LeakBird

(April 25, 2009, The Oregonian)
They were after one thing: water.
The fact that water would trigger such an adroit use of political access underscores an issue sneaking up on most Oregonians.
In a state that boasts about webbed feet, access to water is increasingly contested. The state estimates that in the coming years, demand will grow [...]

(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 6, 2009, The Houston Chronicle)
A joint report from the University of Texas and an environmental group urges state planners to conserve both water and energy.
The report released Monday claims that improving water conservation will cut power demand and that upgrades in energy efficiency will decrease water needs, allowing Texas to utilize “finite supplies of [...]

Perhaps you’re new to the field of
property management or landlording, or
weathered by years of experience. Two
things, however, you hold dear no
matter what level you operate from.
Your two most precious resources
are MONEY & WATER.
If you have cash flows that are secure,
you don’t have to evict your tenant
due to foreclosure.  If you have a
secure water supply, you [...]

(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 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 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 5, 2009, Crikey Creek)
What John Fleck refers to as “one of climate change’s most important equations”, just happens to be one of hydrology’s most important equations too – probably the most.
In the previous post I showed annual data sets of rainfall and temperature for the whole of Australia. In the last seven years, rainfall [...]

(March 5, 2009, Randall Amster, Huffington Post)

Life here in the desert southwest is richly complex and oftentimes a great challenge. A hint of frontier culture remains even as rampant growth and homogenization take hold at breakneck speed. People love the landscapes and the history, but can still sit and watch both disappear in the name [...]

(March 5, 2009, The Sound News)

Rainy Seattle, nestled between Lake Washington and Puget Sound, enjoys an abundance of the wet stuff. Being surrounded by water and having it come down on us throughout the year is misleading in thinking that general availability and accessibility is the norm. The collective mindset reflects a standard, a high [...]

(March 5, 2009, The Valley Advocate)

The Massachusetts power deregulation law of the late 1990s, which allowed the building of so-called “merchant” power plants unrelated to the old regional utilities, is leading to the rise of small new power companies with their eyes on one of the Valley’s most important resources: its water.
The Advocate has previously [...]

(Feb. 26, 2009, EnergyBulletin)

Off-grid living can be challenging … but wait, what grid are we talking about here? Even rural homes are connected to a number of utility and communication systems without which, well, … we would feel uncomfortable to say the least.
There are electricity, gas, telephone and cable TV connections. But the absence of [...]

(Feb. 22, 2009, News24)
African economies are especially vulnerable to water shortages, delegates to the Implementing Environmental Water Allocations (IEWA) conference heard on Monday.
“Many African economies are held hostage to hydrology,” World Bank senior water resources specialist Rafik Hirji said at the start of the four-day event in Port Elizabeth.
It has attracted more than 300 experts, [...]

(Feb. 19, 2009, Taiwan-Guide Blog)

I came across this article in the Taipei Times today which noted that parts of central and southern Taiwan are yet to record any rainfall this year! The article mentions concerns about an imminent drought and then goes on to say,
The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Water Resources Agency issued a warning [...]

(Feb. 17, 2009, CentralAsia, ForeignPolicyBlogs)
In contrast to its neighboring countries with vast oil and gas resources, Tajikistan has the most important resource in the world; large reserves of fresh water. Some of this water is now being used for a single dam, the Nurek, which provides the country’s electricity. Unfortunately, the dam alone cannot provide [...]

(Feb. 11, 2009, The Star-Telegram)
As Texas’ population explodes, new residential, commercial and industrial development is rampant. The state is far more urbanized, and continued dramatic growth is expected in coming decades.

That’s putting unprecedented environmental pressures on one of the state’s most-precious resources: its many rivers, creeks, bays and estuaries. These flowing bodies provide critical water [...]

(Feb. 4, 2009, Dan Gleister, Guardian)
Bill Diedrich, a fourth-generation almond grower in California’s Central Valley, expects that many of his trees won’t make it through the year. “It’s one of the grimmest water situations we’ve ever faced,” he said. “It’s an absolute emergency and anything to get water flowing quickly is needed.”
The 400-mile Central Valley [...]

(Jan. 30, 2009, WaterTech Online)

Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell on January 26 announced the investment of $94 million in 22 clean water projects in 20 counties.

The PENNVEST board of directors approved $75 million in low-interest loans and $19 million in grants at its quarterly meeting.

The awards range from a $125,000 loan to replace deteriorated drinking [...]

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 [...]

(Jan. 29, 2009, BackReaction)
One of the most appealing aspects of the ocean is the colour of the water, ranging from a greyish green to deep blue.
But wait a minute: When I pour water in a glass, it is a clear, transparent liquid. So, what is the cause of the blue colour of the sea? Is [...]

(Jan. 22, 2009, Shaun McKinnon, WaterBlogged)
Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva introduced legislation Thursday to protect more than 1 million acres near the Grand Canyon from mining.
The measure would withdraw public lands near the canyon from mineral exploration and is aimed in particular at proposals to mine uranium.
Grijalva and House Democrats tried last year to block federal [...]

(Jan. 18, 2009, Amazing Facts)
Water is having a significant impact on many people’s lives around the world right now. From droughts to quake lakes, floods to monsoons, people and animals are dealing with water in many ways. In these photos, we can see people play, wash, mourn, survive, escape, celebrate and marvel with something so [...]

(Jan. 17, 2009, AFP)
Every day when Israel pauses its bombardment of the Gaza Strip, Palestinians launch a ground assault on the territory’s public fountains to try to lay their hands on precious supplies of water.
As soon as the radio announces the start of the daily three-to-four-hour lull, thousands of people race from their homes, laden [...]

(Jan. 16, 2009, Aguanomics)
David Zetland, an agricultural and resource economist at the University of California, Berkeley, talks with Bloomberg’s Tom Keene about the economics of bottled and tap water, conservation, and global water supply and management.
The 26 minute interview [.mp3] is — in my not-humble opinion — pretty damn good.
In it, Keene and I [...]

(Jan. 15, 2009, Crossroads Arabia)
Government subsidies, as most things in life, have a good side and a bad side. On the positive, subsidies can keep the price of important commodities within economic reach of the poorest citizens. On the down side, they can so undervalue a commodity that it is abused. That appears to be [...]

(Jan. 11, 2009, Nourishing Obscurity)
Putting aside military action, oil and gas for now, a good indicator of whether there is any form of cooperation in the middle-east can be seen through water.

(Dec. 22, 2008, Huffington Post)
I’m reminded of the farmer who was asked whether he believed in baptism. He replied, “Of course. I’ve seen it done.”
Well, as the ethanol boom has continued, I’ve seen new corn fields in Arizona and California where farmers water the fields with groundwater. Foolishness, oft repeated, does not become wisdom. Repeated [...]