Frogs and congressmen
Posted on | July 30, 2009 | No Comments
THE “National Water Policy Event” held this last Tuesday and Wednesday shall receive due comment when the various presentations have been through the de-spin cycle.
But in a quick trip to Washington DC and nearby Virginia this week to hear congressmen, commissioners and rival Western utility heads intone about water, not one speaker matched the eloquence of the frogs chorusing from the lily pads in the all but forgotten garden of Ira Noel Gabrielson.
Gabrielson was the first director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
For more on the garden and legacy of Ira Noel Gabrielson, click here
Tags: chance of rain > Emily Green > Washington DC > water conservation
Spin on sprinklers
Posted on | July 27, 2009 | 3 Comments
FROM the Water Education Foundation news service Aquafornia this Los Angeles Department of Water and Power press release: Water demand in the City of Los Angeles is at a 32-year low for the month of June as the result of conservation measures introduced last month. LADWP is pleased. We should be too.
Last week, the LADWP press office confirmed to this blog that since it introduced a cash-for-grass program on June 2, it has had 60 successful applications. I don’t know if LADWP is pleased. We shouldn’t be. In a city with more than half a million privately owned homes, this is the lamest number to be found outside of my bank account.
To keep reading about the state of our watering restrictions, click here
Tags: chance of rain > Emily Green > Los Angeles Department of Water and Power > ordinances
Makes sense to them
Posted on | July 26, 2009 | No Comments
THE EDITORIAL board of the Las Vegas Sun knows a scientific result when it suits the board’s purposes. According to the board, climate modeling out of the University of Colorado showing the potential of the main storage reservoirs on the Colorado River to go dry by mid-century is all the more reason that the Southern Nevada Water Authority should run a pipeline 300 miles north to the foot of the Great Basin National Park and pump its groundwater south to Las Vegas.
For more on an editorial board that knows what it wants, click here
The week that was, 7/20-26/2009
Posted on | July 26, 2009 | No Comments
“Dump more stuff into rivers up north, would you?” Harry Shearer, Le Show, July 26, on an AP report that pollutants flushed through the Mississippi river system into the Gulf of Mexico give rise to “Jubilee” days when normally deep water shrimp and crabs flee de-oxygenated water to shallower reaches, where they are more easily caught
“…city officials are considering tampering with the water that helped turn Portland into the craft brewers’ paradise it is today.” Portland Oregonian “End of Beervana” editorial on proposals to treat local water for the parasite cryptosporidium 
“The manufacturers have got it down now, they’ve technologically got the tank and bowl working really well together.” Judi Ranton, Portland Water Bureau conservation manager on the 1.28 gallon single-flush efficiency toilet
Click here for the rest of The week that was
Saved by drip?
Posted on | July 25, 2009 | 1 Comment
A REPORT this week from the Pacific Institute argues that using pricing to encourage California farmers to switch from flood irrigation to sprinklers or drip could conserve 5.6 million acre-feet of water a year. According to the report’s co-author Peter Gleick, this is the equivalent to:
Click here to see how much water California farmers could save by a switch to smart irrigation
Tags: chance of rain > Emily Green > irrigation > Pacific Institute
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