelby and his co-defendants,” Evans said. “They are convinced—and I am too—that these false charges hastened his untimely death,” he told The Associated Press.

Lauren Horwood, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, which is prosecuting the case, had no comment.

Read more from the San Jose Mercury News by clicking here.

January 31, 2009 · Filed Under Other Water Agencies

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World heads for ‘water bankruptcy’, says Davos report; “”The world simply cannot manage water in the future in the same way as in the past or the economic web will collapse”

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2009 at 6:15 am

From Yahoo News:

The world is heading toward “water bankruptcy” as demand for the precious commodity outstrips even high population growth, a new report warned Friday.

In less than 20 years water scarcity could lose the equivalent of the entire grain crops of India and the United States, said the World Economic Forum report, which added that food demand is expected to sky-rocket in coming decades.

“The world simply cannot manage water in the future in the same way as in the past or the economic web will collapse,” said the report.

Water has been consistently under-priced in many regions and has been wasted and overused, the report said. Many places in the world are on the verge of “water bankruptcy” following a series of regional water “bubbles” over the past 50 years.

The report said that energy production accounts for about 39 percent of all water used in the United States and 31 percent of water withdrawals in the EU. Only three percent is actually consumed, but competition for access to water will intensify over the next two decades.

Water requirements for energy are expected to grow by as much as 165 percent in the United States and 130 percent in the EU, putting a major “squeeze” on water for agriculture, said the WEF.

Read more from Yahoo News by clicking here.

January 31, 2009 · Filed Under International Water Issues

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How dry is it? Some pictures and graphics to help tell the story…

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2009 at 9:29 am

Some pictures to go with the morning news….

These pictures were taken in November, but the situation hasn’t improved much – if any – since then. Thanks to DWR for providing these pictures.

(If anyone has current pictures of reservoirs and would allow them to be posted here, please take the contact link and send them to me. Please include how you would like to be credited.)

Here’s reservoir conditions as of January 1st. I’ll post the new version when it becomes available.

And here’s Metropolitan’s water gauge as of December (if any other district has such a graphic, please let me know!):

January 30, 2009 · Filed Under Uncategorized

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Coverage wrap-up: Sierra snowpack findings signal a third year of drought; “We may be at the start of the worst California drought in modern history. It’s imperative for Californians to conserve water immediately at home and in their businesses,” says Lester Snow

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2009 at 8:09 am

From the Sacramento Bee:

State water officials reported Thursday that the statewide snowpack stands at only 61 percent of average for the winter so far; this likely ensures California will see its third straight drought year.

The Department of Water Resources conducted manual snow surveys at several locations in the Sierra Nevada, where the snowpack serves as the state’s water bank. Along Highway 50 near Echo Summit, surveyors found 34.6 inches of snow, or 68 percent of average. Conditions are worse in the Northern Sierra, which stands at 49 percent of average.

“We may be at the start of the worst California drought in modern history,” DWR Director Lester Snow said in a statement. “It’s imperative for Californians to conserve water immediately at home and in their businesses.”

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

California’s largest reservoirs — Shasta and Oroville — are less than half as full as they should be for this time of year. The snowpack water content needs to be roughly double what it is today by April to replenish the reservoirs, said Don Strickland, a spokesman for the water agency.

It’s doubtful Mother Nature will grow the snowpack by that much. Felix Garcia, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service, said a La Nina weather pattern over the Pacific Ocean is pushing most of this year’s winter storms past California.

“The rain is happening but it’s happening way north in Washington and in Canada,” Garcia said. “It is expected to remain about the same for the next two to three months.”

From the Central Valley Business Times:

Manual survey results were taken at four locations near Lake Tahoe, and combined with electronic readings, indicate a statewide snowpack water content of 61 percent (49 percent in the Northern Sierra, 63 percent in the Central Sierra, and 68 percent in the Southern Sierra.)

Last year at this time, snowpack was 111 percent of normal, but the driest spring on record followed resulting in a second consecutive dry water year.

Local water agencies are updating Urban Water Management Plans, and DWR is facilitating what water transfers may be available through its Drought Water Bank program. Many providers have already enacted mandatory or voluntary water rationing and it is likely more agencies will require some form of rationing if dry conditions persist.

From the San Jose Mercury News:

There are roughly eight weeks left in California’s traditional winter rainy season. If conditions don’t improve, homeowners could see increased water bills, brown lawns, and “water police” issuing fines for irrigating lawns on banned days. Farmers, who use 80 percent of the water that California residents consume, will almost certainly plant fewer acres. And the state’s salmon populations, already struggling from dams and poor ocean conditions, could fall further in number.

To escape a serious summer drought, the state will need rain and snow at significant levels in February and March. Yet a weather condition known as La Niña, which cools Pacific Ocean waters and limits California’s rainfall, is under way.

Silicon Valley has not experienced mandatory water rationing since 1991.

“If things continue the way they have been going so far, it is likely that we could see a call for mandatory conservation. But at this point, we’re not ready to make that decision without all the information in front of us,” said Susan Siravo, spokeswoman for the Santa Clara Valley Water District.

From Riverside’s Press-Enterprise:

The readings are an important predictor of water supply for the coming year, and they will play a part in whether the Department of Water Resources further reduces its allocations to local suppliers, including Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. MWD buys about 60 percent of its water from the state and is a major source for agencies serving 2 million Inland households.

Revision of the allocation could come next week after readings at all 265 sampling stations in the Sierra are analyzed, said Susan Sims, the department’s chief deputy director.

This year’s projected allocation of 15 percent was one of the lowest on record, constricted by two years of drought and court-ordered reductions in pumping water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta because of threatened fish species. The lowest early season state allocation was 10 percent in 1993; that figure was later increased to 100 percent after a wet winter.

“I’ve heard some discussion of a 5 to 10 percent change in allocation,” said John Rossi, general manager of Western Municipal Water District, which serves areas from Riverside south to Temecula. “It may as well be zero, it’s such a minimal amount.”

From the Fresno Bee:

In the Southern Sierra, from Yosemite National Park to Kern County, the snowpack is slightly healthier than the rest of the mountain range — 68% of average.

Surveys this week in the Kings River watershed indicate the snowpack just east of Fresno is close to 80% of average, but officials did not sound hopeful. “It would take much-above-average storm activity for the remainder of the season to have a chance at having normal Kings River runoff,” said watermaster Steve Haugen of the Kings River Water Association.

The next chance for snow in the Southern Sierra is Wednesday night, according to the National Weather Service in Hanford.

Some optimism expressed in the Lodi Sentinel:

Christensen [manager of the Woodbridge Irrigation District] said that farmers are reporting little water stored in the ground. “I’m hoping to get some frequent light rain to get the alfalfa going and the small grain crops,” he said.

Nevertheless, Christensen remains optimistic. “I hate to make any predictions because it’s so early,” he said. “There is such a thing as March miracles.”

Kevin Kauffman, general manager of the Stockton East Water District, which serves Morada and parts of Stockton, predicts that water purveyors will ask people to conserve, especially when it comes to outdoor watering. “But that won’t come until April,” Kauffman said. “We’re going to have to play it by ear — and pray for rain.”

And in Oakland, the East Bay Municipal Utility District, which collects a majority of Mokelumne River water, will likely continue the mandatory watering restrictions the district ordered in May, according to district spokesman Jeff Becerra. “If we have average precipitation for the remainder of winter and spring, we could lift the mandatory restrictions,” Becerra said. “It’s possible we may ask for voluntary conservation.”

From Mike Taugher at the Contra Costa Times:

The problem for water managers is not just that the state appears to be in a third consecutive dry winter. It is also that a host of restrictions to protect smelt, salmon and steelhead will make it more difficult to recover from dry conditions even if Mother Nature cooperates.

Big increases in recent years in the amount of water taken from the Delta have contributed to widespread declines in fish populations, and now wildlife protection laws are biting back with tough new regulations on water deliveries.

It appears to be the first serious drought since many of the state’s fish species were added to the list of threatened and endangered species.

“If it was just a drought, a big February or March could take this off the hook. But it’s not just a drought,” said Timothy Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies.

Quinn said it is highly likely that Southern California will have widespread rationing this year — something that has not happened in almost 20 years.

Southern California water agencies should have followed the lead from the Long Beach Water Department, states this editorial from the Long Beach Press Telegram:

They should take a lesson from Long Beach, whose Water Commission implemented a conservation program months ago. But instead of a punitive approach, it enlisted consumers in the effort. The program, among other restrictions, made watering legal only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays before 9 a.m. or after 4 p.m. Offenders got a polite letter as a reminder, and consumers began using a phone line to identify offenders.

Wasting water has become socially unacceptable in Long Beach, and residents seem committed to the plan. There have been only four or five repeated offenders, all of them businesses, and all of which surely will quit wasting water in the face of increasingly stiff fines.

When the smaller water allocations do come down from the MWD, Long Beach won’t have to do a thing to comply. Its residents, now aware how easy it is to reduce water wastage where most of it occurs, on lawns and gardens, already have begun to use this scarce commodity responsibly.

If the MWD and politicians in places like L.A. and San Diego also had acted prudently months ago, Southern California’s reservoirs still would be full, but they didn’t, and the reservoirs are emptying rapidly.

Now there is no other choice.

More information: The DWR snow survey results, reaction from the ACWA & SWC, and the Long Beach Water Department.

January 30, 2009 · Filed Under Drought, Weather & Snowpack

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‘Threatened’ status urged for longfin smelt

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2009 at 7:49 am

From the Sacramento Bee:

Wildlife officials have recommended adding the longfin smelt to the state’s list of endangered species.

In a report filed Tuesday, the Department of Fish and Game proposes “threatened” status for the 5-inch fish under the state Endangered Species Act, citing threats from water diversions, pollution and predation by foreign fish species. The longfin is one of nine fish species in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta that have declined sharply in recent years. A fall survey concluded in December found one of the smallest populations of longfin in 42 years of monitoring. Its cousin, the Delta smelt, set a new low.

Read more from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here. I’ve highlighted (what I think are) the important parts in the findings & recommendations; you can read them by clicking here; a link to the full report is included.

January 30, 2009 · Filed Under Water & Wildlife

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Commission rejects plan to drill off Santa Barbara coast; State Lands board votes 2-1 against an oil company’s proposal to close four platforms, and in turn be allowed to drill new wells in state waters

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2009 at 7:45 am

From the Los Angeles Times:

It was cast as an unprecedented compromise, a deal that would allow a Texas oil company to sink new wells off the Santa Barbara coast in return for an agreement to shut down all four of its offshore platforms within 13 years.

But the State Lands Commission on Thursday killed the deal crafted by Santa Barbara’s most vociferous anti-oil groups and Houston-based Plains Exploration and Production, closing the door on a plan that would have been the first approval to drill for oil in state waters since 1969.

Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, one of three members of the lands panel, said allowing any new drilling in state waters would suggest the state welcomes offshore drilling and send a come-hither message to other oil companies. His view was echoed by legislators from coastal districts, including Assemblyman Pedro Nava, who represents Santa Barbara. Approval would have been “a message heard very, very clearly by those who call for ‘drill, baby, drill,’ ” said Garamendi, a former Interior Department official who is running for governor.

But a parade of local officials, residents and environmental activists insisted the plan would have advanced efforts to protect the coast by eventually closing four of the region’s 20 platforms. “For the first time in history, the public and the state will be able to shut down existing oil production,” argued Linda Krop, an attorney for the Environmental Defense Center and one of the people behind the proposal. “Without this project, they’ll continue indefinitely — perhaps another 40 years.”

Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.

Additional insight into this issue is provided in the Sacramento Bee:

The proposal, which would have been worth billions of dollars, was announced last year with a landmark alliance between longtime anti-oil environmentalists and the oil company. The environmental groups signed a confidential agreement to lobby for the deal in exchange for a raft of promises from the Houston-based company, including billions in revenue for the state, thousands of acres of land and a commitment to end its local drilling by 2022.

“It’s done. It’s over,” said Linda Krop, who negotiated the deal on behalf of the Environmental Defense Center, Get Oil Out! and the Citizens Planning Association of Santa Barbara County. “I’m going to be standing on our coast in nine years looking at these platforms and they’re still going to be operating.”

The commission’s chairman, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, voted against the proposal as did state Controller John Chiang, while Tom Sheehy, who represented state finance director Michael Genest, voted to approve the lease.

Garamendi said he determined the application was not in the best interests of the state.

“I’m not convinced the main benefit of this bargain is achievable and enforceable,” he said.

The packed meeting was sharply divided, with supporters largely from Santa Barbara County arguing in favor of approving a project they said would end drilling in their area, benefit the region and help the cash-strapped state. Opponents who had come from elsewhere in the state, however, argued the plan was shortsighted.

“Our coast frankly is in your hands,” said Sara Wan, who is on the Coastal Commission but said she was only speaking as a resident. “Please do not allow it to be destroyed.”

While the proposal has enjoyed unprecedented support from about 25 environmental organizations statewide, lawmakers from California to Washington, D.C., recently challenged the plan. Many worried the proposal could invite more offshore drilling along the California coast and undermine efforts to reinstate a federal drilling moratorium that was lifted by the Bush administration.

Read more from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.

January 30, 2009 · Filed Under Other Oceans & Beaches Stories

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Rising acidity threatens oceans

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2009 at 7:38 am

From the New York Times:

The oceans have long buffered the effects of climate change by absorbing a substantial portion of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. But this benefit has a catch: as the gas dissolves, it makes seawater more acidic. Now an international panel of marine scientists says this acidity is accelerating so fast it threatens the survival of coral reefs, shellfish and the marine food web generally.

The panel, comprising 155 scientists from 26 countries and organized by the United Nations and other international groups, is not the first to point to growing ocean acidity as an environmental threat, but its blunt language and international credentials give its assessment unusual force. It called for “urgent action” to sharply reduce emissions of carbon dioxide.

“Severe damages are imminent,” the group said Friday in a statement summing up its deliberations at a symposium in Monaco last October.

The statement, called the Monaco Declaration, said increasing acidity is interfering with the growth and health of shellfish and eating away at coral reefs, processes that would eventually affect marine food webs generally.

Read more from the New York Times by clicking here.

January 30, 2009 · Filed Under Other Oceans & Beaches Stories

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State Senator Patricia Wiggins slams DFG’s lack of action on suction dredge mining

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2009 at 7:36 am

From Dan Bacher of the Fish Sniffer:

North Coast State Senator Patricia Wiggins (D – Santa Rosa) today sharply criticized California Department of Fish & Game (DFG) for failing to take emergency steps to prevent salmon fisheries from collapsing. Her critique was issued after the DFG failed to place new restrictions on a gold mining practice that threatens the state’s imperiled salmon populations.

Wiggins, who chairs the legislature’s Joint Committee on Fisheries & Aquaculture, also said she is considering new legislation to limit the use of “suction dredge” gold mining, which involves the use of large dredges to vacuum rock and sand from rivers and creek beds, killing fish. Coho salmon, in particular, are at great risk from this practice.

Wiggins led a group of legislators in writing a letter to DFG officials in support of a petition from environmental organizations and the Karuk Indian Tribe, whose lands include portions of the Klamath River, asking DFG to restrict suction dredge mining along the Klamath. But the department has thus far refused, and officials there have yet to begin a court-ordered review of the situation.

“California’s once-thriving salmon populations have plummeted to the point that they face extinction unless we take immediate action,” Wiggins said. “It will take courage and bold action on all our parts to bring the fisheries back to healthy levels.

“Last year, commercial fishermen were told to stop fishing for ocean salmon, and it is expected they will be told to do so again this year,” she added. “Even though this puts tremendous pressure on them, their families and their local economies, they understand the need to regenerate the stock. However, a small group of recreational miners are allowed to continue suction dredge mining on the streams that serve as nurseries for spawning salmon. It is more than unfair to ask an entire industry to make sacrifices while these other activities continue.”

Wiggins said the lack of appropriate action is one factor contributing to high rates of unemployment in the fishing industry, and that “it’s time for our government to step up. If the Department of Fish and Game is unwilling to place the burden of rebuilding fisheries fairly upon all users, I will continue to take legislative action to get government to do its job.”

Accordingly, Wiggins says she is considering re-introducing a measure that would put a temporary halt on suction dredge mining until DFG completes its court-ordered mandate to fix long-term regulations.

Wiggins represents California’s 2nd Senate District, which includes Humboldt County (and is also comprised of portions or all of Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Solano and Sonoma Counties).

January 30, 2009 · Filed Under Water & the Environment

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Monterey County Coalition has a regional water plan; wants to stop studying, start acting

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2009 at 7:32 am

From Monterey County Weekly:

Water continued to be something to fight over, not drink, at a recent Water for Monterey County Coalition meeting. (Unfortunately, no whiskey was offered.)

The group has met monthly for the past two years. During that time it developed a regional solution to the area’s water woes– including recycled water, Salinas Basin ground water, water from the Salinas River diversion program, a regional seawater desalination facility, on-going water conservation and other recommendations.

The regional water project is being considered as an alternative to California American Water’s Coastal Water project– which centers on a planned Moss Landing desal facility– and will be evaluated in the Coastal Water project’s draft environmental impact report, slated for release Jan. 30.

Many at the Water for Monterey County Coalition meeting say the regional plan is the better alternative. It’s more environmentally sound because it doesn’t suck sea creatures into the system or discharge highly concentrated brine back into the ocean. They also say it will cost taxpayers less than Cal Am’s Moss Landing proposal because it will require less desalinating equipment and pipelines.

Read more from Monterey County Weekly by clicking here.

January 30, 2009 · Filed Under Bay Area

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Water, water…everywhere: But nary an unsalty drop to drink—Marin’s desal debate reaches end game

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2009 at 7:26 am

From the Pacific Sun:

The Marin Municipal Water District (MMWD) is about to sit down and wrestle with some hard facts as it begins the end game in the environmental report process for a proposed desalination plant.

With all the information and investigation the district has received, it’s time for district directors—as well as district residents—to decide their water future. The first step is finishing the environmental review for the proposed plant. The review process that has led up to this point began in 2007. After numerous discussions, meetings, workshops and wrangling, the final report is ready for the district to consider.

The report comes at a time when it’s clear, and perhaps somewhat ominous, that the cautionary note sounded for so many years still rings true: Residents and businesses in the district’s 147-square-mile jurisdiction, which stretches from Sausalito to Novato, use more water than the district can supply when the next drought hits. The North Marin Water District serves Novato. That leaves MMWD supplying the bulk of the population in the county, about 190,000 people.

The ominous note about water supply is evident in the “water watch” statistics the district compiles. For the week ending Jan. 25, the seven reservoirs that supply water for district customers held 42,846 acre-feet of water. That’s 54 percent of the reservoirs’ capacity. The average capacity for the same date is 79 percent. Last year, the reservoirs were at 77 percent of capacity. Some cause for concern then, but by the time April rolled around, enough rain had fallen to preclude rationing.

And it’s entirely possible, statistically, for rains to pelt Marin in the latter part of the rainy season this year, bringing the reservoirs up to average capacity or more. Longtime Marin residents can remember a year when it seemed the seasonal rain spigot was rusted shut; very little precipitation fell for most of the year. Then the sky opened up in what was called the “March Miracle.”

But even if the rain does start falling in a more statistically average way, the county still is caught in a water deficit that natural rainfall within the county cannot ameliorate. And it’s a situation that nations all over the globe face. It’s not a theoretical hypothesis when water experts say the next great crisis in the world will focus not on oil supply—but water supply.

Read more from the Pacific Sun by clicking here.

January 30, 2009 · Filed Under Desalination

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Sacramento Riverfont Master Plan envisions Sacramento riverfront without fuel tanks

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2009 at 7:23 am

From the Sacramento Bee:

With its vast stretches of tomato fields, Yolo County isn’t exactly known for luxury waterfront living. But that could change.

A plan to replace acres of large fuel storage tanks on the Yolo side of the Sacramento River with housing, shops, restaurants and offices is moving ahead.

The idea focuses on tanks south of the Pioneer Bridge in West Sacramento. Meanwhile, fuel tanks on the Sacramento side of the river also would be cleared out under the plan. These are the big tanks on either side of Broadway near Miller Park. In their place would be promenades and parks – creating instant new playgrounds for residents and visitors. And housing with picture-perfect views of the Sacramento River.

It’s all envisioned under a document called the Sacramento Riverfront Master Plan. It describes the river’s transformation from industrial corridor to center of urban life.

Read more from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.

January 30, 2009 · Filed Under Sacramento

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Drought puts pressure on ground water: Overdraft a problem

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2009 at 6:48 am

From the Lemoore Advance:

Residents of Kings County walk on water. It’s part of an aquifer that provides the vast majority of drinking water to area residents and water to many farms and ranches with irrigation supply. It lies beneath the ground.

Despite the recent rainy weather, a two-year drought has left above-ground storage facilities at some of their lowest levels. Plus, increased population and environmental demands mean groundwater is declining at a great rate in Kings County. This could cause problems for everyone.

According to Don Mills, general manager of Kings County Water District, the current snow pack is at about 30 percent of what it should be. The Sierra Nevada Mountains provide the water that eventually ends up flowing onto local farms to grow crops and also replenish ground water. “The local overdraft is sad,” Mills said.

Mills said area growers and cities are using ground water at the highest rate in recorded history, and it will probably only get worse because of the lack of precipitation in the mountains. Right now, he estimated, groundwater overdraft north of the Kings River is at about 200,000 acre-feet per year and south of the river as much as 400,000 acre-feet per year.

Read more from the Lemoore Advance by clicking here.

January 30, 2009 · Filed Under Groundwater, San Joaquin Valley

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Wave energy effort nets big state funds

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2009 at 6:46 am

From the Eureka Times-Standard:

The California Public Utilities Commission granted $4.8 million to Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to study and test ocean wave energy technology off the Mendocino and Humboldt county coasts.

PG&E said it will identify the best wave power technology for its WaveConnect projects, taking into account development costs and environmental effects. PG&E has received federal clearance to study possibilities for the project.

If carried to completion, the WaveConnect project could provide up to 40 megawatts of power, enough for about 4,000 homes.

Successful WaveConnect projects will diversify PG&E’s renewable energy portfolio by including new renewable energy resources, PG&E said in a press release.

Read more from the Eureka Times-Standard by clicking here.

January 30, 2009 · Filed Under Other Oceans & Beaches Stories

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Homeless man sent to jail for poaching dinner; Fish and Game warden catches group ready to eat a protected trout caught from SLO creek

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2009 at 6:44 am

From the San Luis Opispo Tribune:

A 23-year-old transient was sentenced to 10 days in County Jail on Wednesday for catching and cooking a federally protected steelhead trout from San Luis Obispo Creek.

Victor Manuel Silva was convicted of illegally taking and possessing wildlife. Wildlife officials said the poaching was a blow to the species because the fish was an egg-carrying female that was killed before she had a chance to spawn. Her eggs were strewn along the banks of the creek.

Silva was arrested Sunday at 5 p.m. at the Elks Lane Bridge over San Luis Obispo Creek. Warden Teri Hickey had responded to the area as a result of a tip. When she arrived, she found a group of three or four homeless men camped out beneath the bridge, cooking a large fish over a fire and getting ready to eat it.

“They had slices of lemon and a loaf of sourdough bread,” Fish and Game Lt. Dean Hileman said. “It was almost a meal fit for a king.”

Silva admitted catching the fish from the creek. He had no identification and was arrested. Another man in the group, who had outstanding warrants, was also arrested.

Read more from the San Luis Opispo Tribune by clicking here.

January 30, 2009 · Filed Under Water & Wildlife

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Water supplies at record lows; State faces third straight drought year

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2009 at 6:41 am

From the Antelope Valley Press (note – this story ran yesterday, before the results of the snow survey were known):

Water supplies in California have not yet hit rock bottom, but at some of the reservoirs in the State Water Project, they’re coming darn close – dipping to record low levels. The situation threatens to reduce 2009 California Aqueduct allocations to between 5% and 10% of the entitlement for state water contractors such as the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency, Littlerock Creek Irrigation District and Palmdale Water District.

That’s the potential doomsday message coming out of the California Department of Water Resources as California faces a potentially third consecutive dry year.

Russ Fuller, general manager at the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency, said two years of drought caused the DWR in 2008 to allocate 35% of its entitlement to the 29 state water contractors. For AVEK, that meant 49,490 acre-feet at most. Each acre-foot equals 325,851 gallons, the amount used by the average Antelope Valley household in a year.

Annual water demand from AVEK customers – water retailers such as Quartz Hill Water District and Los Angeles County Waterworks District 40, plus agricultural users – reaches on average 55,000 acre-feet, according to Mike Flood, agency engineer for AVEK. “In some years, we get orders for 70,000 acre-feet,” he said.

Read more from the Antelope Valley Press by clicking here.

January 30, 2009 · Filed Under Drought, Weather & Snowpack

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Danger in the Deep: Chemical weapons lie off our coasts

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2009 at 6:32 am

From Earth Magazine:

Flash back to 1944: It’s a misty Hawaiian morning and a military vessel carries a nervous crew and deadly cargo from Pearl Harbor into the Pacific. The crew’s instructions are clear: Travel eight kilometers out to sea and dump tons of unused chemical weapons that are piled on deck. As the ship reaches the open ocean, the captain slows the vessel and sailors start pushing their lethal freight into the water. During the next half-hour, several thousand chemical bombs go overboard and into the abyss.

Divers from Hawaii to Papua New Guinea find wreckage from World War II, like this Japanese fighter plane, sunk off Palau, Micronesia. In some locations, such as off the coast of Hawaii, divers may also

Today, such a scenario seems unimaginable. But between the early 20th century and the mid-1970s, many nations used the deep ocean floor as a dumping ground for leftover bombs filled with chemicals such as chemical mustard, lewisite, sarin and tabun. Times — and mind-sets — were different then. The seafloor was considered an inaccessible place that no one would ever lay eyes on. And countries around the world faced a tough problem: Two world wars had left behind untold amounts of dangerous weapons that no one knew how to safely destroy.

Throwing this dangerous garbage into the deep sea seemed like a reasonable and safe solution. Between the end of World War I and 1975, when the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter came into force, the militaries of many nations dumped several hundred thousand tons of chemical weapons into various parts of the world’s oceans, including some 30 sites off U.S. shores, including the Mid-Atlantic and Hawaii. Since then, these weapons, along with the containers that hold them, have quietly rotted away on the seafloor. What that rotting means for the environment remains unknown.

Read more from Earth Magazine by clicking here.

January 30, 2009 · Filed Under Other Oceans & Beaches Stories

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Mexico City braces for water rationing; Supplies will be cut or reduced to homes in many areas of the capital this weekend, making a scarce resource even scarcer; ‘We are running out of water,’ an official said

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2009 at 6:29 am

From the Los Angeles Times:

Already-scarce water gets even scarcer this weekend for millions of Mexicans.

One of the world’s largest cities is launching a rationing plan in a drastic — and some say overdue — effort to conserve water after rampant development, mismanagement and reduced rainfall caused supplies to drop to dangerously low levels.

Starting Saturday, water will be cut or reduced to homes in at least 10 boroughs in Mexico City plus 11 other municipalities in the state of Mexico, which surrounds the capital. The action affects an estimated 5.5 million people and includes neighborhoods ranging from affluent Lomas de Chapultepec on the western edge of the city to poor, densely populated Iztapalapa in the southeast.

Full service is expected to be returned sometime Tuesday. Similar cuts will be carried out every month until the rainy season begins, usually around May.

“We are running out of water,” Jorge Efren Villalon, a senior official with the National Water Commission, told Mexican radio Thursday.

The level at the main reservoir from which this urban area of nearly 20 million people gets its water for drinking and washing has dipped below 60% of capacity, Villalon said, the lowest in 16 years.

Water management is one of the most daunting chronic problems, like trash disposal and traffic flow, plaguing sprawling cities across the world. Experts say Mexico has failed to take actions needed to upgrade aqueducts, pipes and treatment plants and has allowed construction projects in areas that should be used for catching runoff and replenishing aquifers.

Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.

January 30, 2009 · Filed Under International Water Issues

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It’s cold. Does that debunk global warming?

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2009 at 6:25 am

From the Christian Science Monitor:

As Al Gore delivered his testimony to Congress on the urgency of addressing climate change Wednesday, snow and ice blanketed the nation from Oklahoma to New England, snarling commutes, knocking out power for hundreds of thousands, and providing an apparent irony that was too rich for some commentators to ignore.

Here’s one from Fox News:

It’s almost Groundhog Day. That means it must be time for Americans to wait anxiously for Al Gore to pop up out of his hole, mumble “global warming” to the shivering masses and then scurry away again while we suffer through several more weeks more of winter.

We won’t be disappointed. Gore is scheduled to nuzzle his way into a hearing for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday to warn of a warming planet. Temperatures are near freezing. It may even snow.

Gore’s appearance in the dead of bone-chilling winter is almost five years to the day since he came out of hibernation in New York and called President Bush a “moral coward” for his climate change policies. That very day the mercury in Central Park registered the coldest day the Big Apple had seen in 47 years!

Not much has changed – in the weather or Gore’s message. This time around, it might not be so bone-shatteringly cold, but it certainly has been a chilly winter.

ABC’s weatherman Sam Champion told viewers this season’s weather “feels like the coldest winter in years.” He added, “and a report from NASA climate scientists says 2008 was the coolest year since 2000.”

What the writer left out is that the same NASA report concluded that the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 1997. As relatively cold as 2008 seemed, it still ranks among the top 10 hottest years on record, NASA says.

And the only reason that this winter may seem so cold is that the rest of this decade has been so warm.

Read more from the Christian Science Monitor by clicking here.

January 30, 2009 · Filed Under Climate change & water supply

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American cities battle private water companies for public control of water

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2009 at 6:21 am

From AlterNet & the National Radio Project:

The privatization of public water supplies is occurring in many places around the world. Sold like a common commodity, the rights for distribution and management of community water are being bought and controlled more and more by private entrepreneurs and corporations. But a global movement of activists say this most basic element of life should stay in the hands of the people who use it and out of the control of profit-seeking corporations or government bureaucracies.

On this edition, we investigate what’s behind customer complaints of American Water, North America’s largest private water company. And we’ll take you to Detroit, Michigan, where anti-poverty activists are leading the fight to demand that access to water be treated as a human right and not a commodity.

Click here to listen to the radio show from AlterNet & the National Radio Project.

January 30, 2009 · Filed Under Water Supply

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Researchers study the other greenhouse gas: water vapor; By tracking specific origins of moisture, scientists can better predict regional rain and snowfall

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2009 at 6:19 am

From the Christian Science Monitor:

For years, “follow the water” has been a mantra for exploring one planet in our solar system, Mars. With a slight change, the phrase is also becoming a mantra for exploring Earth’s climate system: Follow the water vapor.

The details of how water behaves after it evaporates, the processes that parcels of moist air undergo as they travel across the planet, and the sources of moisture for several regions around the globe are poorly understood.

Yet that information is key to better forecasts of seasonal changes, such as monsoons, as well as to more reliable projections of global warming’s effects on regional rain and snowfall patterns, researchers say.

“If you look at model projections of rainfall in arid regions – the American Southwest, the Sahel [in Africa], India, China – for 2050 or 2100, half the models say one thing, half the models say another thing,” says Gavin Schmidt, a climate modeler at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.

Hundreds of millions of people live in these regions, he continues, and they are deeply concerned about the future of their water supplies.

Now scientists are taking advantage of techniques that allow them to more easily read the story of water vapor’s travels and travails. The broad approach involves teasing out the relative abundance of heavier and lighter forms (isotopes) of oxygen and hydrogen atoms that water-vapor samples contains.

Read more from the Christian Science Monitor by clicking here.

January 30, 2009 · Filed Under Climate change & water supply

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Earth’s big problem: Too many people. But how can we ease population without taking draconian steps? By developing in ways that we should be anyway, experts say.

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2009 at 6:13 am

Last year, I was having lunch with a friend of mine, and while we were discussing water issues (no surprise there), we got onto the topic of population control. Population growth – or, controlling it – is rarely talked about in this country. She called it the ‘elephant in the room’. “Resources are finite”, she said. “Finite resources divided by increasing population means less per capita resources”. I am reminded of that conversation this morning by the news that the mother of the octuplets already has six other children at home, making her the mother of 14 kids.

On that note, kudos to the Christian Science Monitor, who tackles this difficult and touchy subject in a rather balanced way:

Are there too many people on Earth?

That question is rarely raised today, in part because it conjures up the possibility of governments intruding into the most private and profound decision a couple can make. In a worst-case scenario, authorities could impose discriminatory policies that would limit births based on such criteria as race, ethnic origin, cultural background, religion, or gender.

But with huge, vexing questions such as food security, poverty, energy supplies, environmental degradation, and climate change facing humanity, some are asking whether aggressive measures to control population growth should be on the public agenda.

Politicians generally stay clear of suggesting population-control policies, recognizing the deep-seated concerns they raise. President Obama did not mention the issue as part of his campaign last fall. But the new Obama administration has promised to take a fresh look at solutions to energy and environmental challenges and has brought in a new slate of scientific advisers. The United States remains the only developed country without an official population policy.

Might the new administration dare to raise the idea?

“You’ve got to get a president who’s got the guts to say, ‘Patriotic Americans stop at two [children],’ ” says Paul Ehrlich, a professor of population studies at Stanford University. “That if you care about your children and grandchildren, we should have a smaller population in the future, not larger.” Professor Ehrlich wrote the groundbreaking 1968 book “The Population Bomb,” which predicted disastrous effects from unchecked population growth.

Read more from the Christian Science Monitor by clicking here.

January 30, 2009 · Filed Under General Water Issues, International Water Issues

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