The decades that were, 1989-2009
Posted on | August 17, 2009 | 3 Comments
OWING to events out of Nevada and Utah, the regular Monday feature, “The week that was” is pre-empted this week for “The decades that were.” The Southern Nevada Water Authority board meeting scheduled this week comes only two months shy of the 20th anniversary of the (then) newly appointed Las Vegas water manager Patricia Mulroy stunning Nevada with applications for half of the estimated groundwater then legally unclaimed in the state — for Las Vegas.
This Thursday, after two decades of largely unfettered growth in Greater Las Vegas, Mrs Mulroy’s board will give her an up-or-down vote on whether they wish to proceed with construction of the almost 300-mile-long pipeline, estimated cost $3.5bn, that tapping this water in five initial basins would require. To watch it live online starting at 9am, click here.
Click here for Mulroy 1989-2009
Beyond green
Posted on | August 17, 2009 | 1 Comment
Salvia apiana, or white sage, in August
FROM TODAY’s Los Angeles Times op-ed pages:
YOU KNOW it’s the silly season when a member of the Los Angeles City Council weighs in on the importance of green lawns during a drought, as the 12th District’s Greig Smith did several weeks ago. Yet the council member’s motion, which sought to reduce watering times but increase days of the week when watering could be done, exemplifies the frustration of homeowners across Southern California. “For more than a decade, we have had a policy of greening, not browning Los Angeles,” Smith said.
It’s poignant, this bid to find a water-savvy way to keep Los Angeles green. It cuts straight to the heart of the problem with the way we garden. It’s color. We, in common with Smith, have been taught that green is good and brown is bad. In fact, the opposite is true. In the high heat of summer, brown is good, and green, at least unlikely shows of it, is bad.
Add to that: Tan is good; yellow is good; orange, maroon, gray, aquamarine are all good too, for those are the colors of the buckwheats, sages, manzanitas and deer and canyon grasses of our native chaparral. Those are the colors of our native flora as its spring greens give way to the infinitely more subtle plant palette of California in summertime.
…. To read more from the Los Angeles Times, click here.
Standing tall
Posted on | August 17, 2009 | 3 Comments
Dean Baker stood for this 2007 Las Vegas Sun portrait in the water of Big Springs, Snake Valley, Nevada, part of the Great Basin Carbonate Aquifer system targeted by Las Vegas. For 20 years, Baker has been the face of the opposition to the Las Vegas pipeline project, both for rural Nevada, where he lives, and the neighboring West Desert of central Utah, where he was born and raised. In 2007, at the behest of his childhood neighbors in Utah, Baker joined an Utahan negotiating team tasked by Congress to agree how much water, if any, Utah would consent to Nevada removing from Snake Valley, a basin shared by both states. Patricia Mulroy, Las Vegas water manager and founder of the nearly 300-mile-long pipeline project, decried Baker's appointment as political brinksmanship. However, Utah Director of Natural Resources Mike Styler said at the time of Baker, "He's a courageous person ... He's got to be able to face his neighbors with an agreement that his neighbors may not like." Last week, after a 50/50 split of unallocated water from the valley was announced, the very people who had Baker appointed to the negotiating committee began demanding release of the negotiating meeting records. Baker's response: "I am for the settlement and against the pipeline." He believes that the draft contains monitoring protections and time delays that will produce studies that will convince authorities not to pump in Snake Valley. He will be appearing in Las Vegas on Thursday August 20th to argue his case before the Southern Nevada Water Authority. It will be voting that day on whether or not to pursue the $3.5bn pipeline. See after the jump for the draft agreement, meeting times, places and link to the feed for the Las Vegas vote. Photo: Sam Morris
Click here for dates, times and places to review the draft agreement
Tags: chance of rain > Emily Green > Las Vegas > pipeline > Snake Valley
Cadiz speaks
Posted on | August 14, 2009 | 2 Comments
FIRST, thanks to Aquafornia, the news feed of the Water Education Foundation, for carrying today’s guest commentary from Cadiz Inc General Counsel Scott Slater, and to Mr Slater for taking the time to address questions raised here and in other publications, including the Los Angeles Times, WaterWired and Aguanomics.
Click here to see how Cadiz faced its critics
Tags: Cadiz Inc. > chance of rain > Emily Green > Keith Brackpool > Scott Slater
Notable fountains
Posted on | August 14, 2009 | No Comments
Click here, or on the fountain of your choice, to be taken to day’s splendid piece of Op-Art in the New York Times.
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