WaterWired

Emily Green's The Week That Was in Water, 29 November - 5 December 2009

Time once again for that weekly tasty morsel craved by all true WaterWonks: Emily Green's recap of some of the more fascinating and bizarre happenings in WaterWorld.

And nary a mention of Tiger Woods!  

So what do we have to look forward to this week?

Philosopher Kathleen Dean Moore; California water (gees, again?); Florida; chemicals from hydraulic fracturing, or 'fracking' (a favorite of BSG fans); retired judge notes the difference between Eastern and Western water law vis-a-vis Atlanta (Gov. Perdue's probably praying for rain again); resurrection of (God save us!) NAWAPA (conjures images of Japanese 1950s monster flicks. Arrgghhh - it's Nawapa!); Canada; conservation; and more!

An aside: if NAWAPA is returning, could NARA be far behind? 

Give Emily a read.

“The dinosaurs didn’t know it was coming. We do. … Scientists might think that the right information in the right place is enough to move people to moral action, but that’s a logical mistake.” — philosopher Kathleen Dean Moore

Emily Green's The Week That Was in Water, 22-28 November 2009

Emily's week-end post highlights quotes and associated links that illustrate a variety of water stories: too much water, too little water, bad quality water, bottled water, big dams, rubber dams, water conservation, Volkswagen-sized rocks, and more!

Will Gov. Sonny try to move the Georgia-Tennessee border north to tap the Tennessee River?

Enjoy!

“Good God.” — An Australian response to the relative laxity of California water conservation

Giving Thanks in the Water Blogosphere

Provocative title, no?

In the USA and Canada we are celebrating Thanksgiving Day.  It's a national holiday here in the USA, and schools are closed on Thursday and Friday.

In the USA the Friday after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday. That's fodder for another blog.

So what I am thankful for? Good health, a wonderful partner (Mary Frances), great family, the USA, friends, colleagues, a job I love, the Internet....

I am grateful for you, the readers, and no one said it better than Emily Green (see below).

For this post I thought I would check out some my favorite blogs and highlight one of their recent (i.e., November) posts that caught my fancy.

Why? Because I'm thankful for them!

Emily Green: Thank You for Reading

Peter Gleick: What the frack? Poisoning our water in the name of energy profits

Watercrunch: Top 10 Potential Lunar Bottled Water Slogans

Crikey Creek: A phylogeny of hydrological thought and Watergate was not about water (twofer!)

Waterblogged: Zebra mussel shells found at Roosevelt

Aguanomics: Policies & Procedures: a good thing or bad?

Great Lakes Law: Great Lakes on the brink of Asian carp invasion thanks to “monumental government screwup”

John Fleck: Weart on CRUgate

Thirsty in Suburbia: Slummin' It at Hyde Park

Hydro-Logic: Happy (?) World Toilet Day!

Water For the Ages: World Toilet Day - 2009

The Water Blog: Happy Thanksgiving from the Portland Water Bureau!

Water, Waste, Whatever: Nestle, seeking joy, not giving up on water

The Water Law: Nutrient Standards Under the Clean Water Act

Aquafornia: Ads spark new Delta debate; Restore the Delta demands group stop using RTD’s materials

H2ONCoast: Water and oil DO mix! "Unitization" anyone?

Blogging On Water: Happy Universal Children's Day!

Water Words That Work: Caught Green Handed!

Watering the Desert: Tucson/Pima County Water Study Update

Enjoy!

“Geography is just physics slowed down, with a couple of trees stuck in it.” -- Terry Pratchett

Universities Partnership for Transboundary Waters: Second Newsletter

The Universities Partnership for Transboundary Waters (UPTW), a consortium of universities on all six inhabited continents, recently published its second newsletter.

Download UPTWNewsletterNov2009

[Shill alert: I was one of the founding members back in 2002.]

In case you missed the first newsletter, access it here.

Enjoy!

"We must not allow ourselves to become like the system we oppose." -- Bishop Desmond Tutu

Live Blogs and Tweets from the Water Harvesting, Storage, and Conservation Conference 2009

From Abby Brown (posted on 22 November):

For the next three days, YOU can virtually attend a conference on Water Harvesting, Storage, and Conservation (WHSC) by reading and commenting on blog posts and tweets posted in real-time by Praveena Sridhar on the India Water Portal here.

The conference, at the Indian Institute of Technology – Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, India, will focus on the technology, policy, and implementation of solutions to some of the world’s most pressing water problems. Some topics of discussion will include:

• National policy support for planning by basin.
• Water harvesting for agriculture.
• Storm water management.
• Participatory water management.
• Water conflict and management.
• Groundwater recharge and remediation.

“WHSC-2009 invites delegates and experts working in the area of water harvesting, storage and conservation from global institutes and industries to participate in this event. The conference aims at the synergy between Academics, Researchers, Industrialists, Policy-makers and Implementers.”

Enjoy!

"Don't bargain for fish which are still in the water." -- Indian proverb

Emily Green's The Week That Was in Water, 15-21 November 2009

Emily Green is up to her old tricks again with another delightful compendium of the week's water events.

If she ever stops doing this, a number of us will suffer severe WWW (WaterWonk Withdrawal) symptoms.

It'd also mean I'd have to work hard to come up with a decent Monday post.

Leading off her list is a no-brainer: the New Orleans decision (see today's quote) that the Corps of Engineers bears some culpability in the Hurricane Katrina flooding by failing to maintain the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MR-GO).

I can't recall ever having heard the Corps accused of 'insouciance'.

And she has notes on the Bay-Delta situation (she's trolling for an interview on Fox News, no doubt), India,the UK flooding, Japan, Bali, Hong Kong, Washington State (not the university with the hapless football team), Texas, Bangladesh, SoCal, Florida, and - surprise - Las Vegas.

But for once, the LV story does not involve water quantity, groundwater, Mayor Oscar Goodman, or Pat Mulroy's gold  lamé slippers. This time it's all about water quality, or lack thereof, in Las Vegas Wash, which drains into Lake Mead.

Enjoy the read, and watch that insouciance, you supercilious sycophants!

“It is the court’s opinion that the negligence of the corps, in this instance by failing to maintain the MR-GO properly, was not policy, but insouciance, myopia and shortsightedness." -- Federal District Court Judge Stanwood R. Duval, Jr.

Emily Green's The Week That Was in Water, 8-14 November

Here is Emily Green's weekly summary of what's happening in water.

On tap: an empty reservoir south of Denver, Nevada Test Site and radioactive contamination of aquifers, water on the moon, an outrageous water bill, the Poseidon adventure, Sonny's task force, recycled water, golf courses in Thailand, and lots more! 

“People will overreact to this news and say, ‘Let’s have a water rush to the moon.’ It doesn’t justify that.” – Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11 astronaut

Lickspittle Alert: Emily Green's The Week That Was in Water, 1-7 November

Emily Green treats us WaterWonks to another fix of the happenings in waterworld (a badddd movie, by the way) during the past week with The Week That Was in Water.

She also does an excellent Merriam Webster imitation. Find out the definition of 'lickspittle'.

Coverage of California's water legislation, China, India, and lots more!

“It would be a tragedy and a blow to national security if we did not have Westlands.” -- Congressman Jim Costa, D-Fresno, Fresno Bee, 7 November 2009
(see this article as well)

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

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

Abby Brown: Photo Essay on Water Leaks in India

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Emily Green: The Week That Was in Water, 27 September - 3 October

Find out from Emily Green what happened in water during the past week. She's got a couple of nice Monet paintings on her site.

Maybe next time she'll have some Turners.

What does she cover? Here is a sampling: DiFi, The Governator, Salazar, fish, farmers, Klamath dams, Florida, India, Nevada, Utah.

No Hannity or Stewart, however.

“Bottled water is the pet rock of this era. It’s something that people pay for that you can get essentially free.”  --  Dave Tilford, a spokesman for the Center for a New American Dream

Abby Brown: Two Weeks in India and New India Water Portal

Abby Brown, who's interning with Arghyam in Bangalore, has just updated her Water for the Ages blog with a post describing her first two weeks there. 

She also announced that there is a new India Water Portal. Take a look.

"India was the mother of our race and Sanskrit the mother of Europe's languages. She was the mother of our philosophy, mother through the Arabs, of much of our mathematics, mother through Buddha, of the ideals embodied in Christianity, mother through village communities of self-government and democracy. Mother India is in many ways the mother of us all." -- Will Durant

WQIN: Water Quality Knowledge and Information Network

I just received an email about the creation of the WQIN, a online community for exchanging water quality information. It sounds a lot like WaterSISWEB - a user-controlled site. There are both advantages and disadvantages to that kind of arrangement.

Here is the WQIN blurb:

WQIN is a collaborative community for the purpose of exchanging Water Quality Knowledge.

Since the World Wide Web became available as a fast way to disseminate information, online-accessible databases (like STORET, AQUASTAT and others) advanced the ways we electronically share data. The remaining body of knowledge on Water Resources, however, is limited to static pages and links to data sources. The material available is usually restricted to information from resources a few editors are able to collect, check and publish.

Besides discussion lists, there are still limited resources that allow water professionals, researchers, agencies and stakeholders to disseminate other kinds of information that could benefit Water Quality Projects, such as methods, experiences, models, metadata, water quality assessments, opinions and any other relevant knowledge related to the field. In order to promote collaboration, there is a need for more efficient communication tools that will enable information, while keeping it reliable, to be published faster.

The Water Quality Knowledge and Information Network proposes to do just that, hoping to have an impact on the way water professionals, at all levels, communicate and collaborate. An organically grown network have a great impact on how quickly the system can publish and manage the community's knowledge, since these would be grassroots contributions emanating from the community itself, as opposed to mandated or dictated information .

This Network is only as powerful as the information submitted by its users, so welcome aboard and start contributing!

It's worth a look, and contribute if you like - it'll only be as good as the active participation of its users.

"Knowledge is of two kinds: we know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it." -- Samuel Johnson

Emily Green: The Week That Was in Water, 6-12 September

Want to be entertained and informed by someone else for a change? Someone who doesn't try to conjure sophomoric double entendres [like the title of this post] every other sentence?

Try Emily Green's wonderful The Week That Was and find out what was really important in the water world from 6-12 September.

Alas, no toilet paper tales!

Gayle Leonard will like these double entendres:

"Is There a Ring of Debris around Uranus?" -- Newspaper headline

"Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Space" -- another newspaper headline

Peter Gleick and Alex Basilevsky: Two Smart Guys

Took me a while to figure out a catchy title for this post until I figured, "Why not call it what it is?"

Alex Basilevsky, who runs the excellent blog The Water Law and an eponymous Twitter alerted me to Peter Gleick's excellent post, New McCarthyism: Fear of Science and the War on Rationality.

The title of Peter's post speaks for itself - read this sentence:

Gleick. But my friends and colleagues from overseas are increasingly shocked, as are many of us in the U.S., by the expanding efforts of home-grown extremists to undermine rational discourse, eliminate the use of fact and science in policymaking, and shut down public debate over the vital issues of our times through hate, vitriol, and ad hominem attacks.

Here is an example of the above:

Gleick. We see President Obama appoint one of the nation's best scientists in the areas of energy, environment, and national security -- Dr. John Holdren -- to be his Science Advisor, and then have right-wing mouthpieces like Glenn Beck spread ad hominem lies about him because of their fear that facts and actual science may once again inform Presidential action. This should be a recognizable tactic to us -- lying about a person to diminish their effectiveness. In fact, these extremists want to undermine the forward-looking policies that would prevent the very draconian measures they say they deplore.

Read his entire post here; it's what I would expect from Peter.

He concludes thusly:

Gleick. What does this have to do with water -- the ostensible focus of my blog? Nothing and everything. I try to focus on numbers here and what they mean for international and local water issues. Yet water policy, or any policy, must also be based on rationality,facts, and civil discourse. Similarly, solving any bad water contamination problem requires one of two approaches: don't let the contamination into our water supply in the first place, or apply the right filters to clean it up when it does. The same rule applies to those who would pollute our public discourse with hate and noise: don't let their vitriol into our media supply or filter it out before it can poison our democracy.

Alex commented on Peter's post. He thought it was excellent, but disagreed with Peter's suggestion that we filter out misinformation and vitriol before it reaches the media:

Basilevsky. Dr. Gleick suggests that we need to filter out the fear mongers. I believe that the challenge posed by individuals like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and the other pundits who spew vitriol into our public discourse is not in how we shut them down, but rather how we make them irrelevant.

We live in a country that treasures free speech. But when we have a right to a thing, it means someone else has the obligation to provide it to us. Your right to free speech is my obligation to let you speak, no matter how much I disagree with what you have to say. And that is a good thing. Both history and the modern world are replete with examples of countries and societies that don’t have a right to free speech. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to live in such a country.

So, given that we can’t – and shouldn’t – shut them up, how do we combat fear mongers? The answer is, of course, education. It is a truism that fear is bred from ignorance. The current healthcare debate provides the easiest example – death panels. Former Governor Palin stated publically that the healthcare reform plan being considered by Congress contained a provision wherein people would be denied healthcare by a panel of bureaucrats based on their “level of productivity in society.” Palin famously labeled these panels “death panels” causing an enormous public uproar. Because, let’s face it, few congressman much less their constituents had actually read the various reform proposals floating around Congress. Anyone who has knows that there was no actual basis in fact for her statement. (For an analysis of the issue see here.)

Ignorance creates the opening for the less scrupulous, and those who are less concerned with accuracy, to stir the pot. Science is particularly vulnerable to fear mongering because many scientific disciplines are complex and beyond the experience of the average person. This makes people vulnerable to fear mongers. And it is a vulnerability that is exploited ruthlessly by politicians and pundits of every stripe.

Thus it is critically important that the scientific community not only expand the boundaries of human knowledge and understanding, but also that they bring the rest of us along on the journey. Scientists, particularly in America, must become better at making their knowledge and discoveries accessible to the public.

Let the fear and hate mongers rant. And an educated public will meet their fear and hate with the only response it deserves – laughter (I happen to think Glenn Beck is hilarious).

Like Alex, I come down hard on the issue of free speech (and I' not implying that Peter doesn't support free speech) and even posted about it elsewhere. He's right that we scientists have a responsibility to explain science to policymakers and the public alike. I like what he says: "...bring the rest of us along on the journey."

But unlike Alex, I am unsure I have such faith in American policymakers and the public. It is hard to forget that a recent Gallup poll found that among Americans, only 39% believe in evolution, 25% don't, and 36% have no opinion. A Pew report found that 40-50% believe in creationism.

It is possible my lack of faith in the public and policymakers is misplaced. Perhaps I'm just projecting my own shortcomings as an explicator onto them. 

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Ben Franklin

Robert Glennon's Webinar Online

There were some technical difficulties with Robert Glennon's Webinar yesterday and it took about 30 minutes to get the glitches worked out. Island Press has been kind enough to provide access to the audio/video (narration, PowerPoint slides, Q&A) at this site.  

Questions for Professor Glennon can be emailed to press@islandpress.org. Answers to selected questions will be posted to the Island Press WWW site. 

Enjoy!

"The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our children. You must give to the rivers the kindness you would give to any brother." -- Chief Seattle

Abby Brown in India: Impressions of Water in Bangalore

Abby Brown of the Water for the Ages blog,, whom I featured a few days ago, is in India now, in Bengaluru (aka Bangalore), the Silicon Valley of India.

She has posted her first item, Impressions of H20 in Bangalore.

The first few paragraphs: 

Thursday was my first day in Bengaluru (aka Bangalore). Before arriving, it was impossible for me to comprehend the size of the city. Bangalore is huge with a population of around 6.5 million people. This is the largest city that I have ever visited, and there are people, buildings, and vehicles everywhere. Quickly, I am learning to adapt to life (and water) here.

While walking around town, I saw water tankers with pipes going into businesses and buildings. A man from a local restaurant explained to me that the city only provides water on alternate days. On days when the city does not provide water, residents and business owners often buy their own water from private companies. Soon, I will write a detailed post about this complex issue.

Here are some pictures from her flickr site.

"Don't bargain for fish that are still in the water." -- Indian proverb

Abby Brown: Chronicler of a Vital Resource

There is an excellent piece about Abigail (Abby) Brown titled Chronicler of a Vital Resource. Be sure to read Celene Carillo's article in Powered By Orange. 

The picture is from the article.

Abby, who runs the Water For The Ages blog and its YouTube channel, is a Master's student in OSU's Water Resources Policy and Management Graduate Program and minoring in Women Studies. I am proud to say that I am her advisor.

She previously served as an intern with the Neighborhood Ground Water Network.

She emailed me this morning to say that she's in Bangalore, India, where she is beginning a four-month internship to study gender and water issues. 

Watch her blog for her posts, which I will also repeat and Tweet.

"In an age when man has forgotten his origins and is blind even to his most essential needs for survival, water along with other resources has become the victim of his indifference.” -- Rachel Carson

Charisma Queen's SUSIE Shout-Out

Muchas gracias to Charisma Queen Ava over at The Reef Tank for her SUSIE Program shout-out, Say Hello to SUSIE. Much appreciated!

Great students!

"It's not what is poured into a student, but what is planted." -- Linda Conway

Meet Linda Stewart, WaterBillWoman. Now Check Your Water Bill!

Have you ever received a water bill you knew could not be correct?

You are not alone!

Did you call the water department about the bill?

How were you treated?

Did you have a hearing?

Was your water bill reduced after the hearing?

So begins Linda Stewart's post on the blog portion of her Water Bills Group Site.

Here's more about Linda:

My name is Linda Stewart. I have concerns about the Baltimore City Water Billing System and the amount of errors that are occurring within the billing system. Errors are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and are being paid for with taxpayers' dollars.  I have uploaded water bill information that I have been collecting for two years, water bills on many locations throughout Baltimore City and Baltimore County.   The spreadsheets will enlighten you on the amount of errors occurring in the Water Billing System. Locations that are highlighted in pink are the most concerning. One example is Montelbello Water Treatment Facility. Their water bill has fluctuated from $12,752.41 up to $529,074.81 and this quarter is back down to $16,212.53.  Baltimore would not be the first city that has a water billing problem. The New York Times has reported about New York City's broken water billing system.  

If you are having or have had problems with your water company, you ought to check this site out. Linda lives in Baltimore, and given some of the stories on her site, I'd check my bill closely if I lived there and was served by the local utility. In fact, I'd check my bill no matter where I lived.

Linda is also a active Tweeter (Twitter-er), at WaterBillWoman. That is how I first learned of her and her site, when she followed me on WaterWired's Twitter. She Tweets about some egregious examples from other places, too.

Give her a look.

I did, and I'm more appreciative of my service from the City of Corvallis.

"Something is wrong  - everybody's house ain't leaking." -- Baltimore City Councilman Bernard Young    

Twitter for Sh*tters - Can It Make Sanitation Sexy?

Yesterday I received an email from Leonard Markidan, communications manager of Skadaddle Media. The message began:

Let's talk shit.

Okay. That expletive naturally piqued my curiosity, so I read on. As I suspected, his message was peppered with double entendres, puns, and wise-ass comments. Markidan must be a fellow Catholic high school grad, still mired in his sophomore year (as Mary Frances is wont to say about me). 

Markidan's email described an agressive social media marketing initiative, Twitter for Sh-tters,  to make sanitation 'sexy'. So here's what the site had to say:

Why is sanitation such a dirty word? For whatever reason, it has become taboo to talk about it. We all poop, crap, dump, or whatever you call it! Well, we think it’s time to cut through the crap and start talking shit.

Why now? Because the world needs it. Lack of sanitation has become a life-or-death issue in the poorest parts of the world, and we can’t hold it in any longer. Non-profit Wherever The Need, which provides eco-sanitation toilets where they are needed most, created Twitter for Sh-tters to push hard to get people talking about the straight poop. We’re raising money to build more eco-san toilets (the aforementioned “shitters.”)

The idea is simple: every day, Twitter users – whether they have 5 followers or 5,000 – will spend the day tweeting to try and get their followers to donate. Our “Daily Dumpers” can tweet about whatever crap they want from the best “potty humor” to simply just “talking shit.” The point is to take this long-avoided topic and, pardon the expression, step right in it.

Will you give a shit?

You can follow their Tweets at Twitter.

Sanitation (which I'm not sure is a 'dirty word') of this type is a tough sell. What this movement really needs is someone famous to serve as spokesperson. But who's going to espouse such a cause? Maybe someone classy, like Sigourney Weaver or Meryl Streep. Or a girl-next-door-type like Sandra Bullock or Katherine Heigl. Or perhaps someone over-the-top, like Jack Black, Russell Brand, or Seth Rogen. How about potty-mouthed Sarah Silverman? A dark horse - Pauly Shore (ha ha) - his career is in the crapper anyway.

So who's your choice?

A final note about this. I'm sure some were turned off by the language Markidan used. It didn't faze me, but a couple of friends emailed me to say they did not care for this approach. I asked Markidan about this and he responded that he knew it would be divisive, but that the majority of the feedback has been positive/supportive. He felt that with all the worthy causes out there, he needed something that would cause people to stand up and take notice. I agree; this issue is so far under the radar that  such an extreme campaign is warranted. Time will tell if his approach worked.

As I said earlier, this topic, although extremely important, is a tough sell. Sanitation is one thing, but when you get down to defecation and urination, we all look the other way unless we're telling jokes at a high-school reunion. But Markidan did provide me with today's quote, which illustrates the problem.

What is your take on this issue and Markidan's approach to it?

As for me, I'm off to Tweet about sh*t.

'“The cognitive scientist Steven Pinker lists a dozen categories of euphemism, including taboo (shit), medical (stool, bowel movement) and formal (feces, excrement, excreta, defecation, ordure).  The category that’s missing is 'conversational.'  There is no neutral word for what humans produce at least once a day, usually unfailingly.  There is no defecatory equivalent of the inoffensive, neutral 'sex'.” -- Rose George, The Big Necessity

USAF's Blog Threat Assessment and Response Determination

Our flyboys are keepin' us safe in the blogosphere! KISS, guys!

You might find this chart useful.

Thanks to cbwater and kevinmccann.

View this photo

 

So am I a 'troll', 'rager', 'misguided', or an 'unhappy customer'? Say what?

"We're going to blog them back into the Stone Age." - apologies to Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, USAF

AquaPedia: Interactive WWW Repository of Water Information and Wisdom

I had heard about AquaPedia from a colleague a few months ago but had forgotten about it till Robert at Watercrunch informed me that the beta site was active.

He also sent me a link to an interview with the site's creator, Dr. Shafiqul Islam of Tufts University.

From the site's blurb:

Welcome to AquaPedia. A virtual world of reliable, relevant, and readily available water information and wisdom collected and synthesized by users and producers of explicit (water information) and tacit (water wisdom) knowledge. The transformative and collaborative power of AquaPedia will make water a flexible and expandable resource.

AquaPedia, developed at Tufts, presents an example of the emerging trend to integrate collaborative technologies & transdisciplinary scholarship to create actionable knowledge. The initial content of the AquaPedia consists of case studies drawn from the Tufts Fall 2008 University Seminar on Water and Diplomacy: Integration of Science, Engineering, and Negotiations.

Looks like people post information about case studies, provide feedback, etc. You can become a active member and author if you like.

The current featured case study is of the Volta River Basin. Thirteen other case studies were listed, although most have no information actually posted - just the name as a placeholder. Also, on the few studies I examined no authors were listed. Not very helpful.

Good idea, but time will tell if this catches on. Remember, it's a beta version.

"We’re creating actionable knowledge, not just knowledge that sits in the library." -- Dr. Shafiqul Islam

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

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

 

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

180+ Water Twitters/Tweeps

A few days ago I posted a list of some of my favorite waterbloggers who also Twitter.  I've now decided to list all those water Tweeps who follow me on my Twitter. Some of these Tweeps go beyond water, some don't issue many Tweets at all and some get a bit carried away.

This is nowhere near an exhaustive list but it's a good start. If you want to see many more, just look at some of these Tweeps with large followings and/or who follow many others, and take your pick.

Self-promotion alert: You can also go here to find a list of water Tweeps ('water scribes') whom you can follow individually or as a group.

If you want to add your water Twitter (and your blog, if you have one) in the 'Comments' section, please do so. I will periodically update this list.

And if you don't have a Twitter account, get one free at twitter.com. I'm very glad I did.

Note to my fellow Tweeps: I should have actually used 'Tweep' by itself in the post title, but many who don't know what a Tweep is will know Twitter. Mea culpa!

Facebook is next. Stay tuned.

twitter.com/CanadianWater

twitter.com/waterca

twitter.com/watersisweb

twitter.com/siswebs

twitter.com/matt_weiser

twitter.com/americanrivers

twitter.com/ewn

twitter.com/WUIW

twitter.com/WaterTechOnline

twitter.com/waterguru2

twitter.com/awalkernh

twitter.com/waterdropblog

twitter.com/LPAWater

twitter.com/SFWater

twitter.com/SaveOurWater

twitter.com/TheRyansWell

twitter.com/RainGardens

twitter.com/VaWaterCenter

twitter.com/kjmcguire

twitter.com/waterpressures

twitter.com/water1st

twitter.com/Irrigation

twitter.com/WaterPartners

twitter.com/waternote

twitter.com/5Multiplied

twitter.com/worldH2O

twitter.com/SaveH2OAmerica

twitter.com/WaterAidAmerica

twitter.com/TheWaterProject

twitter.com/ONEDROPdotorg

twitter.com/SteveShropshire

twitter.com/mattbaum

twitter.com/TheWaterLetter

twitter.com/riverkeeper

twitter.com/TualatinRiver

twitter.com/RainBirdCorp

twitter.com/drinktap

twitter.com/JHUWater_Health

twitter.com/Turdherder

twitter.com/STORMusa

twitter.com/HydroPoint

twitter.com/foodandwater

twitter.com/deschutesriver

twitter.com/BVWater

twitter.com/LisaWedin

twitter.com/wateractions

twitter.com/hydroheroes

twitter.com/strasser

twitter.com/LongBeachWater

twitter.com/thisisexcellent (#50)

twitter.com/wateraid

twitter.com/HydroCam

twitter.com/Water_Writer

twitter.com/cbdawson

twitter.com/theallwaterblog

twitter.com/a3anavlo

twitter.com/BlueLivingIdeas

twitter.com/valleywater

twitter.com/savingh2o

twitter.com/azwater     (#60)

twitter.com/LADWP

twitter.com/ENRnews

twitter.com/loticwater

twitter.com/aguanomics 

twitter.com/charitywater

twitter.com/waterforpeople

twitter.com/watercharity

twitter.com/NEHydroSynth

twitter.com/H2OKITS

twitter.com/UtahTap     (#70)

twitter.com/Wishing_Well

twitter.com/downinmexico

twitter.com/Lifewater

twitter.com/rainharvest

twitter.com/rteeter

twitter.com/waterthrift

twitter.com/hlng_wtrs_intl

twitter.com/WWC_WaterWell

twitter.com/wwc_dave

twitter.com/floridaswater     (#80 - 1 June 2009)

twitter.com/Conserve_H2O

twitter.com/watersedgemin

twitter.com/AquascapeInc

twitter.com/munierin

twitter.com/thirstaidlive

twitter.com/SDSUICATS

twitter.com/wallywaterdrop

twitter.com/columbiawater

twitter.com/campaignwater

twitter.com/TheGreenBella     (#90 - 20 June 2009)

twitter.com/KavehMadani

twitter.com/ebmud

twitter.com/othercatchment

twitter.com/EndWaterPoverty

twitter.com/CleanRiverTips

twitter.com/wsi09

twitter.com/Waterdodo

twitter.com/CaWaterFront

twitter.com/riverkatz

twitter.com/ACWAWater   (#100 - 13 July 2009) 

twitter.com/gayleleonard

twitter.com/WaterIntel

twitter.com/tdower

twitter.com/abundantwater

twitter.com/hydro_intl

twitter.com/UnescoIHE

twitter.com/PursuitofWater

twitter.com/tw_tter4sh_tter

twitter.com/Lake_Champlain

twitter.com/TeamLifewater (#110 - 15 July 2009)

twitter.com/StopPeripheral

twitter.com/CaliforniaDelta

twitter.com/DeltaNatlPark

twitter.com/PureWaterStraw

twitter.com/WaterPac

twitter.com/WaterBillWoman

twitter.com/PrimaryWater

twitter.com/ExplodingSoul

twitter.com/achildsright

twitter.com/WineForWater   (#120 - 24 July 2009)

twitter.com/AfricanWellFund

twitter.com/waterforschools

twitter.com/jfleck

twitter.com/thewatercrisis

twitter.com/BH2O

twitter.com/roger91

twitter.com/FANnetwork

twitter.com/GE_Water

twitter.com/indiawater

twitter.com/SaveTheWater   (#130 - 15 August 2009)

twitter.com/WaterOnline

twitter.com/stableroad

twitter.com/watergoodness

twitter.com/EPAncer

twitter.com/siemenswater

twitter.com/Water_4_Water

twitter.com/GlobalCleanH2O

twitter.com/Hindiwater

twitter.com/wedrink

twitter.com/GetWatTreatJobs   (#140 - 19 August 2009)

twitter.com/WaterUK

twitter.com/1h2o

twitter.com/ICareAboutWater

twitter.com/Rivers_BCIT

twitter.com/ElPorvenir

twitter.com/DroughtDoctor

twitter.com/wonriverkeeper

twitter.com/cnWater

twitter.com/CitizenWater

twitter.com/PumpAid   (#150- 22 August 2009)

twitter.com/theh2hproject

twitter.com/agleader

twitter.com/waterwired

twitter.com/WiscWaterLib

twitter.com/DaneWaters

twitter.com/healthylakes

twitter.com/OregonSeaGrant

twitter.com/A4GL

twitter.com/ProfessorToilet

twitter.com/toiletwit   (#160 - 2 September 2009) 

twitter.com/prettypipeplumb

twitter.com/medindoagua

twitter.com/AmmanImman

twitter.com/groundwaterup

twitter.com/holeinroofwater

twitter.com/SuperWaterMan

twitter.com/iAgua

twitter.com/water4kids

twitter.com/CAPArizona

twitter.com/PHXwater    (#170 - 24 September 2009)

twitter.com/TheWaterChannel

twitter.com/AWRAHQ

twitter.com/USWaterPatrol

twitter.com/SFWMD

twitter.com/txawwa

twitter.com/CANVAWWA

twitter.com/kcawwa

twitter.com/aguaguy

twitter.com/WaterMattersAB

twitter.com/WellDone    (#180 - 9 October 2009)

twitter.com/SW4Ks

twitter.com/chanceofraincom

Tweet away, friends!

"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."-- Albert Einstein

Watercrunch Succombs, Joins Other Waterbloggers on Twitter

Robert Osborne of Watercrunch has seen the light and started Tweeting. He even gave me a shout-out in his 22 May 2009 post:

Housekeeping Note: I think I am the last one on the planet to start using Twitter. I remember last year boasting to Michael at WaterWired that I would never use Twitter. Like the sage he is, he predicted in a blog post that I would eventually. He was right. Visit My Page.

 

I am hardly a sage, but Robert, I know at least three people who don't Twitter so you're not the last.

 

He's right about last November: we both had the same (low) opinion of Twitter. I now find it invaluable, not only for disseminating information but also for obtaining it. I have also discovered a new community, one that also includes my favorite waterbloggers:

 

Aquafornia, The Water Law, Shaun McKinnon, Gayle Leonard, John Fleck, Portland Water Bureau, and Kaveh Madani (founder of Water SISWEB).

 

I am sure there are more.

 

Bt where's David Zetland? And Abby? How about CJ and Rob? Don't forget Noah and Gabriel.

 

So if you don't have a Twitter account, get one at twitter.com and give it a try; it's free and just takes a minute or two to sign up. And don't forget to follow WaterWired.

 

Sure there is a lot of crap (narcissism, anyone?) on Twitter. There are people who literally do Tweet every few minutes about the most inane things. Suffice it to say that I no longer follow those folks. But some people use it quite well and it's those people whose Tweets I greatly value.

 

Just remember:

 

"Twitter… there is no right way to use it, but there are plenty of wrong ways to use it…" -- Unknown Twitterer

May 2009 H2OSU Newsletter

The May 2009 H2OSU Newsletter of the Institute for Water and Watersheds at Oregon State University is now available. Read all the good, the bad, and the ugly about water. My penultimate column is also there.

Lots of good stuff - enjoy!

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

When It Rains, It Pours: Emily Green's 'Chance of Rain' Blog

Los Angeles-based journalist Emily Green emailed me to announce that she is starting a new blog, Chance of Rain. She has worked for the Los Angeles Times, The Independent (London), and other UK publications. She currently freelances for the Times and the Las Vegas Sun.

She'll also be writing a dry gardening column in the Times on June 1. 

Emily certainly has the writing chops, so I am anxious to see how Chance of Rain evolves.  

Welcome, Emily!

"Your blog is what you say when there is nobody standing over your shoulder telling you what to do." -- Lorelle