WaterWired

Mulroy Channels Monty: 'Hey, Utah, Let's Make a Deal!'

I gave my students a brief lecture on Las Vegas water issues so it's nice that this issue reared its head.

The other day I commented on how much I love Maude Barlow and T. Boone Pickens. I can always rely on them to generate fodder for a decent blog post. But I was remiss in excluding Pat Mulroy, the Executive Director and creator of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, who can always be counted on for a blogworthy event, as she wanders the Western USA like a modern-day Diogenes, searching not for an honest man, but for water. 

Now she channels the venerable Monty Hall, co-creator and original host of the iconic show, Let's Make a Deal. She wants to make a deal with Utah.

At least she dresses better than Monty.

All this started a few weeks ago, when Mulroy trashed Utah and Salt Lake City in an interview on a Las Vegas TV station (view KSL-TV's report). She chided Salt Lake City residents for not being able to spell 'conservation.' I find her criticism of Salt Lake City amusing, given that her home city:

1. has a reputed mob lawyer, Oscar Goodman, as mayor;
2. owes its existence to a gangster, its patron saint Bugsy Siegel;  
3. has perfected the ability to fleece marks - excuse me, I mean 'tourists' - while convincing them they are having a good time and to visit again real soon; and
4. lets her and her husband use 700,000 gallons (over two acre-feet) of water annually!

Maybe Mulroy should take a crack at spelling 'conservation.' Wonder if SNWA still bans graywater systems?

Here is an interesting comment on Mulroy and her 'addiction.' This article describes the worldwide attention focused on Las Vegas' water woes.

So where's the Monty Hall connection? Well, Mulroy dropped a bombshell during the interview. As reported by Patty Henetz in the Salt Lake Tribune:

A top Nevada water chief made a splash during a recent Las Vegas television interview, trash-talking Salt Lake City for being too bucolic, its residents for not being able to spell conservation and Utah Gov. Gary Herbert for not signing a contentious Snake Valley water-sharing agreement.

Then Pat Mulroy, executive director of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, dropped a bomb: She offered to keep a 285-mile, $3 billion Las Vegas pipeline away from Snake Valley's aquifer if Utah would just give up some of the Colorado River water the Beehive State is promised under federal law.

"If the state of Utah wanted us out of Snake Valley, they could accomplish it tomorrow," Mulroy said during the KCVB interview. "All they need to do is agree that when ... we get into critical [Lake Mead shortages], they will absorb that portion of Nevada's shortage that would have been replaced by Snake Valley resources."

Whoa!  Such a deal, Utah. You don't have to pick Door #1, Door #2, or Door #3.

There is a catch, though: the deal's virtually impossible.

But as federal and state water authorities point out, the statement is untrue and, in fact, the proposal would be illegal.

"It's a good news bite," said Utah Division of Water Resources Dennis Strong. "But it's not possible and she knows it."

She could get Utah to make the deal, if she got all seven Colorado River Compact states to agree. In your dreams!

Ah, the Las Vegas casino ploy: promise something that is totally unattainable.

Mulroy's video rant is no surprise, given her aggressive nature. But in the past year or so, she's uttered words like 'collaboration' and 'cooperation' more frequently.

She's desperate, and like Jack Bauer, she's running out of time.  The Nevada Supreme Court pulled the plug on her precious groundwater and her Federal angel, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), may not be returned to DC.

But I'm still not betting against Pat Mulroy. She's got something cooking.

Aside: I'm co-keynoting the 11 May 2010 Annual Conference of the Utah Section of the American Water Resources Association with Mike Styler, Executive Director of the Utah DNR. I'll have to think of some good Las Vegas jokes.

Download 2010 AWRA Utah_Annual _Conference_Agenda

"One can envision a horror story." -- Dr. John D. Bredehoeft, referring to SNWA's planned pumping from Snake Valley, Op-Ed, Salt Lake Tribune, 15 January 2010

Getting My CVP and Bay-Delta Mojo Back: 1) CV Tour; 2) Sierra Nevada and CV Climate Change Implications

Chris over at Aquafornia posted this informative slideshow of the Water Education Foundation's Central Valley Tour. 

I also discovered a slideshow on Climate Change Implications to the Sierra  Nevada and the Central Valley by Ryan Lucas from the Sierra Nevada Research Institute at UC-Merced.

I've got to start getting reimmersed in the Central Valley and Bay-Delta soon; these will help me get my mojo back.

Mojo? Isn't that a listed species?

Central valley tour slideshow

View more presentations from Aquafornia.

Climate Change Implications to the Sierra Nevada and the Central Valley

View more presentations from Great Valley Center.

Yeah, Got My Mojo Workin'!

"I got my mojo workin' but it just don't work on you
I got my mojo workin' but it just don't work on you
I want to love you so bad, till I just don't know what to do."
-- Preston Foster and McKinley Morganfield (aka Muddy Waters)
 

Barlow's Bolivia Blather

I love Maude Barlow and T. Boone Pickens. Whenever each opens his/her mouth, I get a good blog post, and today's post is no exception. It's like being served up a fastball right down the middle with the bases loaded in the ninth inning (forgive the USA sports analogy).

Reader Brendan Mulligan, himself a Canadian like Barlow, sent me this item along with some comments. Brendan is a hydrogeologist who works for the University of Calgary's CARA network in Bolivia. He is working on the project Adapting to Climate Change in the Illimani Watershed in the Bolivian Andes so he knows something about Bolivian climate change and hydrology.

Both Barlow and Amy Goodman were in Cochabamba (I wonder how its water system is doing these days), Bolivia, for the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. Goodman interviewed Barlow on her show Democracy Now!, introducing her as someone who will talk about melting glaciers, climate change, and water. The interview lasts for about 12 minutes.

To be sure, global warming and receding glaciers are a problem, not only in Bolivia but throughout the Andes and elsewhere. Here are some stories from major media outlets: BBC; NY Times; and CNN. Even the World Bank has a report.

After mistakenly claiming that the Copenhagen Accord has been imposed on the world (it's not binding), Barlow offers this gem, which left me muttering to myself:

"Well, remember it’s a landlocked country, so their only water that they have, really, is the water of the glaciers, and they’re melting very quickly."

Huh?  Or perhaps I should say "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?"

She's corrrect about Bolivia being landlocked and that the glaciers are melting (I think she means 'receding'). But why are glaciers its only water supply? What about groundwater? Liquid surface water? The vast majority of Bolivians rely on groundwater for domestic use and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia's largest city, relies exclusively on groundwater for its supply. Sure, melting glaciers can recharge aquifers and provide streamflow, but when the glaciers vanish, that does not necessarily mean recharge will cease nor rivers run dry.

Barlow also states that the Mount Illimani glacier is really the only one left, and it’s receding very quickly. Yes, it's receding very quickly, but it's not the only one left. Nor does it supply water to El Alto or Las Paz according to Mulligan.

More from Maude:

"What’s happening is, as the glaciers melt, the people have no water, they can’t grow food, they have to move..." 

She then ties this exodus to the cities to the need for modern water supply to privatization and the World Bank, which is Barlow's shtick.

She forgets to mention that although the glaciers are retreating, it's still raining and snowing in the mountains. The glaciers are receding because the temperatures are rising and the replenishment rate is less than the melt rate. But there is water; the critical thing is that the natural storage of the glaciers is being lost. So the people are not necessarily running out of water, although the global warming will likely change the spatial and temporal distribution and form of precipitation.  The rural people will have to adapt, not necessarily to less water, but to a system where the natural surface storage (glacier ice) is lower. They will have to be helped/compensated so that they can devise storage systems.  This will also be true for urban areas reliant on glacial meltwater.

And then she states that the displacement and abuse of water contribute to global climate change in addition to GHGs. Say what? Does she mean more water evaporates (water vapor is a GHG)? Or is she just blathering? I actually thought she meant the energy required to move the water around, but that produces GHGs and she has already included GHGs in climate change. Gotta explain that one, Maude.

And of course, Barlow pontificates that we are destroying the world's freshwater stocks, which we learned in sixth grade we couldn't do. It seems like that by moving the water around from watersheds and mountains to cities and growing inappropriate crops in the desert , we are destroying it. And privatizing air? Huh? Talk about stream of consciousness blathering!

Want another perspective on Bolivia's water woes? Try this slightly different take from the New York Times:

But global warming alone cannot be blamed for the longstanding woes of this exotic but desperately poor landlocked country, where per capita income is around $1,000. Urban water supplies are also taxed by population growth as well as checkered management, in part because there is little money to manage anything, but also because the government nationalized the water company a few years ago, having declared water a human right. El Alto still does not employ a full-time water technician.

Such a viewpoint would never be espoused by either Barlow or Goodman, because it suggests that Bolivia bears some responsibility when it comes to water availability for its people, especially in urban areas.

Later in the interview, Goodman asks Barlow about the UK's Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Greg Clark's remark that Bolivian President Evo Morales’s form of activism is "watermelon environmentalism." Barlow calls this "an insulting and racist statement." This would be akin to calling an African-American an "Oreo" or a Mexican-American a "coconut."  I assume Clark's comment "watermelon environmentalism" means "green on the outside but red (as in socialist) on the inside." Clark is a Conservative MP, and it should be noted that he is the shadow secretary, not the secretary. Big difference! Goodman missed that point.

I was intrigued by this interview because in a previous interview with Goodman, Barlow seemed to downplay climate change and stuck to her anti-privatization rant. I suspect she's decided to ride the climate change bandwagon because she can link it to water privatization and commodification. Brilliant!

I don't have a problem with what Barlow does. In fact, I admire her passion and tenacity. But she does her cause a disservice when she spews misinformation. She ought to stick to topics she knows. 

What's especially sad is that her disciples will suck this stuff up as though it's gospel.

There is some good news: Barlow's honorary appointment as Senior UN Water Adviser has expired so she can no longer pretend she's a UN water expert.

Okay, I'm done now. Can't do this any longer.

Till next time, let me close with a Maude Barlow quote that could easily have been uttered by yours truly.

"I go crazy when I see certain things and I have to find out why they happen. And I have to tell people. I have to do something so that other people will also take action." --Maude Barlow

Emily Green's The Week That Was in Water, 18-24 April 2010 (and More!)

Emily Green is treating us to an 'unscheduled' post, The Week That Was, 16-24 April 2010. As usual, she's got an amazing selection of stories and quotes.

As usual, I can't leave well enough alone.

There is good stuff from Utah, Colorado (expensive water!), Mexico City, and Las Vegas.

She exposes a song set to Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water (I personally prefer Hush - here's the original 1968 version) titled Dope in the Water by Oregon's own Steve Anderson, who works at Clean Water Services. It's great - you can listen to it and download the MP3.

And listen to Kim Jeffery, CEO of Nestlé Waters North America, defend his company at a film screening, and utter the words:

“I don’t see on the horizon the will in our country to fix the municipal systems we have today.”

I fear he may be right. To me, that is the biggest danger of bottled water - that those of us who can afford it will use that stuff as our drinking water and will lose the will to maintain our municipal drinking-water systems.

I suspect Jeffery will be reading Peter Gleick's new book on bottled water: "Most of our tap water is completely safe; most of our bottled water is probably completely safe."  I'm sure Jeffery is preparing a rebuttal.

Cities try to wring money from their utilities. Maude Barlow, wherefore art thou?

The University of Nebraska has become a player on the global food and water policy scene with a $50M bequest from Robert Daugherty, founder of Valmont Industries. Corn for the world?

And you can file this under the more-things-change-the-more-they-remain-the-same category: Mexico City is still sinking. Perhaps Carlos Slim can pump some of his cash underground to prop up the place.

Time to go.

"Drought, in other words, takes on something of the character of the society it keeps. If that society lives on the edge, then drought shows up as the grim reaper. "— Ed Firmage, Jr., photographer at Zion National Park

'Dean of Dams' Dominy Dies

Floyd Dominy, longest-serving Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, died on 23 April 2010. He was 100. He presided over Reclamation during its swan song as the great builder of dams in the Western USA.  He believed that water should be harnessed to serve humankind and he walked the walk.

Shown here are pictures of Dominy at 99 and as Reclamation Commissioner on an invitation to his 100th birthday party.

Here is Reclamation's announcement of his death.

Dominy was born in Hastings, NE. He received his Bachelor's and Master's degree in economics from the University of Wyoming. In terms of Federal largesse he would later prove to be kind to his adopted state.

Dominy will be best remembered or reviled for his construction of Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell.

His raft trip down the Colorado River with environmentalist David Brower is recounted in John McPhee's Encounters with the Archdruid.

Julianne Couch has a good story about Dominy in the High Country News. Here is a snippet from her report:

One week before Dominy passed away in Virginia at his Angus farm, I spoke to him by telephone. I wanted to talk to the man I’d first learned about long ago from reading John McPhee’s Encounters with the Archdruid. I can think of no better way to write a story than the way McPhee did: You put two enemies in a rubber raft (along with a handful of unsuspecting strangers) and send them all down a wild river together.

That’s what McPhee did with Dominy and David Brower, the Sierra Club president who considered the construction of Glen Canyon Dam his biggest environmental policy failure. McPhee set the stage with both scenery and character. His canvas was the Colorado River, with its mile-high rock walls and hundreds of side canyons. And his characters were equally memorable: Brower, the environmental leader, who saw what would be lost to the rising waters; and Dominy, the determined dam-builder, who learned as a young man in Nebraska that water in a river does no good at all if isn’t made available for people to use.

In the end, it seemed that Dominy and Brower had a blast, drinking beer and occasionally bickering about whether remote stretches of the Colorado were valuable because they were untouched, or wasted because they weren’t being developed.

Marc Reisner's Cadillac Desert featured a critical portrayal of Dominy, who said of himself:

"I have no apologies. I was a crusader for the development of water. I was the Messiah. I was the evangelist who went out and argued persuasively for the harness of water for the benefit of people."

Todd Jarvis sent me this article he wrote on 'Dominy's Folly' - Anchor Dam in Wyoming, which had the undesirable property of not being able to hold water. Dominy's solution was to "stuff every geologist and engineer who worked on the  project in the sinkholes." This was something that Dominy tried to sweep under the rug,  but it ultimately contributed to his downfall.

Download Anchor_Dam_Jarvis

Floyd Dominy was a true dam builder or damn builder, depending upon your vantage point. Either way, it's safe to say he was the most colorful commissioner Reclamation ever had. As dw suggests below it might be appropriate to name a dam after him - no, not Anchor Dam, but perhaps his 'jewel' - Glen Canyon Dam.

“It was boring! Boring, how could it be anything else? You can’t see out from the bottom of a canyon.” - Floyd Dominy, recalling his Colorado River raft trip