The week that was, 8/17-23/2009
Posted on | August 23, 2009 | No Comments
Jacobs recommends everyone in Seattle practice at least one water sport. — Seattle Sketcher, Seattle Times
“I will not sign anything that does not have above-the-ground and below-the-ground water storage.” Arnold Schwarzenegger demanding new dams from any legislation to reform state water policy, AP
Coordinates the activities of assigned natural resource program areas which may include: communicating/coordinating with a variety of individuals/entities regarding conservation and/or environmental topics; providing technical and policy analysis regarding area of assignment; completing water quality and other environmental impact investigations; monitoring the testing of private and public environmental factors; enforcing code; providing public outreach/education; and other related activities — Job listing for a natural resources specialist, City of Federal Way, Washington, Seattle Times
“We don’t really know what these chemicals do to fetuses or prepubescent children.” — Linda S. Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, on Atrazine, a common agricultural and lawn pesticide now persistent in drinking water, New York Times
About 18% of the public drinking water sources in California have Chromium VI levels above 1 part per billion. The proposed public health goal is 0.06 part per billion –– Los Angeles Times
Southern Nevada Water Authority General Manager Pat Mulroy. Photo: Sam Morris, Las Vegas Sun
Atlanta seems to have assumed the mantle of the ‘800 pound gorilla’ of Southeastern water (albeit a sick gorilla), just as Las Vegas has that well-deserved reputation in the Southwest. The big difference is that metro Las Vegas has options and the money to pursue them, whereas metro Atlanta seems to me to be a bumbling giant. They could use Pat Mulroy. — WaterWired
“Whuppa, whuppa, whuppa.” — Mimi DiMatteo on the sound that sand-spawning grunion fish make flopping against her feet in the California surf, San Francisco Chronicle
“When you look at the bigger picture, it makes no sense.” — Mark Schlosberg, Food & Water Watch, on the decision by the Marin Municipal Water District to build the first desalination plant in the San Francisco Bay, San Francisco Chronicle
Cayman Islands: Shares of Consolidated Water rose 24 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $18.48 on Monday afternoon. — Associated Press on a dividend paid by a desalination company
“the loneliest place on Earth” — Mark Twain, quoted in the “Placid, haunting beauty of Mono Lake,” Fresno Bee via Aquafornia
There are supply droughts, where the amount of rain falling from the sky drops precipitously, and the amount of water evaporating from plants and transpiring from their leaves, rises. And there are demand droughts, where the main problem is not in the supply of water nature offers, but in the way we use it. — Jfleck at Inkstain, blog of the Albuquerque Journal science writer John Fleck, on the Texas drought
Too much water can cause water intoxication in babies. — Dr Alan Greene, New York Times health columnist
El Niño “increases the chances we won’t have a dry year, but it’s no guarantee. There’s no dead cinch.” — Mike Halpert, deputy director of the Climate Prediction Center in Camp Springs, Md in the San Francisco Chronicle
… the dam’s strongest supporter on the Board, Director John Coleman, is also among the District’s heaviest water users, sucking down 663 gallons of water a day to feed his Walnut Creek backyard vineyard. Director Katy Foulkes, another dam proponent, uses 440 gallons a day, more than double that of the average homeowner. A third Director, Doug Linney, consumes 448 gallons daily, although unlike his water guzzling peers, Linney opposes the dam and favors higher rates for households with heavy water use — San Francisco Chronicle, East MUD Bay Directors are Water Hogs
Oceans absorb 22 million tons of carbon dioxide from human activities per day — Associated Press on the acidification of Alaskan marine waters
“The day of reckoning is here.” — Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto in the San Francisco Chronicle on the Bay-Delta and California water delivery system
July was the hottest the world’s oceans have been in almost 130 years of record-keeping. — San Francisco Chronicle
Businesses such as an ice plant or commercial laundry that have small meters ended up paying much higher bills than hotels, for example, that used more water but didn’t get dinged with “high use” charges because they have larger meters. — “City takes another look at restructuring water rates,” Santa Fe New Mexican
“Is ‘raise prices’ worth $50k?” — Berkeley economist David Zetland on a promised $50,000 award to entrepreneurs with ideas to foster water conservation
Droughts make matters worse, but the real problem isn’t shrinking water levels. It’s population growth. Since California’s last major drought ended in 1992, the state’s population has surged by a staggering 7 million people. –– Robert Glennon, author of Unquenchable, Washington Post (via Aquafornia)
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