Water and power(point)
The Los Angeles Department of Water & Power yesterday released a sketch operating budget for 2010/11, which the Los Angeles Times reports may spell rate hikes from 4% to 8% for consumers. For those interested in the source of their water and power, the budget offers some nice graphics (lifted left; click to enlarge). As a couple of asides, the cost of converting from coal to renewable sources of energy inspired the recent rebellion in the Los Angeles City Council; and consistent clean hydropower from Hoover Dam is dependent on adequate elevations in Lake Mead, a source threatened by inadequate conservation programs by the department and its umbrella agency, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
Click here to be taken to the proposed LADWP budget, or here for yesterday’s report card for the department, which in the face of incompetent leadership by the Mayor of Los Angeles and turbulent …
High good, low bad: Mead in May 2010
Two graphics from the 2007/2008 Annual Report of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (the most recent available) illustrate how water exports from the San Joaquin and Sacramento River Bay Delta (right) rose sharply as surpluses dried up on the Colorado River (left) after 2002. Click on the image to enlarge the graphics.
Eleven years into a dramatic drought* on the Colorado River, in 2009, the City of Los Angeles finally saw fit to issue a lawn watering ordinance that reduced sprinkler irrigation to a twice weekly schedule. It was an overdue and obvious step given that roughly half of Southern California’s water supply is used out of doors, and half of that is estimated to be wasted through sprinkler run-off and pavement hosing.
That ordinance, which took effect a year ago today, reduced the city’s water consumption to 1991 levels even though the law was widely flouted, …
June fully loaded
The UCLA Extension Landscape Architecture and Horticulture program classes on native plants for sustainable gardens and firescaping are among the events in the June listings. Click on the plan to be taken to UCLA.
Click here for the full listing of June’s Dry Garden events, including restoration projects, hikes, classes and plant sales. If you have an event that you would like to be listed, please e-mail details to emily.green [@] mac.com or submit them in the comment box.…
The week that was, 5/23-29/2010
The backpack of an U.S. Army soldier overflows with small American flags during the “Flags In” ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia, May 27, 2010. Click here for the photo essay of the flag planting by William D. Moss
Click here for the Washington Post project “Faces of the Fallen,” remembering the 5,462 American servicemen and women who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The Week that was” will return next week.
…The Dry Garden: Matilija poppies
Two unrelated and equally magical things happen in Southern California in late May and early June. By night, courting mockingbirds sing all night. By day, the Matilija poppies begin their all-too-fleeting bloom. The shame is, while most everyone who sleeps becomes aware of the mockingbird’s song, not everyone with sight will encounter the Matilija, which is, without rival, the biggest, silliest, loveliest and most poignant of California wildflowers.
Click here to keep reading this week’s Dry Garden column in the Los Angeles Times.…
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