The week that was, 8/15-21/2010
Posted on | August 21, 2010 | 1 Comment
"Ebb and Flow: Kern's Vanishing Water," an exhibit in which artists in California's Central Valley examine water, will be on show at framers JP Jennings, 1700 Chester Avenue, Bakersfield, CA through October 3. Click on "Gradient Reversal" (above) by Christine McKee to be taken to a Lois Henry article about the exhibit in the Bakersfield Californian.
In the early morning the cow had collapsed, and I could see it would soon be dead. Its eyes were beginning to dull, as the owner squatted next to it, sprinkling water into its mouth, as if it were possible to revive it. Its legs were swollen from standing in water, and its chest and torso were covered with deep cuts and scrapes, sheets of raw flesh where branches rushing past must have hit it. The rest of the family sat nearby on a string bed, resigned, waiting for the end. This was their wealth, but when it died they would tip it into the water and let it float away to the south. Through the past few days they had seen it all, houses collapsed, trees uprooted, grain spoiled, and this was just one more blow. — Mango farmer and author Daniyal Mueenuddin, In Pakistan, watching lifetimes get washed away, New York Times, August 19, 2010; Pakistan flood disaster relief: How to help, New York Times, August 18, 2010
Click here to keep reading ‘The week that was’
The Dry Garden: Wet policy for a dry year
Posted on | August 20, 2010 | No Comments
Source: NOAA. Click on the maps to be taken to composite graphics of precipitation trends during La Niña years.
We’ve been getting mixed messages about whether or not we need to conserve water. On one hand, we had a decent local rain year. Last week, the state legislature pulled a water bond from the November ballot that would have driven state-wide conservation. This week, the Los Angeles City Council amended the two-day lawn sprinkler ordinance to a three-day version.
Crisis over?
Not by a long shot. Local rain doesn’t fill our pipes. Of the three main sources that do, Lake Mead, the Colorado River storage reservoir serving Southern California, shrank in July to its lowest level since 1956. Last month, the State Water Resources Control Board concluded that the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is overdrawn by 50%. Southern California could do its part to fix that by reducing water use from there by 30%, but more likely we will keep over-drafting the system until courts order stoppages because of impacts to fisheries.
As if things weren’t dicey enough, in early August the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration strengthened its La Niña advisory, a weather cycle that augurs drought for Southern California and two of its three main water sources, Owens Valley and the Colorado River.
Click here to keep reading The Dry Garden in the Los Angeles Times.
Chance of Rain adds: For more information on La Niña weather systems, go to NOAA’s information page and to the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center.
Tags: chance of rain > Emily Green > La Nina > Los Angeles Times
Vegas pipeline hearing timeline sketched
Posted on | August 19, 2010 | 1 Comment
FOLLOWING a series of damning court decisions that vacated almost 80,000 acre feet a year of groundwater awards to Las Vegas from four valleys in rural Nevada, the State Engineer has published a tentative schedule to re-notice and re-hear the cases. If the brisk timeline is kept, the decisions over whether or not to tap the Great Basin Aquifer to slake Las Vegas could come as early as mid-February 2012.
Under the new schedule, notices of the applications by Las Vegas for permission to tap rural groundwater over thousands of square miles will be published in regional Nevadan newspapers in November. The period in which affected parties may lodge legal protests entitling them to participate in the hearings will close in late December.
Click here to keep reading
Tags: Great Basin > Las Vegas > pipeline > Southern Nevada Water Authority > State Engineer of Nevada
Ban the bag
Posted on | August 19, 2010 | No Comments
California could become the first state in the country to ban plastic shopping bags. A bill to do just that is being amended to gain support from legislators, writes Ed Joyce of San Diego’s KPBS. The legislation would require reusable cloth bags and prohibit grocery, liquor and convenience stores from handing out plastic bags. Click here to keep reading.
Chance of Rain adds: For the history of Assembly Bill 1998 , which has been returned to a state senate committee for tweaking, click here. For the Heal the Bay Action Alert and how to encourage your senator to support the bill, click here. For arguments on behalf of the bill from sponsor Assemblywoman Julia Brownley and three beautiful actresses, click here. For information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, here and for the UC Davis Marine Debris Project, here.
New rules, alas not by Bill Maher
Posted on | August 18, 2010 | 1 Comment
'Urban slobber' from street-side sprinkler run-off, 9.30am, Tuesday August 17, 2010 in front of the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden. Photo: Emily Green
The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday approved a new lawn-watering ordinance, superseding the standing two-day-a-week sprinkler rule with a revision that allows lawn-watering on three days.
Designed to allay pressure on aging city pipes, the new rule will require Department of Water & Power customers whose street addresses end with an odd number to use lawn sprinklers on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, while Los Angeles residents with even-numbered addresses should water on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.
To keep reading the update in the Los Angeles Times, click here. For what Chance of Rain thinks about this, click here, and here. Then please rip out your lawn.
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