Fasten your seat belt, California
Posted on | January 14, 2010 | 7 Comments
The reported voiding of the Quantification Settlement Agreement today by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Roland Candee has put a concentrated bounce into what Southern Californian water managers have long fashioned as their “hard landing” after they were forced in 2003 by six less well-off states sharing the Colorado River to stop hogging as much as 962,000 acre feet of water above their legal allotment of 4.4 million.
In spite of unfettered urban development across the Colorado River service area in the lead-up to the 2003 cap, Southern California cities managed to reduce their reliance on the river in part by legalizing trades of water from the wildly well endowed agricultural rights holders of the Imperial Irrigation District and neighbors, who had between them 3.850 million acre feet of water. However, evidently not everyone in the Mojave farming community approved of the QSA. Imperial, in a bid to reaffirm its rights under the QSA, launched the law suit that looks like it has ended up voiding the very deal that it sought to protect.
While Imperial may be firing its lawyers right about now, the most sickening impact of the bounce may be felt with Southern Californian urban water suppliers, who fondly imagined that this particular “hard landing” was behind them.
Dramamine anyone? For the court records of the case, click here. For the January 13, 2010 decision, here. More to follow in ‘The week that was’ this Sunday.
This post has been updated. The decision has been uploaded.
1/15/2010: For a run-down of press reactions, go to Aquafornia. Those interested in the Salton Sea aspects of the decision, click here for an edited segment of Judge Candee‘s decision.
Correction: the first version of this post quoted the Associated Press’s identification of the judge as Ronald Candee. Court documents show that his correct name is Roland L. Candee. Chance of Rain apologizes for the error.
Identifying the whatchamacallits
Posted on | January 14, 2010 | No Comments
Ah, nature. It’s so full of whatchamacallits.
For many, no labels are necessary when a flower catches the eye or a bird flits overhead. It could be cuckoo or it could be a sparrow. It’s background.
For others, the problem isn’t lack of interest, but memory. By the time most of us are back home flipping through a bird book, our minds will have played tricks with the plumage. He is sure it was an oriole; she is just as sure it was a woodpecker.
Click here to keep reading the LA Times article on new iPhone apps for bird and wildflower lovers.
Rain likely
Posted on | January 14, 2010 | No Comments
The National Weather Service’s prediction for a chance of rain over the weekend in Los Angeles County elevates to “rain likely” for Martin Luther King Day and into the following week. If you haven’t got your wildflower seeds in the ground, the next few days are your window. Over at AccuWeather.com, Ken Clark’s blog sees enough rain coming that he warns people living near recent burn areas to “be ready to evacuate.”
Meanwhile, as the struggle between town planners and developers continues over implementing a Low Impact Development ordinance that would decrease storm water run-off, a community meeting is scheduled for tomorrow at City Hall. Click here for details.
Haiti
Posted on | January 13, 2010 | No Comments
To read the Los Angeles Times report "Haiti is in the grip of unimaginable destruction" click on the image.
At 4:53 p.m. local time on January 12, 2010, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Hispaniola Island, just 15 kilometers (10 miles) southwest of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. Besides its strong magnitude, the earthquake’s shallow depth of roughly 8.3 kilometers (5.2 miles) ensured that the densely populated capital suffered violent shaking, reports NASA. To keep reading the Earth Observatory report, click here. To learn about American humanitarian relief, click here for the US AID page. For President Obama’s call to the nation to help, click here. To make a Red Cross donation, click here. The minimum donation is $10. If you have an Amazon account, you don’t even need to get out your credit card. The National Groundwater Assn. has a page of organizations dedicated to providing clean water to those in need. Two of its organizations work in Haiti. To access the page, click here.
“A city that can take care of itself”
Posted on | January 13, 2010 | 1 Comment
Desert mallow in Los Angeles. Photo: Annie Wells / Chance of Rain. Click on the image to be taken to a listing of dry garden resources for Southern California.
“Every Angeleno knows we’re living on water siphoned from other parts of the state. And it feels wrong somehow to drench your lawn in the middle of Southern California winter — even on one of the two allowed watering days…”
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