Monthly Archive for April, 2011

Page 2 of 6

Mexico’s Ocean Could Become U.S.’s Drinking Water

Published on 04/26/2011 in dams, desalination, greenwashing, hydropower, oceans, rivers and tap water. 0 Comments Tags: Colorado River, México, u.s. water supplies.

Water agencies supplying San Diego, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Tucson are studying whether to build a desalination plant to turn seawater into drinking water at this power plant north of Rosarito beach. Photo retrieved from: www.voiceofsandiego.org

“Just before the toll road stretching south from Tijuana enters Rosarito Beach, it veers inland, away from beautiful blue-water views, swinging wide around an industrial power plant complex, all filled with metal smokestacks and white fuel tanks, a major source of Baja California’s electricity.

There, water suppliers from across the Southwest are studying what would be the first project of its kind: tapping Mexico’s ocean as a source of the United States’ drinking water.

Together with the Mexican government, the agencies supplying San Diego, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Tucson are studying whether to build a seawater desalination plant in Mexico capable of producing 50 million gallons of water daily, enough to supply 112,000 homes, as a way of reinforcing water reliability in both countries. Water would either be pumped to the United States or swapped for the rights to some of Mexico’s share of the Colorado River.

The two countries already share the Colorado, the lifeblood of not only the American Southwest but Mexicali, Tecate and Tijuana, too. But the mighty river no longer looks so dependable. Lake Mead, the vital Colorado River reservoir held back by the Hoover Dam outside Las Vegas, recently dropped to its lowest point since being filled in the late 1930s, sapped by drought and growing demand.”

Emerging Powers Harnessing Neighbours’ Hydroelectricity

Published on 04/25/2011 in dams, displacement of people, greenwashing, hydropower, policy, privatization, rivers, water rights, water wars and world water supply. 0 Comments Tags: Amazon, Bolivia, Brahmaputra river, Brazil, china, indigenous cultures, Itaipú dam, madeira river, Mekong river, Peru, Southeast Asia.

The Madeira river, where Brazil hopes to build a hydropower plant under an agreement with Bolivia. Photo retrieved from: www.ipsnews.net

“Emerging countries like Brazil and China are building numerous hydroelectric dams at home and abroad to help drive their economic growth. But while in Latin America the phenomenon is touted as an integration process, in Asia it has generated tension over the shared use of rivers.

Brazil, the leader of this strategy in Latin America, has an agreement to build five hydropower dams in Peru, and is interested in building two similar plants, which would depend on reaching agreements with Bolivia: a joint venture between the two countries on the stretch of the Madeira river that forms part of the border between them, and a Bolivian plant.

A large part of the energy generated by these projects will be exported to Brazil, whose government projects an annual 5.9 percent increase in demand for energy from now to 2019, when the country will need 167,000 MW, over two-thirds of which will come from hydroelectricity.

Building dams outside of the country is one way to evade stiff opposition from environmentalists and indigenous groups in the Brazilian Amazon, where nearly all of the country’s as-yet untapped hydropower potential is found.

Cachuela Esperanza on the Beni river in northern Bolivia, near the Brazilian border, will have a potential of 990 MW, according to a project drawn up by Tecsult, a leading Canadian consulting firm. That is nearly the equivalent of Bolivia’s entire demand for energy. ”

MIT fog collector provides clean water from thin air

Published on 04/25/2011 in drought, products, solutions and outreach and water technology. 1 Comment Tags: fog collector, MIT, Namib Beetle, peakwater, Water.

Retrieved from: TG daily

“An MIT team has improved on existing systems to allow people in water-starved countries to harvest water from fog.

“Like the Namib Beetle, which collects water droplets on its bumpy back, then lets them roll down into its mouth, the system works by attracting and channeling drops of water vapor via a fence-like mesh panel.

“MIT’s Shreerang Chhatre says that his collector improves on the efficiency of previous versions. Using it, villagers could collect clean water near their homes, instead of spending hours carrying water from distant wells or streams.

“As a middle-class person, I think it’s terrible that the poor have to spend hours a day walking just to obtain a basic necessity,” he says. Nearly 900 million people worldwide live without safe drinking water, and it’s generally women and children that beat the burden of finding and transporting it.

“To build larger fog harvesters, the researchers use mesh rather than a solid surface, because a completely impermeable object creates wind currents that drag water droplets away from it.

“We tried to replicate what the beetle has, but found this kind of open permeable surface is better,” Chhatre says. “The beetle only needs to drink a few micro-liters of water. We want to capture as large a quantity as possible.”

Rick Perry Asks Texans to Pray for Rain

Published on 04/25/2011 in climate change, drought and water shortage. 0 Comments

Photo retrieved from: www.motherjones.com

“Texas is in the grip of historic wildfires that have destroyed nearly 1.8 million acres of forest and grassland in the state as well as 400 homes. The almost 8,000 fires so far this year are unprecedented, which last weekend prompted Gov. Rick Perry to call upon the national government for assistance. Now Perry is calling upon the Man Upstairs for help.

Perry issued a proclamation on Thursday declaring the next 72 hours the “Days of Prayer for Rain in Texas,” asking residents to appeal to whatever higher power they prefer for help. It states:

WHEREAS, throughout our history, both as a state and as individuals, Texans have been strengthened, assured and lifted up through prayer; it seems right and fitting that the people of Texas should join together in prayer to humbly seek an end to this devastating drought and these dangerous wildfires;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, RICK PERRY, Governor of Texas, under the authority vested in me by the Constitution and Statutes of the State of Texas, do hereby proclaim the three-day period from Friday, April 22, 2011, to Sunday, April 24, 2011, as Days of Prayer for Rain in the State of Texas. I urge Texans of all faiths and traditions to offer prayers on that day for the healing of our land, the rebuilding of our communities and the restoration of our normal and robust way of life.

Now, for a little bit of context: Perry is well-known for his skepticism about the existence of global warming—a phenomenon that has contributed to the conditions that cause wildfires. It’s also more than a little ironic given that the state last year filed a lawsuit to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations of planet-warming emissions, claiming that the finding that climate change poses a threat to humans is based on flawed science.”

No Glee from Environmentalists for Coca-Cola “Plant Bottle”

Published on 04/24/2011 in bottled water, contaminated water and greenwashing. 2 Comments Tags: bottled water, coca cola, Dasani, greenwashing, marketing, peak water, Plant Bottle, plastic pollution, Water.

Retrieved from: Blog Spot

“Some California environmental groups got a last minute invite to an unusual spectacle taking place on Earth Day to launch Coke’s new “plant bottle” packaging for Coca-Cola brand “Dasani” bottled water. The invitation cheers the “exciting packaging advancement” that will allow Coca-Cola to bottle its plain old municipal water without the coke syrup in a bottle that is “made with up to 30 percent plants — and up to 30 percent less petroleum.”

“On behalf of environmentalists in the know about plastic packaging and bottled water, we send our Regrets, as follows:

“1. We Regret that while many areas of America face drought, your bottling of municipal water uses three times as much water in the process of bottling it as the amount of water that came from the tap to fill the bottle.

“2. We Regret that despite your green leaf logo, your “plant bottle” is still just a PET plastic bottle and is not biodegradable or compostable on land or at sea.

“3. We Regret that Coca-Cola will not be collecting and recycling their own PET “plant bottles,” and that only approximately 28% of PET bottles are “recycled” (mostly into lower grade material that is not used in bottles again) in America. The remainder, at over 20 billion bottles, last forever in our landfills or in our environment, including our oceans. We also regret that Coca-Cola failed to achieve it’s own pledge of using at least 10% recycled content in PET bottles and has just announced the shut down of its PET recycling joint venture in South Carolina.

“4. We Regret that Coca-Cola is substituting its chemical-laden petroleum plastic bottle with a chemical-laden petroleum and plant plastic bottle.

“5. We Regret that estrogenic compounds in your PET “plant bottles” may leach into the water and impair human health and reproduction.”

Crews Stop Flow Of Drilling Fluid From Pa. Well

Published on 04/23/2011 in contaminated water, fracking, groundwater and natural gas drilling. 0 Comments

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Photo retrieved from: www.allvoices.com

“Workers stopped the flow of liquid and natural gas from a well that spilled chemical-laced water for two days and were hoping to start on a permanent solution to control the well, company officials said Friday.

Chesapeake Energy Corp., which was drilling the Marcellus Shale well near Canton in Bradford County, said the liquid leak was stopped Thursday.

Following an equipment failure Tuesday night, a small amount of gas and thousands of gallons of liquid spilled from the well, crossing farm fields and entering a stream. The exact cause of the blowout remained unclear, although Chesapeake spokesman Brian Grove said Thursday it took place in a wellhead connection.

Houston-based well-control specialists pumped ground-up tires, plastic bits and other rubber material into the well to temporarily seal the leak. The company said Friday afternoon that it hopes to begin removing the malfunctioning well equipment and finalizing “structural integrity of the wellhead equipment.”

State environmental regulators and nearby residents were still waiting on results from tests to determine the extent of contamination of nearby waterways and private water wells. Results of tests on water samples taken by the state Department of Environmental Protection were expected next week, but an agency spokesman said field checks found no cause for concern.”

China risks civil strife with support for foreign dams: activists

Published on 04/22/2011 in dams, displacement of people, hydropower, levees, policy, privatization, water diversions, water rights and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: China water supply, dam schemes, dams, dams in China, displacement of indigenous people, water activists, Water rights.

“Chinese support for controversial dam-building schemes around the world risks a backlash from affected communities and even violence due to a lack of transparency and the ignoring of residents’ wishes, activists said on Wednesday.

“Chinese companies and banks are becoming deeply involved in such projects in Africa and Asia, and despite a growing awareness they have to be more transparent and accountable, this frequently does not happen, the activists said.

“”We are dismayed to see a reckless role of many companies,” Peter Bosshard, policy director of California-based International Rivers, told the Foreign Correspondents Club of China.

“”There is still often a complete lack of transparency and consultation, particularly with civil society groups in the host countries,” he added.

“Beijing says that Chinese companies operating abroad have to comply with relevant national laws and that they must respect people there and the environment.

“Rights groups say this frequently does not happen.

“In Myanmar, Chinese companies are building or funding some particularly divisive dam schemes, Bosshard said.

“”If such huge infrastructure projects go forward, the (Myanmar) army takes over and occupies the villages,” he said.

“”There’s no question that the indigenous populations are very unhappy with these projects which they see as an extension of military rule in Burma, and that this will lead to serious conflict.”"

Where Does Our Water Come From?

Published on 04/22/2011 in tap water and water conservation. 0 Comments Tags: earth day, tap water, water conservation, water sources.

“In observance of Earth Day, Patch offers this two-part series on the sources of our local water supply and the conservation efforts that are underway to use each drop wisely.

“Did you know that more than 60 percent of the water used in the Beach Cities and the Palos Verdes Peninsula is imported from faraway places?

“The West Basin Municipal Water District, which serves the South Bay and other nearby communities, gets the majority of its supply from two sources: the State Water Project’s system of reservoirs and aqueducts delivers water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in Northern California and from runoff of melting snow in the Eastern Sierra Nevada; the Colorado River Aqueduct brings water from the Lake Havasu reservoir on the California-Arizona border.

“The remainder comes from a combination of groundwater and recycled water and other local sources, such as water that was originally imported but remains unused as “conserved water.”"

2011 Global Water Awards Go to MENA Nations

Published on 04/22/2011 in desalination, greenwashing and oil. 0 Comments Tags: 2011 Global Water Awards.

Photo retrieved from: www.greenprophet.com

“Almost half of the international winners were from the Middle East, but surprisingly, traditional fossil-fueled water projects dominated the awardees.

Advanced cleantech water companies that genuinely hold the promise of a sustainable water development, such as the many innovators that Israel’s Kinrot has incubated (GE Partnership With Kinrot Ventures Takes Clean Water Innovation Global) were not represented among the global winners. Nor were any of the many international solar companies now innovating sustainable desalination.

Israel’s 50 year old IDE Technologies, owned by big polluters Delek and Israel Chemicals, was selected as the winning desalination company of the year, for “complete mastery of both membrane and thermal desalination” (“thermal” means fossil-fueled.)

Two awards were won by tiny Oman. Salalah IWPP funding won for the desalination deal of the year, for its $1 billion 445 MW gas-fired power and water plant, and the Nimr reed beds in Oman won for industrial water project of the year.

Dubai’s Electricity and Water Authority won the award for public water agency of the year for its “fluctuating charge showing customers how much their bills are affected by the change in oil and gas costs. Realistic billing has made the authority free to act on an independent financial footing.”

Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah Sewage Lake cleanup won for water reuse project of the year. The water performance initiative was won by SEEAL from Algiers.

Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan was keynote speaker at the prestigious ceremony, which attracted hundreds of the top figures from the global water market.

Israel has long spearheaded the incubation of sustainable water technologies, and its start-upsnurtured by Kinrot Technologies are now being bought out by global companies like GE, which was another winner of the Global Water Awards: for its GE Water division (not one of GE’s more clean tech divisions).”

Concern over Myanmar’s Irrawaddy dam

Published on 04/22/2011 in agriculture, dams, displacement of people, greenwashing, mining, policy, rivers and species extinction. 1 Comment Tags: Irrawaddy River, kachin people, logging.

Photo retrieved from: www.taungzalatnews.net

“ Chinese companies are funding a multi-billion dollar project to dam the Irrawaddy river in Myanmar.

The river, the longest one left undammed in southeast Asia, is important to the Kachin people, and millions of people up and down its length would be affected by the changes, experts say.

When it is dammed, it will leave an area the size of New York City submerged.

There are now concerns over who is to benefit from the river’s riches.

Our special correspondent in Myanmar, who we cannot name for security reasons, filed this report.”