LeakBird

(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 [...]

David Zetland of Aguanomics and Professor Robert Stavins, Director of the Environmental Economics Program at Harvard, were “on the same page“ with regard to water conservation pricing after Professor Stavins wrote a recent op-ed for the Huffington Post.  Until Stavins took a slightly different tack on two water pricing misconceptions.
In his first piece, Professor Stavins [...]

We at Leakbird Industries are proud to be part of next week’s Water Conservation Showcase, on Tuesday, March 24, from 10:00 am to 7:30 pm, at the Pacific Energy Center in San Francisco.
Lot’s of folks in the water industry are going to be there, and Aguanomics’ David Zetland is even stopping by!
There’s a short list [...]

(March 16, 2009, CleanTechnica)
IBM, which has been promoting the virtues of its smart grid and smart traffic technologies, today announced it’s jumping into “smart water,” too. The technology and services giant introduced a new suite of services and products aimed at better using water resources.
At the top of the list, a new membrane that filters [...]

(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 4, 2009, Robert Glennon, The Huffington Post)
Drought has prompted California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to declare a state emergency. Water agencies are preparing to impose mandatory water rationing. We’re all hoping that melting snow in the Sierra will save the state’s farmers and city dwellers from hardship.
But once rain starts to fall – and it [...]

(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 [...]

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 4, 2009, Huliq)

The water levels in the Dead Sea – the deepest point on Earth – are dropping at an alarming rate with serious environmental consequences, according to Shahrazad Abu Ghazleh and colleagues from the University of Technology in Darmstadt, Germany.
(Original Article Here)

The projected Dead Sea-Red Sea or Mediterranean-Dead Sea Channels therefore need a [...]

(March 5, 2009, Kansas City InfoZine)
Maintaining water quality and efficiency shouldn’t be purely a local problem, a panel of water experts told the House Science and Technology Committee Wednesday.
Five witnesses said federal agencies should cooperate on water research and policy initiatives to combat scarcity caused by drought and population growth.
“We can’t continue to use the [...]

(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 [...]

(March 3, 2009, Aguanomics)
I talked to Ray Walker, a retired water rights analyst, about the “new source” of water he’s been mentioning in comments to this blog. Since both of us are interested to find out if any water managers are interested in this new supply, I am posting his request for expressions of interest. [...]

(Feb. 27, 2009, Reuters)
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday declared a state emergency due to drought and said he would consider mandatory water rationing in the face of nearly $3 billion in economic losses from below-normal rainfall this year.
As many as 95,000 agricultural jobs will be lost, communities will be devastated and some growers in [...]

(Feb. 26, 2009, Bloomberg News)
On a cloudless December day in the Nevada desert, workers in white hard hats descend into a 30- foot-wide shaft next to Lake Mead.
As they’ve been doing since June, they’ll blast and dig straight down into the limestone surrounding the reservoir that supplies 90 percent of Las Vegas’s water. In September, [...]

(Feb. 24, 2009, Aguanomics)
San Diego is looking north for water this year, working out a number of smaller option agreements with Sacramento Valley Districts. I looked into one 10,000 AF transfer with South Feather Water and Power to get a handle on numbers for this year.
San Diego is paying $10 per acre-foot for the option [...]

(Feb. 24, 2009, The San Diego Union Tribune)
The punishing drought that threatens to disrupt California’s economy could also exact a heavy toll on the environment, from the Anza-Borrego Desert to the mountains casting shadows on Lake Tahoe.
Water managers are bracing to get by with just a trickle of the normal deliveries from state and [...]

(Feb. 23, 2009, David Zetland, Aguanomics)
I’m thinking that the water managers and politicians in San Diego must be drinking something other than simple, tasty water. It seems that they are bound and determined to implement the most-stupid possible water rationing scheme, i.e.,
Even San Diegans who have torn out their lawns, planted drought-tolerant landscaping and scrimped [...]

(Feb. 20, 2009, Contra Costa Times)

The Contra Costa Water District’s 500,000 customers likely will face mandatory water rationing in the coming months and some of the biggest farms in the state may get no water at all, water managers said Friday.
The cuts to water supplies across the state are in response to what is shaping [...]

(Feb. 20, 2009, The Kansas City Star)
KC’s Water Services Department is discussing the possibility of up to 90 layoffs, Mayor Mark Funkhouser’s budget SWAT team heard Friday.
At the same meeting, the budget panel proposed asking the department to chip in $4 million to help the city get through its budget crisis.
If the City Council approves [...]

(Feb. 19, 2009, Christian Science Monitor)
On the Colorado River Delta, some 250 miles west southwest of Tucson as the crow flies, sits Cienega de Santa Clara.
It’s a 63-square-mile patch of wetland – a key stop for migrating birds along an arid stretch of the Pacific flyway. It’s the largest remaining wetland on the Colorado River [...]

(Feb. 21, 2009, John Laumer, Treehugger)
Last minute negotiations may have solved California’s budget crisis; but, a far more protracted problem shadows the future of civilization-as-they-know-it: water reservoirs are drying up; and climate change is likely to worsen the problem. Food prices throughout the nation will be affected in the short-term. Long-term prospects point to an [...]

(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. 19, 2009, Napa Valley Register)

The American Canyon city manager now has the power to order water use restrictions if the drought continues.
Under the new rules approved unanimously by City Council on Tuesday, business and residents who use too much water will pay a premium fee. Customers who already use little water will not have [...]

(Feb. 18, 2009, Steve Gorman, Reuters)
With a recent flurry of winter storms doing little to dampen California’s latest drought, the nation’s biggest public utility voted on Tuesday to impose water rationing in Los Angeles for the first time in nearly two decades.
Under the plan adopted in principle by the governing board of the L.A. Department [...]

(Feb. 17, 2009, Aguanomics)
Tom Graff of EDF asks:
Can we use the attention the drought has focused on water to address long-term issues, including most notably the effects of climate change, simultaneously with the focus on addressing this year’s immediate drought-related problems?…and here’s what I said:
Now is the time to introduce the radical (!) notion of [...]

(Feb. 17, 2009, The Wall Street Journal)
Taking a Cue From Carbon Tracking, Companies and Conservationists Tally Hidden Sources of Consumption
It takes roughly 20 gallons of water to make a pint of beer, as much as 132 gallons of water to make a 2-liter bottle of soda, and about 500 gallons, including water used to grow, [...]

(Feb. 16, 2009, Earth2Tech)
Water management company HydroPoint Data Systems is looking to raise between $4 million and $8 million, CEO Chris Spain told us recently, and he expects the round to close in the second quarter. HydroPoint is open to adding new investors if it brings “real strategic” additional value, he added.
The Petaluma, Calif.-based company [...]

(Feb. 11, 2009, Great Lakes Law)

Before “green” became cool, “sustainable” was the guiding phrase for shaping environmental solutions with economic prosperity.  Like most trends, the focus on sustainability brought valuable changes and discussions, but at some point the term became overused and lost its meaning.  Terminology aside, the concept remains very useful and important, as [...]

(Feb. 15, 2009, Reuters)
China, faced with widespread water shortages exacerbated by its worst drought in decades, aims to cut the amount of water it uses to produce each dollar of national income by 60 percent by 2020, state media said.
The target, unveiled by Water Resources Minister Chen Lei, underlines Beijing’s growing concern over chronic water [...]

(Feb. 14, 2009, The New York Times)
Officials say that a major source of drinking water for about 25 million Californians is at risk. That water currently comes from the delta where the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers meet, and the levees that protect the region are more than 100 years old and are vulnerable to [...]

(Feb. 14, 2009, The Houston Chronicle)
LUBBOCK, Texas — Reliable sources of clean water are the key to a successful economic future for Texas and without them the state and businesses could suffer billions in losses.
That was the dire message in a recent report from the office of state comptroller Susan Combs, a longtime West [...]

(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. 11, 2009, Alternet)

Just as the economic evidence shows that we’re in a recession, the scientific evidence shows that climate change will affect our natural resources.
One logical response to the constant news of the economic recession is cutting back on discretionary purchases and developing a household budget.  That is, if we know that times are [...]

(Feb. 11, 2009, Atlanta Journal Constitution)
The governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker on Wednesday appointed 300 farmers, government officials, businessmen and others to 10 regional water councils that will decide how to divide rivers, lakes and underground aquifers.
Metro Atlanta was not included in the 10 councils. The Atlanta region already has a water planning district [...]

(Feb. 11, 2009, The Times West Virginian)
FAIRMONT — City council members voted unanimously to pass a 49 percent water-rate increase during Tuesday’s meeting.
Although the council members voted to increase the rate, Fairmont water customers can appeal the decision to the state Public Service Commission.
And Mannington Mayor Frank White, one of the three people who attended [...]

(Feb. 10, 2009, Arizona Geology)
The state’s budget crisis will result in the Arizona Water Institute closing by June 30. In a message to the AWI’s external advisory board, Director Kathy Jacobs advised that “some of the projects that were approved for this year will move forward, but most will not – and all of the [...]

(Feb. 4, 2009, WorldChanging)
Oceans are the new atmosphere.
What we mean is, that concern for the state of the oceans and the potential impacts of the on-going catastrophic collapse of ocean ecosystems is reaching a pitch that we haven’t seen on any other environmental issue other than the build-up of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. We [...]

(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. 8, 2009, Michael Bristow, BBC News)
A multi-billion-dollar project to divert water from southern China to the arid north is already four years behind schedule.
The news comes as parts of northern and central China struggle to cope with severe drought.
Officials recently admitted that water would not flow along the project’s central route – a total [...]

(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 [...]

(Jan. 28, 2009, The Huffington Post)

California has a water crisis but, contrary to what many believe, a tiny fish is not the cause of this ongoing problem. There simply isn’t enough rain and snow in a dry year, like this one, to meet projected demands for water.
We’ve known for years that water exports from the [...]

(Jan. 12, 2009, The Salt Lake Tribune)
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has tapped a longtime assistant state engineer to step up and become the state’s water boss.
Kent Jones, assistant state engineer for 21 years, would replace former state Engineer Jerry Olds, who announced his departure last fall.
Jones, who also would direct the Division of Water Rights, [...]

(Nov. 17, 2008, GreenTech)

Water has long vexed investors. Statistics and news reports all confirm that many parts of the world face serious shortages of water that is suitable for human consumption and agriculture. Conservation measures, which would likely induce public panics if placed on gasoline, are being imposed on water supplies in the developing and [...]

(Dec. 12, 2008, The Sonoma Valley Sun)
The Sonoma County Water Agency and other water professionals, faced each other, the public, and the future of Sonoma’s water supply.
Bob Cannard Jr., speaking for his father who was unwell, set the tone at the start of the meeting, saying, “We don’t have a water problem. We have a [...]

(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 [...]

(Dec. 5, 2008, The Salt Lake Tribune)

The federal government’s water-management agency can no longer operate as though Colorado River water is abundant, said one of Congress’ leaders on natural resources Thursday night.

(Dec. 6, 2008, The San Francisco Chronicle)
Watershed problems and solutions run downstream. “The fun part about water is that it is so interrelated,” Dolman said. “As soon as you make a decision to do right by storm water – slowing it, spreading it, sinking it – you solve multiple problems. You reduce flooding in the [...]