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Lessons from a California drought
Lessons from a California drought
Rain finally arrived in California this past December with a series of storms dumping deluges across the state. So much rain fell that localised flooding and landslides were a concern. Whether this means that the three-year drought, which stands to be the driest “in over a millennium” is breaking, however, is far from certain.
The drought has devastated California’s agriculture and driven LA residents to rip out their lush green lawns. There has been something apocalyptic in the air as farmers drained the state’s aquifers last year, and vast reservoirs were sucked dry,sparking water wars. As 2015 begins, 99% of the state is rated ‘abnormally dry’.
It has been much debated whether climate change has been at work across California – and the western United States more generally. At a global level, 2014 is now confirmed as the warmest year on record. Noted scientist Peter Gleick argues that the rising temperatures in California along with atmospheric shifts (like the band of high pressure that sat along the Pacific coast in 2013 keeping storms at bay) are the “fingerprints” of human-induced climate change and they’ve been making the drought worse. But the western United States is also naturally arid – early explorers labelled the region the ‘Great American Desert’ on their maps.
Critical drought has been impacting agriculture around the world. BBC Radio 4’s Shared Planet programme recently reported on the impact of drought in East Africa and the plight of pastoralists in the region, while the drought in Brazil, which is hitting its three most populous regions, is being characterised as “the worst… since 1930”. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has repeatedly warned that drought will increasingly impact food security across the world, and water management must be given greater consideration. This is one area where the water issues of California and the western United States might offer a significant lesson on living in drought.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
A Year Without the Colorado River, as Seen by Economists
A Year Without the Colorado River, as Seen by Economists
Imagine if each tap that delivered water from the Colorado River – whether to a farm, a factory, or a home – suddenly went dry for a year. What would happen to the West’s economy?
That’s pretty much the question a team of researchers at Arizona State University set out to answer – and the results are startling.
The region would lose $1.4 trillion – that’s trillion, with a “t” – in economic activity, along with 16 million jobs.
Each of the six states – Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming – plus seven southern California counties supplied by the Colorado River would see losses to their gross state product (GSP) of half or more. Nevada’s would drop by 87 percent.
Commissioned by Protect the Flows, a coalition of over 1,000 businesses, the study reveals how crucial the Colorado River is not only to these seven states that make up the watershed, but also to the nation as a whole.
Of all the water used in the basin, 43% of agriculture’s supply and 41% of municipal and industrial supplies come from the Colorado River.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Yellowstone River Oil Spill Threatens Drinking Water in Montana
Yellowstone River Oil Spill Threatens Drinking Water in Montana
Bottled water is being provided to residents of Glendive, Montana, after oil from True Companies’Poplar pipeline system leaked into the Yellowstone River.
Dawson County has received complaints of odor in drinking water from people who use the municipal water system, according to a posting on the Montana government site. A water sample from the system showed elevated levels of volatile organic compounds, predominantly benzene, Bill Salvin, an outside spokesman for True Companies, whose Bridger Pipeline LLC operates the Poplar system, said in an e-mail.
As much as 1,200 barrels of oil leaked from the pipeline Jan. 17 and much went into the river, according to Dave Parker, a spokesman for Montana Governor Steve Bullock. The governor’s office declared an emergency in Dawson and Richland counties along the river and as many as 50 workers from the company and federal, state and local agencies are investigating the leak.
The 12-inch crude line carries as much as 42,000 barrels a day from near the Canadian border to Baker, Montana, according to Salvin, the outside spokesman, who works for Signal Bridge Communications, Inc. The section of the pipeline that is shut after the leak needs regulator approval to be restarted and the line mainly carries oil from the Bakken formation in North Dakota and Montana, according to Salvin.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
An Unexpected Success Story Links Our Health to Wild Lands
An Unexpected Success Story Links Our Health to Wild Lands
Environmental disasters caused by human folly are all too familiar. But what about the environmental serendipity? The unexpected stories where nature and humans co-exist harmoniously. They do happen, and some may be found close at hand by looking at your faucet and following the water back to its source.
Before New York and Boston were fierce baseball competitors, they shared a certain wisdom about their drinking water supplies. Boston draws its water from theQuabbin and Wachusetts reservoirs west of the city. North of New York City stretches the metropolis’ water sources — the Croton and Catskill-Delaware watersheds. Gravity is a good friend to these port cities. Both receive their water, largely unfiltered and un-pumped, from protected watersheds in the hills.
Both of these success stories go back to the days when foul water and a spate of dysentery could lose you an election. This pushed politicians to direct engineers and urban planners to find safe water sources. With populations booming in the 1800s, Boston and New York looked to their hinterlands to quench their growing
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
LA Imports Nearly 85 Percent of Its Water—Can It Change That by Gathering Rain?
LA Imports Nearly 85 Percent of Its Water—Can It Change That by Gathering Rain?
Walk the glaring streets of Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley on a sun-soaked afternoon in a drought year, the dry, brush-covered mountains rising behind you, and it can be easy to feel that you’re in arid country. “Beneath this building, beneath every street, there’s a desert,” said the fictional mayor in the Oscar-winning 1974 movie Chinatown. “Without water the dust will rise up and cover us as though we’d never existed!”
It’s an apocryphal idea. L.A. is not the Mojave but, climatically, more like Athens. Artesian springs, fed by rain in the mountains and hills, used to bubble up around Los Angeles, and farmers and Spanish missionaries grew fruit and olives in the Valley starting in the 18th and 19th centuries.
But the city has a history of treating its own raindrops and rivers as if they were more problematic than valuable. The L.A. River was prone to catastrophic floods in heavy rains, and, in the 20th century, engineers buried, straightened, and paved sections of the riverbed, flushing the water through concrete drainage channels to the Pacific Ocean. Then, to quench the thirst of its growing population, Los Angeles undertook a series of engineering feats that pumped water from the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains, Northern California, and the Colorado River via hundreds of miles of pipes and reservoirs. Now the city typically imports more than 85 percent of its water from afar. And it’s as if the waters of Los Angeles disappeared from the consciousness of locals: Many Angelenos will tell you, mistakenly, that they live in a desert.
Now that story is changing again.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Cleaning up Malaysia’s rivers of life – Features – Al Jazeera English
Cleaning up Malaysia’s rivers of life – Features – Al Jazeera English.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – In the hills to the east of Kuala Lumpur, the Klang River is clean enough for visitors to play in. But just a few hundred metres downstream, the water darkens and rubbish clogs the banks.
By the time it reaches the city centre, the river is the pale brown of milky tea and so toxic it’s dangerous to touch.
But after decades of neglect, the government is spending more than $1bn to revive the Klang and Gombak rivers that gave Kuala Lumpur – which translates roughly as “muddy confluence” – its name.
“The River of Life is one of the cornerstone projects in Kuala Lumpur, in addition to public transport,” said Mohd Azharuddin Mat Sah, a director of the government’s Performance Management and Delivery Unit, who is coordinating the project.
“We learned from other cities like Seoul, Vancouver, upgrading and beautifying the areas around the river really helps a city become more livable. And Kuala Lumpur is naturally lucky to have two rivers flowing through it.”
Doug Parker: The Status Of The Drought In The U.S. West | Peak Prosperity
Doug Parker: The Status Of The Drought In The U.S. West | Peak Prosperity.
2014 saw the extension of a historic drought across the US West. Croplands withered or were fully abandoned. Water rationing was enforced. Well tables dropped. The price of many vegetables and meats have skyrocketed.
But the past month has seen a welcome set of rain systems arrive along the Pacific coast. As a result, some regions like northern California are currently at 140% of rainfall vs the typical year. To drive home why this is such an important topic for everyone to follow, the table below shows how critical California’s agricultural output is to feeding the rest of America:
(Source)
So is an end to the drought in sight?
The short answer is ‘no’. And were not close to it (yet). Much will depend on the rainfall levels over the next three months, and how much of that accumulates as snow pack.
Broken Hill’s water to run out by August 2015 amid major drought – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Drilling work has started in Broken Hill in far west New South Wales to find an emergency water supply for the drought-stricken town.
The iconic mining city is due to run out of good quality water by August 2015 due to the dwindling level of the Menindee Lakes.
The lakes have been steadily drying out because of the drought.
Darryn Clifton from the Broken Hill-Menindee Lakes We Want Action Group said mismanagement was also to blame.
“It’s only through over extraction of water upstream in the Barwon-Darling River system that we’re not getting the flows down,” he said.
The NSW Government has started drilling for groundwater to provide an emergency bore water supply for Broken Hill.
Water Minister Kevin Humphries said the current supply of surface water was not sustainable.
RIGZONE – Report: Texas Could Face 2.7 Trillion Gallon Water Shortfall by 2060
RIGZONE – Report: Texas Could Face 2.7 Trillion Gallon Water Shortfall by 2060.
The state of Texas could face a 2.7 trillion gallon water shortfall by 2060, according to a recent report by Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service. To address this potential shortfall, the state should offer tax incentives to oil and gas companies to substitute brackish groundwater for fresh water, according to the report “Water Use for Hydraulic Fracturing: A Texas Sized Problem?” The report research was compiled by students with the Mosbacher Institute for Trade, Economics and Public Policy, which is part of The Bush School. The use of hydraulic fracturing in shale exploration in the United States has allowed the nation to become the world’s largest producer of oil and gas. However, the process has been heavily scrutinized due to the amount of water used for production, especially in Texas, which has large demands placed on its limited water supply. According to the report, hydraulically fractured wells typically need approximately 5 million gallons of water per well. “Unfortunately, no one but the companies themselves has good information about which companies do and do not use brackish water,” Dr. Lori Taylor, director of the Mosbacher Institute, told Rigzone in an email statement.
– See more at: http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/136459/Report_Texas_Could_Face_27_Trillion_Gallon_Water_Shortfall_by_2060#sthash.ZqHOdd7d.dpuf
The Radio Ecoshock Show: RUNNING OUT OF FUTURE
The Radio Ecoshock Show: RUNNING OUT OF FUTURE.
SUMMARY: Super scientist Kevin Trenberth on why oceans now hottest in recorded history, why that can make Europe colder. Stephen Leahy: we bankrupt water supplies with consumer purchases. Rob Aldrich on a generation with Nature Deficit Disorder. Radio Ecoshock 141203
Welcome back to Radio Ecoshock. Not a week goes by without a new, strange, and dangerous threat emerging out of the shadowy future. We start with the biggest under-reported story: unseen by land mammals, the world’s oceans are heating up. That determines the future and the new coastlines for hundreds of years. We’ll talk with Dr. Kevin Trenberth, one of the world’s top climate scientists.
Did you know great rivers of fresh water are travelling around the world, hidden in the consumer products we buy? Environmental journalist Stephen Leahy explains his new book “Your Water Footprint”.
Then Rob Aldrich says “yes, there is a growing health crisis in the Western world, and the cause is Nature Deficit Disorder”.
…click on the above link to listen to the podcast…
Cheers! Ontario takes action to limit water transfers within the Great Lakes basin | – Environmental Defence
By Anastasia Lintner, Lintner Law and Nancy Goucher, Environmental Defence
Last Thursday, the Government of Ontario filed a new regulation that, commencing on January 1, 2015, will stop diversions of water from one Great Lakes watershed to another (save for well-defined exceptions). With this new regulation, Ontario has finally fulfilled its commitments under an agreement we have with Quebec and the U.S. Great Lakes states, so that both Canadian and U.S. jurisdictions must follow strict standards and procedures should they want to move major amounts of water within or outside of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin.
The Great Lakes may seem like a limitless resource (we often hear that these lakes hold almost 20 per cent of the world’s available surface freshwater), but in reality, these water bodies are not as stable as some might like to think. About 99 per cent of the water we see is left over from when the glaciers melted some 10,000 years ago. That means only one per cent of the water in the lakes is renewed annually. If more than that leaves the system in a year, water levels will decline. That’s why we need to guard our water supplies and carefully control how much water we artificially move between watersheds.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Water War Amid Brazil Drought Leads to Fight Over Puddles – Bloomberg
Water War Amid Brazil Drought Leads to Fight Over Puddles – Bloomberg.
Brazil’s Jaguari reservoir has fallen to its lowest level ever, laying bare measurement posts that jut from exposed earth like a line of dominoes. The nation’s two biggest cities are fighting for what little water is left.
Sao Paulo state leaders want to tap Jaguari, which feeds Rio de Janeiro’s main source. Rio state officials say they shouldn’t suffer for others’ mismanagement. Supreme Court judges have summoned the parties to Brasilia for a mediation session this week.
The standoff in a nation with morewater resources than any other country in the world portends further conflicts as the planet grows increasingly urban. One in three of the world’s 100 biggest cities is under water stress, according to The Nature Conservancy, a U.S.-based nonprofit.
“It’s unusual in that it’s two very large cities facing what could be a new, permanent conflict over the allocation of water,” said Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute, a research organization in Oakland, California. “It’s a wake-up call that even places we think of as water-rich have to learn to do a better job of managing what’s ultimately a scarce resource. Nature doesn’t always cooperate with us.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
The Unwelcome Reality For U.S. Coal Exports
The Unwelcome Reality For U.S. Coal Exports.
While the oil and gas industry likes to claim that fracking is not an especially water intensive process, a new report has found that there are more than 250 wells across the country that each require anywhere from 10 to 25 million gallons of water.
The American Petroleum Institutesuggests that the typical fracked well uses “the equivalent of the volume of three to six Olympic sized swimming pools,” which works out to 2-4 million gallons of water.
But using data reported by the industry itself and available on the FracFocus.org website,Environmental Working Group has determined that there are at least 261 wells in eight states that used an average of 12.7 million gallons of water, adding up to a total of 3.3 billion gallons, between 2010 and 2013. Fourteen wells used over 20 million gallons each in that time period (see chart below).
According to EWG, some two-thirds of these water-hogging wells are in drought-stricken areas. Many parts of Texas, for instance, are suffering through a severe and prolonged drought, yet the Lone Star State has by far the most of what EWGcalls “monster wells” with 149. And 137 of those were found to be in abnormally dry to exceptional drought areas.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Monster Wells: Hundreds Of Fracking Wells Using 10-25 Million Gallons of Water Each | DeSmogBlog
Monster Wells: Hundreds Of Fracking Wells Using 10-25 Million Gallons of Water Each | DeSmogBlog.
While the oil and gas industry likes to claim that fracking is not an especially water intensive process, a new report has found that there are more than 250 wells across the country that each require anywhere from 10 to 25 million gallons of water.
The American Petroleum Institutesuggests that the typical fracked well uses “the equivalent of the volume of three to six Olympic sized swimming pools,” which works out to 2-4 million gallons of water.
But using data reported by the industry itself and available on the FracFocus.org website,Environmental Working Group has determined that there are at least 261 wells in eight states that used an average of 12.7 million gallons of water, adding up to a total of 3.3 billion gallons, between 2010 and 2013. Fourteen wells used over 20 million gallons each in that time period (see chart below).
According to EWG, some two-thirds of these water-hogging wells are in drought-stricken areas. Many parts of Texas, for instance, are suffering through a severe and prolonged drought, yet the Lone Star State has by far the most of what EWGcalls “monster wells” with 149. And 137 of those were found to be in abnormally dry to exceptional drought areas.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
