WaterWired

Potential Honduras Water Projects for the ACJF

One of the reasons Evan Miles and I visited Honduras last month was to evaluate potential water projects for the Ann Campana Judge Foundation (ACJF). That was also the reason we visited Nicaragua, except that there we were looking to fund others, not conduct projects ourselves.

Here are some photos from our 19 June trip along the coast highway west of Omoa, towards the Guatemala border. This one to the left shows an unhappy camper in a 'ecological park' at which we stopped. The one to the right - well, an interloper.

Above right is amigo Rolando López, on the hike down from the village of Brisas de Cuyamel. We visited that impoverished village of 20 families, none of whom has clean drinking water.

Alex del Cid, shown here by a tank for a large gravity-flow system that serves three villages, conducted a study on the water supply potential for Brisas de Cuyamel and recently provided a brief survey report to me:

Download Brisas de Cuyamel Proyecto 

The total cost is about 102,000 Lempiras or about $5,700. The system is a straightforward gravity-flow system.

One issue before the project can proceed is the land ownership one; the water source (la fuente) is on someone else's land. We told the villagers they would have to secure written permission from the landowner before a study/project could begin.

Here are Alex, Evan, and Rolando are shown discussing water issues with a member of the junta de agua for the aformentioned three-village water system. The system was damaged in the recent earthquake and the locals are seeking help to rebuild parts of it. Since the three villlages are considerably better off than Brisas de Cuyamel, I'm inclined not to support their request. They have a large enough base (a few hundred families) and are better off financially to generate enough funds to effect repairs.

Rolando also has a potential water project in La Mosquitia, the remote northeastern part of Honduras. It is for the village of Pimienta on the Rio Patuca, the longest river in Honduras and second longest in Central America. Pimienta is in the department of Gracias a Dios, the easternmost one of Honduras.

Here are some pictures of the Rio Patuca and Pimienta (bottom picture), taken by Rolando López.

 

We plan to visit Pimienta next March in the middle of the dry season; it's far too wet this time of year. It will be a good time to assess the project feasibility.

Such a project will be logistically daunting, involving plane, trucks, and boats, and perhaps quadrupeds. It will be a real challenge.

I'm looking forward to the trip as I've long had a desire to see La Mosquitia in Honduras, and the analogous region in eastern Nicaragua.

"Es mejor tostón asegurado que dime apostado." - Honduran proverb [Translation: "Secured 10 cents is better than 20 cents in the betting pot."]  

The Forgotten South Caucasus: Where Oil and Water (and Gas!) Mix

Nadya Ivanova of Circle of Blue wrote this informative article on the water-energy nexus in the South Caucasus. Self-promotion alert: Ms. Ivanova interviewed me a while back and refers to my work in the South Caucasus via the NATO - OSCE South Caucasus River Monitoring (SCRM) Project.

I previously posted about the project and the South Caucasus on 22 July 2008 and 25 May 2008.

The article also serves as a good reminder that I need to finish the final report.

Here is an excellent map from the article, prepared by Hannah Nester and Eric Daigh. It nicely shows the two major pipelines transporting oil (BTC) and gas (BTE) from Azerbaijan to Turkey and the Kura-Araks Basin:

 My understanding is that the Nabucco pipeline begins in Erzurum, where the BTE pipeline terminates. The map indicates otherwise.

I recommend the article. You'll get some different perspectives on this small but critically important region.

Thanks to Todd Jarvis for sending this article my way.

"The optimist learns English. The pessimist learns Chinese. The realist learns Kalashnikov." -- South Caucasus colleague

National Water Policy Event in DC, 28 July 2009

Jim Thebaut, friend and filmmaker extraordinaire,and the man behind the Running Dry Project, is organizing a National Water Policy Event in Washington, DC, on 28 July 2009, 5:30 - 9:30 PM, U.S. Capitol Visitor Center Auditorium.

The event will bring together the executive and legislative branches of the USA government with other stakeholders  - private citizens, industry, Native Americans, et al.  - to have a dialogue on the implementation of national comprehensive, integrated, water policy.

Quite an ambitious objective!

There will be a reception, guest speakers, a screening of The American Southwest: Are We Running Dry?, and a panel discussion. Check out the flyer for more information. RSVP by 21 July 2009.

Download National-water-policy-event-28-july-2009

This'll be good. I look forward to seeing you there.

AWRA and OSU are two of the co-sponsors.

Perhaps we can finish the work started over 40 years ago by the U.S. National Water Commission.

"The Commission transmits its final report to you with the earnest hope that it will contribute importantly to the timely and wise solution of America's water resources problems." -- U.S. National Water Commission, 14 June 1973, final sentence of the letter of transmittal of the Commission's final report to the President and Congress

Tennessee Revises Water Laws

Since Atlanta and Georgia are is doing their best 'Las Vegas imitation' vis-a-vis Southeast water, neighboring states might do well to ensure that their own 'water houses' are in order. Remember Georgia's effort to move its border so it could access Tennessee River water?

Looks like Tennessee has taken that advice to heart. Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) has signed into law a bill that revises Tennessee's water laws. It takes effect immediately.

But not everyone thinks it is a great idea. From U.S. Water News Online:

Sponsors say the new law is necessary to clarify what are “waters of the state.”

Opponents, however, say some provisions of the measure weaken the state's oversight by shifting the decision making from the public to the private sector.

For instance, the law allows a company or individual to hire a professional to determine how a watercourse should be classified and allow that person's finding to be conclusive.

Read it for yourself:

Download SB0632

Hey, I'm classified as a 'qualified hydrologic professional' by the law. Awesome.

"The solution to our water problems is more rain." -- attributed to Mark Twain

The Climate Change Climate Change: More Skeptical Inquirers?

Don Mahin, my first graduate student and hydrologist/engineer extraordinaire, sent me this opinion piece by Kimberley A. Strassel in the Wall Street Journal. She claims that the number of climate change - global warming -  skeptics is increasing everywhere.

Here are the first few paragraphs:

Steve Fielding recently asked the Obama administration to reassure him on the science of man-made global warming. When the administration proved unhelpful, Mr. Fielding decided to vote against climate-change legislation.

If you haven't heard of this politician, it's because he's a member of the Australian Senate. As the U.S. House of Representatives prepares to pass a climate-change bill, the Australian Parliament is preparing to kill its own country's carbon-emissions scheme. Why? A growing number of Australian politicians, scientists and citizens once again doubt the science of human-caused global warming.

Strassel reports that the scientific debate about global warming has come roaring back to life in Australia, Europe, Japan, and even the USA.

Consider this:

The number of skeptics, far from shrinking, is swelling. Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe now counts more than 700 scientists who disagree with the U.N. -- 13 times the number who authored the U.N.'s 2007 climate summary for policymakers. Joanne Simpson, the world's first woman to receive a Ph.D. in meteorology, expressed relief upon her retirement last year that she was finally free to speak "frankly" of her nonbelief. Dr. Kiminori Itoh, a Japanese environmental physical chemist who contributed to a U.N. climate report, dubs man-made warming "the worst scientific scandal in history." Norway's Ivar Giaever, Nobel Prize winner for physics, decries it as the "new religion." A group of 54 noted physicists, led by Princeton's Will Happer, is demanding the American Physical Society revise its position that the science is settled. (Both Nature and Science magazines have refused to run the physicists' open letter.)

This is indeed interesting. I do not know Strassel, but she is a conservative and the WSJ is not exactly a strong supporter of anthropogenic global warming, especially if measures to mitigate it have the potential to adversely affect corporate profits. And her piece is an opinion column. So you might be a bit skeptical.

I'll be interested in seeing how this plays out. As for me, I'm still not a skeptic.

"This is what's really happening in Klamath--call it rural cleansing--and it's repeating itself in environmental battles across the country. Indeed, the goal of many environmental groups--from the Sierra Club to the Oregon Natural Resources Council--is no longer to protect nature. It's to expunge humans from the countryside." -- Kimberley A. Strassel, 26 July 2001

EPA Water Quality Video Contest Winners

In March 2009 EPA's Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds launched a Water Quality Video Contest to inspire environmental stewardship and educate the public on ways individuals can improve water quality in their community. The OWOW received 254 video submissions, and is  pleased to announce the two winners of the contest.

The EPA would like to extend a large thank you to everyone who submitted a video and helped to educate family, friends and the public on ways we can improve water quality around the United States.

Here are the Winners and Honorable Mentions.

Hey! Local boy does well  - Jesse David Mattson of Corvallis, OR, received an honorable mention!

Standing in line at DMV? View all  254 entries on YouTube.

"What I've learned is that life is too short and movies are too long." ~Denis Leary

Colorado Legalizes Rainwater Harvesting - Sort Of

Much has been made of Colorado's decision to legalize rainwater harvesting. Yesterday's New York Times featured an article about the new law that takes effect on 1 July 2009. NPR had a piece on it a month ago.

The rainwater harvesting law is not all-encompassing; not just anyone can put out a rain barrel or other system and collect rainwater. There a re hoops to jump through.

To help you figure out who is eligible here is a little two-pager from the Colorado Division of Water Resources:

Download RainWaterBills

Some are concerned that legalization of rainwater harvesting could be the beginning of the end of Western water law as we know it.  

"We believe there is something to rainwater harvesting. We believe it makes economic sense." -- Harold Smethills, Colorado developer

Bottled Water Disaster Presentation; Nestlé Waters Eyes the Pacific Northwest

A colleague forwarded this PowerPoint to me. It appears to have been produced by PMArchitecture, as 'PMA'  appears throughout and the name is listed on the last page. I have not vetted al the claims but they certainly seem in line with the numbers I have heard and seen.

Download Water-disaster 

Speaking of bottled water, Nestlé Waters is considering building a bottled water plant in the Columbia River Gorge town of Cascade Locks, Oregon. Nestlé does not have a facility in the Pacific Northwest. The plant would use about 100 million gallons per year, a little more than 300 acre-feet, from a spring just off Interstate 84. Here is more on the story from Oregon Public Broadcasting.

"Ever wonder about those people who spend $2 apiece on those little bottles of Evian water? Try spelling Evian backward." -- George Carlin

USGS NAWQA Report: Water Quality in Selected US Carbonate Aquifers, 1993-2005

The USGS National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program does some real good work and puts out some good stuff . [Shill alert: I am serving on my third National Research Council NAWQA evaluation committee.]

So this new report on factors affecting water quality in selected (12) carbonate aquifers looks to be more of the same.

And believe me, in hydrogeology, ain't nothing neater than carbonate aquifers! Dude! They are awesome! Can you tell I am an ersatz karst hydrogeologist?

Here's the blurb from the WWW site:

This is a summary of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program study of water quality in carbonate aquifers of the United States. More than 1,000 wells and springs were analyzed for properties and contaminants including pH, major ions, nutrients, trace elements, radon, pesticides, and volatile organic compounds, in 12 carbonate aquifers in the United States.

Carbonate aquifers are the most widely used of all bedrock aquifers, and provide 22 percent of the United States public ground-water supply. Carbonate aquifers are those aquifers in limestone or dolomite bedrock. The NAWQA program has sampled well networks in many carbonate aquifers using similar methodologies, and thus provided one of the first opportunities to evaluate water quality in the various carbonate aquifers. This web site is a supplement to the National Water-Quality Assessment Program's report: Factors affecting water quality in selected carbonate aquifers in the United States, 1993-2005: Scientific Investigations Report 2008-5240. The site highlights the findings of this report, and provides additional details about the study.

Here is access to the site, and the link to the report.

Enjoy!

"I wish I had known more about carbonate aquifers." -- Gunther Thiem

A New Open-Access Journal: Water

The other day I received an invitation to join the editorial board of a new open-access journal. Its title? Water. Oh, boy, another water journal!

I declined the invitation, but my curiosity was piqued. So I checked the WWW site.

Water (ISSN 2073-4441) is an international and cross-disciplinary scholarly journal on the ecology and management of water resources. It publishes reviews, regular research papers, communications and short notes, and there is no restriction on the length of the papers.

Our aim is to encourage scientists to publish their experimental and theoretical research in as much detail as possible. Full experimental and/or methodical details must be provided for research articles.

There are, in addition, unique features of this journal:

• manuscripts regarding research proposals and research ideas will be particularly welcomed
• electronic files or software regarding the full details of the calculation and experimental procedure, if unable to be published in a normal way, can be deposited as supplementary material
• manuscripts concerning summaries and surveys on research cooperation and projects (that are founded by national governments or others) provide information for a broad field of users.

These features are indeed unique as far as I know.

Here are the topics the journal covers:

• Ecology of water resources, including groundwater
• Physics, chemistry and biology of water
• Monitoring, remediation and protection of water resources
• Planning and management of  water resources and water provision
• Water pollution, wastewater and water treatment
• Water and health issues
• Water resources and agriculture
• Degradation of aquatic ecosystems
• Aquatic ecosystems maintenance and preservation
• Unsustainable patterns of water consumption and use
• Sustainable use of  water resources
• Water efficiency, incl. water footprint and virtual water calculations
• Development and realization of national and international policies on water
• Changing patterns of water consumption and use

The first issue will be out later this year. Might be worth a read.

"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate." ~Henry J. Tillman

The Breakthrough Institute and the Death of Environmentalism

Until yesterday morning I'd never heard of the The Breakthrough Institute or its two founders, Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus. But they were featured on NPR's  Morning Edition and what I learned was a real eye-opener for me.

What makes them and their tiny, five-person institute different is their approach to global warming: they view it not simply as an environmental problem, but as an economic opportunity and champion that approach. Instead of invoking schemes like cap-and-trade, they say, "Let's make clean energy affordable and ubiquitous."

The article relates how Shellenberger greets seven new interns:

Shellenberger tells the interns that environmental groups — like the ones he used to work for — are going about it all wrong. By urging Congress to cast carbon dioxide as a pollutant that needs to be controlled, he says, they will constantly swim against the tide of public opinion.

"We're stuck in this kind of poor paradigm for dealing with climate change, this pollution paradigm," he says, "not because environmentalists are failures, but actually because they were so successful. The Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the cap and trade on acid rain — these things worked really well."

The article continues:

But reducing carbon dioxide is a different story. It's not just a nuisance byproduct, like the sulfur in coal that contributes to acid rain. Carbon dioxide is unavoidable when we burn coal, oil and natural gas. So getting rid of it means either capturing it at great expense, or regulating fossil fuels into oblivion.

In theory, regulation will force companies to develop cleaner alternatives as the price of carbon pollution grows. But Shellenberger says that'll never work.

"When was the last time human beings modernized our energy sources by making older power sources more expensive?" he asks the interns. "And, of course, by now you probably know that the answer is never."

Personal computers didn't take off because there was a tax on typewriters, he says. And the Internet didn't sprout up because the government made telegraphs more expensive.

"So is there a better way to do this? Well, we think that there is. It's very simple: It's that we need to make clean energy cheap worldwide."

What really struck me was Shellenberger and Nordhaus's essay, The Death of Environmentalism:

Download Death_of_Environmentalism

They say that modern environmentalism has outlived its usefulness when it comes to global warming. We need a new paradigm.

One thing they note is the reluctance of our environmental and other leaders to acknowledge the scale of the disasters that global warming likely holds in store for us. The public should not be frightened.

That's something that resonated with me, as I see impending disaster vis-a-vis water in the USA Southwest, yet am perplexed by the lack of leadership on the part of water mavens to address these catastrophes. We must not frighten people, nor must we discourage the go-go-growth of the region. We keep scouring the past looking for solutions to future problems we have not encountered before.

I think you'll find this informative reading.

"If we wish our civilization to survive we must break with the habit of deference to great men." -- Karl Popper

Selling Dominica's Water: Is There Enough? A Rough Analysis

The other day I returned a call from a fellow who wants to sell Dominica's fresh water - 37B gallons per year, to be exact. That is about 114,000 acre-feet per year (140 MCM).

Dominica is a rugged, volcanic island nation in the Caribbean Sea. Its area is about 754 square km (290 square miles) with a population of about 73,000. It is known for its great natural beauty.

The water he wants to sell is not desalted water - it's all fresh water, from streams (365!) and aquifers (my contact said it was 'runoff'). The water will be shipped out in supertankers or bags to whomever wants to purchase it. By my calculation, 37B gallons would fill 440 average supertankers (assuming a capacity 2 million barrels or 84M gallons per tanker). So that's about 10 supertankers per week headed for wherever needs it.

My contact said it would help the world's water crisis. I pointed out that although 37B gallons is a lot of water, it's literally a drop in the bucket on a global scale. But it certainly could relieve short-term problems, such as coastal cities undergoing dry times. 

And, oh yeah - he mentioned about $3B in annual profits.

He said that China and Venezuela are also interested in the island's water, which has apparently piqued the curiosity of the U.S. Department of State.

So does Dominica have enough water? It is one of the wettest islands in the Caribbean. Here's the rainfall and temperature plot from the World Travel Guide for the capital, Roseau, located on the drier southwest coast of the island: 

If you add the rainfall numbers up you get over 2000 mm (2 meters or almost 80 inches) of rain per year.

I don't know the water budget of the island, but the Wikipedia entry says that the wetter, east side of the island gets as much as 500 cm (almost 200 inches) of annual rainfall, with mountain slopes receiving 900 cm (almost 360 inches!). The drier west side gets about 180 cm (70 inches).

So let's do some back-of-the-envelope calculations. Let's assume that the average annual rainfall over the entire island is (500 cm+ 180 cm)/2  = 340 cm = 3.4 m.

Distribute that amount over 754 square kilometers (754,000,000 square meters) and you have 2.6 B cubic meters (rounded).

So, since over the long term, P = ET + R (precipitation = evapotranspiration + runoff) we can calculate the long-term average runoff if we know the ET. I will assume that on average, 2/3 of the P is ET and 1/3 is R (global continental averages from G. Hornberger et al., 1998, Elements of Physical Hydrology, Chapters 1 and 2 - not great approximations for a tropical island). That means that the average annual runoff is about 1.1 meters per year, or about 0.9B cubic meters. In other units the average annual runoff is about 900,000,000 cubic meters or about 730,000 acre-feet or about 238B gallons!

So my friend wants to take about 16% of the total runoff for export. Is that going to be a problem?

The answer: I don't know for sure. Dominica does have a heckuva lot of fresh water, but don't forget that the island's environment and the near-shore marine ecosystem are adjusted to this amount. So what happens when you remove 16% of this fresh water each year? That's the question that must be asnwered before this project proceeds.

Keep in mind that my figures are very crude and I'm using a steady-state budget to evaluate an inherently transient situation. I'm just trying to illustrate a point: there is a lot of fresh water on Dominica but we still need to be concerned about withdrawing some of that water. Adverse effects could result not only on the land-based ecosystems but also near-shore marine ones. 

"What is done in the dark will appear in the light." -- Caribbean proverb

Water Supply Well Standards for Developing Countries: Comments Sought

Steve Schneider is an engineer, water well contractor, vice president of Schneider Equipment, Inc., and chair of NGWA's Developing Countries Interest Group.

He also drills wells and help less fortunate people in Mexico satisfy their need for clean water. Yeah, he's one of the real good guys.

At last year's NGWA Ground Water Expo in Las Vegas, the DCIG decided to initiate a project to develop standards for water supply wells in developing countries. Steve has taken it upon himself to initiate the development of water well standards for developing countries, a daunting and important task. Here is a pdf of the PowerPoint presentation he recently gave at NGWA's Groundwater for the Americas conference:

Download GW Americas - Dev Countries well stds NGWA 2009

Steve then distributed copies of a draft document and requested that comments be sent to him. Here are Word and pdf versions of the document:

Download WATER_SUPPLY_WELL_STANDARDS     (Word)

Download WATER_SUPPLY_WELL_STANDARDS     (PDF)

If you wish to comment on this document, please email your comments to Steve (SteveS@seidc.com). The best way to comment would be to use 'Track Changes' on the Word document and email it to Steve.

And yes, Steve really wants your comments - this is not a hollow request. Feel free to direct others to this site.

NOTE: If you want to post your comments and suggestions to this blog, that is fine, but your comments on the document will not likely be seen by Steve. The only sure way to get your comments to Steve is to send them directly to him. Please do so by 31 October 2009.

We'd like to get this published by the end of 2010.

"I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands.  You need to be able to throw something back."  ~Maya Angelou

WWC Sends the Wrong Message: Selects Marseille, not Durban, for 2012 World Water Forum

The World Water Council, that august body based in Marseille, just announced that it has selected - surprise - Marseille as the site of the 2012 World Water Forum. The other candidate was Durban, South Africa.

This is a bad choice. The WWC had an unparalleled opportunity to send a strong, positive message to the entire world by choosing a site in a developing nation in sub-Saharan Africa. A WWF in Durban would have helped dispel the image of the WWC as a bunch of corporate toadies (an image I do not subscribe to, by the way). Instead, the WWC decided to hold the Forum once again in Europe (The Hague hosted the 2000 WWF), in the Council's home city no less.

This misguided decision will also give more of a platform to people like Maude Barlow. Need I say more?

But, trying to have it both ways, the WWC tossed a bone to South Africa. From the press release:

In an effort to benefit from the excellent quality of the two final candidatures, France and South Africa, the Governors of the World Water Council suggested that the countries work hand in hand. “Our engagement to host the World Water Forum in 2012 is very strong and we really want to work together to bring solutions to the world’s water challenges,” Vassal continued, stressing the candidates’ will to join forces. Prior to the vote, South Africa and France both had agreed to a partnership for the preparation of the next Forum. As such, when Marseille was selected, it extended an invitation to Durban, South Africa to be a full partner in the years running up to the Forum. “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together”, said one of the participants in the Board, emphasizing the unique opportunity that this partnership entails. After extending his congratulations to France, Kevin Wall, Alternate Governor of the World Water Council representing the South African candidacy, committed the full support of South Africa to the success of the World Water Forum in 2012 in Marseille. “We are very happy to be part of this process and enthusiastic to offer our experience.”

Yeah, this'll make it all right.

From my vantage point, this decision is more of the SOS.

The WWC did indeed send a message - just the wrong one.

"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." --Anonymous

Presentations: 1) Transnational North American Groundwater; 2) Embera Indians Well Drilling Training

I've been traveling around so much I forgot to pst the presentations I made at the recent NGWA Groundwater for the Americas Conference.

Download Campana_Transnational Groundwater_GW for Americas_10_June_2009

Download Campana_ Embera_ Indians_GW for the Americas 1400_ 8_June_ 2009

Enjoy!

"The wise man affirms little and doubts much." -- Panamanian proverb

Blogging and Tweeting from Singapore International Water Week

Time for another International Water Week! Stockholm has had its Water Week in Stockholm  in mid-August for a number of years, and now Singapore has its International Water Week (SIWW) 22-26 June. SIWW is a trade show, unlike the Stockholm event.

If you want a blow-by-blow blog of the SIWW events, you might try following the Black & Veatch Water team's blog. They also have a Twitter as well.  

You can also see B&V presentations.

No, I have no connection to B&V; Gayle Leonard suggested this  might be newsworthy and I agreed. She's from the Kansas City area, where B&V is based.

Enjoy!

"Cleanliness is next to a Corrective Work Order." --Singapore 'proverb'

Climate Change Portal from the Santa Clara Valley Water District

Bob Teeter, the librarian at the SCV Water District, just sent this information to me.

The Santa Clara Valley Water District has a new Climate Change Portal page where interested users can follow the latest reports on climate change.  We think it will be particularly useful for those in the water industry on the West Coast, like us.  Browse reports by date (newest first) or by topic (such as adaptation, water utilities guidance, sample climate action plans).   Or do a keyword search to find just what you’re looking for.  Subscribe to the RSS feed in order to have links for the newest reports come to you.

I just checked this out - it's a great resource.

Enjoy!

"Science is the organized skepticism in the reliability of expert opinion"  -- Richard Feynman

June 2009 H2OSU Newsletter - My Last View From 210

Here is the June 2009 issue of the H2OSU newsletter. It marks my final newsletter as Director of the Institute for Water and Watersheds, so my column is filled with plenty of  suggestions about what needs to be done in Oregon regarding water: exempt wells, Columbia-Snake River Basin compact, the groundwater budget myth, Oregon Water Institute, Cascades groundwater, exporting water, and more! 

Enjoy!

"Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits."  -- Mark Twain

Nicaragua: El Porvenir, Bombas Mecate y Mas

Evan Miles and I are in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, after a 14-hour, 620-km bus trip from Managua to San Pedro Sula. We were fortunate enough to take the 'express' bus.

Evan and I spent several days (11-14 June) traveling about with Rob Bell, Executive Director of El Porvenir and his new summer intern, Michigan State University civil engineering student Erik Zucker, shown above with El Porvenir's Suzuki 4WD. Rob gave us all a grand tour of some El Porvenir projects in the El Sauce - Dario area of Nicaragua. Some were funded by the Ann Campana Judge Foundaton, which I founded.

In this picture we are looking at a bomba de mecate or simply bomba mecate (aka rope pump) being modified to pump the water up to a tank for delivery to a nearby school.

A German group installed this particular pump.

These rope pumps are all over Nicaragua. I don't recall ever seeing one in Honduras, although I've worked mostly on gravity-flow projects there. They are easy to work on and locally made. They are normally used in hand-dug wells. Below is a close-up photo, and to the left, a little guy gets into the act.

Below, Rob inspects one that has seen its better days. Although it still pumps water, it is on its last legs.

El Porvenir also supports sanitation and reforestation projects. They also sell locally-made efficient cooking stoves. These support forest preservation because they use 60% less wood. They also lead to less watershed degradation, better water quality, and more consistent streamflow.

Here are the folks who work out of the Dario and Terrabona offices. Evan Miles is on the left, then Marlon, David, Jose Mercedes, and Lester.

 Some gorgeous scenery outside Matagalpa.

Oh, yeah - the rainy season had started. Rob did a great job keeping us on the road in our little Suzuki 4WD.

 

More coming later. Have to report on our wonderful trip to Rio Blanco, NI, with Agua Para La Vida, and a trip to Cuyamel near Guatemala border with amigos Rolando Lopez and Alex del Cid.

"Eyes that see do not grow old." -- Nicaraguan proverb

Ground Water Readers Rejoice - 'Groundwater' is One Word!

Mary Anderson, extraordinary Editor-in-Chief of the journal Ground Water, is one happy person these days. The NGWA Board approved her request to use the one-word spelling of 'groundwater' for articles in the journal.

Neither the spelling of the journal's title nor the spelling of the organization's name will change. She had not sought these changes.

She had requested this permission months before the USGS announced its new policy, but the Board took a while to act. I suspect that the USGS decision had something to do with the Board's approval.

The entire episode begs the question as to whether the Board should have intervened in this editorial-only issue.

"The more things change, the more they remain the same." -- Unknown

More On Mississippi vs. Memphis: First Transboundary Aquifer Case Before U.S. Supreme Court

I posted on this case a few days ago, but Gabriel Eckstein of the International Water Law Project  at Texas Tech University has more on this case from a legal perspective.

You can also follow the case on the SCOTUS blog, as suggested by dlb in his comment on my original post.

Back to Gabriel - check out his post.

I like his last paragraph:

Ground water resources, for too many years, have been treated as the neglected stepchild of water law. This is especially true in a transboundary context but also in the domestic laws of many nations, including the US. The adage “out of sight, out of mind” comes to mind. The US Supreme Court has a great opportunity here to develop US jurisprudence and provide guidance for this nascent legal area. It also has a wonderful occasion to influence the evolution of international law in this area.

Neglected stepchild? Amen!

"Before enlightenment, Chop wood
Carry water.
After enlightenment, Chop wood
Carry water. " --Zen Saying

Act Now! Free DVD Based on PBS Documentary 'Poisoned Waters'

Just received this email from a reliable source:

A Maryland production company has created an educational DVD from a two-hour PBS documentary called "Poisoned Waters"   that aired on  FRONTLINE in April. The educational piece pairs five-minute clips from "Poisoned Waters" with brief essays and questions that illuminate key issues about water such as stormwater and agriculture runoff. The video and 26-page booklet fit into a DVD case and are FREE for teachers, nonprofits, activists, and anyone else interested in protecting the nation's waters.
 
Orders for the FREE resource will be taken until THURSDAY, 18 JUNE. Please e-mail or phone orders in with your name, organization, and address to hsmithprod@aol.com or 301-654-9848.  

Questions? Please contact
Catherine Rentz
Hedrick Smith Productions/PBS
301-654-8584 (work)
301-654-9856 (fax)
cdrentz@gmail.com
6935 Wisconsin Ave., Suite 208
Chevy Chase, MD 20815

IAH USNC Newsletter June 2009

Hot off the press, here is the newsletter of the U.S. National Committee of the International Association of Hydrogeologists:

Download USNC IAH Newsletter June 2009.v2

"I wish I could read this but alas, I am dead." -- Henry Darcy

 

Deborah Hathaway's Presentation (en español) - Limitations on Groundwater Use: Who Decides?

Deborah Hathaway of S.S. Papadopulos gave this excellent presentation (in Spanish) at the recent Groundwater for the Americas conference:

Download Hathaway NGWA Panama June 2009

"Deborah Hathaway es una mujer fantastica." -- Hugo Chávez

 

Spanish-English Glossary of Water Resource and Environmental Terms From SSPA

This nifty document was compiled by Deborah Hathaway of S.S. Papadopulos & Associates.

Download Spanish_English_Water_Resource_Glossary

"!Este es excelente!" -- Ron Rico

Roof Water Harvesting for Artificial Recharge in the Americas

Dan Stephens, good friend, former graduate-school classmate, entrepreneur, and hydrologist extraordinaire, gave this presentation at the recently-concluded Groundwater for the Americas conference in Panama City. He gave me permission to post it.

Download Roof Water Harvesting for Artificial Recharge Final

Charisma Queen Crowns the Water King

Time for some more Self-Promotion 101.

Ava, aka Charisma Queen (her email moniker), who runs The Reef Tank blog, sent me a list of 12 questions a few weeks ago and said she'd post my answers and picture on her blog.

Well, Ava has posted them - check out what my thoughts are today, because tomorrow they may be different.

Not only did she post them, but she crowned me the Water King and spread it on pretty thick.  I have asked her to be my agent.

A sample:

He's a water king? He can do anything?

Ok, maybe there's no need for the Jim Morrison reference (Morrison referred to himself as The Lizard King instead). Michael Campana, after all, is no water king.  But he does like to refer to himself as an inveterate, unrepentant, water wonk.

You can also call him a hydrogeologist, Professor of Geosciences at Oregon State University, founder of the Ann Campana Judge Foundation,  a water conservation projects developer,devout water protector, and about a million other names. [MEC comment: That's the truth - most of them are unprintable!]

One thing's for sure--Michael Campana's no bore and neither are his uplifting water protection projects.  

Hear about them all, along with his plan to save the world--one water bucket at a time.  

One question and my answer:

Why the push to educate the world on clean water and the need to work on water projects in general?

We all need clean water, whether we live in New York City or a village in Tanzania. We have a responsibility to be good stewards of our water resources, not to waste them, and to keep water clean not just for ourselves, but for other living things.  

Many people – about 1.1 billion, mainly in the developing world – do not have access to clean water. About 2.3 billion do not have access to sanitary facilities. Water, health, and sanitation are intimately related. Often times, water becomes contaminated in areas with little or poor sanitary facilities. And unclean water and little or no sanitation can lead to disease and death.

Clean water and sanitation are also women’s empowerment issues. In the developing world, the responsibility for collecting water for household use falls almost exclusively upon women and girls. Collecting water is often tedious work; it may take hours to reach the source, and then there is the trek home carrying 5 or more gallons of water, weighing over 40 pounds. Girls help their mothers with the water chores and often miss or drop out of school to do so. And when girls reach puberty, the lack of sanitary facilities – such as latrines – may be a source of embarrassment to them. So they drop out of school. Uneducated women have fewer opportunities to succeed, generally have more children, and are more apt to be condemned to a live of extreme poverty.  

My thanks to Ava for her graciousness. I would be wise to remember the following aphorism:

"The world won’t care about your self-esteem.  The world will actually expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself." -- Charles Sykes

Real Good Water Guy Rob Bowman Leaves Us

It's always sad to report the death of a beloved water colleague. I've already had to to do the likes of Tom Prickett, Phil LaMoreaux, and Stan Davis. Now comes the news that another one of the real good guys has left us.

Hydrology professor Dr. Rob Bowman of New Mexico Tech died last week at his home in Lemitar, NM. Friend and colleague Dan Stephens, also down here in Panama for the Groundwater for the Americas conference, told me and I was just emailed a link to the NMT story that dispensed the bad news. 

Rob was a terribly bright guy but more importantly, so very nice. He always had time and a kind word for you, no matter how busy he might be, and he'd always have a smile on his face.

Here is a little bit from the story:

All across campus and around the world, word of Bowman’s passing, a week before his 59th birthday, generated emails and tributes and memories of a man who was widely respected for his knowledge, his insight, his commitment to education and the ideals inherent in that journey to understanding.

This, said his only child, Danny, “stands as the greatest testament to his life,” that he was revered and respected by legions of students and colleagues whose lives were enriched simply by the fact that he was here.

Graduate student Jaron Andrews had worked closely with Dr. Bowman as an undergraduate and, for the past year, as a hydrology master’s student.

“He was always professional and courteous,” Andrews said. “He was a model for all of us as what to be like as a professional person. He had a real love of what he was doing and shared that love through his teaching and research. He was a dedicated scientist, a wonderful teacher, and a great mentor.”

The Michigan native headed west in 1968, settling in at the University of California at Berkeley which he, a National Merit Scholar, had chosen as an alternative to an in-state school.

In a physics laboratory in Berkeley, he met his future wife, Karen Bailey, his eventual life partner – who was always late to class.

So what attracted the flame-haired coed to the tall Midwesterner?

“He was good-looking,” she said. “Tall, with long, blonde hair.”

And so they teamed up, the radio-pharmaceutical chemist and the teacher, off on life’s journey, an adventure that ultimately led them to New Mexico.

This is a man who will really be missed by so very many people.

“He was the best guy. It was hard to say goodbye.” -- Jaron Andrews, one of Rob's last graduate students

Memphis Sand Aquifer Pumping: U.S. Supreme Court To Decide Mississippi vs. Memphis

Non-sequitur alert: since I am now in Panama, why not update a story about which I posted in early 2008? 

On 2 February 2008 and 5 February 2008 I posted about the court case involving the State of Mississippi, the City of Memphis and Memphis Light, Gas, and Water (MLGW). Mississippi accused the MLGW of stealing water from beneath Mississippi by pumping from the Memphis Sand aquifer, which underlies both states and Arkansas.

From my 2 February 2008 post (where there is more information, including graphics):

In a nutshell, the case boils down to Mississippi claiming that Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW), the municipally-owned utility for the Memphis area (Shelby County), is deriving about 30% of the water it pumps from the Memphis Sand aquifer (aka the Sparta aquifer) from beneath Mississippi. This amounts to about 60 mgd (million gallons per day) coming from beneath the Mississipians' land. Total MLGW pumpage from the aquifer is about 160-200 mgd. The Memphis Sand's water is reputedly some of the best ground water in the USA, and the aquifer supplies drinking water to over 1.1 million residents of Shelby County.

This is no nickel-and-dime lawsuit; the damages sought by Mississippi amount to $1 billion, and if the Memphis utility loses, it would be forced to reduce its pumping and obtain some of its water from the Mississippi River, which would entail the construction of an expensive water treatment plant.

Most of the "harm" to Mississippi occurs in DeSoto County, a rapidly-growing suburb of Memphis. Well water levels there have been dropping -- that's what happens when you pump water from an aquifer, folks, until you increase recharge or decrease discharge to offset the pumping rate.  Mississippi contends that some of the declines are due to Memphis' pumping and constitute "harm". Memphis claims that its use is "reasonable" and not reducing the water availability in Mississippi.

The Supreme Court may decide this case. Here is Tom Charlier's 5 June 2009  Memphis Commerical-Appeal article and the first few paragraphs:

It'll be up to the U.S. Supreme Court to settle the billion-dollar question of whether Memphis has been stealing Mississippi's water.

In a decision hailed by the city, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on Friday affirmed a lower court's dismissal of Mississippi's 2005 lawsuit against Memphis and its municipal utility over the use of water from a aquifer beneath several states.

The case must be refiled with the Supreme Court, which has exclusive jurisdiction in disputes between states, the court said. Tennessee is an "indispensable party" to the suit, the judges said, even though it wasn't named as a defendant.

Here is a copy of the court's decision:

Download 08-60152-CV0

Here is more from Charlier's article:

Affirming a February 2008 decision by U.S. Dist. Judge Glen H. Davidson, the appellate court said that because the aquifer is an interstate resource, the water must be formally divvied up before one state can sue another for "invading its share."

Although it lies hundreds of feet underground, the aquifer, for legal purposes, is "indistinguishable from a lake bordered by multiple states or from a river bordering several states depending on it for water," the court said.

"The aquifer must be allocated like other interstate water resources in which different states have competing sovereign interests."

Mississippi has indicated that it will pursue the case in the USA's highest court. The appellate court's ruling did not judge the merits of the case, only that Tennessee is an 'indispensable party" to the case.

I am intrigued with this case because it involves transboundary groundwater and it's relatively novel to see Eastern USA political jurisdictions involved in a good old-fashioned Western USA-style fight over water quantity (much like the Georgia-Alabama-Florida kerfuffle over the ACF Basin).

Stay tuned.

Note that the U.S. Supreme Court has not yet decided to take this case (thanks to Noah Hall at the Great Lakes Law blog).

As I said earlier, it ain't over till it's over, or:

"The opera isn't over till the fat lady sings." -- Unknown

A Mystery Solved!

I have not lost a lot of sleep about this, but I have occasionally wondered how Maude Barlow received an appointment  (sinecure?) as the UN's first Senior Advisor on Water to the President of the General Assembly.

Then I read this article from The New Republic on UN General Assembly President  Reverend Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann and the fog was lifted.

 Hallelujah! Now I can rest.

"The light at the end of the tunnel may be an oncoming train." -- Unknown

WaterWired Heads Way Down South

So did I drive to Sacramento or someplace?

No, I'm writing this from a Holiday Inn just a stone's throw from the Miraflores Locks on the Panama Canal.

My graduate student Evan Miles and I arrived yesterday after a trip through Houston on Continental Airlines.

We're both here to present papers at NGWA's Groundwater for the Americas conference. Here is a PDF of the program.

Evan and I are here until 10 June, when we will head to Managua to check on some water projects  by El Porvenir and Agua Para La Vida that were funded by the Ann Campana Judge Foundation (ACJF). We will also assess some potential projects.

After Nicaragua we will travel to Honduras to visit friends and explore some potential projects there as well. We'll fly home from San Pedro Sula on 20 June.

Below is a photo I took of Lago Alajuela (I'm pretty sure), the artificial lake that supplies fresh water for the locks of the Panama Canal. Madden Dam is visible.  

I am sure I don't need to tell you what an amazing feat the construction of the Panama Canal was. The engineering feat alone was remarkable, as was the health feat (yellow fever, malaria). Now consider all that was done 100 years ago! The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914 by David McCullough is an exceptional book about all the difficulties faced by the Americans and the earlier French attempt. Something like 27,500 people died in the two efforts. I highly recommend the book.

I'll try to keep you updated as best I can.

Sleep now!

"I don't want to go into history; I want to go into the Canal Zone." -- Gen. Omar Torrijos Herrera, former Panamanian president who got the canal from the USA

The Gospel According to St. Daniel

Ken Reid, friend, AWRA Executive Vice President, and member of the World Water Council's Board of Governors, sent me this article by Daniel Moss, who was a member of the People's Water Forum media team that covered the Fifth World Water Forum (5WWF) in Turkey.

Before continuing, let me mention that I went as a member of AWRA's delegation and was intimately involved in establishing and populating some of the 5WWF's sessions. I made a number of presentations and convened two sessions. 

In the article, Moss takes issue with the World Water Forum, The World Water Council, and just about anything that deals with water privatization. Moss' article begins with some sage words from Maude Barlow:

With climate change deepening the water crisis, wonky discussions of how to manage our water systems are suddenly attracting increased public attention. "Unlike oil, there's no substitute for fresh water," says Maude Barlow, senior advisor on water to the president of the United Nations General Assembly. "We all need it."

Moss continues, and this passage is what annoyed Ken, especially the emboldened text (my emboldening):

Yet it remains an uphill battle to shift the narrative, policies, and laws to ensure that water is managed as a commons and a human right. This work is made more difficult by the fact that the principal forum for global water policy discussions is not the UN but the World Water Forum, a mostly pro-privatization, tri-annual gathering of government delegations, non-governmental organizations, international financial institutions, and private industry representatives. It is convened by the World Water Council, a French non-profit whose board of governors is dominated by water privateers.

Let me take issue with some of Moss' statements.

So who can attend the WWF? Must you be from one of the constituencies mentioned by Moss? Actually, anyone can go. True, it was not cheap. I went, and I paid my own way - about $4,000 (I stayed the whole week).

Is it "mostly pro-privatization'? If he means that most of the people there were in favor of water privatization, I don't see how he can say that. Did he or someone else poll the 33,000 attendees or monitor each and every session? Maybe the attendees of the previous fora were polled on their privatiztion view, but I doubt it. I suspect the attendees' viewpoints ranged from those who would give water away gratis to those who saw it strictly as a commodity and wanted to make money selling it, and of course, everything in between those two end members.  

Yes, the WWC is a French non-profit. Got that one, right, Daniel! Is its Board of Governors dominated by water privateers? You be the judge; here is the membership of the WWC's Board of Governors. My opinion: I don't think so.

I wonder if Moss has ever bothered to peruse the Board of Governors' composition, or whether he has just accepted the mantra that the WWC is a run by a bunch of money-hungry capitalists out to steal all the world's water. Perhaps he has seen Quantum of Solace too many times.

Should the UN run the WWF? My opinion: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." I am not convinced the WWF is in need of the UN's help in running things. I suspect Ms. Barlow has something to do with promoting a bigger role for the UN in the WWF.

You can read the rest of Moss' article. He does make some good points. But like the Moody Blues, I have to go now.

My head aches.

“O Lord, help me not to despise or oppose what I do not understand.” --William Penn

Bill Phillips' 1949 Hydraulic Computer Uses Water to Predict the Economy

A colleague sent me a link to a blog post about this remarkable computer developed by Bill Phillips at the London School of Economics in 1949.  It uses water flow to predict the flow of money in the economy.

The guest post on Olivia Judson's blog is by Steve Strogatz and describes a recent visit to his friend Allan McRobie, an enginnering professor at the University of Cambridge. McRobie showed him the amazing machine.

Two weeks ago, while visiting Cambridge University, I arranged to have lunch with my friend Allan McRobie. He’s a professor of engineering, so it seemed a bit strange that he kept insisting we meet at the department of applied economics. “There’s something there you’ve really got to see,” he said in his Liverpudlian lilt. “It’s utterly fab. Just brilliant. The Phillips machine — it uses water to predict the economy.”

Skeptical but willing to go along with the gag, I met him at the appointed place. He led me inside and stopped at the receptionist’s window. “We’re here to see the machine,” he said. She nodded and handed him a key. We made our way through a maze of corridors to the Meade Room, where the machine is housed.

In the front right corner, in a structure that resembles a large cupboard with a transparent front, stands a Rube Goldberg collection of tubes, tanks, valves, pumps and sluices. You could think of it as a hydraulic computer. Water flows through a series of clear pipes, mimicking the way that money flows through the economy. It lets you see (literally) what would happen if you lower tax rates or increase the money supply or whatever; just open a valve here or pull a lever there and the machine sloshes away, showing in real time how the water levels rise and fall in various tanks representing the growth in personal savings, tax revenue, and so on. This device was state of the art in the 1950s, but it looks hilarious now, with all its plumbing and noisy pumps.

Here is the schematic in Strogatz's post:

 

Strogatz describes what happened on that 1949 day when Phillips demonstrated his machine before skeptical economists at the LSE:

Phillips’s machine worked perfectly that day at the L.S.E., and soon attracted worldwide interest. Copies of the “Moniac,” as it became known in the United States, were built and sold to Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, Ford Motor Company and the Central Bank of Guatemala, among others. In all, it is thought that only 14 Phillips machines were ever built.

View a video showing the machine in action, explained by Allan McRobie.

Strogatz provides some interesting insight:

Though it’s tempting to view the Phillips machine as a relic of a bygone era, in one way it’s just the opposite; there’s something about it as fresh as the day it began gurgling. Look at its plumbing diagram. It’s a network of dynamic feedback loops. In this sense the Phillips machine foreshadowed one of the most central challenges in science today: the quest to decipher and control the complex, interconnected systems that pervade our lives.

He mentions how we've spent centuries breaking things down to learn about them. Now, the hard part begins:

Now, after three centuries of profound discoveries, the real challenge is to master the process of reassembling the pieces, in ways that faithfully reflect the inevitable interactions among them. Bill Phillips, along with many other pioneers of the 1950s, took the first steps on this difficult road. By rendering the workings of a complex economic system visible in real time, he helped us embark on one of the most momentous scientific journeys humanity will ever take.

No question - Bill Phillips was ahead of his time.

"Let us consider an alternative style of thinking, which we can call 'creative thinking.' It is playfully instructive to note that the word 'reactive' and the word 'creative' are made up of exactly the same letters. The only difference between the two is that you 'C' [see] differently."  -- John Quincy Adams

 

Report: Renewable Energy on Tribal Lands

Okay, this ain't about water, but don't forget the energy-water nexus.

Here's a report you may find interesting: Renewable Energy on Tribal Lands, by Trevor Erberich and Peter Meisen of the Global Energy Network Institute (GENI). 

The requisite blurb that Peter sent in an email:

Historically, Native Americans have been concentrated to sun-baked and
wind-swept lands considered to have marginal  value.  Now, with the
improvements in renewable technologies, these Tribal lands have vast and
extremely valuable natural resources that Native American Tribes can
develop. 

The potential of these resources is enormous.  With current wind
technology the Tribal Reservations in the Great Plains could potentially
supply over one-fifth of the United States' total electrical energy
needs.  Additionally, Tribes in the southwest desert have an almost
unlimited supply of solar power, and have the potential to power both
homes and buildings on the reservations and provide the Tribes with a
valuable export commodity - clean electricity.

High-voltage transmission enables wind and solar farms on reservations
to be sold to neighboring utilities and make a profit.  The wind and sun
are there every day -- an untapped resource that can be harvested for
personal use by the Tribe and derive income by selling the excess.

This kind of development raises the living standards for all  members.
Renewable energy provides jobs, a source of rural electrification, and
capital that the Tribe can then reinvest into other projects to benefit
their members. The development of renewable energy on Tribal lands gives Tribes valuable experience in managing a large project which can then be used in other projects that require Tribal cooperation over many years.

Here is our Executive Summary on the development of Renewable Energy on  Tribal Lands and the issues surrounding this complex topic.

Hey! Maybe we could use this energy bounty to pump water from the Mississippi River to Las Vegas!

"Treat the earth well. It was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children." -- Native American proverb

Las Vegas: Sustaining Growth or Dry Times Ahead?

Quite an original title, right? Just couldn't come up with something more alliterative.

A number of friends (John Fleck, Michael Dale) alerted me to this story about a 'trigger' that would cause the Southern Nevada Water Authority to initiate its plan to pump groundwater from rural Nevada and pipe to southern Nevada.

If the water level in Lake Mead drops another 23 feet to 1075 feet above mean sea level, then the water authority board will be asked to give its official approval to build the project.

Say what? You mean the board hasn't given its official approval?

Here is what Henry Brean says in his 1 June 2009 Las Vegas Review-Journal article:

The lake trigger is the newest addition to the authority's Water Resource Plan, which plots how the valley's wholesale water supplier expects to keep local taps running amid unprecedented drought on the Colorado.

Board members have already approved the pipeline concept and signed off on ongoing efforts to secure water rights and environmental permits, but they have never actually voted to build the project.

That decision will come if, or perhaps when, the surface of Lake Mead sinks to elevation 1,075, a low-water mark not seen since 1937 when the reservoir was being filled for the first time.

Water authority General Manager Pat Mulroy doesn't know when the trigger point might be reached.

The trigger point has more significance. Brean continues:

Elevation 1,075 is significant for another reason. It is the legal threshold for a shortage on the Colorado River, a federal designation that would force Nevada and Arizona to reduce the amount of water they pull from the river.

Nevada's share of such a shortage would be 13,000 acre-feet a year, roughly the amount used by 26,000 average households. Arizona would be shorted more than 10 times that amount.

The lake level is now at 1098 feet, its lowest since 1965, when Lake Powell was being filled.

The SNWA plans ultimately call for about 134,000 acre-feet to be pumped from rural Nevada. That is enough for about 270,000 homes by 2020. Critics charge that pumping could have disastrous effects on ecosystems and the lifestyle in rural areas, all to fuel growth in southern Nevada. The SNWA contends that the pipeline is not about sustaining growth but protecting the community from extended drought on the Colorado River.

According to Brean:

Water authority officials long have said the pipeline is not about sustaining growth, but protecting the community from extended drought on the Colorado River.

The phrase "not about sustaining growth" is really hard to swallow.

When I was in Tucson at the recent Ground Water Summit, I heard Kenneth A. Albright, PE, SNWA's Director of Groundwater Resources, speak. To my disappointment, he did not speak much about groundwater per se, but about SNWA water resources in general. He said that in SNWA's service area they were planning on 3.6M residents by 2035. That's approximately double the current population.

So a doubling of population in about 25 years is not growth?

What about conservation?

Albright said SNWA's conservation goal was 199 gallons per capita per day by 2035; usage is now about 254 gallons pcpd. Both figures are pretty pathetic, when you consider what other Western USA cities are doing. Just yesterday, I got a Tweet touting that Long Beach just reached 105 gallons pcpd. Seattle is about 102 gallons pcpd, San Diego is about 150 gallons pcpd and Albuquerque is below 175 gallons pcpd. Here are some more Western cities (thanks to Chris Brooks).

So even though SNWA has recently gotten quite aggressive conservation-wise, it could do much better than 199 gallons pcpd in 25 years.

If SNWA is not seeking more water to fuel growth, perhaps it should get the word out to its employees.

And that 'trigger'? It just may be part of a gun pointed at rural Nevada.

“The problem with communication…is the illusion that it has been accomplished.” – George Bernard Shaw