LeakBird

(April 9, 2009, The Miami Herald)
Everglades marshes and Big Cypress swamps are drying up. Estuaries at the mouths of the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers are turning too salty. Lake Okeechobee, brimming from Tropical Storm Fay less than a year ago, is slipping into the low zone again.
If smoke wafting from Palmetto Bay brush fires [...]

(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, 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, [...]

(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 [...]

(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 10, 2009, The Europa Research Information Centre)
Since world governments decided that improving the management of the planet’s water reserves was a major priority, the threats hanging over groundwater have suddenly become front-page news. However, inconsistencies remain…
Since ancient times, water diviners have doused for water armed only with a wooden stick (or divining rod). Most [...]

I think that David Zetland is onto the zeitgeist, only it hasn’t happened yet. What do I mean, or what is Mr. Zetland saying essentially?
Price water according to its scarcity, and water shortages will become a thing of the past.
This is the axe we hear Mr. Zetland grinding again and again, and it appears that [...]

(March 10, 2009, Reuters)
It’s hard to visualize a water crisis while driving the lush boulevards of Los Angeles, golfing Arizona’s green fairways or watching dancing Las Vegas fountains leap more than 20 stories high.
So look Down Under. A decade into its worst drought in a hundred years Australia is a lesson of what the American [...]

David Curran wrote a stimulating op-ed on the California drought in Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle.  Mr. Curran expressed his perplexity at the incongruity of intermittent first quarter flooding in the Bay Area and the Governor’s dire “worst drought ever” declaration.
California has gone from being the bread basket of the US to a water crisis basket [...]

(March 7, 2009, Amy Wang, The Oregonian)
I try not to waste water. I bathe my sons together and limit their baths to a couple times a week. I make them brush their teeth without running the water. When I caught one child filling his cup and then drinking half the water and pouring the rest [...]

(March 8, 2009, David Curran, The San Francisco Chronicle)
I experienced the Bay Area droughts of the 1970s. I vaguely recall taking navy showers and reciting, “If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down.” And I remember the dry times of the late 1980s when I was always in short sleeves and [...]

(March 8, 2009, SramanaMitra)
While people focus on carbon footprints and potential ways to reduce the impact man-made CO2 emissions, the world is running out of another of its key elements: fresh water.
We use fresh water much faster than it can replenish: it is increasingly scarce and has no alternative.
Water is a strategic resource for countries [...]

(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 4, 2009, The Mercury News)

It has been nearly a week since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dropped the bomb, laying out a doomsday drought scenario so starkly apocalyptic he sounded like Dr. Strangelove. And yet, Justina Pillado endured weather Tuesday in the teeth of the governor’s state of emergency that made her toes curl.
“This rain sucks,” [...]

(Feb. 27, 2009, Reuters)
“The south has plenty of water and the north lacks it, so if possible why not borrow some?” China’s revolutionary communist leader Mao Zedong said in 1952.
That probably seemed a great idea at the time.
But it is causing pollution as well as discontent among farmers facing forced resettlement to make way for a mammoth construction to [...]

(Feb. 27, 2009, The Los Angeles Times)
With California’s budget crisis resolved for the moment, state lawmakers Thursday turned their attention to another emergency: a three-year drought that has left key reservoirs at 35% of capacity.
Legislators stepped forward with plans to ask voters to borrow as much as $15 billion for projects to expand and improve [...]

(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. 20, 2009, MSNBC)
Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) Executive Director Timothy Quinn issued the following statement today on the 2009 water supply allocations announced by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the California Department of Water Resources. The Bureau announced that some agricultural contractors stand to receive no water deliveries this year, while municipal [...]

(Feb. 19, 2009, PolicyInnovations)
Conflicts in northeast Kenya have been intensifying as drought worsens an already growing problem over access to water and land for pasture. In Pakistan, wheat production is expected to decrease by 40 percent this year due to water scarcity.
Is this evidence of society approaching what the World Economic Forum refers to as [...]

(Feb. 16, 2009, Tara Lohan, The Nation)
If you’ve read anything about the global water crisis, you’ve likely read a quote from Dr. Peter Gleick, founder and president of the Pacific Institute, and one of the world’s leading water experts. His name has become as ubiquitous as drought itself, which is suddenly making major headlines. [...]

(Feb. 17, 2009, The Press Democrat)

Healdsburg wants residents to become more miserly with water use, but stopped short Tuesday of imposing mandatory conservation measures.
The City Council unanimously voted to ask citizens to voluntarily reduce their water use by 20 percent for a variety of mostly outdoor uses, like lawn and garden irrigation that will come [...]

(Feb. 16, 2009, MyFoxAtlanta)

ATLANTA – Angry water customers filled a state house room to air their complaints about extremely high water bills in the city of Atlanta. And Georgia lawmakers say they may take action to cap water rates in certain circumstances.
(Original Article Here)

(Feb. 15, 2009, USA Today)
Skiers and farmers rejoiced after another storm dropped more than 2 feet of snow in portions of the Sierra Nevada, but the range’s snowpack still is below average so far this winter.
The latest snowfall was just in time for the Presidents Day weekend, traditionally one of the busiest periods of the [...]

(Feb. 16, 2009, Aquadoc, WaterWired)

Sometimes ESPN gets it right. Amid the roiling sea of self-deprecating anchors, narcissistic athletes, bloviating analysts, interminable slam dunks, and sports shills masquerading as journalists, there sometimes appears an island of thoughtfulness and compassion.
One such island was spotted on SportsCenter yesterday morning. There was piece on a philanthropic organization, Project Healing Waters, that takes injured vets and teaches [...]

(Feb. 16, 2009, Business-Green)
Water supplies to Las Vegas could run dry within six years thanks to receding water levels at Lake Mead, officials warned last week, bringing into question the long-term viability of the fastest growing city in the US.
Pat Mulroy, the chief executive of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said that the water level [...]

(Feb. 15, 2009, Kelly Zito, The San Francisco Chronicle)

Is it time to stick a straw into the Pacific Ocean?
About 20 water agencies up and down the California coast seem to think so.
From Marin County to San Diego, small and large projects that turn seawater into tap water are gaining favor, propelled by events unprecedented in [...]

(Feb. 12, 2009, The Montreal Gazette)
Even the Great Lakes aren’t great enough to sustain North Americans’ reckless water use in the event of a continentwide water shortage, according to a new report.
The report — titled Sentinels of Change and set for release in Friday’s edition of Science — suggests the Great Lakes’ scant renewal rates [...]

(Feb. 13, 2009, Max Deveson, BBC News)
The arid states of America’s south-west have been getting drier in recent years.
Since 2000, the Colorado River – which provides water for seven US states in the region – has carried less water than at any time in recorded history.
And while the drought is worsening, the demand for water [...]

(Feb. 12, 2009, Ken Pomeranz, The China Beat)
The Chinese droughts have just begun to move onto the front pages of the world’s newspapers, but the droughts are just the latest sign of much more dire warnings of water woes in China. Some China experts are talking about this (see, for instance, today’s event at the [...]

(Feb. 12, 2009, Treehugger)
REMINDER! Today is the Twestival for Charity: Water. Take part in an amazing grassroots event that will benefit people who need access to clean drinking water in developing nations.
Take a moment to watch a really great video on what Charity: is all about, what this event will accomplish for thousands of people [...]

(Feb. 11, 2009, Ben Block, WorldWatch)
In regions where pumping and distributing water requires significant electricity use, policies that lead to reduced water consumption could address climate change more efficiently than requiring businesses and households to use less energy, according to water expert Peter Gleick.
“Some of the cheapest greenhouse gas emission reductions available seem to be [...]

(Feb. 10, 2009, ChennaiOnline)
India is expected to experience severe water stress by 2020 with the per capita availability of water projected to be less than 1,000 cubic metres.
Indian water scenario was a matter of grave concern, as 85 per cent of water was used for agriculture, 10 per cent for industry and five per [...]

(Feb. 10, 2009, The Wall Street Journal)
MENDOTA, Calif. — Dwindling water supplies are compounding economic woes in California’s Central Valley, causing farmers to leave fields fallow and confront the prospect of going under.
The state’s water supply has dropped precipitously of late. California is locked in the third year of one of its worst droughts on [...]

(Feb. 9, 2009, Scoop)
NZWWA CEO, Murray Gibb, is urging government to continue its reforms and rationalise water management in New Zealand.
“The question must be asked why a country of only four million people needs over seventy water utilities and twelve separate regional water regulators,” said Mr Gibb.
“With the imminent release of the Royal Commission’s report [...]

(Feb. 9, 2009, Aguanomics)
David Besley sent me his article comparing Australia to Georgia. Besides the usual points (farmers can survive and thrive with water markets), the article had some new stuff:
Before it reaches the Southern Ocean, the Murray drains into two large lakes that are surrounded by wetlands.
[snip]
“We had the driest years on record in [...]

(Feb. 8, 2009, The Dallas Morning News)
Scant rainfall. Shrinking reservoirs. Thirsty soil. Across North Texas, another dry spell is settling in.
Some two years after rains ended a prolonged and brutal drought, the Dallas area is back in D-land – and the situation is likely to persist if not worsen in the months ahead, climate scientists [...]

(Feb. 7, 2009, AFP)
BEIJING (AFP) — China will divert water from its two longest rivers to help farmers hit by the country’s worst drought in decades, state media said Sunday.
Water from the Yangtze River, the country’s longest, will be diverted to the northern areas of eastern Jiangsu Province, the Xinhua news agency reported, citing Zhang [...]

(Feb. 6, 2009, Fast Company)
It’s become a commonplace in the sustainability world to say water is the oil of the 21st century. But it may be more accurate to say it’s the new carbon. The problem is not about absolute scarcity–after all, the world’s supply of water has remained constant since forever. Instead, we must [...]

(Feb. 3, 2009, GreenBiz)
It has become eco-chic in recent years to declare that “water will be the oil of the 21st century” — an essential and limited resource, unevenly distributed around the world, the growing shortage of which will lead to economic power for water-rich nations and poverty for the rest, possibly even resource wars [...]

(Feb. 2, 2009, BBC News)
If you look at the numbers, it is hard to see how many East African communities made it through the long drought of 2005 and 2006.
Among people who study human development, it is a widely-held view that each person needs about 20 litres of water each day for the basics – [...]

(Feb. 2, 2009, LoHud News)
Peaceable Hill homeowners vehemently protesting an “outrageous” increase in their water bills may have found some relief from the town.
More than a dozen residents showed up at a Town Board meeting last week to vent their frustrations about a $167 spike in their quarterly water bills, arguing many people may have [...]

(Jan. 30, 2009, The Green Leap Forward)
Christine is a doctoral candidate in University of North Carolina’s program in environmental planning and policy and recently completed a Fulbright Fellowship at the Chinese Academy of Science’s Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy. Her doctoral dissertation examines the changing nature of irrigation governance in northern China.  Her expertise is [...]

(Jan. 28, 2009, Las Vegas Now)

Desalination has been called the wave of the future — an endless supply of water for the parched Southwest. But unlike neighboring water agencies, the Southern Nevada Water Authority isn’t riding the wave.
Local water officials have come up with several reasons why desalination won’t work in the immediate future.
SNWA boss [...]

(Jan. 21, 2009, Frank R. Rijsberman, AlterNet)

So, is the planet drying up? Not exactly, but a growing number of people are sharing a fixed amount of water that is badly managed and polluted.
Sri Lanka’s celebrated twelfth-century king Parakramabahu reportedly said, “not a single drop of water received from rain should be allowed to [...]

(Jan. 14, 2009, China View)
A Palestinian official said on Wednesday that 800,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip lack water due to the Israeli air and ground offensive on the enclave.
Monzer Shublaq, chief of the Gaza Strip water authorities, told reporters that 800,000 Palestinians out of the total Gaza Strip population, [...]

(Jan. 12, 2009, KQED’s Climate Watch)
California’s Dept. of Water Resources has issued a new gameplan for managing the state’s precarious water supply. DWR calls its draft California Water Plan “a new chapter in the way California must manage her water resources,” warning that “the system has lost its reslience.”
The agency appears to fully recognize the [...]

(Jan. 12, 2009, WaterDrop)
Two third of the world is made up of water. With that much H2O on the planet, there’s a lot of trivia behind the blue stuff. This list of trivia was compiled by the Water Resources Office of the United States Government. Take a look, water really is used for almost everything [...]

(Jan. 11, 2009, Central Coast)
The water fountain at Pacific Elementary School has been turned off for years, school administrators say, and there’s concern it won’t operate anytime soon.
The school and the rest of the Davenport community are awaiting a $1.7 million overhaul of the town’s water treatment system. But the improvements, needed before the faucets [...]

(Jan. 7, 2009, The Nation On Web)
With the sharp decrease in the graph of underground drinking water, City will be facing a critical water shortage in coming months. If government does not take concrete steps to cope with the situation, a water crisis is in the offing.
Sources in Wasa said that according to a State [...]