Las Vegas loses water rights to key valleys
IN A phenomenal reversal for Las Vegas in its 20-year quest for water from the Great Basin Aquifer, the Southern Nevada Water Authority has been stripped of rights to 18,755 acre feet of water a year, or enough for more than 37,000 homes, which it had been allocated from three key basins.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports today that Nevada District judge Norman C. Robison has ruled that the State Engineer “acted arbitrarily, capriciously and oppressively” when he cleared the authority to pump more than 6 billion gallons of groundwater a year from Cave, Delamar and Dry Lake valleys.
Above and beyond the amount of water involved, this is a crippling strategic blow to the authority. Located in neighboring Lincoln County, Cave, Dry Lake and Delamar valleys are critical first sites* for the proposed well-fields that will feed what Las Vegas envisions as a nearly 300-mile-long pipeline…
Image of the day: Sea monster imagined
An artist's impression of a 45-ton pliosaur attacking a somethingelse-osaur. Picture: Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Norway. For the history of the first discovery of a skull of the 'T-Rex of the ocean' in the Arctic permafrost in 2008, more scary artist's impressions of underwater attacks and first class paleontological fun, click on the pliosaur to be taken to the Oslo Natural History Museum. Fear not, the text is in English.
The fossilized skull of a “sea monster,” which may be the largest of its type ever found, has been unearthed on the Dorset coast, reports the London Guardian today. From the report:
“These creatures were monsters,” said David Martill, a paleontologist from the University of Portsmouth.
“They had massive muscles on their necks, and you would have imagined that they would bite into the animal and get a good grip, and then with these massive neck muscles …
The week that was, 10/18-24/2009
From LA Sketchbook: Singing in the Main, LA Observed, October 20, 2009. Image courtesy of the artist. For more of Steve Greenberg's cartoons, click on the geyser.
The bill does not authorize a long-envisioned canal to move water around the delta southward. But … — “State water hearings to start next week,” Fresno Bee, October 24, 2009
The state would be required to reduce per-capita urban water use by 20% by 2020, but … — “State water hearings to start next week,” Fresno Bee, October 24, 2009, both Bee mentions via Aquafornia
“… that very well may have been a statistical blip.” — Joe Ramallo, Department of Water and Power spokesman on 44 major leaks in the month of September, “Three more water mains rupture in Los Angeles,” LA Times, October 21, 2009
“It’s a serious problem, don’t get me wrong, but it’s been …
Western datebook: Chance of plants
IF YOU MISSED THE Theodore Payne Foundation’s plant sale earlier this month, or couldn’t face the 5 Freeway to get out to Sun Valley, no worry. Phone the Foundation, tell them what you want, and pick it up from TPF’s Sunday stall at the Hollywood Farmers Market.
Elsewhere around Southern California, native plant sales are in full swing.
October 24: California Native Plant Society, Orange County Chapter, San Juan Capistrano
October 24: California Native Plant Sale, El Dorado Nature Center, Long Beach
November 7: Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, Claremont
Click here for listings of dry garden events through December. If you have an event that you would like listed, please e-mail me at: emily.green [@] mac.com
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Western datebook: Chance of food
Urban farmers. Most garden tours happen in the spring, but the Los Angeles Community Gardening Council is staging a two day event this weekend with workshops and garden tours. It starts downtown at FarmLab, then wends all over town. For information, click on the kiwi.…
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