The week that was, 8/3-9/2009

"Reflections, 2007." Click on the image for a profile of the artist, Anna Bliss, in the Salt Lake Tribune

New TV ads are encouraging Brazilians to save water — by peeing in the shower. — AP / Salt Lake Tribune and New York Times

One homeowner, for instance, insisted his three-day-a-week watering schedule was insufficient to create the large bill … He left out that he waters four times on each of those three days. — Denver Post

As the state entered a severe drought, many of the city of Sacramento’s biggest water users increased their watering dramatically … A Bee investigation reveals city government itself as the top scofflaw. — Sacramento Bee via Aquafornia

Think of our water supply as a giant milkshake glass. And imagine each demand for water as a straw in the glass. Most American states allow a limitless number of straws in the single glass

Pollinate me

California fuchsia photographed on the Bear Creek Trail in the Angeles National Forest. Photo: Ann Berkley. Click on the trumpet flower to be taken to the US Forest Service "Celebrating Wildflowers" page.

SOMEHOW during the hot, long days of summer, our native flora punctuates the dry season with flashes of color. Horticulturists speculate that the reason is sex …

Click here for the latest Los Angeles Times Dry Garden column on late summer bloomers, the queen of which is indisputably the California fuchsia, pictured left.

Bring it on

Southern Nevada Water Authority General Manager Patricia Mulroy. Photo: Sam Morris, Las Vegas Sun. Click on the image to be taken to the Sun profile of Mulroy "The Chosen One"

“TO SHORE up support for a controversial project, Southern Nevada Water Authority chief Pat Mulroy will ask her board for an ‘up-or-down vote’ on plans to pipe groundwater to Las Vegas from across rural eastern Nevada,” reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal today.

UPDATE – Saturday August 8, 2009: To read the Review-Journal about Patricia Mulroy and Las Vegas also in talks with Mexico over shared desalination deal, click here.

Watering like it was 1945

SINCE  introducing mandatory conservation in September 2007,  Long Beach water consumption now runs 16.5% below the historical average, reported the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners today.

For the full report from Aquaformia, click here.

According to Matthew Veeh, a Special Projects Officer with the city, Long Beach water use has dropped to 105 gallons per person per day, the lowest it’s been since 1945.

By comparison, the Los Angeles County average, according to a fantastically nifty Aguanomics map, was 185 gallons per person per day when the map was produced in November 2008. That, too, is dropping since the City of Los Angeles introduced mandatory conservation in June 2009.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power recently reported a 16.8% drop among single family homes in June, a 32-year low. But, from the looks of it, Long Beach is still way ahead of LA both in

Dear Governor

August 6, 2009

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

State Capitol Building

Sacramento, California 95814

Re: Cadiz Groundwater Storage and Dry-Year Supply Program

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