LeakBird

(May 13, 2009, The Los Angeles Times)

Reporting from San Diego — A plan by a private company to build a $320-million desalination plant along the coast of northern San Diego County was unanimously approved Wednesday by the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board.
Proponents say the plan could provide more than 56,000 acre-feet of drinkable [...]

(May 14, 2009, The Dallas Observer)
As mentioned Monday, KERA-FM (90.1) is running throughout this week a series of stories about where Dallas gets its water and how we use it. Which brings us to today’s contribution from B.J. Austin concerning water consumption. Says the story, the average Dallas homeowner is billed for 100,000 gallons used [...]

(May 11, 2009, The San Francisco Chronicle)
We all realize it’s a tough economy and restaurants are dealing the best they can. Yet sometimes they go too far, at least that’s what one reader thinks.
Here’s his e-mail to me (edited for space):

When I go to a restaurant I expect a fork, a plate, a napkin [...]

(April 30, 2009, WISN.com)
These are tough times for many companies and their workers. But in the midst of all the economic doom and gloom, an effort to transform the region’s economy, and create thousands of jobs, is gaining momentum.
It’s being led by a Milwaukee businessman who’s passionate, determined and very colorful. His name is Rich [...]

There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Milton Friedman

It can be said that we don’t value what we don’t pay for. To tenants who don’t foot their units’ water bills, a running toilet may only mean a minor audible nuisance.  To a landlord or property manager, a running toilet means a higher water bill and [...]

(April 15, 2009, Reuters)
Water scarcity means big growth for companies that purify, transport, and distribute the world’s most essential resource, but a global recession that has halted new projects and put off price hikes means water investors will have to wait for the boom years.
Water, cheap and indispensable, has long been prized as a stable [...]

(Feb. 10, 2009, Forbes Magazine)
We want oil and iPods, but we can’t live without water. That alone makes it the world’s most precious commodity. But, still, most casual investors might be hard pressed to think of ways to play H20, as it is seemingly free. There is no Exxon of water.
But maybe there should be. [...]

(March 16, 2009, TerraDaily)
Tens of billions of dollars are needed annually to fix the world’s water systems, but policies to address the global financial crisis could help meet the target, the OECD says.In a report to the World Water Forum in Istanbul, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says demands for fresh water [...]

(March 13, 2009, The New York Times)
Give I.B.M. credit for technological ambition and a willingness to tackle big problems.
I.B.M. is presenting a new bundle of services and research offerings at the World Water Forum in Istanbul on Monday. The package, grandly called Strategic Water Management Solutions, is the most recent entry in I.B.M.’s so-called smart [...]

(March 9, 2009, Reuters)
From cotton farms to factories that make high-tech computer chips, companies face huge risks from droughts like those searing California and Australia and that recently parched the U.S. Southeast.
Climate scientists say droughts will become more common as higher temperatures evaporate water supplies and overuse drain aquifers faster than they can be replenished [...]

(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 [...]

As the growing demand for all things water escalates across the United State (hydrologists, water conservation systems, water lawyers, new sources of water, et cet.), the drought environment, such as regions in Georgia, Florida, Nevada and California, has the highest market demand water conservation technologies for three reasons:

 
Timeliness
Fast Payback
Higher Water Rates

 
Timeliness
This is perhaps the most [...]

(March 5, 2009, The San Francisco Chronicle)
The ongoing struggles of managing California’s limited water supply to support our cities, farms and natural environment are well known. As we face what some are calling one of the worst droughts in California history, we must all learn to conserve water wherever possible. Just as the Bay Area [...]

(Feb. 26, 2009, Ceres)
Global climate change is exacerbating water scarcity problems around the world, yet few businesses and investors are paying attention to this growing financial threat, according to a report issued today by Ceres and the Pacific Institute.
Water is crucial for the global economy – driving every industry from agriculture to electric power to [...]

(Feb. 26, 2009, Associated Press)
As more companies become conscious of their carbon footprint, a new movement is urging corporations to track their “water footprint” as well, or risk financial losses as freshwater supplies dry up around the globe.
Major corporations such as Coca-Cola Co. now disclose the amount of water they use in financial reports, in [...]

(Feb. 23, 2009, The Ludwig Von Mises Institute)
It is near impossible to imagine any private company not enjoying the “problem” of high demand for its products and services. Yet there are some products that are repeatedly reported as shortages. There is one thing these products have in common: government intervention, typically in the form of [...]

(Feb. 19, 2009, Aguanomics)
Throughout this blog, I have advocated all-in-auctions for allocation of water among rights’ holders at the wholesale level (e.g., among farmers in an irrigation district, urban water agencies that buy from a wholesaler, or between sectors — ag, urban and environment) and conservation pricing for homeowners at the retail level (i.e., every [...]

Yesterday the World Economic Forum (WEF) released its Water Initiative, 2009 Report from Davos, Switzerland. You can download the PDF from the Council on Foreign Relations’ (CFR) website.
The report is nothing short of shocking:

Within 20 years entire grain crops equivalent to India and US lost
Within 20 years water more mainstream, bigger-better investment/ biz than oil
Water [...]