Monthly Archive for November, 2011

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Marin Municipal Water District to challenge desalination ruling

Published on 11/20/2011 in desalination, management and policy. 0 Comments Tags: desal in marin, EIR in MMWD desal case, MMWD desal, north coast rivers alliance, peak water, water news.

Retrieved from: MMWD

“The Marin Municipal Water District will challenge a judge’s ruling that the district’s desalination project environmental impact report is flawed, which essentially voided the project.

“The water district board voted Wednesday in a closed session to appeal a Marin Superior Court decision that determined the environmental analysis of the proposed San Rafael desalination plant was not prepared in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act.

“The North Coast Rivers Alliance was joined by several other parties in the lawsuit challenging the desalination project.

“In her August opinion, Judge Lynn Duryee said she was concerned the environmental impact report didn’t properly describe the environmental setting near the project nor fully assess its impact on marine species.

“Water district lawyers argued that assessments were done during peak seasons and that a more comprehensive study would be done — as required by state and federal officials — once the project moved forward.

The judge went on to write that the desalination plan is “unnecessary because water conservation costs nothing, has no negative environmental effects and is more effective than the (desalination) project.”

Critics blast Las Vegas pipeline proposal

Published on 11/20/2011 in desertification, management, uncategorized and water diversions. 0 Comments Tags: Las Vegas, Las Vegas Pipeline, peakwater, Water.

Retrieved from: blog spot

“An attorney for the LDS Church called a proposal for tapping ground water in the dry regions of Nevada and pumping it to Las Vegas a disaster with good intentions.

“It’s the cotton candy of good intentions with nothing good at its core,” attorney Paul Hermonskie said Friday. “It does not provide the protection my client must have.”

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is just one of hundreds of protestors who have lined up against the proposal for tapping groundwater aquifers in eastern Nevada. Hermonskie was among several who testified Friday’s closing hearing convened by the Nevada State Engineer’s Office. Hearings first began in September in which hundreds of documents were submitted and more than 80 people have testified.

“At issue is the divisive proposal by the Southern Nevada Water Authority to take ground water so it can supply the future needs of customers in the Las Vegas area. As many as 126,000 acre-feet of groundwater would be tapped to fill the proposed 300-mile, $3.5 billion pipeline that proponents say is necessary to keep the tourism industry — and the economy — of Las Vegas and Nevada afloat.

“The authority is seeking water right applications for a pipeline delivery system that has been the target of controversy because of concerns it would deplete ground water supplies in the arid region.”

Nike, Adidas, Puma agree with Greenpeace to clean water in worldwide production by 2020

Published on 11/19/2011 in contaminated water and management. 0 Comments Tags: Addidas, Greenpeace, Nike, peakwater, Puma, Water.

Retrieved from: Oregon live

“Nike and Adidas , wily competitors at the cash register for four decades, announced an agreement Friday with several other footwear and clothing brands to work jointly to eliminate the discharge of hazardous chemicals by 2020.

“The agreement is viewed as a major step toward eliminating substances threatening drinking water in industrialized China and other countries where mass quantities of apparel, footwear and other products have been made, largely unchecked by environmental regulation.

“Participants worked with Greenpeace International over the past two years before issuing guidelines Friday explaining broadly how the goals would be achieved.

“Nike, in August, was the first of the brands to vow to meet the 2020 goal. Adidas and others committed shortly thereafter.

“For its part, Greenpeace issued a statement Friday night praising the participants but suggesting they should try to reach the goals before 2020.

“In August, Greenpeace challenged our industry to commit to zero discharge of hazardous chemicals by 2020. Adidas Group, C&A, H&M, Li Ning, Nike and Puma accepted that challenge and have joined together in a game-changing collaboration to meet Greenpeace’s challenge.”

Decision Day for City Council (Santa Cruz Desal Project)

Published on 11/18/2011 in desalination, management and policy. 0 Comments Tags: peak water, santa cruz desalination, santa cruz water department, SCWD2. soquel creek water department, soquel creek and santa cruz desalination project, water news.

“On several occasions members of the Santa Cruz City Council have expressed the sentiment that desalination should be a last resort. Other strategies to make better use of existing resources should be employed first. On Tuesday at 7pm, the Council has the opportunity to put that intention into practice. To do so they will need to put the brakes on desal spending and direct their Water Department to implement alternatives first.

“The Water Department is asking the City Council for more money for the desal project. This time it’s a half million for a consultant to guide the permitting process for the desal project. According to Bill Kocher, head of the Water Department, $12.5 million in City, Soquel Creek Water District and state taxpayer money has already been spent on the desal project. It’s time for the Council to draw the line. Money for the permitting process should wait until a decision has been made whether to approve the project. And that decision will happen after an Environmental Impact Report is complete.

“The second decision Council will make on Tuesday is whether to include three key strategies in the City’s 5-year Urban Water Management Plan. Even people who are committed to the desalination project should have no objection to water exchanges with Soquel Creek District; water-neutral growth policy; and more resources for conservation.

“If the Council approves funds for desal permitting and fails to adopt the three strategies for making better use of our existing water resources, I will be supporting a ballot initiative that will put the decision on the desalination project in the hands of the voters. -Rick Longinotti.”

Regional tensions limit Bhutan climate summit aims

Published on 11/18/2011 in displacement of people, floods, peak water and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: Bhutan Climate Summit, Himalayan flood, himalayan water shortage, peakwater, Water.

Retrieved from: Iceagenow

“Four Himalayan nations, faced with erratic weather and the threat of melting glaciers and catastrophic floods, are hashing out a plan for preserving the vast mountain range and helping millions living in the foothills cope with climate change.

“But as India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan set to work on a new 10-year management policy, three other major Himalayan nations will be conspicuously absent.

“Organizers have downplayed the fact that Pakistan, China and Afghanistan are not attending the Climate Summit for a Living Himalayas, saying the talks Saturday in Bhutan’s capital of Thimphu are focused on securing ecosystems, endangered species, forests and food and water sources for only the eastern part of the range.

“The summit, to some extent, is the Himalayan answer to an urgent need for action amid the international community’s inability to agree on limiting greenhouse gas emissions thought to cause global warming. Expectations are again low for a breakthrough at the next U.N. climate talks, beginning Nov. 28 in Durban, South Africa.

“Regional tensions have long prevented Himalayan cooperation, including basic research in the world’s largest block of glaciers outside the polar regions, and accounting for 40 percent of the world’s fresh water.”

Ex-Water Board Director In Court To Answer Charges

Published on 11/16/2011 in desalination, management and policy. 1 Comment Tags: monterey water board, peak water, water board felony, water news, water politics.

Retrieved from: KSBW.com

“MONTEREY, Calif. — The former director of the Monterey County Water Resources Agency Board of Directors is in hot water.

“Stephen P. Collins was charged with 33 felony counts and six misdemeanors on suspicion of profiting off water contracts he handed out while serving as the Monterey County water board’s director.

“Collins appeared in court Wednesday for arraignment on the charges against him; but the hearing was continued until Nov. 30 without Collins entering a plea. Prosecutors asked Collins to be held on $10,000 bail, but Collins’ attorney Juliet Peck successfully argued that he is not a flight risk and Judge Timothy Roberts agreed, allowing Collins to go free.

“District Attorney Dean Flippo announced the charges against Collins, 57, at a news conference on Tuesday afternoon.

“The conflict of interest charges against Collins stem from his handling of a desalination project, called the Regional Project.”
Read more: KSBW.com

chrismorrow

Suit seeks to stop alleged pollution by CA farmers

Published on 11/10/2011 in agriculture, contaminated water, groundwater, policy, rivers, wastewater and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: agricultural run-off, San Joaquin River.

Photo retrieved from: www.greenscene.com

“California fishing and conservation groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday in federal court, accusing farmers of illegally discharging polluted groundwater into tributaries of the San Joaquin River.

The suit is the latest move in a decades-long battle over selenium-tainted farmland and agricultural drainage problems on the western side of the San Joaquin Valley.

The suit claims the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority allowed contaminated groundwater to co-mingle with irrigation drain water.

The mixture was then discharged without a federal wastewater permit into a canal and a slough that feed to the San Joaquin River and San Francisco Bay-Delta, the lawsuit states.

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation spokeswoman Lynnette Wirth declined to comment on the litigation.

In a press release, officials with the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority said the lawsuit wastes taxpayers’ money and fails to recognize the benefits of a federal water project that’s used to manage agricultural drainage.

Any facility that discharges wastewater directly to surface water must obtain a wastewater discharge permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or the state. While irrigation drain water is exempt from the permitting process, polluted groundwater isn’t.”

Holy Water: A precious commodity in a region of conflict

Published on 11/09/2011 in agriculture, desertification, groundwater, hydrology, policy, rivers, wastewater, water diversions, water shortage and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: dead sea, Jordan River.

Photo retrieved from: www.aljazeera.net

“IN ISRAEL, not far from the place where Jesus is said to have walked on water and fed thousands with just five loaves of bread and two fish, government engineers have performed a miracle of their own—they’ve made a river disappear. The Jordan River leaves the Sea of Galilee on its way to the Dead Sea in a slow laze past a series of campsites to a concrete complex, beside which white-robed pilgrims submerge themselves in its waters. From there, it pushes onward, winding through olive groves, farmers’ fields, and patches of brushwoods. Then, suddenly, it stops. At a pumping station less than three kilometers from the river’s source, five broad green pipes dip like elephant trunks to suck the water out. Beyond this point, the river has been reduced to less than 2 percent of its original flow.

The disappearance of the Jordan River, much like the area’s dropping aquifers, is a symptom of the struggle for water that has shaped the modern Middle East. The flow of a river that once irrigated the fields of the West Bank has been channeled through pipes, pumps, and canals to gush from the taps in Tel Aviv, and to “make the desert bloom” in the Negev. This diversion of water may be a technical marvel, but it’s emptying rivers and leaving critical aquifers dangerously susceptible to the intrusion of salt water and raw sewage.”

Government’s Citarum River dredging project kicks off

Published on 11/09/2011 in floods, hydrology, management, policy, rivers and water diversions. 0 Comments Tags: Citarum River, citarum river normalization project.

Photo retrieved from: www.cempakanature.com

“Public Works Minister Joko Kirmanto will inaugurate the project at the flood-prone Baleendah district, Bandung regency, some 15 kilometers south of Bandung city. The dredging project will stretch some 180 kilometers.

Citarum River Area Center head Hasanudin said the labor-intensive project was expected to be completed in three years and would minimize the annual flooding of as much as 7,000 hectares as the Citarum River swells during the rainy season, which usually leaves Bandung, Purwakarta, Karawang and Bekasi regencies inundated.

“The project will simultaneously be carried out from Sapan in Bandung regency, Najung and Jatiluhur in Purwakarta and Muara Gembong in Bekasi,” Hasanudin told The Jakarta Post in Bandung on Tuesday.

The normalization project includes dredging millions of cubic meters of sediment, making sheet piles for embankments, pedestrian bridges and straightening a number of stretches thus far regarded as impeding the river flow.

Hasanudin said the project came in anticipation of the quinquennial flooding that usually engulfs some 12,000 hectares in river basin areas. The last floods were in February of last year, leaving 50,000 hectares of farmland in Karawang flooded for three weeks.

Some 250 NGO community empowerment groups will help educate residents living near the Citarum River, showing them how to protect the river basin areas. The NGOs will encourage residents to recycle waste rather than dump it into the river.”

EPA backs off tough clean-water rules in hopes of helping Obama carry Florida in 2012

Published on 11/07/2011 in clean water act, contaminated water, lakes, management, policy, rivers and tap water. 0 Comments Tags: EPA, florida water politics.

Retrieved from: www.care2.com

“Two years ago, after a lawsuit charged that the Environmental Protection Agency wasn’t adequately enforcing the Clean Water Act in Florida, the EPA agreed to set specific anti-pollution standards for the state’s lakes, rivers, streams and estuaries. A year ago, the EPA announced the standards but gave the state an extra 15 months to comply. Yet polluting industries and government utilities kept complaining, claiming that the cost of compliance would bankrupt companies and drastically raise customers’ water bills. The resistance got bipartisan support from the state’s politicians.

Last week, the EPA surrendered. In a letter to Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Herschel Vinyard, EPA acting Assistant Administrator Nancy K. Stoner said the agency would let Florida develop its own anti-pollution rules. Those are significantly weaker. Notably, the EPA’s original plan would have set tough criteria to keep waters from becoming polluted. As conservation groups pointed out in comments to the DEP, the state system would postpone action until a lake, stream or river has been declared dirty.”