WaterWired

Gulf Oil Spill: An Open Letter From Coastal Scientists to Adm. Thad Allen

Ken Reid sent me this letter. It's from twenty-one coastal scientists, written by Dr. Robert (Rob) S. Young, who directs the Program for the Study of Developed Coastlines at Western Carolina University.

Download Thad Allen Letter Open Letter

The letter, addressed to Admiral Thad Allen,  expresses concern over the re-engineering projects that are being employed to mitigate the effects of the Gulf oil spill, with little regard for or study of the potential long-term impacts of these efforts:

Our concern is that the cumulative, long-term impacts of all these projects are not being examined in any scientific or thoughtful way. As individual projects, we believe that they would fail a reasonable scientific evaluation. As a cumulative re-engineering of the US Gulf coast, they become a major problem.

The letter concludes:

We urge you to halt the construction of all exisiting projects and place a hold on new permits until an expert review of the cumulative impacts of all coastal engineering in response to the spill can be conducted. We are confident that this could be done quickly, and offer any assistance needed.

There is time to do this. Most of these proposed structures are not blocking oil at the moment. We are having success attacking the spill through traditional means. There is growing faith among scientists working on the ground that fisheries and ecosystems will recover from the spill, given enough time. And, there is a growing concern that all of these proposed engineering projects will do little good, waste resources, and cause greater, loing-term harm.

Sounds like a really good idea to me!

Here is a story about the letter from a New York Times blog. It includes some comments by Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA).

"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce

Report: Evaluating Sustainability of Projected Water Demands in 2050 Under Climate Change Scenarios

Tetra Tech and the Natural Resources Defense Council have just released the report, Evaluating Sustainability of Projected Water Demands under Future Climate Change Scenarios.

From the WWW site:

Climate change will impact water supplies, exacerbating existing pressures on water resources caused by population and economic growth. Given the combination of these stressors, the sustainability of water resources in future decades is a concern in many parts of the world. This study presents an integration of water withdrawal projections and future estimates of renewable water supply across the United States to assess future water availability in the face of a changing climate. The water demand projections in this work are based on business-as-usual trends in growth, particularly of population and energy demand, and renewable water supply projections are based on the average results of an ensemble of sixteen established climate models. The analysis is performed using annual water use data at the US county level, and using global climate model outputs for temperature and precipitation, both projected 20-40 years into the future. The analysis provides a national-scale evaluation of the results of changing water demand and supply, and helps identify regions that are most susceptible to climate change.

As part of this analysis, a water supply sustainability index composed of five attributes of water use and growth was developed, and used to compare impacts across regions. We found that, under the business-as-usual scenario of demand growth, water supplies in 70% of counties in the US may be at risk to climate change, and approximately one-third of counties may be at high or extreme risk. The geographic extent of potential risk to water supplies is greatly increased when climate change is considered (Figure ES-1). This calculation indicates the increase in risk that affected counties face that water demand will outstrip supplies, if no other remedial actions are taken. To be clear, it is not intended as a prediction that water shortages will occur, but rather where they are more likely to occur. As a result, the pressure on public officials and water users to creatively manage demand and supply--through greater efficiency and realignment among competing uses, and by water recycling and creation of new supplies through treatment--will be greatest in these regions. In addition to developing national-scale maps of potential climate impacts, this work serves as a starting point for more detailed analysis, either at more local scales, or by consideration of specific sectors of the economy that are directly dependent on sustainable water resources.

Here is a four-page fact sheet.

Unsure this is what you'd call 'light reading but enjoy it anyway.

This story from the Santa Fe New Mexican, based on the aforementioned report,  suggests New Mexico may be in for some tough times in 2050.

Thanks to Lynn Montgomery for the heads-up.

"The human brain is a complex organ with the wonderful power of enabling man to find reasons for continuing to believe whatever it is that he wants to believe. " -- Voltaire

Wayne Bossert's Blog Offers Wisdom in Water, Please...

While stumbling around Gayle Leonard's Thirsty in Suburbia examining her collection of water butts (that's British for 'rain barrels') I noted that Wayne Bossert, who manages the Northwest Kansas Groundwater Management District No. 4, blogs at Wisdom in Water, Please...

He alsoTweets.

Wayne has managed the district since 1977 and still looks happy, so he either loves his job or the drinking water in the area has tons of dissolved lithium salts, or both.

From the looks of things he must have become manager at age 12 or so.

By the way, the district's WWW page has a real nice collection of water quotes.

Since Wayne actually manages a groundwater district, he obviously knows his field very well, has to solve problems daily, and does not get bogged down in academic arguments.

As Sister Mary Theresa said, 'A word to the wise is sufficient.' 

So give him a read. You will learn quite a bit. So, as Sister Mary Theresa said to me again before breaking a ruler on my knuckles, 'A word to the wise is sufficient.' 

Wish him a happy birthday, too!

And remember...

"When the cause of the people is entrusted to the professors, it is lost." -- Lenin

Tap Water Is From Heaven, Bottled Water Is From...Purgatory?

From the talented and thoughtful Gayle Leonard - the ugly truth about bottled water.

 Original source:Albino Blacksheep.

 

"Enough. Man is capable of reform once presented with the facts, and the fact is that bottling water and shipping it is a big waste of fuel, so stop already. The water that comes to your house through a pipe is good enough, and maybe better." -- Garrison Keillor, 29 September 2007, Salt Lake Tribune

Fiji Water Fictitious Frivolity

This week seems to be turning into'Bottled Water Week' at WaterWired.

It's also becoming 'David Zetland Week' as I repost another one of his gems titled, Some Answers About Fiji Water.

The intrepid Dr. Zetland, who is now probably enjoying the cache of rum he brought back from Central America (any Flor de Caña?), describes his efforts to get an interview with Fiji Water:

I've been trying to talk to people at Fiji water since the start of March. I even changed my travel plans, to be able to talk to them when I was in Fiji. But that meeting was canceled at the last minute and my subsequent attempts to get written or verbal answers to my questions have been shuffled about and ignored. It's been nearly five months, and I'm tired of waiting. Tired. Tired Tired.

No luck. So here's what he did: he posted a fictitious interview with an imaginary Fiji respondent.

The fictitious Q & A is hilarious - see today's quote at the bottom. The interview might be closer to the truth than we think.

Fiji Water was started by Canadian David Gilmour (no, not that David Gilmour) and is now owned by SoCal (Hollywood) power couple Stewart and Lynda Resnick, who also are large property owners and irrigators in California's Westlands Water District. They are players in California water issues and political contributors to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). 

I had some 'fun' with Fiji a few years ago, Why Fiji Water Will Never Be 'Green'. Here is a post by William E. Marks,The True Price of Fiji Water.

You go, David!

Zetland: Where are your plastic bottles made? Virgin or recycled plastic? Is there a bottle recycling program on Fiji? What % of bottles does it pickup? Any recycling stats for FW bottles in the US?

Fiji: We make 'em in China, where it's easy to get 8 year olds on the lines, and we can dump our waste next to the road.