“You’d better put your money on conservation”
Posted on | July 20, 2009 | 1 Comment
THE PREDICTION this month of an El Nino weather system capable of bringing much needed rain and snowpack to California reminds Bill Patzert of another time that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast an El Nino. That was September 13, 2006 (announcement art, left). “That was the driest winter in the historical record with 3.21 inches,” said Patzert.
As a climatologist with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Patzert is part of the team of scientists contributing to El Nino forecasting for NOAA. However he has become a well known dissenter, calling previous El Ninos forecast by the administration “El No Show” and “El Wimpo.” Nothing he sees this year encourages him to believe that we’re in for anything like the rainfall of the classic El Nino years of 1997-98 (31.01 inches in Los Angeles) or 2004-05 (37.96 inches).
“I’d love to be wrong. At this point it definitely does not have the characteristics of the big bail out,” he said. “You’d better put your money on conservation.”
Click here for the incorrect prediction for 2006.
Capturing rain (and run-off) in the Inland Empire
Posted on | July 20, 2009 | No Comments
TO LOS ANGELES, rainfall is storm water and is flushed out to sea. For the Inland Empire Utilities Agency, rainwater and stormwater is water, best treated and saved. For a first class report in the Los Angeles Times by Bettina Boxall, click on the desalting plant.
The week that was, 7/13-19/2009
Posted on | July 20, 2009 | No Comments
Click on the Pacific for link to the Sacramento Bee
“We have been too concerned in this country I think with dying of a lot of other things. I don’t think anyone realized that we were also running out of water.” Jon Stewart interviewing Robert Glennon on The Daily Show
“… despite the surge of interest in this region, the crisis did not materialize suddenly. Rather, the people of Mendota and their neighbors — in Kerman, Firebaugh, San Joaquin and a handful of smaller burgs — are the victims of a long and painful slide. This is California’s Detroit.” Los Angeles Times op-ed by Rick Wartzman, co-author of the book on JG Boswell, “The King of California”
“Not all El Ninos are created equal.” Steve Goldstein, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Sacramento, Sacramento Bee
There’s little doubt that the No. 1 issue in the 2010 gubernatorial campaign will be the state’s fiscal mess. But No. 2 just might be water.” From “Fawning over farmers, fighting against fish,” Silicon Valley Mercury News via Aquafornia
“You guys rent the movie ‘Chinatown’ out in rural Nevada a lot?” Las Vegas TV host Jon Ralston to Great Basin farmers whose valleys have been targeted by a Las Vegas pipeline, Las Vegas Sun
Click here to continue reading The week that was
Tags: chance of rain > Emily Green > media reports > The week that was
Western Datebook: the Snake Valley Festival
Posted on | July 18, 2009 | No Comments
The Snake Valley Festival in aid of the Great Basin Water Network will be held at different locations in and around Baker, Nevada from July 24-26. To set your compass, all festivities will take place in the immediate vicinity of the Great Basin National Park.
For the park, click on the starry, starry sky.
For the festival, click on the pine nuts.
Tags: chance of rain > Emily Green > Great Basin Water Network > Snake Valley
Desalination: A drought proof supply?
Posted on | July 18, 2009 | 1 Comment
The July-August edition of Western Water, a publication of the infinitely informative and useful Water Education Foundation, looks at desalination. Click on the surf to be taken to the magazine.
North American Native Plant Societies
After the lawn
Garden blogs
