WaterWired

I've Died and Gone to Heaven: CSIS/Water Advocates WASH Universities Initiative

2009-11-07T00:20:00-08:00

The Global Water Futures project of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Water Advocates have joined forces to create the WASH Universities Initiative.

Wash universities? Are they dirty? Read more about it from this email I received:

The Global Water Futures Project and Water Advocates have gathered representatives from U.S. universities and colleges, NGOs, and the U.S. State Department to brainstorm how to raise the profile of WASH [WAter, Sanitation, and Hygiene] in universities and opportunities for interested students. To continue the discussion of this initiative and to determine the next steps in this initiative, we invite you to a meeting/teleconference this Friday [6 November].

As part of this initiative, Colorado State University and Emory University are tabulating names and email addresses of USA university people involved with WASH issues in developing countries. An online questionnaire will be distributed to them with the results available by Thanksgiving.

Have I died and gone to heaven?

I pose that rhetorical question because for a number of years, myself and some of my colleagues, notably Dave Kreamer of UNLV, Dave Sabatini at the University of Oklahoma, and Steve Silliman at the University of Notre Dame, have been trying to do this same thing on a shoestring without much support. Now, someone is actually doing this, well-organized and (presumably) reasonably well-funded (at least better than we were).

I don't think I've ever had a better time on a two-hour concall.

Erik Peterson (CSIS) and David Douglas (Water Advocates) and their staffs deserve kudos for spearheading this project.

The group is planning some kind of event in DC, likely on or about 3 March 2010. I will keep you posted here.

At some point, the survey may be extended to non-academics, foreign organizations, professional societies, etc., but for now it is limited to USA academics.

I'm looking forward to working on this effort.

"Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again." -- Anonymous (thanks to Stephen Carlton)

Sleepless in Seattle: AWRA Annual Conference Final Program

2009-11-06T00:05:00-08:00

Okay, time to do a little heavy lifting for one of my professional societies, the American Water Resources Association.

Also time for some full disclosure here: I'm on the AWRA Board of Directors, and on 1 January 2010 I become its President-Elect.

Anyway, our 2009 Annual Conference begins in Seattle on 9 November 2009.

Here is the final program:

Download AWRA_Seattle_Final_Program

This is going to be a great one. Hard to beat the venue, too!

Hope to see you there.

"Wish AWRA had been around when I was doing hydrology!" -- O.E. Meinzer

Earth to Copenhagen: Include Water in Climate Change Text

2009-11-05T00:40:00-08:00

Nothing like good news from the international climate change community. Turns out that the CC mavens at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Barcelona have decided to delete clear references to water in the latest document, Non-Paper 31. Don't you love that name? I guess it was a paper produced by non-intelligent people.

Here is some language from the Global Water Partnership press release announcing this omission:

To a large extent, the global climate crisis is a global water crisis. Yet the latest iteration of the negotiating text on adaptation, the so-called Non-Paper 31, has deleted any clear references to water and its management as a vital consideration for climate change adaptation. This is despite increasing mobilisation by the water community to call for a strong outcome on water from Copenhagen.

Here is the GWP's entire press release:

Download 091103_WaterDay_press_release

Let's hope reason prevails before Copenhagen.

"Nature abhors a moron" -- Unknown

My Truckee River Symposium Keynote Address

2009-11-04T00:15:00-08:00

Yesterday I delivered the keynote address at the Nevada Water Resources Association's Truckee River Symposium (TRS), 3-5 November 2009, at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, NV.

Download TR_Symp_Program

The Truckee River flows from Lake Tahoe to Pyramid Lake. It is about 110 miles long and has to be one of the 'hardest working' rivers in the USA.

Here's the pdf of my presentation:

Download Campana_TRS_3_ Nov_2009

It's always good to return to Reno. Lots of good WaterWonks and others here. And gorgeous scenery!

"It's not what you don't know that will hurt you, but what you know for sure that will." -- Mark Twain

Westlands Water District: Reaping Riches in a Wretched Region - Subsidized Industrial Farming and Its Link to Perpetual Poverty

2009-11-03T00:25:00-08:00

Lloyd G. Carter just published this provocative article in the Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal.

Here are the first few paragraphs of Reaping Riches in a Wretched Region: Subsidized Industrial Farming and Its Link to Perpetual Poverty:

In the last few decades, well over a billion dollars in taxpayer aid has been provided to a few hundred growers in the Westlands Water District (Westlands), which is part of the San Luis Unit of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation‘s Central Valley Project (CVP) in Central California. The CVP is the largest publicly funded water-management system in the United States, and the Westlands is the biggest agricultural irrigation district in America. At nearly 1000 square miles, the Westlands is still dominated by a few pioneer dynastic families although congressional backers of the San Luis Unit half a century ago promised that 6100 small family farms would be created if Northern California river water was brought to the desert on the West Side of the San Joaquin Valley (Valley). The promise was never kept, and the larger landowners are still in control.

While Westlands, considered one of the nation‘s most politically powerful irrigation districts, has produced an undisputable bounty of cotton and field crops over the decades in western Fresno and Kings counties, irrigation of this mineral-laden desert has also created huge environmental problems, and the wealth generated has not trickled down to farmworkers or the surrounding poverty-stricken communities.

The Twentieth Congressional District, encompassing Westlands and a portion of the western San Joaquin Valley down through Kings and Kern counties, has the dubious distinction of being the poorest of the 436 congressional districts in America.

The region is rife with social problems ranging from high unemployment8 to gang and drug problems, high teen-pregnancy rates, an appalling high school dropout rate (25-35%), and other side effects of poverty.

Enjoy (or not)!

"The subsidized factory farm economy, it seems, doesn‘t have much of a trickle down effect for the families and communities of workers who bring in the harvest."

"In fact, it appears as though this system has helped to foster a culture of unsustainable farming practices, caused large scale environmental degradation, and has created a massive socioeconomic rift between land owners and their primarily Latino workforce. " -- Lloyd G. Carter, from the article

Emily Green: The Week That Was in Water, 25-31 October

2009-11-03T00:10:00-08:00

Here's Emily Green (actually, no, this is Elvira, Mistress of the Dark) again, with her weekly update on the world of water. Lots of good stuff this week, as usual. Check out these stories:

Salish Sea, who's stealing our water, Nevada judge shuts down SNWA, Hugo tiene muchos problemas con el agua, flush toilets, making beer with rooftop rainwater, former Fresno Mayor Alan 'Bubba' Autry steps down, Texas, the West Bank, more!

And here's Pat Mulroy's favorite quote:

"Is it math or is it voodoo?” – Tim Buchanan, an attorney objecting to modeled estimations of what sources of groundwater could be used to replace injuries to senior surface users, San Luis Valley, Colorado, Pueblo Chieftain, 31 October 2009

Richard S. Lindzen: Deconstructing Global Warming

2009-11-02T00:15:00-08:00

Ken Reid of AWRA sent this pdf of a talk given last week by MIT Professor Richard S. Lindzen, Deconstructing Global Warming:

Download Lindzen-talk-pdf

Here is Dr. Lindzen on climate feedback.

I'll also post these URLs provided by colleague Ari Michelsen so you can get your fill.

Only In It For The Gold - Lindzen diatribe

Lindzen: point by point rebuttal.

Climate change skeptics/common claims and rebuttal.

Here's a compilation of responses to climate change skeptics one of my OSU colleagues calls 'the best he's ever seen."

I'm exhausted already!

"The college idealists who fill the ranks of the environmental movement seem willing to do absolutely anything to save the biosphere, except take science courses and learn something about it." — P.J. O'Rourke

ISARM 2010: Transboundary Aquifers Conference in Paris

2009-11-01T00:28:00-07:00

Just received official notice of this conference and the call for abstracts. It will be held in Paris, 6- 8 December 2010.

I can handle that venue.

Yours truly and colleague Todd Jarvis are on the Scientific Advisory Committee.

The conference's formal title is Transboundary Aquifers: Challenges and New Directions. The conference will mark the end of the first phase of the ISARM Programme and the start of its second phase.

ISARM stands forInternationally Shared Aquifer Resources Management, and is joint program of UNESCO's International Hydrological Programme (IHP) and the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH).

Here is the announcement:

Download ISARM 2010

"Everything has been thought of before; the problem is to think of it again." -- Goethe

This 31st of October, a Scary Post: Exempt Wells!

2009-10-31T00:55:00-07:00

Might as well celebrate Halloween with a really frightening post. Las Vegas? Pat Mulroy? 'The Source'?The Delta? Atlanta?

No - really frightening.

Exempt wells!

Yes, those low-capacity wells threaten to overwhelm Western water managers and others, because, like zombies, there are so many of them, they keep coming, and they can't be killed.

What with Elinor Ostrom's Nobel Prize for her work on common-pool resources, it was appropriate that someone should conflate exempt wells and CPRs. Rob Emanuel over at H2ONCoast did that quite nicely with this post.

Cally Carswell wrote a piece in the the High Country News with the wonderful title, "Death by a thousand wells".

Both Cally and Rob focus on the PNW, although Cally discusses other areas in the West.

This is a problem that's going to get worse before it gets better.

"We're going to have a water war. You can just see the knives are sharpening."  -- Rachael Paschal Osborn, executive director of the Center for Environmental Law and Policy, referring to the exempt well issue in Washington

Lloyd G. Carter's Video Presentation: California's Water Mess - Is Anyone Doing Anything Right?

2009-10-30T00:22:00-07:00

Lloyd G. Carter, born and raised in Fresno, former journalist, and current Cailfornia deputy attorney general in the Criminal Division, spoke here at OSU on 28 October 2009 about California's Water Mess: Is Anyone Doing Anything Right?

I'm glad I finally got the chance to meet, hear, and have dinner with him. Fascinating guy - an ambulatory encyclopedia of California water issues and fact. And stories!

Interesting factoid from Lloyd: Sacramento, Modesto, and Fresno don't have residential water meters.

Check out his blog/WWW site, The Chronicles of the Hydraulic Brotherhood.

From that site:

Lloyd G. Carter, former UPI and Fresno Bee reporter, has been writing about California water issues for more than 35 years. He is President of the California Save Our Streams Council. He is also a board member of the Underground Gardens Conservancy and host of a monthly radio show on KFCF, 88.1 FM in Fresno.This is his personal blog site and contains archives of his news career as well as current articles, radio commentaries, and random thoughts.

Here is the video's URL.

Enjoy!

"We need more water. We need more storage. We need to build more storage, and we have to build conveyance, the canal, all of those kinds of things . I know the environmentalists don't like to create and talk even about conveyance. They don't like that. And they don't like to build more water storage. I understand it when you come from their point of view. They were up there in my office. We were all talking yesterday about it. They want to do another five-year study. There is no more study. We have studied this subject to death." -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA), 14 June 2007

“I have just one statistic, one only, and that is 25 million people depend on Delta water for the drinking water of the state. And the probability of a big earthquake over 6.7 is 75% in the next 30 years. And if that were to happen, there are all indications that the Delta would collapse, the water would be gone, there would be no water for drinking, there would be no water for agriculture, there would be no water for fish, marsh, ecosystems.” -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), 2007.

Abby Brown: Photo Essay on Water Leaks in India

2009-10-29T00:50:00-07:00

Abby Brown, serving an internship in India, has posted this photo essay on water loss due to leaks on her Water for the Ages blog.

"Water is the best of all things." - Pindar

H2O9 Conference - Water: Money Down the Drain or Revenue Stream of the Future?

2009-10-29T00:40:00-07:00

This conference will be held in New York City on 5 November 2009. Jeff Sachs headlines. Register here.

Download H209_Program

"News conferences are the only chance the American public has to see Ronald Reagan use his mind." -- Sam Donaldson

Ooops! Judge: No SNWA Pumping From Cave, Delamar, and Dry Lake Valleys

2009-10-28T09:54:27-07:00

A Nevada two-fer today!

Boy, do we ever live in interesting times!

From Henry Brean's story in today's Las Vegas Review-Journal (the map is from the article):

For the moment at least, the Southern Nevada Water Authority has lost the water it hoped to pump to Las Vegas in the first phase of its proposed pipeline across eastern Nevada.

In a strongly worded order issued last week, a district judge overturned a 2008 state ruling that granted the authority permission to tap groundwater from three valleys in central Lincoln County.

Judge Norman Robison ruled that State Engineer Tracy Taylor "abused his discretion" and "acted arbitrarily, capriciously and oppressively" when he cleared the authority to pump more than 6 billion gallons of groundwater a year [about 18,500 AF/year] from Cave, Delamar and Dry Lake valleys.

The senior judge from Gardnerville wrote that the state's chief water regulator traditionally requires "specific empirical data" before allowing groundwater to be transferred out of a basin. This time, though, the state engineer is "simply hoping for the best while committing to undo his decision if the worst occurs," Robison wrote.

Authority officials are expected to challenge the judge's ruling, which spokesman Scott Huntley described as biased and "flat-out wrong."

"We believe there are numerous grounds for appeal," Huntley said. "There was some evidence the judge may have come into the case with a prejudged opinion."

Note that this decision does not directly affect the plans to pump from Snake Valley on the Nevada-Utah border but there may be repercussions. Read Emily Green's excellent analysis that goes far beyond the R-J article.

Looks like it is back to the drawing board (or hearing room, or courtroom) for the SNWA.

Read the entire story here. The comments are quite interesting.

"I think we're just digesting it right now to be honest with you." -- Susan Joseph-Taylor, chief hearing officer, Nevada Division of Water Resources

Exclusive Photo Report from Snake Valley, Nevada-Utah

2009-10-28T00:40:00-07:00

Former student and longtime friend Michael Dale, along with lovely spouse Malynn and Roffie, el perro gigante (130 pounds!) sent me these exclusive photos from Snake Valley, the basin that straddles the NV-UT border and is the object of Las Vegas' hydraulic affections.

They went to Baker, NV, in Snake Valley, at the right-hand end of the purple line (U.S. Route 50) in the accompanying map. They visited Great Basin National Park, Nevada's only NP. Here is a map of the GBNP.

Michael and Malynn took these pictures knowing full well that I would want to post them so I have received their permission to do so.

Michael noted that Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) is not real popular in rural Nevada, and today's quote reflects a sign seen a number of times along U.S. Route 50, the so-called Loneliest Road in America (unless, of course, you're stuck on it during a NoVa traffic jam in Arlington or Fairfax Counties, VA).

Shown above is Wheeler Peak,  just a shade over 13,000 feet [thanks for the correction, Bob.] Michael, a native Virginian, tells me it was originallyJeff Davis Peak but was renamed Union Peak when Nevada joined the Union in the Civil War. The name was eventually changed to the present moniker after the Army surveyor, and Jeff Davis Peak was bestowed upon the third highest peak in the park.

Now for some pictures of pipes found around Baker and Snake Valley. I don't think captions are necessary.

SNWA and its boss, Pat Mulroy, are not well-liked here. Duhhhh...

No, Roffie! Don't soil Pat's pipe!

Michael noted that there is much concern about Snake Valley becoming another Owens Lake, with the SNWA pumping desiccating the valley, producing huge dust storms.

A colleague of mine, who has no axe to grind, thinks that is unlikely since the playa lake in Snake Valley is not a discharging (wet, fed by groundwater) playa but a dry playa. So he is skeptical of claims that pumping will produce an Owens Valley scenario.

But let's figure this out before going ahead with the pipeline.

Interestingly enough, Michael noted the effects of agricultural diversions on Sevier Dry Lake in western Utah, which is a source of dust that periodically sweeps towards the Wasatch Front. They saw such a cloud rising from the desert floor. You don't hear much about this.

Harry's pipe.

Roffie was a good doggie and didn't mess up the pipe. I suspect the locals would not have minded if he had.

Finally this gorgeous shot looking east across Snake Valley with Utah and the Confusion Range in the background.

This is spectacular country! I've been away from it for too long. Thanks, Michael and Malynn - and Roffie.

"Anybody Butt Harry Reid." -- typical political sign on Highway 50 in eastern Nevada

My WaTER Conference Presentation in Absentia

2009-10-27T00:45:00-07:00

I am supposed to be in Norman, OK, at the OU International WaTER Conference but was sidelined by the H1N1 flu. It is the first time I can recall ever missing attending a conference due to illness.

Fortunately, good friend and conference guru Dave Sabatini offered to give my Power Point presentation yesterday, and another good friend, Steve Silliman, helped out by answering questions. I am grateful to both of them!

Here is a pdf of the presentation:

Download Campana_WaTER_Conference_26_Oct_2009

"Half an orange tastes just as sweet as a whole one." -- Panamanian proverb

Emily Green: The Week That Was in Water, 18-24 October

2009-10-27T00:20:00-07:00

Emily Green's up to her usual stuff with a summary of last week's water happenings. Even The Dickster can't wait!

Here goes:

1) Rupturing water mains in LA and Boston (related?);

2) Former NC governor who fails to cheat on his wife (as far as we know) but gets caught with one hand on his country club's water meter and the other in the cookie jar (hey, at least all hands are accounted for!);

3) California water and salt issues (surprise!);

4) Israel's and Yemen's water woes;

5) Protecting water polluters in FL? Come on!

6) Dirty laundry (no, not the Don Henley song) in Charleston, SC, the city where the Ashley and Cooper Rivers meet to form the Atlantic Ocean.

7) Golf courses in Vietnam (see #2 above);

8) Subdivision flooding in Chattanooga, TN (what happens when people pray for rain without a GPS);

9) Elinor Ostrom's Nobel Prize;

10) SLC cuts a water deal on behalf of the LDS Church. Oh, really?

11) More!

But not one thing on Soupy Sales' death!

Maybe she'll have better material next week.

“Stop the radical environmentalists. Save your water. Save your jobs. Vote Republican.” – from State GOP tries to steal Dems fire over water, San Francisco Chronicle, 19 October 2009

The Pavlovian Response to Western Agricultural Water

2009-10-26T00:45:00-07:00

The title of this post could be that of a PhD dissertation in agricultural economics or some similar discipline. But whether the term is used improperly or not it's designed to pique your curiosity.

Shaun McKinnon of The Arizona Republic wrote this piece on the water used by Arizona agriculture and how urban water managers are thinking of some of that water for cities.

It's a story that rings true in most, if not all, Western states: agriculture uses by far the greatest amount of water, has many senior water rights, but contributes a disproportionately low share to a state's GDP. So water managers begin salivating about purchasing/leasing some of those senior agricultural water rights for urban growth.

Why, I seem to recall that none other than Western water expert/reputed mob lawyer Mayor Oscar Goodman of Las Vegas made a comment a few years ago that Vegas wouldn't run out of water, because they could just buy the IID (Imperial Irrigation District) water. Oh, Oscar, this ain't criminal law.

So choose your preference - you want more growth, replete with a sea of red-tiled rooftops, or verdant fields of alfalfa with riparian strips along irrigation ditches? That's how one farmer in New Mexico's Middle Rio Grande Valley put it to an audience several years ago.

Unfortunately, it's usually not that simple a choice.

McKinnon's article is even-handed - no "good guys vs. bad guys" stuff.

What really struck me was this statement:

Most planners start with the idea that water shouldn't limit growth. [emboldening mine]

Huh?

That attitude is a major part of the water problem in the Southwest, as is the problem embedded in today's quote:

"Because I can." -- Middle Rio Grande farmer, when asked why he flood-irrigated his land.

Robert Lackey Lecture: The Government Scientist - Charting an Ethical Path

2009-10-25T00:40:00-07:00

Dr. Robert T. Lackey, award-winning fisheries biologist for the EPA and current courtesy Professor of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University, recently gave this lecture, The Government Scientist: Charting an Ethical Path, at OSU.

This is an excellent and timely presentation.

"Discontent is the seed of ethics." -- Friedrich Nietzsche

The Non-Tragedy of the Commons: Another Take on the 2009 Economics Nobel Prize

2009-10-24T10:18:27-07:00

Kevin McCray, Executive Director of the NGWA, sent me this post from John Tierney's TierneyLab blog at the New York Times.

The 2009 Nobel Prize for economics is a useful reminder of how easy it is for scientists to go wrong, especially when their mistake jibes with popular beliefs or political agendas.

Elinor Ostrom of Indiana University shared the prize for her research into the management of “commons,” which has been a buzzword among ecologists since Garrett Hardin’s 1968 article in Science, The Tragedy of the Commons. His fable about a common pasture that is ruined by overgrazing became one of the most-quoted articles ever published by that journal, and it served as a fundamental rationale for the expansion of national and international regulation of the environment. His fable was a useful illustration of a genuine public-policy problem — how do you manage a resource that doesn’t belong to anyone? — but there were a couple of big problems with the essay and its application.

First, Dr. Hardin himself misapplied the fable. Declaring that “overpopulation” was a tragedy of the commons, he warned that “freedom to breed will bring ruin to all.” He and others advocated a “lifeboat ethic” of denying food aid, even during emergencies, to poor countries with rapidly growing populations. But “overpopulation” was not even a theoretical example of the tragedy of the commons. Parents are not like the cattle owners who profit individually by adding cows to the pasture (while collectively destroying it). Parents, unlike the cattle owners, have to pay to feed and house and educate their children, and the high economic costs of children are one reason that birth rates have declined around the world — without any of the coercion discussed by Dr. Hardin and some other ecologists (like Paul Ehrlich).

The second problem arising from Dr. Hardin’s fable was the presumption that a commons needed to be regulated by national and international agencies. Dr. Hardin didn’t explicitly make that generalization in the essay [Note: emboldening mine] — he noted that the tragedy could be avoided either by regulating the commons or by converting it to private property — but others in the environmental movement essentially drew that conclusion. Although some greens talked about the virtue of “acting locally,” major environmental groups lobbied in Washington for expanded federal authority, and they urged the rest of the world to follow the American and European example by creating national rules governing commons like forests and fisheries.

But too often those commons ended up in worse shape once they were put under the control of distant bureaucrats who lacked the expertise or the incentives to do the job properly. Dr. Hardin and his disciples had failed to appreciate how often the tragedy of the commons had been averted thanks to ingenious local institutions and customs. Dr. Ostrom won the Nobel for her work analyzing those local institutions. In an interview at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Dr. Ostrom discussed the damage that had been done by those who had supplanted the local institutions:

International donors and nongovernmental organizations, as well as national governments and charities, have often acted, under the banner of environmental conservation, in a way that has unwittingly destroyed the very social capital — shared relationship, norms, knowledge and understanding — that has been used by resource users to sustain the productivity of natural capital over the ages. The effort to preserve biodiversity should not lead to the destruction of institutional diversity. . . . These institutions are most in jeopardy when central government officials assume that they do not exist (or are not effective) simply because the government has not put them in place.

Another Nobel laureate economist, Vernon Smith, described her work in an interview with Ivan Osorio for the Competitive Enterprise Institute:

She’s looked at a huge number of commons problems in fisheries, grazing, water, fishing water rights, and stuff like that. She finds that the commons problem is solved by many of these institutions, but not all of them. Some of them cannot make it work. She’s interested in why some of them work and some of them don’t.

One example is the Swiss alpine cheese makers. They had a commons problem. They live very high, and they have a grazing commons for their cattle. They solved that problem in the year 1200 A.D. For about 800 years, these guys have had that problem solved. They have a simple rule: If you’ve got three cows, you can pasture those three cows in the commons if you carried them over from last winter. But you can’t bring new cows in just for the summer. It’s very costly to carry cows over to the winter—they need to be in barns and be heated, they have to be fed. [The cheese makers] tie the right to the commons to a private property right with the cows.

Letting cheese makers set their own rules is an example of what Dr. Ostrom calls polycentric governance. In the interview at the Mercatus Center, she explained the advantages of trusting locals:

The strength of polycentric governance systems is each of the subunits has considerable autonomy to experiment with diverse rules for a particular type of resource system and with different response capabilities to external shock. In experimenting with rule combinations within the smaller-scale units of a polycentric system, citizens and officials have access to local knowledge, obtain rapid feedback from their own policy changes, and can learn from the experience of other parallel units.

Here’s a paper by Dr. Ostrom on fisheries. Here’s a report for PERC by Donald Leal that summarizes Dr. Ostrom’s research: “Her studies of well-managed, commonly-owned property show that well-defined boundaries, a strong community tradition, and absence of government interference can preserve resources.”

You read more about Dr. Ostrom’s work in these posts from David Bollier at Forbes.com, J.P. Freire at the Washington Examiner, Daniel and my colleague Catherine Rampell.

As Catherine notes, the comedian Larry David explains one way to avoid the tragedy of the commons in an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Mr. David discusses the tradition requiring guests at a party to refrain from eating too many hors d’oeuvres at once. After your first helping, he says, you have to wait 20 minutes and make sure that the food isn’t disappearing too quickly before you go back for seconds. Does that qualify as polycentric governance?

I am not quite sure I follow Tierney too well. I certainly don't espouse a 'lifeboat ethic', but Tierney is grasping for a reason to take Hardin to task (see my emboldening). He talks of 'distant bureaucrats' but conveniently omits 'distant corporations' when it comes to (mis)managing commons.

I do see our global population increasing, so someone's birth rate is not declining. In some societies a large number of children may be valued as 'producers' who can tend herds, plow fields, plant crops, carry water, care for younger siblings, parents, etc.

As societies become more affluent, birth rates do decline, which is fortunate since those of us in developed countries have a bigger environmental footprint than those in developing/poor countries.

I'm curious what Tierney would make of the exempt well problem in the Western USA, a topic recently addressed in the High Country News. This is a situation in which there is virtually no government regulation and an individual stakeholder has very little effect on 'the commons', but collectively, the effect can be quite large. I can't recall how many times I have heard a homeowner tell me, "I'm not part of the water problem because I have my own well."

Our generally lackluster history of groundwater management (or lack thereof) is also worth examining in light of 'the commons'. I can imagine what Hardin's comments about the aforementioned might be; Aristotle's comments are below.

Having said all of this, I am generally in accord with local control of resources.

"What is common to the greatest number gets the least amount of care. Men pay most attention to what is their own; they care less for what is common; or at any rate they care for it only to the extent to which each is individually concerned. Even when there is no other cause for inattention, men are more prone to neglect their duty when they think that another is attending to it." -- Aristotle

A Nobel Laureate for Us Common WaterWonks

2009-10-23T00:35:00-07:00

It is not too often that those of us in the water community can claim some disciplinary kinship with a Nobel Laureate, especially one from the economics realm. But this year we can take pride in seeing Elinor (Lin) Ostrom of Indiana University share the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

She is the first woman to win this particular Nobel, first awarded in 1969. She is also a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

And she is not an economist - well, maybe a political economist - but was trained as a political scientist.

Her connection to water comes via her specialty: common-pool resources and their governance. She wrote her PhD dissertation (UCLA) on groundwater management, and that was just the beginning (see quote at bottom).

Here's what the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in recognizing her for her analysis of economic governance, especially in the commons:

“Elinor Ostrom has challenged the conventional wisdom that common property is poorly managed and should be either regulated by central authorities or privatized,” the academy said. “Based on numerous studies of user-managed fish stocks, pastures, woods, lakes, and groundwater basins, Ostrom concludes that the outcomes are, more often than not, better than predicted by standard theories.”

She's the first Nobel Laureate whose material I read long before she won her prize. I have read a number of her papers, and her 1990 book, Governing the Commons, also comes to mind. I've also met several of her students.

Her is a link to her IU CV with a number of hot links to her publications.

And, for some additional significance of her award, the Indiana Daily Student said it all in its editorial:

Additionally, because of the nature of Ostrom’s work and her position in the political science department, it is a demonstration of the increasing importance of interdisciplinary focus in research.

Previously, Ostrom herself has stressed the importance of developing an “interdisciplinary language” among researchers. This, she says, is necessary because the problems and issues with which they are dealing cross disciplinary lines and cannot be solved by looking exclusively through one prism.

Finally, the award is an indication of the increasing relevance of testing established theories about numerous economics against actual situations, especially as dozens of developing countries make their way out of poverty and into the globalized economy.

You can find more links at the IU site.

Rob Emanuel has an excellent post on Ostrom and her work. David Zetland has a great post over at Aguanomics about Ostrom and her co-winner , Oliver Williamson.  David is pleased at the awards, and says both are people who deal with the messy realities of how things get done in an imperfect world.

Dr. Williamson, at UC-Berkeley, can now get a lifetime free parking space in the Noble Laureate Grove. Go, Ollie!

So are you wondering what some other economists thought about Ostrom's award? Zetland has that covered, too. I doubt you'll be surprised at some of the comments.

"I grew up in Los Angeles ... The ocean is right there. And if you pull the groundwater down, surprise, surprise, the saltwater comes in. And if they had not found a way of reducing the quantity of water they pumped, and doing a variety of other things, they would have had to give up the groundwater basin to saltwater. I was very fortunate, I started that as a seminar paper, and I kept going and going." -- Elinor Ostrom

Abby Brown Update: Kids and Songs for Safe Water and Good Hygiene in Tamil Nadu

2009-10-22T00:45:00-07:00

Abby Brown has been in southern India for almost two months. Here is her latest update about safe water and hygiene in Tamil Nadu.

About 6,000 children die EACH DAY from water- and sanitation-related illnesses. But, did you know, songs can save lives. One NGO in rural Tamil Nadu is teaching songs to children about the importance of safe water and good hygiene practices to help them and their families lead longer and healthier lives.

Around 2.6 billion people worldwide lack access to proper sanitation facilities. Poor water and sanitation conditions lead to illnesses such as diarrhea, parasites, and malaria. Young children have weaker immune systems unable to protect them from these sicknesses. Simple actions like washing hands with soap, using a toilet instead of defecating in the open, proper food preparation and storage, or keeping rivers, lakes and streams clean could help save 2.2 million lives each year.

Over the past two weeks, I visited Gramalaya. They work on a variety of water and sanitation projects across the state of Tamil Nadu (more to come in a later post). A highlight of the trip was hearing kids from rural villages sing songs about the importance of healthy water and sanitation practices. These songs were written by S. Damodaran, founding-director of Gramalaya, now working for organization called Water.org that focuses on funding water and sanitation programs in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

In her post Abby has some songs about toilets, gardens, unsafe water, and more. Give it a read.

"At one level the world's water is like the world's wealth. Globally, there is more than enough to go round. The problem is that some countries get a lot more than others." -- Times of India

U of OK WaTER Conference Schedule: Hydrophilanthropy Runs Amok!

2009-10-22T00:15:00-07:00

Here is the schedule for the University of Oklahoma's WaTER Center International WaTER Conference, 26-27 October, in Norman, OK:

Download WaTERConferenceSchedule

The conference will bring together participants from multiple groups responding to the UN Millenium Development Goals focused on bringing water and sanitation to remote villages in developing countries. Water and sanitation experts from academia, industry, NGOs, government, and foundations are invited to participate.

I'll be there, and you should, too.

Rumors that Sam Bradford will be keynoting are unfounded.

"But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way." -- 1st Corinthians 14:40

Cooperation and Water Buffaloes

2009-10-21T10:43:20-07:00

The other day an article from the Salt Lake Tribune caught my eye. The article begins:

About halfway through secret four-year negotiations on how a reluctant Utah could share the Snake Valley aquifer with Nevada, a Silver State official and a Las Vegas water utility threatened they could take the matter to court or to Congress, memos and e-mails show.

The correspondence, released under an open-records request from the Great Basin Water Network, illuminates Nevada's no-surrender insistence that Snake Valley water be split 50-50, even though Utah officials believed that impossible.

The documents also appear to undermine recent assurances from Mike Styler, executive director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, that the proposed water-sharing agreement is as good for Utah as it is for Nevada.

Obviously, the Las Vegas water utility is the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) and we know that whatever the SNWA wants, the State of Nevada will be inclined to support. So it looks like Nevada was playing hardball with Utah. Nothing wrong with that, right?

But what has happened to the new era of 'cooperation' and 'interdependence' in Western water issues heralded by SNWA boss Pat Mulroy in a talk in DC last July? I guess cooperation means different things to different people.

And while I am on the subject of Mulroy and Western water, I will recall Matt Jenkins' story in the 12 October 2009 High Country News about Mulroy and her groundwater pumping project:

Mulroy understandably bristles at any reference to Chinatown. Yet she has achieved a degree of power that might even make Mulholland envious. Mulroy has largely set the terms of Western water over the past two decades. She has challenged what she calls the conservative "belt-and-suspenders" mindset that has traditionally prevailed among Colorado River water bosses. And, most controversially, she has led a two-decade-long effort to build a massive groundwater project that will tap huge aquifers lying beneath the Great Basin in eastern Nevada and pipe billions of gallons of water to Las Vegas.

Mulroy does like to tout her challenges to the status quo. She deserves kudos for challenging the 'water buffaloes' and their precious Colorado River Compact. But she really is no different from them. She touts unbridled growth in a region of the USA whose water resources can ill handle more growth, and she seeks supply-side solutions. She makes policy, although she will deny that.

The fact is, she's just a water buffalo, albeit one who wears gold lamé shoes.

"It's a desert, stupid." -- bumper sticker produced by the water conservation folks, City of Albuquerque, early 1990s

Terry Gross' Interview of NYT's Charles Duhigg: How Safe is Your Drinking Water?

2009-10-20T00:20:00-07:00

New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg, a New Mexico native and author of the 'Toxic Waters' series, was interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air yesterday.

One correction: the Cuyahoga River flows through Cleveland, not Cincinnati.

"When water chokes you, what are you to drink to wash it down?" -- Aristotle

GAO Report on Energy-Water Nexus: Federal Water Use Data Improvements &Trends in Power Plant Water Use

2009-10-20T00:15:00-07:00

The Government Accountability Office has produced a report on the Energy-Water Nexus: Improvements to Federal Water Use Data Would Increase Understanding of Trends in Power Plant Water Use.

That's a mouthful!

Here is the download: Download D1023

Probably good to read at bedtime to ensure a good night's sleep.

If you're like me and don't want to read the 78-page report, here is the one-pager:

Download D1023high

Enjoy!

"I can promise you that when I go to Sacramento, I will pump up Sacramento." -- Arnold Schwarzenegger

Emily Green's The Week That Was in Water, 11-17 October: Cojones for EPA, Fracking, Leave It To Beavers & Otters, UC Library

2009-10-19T00:35:00-07:00

Whenever I see Emily's post (OMG, did I say that?) with this title I recall the early 1960s BBC TV satire That Was The Week That Was (TW3). It lasted only a few years in the UK and a couple of episodes made it to American TV. David Frost was the MC. It was funny, although a lot of the British political satire went over the head of a 14-year-old American boy and a lot of others in the colonies. Even The Dickster was perplexed.

But I digress.

Check out what Emily has for us:

1) The EPA will rescind the permit for the Spruce Mine in West Virginia:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials today announced the gigantic news that they have formally moved to veto the Clean Water Act permit for the largest mountaintop removal mine in West Virginia history.

The mine, as currently configured, would bury seven miles of streams.

Looks like the EPA has rediscovered some cojones. I was always baffled at how the coal companies could get away with the mountaintop removal mines. Check that - I understand. Go,Lisa!

2) Hydraulic fracturing ('fracking', or 'fraking', if you're a fan of BSG) to enhance natural gas production. Here is the New York Times opining about banning drilling in New York City's watershed. WTF?

3) And Leave It to Beaver, folks! Beavers as a watershed restoration tool? Groundwater recharge? My former University of New Mexico colleague Cliff Dahm was doing this over 20 years ago.

4) Otters return to New Mexico (no, not the family of the Idaho governor).

5) Closing UC's Water Resources Center Archives! Why don't they have an auction - maybe some California legislators!

And lots, lots, more!

I will close with a joke from TW3. Old-timers will get it; the rest of you can check out the Profumo Affair.

Q: Who is the world's worst carpenter?
A: Christine Keeler. One screw and the whole Cabinet fell apart.

Malin Falkenmark Lecture: Water Ethics and Ecohydrosolidarity

2009-10-18T00:11:00-07:00

The world-renowned Professor Malin Falkenmark of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) visited OSU on 12 October 2009 and gave this lecture on Water Ethics and Ecohydrosolidarity.

Falkenmark coined the term hydrosolidarity at a presentation in Brussels in 1998. The term refers to an integrated approach to water resources management that involves all community stakeholders as well as agencies and state, local, and national governments. It can be contrasted with hydrosovereignty.

In the lecture shown here she prefixes hydrosolidarity with "eco-" to illustrate that water is indeed at the center of ecosystems.

Her lecture is wide-ranging, discussing the hydrologic cycle, blue water, green water, food security, and Integrated Water Resources Management. To the latter she would like to add "Land".

The term "hydrosolidarity" describes an increasingly integrated approach to managing water resources that relies heavily on participation and coordination among community stakeholders , water-related management agencies, and local, state, and national governments. A fundamental goal of hydrosolidarity is the cooperative, unified management of shared water resources, whether at the national or the international level.

Read more: http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Hy-La/Hydrosolidarity.html#ixzz0UFVO4VZ4

Enjoy!

The term "hydrosolidarity" describes an increasingly integrated approach to managing water resources that relies heavily on participation and coordination among community stakeholders , water-related management agencies, and local, state, and national governments. A fundamental goal of hydrosolidarity is the cooperative, unified management of shared water resources, whether at the national or the international level.

Read more: http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Hy-La/Hydrosolidarity.html#ixzz0UFVFXWZ4

"What stands out is the need of a new generation of water professionals, able to handle complexity and able to incorporate water implications of land use and of ecosystem health in integrated water resources management. It will for those reasons be essential and urgent to upgrade the educational system to producing this new generation." -- Malin Falkenmark, Water Resources Management, 2007, 21:3–18

Two Reports: 1) Marketing POU Water Systems; 2) MIT Arsenic Biosand Filter

2009-10-17T00:15:00-07:00

Colleague Robert Adamski sent me these two reports. For those of you who work in developing countries they should be especially helpful.

The MIT report is not new - 2003 - but I was unaware of it.

Download Marketing Safe Water POU Systems

Download MIT Arsenic Biosand Filter

Enjoy!

"International donors and nongovernmental organizations, as well as national governments and charities, have often acted, under the banner of environmental conservation, in a way that has unwittingly destroyed the very social capital — shared relationship, norms, knowledge and understanding — that has been used by resource users to sustain the productivity of natural capital over the ages." -- Elinor Ostrom, 2009 Nobel laureate in economics

First Meeting: Oregon Section of the AWRA

2009-10-16T00:50:00-07:00

The inaugural meeting of the Oregon section of the American Water Resources Association will be held on 16 December 2009, 6-9 PM, at the Lucky Lab Beer Hall, 1945 NW Quimby, Portland, OR.

Dinner (on your own) starts at 6 PM, and about 6:45 PM we will have two stellar speakers:

1) Phil Ward, Director,OWRD

2) Dick Pedersen, Director, ODEQ

Phil and Dick will discuss Oregon's development of an integrated water resources strategy. The strategy is designed to address Oregon’s water quantity, water quality, and ecosystem needs. The development process will include state natural resource agencies, local governments, tribes, private business, non-governmental organizations, and a wide range of stakeholder groups. Directors Ward and Pedersen will discuss the need for such a long-term strategy and note the legal, historic, and technical foundation upon which this effort is built. Their presentations will indicate opportunities for you to get involved.

Following the talks, about 8 PM, we will have the section's first business meeting. You do not need to be a member of national AWRA to join- just someone who works or lives in Oregon. Bring your $25 2010 dues and we'll anoint you!

Thanks to the Portland office of Brown and Caldwell for sponsoring the meeting.

Download a meeting flyer and a copy of our bylaws:

Download 2009-12-16 Flyer

Download AWRA_Oregon_Section_Bylaws_Final_15_July_2009

Hope to see you there!

"I would join this organization if I were alive and lived in Oregon!" -- Steve Reynolds, legendary New Mexico State Engineer

Can Salmon Evolve to Survive Dams?

2009-10-15T07:58:09-07:00

Fascinating and controversial story by Matthew Preusch in today's print editon of The Oregonian titled, Can salmon evolve to survive among fish-killing dams?

I'm sure salmon can evolve to survive dams, given enough time. The question really is, are they?

Preusch begins:

Dams hurt salmon, robbing them of free-flowing rivers and confusing them on their celebrated, circuitous life journey.

But maybe the fish can take it.

In the Northwest, more than a billion dollars a year is spent to repair the damage done to salmon by massive hydroelectric dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers. For at least a decade, a debate has raged over whether four of the massive concrete plugs on the Snake should be torn down to help fish protected by the Endangered Species Act. At one point, President George W. Bush even stood atop one of those dams to pledge that wouldn't happen. In the meantime, some salmon appear to have changed in a way that could turn that debate on its head.

The story notes that some fall chinook salmon in the Snake River are delaying their trip to the ocean for up to a year. During that time they grow larger, presumably to better survive the rigors of being a salmon.

The Pacific Northwest's salmon restoration program is one of the world's largest stewardship programs. So could the salmon be saving themselves? Are they truly evolving? Maybe we don't have to spend $1B per year to save them.

Preusch's' story broaches the evolution issue:

But whether that adaptation is merely a response to rapidly changing conditions without any genetic change or true evolution remains an open question, said Robin Waples, senior scientist at NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle.

"Both factors are probably involved," Waples said. "That would be my guess."

Waples co-wrote a study last year that examined whether the fall chinook were evolving. In part, he said, they are.

It appears that fish that migrate as yearlings and return to spawn pass along that trait to their offspring.

"There's a possibility that there's strong selection now that favors this life history," he said.

The 50 or so years since the first dams were built on the Snake means about 12 generations of fish, enough time for natural selection -- the engine of evolution -- to take its course, Waples said.

Some prominent fish experts disagree with that conclusion, including Howard Schaller, head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Columbia River Fisheries Program Office.

"We have to wait and see over a longer period time," Schaller said. "It's an interesting piece of information, but there's a lot of uncertainty."

If the salmon are truly adapting and transmitting these traits to their offspring, then that begs the question: what happens to them if and when the dams are removed?

That could be the $1B question.

"If that system becomes natural again, they may not react well to that." -- William Connor, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist (quoted in the story)

Lawyers, Guns, and Money...and Water

2009-10-14T00:20:00-07:00

No, I'm not talking about gunplay here - just thought I would toy with the title of the great Warren Zevon song, Lawyers, Guns and Money. It's apropos.

Dorian Roffe-Hammond sent me the following items about the involvement of lawyers in the Georgia water issue and Gov. Sonny Perdue's water task force. As Jerry Seinfeld might say, "Not that there's anything wrong with that."

Here are the first few paragraphs of an article by David Beasley from the 9 October 2009 issue of Global Atlanta:

Atlanta law firm Arnall Golden Gregory LLP (AGG) has launched a new water resources team, betting that water, or the lack of it, will be a contentious legal issue for years to come.

"All the rain we had recently didn’t change a thing,” Bruce Jackson, a partner in the law firm who, along with fellow partner John Gornall, is leading the eight-member water resources team, told GlobalAtlanta.

Although heavy rainfall temporarily filled lakes and streams, most of the water flowed downstream and is now on the way to the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean. “It’s gone,” said Mr. Jackson.

What remains, however, is a federal lawsuit pitting Georgia, Alabama and Florida in a long-ranging fight centering on Atlanta’s main water source, Lake Lanier. Georgia is currently on the losing side of the contest.

More from the article:

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue recently named Mr. Jackson to the Water Contingency Plan Task Force, a panel that will figure out what Georgia will do if it is forced to severely cut withdrawals from Lanier.

"While I am confident we will be successful in securing the ability to draw water supply from Lake Lanier, we cannot take that for granted and must plan accordingly,” the governor said when appointing the panel. “We will consider conservation measures as well as opportunities to enhance our water supply options.”

As the tri-state water wars increase in intensity, Arnall Golden Gregory sees a need for lawyers who specialize in the field. It envisions representing state and local governments and business owners in legal disputes over water while also working for foreign companies seeking to sell their water-saving products and technology here.

“People are going to need lawyers to deal with these issues as they develop,” said Mr. Jackson.

After purchasing retirement property in Colorado, Mr. Jackson developed first-hand knowledge of the water wars in the Western U.S. and knows how intense they can be. He points out that in Colorado, water commissioners, who have the right to shut off water sources, carry weapons when they go into the field.

Mr. Jackson has completed several courses in water law and is licensed to practice law in Colorado.

Someone is preparing for the future (lucrative) water landscape in Georgia and environs.

There was also another article about AGG and Jackson in 13 October 2009 edition of The Fulton County Daily Report. This segment from Andy Peters' article caught my eye:

Jackson is among 80 real estate developers, bankers, politicians, business community representatives and others on the task force, which is planning for the contingency that a water deal with Florida and Alabama is not approved by Congress by 2012.

Again, shovers and makers abound; nine of the eighty are lawyers.

Later in the article Jackson discussed the concept of a water court, like the one that Colorado has, as a mechanism to help Georgians deal with water issues:

Jackson said he has been asked to convene a panel of experts on western U.S. water law to compile a list of the “best practices” of water laws in the western U.S. He said one confirmed member of Jackson's panel is Colorado Supreme Court Justice Gregory J. Hobbs, a noted authority on water law and the author of “The Citizen's Guide to Colorado Water Law.”

Because the western U.S. has fewer water resources available, western states have been dealing with water-law issues for much longer than the eastern U.S., Jackson said. Georgia should be able to learn from how the western U.S. has established its laws to deal with a much lower quantity of water, said Jackson.

The West's reliance on prior appropriation of water has led some states, including Colorado, to establish water courts, and Jackson suggested such an approach may be what's needed in Georgia.

Somewhat like a bankruptcy court, water courts require the holder of a water permit to post a notice if he wants to make a significant change to how he's using the water. Any concerned or affected party has the chance to state their case on whether the proposed change should be approved. The water court judge makes the final determination, although, unlike a bankruptcy court, a water court judge does not have the authority to force all parties to abide by a specific plan, he said.

“Those concepts can easily translate to Georgia, and there are many ways to go about it,” Jackson said. “I like the idea of an adjudicated water system because of its transparency.”

The establishment of water courts in Georgia would require that the state conduct much more extensive measuring of water resources than is currently done, Jackson said.

The fact that Easterners may be looking to the West for guidance on water issues is interesting. It reminded me of a time about ten years ago when a retired University of New Mexico professor headed to Georgia to lead a new water policy institute at a state university.

I soon received a call from a Georgia newspaper reporter inquiring about the reputation and motives of the man, whom I did not know that well. It became clear to me that the reporter was out to do a 'hatchet job', and even expressed amazement to me that someone from the West could even begin to understand Georgia, its people, and its water issues. He even suggested that perhaps the fellow should just take his ideas and return to New Mexico. I realized that whatever I said would be misquoted and/or misunderstood, so I politely extricated myself from the interview.

We sure do live in interesting times.

"Send lawyers, guns and money...the shit has hit the fan." -- Warren Zevon, Lawyers, Guns and Money

New Hydrophilanthropy: SafeWater4Kids

2009-10-13T00:35:00-07:00

I just learned of a new organization, SafeWater4Kids (SW4Ks). Its mission is to provide sustainable safe drinking water to children and families in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa.

Read more here.

Laura R. Brunson, whom I met a few years ago at the University of Oklahoma's WaTER Center, is the Director of Marketing and Development. She is an impressive, bright, and motivated young woman with a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration and a Master's in Environmental Science. She is now studying for her PhD in Environmental Science (with a National Science Foundation fellowship!) at OU.

Christopher Cope is the International Field Director who was also affiliated with OU's WaTER Center. He is an engineer (BS in petroleum and MS in civil) who is putting his skills to work by doing field implementation work and research in the South and Central American region of the world and helping to improve the health and quality of life for those most in need of it.

Here is the Board. Rudy J. Alvarado and Robert Barcum are the co-founders; Clark Wigley and Bob Burke round out the Board.

You can follow SW4Ks onTwitter and Facebook.

Looks like an extraordinary organization. Laura, Christopher, and SW4Ks will do remarkable things.

Visit the site now!

"We have the ability to provide clean water for every man, woman and child on the Earth. What has been lacking is the collective will to accomplish this. What are we waiting for? This is the commitment we need to make to the world, now." -- Jean-Michel Cousteau

Will Sonny's Task Force Answer His Prayers?

2009-10-12T00:10:00-07:00

In August I posted about the water predicament in Georgia, and specifically, the Alanta metropolitan area (19 August 2009 and 20 August 2009).

Dorian Roffe-Hammond, who is well aware of my interest in all things 'Atlanta water', sent these items my way.

The first is a 7 October 2009 press release from the office of Gov. Sonny Perdue (R-GA), who's been known to pray for rain:

Governor Announces Members of Water Contingency Task Force

ATLANTA – Governor Sonny Perdue today hosted the first meeting of the newly-formed water contingency task force and announced the business, government and environmental leaders from around the state that have agreed to serve on the group.

“I am very appreciative of the time and effort these leaders from across Georgia have committed to the important task at hand,” said Governor Perdue. “I have asked this group to look at any and all possible solutions and let the facts drive their recommendations.”

Today’s first meeting of the task force focused on the history of water litigation and negotiations as well as discussion of the Governor’s four-pronged approach to dealing with Judge Magnuson’s July ruling. One of the strategies includes contingency planning, which is the focus of the task force.

Coca-Cola Enterprises Chairman and CEO John Brock and Tim Lowe of Lowe Engineers are serving as co-chairs of the task force, which will meet throughout the fall and present recommendations before the January 2010 legislative session.

“The Governor has named an outstanding group of leaders to serve on this task force,” Brock said. “We are eager to begin work on the charge the Governor gave us today – to develop a contingency plan that considers both conservation and water supply. This issue will affect Georgia for decades to come.”

“This task force brings together business, conservation and government leaders from throughout our state and it is that equal representation of all interests that will allow us to be successful,” Lowe added. “To a member, this task force is committed to working together to ensure that our state is well-prepared to meet our water needs long into the future.”

More than 80 leaders have agreed to serve on the task force. The members are:

Brock, John, Coca-Cola Enterprises (co-chair)
Lowe, Tim, Lowe Engineers (co-chair)
Amos, Paul, AFLAC
Anderson, Richard, Delta Air Lines
Armstrong, Kerry, Duke Realty
Bannister, Charles, Chair, Gwinnett County Commission
Barella, Jose, Merial
Bennett, John, Chair, Coosa-North Georgia Regional Water Council
Black, Gary, Georgia Agribusiness Council
Blake, Frank, The Home Depot
Blanchard, Billy, Columbus Bank and Trust
Boner, Rex, The Conservation Fund
Cagle, Casey, Lt. Governor
Carruth, Bill, Chair, Georgia Board of Natural Resources
Chase, Donald G., Chair, Upper Flint Regional Water Council
Clark, Chris, Commissioner, GA Department of Natural Resources
Collier, Darin, Worthing SE
Cornelius, Ken, Siemens
Cross, Ron C., Chair, Savannah-Upper Ogeechee Regional Water Council
Currey, Brad, Rock-Tenn Company
Davis, Scott, UPS
Dempsey, Lynn, Dempsey Auction Company
Deriso, Sonny, Atlantic Capital Bank
Dillard, Doug, Dillard & Galloway, LLC
Dunlap, Kit, Chair, Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District
Eason, Darvin, Chair, Suwanee-Satilla Regional Water Council
Eaves, John, Chair, Fulton County Commission
Ellis, Burrell, CEO, DeKalb County
Fischer, Christian, Georgia-Pacific
Floyd, Bill, Mayor, City of Decatur
Fox, John, Emory Healthcare
Franklin, Shirley, Mayor, City of Atlanta
Garrard, Gardiner, The Jordan Company
Garrett, Mike, Georgia Power Company
Gellerstedt, Larry, Cousins Properties
Glover, Taylor, Turner Enterprises, Inc.
Green, Steve, Stephen Green Properties, Inc.
Harbin, Ben, Chair, House Appropriations
Harris, Duane, Sea Georgia Adventures
Hatcher, Bob, MidCountry Financial Corp.
Hays, Richard, Alston & Bird
Hill, Stephen, Solvay Pharmaceuticals
Hodge, Al, Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce
Howard, Pierre, Georgia Conservancy
Hughes, Dale, Cox Enterprises
Hyland, Greg, Mueller Water Products
Jackson, Bruce, Arnall Golden Gregory
Johnston, Bob, MEAG Power
Ketchum, Mark, Newell Rubbermaid
Lakly, Shelly, The Nature Conservancy
Lanier, L. Brinson, Chair, Altamaha Regional Water Council
Lesser, Craig, The Pendleton Consulting Group
Maltese, Joe, City of LaGrange
Markwalter, Jack, Invesco
McSpadden, Richard, Chair, Upper Oconee Regional Water Council
Nash, Al, The Columns Group, Inc.
Nuti, Bill, NCR Corporation
Olens, Sam, Chair, Cobb County Commission
Pate, William, Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau
Poitevint, Alec, Southeastern Materials, Inc.
Price, Mike, Oglethorpe Power Corporation
Rice, John, GE
Richardson, Elmo A., Chair, Middle Ocmulgee Regional Water Council
Royal, A. Richard, Chair, Lower Flint Regional Water Council
Scheible, Dave, Graphic Packaging
Sheldon, Donna, House Majority Caucus Vice-Chair
Sitherwood, Suzanne, Atlanta Gas Light
Smith, Gary, Strategic Value Properties
Smith, Jack, Chair, Fayette County Commission
Smith, Lynn, Chair, House Natural Resources & Environment
Smith, Rick, Equifax Inc.
Stack, Tim, Piedmont Healthcare
Tankersley, Jan, Bulloch County Commissioner
Tapp, Helen, Trust for Public Land
Tarbutton, Charles, Sandersville Railroad Company
Thomas, Mike, Clayton County Water Authority
Thompson, Benjamin, Chair, Coastal Georgia Regional Water Council
Tolleson, Ross, Chair, Senate Natural Resources & Environment
Tuggle, Clyde, The Coca-Cola Company
Weber, Dan Chair, Senate Education
Wells, John, Interface Americas
Wilheit, Philip, Wilheit Packaging
Williams, Virgil, Williams Group International, Inc.
Willis, Betty, Emory University
Windom, Matt, Chair, Middle Chattahoochee Regional Water Council
Wood, Jenner, SunTrust Bank
Wood, Paul, Georgia EMC

Sure looks like a lot of movers and shakers (or shovers and makers) on that list!

The second is an editorial from the 9 October 2009 edition of the Athens Banner-Herald:

Editorial: Perdue's water task force will bear watching

In the Banner-Herald's Oct. 1 editorial headlined "Perdue continues to surprise on water issue," the editorial board credited Gov. Sonny Perdue with "heads-up leadership" in connection with his announcement that he was appointing a task force to develop contingency plans for water supplies.

The governor's appointment of the task force is part of the state's response to a federal judge's recent ruling that metropolitan Atlanta, which draws much of its water from North Georgia's Lake Lanier, should not have access to that water. That's because providing water was not one of the purposes for which the lake, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project, was created.

The judge's ruling is among the latest developments in the long-standing "water war" among the states of Georgia, Florida and Alabama over access to water from the Chattahoochee River, which was dammed to create Lake Lanier. The ruling gives the states three years to come up with an agreement on the Chattahoochee's water. If no agreement is reached, water withdrawals from Lake Lanier will be cut back to 1970s levels, effectively a "death sentence" for metropolitan Atlanta.

Understandably, the ruling has touched off a flurry of activity at the state level. The governor has opted for a four-pronged approach: appealing the ruling, seeking the help of the state's congressional delegation, negotiating with Alabama and Florida, and developing contingency plans.

As a framework for dealing with the issue, those approaches make perfect sense. But that doesn't mean those approaches shouldn't bear further scrutiny as they move from plan to reality.

For instance, when the governor first announced creation of the task force late last month, his office indicated it would comprise dozens of business, government and environmental leaders. This week, when the names of the 80 appointees were announced, the list seemed a bit top-heavy with business leaders, while environmental interests were less in evidence.

That could be a problem insofar as one of the strategies the task force is likely to consider, according to a Wednesday report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is looking outside the metropolitan Atlanta area for water.

In some parts of the state, sharing a water supply with metropolitan Atlanta might be an attractive option, inasmuch as it could mean a substantial revenue stream for local governments in areas from which water might be drawn. It is, however, difficult to predict what environmental consequences might arise from such transfers of water.

And, perhaps of more immediate relevance to those locales from which water might be taken, sending water to metropolitan Atlanta might, over time, lessen the ability of those locales to attract economic development.

As this newspaper has noted, setting up the water task force was a good idea. But the question of whether that task force will come up with a set of good ideas remains very much open.

WaterWired's Take
The task force is a good idea. However, it does seem rather underrepresented vis-a-vis environmental/conservation groups and weighted more heavily towards those who might be termed pro-development. I wonder whether such a group would recommend a strong demand-side approach instead of a supply-side one.

And it strikes me that such a group might be representative of those who are responsible for the Atlanta area's unbridled growth and concomitant lack of enlightened water planning and management that have created the current water situation.

But then again, business people are real good at planning and managing, right?

"Atlanta has based its growth on the idea that it could take whatever water it wanted whenever it wanted it, and that the downstream states would simply have to make do with less. Following the court's ruling today, this massive illegal water grab will be coming to an end." -- Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, referring to the recent court ruling (thanks to Watercrunch)

Dr. Robert Hirsch: Next Generation Trend Methods

2009-10-11T00:20:00-07:00

Dr. Robert Hirsch of the U.S. Geological Survey gave this presentation on Next Generation Trend Methods a few days ago at the University of Vermont.

Download the pdf:

Download NGTM_October_2009_rev_(RHirsch)

Great stuff from a man who knows what he's talking about. Enjoy!

"If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment." -- Ernest Rutherford

Honduras Hydrophilanthropy

2009-10-10T00:45:00-07:00

My Honduran friend Rolando López took these photos in the village of Monte Vista in the Sierra de Omoa in northwest Honduras. The villagers are finishing a gravity-flow potable water system, funded (I believe) by two Rotary Clubs (one in the USA, the other in Honduras).

These are the kinds of systems my students and I helped build in the Sierra de Omoa from 2001 through 2005. The Ann Campana Judge Foundation is supporting a similar project in Brisas de Cuyamel, at the foot of the mountains, just off the road from Omoa to the Guatemala border.

Nothing like the rainy season!

Oh, yeah!

Digging the foundation for the ferroconcrete water tank. Looks like it'll be about 5,000 US gallons. A professional mason will construct it.

Nice shot of the dam. That is the sedimentation trap in front, just above the pipe.

Looks like there's an algal bloom.

The pipe that runs from the dam to the water tank. Each house in the village will have its own tap.

"Grief shared is half grief; joy shared is double joy." -- Honduran proverb