LeakBird

(May 21, 2009, The Los Angeles Times)
The Department of Water Resources announced Wednesday that it would give State Water Project contractors 40% of what they requested. Although that figure remains low, it is far more than earlier allocation numbers, which started at 15% and then rose to 20% and 30%.
“Early May snow and rain improved [...]

(May 7, 2009, The San Diego Tribune)
The city of Escondido is considering stepping up its water-conservation efforts from the current Level 1, voluntary water conservation, to Level 2, mandatory restrictions, starting July 1.
That could mean watering lawns only three days a week, Escondido’s utilities director Lori Vereker said.
The City Council is expected to decide [...]

(May 6, 2009, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Atlanta’s water and sewer department is sitting on $3.9 million it should have refunded to thousands of customers.
Delinquent accounts now total more than $50 million and the department fails to collect millions more every year.
ills are based on estimates, rather than meter readings, for 10,000 accounts every month.
And, rate hikes [...]

(May 5, 2009, Durham MyNC)
Starting June 1, Durham residents will have to follow rules when they’re watering their lawns. Monday night the Durham City Council approved new year-round water restrictions for all customers here.
The new schedule applies to all spray irrigation systems:
Those customers with odd-numbered addresses can water once on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday before [...]

(May 4, 2009, KPBS)

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders wants the city council to approve his call for mandatory water restrictions. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Sanders says voluntary water conservation has saved about 5%, but he says that isn’t enough to meet the water restrictions coming this summer.
He wants to impose Level 2 mandatory [...]

(May 2, 2009, The Statesboro Herald)
If the measure passes, water and sewer base rates will both go up. The water base rate will rise from $4.60 per month to $6.00 while the sewer rate does the same. As a result, the base rates for city residents will go up $2.80 per month.
Johnson said some of [...]

(May 1, 2009, Treehugger)
The EPA has decided to hand over $82 million in Recovery Act funds to Arizona for water projects that will hopefully create jobs, give a sugar shot to local economies, and update old water and wastewater infrastructure. It’s one small chunk of $6 billion dollars in funds that will go to water [...]

(April 28, 2009, The Mercury News)

Water restrictions will begin Friday for about 90,000 residents from the North Coast to Capitola, after Santa Cruz leaders on Tuesday unanimously approved an emergency order to save water.
As a result, customers with Santa Cruz Water Department will be restricted to watering outdoors on two assigned days each week. Restaurants [...]

(April 27, 2009, The San Antonio Business Journal)
The Edwards Aquifer Authority has officially declared a drought for the San Antonio region, requiring groundwater permit holders to reduce consumption by 20 percent for at least the next 30 days.
The mandatory Stage I drought restriction applies to all Edwards Aquifer water users served by the San Antonio [...]

As you probably heard, California, in partnership with the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) and the California Department of Water Resources launched the “Save Our Water” campaign last week, and it’s actually based off of the very successful “Flex Your Power” campaign which helped save energy during the crisis of 2001.
The website for “Save [...]

(April 26, 2009, The Oregonian)
“People think oil is something to fight about. Wait until we start running out of water,” said state Rep. Mike Schaufler, D-Happy Valley.
A handful of big farmers and their utility company engineered Oregon Oasis to get that water. They bought political access and nearly got their way.
“People who are well funded [...]

(April 22, 2009, GlobeAndMail)
“We have to say kudos to the province for recognizing our rivers face challenges from withdrawal,” he says. But it also brings challenges for towns like his that rely on rivers for water. For most of the last decade, Okotoks has been Canada’s second fastest-growing municipality and expects to add another 9,000 [...]

(April 24, 2009, The San Diego Union-Tribune)
After months of warnings and voluntary conservation programs, the San Diego County Water Authority yesterday moved to Level 2 drought alert.
The decision will spark mandatory water rationing of about 8 percent for residents throughout the county, from San Ysidro to Fallbrook. The planned restrictions include bans on certain [...]

(April 21, 2009, News4Jax)
JEA is proposing a 10 percent increase in its water and sewer rates in each of the next four years while also changing the way fees are structured.
The city-owned utility said the rate increase is needed to pay for loans taken to acquire and improve the water system from the city and [...]

(April 19, 2009, Kelly Zito, The San Francisco Chronicle)
“We’re out there telling people to use less water, and yet a lot of the revenue we have is based on what people use,” said Gary Breaux, finance director for the East Bay Municipal Utility District, which serves 1.3 million people in Contra Costa and Alameda counties. [...]

(April 20, 2009, The Plain Dealer)
Landlord James Kelly isn’t convinced. He has wrestled with the division for four months over a $1,300 combined water and sewer bill — five times larger than normal for a house he owns in Cleveland. The house is empty, and at one point the water was turned off for repairs. [...]

(April 19, 2009, The Los Angeles Times)
During a prolonged drought in the early 1990s, L.A.’s Department of Water and Power and Department of Public Works conducted an ambitious experiment. In eight homes, including those of several elected officials, they installed “gray water” equipment that diverted the outflows from washing machines, showers, bathtubs and bathroom sinks [...]

(April 16, 2009, The San Francisco Chronicle)
Cash-strapped California will receive $260 million in federal economic stimulus funds to fix dams, restore fisheries and habitat and help the state cope with drought conditions, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday.
(Original Article Here)

(April 16, 2009, The Mercury News)

John Gioia’s homeowner association warned him last fall — during the drought — to water his front lawn more to meet the community standards for lush and green.
The association also has a 20-year-old rule that won’t let him replace his front lawn with rosemary, meadow grass and other drought-resistant plants.
“It [...]

(April 16, 2009, The New York Times)
Hundreds of farmers, farm workers and local elected officials walked along dusty roads in the Central Valley on Thursday, part of a four-day march to protest federal cutbacks in water supplies.
“No Water, No Jobs, No Food,” read one sign held above the crowd, expressing the frustration of many in [...]

(April 14, 2009, The Los Angeles Times)
It would be nice if only the overusers picked up that higher tab, but without a further, and very time-consuming, overhaul of the city’s rates, those higher prices would be borne by everyone. The council should take up that challenge too, but for now, the drought-year rates and the [...]

(April 8, 2009, Reuters)
Despite dire warnings of water shortages due to prolonged drought, the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday rejected a plan to ration water in the nation’s second-largest city for the first time in 18 years.
The unanimous 15-0 vote against the plan marked a surprise setback for Los Angeles water managers, who like [...]

(March 31, 2009, The Mercury News)
Displaying a bowl of minnows and pictures of unemployed farm workers and their families, California congressmen pleaded with their colleagues Tuesday to make an emergency exception to the federal Endangered Species Act.The lawmakers said efforts to protect a 3-inch-long fish, the delta smelt, have led to court-ordered reductions in the [...]

(March 30, 2009, Reuters)
New York City Comptroller William Thompson on Monday proposed using federal stimulus money and other solutions to spare city water ratepayers from another rate hike.
The city’s Water Board is scheduled to meet on Friday to consider raising rates. The board approved a 14.5 percent increase in 2008 and forecast another double-digit rate [...]

(March 30, 2009, BBC News)
Most meters use a positive displacement chamber which has a fixed amount of water flowing through it that turns a dial to measure water usage for a household.
Meters are usually installed in the most suitable location determined by the pipe layout, which may be in the road, garden or indoors.
You local [...]

(March 29, 2009, Tampa Bay Online)
On Friday, turning on your lawn sprinklers will become a crime in Tampa under the toughest water restrictions in the state.
Everyone else in the Bay area, meanwhile, will be allowed to turn on their sprinklers once a week. Their lawns may struggle and shrivel but likely will survive until the [...]

(March 26, 2009, The Wall Street Journal)
Last month, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, a utility that provides power to mostly rural areas, agreed to conduct a major study to see if it might meet growing energy needs through energy efficiency and not a big, new coal-fired power plant, as it had proposed for southeast Colorado.
One [...]

(March 23, 2009, William Eagle, VOA News)

Development experts are looking at better ways to cope with water shortages. They’re worried about predictions from scientists that population pressures will increase the demand for water to meet needs for food and energy. This concern comes as countries try to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals.  Among them [...]

(March 25, 2009, The Mercury News)
Silicon Valley’s largest water supplier is asking its customers to cut back on water usage by 15 percent this summer.With water levels low at its main reservoir, the board of the Santa Clara Valley Water District voted Tuesday for water cutbacks.
The district provides the water used by 1.8 million homes [...]

(March 23, 2009, The Mercury News)

Citing three dry years in a row, Silicon Valley’s biggest water supplier will vote this morning on whether to call for a 15 percent mandatory summer cutback, the first water rationing in Santa Clara County in 18 years. Yet, just over the county line, Fremont residents will face no restrictions.
On [...]

(March 21, 2009, Kelly Zito, The San Francisco Chronicle)
Earthquakes and severe storms could destroy hundreds of miles of mostly earthen levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in coming decades, according to a state report that provides the most detail yet on the vulnerabilities of the hub of California’s water system.
Among the findings in the [...]

(March 21, 2009, The San Francisco Chronicle)
A statewide drought emergency has prompted San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders to propose a plan that would reduce the city’s water use by about 20 percent.
The plan announced on Friday would require residents to cut their outdoor water use by 45 percent, and their indoor water use by 5 [...]

There’s an interesting ESPN article on the coming water policy crisis in America, in the context of fish and wildlife. Wikipedia defines the word “policy” as “a deliberate plan of action to guide decisions and achieve rational outcome(s)“.  Of course, it’s rooted in the word “police” as well, which “stems from the Greek word ‘politeia’ [...]

(March 19, 2009, The Los Angeles Times)
State officials announced Wednesday they will deliver more water to Southern California this year than previously predicted but cautioned that shipments will remain well below normal.
State water resources director Lester Snow said “a series of very beneficial storms in February and early March” prompted his department to increase allocations [...]

(March 18, 2009, ESPN)
After 39 years in the fish and wildlife management business, I have concluded that only two things really affect fish and wildlife populations: habitat and climate. Most of the contributions made by detailed harvest management practices and manipulations of fisheries by hatcheries have generally had relatively minor impact on the sustainability of [...]

(March 18, 2009, Jeff Conant, Alternet)
Behind the World Water Forum’s public posture as a trade expo and an educational exchange among water advocates lies a labyrinth of political intrigue and corporate cronyism. Corporate interests that make up the World Water Council are in constant contact with the World Bank and other financial institutions; each Forum [...]

(March 18, 2009, The New York Times)
Don’t expect the future to look much like the past, at least when it comes to the Earth’s fresh water supplies. That’s the message emerging from a major international meeting being held here this week.
More than 27,000 people — including government ministers from more than 120 countries — have [...]

(March 17, 2009, Bloomberg)
Mexico plans to tackle a chronic shortage of clean water by building an $800 million purification plant for its sprawling capital city of 20 million inhabitants.
The facility to treat 23 cubic meters (6,076 gallons) of rain and runoff each second will be announced for bid on March 31 by Conagua, the nation’s [...]

After reading today’s article in the San Diego Tribune in which the Metropolitan Water District has its drinking straws in its final water reserves and options, I’m convinced that water rationing will not be averted in Southern California (or perhaps all of California for that matter).  In other words, we can bank on water rationing, [...]

(March 16, 2009, The San Diego Tribune)
With its vast reserves running precariously low, the Metropolitan Water District has widened its unending search for water to even more distant sources.
Since 2007, Metropolitan’s stockpiles have shrunk by nearly half, drained by a combination of drought, diversions to safeguard fish, cuts in Colorado River supplies and population growth.
As [...]

(March 13, 2009, MSNBC)
With local lakes and rivers at critically low levels, the region’s water provider has virtually shut down the surface water supply to the Tampa Bay region.
“The reservoir’s level is so low we are unable to provide water, consistently, to the water treatment plant and we are unable to pull water from the [...]

(March 8, 2009, TBNWeekly)
The latest report from The Southwest Florida Water Management District shows aquifer levels are continuing to fall.
According to the district’s March 6 Aquifer Resource Weekly Update, the central aquifer, which is a water source for the Tampa Bay region, is down to a negative 1.69 feet. Last week, the aquifer was at [...]

(March 11, 2009, Robert in Monterey, Calitics)
As someone who has written before of the water problems our state faces, and who has repeated the “omg worst drought ever” frame, it’s important that I give some necessary attention to Michael Fitzgerald of The Stockton Record, who called bullshit on the whole thing today:
California’s “drought” is overblown. [...]

(March 10, 2009, Aguanomics)
The title of this post is my reformulation of “missing the forest for the trees,” and the subject of the post is a new report from the Pacific Institute.
In Water Scarcity and Climate Change: Growing Risks for Businesses and Investors, the PI assesses the various risks to water supplies that companies should [...]

(February 27, 2009, Gavin Newsom, CleanTechnica)
Today, San Francisco took a meaningful step toward turning the promise of renewable ocean energy into reality. We submitted a preliminary permit application to the federal government to develop a wave power project off our coast that we believe can generate between 10 to 30 megawatts of energy, with potential [...]

(March 7, 2009, MSNBC)
Using the back yard of a Tierrasanta resident as a backdrop, Mayor Jerry Sanders called on San Diegans to get serious about water conservation.
Sanders revealed what he has done personally to conserve and showed clear disappointment in the overall efforts of San Diegans.
“Despite some successes, we still continue to fall shrt of [...]

(March 7, 2009, AZCentral)
A Carefree resident is challenging Cave Creek’s water-rate hike that would affect 9,000 water users in the northeast Valley.
Jim Peirce, a customer of Cave Creek’s municipal water system, took out petitions for a referendum that would reverse legislation to raise water rates in Cave Creek and parts of Carefree and unincorporated [...]

(March 5, 2009, Kansas City InfoZine)
Maintaining water quality and efficiency shouldn’t be purely a local problem, a panel of water experts told the House Science and Technology Committee Wednesday.
Five witnesses said federal agencies should cooperate on water research and policy initiatives to combat scarcity caused by drought and population growth.
“We can’t continue to use the [...]

(March 6, 2009, David Zetland, Aguanomics)
(via DW) The Mayor’s office sent out this press release [pdf] yesterday:
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders is calling on all San Diegans to step up water conservation efforts in the wake of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s state of emergency declaration for California’s water supplies.
“The Governor’s message is right on target,” said [...]

With all of the rain California has been receiving over the last few weeks, water levels are back to 80% in Sierra snowpack terms and there is “drought improvement“.  The 167-mile stretch of the Hetch-Hetchy system, which provides 85% of the Bay Area’s water, can continue to flow at four fifths capacity.  But water restrictions [...]