Tag Archive for 'Water'

Viewpoints: $11 billion water bond should be repealed

Published on 02/19/2012 in greenwashing, management and water diversions. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Retrieved from: Sac bee

“The Bee’s Feb. 5 editorial, “Water bond will sink if it stays bloated,” was accurate when it described the $11.14 billion water bond as an albatross that voters need to put out of its misery. But there’s an even more efficient and practical course of action that would save taxpayers money and legislators embarrassment when the initiative fails miserably: legislative repeal of the bond before November.

“If you are a shipbuilder and you know your boat will sink as soon as it disembarks, would you let it set sail? Of course not. But instead of admitting that the water bond has been built to fail, Gov. Jerry Brown and some legislators would prefer to delay it instead of scrapping it once and for all and going back to the drawing board to develop sound state water policy.

“We’ve been led to believe that the water bond will provide the funding necessary to restore the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and to ensure water supply reliability for Southern California, but the truth is that two of the nation’s biggest and most powerful agriculture operations stand to benefit most.Wetlkands Water District and Paramount Farms, both in the arid southwest corner of the Central Valley , were key players in drafting and lobbying for this water bond that would cost taxpayers $22 billion with interest over time. Combined, they hold more than 800,000 acres of land and seek the delivery of more than 1 million acre-feet of water from the Delta which, for perspective, is more water than San Fransisco and Los Angeles combined use each year.”

Read more: Sac bee

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Can Coca-Cola Keep Growing?

Published on 02/09/2012 in aquatic ecosystems, bottled water, contaminated water, displacement of people, glaciers, greenwashing, groundwater, management, privatization and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Retrieved from: Wikipedia

“Coca-Cola is a $156 billion nonalcoholic-beverage kingpin that sold more than $46 billion worth of drinks around the world in 2011. As if it needs underscoring, that’shuge. So when it comes to the future for Coca-Cola, is growth still possible?

“If you tuned into Coke’s fourth-quarter earnings release yesterday, you know that there was still growth to be had in the past year, at least. Comparable earnings per share — which adjusts the tally mainly for oddball adjustments from its bottler acquisition — increased 10% for the year to $3.84.

“There’s been no recession for Coke. In the chart below, you can see that earnings did dip in 2008, but when we consider the total earnings growth over the past five years, it’s clear that the Coca-Cola juggernaut is one that’s not easily knocked off course. 

anImageSource: S&P Capital IQ. 2010 earnings adjusted for gains from bottler acquisition. 

“If we break that total growth down to an average annual figure, we can say that Coke is still growing earnings at a clip of better than 11% per year. To deliver that kind of growth on a relatively consistent basis is no small matter no matter who you are, but it’s even more impressive when you’re a company the size of Coke.

“The company hasn’t been shy about deploying some of its ample cash flow to grow through acquisitions. Of note, in 2007 the company ponied up $4.2 billion to buy Vitaminwater maker Glaceau. More recently, the company took over the North American operations of bottler Coca-Cola Enterprises.”
Read more: Daily Finance
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US approves first new nuclear plant in a generation

Published on 02/09/2012 in aquatic ecosystems and nuclear power. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Retrieved from: Scientific American

“U.S. regulators on Thursday approved plans to build the first new nuclear power plant in more than 30 years, despite objections of the panel’s chairman who cited safety concerns stemming from Japan’s 2011 Fukushima disaster.

“The Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted 4-1 to allow Atlanta-based Southern Co to build and operate two new nuclear power reactors at its existing Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia. The units will cost Southern and partners about $14 billion and enter service as soon as 2016 and 2017.

“The approval was cold comfort for nuclear industry officials who have touted a “renaissance” that has failed to materialize, undercut by high costs and the cheapest natural gas prices in about a decade.

“Further clouding future prospects, NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko cast an extraordinary dissenting vote, citing the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in March 2011 that spurred the NRC to review whether existing and new U.S. reactors could withstand natural disasters like earthquakes and floods.

Read more: Reuters

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Grand Canyon to ban bottled water sales

Published on 02/08/2012 in aquatic ecosystems, bottled water and solutions and outreach. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

The Colorado River flows through the Grand Canyon on the Hualapai Indian Reservation near Peach Springs, Arizona May 6, 2011. REUTERS/Joshua Lott

Retrieved from: Reuters

“The Grand Canyon will soon ban the sale of bottled water, responding to concerns that empty plastic bottles scattered around the park are spoiling views of the natural wonder.

“The National Park Service has approved a plan that would eliminate the sale of bottled water within 30 days, after nearly $290,000 was spent to install 10 water stations inside the park. Visitors can use the stations to refill their own water bottles, which they can tote in from the outside.

“Park concessionaires, who can still sell other bottled beverages, chipped in with another three water stations.

“Our parks should set the standard for resource protection and sustainability,” John Wessels, the park service’s intermountain region director, said in a statement.

“Some 4.5 million tourists visit the Grand Canyon each year, and officials worry about litter found on the rim and inner canyon spoiling the park and marring its views. They estimate the disposable bottles account for 20 percent of the park’s waste and 30 percent of its recyclables.”

Read more: Reuters

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Water grid bosses back doubts over dam story

Published on 02/06/2012 in dams, floods and management. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Wivenhoe Dam strains to hold back flood water in January.

Retrieved from: Brisbane times

“The operators of Brisbane’s biggest dam may have waited two days longer than claimed to proceed to a key water release strategy in the lead-up to the city’s devastating flood, two senior water grid officials have told an inquiry.

“The flood commission, headed by Court of Appeal judge Catherine Holmes, is holding 11th hour hearings to test Seqwater’s assertions about when Wivenhoe Dam engineers moved to a “W3” strategy, which allows more rapid releases and prioritises the protection of urban areas such as Brisbane.

“Dam engineers have argued they moved directly from W1 – when low-lying rural bridges are prioritised – to W3 at 8am on Saturday, January 8, 2011, as required in the official dam manual.

“It is not in dispute that the most serious strategy, W4, was activated on Tuesday, January 11, when large amount of rainfall forced operators to massively ramp up releases from the dam.

“Thousands of homes were inundated when the Brisbane River flood peak occurred on the morning of Thursday, January 13.”

Read more: Brisbane times

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Clean-ups begin as some Qld floodwaters fall

Published on 02/06/2012 in displacement of people and floods. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh examines the swollen Maranoa River near the flood affected town of St George.

Retrieved from: SMH

“As the first of the floodwaters begin to fall in southwest Queensland, clean-ups have started in Roma and Mitchell, but people in Charleville are still waiting for the all clear to return home.

“Maranoa mayor Robert Loughnan says while people have begun work on their homes in Roma and Mitchell, the situation in both towns is still ‘‘pretty diabolical’’.

‘‘Mitchell is in really bad shape, it’s a dreadful place at the moment,’’ he said.

“Mr Loughnan said the bridge into the town, which provides the only access at the moment, was not in good shape.

‘‘Main Roads are doing their best to clear up all of the debris and replace the side rails which have been badly damaged.’’Emergency Services Minister Neil Roberts says hundreds of homes have been damaged and an initial inspection is underway.

‘‘So very significant damage and very significant dislocation to those individuals.’’Weather bureau hydrologist Chris Leahy said gauges at Roma and Mitchell had been damaged and could not be repaired until after the floods had passed.”

Read more: SMH

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Giving an invasive water pest the bullet

Published on 02/03/2012 in invasive species, policy, water filtering and water technology. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

David Aldridge and a handful of zebra mussels

Photo retrieved from: BBC News

“An invasive species, the zebra mussel clogs up water works and systems across the UK, costing millions of pounds each year to remove.

“With each female zebra mussel able to produce up to a million eggs per year, serious infestations can quickly form.

“Thankfully a Cambridge-based company called Biobullets has come up with a much easier – and cheaper – means of removing them. A method that owes much to the ancient Greeks and their Trojan horse.

“The toxin in question, potassium chloride, is safe to use in the water supply system as anything that is not eaten by the zebra mussels degrades in less than three hours.”

Read more: BBC News

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Super models – using maths to mitigate natural disasters

Published on 02/03/2012 in climate change, dams, floods, management and peak water. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

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Photo retrieved from: theConversation.edu.au

“Last year will go on record as one of significant natural disasters both in Australia and overseas. Indeed, the flooding of the Brisbane River in January is still making news as the Queensland floods inquiry investigates whether water released from Wivenhoe Dam was responsible. Water modelling is being used to answer the question: could modelling have avoided the problem in the first place?

This natural disaster – as well as the Japanese tsunami in Marchand the flooding in Bangkok in October – involved the movement of fluids: water, mud or both. And all had a human cost – displaced persons, the spread of disease, disrupted transport, disrupted businesses, broken infrastructure and damaged or destroyed homes. With the planet now housing 7 billion people, the potential for adverse humanitarian effects from natural disasters is greater than ever.

Here in CSIRO’s division of Mathematical and Information Sciences, we’ve been working with various government agencies (in Australia and China) to model the flow of flood waters and the debris they carry. Governments are starting to realise just how powerful computational modelling is for understanding and analysing natural disasters and how to plan for them.

“So how does it work?

Well, fluids such as sea water can be represented as billions of particles moving around, filling spaces, flowing downwards, interacting with objects and in turn being interacted upon. Or they can be visualised as a mesh of the fluids’ shape.”

Read more: The Conversation

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Zimbabwe’s government to give water to poor after typhoid outbreak; wealthy must buy water

Published on 02/01/2012 in contaminated water, solutions and outreach and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Retrieved from: Care

“Zimbabwean authorities say they are making sure poor townships get uninterrupted water supplies after a typhoid outbreak, leaving wealthy areas with reduced supplies.

“Harare official Tendai Mahachi told reporters Tuesday well-to-do suburbs will get water about twice weekly. He said “the wealthy can afford to buy water” and cope with outages.

“At least 900 cases of the bacterial disease have been treated this year in poor western suburbs of Harare, many having had no piped water for months and even years.

“No deaths have been reported in the typhoid outbreak blamed on food contaminated by feces from broken sewers during water shortages.”

Read more: Washington Post

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Ohio Tries to Escape Fate as a Dumping Ground for Fracking Fluid

Published on 02/01/2012 in contaminated water, groundwater and natural gas drilling. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Retrieved from: b-fair

“The millions of gallons of chemical- laced wastewater that fracking produces must flow somewhere, and Ohio is trying not to be that place.

“The oil and natural-gas drilling boom spurred more permits for disposal wells there during the past two years than during the previous decade combined. The volume injected into them was on a near-record pace last year, according to the Department of Natural Resources, and more than half was from out of state. That included 92.6 percent of the water sent to a Youngstown well closed last year after 11 nearby earthquakes.

“We have become in Ohio the dumping ground for contaminated brine,” state Representative Armond Budish, the House Democratic leader, said at a Jan. 26 forum in Columbus. “We didn’t prepare adequately for the potential for earthquakes and other environmental problems.”

“Now, Ohio is considering tightening regulations governing wells in response to the temblors and seeking to stem out-of- state fluid shipments. It’s an example of the challenges U.S. states face as they try to enjoy hydraulic fracturing’s economic boost while avoiding its side effects.”

Read more: Business week

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