High good, low bad: Mead in August
Posted on | September 1, 2009 | 3 Comments
THE HOOVER DAM BYPASS bridge joining Nevada and Arizona neared completion over the Colorado River last month. Scheduled to open in 2010, it was recently dedicated as the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge in honor of the former Nevadan Governor and Arizona serviceman. Only the dead know what Mike O’Callaghan, who died in 2004, would make of the honor. The bridge enables yet more Las Vegas sprawl while the former governor and editor of the Las Vegas Sun was a fearless critic of the water policies of Southern Nevadan developers, including those backed by his protege, US Senator Harry Reid.
Click here for year-on-year closing August elevations from Lake Mead from 2004 to yesterday
Tags: August 2009 elevations > chance of rain > Emily Green > Lake Mead
Los Angeles fires from the Earth Observatory
Posted on | August 31, 2009 | No Comments
From top left to right, these images of the Los Angeles fires were captured on August 29th, August 30th, August 31st, September 2nd, September 3rd, September 6th and September 7th. The second to final image, taken September 6th, uses infrared definition to show the smoldering remains in black of the Los Angeles National Forest. The final one uses colorization to better define burn areas from where fire remains and unburned areas. Click twice on the image for a large version with helpful graphics overlaid.
To be taken to the Earth Observatory, click here.
9/3/2009: For Angelenos who think it’s all about us, it’s not. For information about wildfires burning across the West, click here for the National Interagency Fire Center.
9/15/2009: From NASA: Space Craft Talk Continued during JPL Wildfire Threat: As the flames of the raging brush fire dubbed the Station Fire threatened the northern edge of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Saturday, Aug. 29, the managers of NASA’s Deep Space Network prepared for the worst. The Deep Space Operations Center at JPL is the nerve center for the Deep Space Network, an international network of antennas that send and receive information to interplanetary spacecraft. Staffed 24/7, 365 days a year, the JPL hub is constantly active connecting three major antenna sites, numerous mission operation centers run by NASA and an international group of space agencies, and more than 30 spacecraft flying throughout our solar system. “We were more like the nervous center that weekend than the nerve center,” said Wayne Sible of JPL, the network’s deputy program manager for Deep Space Network development, operations and services. To keep reading about how JPL rode out the fires, click here.
9/17/2009: This post has been updated and changed to incorporate the most recent images.
Interior appropriations chair questions legality of Cadiz pipeline right-of-way
Posted on | August 31, 2009 | 2 Comments
US SENATOR Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), chair of the Interior appropriations committee, has challenged Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to certify the legality of plans by Cadiz Inc to use a 42-mile-long stretch of a Mojave railway line for part of a groundwater project in San Bernardino County.
Meanwhile, lobbyists for the speculators behind the project, Cadiz Inc, have been courting Southland public utilities to sign on to the project, possibly including a lucrative groundwater contract with the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power.
UPDATE: 8/31/2009, 4.02pm — Cadiz reply after the jump
FURTHER UPDATE: 9/2/2009 — LADWP update after the jump
Click here to continue reading about Sen Feinstein’s challenge to the Cadiz groundwater project
Tags: Cadiz Inc. > chance of rain > Emily Green > US Department of Interior
A walk in the woods with Cleverly and Fleck
Posted on | August 30, 2009 | No Comments
SAN ACACIA, NM — When the weather heats up, James Cleverly’s instruments can detect the moisture coming off this little patch of woods alongside the Rio Grande.
Once the heat dries out the surface soil, the plants’ roots tap into deeper water, bringing it up and “transpiring” it through their leaves — essentially exhaling water, explained Cleverly, a University of New Mexico biologist.
Because the river and the nearby groundwater are closely linked, this ultimately means less water in the river.
The story Cleverly’s instruments are telling, scientists say, is increasingly important to understanding what will happen to water supplies in New Mexico and across the West in a warming world. …
Click here to keep reading John Fleck’s science column in the Albuquerque Journal.
Click or here for links to studies by James Cleverly. To visit John’s blog, jfleck at inkstain, click here.
The week that was, 8/23-29/2009
Posted on | August 29, 2009 | No Comments
A massive mechanical mole surfaced on Wednesday from a nearly 5-year journey under [the San Bernardino] mountains in the final stages of a $1.2 billion tunnel project that will supply extra water to drought-hit Southern California. –– August 20th Reuters report via August 27th comment in Aguanomics
“Every jock thinks he can run a restaurant.” — Chris Matthews on MSNBC commenting during a cutaway to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger mingling among more seasoned politicians at Ted Kennedy’s funeral
Click here for more of The Week that was
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