WaterWired

Emily Green's The Week That Was, 19 -25 December 2010 -- And More!

While some of us were taking it easy or trying to shake a bug, Emily Green didn't take any time off. She's got another excellent instalment of her weekly series, The Week That Was 19-25 December 2010.

No holiday slowdown for water; last week was a good one one for water news.

The Cadillac Desert folks were at it again, this time looking at reservoir storage in the USA and water supply in the Southeast.

Hydrofracking was in the news, including plans to operate in the Seine-Marne basin in France (the  map is from her post). Wonder if we can count on strikes to settle the issue? Pennsylania received a shout-out for working with the industry whereas New York let 'enviros' control the agenda (applauded by some) . But tell that to some homeowners in northeastern Pennsylvania who were none to happy with their fouled well water.

Hexavalent chromium is once again in the news. and this time it is not restricted to Hinkley, CA.

Couldn't have a week without California water news, including an article by Matt Jenkins from the High Country News (see today's quote).

More, too: Florida water temperatures and fishery problems, LA water wastage, SoCal floooding, Mexican beneficence towards the Colorado Basin states, Nepal, lunar hydrology, and...Nebraska.

Read on!

 "...much of the Delta is a remote, labyrinthine wateriness that, for most people, exists only in the mind, wrapped in an impenetrable mist." -- --Matt Jenkins, "California's Tangled Water Politics", High Country News

Ann Campana Judge Foundation Awards $15,000 to Texas Water Mission for Honduras Project

 

During this holiday season the spirit of giving is indeed invigorating and infectious. The Ann Campana Judge Foundation is no exception; it just awarded $15,000 to the Texas Water  Mission for a well driling  project in El Paraiso, Honduras. Around 2,000 people will benefit.

Thanks to all the ACJF donors who hve made this award possible.

A Merry Christmas indeed!

“To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life; and to cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right.” – Confucius

Sedimentation and Sustainability of Western American Reservoirs

Four members of our Cadillac Desert group - Will Graf, Ellen Wohl, Tushar Sinha, and John L. Sabo - just published this paper in Water Resources Research.

Download Sedimentation_Sustainability_Western_Reservoirs

Looks like things are better than we thought.

Abstract
Reservoirs are sustainable  only as long as they offer sufficient water storage space to achieve  their   design objectives. Life expectancy related to sedimentation is a measure of reservoir sustainability. We used data from the Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and U.S. Geological Survey (Reservoir Sedimentation Survey Information System II (RESIS II) to explore the sustainability of American reservoirs. Sustainability varied by region, with the longest life expectancies in New England and the Tennessee Valley and the shortest in the interior west. In the Missouri and Colorado River basins, sedimentation and rates of loss of reservoir storage capacity were highly variable in time and space. In the Missouri River basin, the larger reservoirs had the longest life expectancies, with some exceeding 1000 years, while smaller reservoirs in the basin had the shortest life expectancies. In the Colorado River basin at the site of Glen Canyon Da, sediment inflow varied with time, declining by half beginning in 1942 becuase of hydroclimate and upstream geomorphic changes. Because of these changes, the estimated life expectancy of Lake Powell increased from 300 to 700 years. Future surprise changes in sedimentation delivery and reservoir filling area are expected. Even though large western reservoirs were built within a limted period. their demise will not be synchronous becuase of varying sedimentation rates. Popular literature has incorrectlyemphasized the possibility of rapid, synchronous loss of reservoir storage capacity and underestimated the sustainability of water control infrastructure.

Click on the figure (Annul Reservoir Storage Loss) to enlarge it.      

"Rivers are roads which move, and which carry us whither we desire to go."  ~Blaise Pascal

More California Schemin' and Dreamin'

Friend and colleague Tim Parker opines on California's water shortage issues.

From the High Country News Matt Jenkins writes on California's Tangled Water Politics (you will need a subscription). Associated with the story is California's agricultural water history timeline.

 
I'll close with a recent post to my Facebook wall. At least she's honest enough to admit she's confused.

"I just got back from Arizona. I saw the canal in Phoenix. Over the summer I saw the canals in California. This is madness. Something of this magnitude and waste would never fly in a development scheme of some US funded aid. And yet we have some mad water decisions happening in the west. And then I heard something about the Navajo rez just getting water rights that it has been fighting for for 75 years. I am totally confused." - a friend

Scam of Scams: Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton Want to Give Me $900,000!

Along with about a zillion other people, I received a PDF in my e-mailbox this morning from someone named Prof. Michael Manuel, who has a South African email address. Perhaps he's really a Nigerian prince who has sought political asylum there.

The document has a nice big picture of Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton.

 Along with 17 other lucky people, I am to get $900,000 to help save the planet or something like that. The UN and the EU are also behind this, along with Clinton's and Mandela's foundations. And the letter was signed by Desmond Tutu!

But I've been sworn to secrecy, lest the money be given to someone else (like Professor Manuel). 

Here is a copy of the flyer. Don't worry about viruses - I printed it out and scanned it.

 Download Climate_Change_Awareness

Feel free to respond.

"Inside every silver lining there's a dark cloud." -- George Carlin