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  • John Fleck
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« August 14, 2022 - August 20, 2022 | Main | August 28, 2022 - September 3, 2022 »

7 posts from August 21, 2022 - August 27, 2022

Monday, 22 August 2022

Elaine J. Hanford's Bulletin Boards: 1) Geoscience; 2) Environmental Science; 3) Coastal Zone Management - 22 August 2022

Screen Shot 2022-08-19 at 3.07.36 PMHad a sneak preview this AM!! @AWRAHQ #WebinarWednesday - 24 August 2022 1 - 2 PM ET: Kira Jacobs of @EPAnewengland: 'How to Develop Innovative Drinking Water Partnerships & Find Funding: 3 Projects To Inspire You' tinyurl.com/yc75.

If the time is inconvenient, register and watch the video, Q&A, and slide show (PDF) at your leisure. Free to AWRA National members! 

Enjoy!

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Here are Elaine's BBs as PDF and Word documents:

PDF:  Download EJH_Bulletin_WW_Boards_22August2022

Word: Download EJH_Bulletin_WW_Boards_22August2022

Note: If a link does not work, try pasting the URL into your browser. Elaine

The articles displayed herein are selected by Dr. Elaine J. Hanford. I do not necessarily agree with the viewpoints expressed and the article descriptions that precede each link.

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Geoscience Bulletin Board – 22 August 2022 – compiled by Elaine J. Hanford

New CoreLift is a mechanized core bench designed to increase productivity in core-logging facilities

Feathers may have helped keep dinosaurs warm

Northwest states requesting $3.76 Billion for ongoing nuclear waste cleanup at Hanford Reservation

Dubious honor:  120 days & 165 pints as geology grad students complete “world’s longest pub crawl”

Hot Creek Geologic Site near Mammoth Lakes, California

Panthalassa was the largest ocean expanse in Earth history

Newly discovered field of hydrothermal vents off the coast of western Mexico in East Pacific Rise

Even the USGS is now embracing wokeness

With Landsat 9 operations transitioned from NASA to USGS

Complex relationship among hurricanes, air pollution, climate & ocean circulation

Water & volatile compound concentrations may inhibit mixing of layers in the mantle

Deep earthquakes in Mariana Subduction Zone suggest zone is well hydrated

Sauropod dinosaurs had soft tissue pads to adsorb impacts of immense weight

Atractosteus grandei – giant gar species survived Chicxulub impact event

Saccorhytus coronarius – Cambrian ecdysozoan with mouth surrounded by rings of complex spines but no anus

New model simulates development & prediction of landslides in wildfire burn scars

700,000-year climatic record revealed by lakebed sediment core from Lake Junin in Peruvian Andes

Ambient Noise Technology (ANT) being tested at lithium exploration site in Australia

Thawing Arctic hillsides contribute to carbon cycle on northern Taymyr Peninsula in Russia

Lava flow on Fagradalsfjall has slowed down

Bad weather has temporarily closed Meradalir eruption trails in Iceland

13 of 19 of Kenai fjord glaciers currently in retreat in Alaska – 4 relatively stable & 2 have advanced

Mapping & sampling at Avispa Copper Molybdenum Project in Chile completed

Blue Island in Illinois landscape formed during the last Ice Age

University of Wyoming cuts the ribbon on the newly renamed Tom A. Thorson Geology Field Camp

Finland solves rock-hard problem of nuclear waste disposal

Transition from fossil fuels to “clean energy” sparks growing need for geologists

Paper:  3D geological implicit modeling based on hierarchical interpolation data

5-mile-wide Nadir Crater off the coast of West Africa – 66 myo

Mid-August geomagnetic storm – little to no impacts expected

Santos Ltd. given approval for $2.6B Pikka oil field project in Alaska

Hybrid AV Sentry monitoring submarine earthquakes

In many locations seas level is not rising but rather the land is subsiding due to natural causes & human activities

Model suggests 900-year cooling trend is followed by an “extreme” “man-made global warming” interval in Gulf of Maine

Mad plan to “save the Earth” by flooding it with phytoplankton – to “fix” something that is not broken

Study oceanography in Oklahoma?

Processes in the deep ocean are part of the natural carbon cycle

90% of oil slicks are caused by human activities

Volcanic soils critical to making unique wines on Santorini

Call for Centre for seabed mapping in Nigeria

Photo Essay:  Natural rock formations in UlUla in Saudi Arabia

Soil erosion management needed immediately following Serra da Estrela wildfires in Portugal

Environmental Science Bulletin Board – 22 August 2022 – compiled by Elaine J. Hanford

Perspective:  Clear case of hot, hotter … hoodwinked – no warming in Australia over last decade & Great Barrier Reef coral is growing

Earth is telling us that it is exhausted – Book Review: “We are the Middle of Forever”

Food production has impacted Earth & natural processes since the beginning of the Agricultural Revolution

Invasive Australian redclaw crayfish were found in pond in Brownsville area of Texas that connects to resaca (a type of oxbow lake)

Overheated styrene leaking from rail car forces closure of Interstate 215 in Southern California

You are what you eat:  dark chocolate is good for your health

Enormous amounts of toxic chemical waste were dumped into Oder River – cleanup will take years

Pipeline rupture in Wyoming released more than 45,000 gallons of fuel – contaminated soil spread on road to “evaporate” fuel – but only about 10 to 20% of the diesel will evaporate

The Villages in Florida known as “the STD capital of the United States” or is it just a rumor as STDs surge nationwide mostly in young adults & teens?

Filming “The Conqueror” in Utah exposed cast & crew to radiation fallout – cancer cluster

Corporate welfare: Yet more substantial subsidies to wind & solar sectors and EVs

Perspective:  Global warming alarmism is not about the climate – it has been about destroying capitalism

Latest California plan to boost water supply - $8 Billion for future projects and same old-same old

Federal government distribution of monkeypox vaccine blemished by mis-steps & confusion everywhere – and it is not even a real emergency

Healthcare workers won $10M settlement against hospital vaxx mandate that violated their civil rights

Why there is so much biodiversity in the tropics

August is National Water Quality Month – videos on nutrient management, crops, tillage, water management, conservation cover, riparian forest buffers …

Royalton Condominiums evacuated due to structural concerns in high-rise building in Houston – concrete on first floor buckled & water pouring in – lost certificate of occupancy

Vietnam has not learned lessons from other countries – considering $58.7 Billion high-speed railway

FEMA BRIC program will throw more than $3B at programs to increase resiliency

Intense rainfall during monsoon season causing flash floods in Las Vegas, Nevada

Record-breaking coal consumption and energy production to meet the global demand

Majority of people infected with omicron variant did not know they had the virus – so why did we have a plandemic and imposed draconian measures?

Finally acknowledging long-term drought in the West & taking some action on Colorado River water use

Drought in northern Mexico causes shrinking water supplies in two Texas reservoirs as demand increases

Over-hunted in the 20th century, jaguars have now returned to southern Arizona

Bagmati River, holiest river in Nepal, is chocked with trash & sewage – water no longer potable

BLM rounds up 2,111 wild horses and 339 wild burros from Twin Peaks management area

Lawsuit filed against biggest BLM holding facility for up to 4,000 wild horses in northern Nevada – BLM concluded EIR was not necessary

Plan to resurrect the Tasmanian tiger – didn’t work so well in Jurassic Park but what will happen now?

Monarch nutterflies now on IUCN Red List of endangered species – habitat loss & pesticides

Beavers facilitate landscape restoration in National Parks

NPS seeking public input on improvement plans for Theordore Roosevelt National Park

Impact of environmental conditions on the dynamic structures of RNA in living cells

What an engineered symbiotic relationship suggests about the evolution of symbiotic relationships

NSF-funded DISES research projects focus on interactions between humans & the environment

Urban backyard chicken eggs in Australia contain 40X more lead on average than store-bought eggs – implications for urban gardening & food production

Exploring pioneering National Parks in the Pacific Northwest

World is “woefully underprepared” for a massive volcanic eruption

Planned affordable housing in San Francisco will be within seismic hazard zones

Tretten timber bridge “built to last 100 years” in Norway collapses after a decade

More than $4.8 Billion pumped into EV charging industry this year – but is still inadequate – EV drivers not happy with public chargers

Northwest states requesting $3.76 Billion for on-going nuclear waste cleanup at Hanford Reservation

Declining Golden Eagle population faces increasing threat from proliferation of wind turbines that produce small amount of energy

Cherokee Nation will host second annual controlled deer hunt in Sequoyah Hunting Preserve

US Dept of Interior promising billions of dollars will not end the drought in California

You are what you eat – until the federal government decides to redefine your food

Too many deer?  More hunting is not the answer since hunters only want to kill the biggest & best which weakens the gene pool and could increase deer population

Mad plan to “save the Earth” by flooding it with phytoplankton – to “fix” something that is not broken

Biden building a better border wall using tax dollars - in Delaware as illegal immigrants continue to flood into southern US

Coastal Zone Management Bulletin Board – 22 August 2022 – compiled by Elaine J. Hanford

Humpback whales frolic in False Bay at Hoonah, Alaska – common area for sightings

Perspective – more global warming rising seas hype and economic loss – Nature is not stagnant

Human factor affecting Indo-Pacific fisheries and agriculture

Within a decade the Deepwater Horizon oil spill moneys will disappear

$8M is not enough to cover total rehabilitation of Cape Lookout National Seashore lighthouse

https://coastalreview.org/2022/08/cape-lookout-lighthouse-focus-of-rehabilitation-project/

High-resolution study of coastal cliff erosion in California

“Emerald Tutu” pilot project in East Boston

Appraising value of salt marshes and considering “insurance policy” for Georgia coast

Perspective:  Clear case of hot, hotter … hoodwinked – no warming in Australia over last decade & Great Barrier Reef coral is growing

Iconic three smokestacks from old power plant in Morro Bay to be demolished

Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) report on Great Barrier Reef

US Navy abandons plan to develop golf course on Greenbury Point wetlands near Annapolis

Endangered African penguins being driven from natural habitat by noise from ship refueling in Algoa Bay

Significant environmental impacts from illegal sand mining in Bangladesh river beds & coastal area

Shape of shrimp farms impacts groundwater salinization and submarine discharge along coastal area

Decoding seagrass fairy circles

Futuristic floating homes being called “eco-restorative”

Texas DOT order contractor to address design flaws on new Harbor Bridge in Corpus Christi

Paper:  Hidden costs to building foundations in areas of storm surge and salt water intrusion

Model suggests 900-year cooling trend is followed by a “extreme” “man-made global warming” interval in Gulf of Maine

New interactive mapping tool to help predict coastal flooding on Maui

• https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2022/08/19/scientists-say-new-toolhelps-predict-flooding-west-maui/

• Interactive Viewer: http://www.pacioos.hawaii.edu/shoreline/slrwestmaui/

"The good news is, we recruited a record freshman class. Bad news is, we’re short of housing. So, we need faculty to double up as we convert some of their offices *back* into dorm rooms. Think of it as a Living Learning Initiative." - @ass_deans

Posted on Monday, 22 August 2022 at 01:53 PM in Blogs, Twitters, WWW sites, e-Newsletters, & Lists, Elaine Hanford's Bulletin Boards, Readings, Journals, Videos, Films & Visuals | | Comments (0)

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Sunday, 21 August 2022

CRS Insight Report: Responding to Drought in the Colorado River Basin - Federal and State Efforts

From Charles V. Stern comes this updated (18 August 2022) CRS Insight Report: 'Responding to Drought in the Colorado River Basin: Federal and State Efforts'.

Download CRS_Insight_Report_Responding_Drought_CRB_Fed_State_18Aug2022

Just a reminder - Insight reports have embedded URLs. You can access them from the sentence above or the PDF. The pasted version below won't have them. To enlarge graphics click on them.

Here goes!

Introduction
The Colorado River Basin (Figure 1) covers more than 246,000 square miles in seven U.S. states and Mexico. Basin waters are managed and governed by multiple laws, court decisions, and other documents known collectively as the Law of the River. The Colorado River Compact of 1922 established a framework to apportion water supplies between the river’s Upper and Lower Basins (divided at Lee Ferry, AZ). Each basin was allocated 7.5 million acre-feet (MAF) annually under the compact; an additional 1.5 MAF in annual flows was made available to Mexico under a 1944 treaty. Since the Upper Basin’s waters were developed after the Lower Basin, its apportionments are less than the full amount allowed under the compact and are framed in terms of percentages of available supplies. The Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) plays a prominent role in basin water management due to the many federally authorized projects in the basin.

Screen Shot 2022-08-21 at 11.58.05 AM

 

The basin is in the midst of a long-term drought, during which consumptive use has regularly exceeded natural flows. When federal and state governments originally approved the compact, it was assumed that river flows would average 16.4 MAF per year. Actual flows from 1906 to 2020 were approximately 13.9 MAF, and have averaged approximately 12.5 MAF since the onset of the basin’s drought in 2000. These conditions are projected to continue.

Observers track the status of two large federal reservoirs—Lake Powell in the Upper Basin and Lake Mead in the Lower Basin—as an indicator of basin storage conditions. Reclamation makes operational decisions for basin reservoirs in monthly 24-month studies. Recent studies projected additional reductions in water storage at both reservoirs (Figure 2, Figure 3).

Screen Shot 2022-08-21 at 11.58.36 AM Screen Shot 2022-08-21 at 11.58.55 AM

Mitigating Drought in the Colorado River Basin
Previously, there have been multiple efforts to improve the basin’s water supply outlook, including the 2003 Quantitative Settlement Agreement, the 2007 Interim Shortage Guidelines, and the 2019 drought contingency plans (DCPs) for the Upper and Lower Colorado River Basins. (The latter were authorized in P.L. 116-14.) The DCPs required reduced Lower Basin deliveries based on Lake Mead storage levels, authorized additional water conservation efforts, and put in place the framework for a Drought Response Operations Agreement (DROA) to coordinate Upper Basin operations to prevent the loss of hydropower generation at Glen Canyon Dam. In 2021, Lower Basin states agreed on a new set of actions—the 500+ Plan—which are expected to result in the conservation of an additional 500,000 AF in Lake Mead in 2022 and 2023 (i.e., 1 MAF total).

Despite these efforts, storage levels at both reservoirs have continued to fall. Reclamation declared the first ever level one and level two shortages for the Lower Basin in August 2021 and 2022, respectively. These declarations resulted in delivery curtailments for Arizona and Nevada. Reclamation studies indicate the ongoing possibility of Lake Mead falling significantly more (and triggering additional shortages/actions) within two years.

In the Upper Basin, in March 2022 Lake Powell fell below 3,525 feet for the first time since the late 1960s. To alleviate the potential for lost hydropower generation at Glen Canyon Dam, the Department of the Interior initiated DROA operations, resulting in operational changes in July 2021 and January 2022. In May 2022, Reclamation invoked emergency authority to move approximately 500,000 AF of water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir to Lake Powell and held back 480,000 AF of Lower Basin releases pursuant to the 2007 guidelines.

At a June 14, 2022, congressional hearing, Reclamation announced that states needed to conserve an additional 2 MAF to 4 MAF in 2023 to protect storage volumes over the near term (2023-2026). This estimate was the result of a 2022 Reclamation analysis. Reclamation noted that if the target is not met with voluntary commitments, the agency was prepared to act unilaterally. In a July 18, 2022, letter to Reclamation, Upper Basin representatives declined to contribute a specific volume of cutbacks to these efforts, instead laying out a five-point plan as the basis for its water conservation efforts.

Congress is involved in basin management primarily through authorizations and appropriations for Reclamation projects and activities. In addition to the 2019 authorization of the DCPs, Congress has authorized “system conservation” efforts in the basin that expire in 2022. Congress also has appropriated regular and supplemental appropriations for Colorado River water conservation efforts in addition to regular operational funds. Most recently, in Section 50233 of P.L. 117-169 (popularly known as the Inflation Reduction Act), Congress provided $4.0 billion for drought mitigation in the West, with priority given to Colorado River basin activities. These activities include compensation for reduction in water diversions and funding for system conservation projects and ecosystem restoration to address drought in a river basin or inland water body.

The 2007 guidelines and the 2019 DCPs are set to expire at the end of 2026. Extending, amending, or replacing these agreements is central to future basin water management. Reclamation previously published a “pre-scoping” notice seeking input on how to foster participation in the National Environmental Policy Act process to develop post-2026 basin operations.

Enjoy!

"Rock 'n' roll might not solve your problems but it does let you dance all over them." - Pete Townshend (quoted in @FarOutMag via @TheWeek)

Posted on Sunday, 21 August 2022 at 12:10 PM in Climate Change, Climate & Meteorology, CRS, FMSO & GAO Reports, Extremes: Droughts, Floods, etc., Policy, Planning, Governance, IWRM & Management, Water Quantity & Availability, Western USA | | Comments (0)

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