Archive for the 'policy' Category

Texas Agency Likely to Cut Water to Rice Farms

Published on 02/22/2012 in agriculture, drought, hydrology, management, peak water, policy and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Photo retrieved from: www.claimsjournal.com

“Thousands of farmers in Texas’ rice-producing region are likely to be affected by action taken in response to one of the most severe droughts in state history. With water management agencies implementing emergency plans never used before, the Lower Colorado River Authority is widely expected to announce March 1 that it will not release water to rice farmers in three counties.

“Texas usually produces about 5 percent of the nation’s rice. Production also is dropping this year in the other five major rice-growing states, including No. 1 Arkansas, as farmers are pressed by rising production costs and dropping prices.

“Many farmers in the region alternate between growing rice and ranching, but those with cattle sold off much of their livestock last year as the drought parched rangeland and pushed up hay prices. That leaves them with few alternatives now.

“To turn the tide in Texas, Mother Nature needs to dump 5 to 8 inches of rain in the Hill Country to produce about 32.6 billion gallons of runoff into the region’s lakes, LCRA meteorologist Bob Rose said. It’s possible, but Rose “wasn’t very optimistic” about it happening soon.”

Read more: Claims Journal

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Farmers warn food prices could go up because of drought

Published on 02/22/2012 in agriculture, drought, hydrology, management, peak water, policy, water shortage, water technology and world water supply. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

A combine harvester making it's way along a field of wheat in East Norton in Leicestershire. Farm, agriculture, farming, drought, British farming

Photo retrieved from: The Telegraph

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Peter Kendall, President of the National Farmers Union, said ongoing drought in the South East and Anglia, the “bread basket of Britain”, will cut yields and force up prices.

“As sure as night follows day if it doesn’t rain, food prices will go up. I can guarantee you that,” he said. “If there is less water across bigger areas of northern Europe food will cost more money.”

Drought-afflicted areas need 120 per cent of normal rainfall between now and March to avoid drought but the Met Office is forecasting a dry period.

“Mr Kendall said in the past, when the UK relied on imported food, farmers were ignored during a drought. For example golf courses would continue to be watered – but farmers banned from irrigating crops.”

Read more: The Telegraph

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Egypt Must Ratify Nile Water Agreement

Published on 02/22/2012 in climate change, peak water, policy, riparian zone, rivers and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Nile river. Retrieved from: www.businessdailyafrica.com

“The impact of climate change is likely to exacerbate the water scarcity in Nile Basin in which most of its members have already been identified as water deficient countries. If such phenomena is not addressed it might lead to a regional conflict over water.

Without an agreeable water allocation mechanism and with realisation that the status quo on the Nile water usage is unsustainable, the ten riparian states: Burundi, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eriteria, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda established the Nile Basin Initiative in February 1999.

They agreed on shared vision” “to achieve sustainable socio-economic development through equitable utilisation of and benefit from, the common Nile Basin water resources”.

Read more: Business Daily

 

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Demand Presents Risks To Water Supplies

Published on 02/22/2012 in climate change, groundwater, hydrology, policy, tap water and water technology. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.ehow.com

“Drinking water from coastal groundwater is more at threat from human activity than from rising sea levels due to climate change, Canadian scientists say.

Geoscientists from Canadian universities examined data from more than 1,400 coastal watersheds and said they found most are relatively unaffected by rising sea levels.

The aquifers are seeing more impacts from humans pumping water from wells for drinking, domestic use and irrigation, a release from the University of Saskatchewan said Tuesday.”

Read more: UPI

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Canada Threatens Trade War With EU Over Tar Sands

Published on 02/21/2012 in contaminated water, greenwashing, oil, policy, tar sands and wastewater. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.guardian.co.uk

“Canada has threatened a trade war with European Union over the bloc’s plan to label oil from Alberta’s vast tar sands as highly polluting, the Guardian can reveal, before a key vote in Brussels on 23 February.

“Canada will not hesitate to defend its interests, including at the World Trade Organisation,” state letters sent to European commissioners by Canada’s ambassador to the EU and its oil minister, released under freedom of information laws.

The move is a significant escalation of the row over the EU’s plans, which Canada fears would set a global precedent and derail its ability to exploit its tar sands, which are the biggest fossil fuel reserve in the world after Saudi Arabia. Environmental groups argue that exploitation of the tar sands, also called oil sands, is catastrophic for the global climate, as well as causing serious air and water pollution in Alberta.”

Read more: Guardian

 

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Malaysian Indigenous Communities Demand Referendum on Mega-Dams

Published on 02/21/2012 in aquatic ecosystems, dams, deforestation, displacement of people, greenwashing, hydropower, policy, rivers and water rights. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Photo retrieved from: www.networkblogs.com

“The 110 meter (360 foot) high dam in Batang Ai National Park in Sarawak, financed by the Asian Development Bank, began operating in 1985. It caused the displacement of some 3,000 people from 26 longhouses. These people have been relocated to cultivate cocoa and rubber but the program has not been successful, says Amarhit Kaur, author of “A History of Forestry in Sarawak.”

The Bengoh dam on Sarawak’s Kiri River is expected to be completed by the end of 2012. Some 250 families involving 1,500 people from four villages are rejecting the government’s resettlement plans to give each family a free house and three acres near the dam. Instead, they preferred to resettle themselves on higher ground upstream of the dam on their traditional territory.

The 63 meter (206 foot) high Bengoh dam is expected to submerge about 8.72 square kilometers (3.3 square miles) of land. Wildlife habitat will be destroyed, affecting two species of hornbill and 50 other species of birds, seven species of bats, 14 species of mammals and 52 species of fish.”

Read more: Earth First!

 

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L.A. Blasts California in Owens Lake Water War

Published on 02/20/2012 in greenwashing, lakes, management, policy, privatization and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Photo retrieved from: www.courthousenews.com

“Los Angeles’ water wars continue, with the city suing the state in Superior Court, claiming that the state’s demand for dust abatement at Owens Lake could cost taxpayers $1.5 billion.
The City of Los Angeles challenges the validity of Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District’s dust pollution control program, under a section of the Health and Safety Code.
Los Angeles claims the program could cost $1.5 billion – “the most expensive dust control program in the entire nation, and likely the world.”
Los Angeles began draining Owens Lake, on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevadas, in 1913, sending its water into the Los Angeles Aqueduct. Many people know of the tremendous power struggle over the water through the Jack Nicholson movie, “Chinatown.” Residents of Inyo County claimed, reasonably, that Los Angeles was stealing its water for the insatiable needs of the city. Owens Lake once covered 108 square miles and was up to 50 feet deep. Today much of the old lake bed is a mud and salt flat, whose alkaline dust is stuffed up by dust storms that carry away as much as 4 million tons of dust and dirt from the lakebed each year. The lake itself, much shallower than it was, covers no more than 27 square miles today.
Los Angeles sued the State Air Resources Board, the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District, and the state itself, through the California Lands Commission.
The city asks the Superior Court to order the State Air Resources Board to conduct an independent hearing to review Great Basin’s 2011 Supplemental Control Requirements Decision.”

Read more: Courthouse News Service

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SYRIA: Insecurity makes drought-hit farmers even more vulnerable

Published on 02/20/2012 in agriculture, displacement of people, drought, policy and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.irinnews.org

“Instability in Syria has aggravated an already vulnerable situation for tens of thousands of farmers and herders affected by recurrent drought, but only a fraction of them have received assistance because of chronic “serious underfunding” of humanitarian programmes in Syria, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warns.

“They are really in bad shape. They need assistance,” said Abdulla Tahir Bin Yehia, FAO representative in Syria. “We are willing and able to reach many of the farming communities affected by the drought and the crisis, provided resources are made available by the donor community.”

“[But] no single donor has given us a single penny this year,” Bin Yehia said. “Funding from the donor community is absent.”

So far, FAO – a technical agency which needs to be funded to operate – has relied on its own funds, as well as money from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund.”

Read more: IRIN

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Snuffbox and Rayed Bean Mussels: Freshwater Species of the Week

Published on 02/20/2012 in aquatic ecosystems, contaminated water, policy, rivers and species extinction. 0 Comments Tags: , .

A rare freshwater snuffbox mussel (Epioblasma triquetra), now protected as an endangered species. Retrieved from: www.nationalgeographic.com

“Although they have long served as an important food source for a wide variety of animals (including people), freshwater mussels are highly sensitive to poor water quality and large-scale changes in the flows of rivers. As we have altered and polluted rivers, freshwater mussels, which live by filtering tiny bits of food out of water, have been hard hit.

Besides depriving other animals of a high-quality food source, the loss of freshwater mussels has further harmed water quality because the animals filter out pollutants over time.

The snuffbox (Epioblasma triquetra) is a medium-sized, yellow mussel with triangular-shaped females and oval-shaped males.  It tends to live in small to medium-sized creeks with a swift current, although it is also found in Lake Erie and in some larger rivers.

The snuffbox was formerly common in Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. But it has declined by more than 60 percent in recent years and has disappeared entirely from four states. Conservation advocates have sought endangered species protection for the species since at least 1991.”

Read more: National Geographic

 

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Federal Rules to Disclose Fracking Chemicals Could Come with Exceptions

Published on 02/19/2012 in contaminated water, fracking, groundwater, policy, tap water and wastewater. 0 Comments Tags: .

 

Retrieved from: www.propane.pro

“In the process of fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, millions of gallons of highly pressurized water, mixed with sand and other chemicals, are injected into the ground to extract natural gas from rock. As we’ve noted before, some of these chemicals are toxic to humans and have contaminated nearby groundwater. Some energy companies have voluntarily made their chemical information public, but others have fought to keep them secret.

InsideClimate notes that the proposed national rules would specifically require companies to give both the names and concentrations of individual chemicals used. So far, Colorado is the only state that requires such detailed information for all chemicals; eight other states with fracking disclosure rules either do not require companies to report concentrations or only require them to report concentrations of hazardous materials. The BLM’s rules also would compel companies to report the total volume of fracking fluid used, as well as how they intend to recover and dispose of it.”

Read more: Alternet

 

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