LeakBird

(Jan. 9, 2009, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

First, the city of Atlanta raised water rates 27.5 percent back in June.
Then, the Department of Watershed Management failed to add the rate hike to bills in a timely fashion.

And now, the city is back-billing to collect the money, listing it as “delinquent” on bills mailed in December, and shutting off [...]

(Jan. 7, 2009, Charlotte Observer)
The receding drought in Charlotte and the rest of Western North Carolina appears to have left a lasting gift: water conservation that’s gone mainstream.
Dry conditions still badger 28 counties west of Charlotte, a year after severe drought gripped most of the state. Despite improving rainfall, communities across the Charlotte region are [...]

(Jan. 6, 2009, USA Today)
Skiers are enjoying the early winter snows on California’s mountains, but down closer to sea level are big worries that the snowfall and its spring runoff won’t be enough to relieve two years of drought.
Unless the next few months prove to be wet ones, tougher conservation steps and even water rationing [...]

(Jan. 5, 2009, NCRiverWatch)
Among the barrage of environmental problems we face today, from climate change, to deforestation, to pollution, there is another potential disaster looming on the horizon that journalist Fred Pearce argues is not getting enough attention–major rivers across the globe are no longer flowing all the way to their traditional outfalls. This is [...]

(Jan. 5, 2009, WaterDrop)

India has a population of 1.1 billion people, which is about 17 percent of the world’s total 6.7 billion people. India is second to China and ahead of third place United States of America. India has become the world’s second fastest growing large economy and the population growth has been soaring for [...]

(Jan. 3, 2009, The Mercury News)
A panel of the governor’s top advisers is recommending California move swiftly on a massive construction project to pipe water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. In a report issued Friday, the Delta Vision Committee said California should begin building a canal to divert water from the Sacramento River as soon [...]

(Nov. 19, 2008, CNSNews.com)
The Sea of Galilee, Israel’s largest fresh water source, is drying up.

Four consecutive years of drought, increased consumption stemming from population growth, and what some are calling mismanagement have contributed to the worst water crisis in Israel’s history.
Israel’s three main water sources – the Sea of Galilee and the mountain and coastal [...]

(May 29, 2008, Christian Science Monitor)
Public fountains are dry in Barcelona, Spain, a city so parched there’s a €9,000 ($13,000) fine if you’re caught watering your flowers. A tanker ship docked there this month carrying 5 million gallons of precious fresh water – and officials are scrambling to line up more such shipments to slake [...]

(Dec. 23, 2008, Associated Press)
An ancient underground water basin the size of Libya holds the key to Australia avoiding a water crisis as climate change bites the drought-hit nation.
Australia’s Great Artesian Basin is one of the largest artesian groundwater basins in the world, covering 1.7 million sq kms (656,370 sq miles) and lying beneath one-fifth [...]

(Dec. 17, 2008, Hidden Tanks)
The fact is that every person living on earth needs to contribute to water conservation. Households should reduce their average water consumption. Manufacturers and retailers need to make products available which offer solutions to the problem. For example, the underground water tank makes it possible to collect precious rainwater every time [...]

(Dec. 31, 2008, WAOW)
Starting January 1st, water rates in the Village of Brokaw will nearly triple and that has some homeowners upset.
Right now, the average Brokaw homeowner pays less than $50 dollars every 4 months for 9,000 gallons of water. When their next water bill comes, they’ll pay nearly $130.  It’s an increase some say [...]

(Dec. 27, 2008, Aquadoc)
I was warned by a colleague that “my head would explode” if I watched the film, Blue Gold: World Water Wars, that is based on the similarly-titled book by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke. I viewed the film three times, and all is still intact. I have not read the book.
I could spend far [...]

(Dec. 21, 2008, Publica)
The Colorado River, the life vein of the Southwestern United States, is in trouble.
The river’s water is hoarded the moment it trickles out of the mountains of Wyoming and Colorado and begins its 1,450-mile journey to Mexico’s border. It runs south through seven states and the Grand Canyon, delivering water to Phoenix, [...]

(Dec. 18, 2008, The Huffington Post)
If I could offer our soon-to-be Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack one piece of advice, it would be this: “We’re already running low on water. Don’t make matters worse.“

(Dec. 14, 2008, The Mercury News)

Locals may grumble about the forecast this weekend, but water managers and farmers are counting their blessings.
Forecasters say showers through early next week will likely bring this year’s level of precipitation, currently below average, back to normal. In fact, most are saying that rainfall will be pretty normal over the [...]

(Dec. 13, 2008, The Springfield News-Leader)
Why should anyone worry about how much water they use? The answer is simple: Water is too valuable to waste. It’s the cornerstone of our economy. It defines our quality of life. It’s the lifeblood of our very being. How many of us have quietly shaken our heads when we [...]

(Dec. 13, 2008, The Ashville Citizen-Times)
Asheville and Henderson County leaders agreed Friday to work toward reshaping a water agreement that has been a source of friction between the governments for years.
A new deal could clear the way for more economic development, officials said.
The 1995 agreement allowed the city to build a water treatment plant on [...]

(Dec. 12, 2008, The Associated Press)
Idled farm workers are searching for food in the nation’s most prolific agricultural region, where a double blow of drought and a court-ordered cutback of water supplies has caused hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.
This bedraggled town is struggling with an unemployment rate that city officials say is 40 [...]

(Dec. 10, 2008, The San Francisco Bay Guardian)

One-half of 1 percent of the world’s water is fresh. [1]
Of that .5 percent, about 50 percent is polluted. [2]
One in 6 people don’t have access to clean, safe water. [3]
Five food and beverage giants — Nestlé, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Anheuser Busch, and Groupe Danone — consume almost 575 [...]

(Photo Courtesy of WaterDropBlog.wordpress.com)
As water management blossoms, a boom in all things water is coming to the US and the World.
In a state like Arizona, where the water and power supplies are intimately entwined, the undervalued and hence underpriced non-renewable commodity we call water is growing scarcer and scarcer.  While the demand booms, supply runs [...]

(Nov. 3, 2008, Forbes)
A federal appeals court will hear arguments in a lawsuit that accuses the city of Memphis, Tenn., of stealing millions of gallons of Mississippi water.

“In my mind, money is always the biggest motivation for everybody. If you stick it to their pockets, they will fix the daily stupid things,” said the water works chief of Jamestown, Rhode Island last year, regarding Jamestown’s successful water conservation program.
And that is just what will [...]