LeakBird

(May 12, 2009, Jim Downing, The Sacramento Bee)
As another summer of drought approaches, hundreds of thousands of acres of San Joaquin Valley farmland are expected to be fallowed, and much of urban California faces 20 percent water cutbacks.
But in the Sacramento Valley, rice farmers have been busy for weeks spreading water 6 inches deep over [...]

(May 1, 2009, ClimateWatch, NPR)
NPR’s Morning Edition launched an “occasional series” on California’s water woes this morning. Veteran correspondent John McChesney begins with the impact on agriculture in the Central Valley’s Westlands Water District, the nation’s “biggest irrigated region.”
KQED’s Central Valley Bureau Chief and Climate Watch contributor Sasha Khokha will have three stories in the [...]

(May 11, 2009, Meaghan Daly, AlterNet)
Most of the time, when you hear about environmentalists decrying the construction of a new coal-fired power plant, their objections are in relation to localized pollution or carbon dioxide emissions. Less frequently do you hear about protests related to the vast amounts of water that are needed to keep these [...]

(May 11, 2009, The California Progress Report)
The San Joaquin Valley has been ground zero in the current economic recession. News outlets have run a number of stories about food banks running out of supplies and residents leaving their hometowns in search of work on the East Coast.
Water contractors have claimed that recent environmental regulations [...]

(May 11, 2009, The Miami Herald)
The states of Florida and Alabama are meeting Georgia in federal court in Jacksonville over the allocation of water from Lake Lanier, which is the city of Atlanta’s water supply.
U.S. District Judge Paul Manguson will hear arguments Monday from the three states over the legality of the water supply allocations [...]

(April 30, 2009, Aguanomics)
I hope that Maude Barlow tells her fellow citizens THIS fact: Cheap water leads to more demand (Canadians have the highest per capita consumption of water in the world.)
Bottom Line: We cannot manage water if we don’t know how much we use or how much that use costs (economically or environmentally).
(Original Post [...]

(April 26, 2009, The Sacramento Bee)
Any doubt that California is hip-deep in an epic struggle for water was put to rest earlier this month when an estimated 10,000 farmers and farmworkers marched 50 miles across the gasping San Joaquin Valley.
The goal was to heighten awareness about their water shortage, brought about by a third [...]

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 16, 2009, On the Water Front)
Yesterday was a big day for California. After eight years of minimal federal engagement in California’s critical resource issues, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar toured the Bay-Delta focusing on California’s water crisis and the need for federal engagement on solving the Bay-Delta’s problems (read more here and here). We couldn’t [...]

(April 26, 2009, Sand Gets in My Eyes)
The “raw” water in Saudi isn’t really fit to drink, so bottled water, rather than being a luxury like it is in other places, is a necessity.
Anyway, awhile back I started noticing that when I drank certain brands of water, my gut really started to hurt. More specifically, [...]

(April 25, 2009, Jeff Sachs, Starbroek News)
But future water stresses will be widespread, including both rich and poor countries. The US, for example, encouraged a population boom in its arid southwestern states in recent decades, despite water scarcity that climate change is likely to intensify. Australia, too, is grappling with serious droughts in the agricultural [...]

(April 24, 2009, The Mercury News)

A $10 billion plan to build a canal around the Delta would not deliver significantly more water to cities and farms if it were in place this year, new data shows.
Water agencies and politicians from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on down have repeatedly stressed that water shortages this year from the [...]

(April 21, 2009, The Wall Street Journal)
A severe drought gripping Texas is causing unusually salty conditions along the Gulf Coast, upsetting the region’s ecological balance and threatening coastal wildlife including oysters, crabs and whooping cranes, the most endangered crane species.
The drought is one of the driest on record for Texas and is currently the worst [...]

(April 21, 2009, The Arizona Republic)
The Colorado River provides one-third of the state’s water…
The seven states – Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico – that use river water have agreed to reduced deliveries if the lake drops to an elevation of 1,075 feet. Arizona would absorb most of the initial shortages because [...]

(April 20, 2009, The International Relations and Security Network)
Much of Central Asia’s water flows from the mountains of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, leaving downstream countries Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan dependent and worried about the effects of planned hydropower plants upstream.
“There are lots of discussions about water and energy going on among the Central Asian states. [...]

(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 San Francisco Chronicle)
Our state’s broken water delivery system – originally built more than 30 years ago to accommodate a state of 18 million people – now must supply this precious resource to more than 36 million people. By 2020, California’s population is expected to reach up to 48 million. The hub [...]

(April 9, 2009, The New York Times)
At issue is a proposal by Easterday Ranches Inc. to build a feedlot for 30,000 head of cattle that would withdraw a shade under 1 million gallons a day from the ancient Grande Ronde Aquifer during the driest months of the year. The proposal has touched off a wave [...]

(April 12, 2009, Forbes Magazine)
Environmentalists and others question why the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans a formal study of a Colorado entrepreneur’s plan to build a 400-mile water pipeline from Wyoming to Colorado’s bustling Front Range without knowing who would use the water or where it will go.
Aaron Million, a Fort Collins, Colo., businessman, [...]

(April 11, 2009, Time Magazine)
The reek of unwashed toilets spilled into the street in the neighborhood of unpainted cinder block houses. Out on the main road, hundreds of residents banged plastic buckets and blocked the path of irate drivers while children scoured the surrounding area for government trucks. Finally, the impatient crowd launched into a [...]

(April 10, 2009, FoxNews)

The production of bioethanol may use up to three times as much water as previously thought, a new study finds, becoming the latest work that could burst the biofuel bubble.
A gallon of ethanol may require up to more than 2,100 gallons of water from farm to fuel pump, depending on the [...]

(April 9, 2009, AFP)
Some two million residents of Mexico City on Thursday began 36 hours without water under an emergency plan over Easter vacation to respond to a record drop in water supply and to work on repairs…
(Original Article Here)

(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 [...]

(April 2, 2009, Jeff Conant, AlterNet)
As the Fifth World Water Forum ended recently in Istanbul, a number of stories came out, each of which might have emerged as the main water story of the week. But in fact, to see the most important story of the Forum you have to look beyond the Forum itself. [...]

(April 2, 2009, The New York Times)
For about a mile, a steady stream of water flows down Bear Canyon before finally petering out in the sand near a golf course. The arroyo is not supposed to be wet this time of year; the spring snowmelt does not usually occur until later in the season. But [...]

(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 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 27, 2009, The Seattle Times)
In a first-ever pledge for American presidents, Barack Obama in his inaugural address included a promise to the world’s poor nations — “to work alongside you to … let clean waters flow.”
The moment is an acute one as the world faces “water bankruptcy” as threatening as today’s financial meltdown. The [...]

(March 24, 2009, DailyKos)
Sunday marked World Water Day, a UN designated day for international experts on our most critical scarce resource to get together and remind the entire world that, yes indeed, our most critical resource–fresh water–is awfully darned scarce.
A little closer to home, the Western Resource Advocates have already made their contribution to the [...]

(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 22, 2009, The Mercury News)

As California’s drought continues, water rationing is becoming a reality in many cities — and Antioch is no exception.
On Tuesday, the City Council will be asked to weigh in on a water shortage contingency plan to cut consumption by an estimated 25 percent — the amount by which Antioch’s water [...]

(March 22, 2009, Reuters)
If water is the new oil, is blue the new green?
Translation: if water is now the kind of precious commodity that oil became in the 20th century, should delivery of clean water be the same sort of powerful political force as the environmental movement in an age of climate change?
And, in another [...]

(March 21, 2009, Treehugger)
Last summer I posted on Tampa Bay Florida’s new desalination plant, an expensive technology that was needed to cope with the growing demand for potable water, amidst falling supplies (due to extended drought). See Tampa Bay Florida Area Drinks Oil-Fired Water for details. Since then, surface water supplies have fallen off further [...]

(March 22, 2009, GreenCarCongress)
Xinhua. North China’s Hebei Province, the major water supplier to Beijing, has over-extracted its groundwater, causing major subsidence according to a water conservancy official.
“Water shortage has become a big problem facing the province’s social and economic development,” Li Qinglin, director of Hebei’s water conservancy department, told a forum marking the 17th World [...]

(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 [...]

(March 20, 2009, The Mercury News)

The pain of a full-blown summer drought came closer to reality Friday when the staff of Silicon Valley’s main water supplier recommended a 15 percent mandatory cutback.
If the board of the Santa Clara Valley Water District — which is the wholesale supplier of drinking water for 1.8 million people from [...]

(March 20, 2009, Ben Block, WorldChanging)
In his inauguration speech in January, U.S. President Barack Obama mentioned four words that lifted the hearts of water advocates worldwide: “Let clean water flow.”
Although Obama has proposed doubling U.S. spending on foreign aid, his new budget, released last month, offers few details on whether the additional funding will support [...]

(March 21, 2009, Robert Glennon, AlterNet)
The following is an excerpt from “Unquenchable: American’s Water Crisis and What We Can Do About It” by Robert Glennon. Copyright 2009 Robert Glennon. Reproduced by permission of Island Press, Washington DC.
Editor’s Note: This excerpt is from the introduction of Glennon’s new book and follows a narrative about the water [...]

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 16, 2009, NBCChicago)

Something is happening to our beloved Lake Michigan.
Scientists aren’t sure what it is, but some experts believe the symptoms point to further evidence of radical climate change and alarming drops in lake levels.
We are all too familiar with the site of a frozen lake during our long Chicago winter.  But experts say [...]

(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 [...]

(March 16, 2009, The Environment News Service)
Global demand for water is greater today than it has ever been and demand will increase in the future, thousands of delegates to the Fifth World Water Forum in Istanbul heard at their opening session today. Driving the demand for water are population growth and mobility, rising living standards, [...]

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, GreenBiz)
This report examines the opportunities and challenges of strategic water management. Five case studies provide perspectives from projects around the world.
Though it’s a worldwide entity, water is treated as a regional issue, IBM says. There is no global market and very little international exchange.
“Water is about quantity, quality, space and time,” says [...]

(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 [...]