East Bay to Face Water Rationing for First Time in Decades
May 13--The East Bay's largest water utility is expected to impose mandatory water rationing today for the first time in nearly 20 years to conserve depleted water supplies after two droughty years. The 1.3 million customers in the East Bay Municipal Utility District will probably be prohibited from hosing off sidewalks, washing cars with a hose that doesn't have a shutoff nozzle or watering lawns two days in a row, among other measures. Water rationing has not been imposed by the water district since the early 1990s.
Source:
Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.)
Baltimore Takes Steps for a Cleaner Harbor
May 13--Normally, rain flushes garbage down Baltimore's storm drains to float in stomach-churning blobs around the Inner Harbor's tourist attractions. After one of the heaviest downpours of the year, not a single plastic foam cup or dead rat bobbed around the National Aquarium. It's called the Water Wheel Powered Trash Interceptor, and it snags trash with a floating boom across the base of the Jones Falls.
Source:
The Baltimore Sun, Maryland
Project Aims to Reclaim Everglades' Former Glory -- Reservoir Project Will Return Water Flow
IN THE EVERGLADES, Fla. - Around South Florida's vast sugar cane fields, where turtles grow to the size of basketballs and alligators own the marsh, the silence of the swamp is broken by the sound of rumbling trucks and explosions. The earth-moving equipment and high explosives are laying the foundation for a mammoth construction project: a reservoir bigger than Manhattan designed to revive the ecosystem of the once-famed River of Grass. More than a century after the first homes and farms took shape in the Everglades, decades of flood-control projects have left the region parched and near ecological collapse.
Source:
Commercial Appeal, The
Coastal Study Shows Chemical, Pesticide Levels Going Down
Some good news from the government scientists who study pollution in U.S. coastal waters: A newly released 20-year study shows overall levels of pesticides and industrial chemicals are decreasing. Mussel Watch is the longest continuous contaminant-monitoring program in U.S. coastal waters. Gunnar Lauenstein, an oceanographer who's the lead program scientist , said the levels are continuing to decrease many years after environmental laws were enacted in the 1970s.
Source:
Virginian - Pilot
Survey Finds Baltimore Residents Willing to Work for Clean Water but Not Pay for It
May 12--More than 80 percent of Baltimore-area residents say they're willing to do "a lot more" to prevent water pollution, but they don't want to pay more taxes to solve the problem, according to a newly released opinion survey. This suggests an ad campaign to educate people about steps they can take in their personal lives -- picking up pet waste, using less lawn fertilizer and stopping littering -- could help clean up Baltimore Harbor and the Chesapeake Bay, according to a pair of local environmental groups that commissioned the research. Changing personal behavior could be more politically palatable than asking the city to pay millions to install trash filters in its storm-water drains to keep floating debris out of the harbor, leaders of the Herring Run Watershed Association and the Jones Falls Watershed Association said.
Source:
The Baltimore Sun, Maryland
Australian Red Cross Flying Water Treatment Plant to Burma
Text of report by Radio Australia, international service of the government-funded ABC, on 12 May The Australian Red Cross is sending a disaster water treatment plant to cyclone-ravaged Burma. The treatment plant was due to leave on a flight from the northeastern city of Brisbane a short time ago and is expected to arrive in the disaster area within the next 24 hours.
Source:
BBC Monitoring Newsfile
Cities Review Drought Lessons: Growth No Factor, Utility Official Says
May 12--Those who think growth was the culprit in the Triangle's recent water shortages may be disappointed when Dale Crisp, Raleigh public utilities director, addresses a gathering of regional water managers Tuesday. Crisp will be joined by water managers from Durham, Cary and the Orange Water and Sewer Authority at Tuesday's forum, which is being sponsored by the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce. Raleigh City Manager Russell Allen said he has no regrets, including about the city's waiting until the week before Halloween to ban lawn sprinklers.
Source:
The News & Observer
'Early Phase' Drought Declared
With a dry winter and spring leading to predictions of trouble ahead for farmers, Gov. John Hoeven declared an "early phase agricultural emergency" Friday afternoon. The executive order sets the stage for up to $500,000 in state assistance to farmers who need to buy water supply equipment for livestock and directs the Drought Task Force to meet. "I think growers across the state are very worried, especially in western North Dakota," said Dan Wogsland, executive director of the North Dakota Grain Grower's Association.
Source:
Bismarck Tribune
Long Beach Cuts the Ribbon on a Wetlands Wonder
LONG BEACH - At first glance, you might not think the site is a flood-control channel, but that's exactly what it is. With an array of beautiful flowers and wildlife in the background, Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster and Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe cut the ribbon at the opening of the $7million, 50-acre Dominguez Gap Wetlands project in Long Beach on Thursday. The first of its kind in the region, the wetlands project, along the east and west sides of the Los Angeles River between Del Amo Boulevard and the San Diego (405) Freeway, still offers flood protection along the river's urban lower reaches.
Source:
Press-Telegram Long Beach, CA.
2008 State Winners of the U.S. Stockholm Junior Water Prize Announced!
WEF Member Associations selected and will sponsor state winners and their science teachers to attend the national competition, June 19-21, in Orlando, Florida.
Source:
Water Environment Federation
Bush Signs Bill That Will Protect Eightmile River
May 9--LYME -- -- Nathan Frohling stood next to the Eightmile River near the East Haddam-Lyme border and pointed to a shrubby clearing in the woods. Frohling, who works for The Nature Conservancy, was overdue at his office, but on this warm spring day the woods were calling, and he had to fight the urge to keep walking. In an increasingly paved-over state, where development chews at the edges of innumerable green spaces, the 40,000-acre watershed of the Eightmile River is exceptional: It is 80 percent forest, largely unbroken by development, and home to a just few hamlets, farms and homes; 87 people per square mile live here, far below the state average of 700.
Source:
The Hartford Courant, Connecticut
Auburn Dam May Be Dealt Death Blow
May 9--A long-stalled Auburn dam on the American River has suffered many defeats. The State Water Resources Control Board plans to revoke the water rights held by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for the project. The unfinished dam, in other words, would no longer have any water to hold back.
Source:
The Sacramento Bee
Chinas Tibetan Plateau Water Reserves at Risk: Pollution and Global Warming Threaten Water Supplies for Up to 2 Billion in Asia
Circle of Blue is the independent journalism and science project reporting on global freshwater issues. Scientists and experts say an environmental catastrophe is brewing in the volatile region due to air and water pollution in China and global climate change -- all of which foretell future water scarcity on an unprecedented scale. Said Geoff Dabelko, director of the Environmental Change and Security Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., Nearly two billion people are in some way dependent on water originating on the Tibetan Plateau.
Source:
U.S. Newswire
Post Falls Upgrades Water, Sewer Facilities at State Line
The city of Post Falls is launching two public-works projects near the Washington-Idaho state line worth a combined $1.7 million and also plans to spend $9 million to $10 million expanding and upgrading its wastewater treatment plant later this year. In one of the projects that are starting shortly, TML Construction Inc., of Hayden, will begin work this month on a $1.25 million sewage lift station just north of Interstate 90 on Pleasant View Road, public works director Terry Werner says. For the other project, the city has awarded a contract to General Industries Inc., of Spokane Valley, to build a $530,000 water well and well house off of Beck Road, near a Cabela's Inc. store.
Source:
Journal of Business; Spokane
Experts Say Drought's 2-Year Reign May Be Ending
May 8--TAMPA -- The end may be in sight for a two-year drought that forced home watering restrictions and left much of the state vulnerable to wildfires. "It looks like this drought is in the process of going away," state meteorologist Ben Nelson said. By any measure, things are looking wetter:
Source:
Tampa Tribune
Dept. Of Water Resources: Change in Ownership of Fish Farm Near Twin Falls to Reduce Water Conflicts
Ownership of the Pristine Springs fish farm near Twin Falls changed following a series of transactions in April. The ownership change aims to address conflicts between spring water users and ground water users in the Magic Valley, and to provide the city of Twin Falls with a fresh water source to improve the quality of its water supply and provide for future growth of the city, the Idaho Department of Water Resources said in a release. The Idaho Water Resource Board, in a partnership with the city of Twin Falls, North Snake and Magic Valley ground water districts, completed the transactions.
Source:
Idaho Business Review, The
Lake Mead Cleanup Proves Successful
While environmental officials in other states have been bickering over who is responsible for cleaning up contamination from the rocket fuel ingredient, perchlorate, and to what level, water quality officials in Nevada have blazed a trail to follow. J.C. Davis, a spokesman for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, credits the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection with spearheading the cleanup effort that has dramatically reduced levels of it in Lake Mead since it was first discovered there a decade ago. He said the turning point came when hydrologists were able pinpoint locations where the contamination was entering Las Vegas Wash, which empties into Lake Mead, Southern Nevada's primary drinking water source.
Source:
Las Vegas Review - Journal
Aid to Myanmar Now Trickling In
YANGON, Myanmar -- International aid has begun to trickle into Myanmar, but the stricken Irrawaddy delta, the nation's rice bowl where 22,000 people perished and twice as many are missing, remained cut off from the world. The U.N. World Food Program offered a grim assessment of the destruction: up to 1 million people homeless, some villages almost totally destroyed and vast rice-growing areas wiped out. In the former capital of Yangon, soldiers from the repressive military regime were out on the streets in large numbers for the first time since Cyclone Nargis hit over the weekend, helping to clear away rubble.
Source:
Deseret News (Salt Lake City)
Water Rates in Raleigh May Rise: Conservation Has Lowered Revenue
May 7--Raleigh probably will follow Durham's lead and raise water rates this year -- in part, ironically, because conservation is working -- city officials said Tuesday. Because of the city's mandatory water restrictions and voluntary conservation, Raleigh is selling about 20 percent less water than this time a year ago -- and earning 20 percent less revenue. Since operating costs are fixed and construction projects are necessary, the only option is to raise rates to make up for the lost revenue, city Pubic Utilities Director Dale Crisp said in a meeting of state and local water managers.
Source:
The News & Observer
Hypothetical Hurricane Blows in: Officials Hold Drill in Event Giant Storm Hits Chesapeake Bay
May 7--Outside, it was sunny and 80 degrees. But inside the Maryland Emergency Operations Center yesterday, there was an epic hurricane brewing -- a Category 3 storm named Zoe, headed directly for a Wednesday afternoon landfall at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Evacuations of the Eastern Shore and Southern Maryland were already under way as a morning telephone briefing from the National Weather Service warned that Zoe would crash ashore with top sustained winds of 120 mph and gusts to 150 mph.
Source:
The Baltimore Sun, Maryland
Reservoir larger than Manhattan planned to help Everglades
IN THE EVERGLADES, Fla. - Around South Florida's vast sugar cane fields, where turtles grow to the size of basketballs and alligators own the marsh, the silence of the swamp is broken by the sound of rumbling trucks and explosions. More than a century after the first homes and farms took shape in the Everglades, decades of flood-control projects have left the region parched and near ecological collapse. Now crews are building what will be the world's largest aboveground manmade reservoir to restore some natural water flow to the wetlands.
Source:
Associated Press/AP Online
Durham Adopts Tiered Water Rates
May 6--DURHAM -- Water users will pay higher rates starting July 1, the City Council decided Monday night, against the objections of the local Chamber of Commerce and one council member. The five-tiered system, under which customers will pay higher rates the more water they use, also is intended to discourage waste. "We simply do not have a choice."
Source:
The News & Observer
Henderson Water Plan Proposed
A series of tunnels could be drilled through the mountains south and east of Henderson as part of a massive expansion of the valley's water distribution system. Public input is sought on the so-called South Valley Facilities Expansion Project, which would double the capacity of the Southern Nevada Water Authority's River Mountains treatment facility and construct more than 26 miles of new distribution pipeline across the southern edge of Henderson. To help shape that review, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is having a series of public meetings in Henderson this week.
Source:
Las Vegas Review - Journal
Bill on Water Rights in County Clears Legislature
May 6--TOPEKA -- The Kansas House on Monday approved a measure aimed at stopping a Douglas County water district from condemning land to drill a well and possibly appropriate water rights. The issue prompted sharp debate, and the legislation -- House Bill 2860 -- squeaked by 64-57, and will now be considered by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. 25 from using eminent domain to appropriate water.
Source:
Journal-World
Beaufort Readies Itself for a New Wastewater Facility
May 5--BEAUFORT -- A century changes things. After making it through its first 200 years with no sewer infrastructure at all, the Town of Beaufort is celebrating the start of a project that will put a new state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant in operation as it turns 300 years old. Nonetheless, it is going to help us be able to offer a clean, environmentally safe facility for our citizens," Town Manager Terri Parker-Eakes said.
Source:
The Daily News
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