Cadiz now a “conservation project”
Posted on | September 14, 2009 | 4 Comments
Map from the USGS Mojave Desert Ecosystem Program. Click on the image to be taken to the site.
Cadiz marked in red
To hear Scott Slater, General Counsel of Cadiz Inc, Emily Green of Chance of Rain, Elden Hughes of the Sierra Club and Richard Sierra of the San Bernardino Union of Carriers, Building & Construction Laborers, Local 783 discuss the Cadiz groundwater project in the Mojave Desert on today’s KPCC AirTalk, click here. Slater claims that harvesting groundwater from the desert is now a “conservation” project. Green and Hughes don’t buy it. Sierra wants jobs.
For fact-checking on claims made during the interview and further background links, click here
The week that was, 9/6-12/2009
Posted on | September 13, 2009 | 2 Comments
Image: NASA. Click on the Earth to be taken to the NASA website.
Finding water on the moon would not only be a major scientific discovery, it would also have a profound effect on plans to establish a semipermanent moon base. Water would not only be useful for drinking, it could also be used to produce oxygen for respiration and to serve as a source of rocket fuel for a trip to Mars. — Los Angeles Times
“How can we get digital cable and Internet in our homes, but not clean water?” said Mrs. Hall-Massey, a senior accountant at one of West Virginia’s largest banks. — From the New York Times series Toxic Waters
The world wasn’t crying out for a periodical on bathing when Leonard Koren introduced Wet magazine in 1976. However, Koren had the imagination and audacity to create his own world, and that’s exactly what he did with Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing. — New York Times Magazine
Click here to continue reading The week that was, 9/6-12/2009
Western datebook
Posted on | September 12, 2009 | No Comments
THERE are two weeks left to see Downstream: Colorado River Photographs of Karen Halverson at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanic Gardens (left) and only one week left to catch “H2O,” an exhibit on water by four photographers at the G2 Gallery in Venice. Pictured below is a sample from Ron LeValley.
Or for freshly stuffed listings of Dry Garden Events around the Southland, click here.
Then again, with fall migratory season in full swing, there is no better time to set up a bird-bath, as proposed by this bird-watcher in this week’s The Dry Garden column in the Los Angeles Times.
Delta divided
Posted on | September 12, 2009 | 3 Comments
ON A DATE synonymous with American heroism in the face of emergency, yesterday the California State Legislature undertook to solve the state’s water crisis by midnight — and failed.
Looming over negotiations was California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose threats to veto any legislation that did not include new dams and reservoirs in spite of the state’s budget crisis only sound like they come from a comic book. This one, from yesterday, comes from the Associated Press: “Don’t send me Mickey Mouse bills. Send me the big stuff.”
With no way to find billions to pay for the “big stuff,” or new water to fill new reservoirs, last ditch efforts to move a sweeping package of water bills failed. Aquafornia, the newsfeed of the Water Education Foundation, has the latest reports, starting with this one from AP.
Senate President pro-tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) retreated early this morning with promises of an as yet un-scheduled special session.
Left without a coherent management plan is the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, pictured above, source for water for two out of three Californians. Click here for recommendations of the Delta Vision Foundation, whose mission is reforming management of the largest delta on this country’s Pacific coast.
For further background on the Delta and the challenges facing it, click here or on the image above, to be taken to NASA’s Earth Observatory, then scroll down for an essay by the Science Team.
For rolling coverage of the lead up to the vote and a background piece to it, click here.
$12bn water bill
Posted on | September 8, 2009 | 3 Comments
MIDNIGHT Friday September 11th is the deadline for passage in the California state legislature of a bill, or package of bills, aimed at solving the state’s water crisis before the end of the 2009 legislative season.
Potential cost? $12bn.
Who will it affect?
Every Californian who needs water.
Provided that a water package is passed [a bigger if by the day] the next time that many Californians may hear of it could be when the bond measure covering the cost appears on November ballots in 2010.
To judge from draft bond measures now in circulation, that price ranges between $11.7 and $12.395bn, though some estimates put the figure far higher. So, averaged out, think of the potential price tag of the bill(s) as roughly $330 and rising for every Californian.
Click here for more on the multi-billion dollar water bills and continuous press coverage
Tags: California Department of Water Resources > California State Legislature > chance of rain > Emily Green
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