The week that was, 6/21-27/2009
Posted on | June 28, 2009 | 1 Comment
- “There are lots of ways to lose an audience with a discussion of global warming, and new ones, it seems are being discovered all the time.” From “The Catastrophist,” Elizabeth Kolbert’s New Yorker profile of NASA scientist James Hansen
- “Eli Raz was peering into a narrow hole in the Dead Sea shore when the earth opened up and swallowed him.” AP / Denver Post on Dead Sea sinkholes
- Water seeping through Howard Hanson Dam is picking up speed … the Army Corps of Engineers doesn’t know why. Seattle Times
- “The Sacramento politicians are at it again. They’re back to try and take your water softener away.” Savemysoftener.com ad aimed at scuttling California Assembly Bill 1366.
- “It’s hyperbole. Clearly, it’s a very reckless and irresponsible attempt to engender fear…” Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles), author of AB 1366, Los Angeles Times.
- “We cannot put off the future.” Nancy Pelosi taking the House floor after the failure of an attempted filibuster of the American Clean Energy and Security Act (aka Climate bill, Global Warming Bill, etc)
- “There is a very good chance that the severity of the water shortage Pasadena may experience will prove far more severe than you expect.” Oral presentation before Pasadena City Council on water rates by Cal-Tech trained engineer David O. Powell. From Pasadena Sub Rosa via Aquafornia
- “All I can say is No! No! No!” a Portland Oregonian reader responds to Nestle Waters North America’s proposal for a $50 million bottling plant in Cascade Locks.
- The Imperial Irrigation District found particular fault with an Imperial County Civil Grand Jury’s use of the word “corruption.’” In its report the jury also asked for responses to issues raised in two previous civil grand jury investigations conducted in the 1990s. … In its response the IID admitted its apparent failure to respond to previous civil grand jury reports but questioned the relevance of doing so more than a decade after the fact.” Imperial Valley Press via Aquafornia
- “We pay for levees and flood insurance, endure heavy rain and hot summers, and now meters and water fees so that people who live in the Southern California desert can have swimming pools and golf courses.” Sacramento resident writing to the Bee
- “The policies and guidance lack scientific foundation.” Scientific peer review of the US Army Corps of Engineer tree removal program on levees, reported by the Sacramento Bee
- “The idea of drinking water that’s been flushed down the toilet is a hard sell.” Maureen Cavanaugh, KPBS San Diego
- “Are they afraid we’re going to stop drinking their water?” Plan Nevada spokesman Launce Rake in Las Vegas CityLife questioning the need for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, a monopoly, to keep lobbyists in Salt Lake City, Washington D.C., Carson City and Las Vegas.
- “We’re trying to manage this water district so it doesn’t go into bankruptcy.” Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District Director John Lloyd in explaining steep rate hikes. North County Times via Aquafornia
- “The State Water Project was designed as a magnificent piece of work. Engineers knew there would be big problems using the Delta as part of the SWP infrustrucrture, so they included a channel in the original design to carry water around the Delta. But politicians said it was too expensive, so they used the Delta in spite of the engineers. This penny-wise and pound-foolish decision has resulted in the catastrophe we have today” Anonymous blogger, Sacramento Bee
- “The assumption is that anything that departs significantly from normality is an abnormality, and abnormalities at least have the potential for having deleterious effects.” David M. Checkley of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego on the discovery that fish in acid waters have bigger ears
- Thanks to the Bush administration’s industry-friendly rulings and a Supreme Court determined to ignore the plain language of the Clean Water Act, America’s waterways are at risk of becoming industrial dumps. The latest indignity was a 6-to-3 decision on Monday that will allow an American gold mining company to discharge 210,000 gallons a day of potentially toxic mining waste into a 23-acre lake near Juneau, Alaska. A joyous Sarah Palin, Alaska’s governor, called the ruling a “great victory” for Alaska and, astonishingly, “a green light for responsible resource development.” New York Times editorial on the Supreme Court Decision Coeur Alaska vs Southeast Alaska Conservation Council et al
Category: The week that was, Water
Tags: chance of rain > Emily Green > headlines > The week that was
Tags: chance of rain > Emily Green > headlines > The week that was
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North American Native Plant Societies
After the lawn
Garden blogs
June 29th, 2009 @ 1:02 pm
I love the wholeness of your affection for dry-land gardening and your nose for water wastrels, wherever we are. Thanks for tireless sleuthing and for delightful delivery of the news!