Water News Roundup – August 26, 2010

Salt Lake Tribune:

State explores private management of state parks – The chairman of a board looking at the potential for privatizing state government functions would like to see Utah privatize a handful of state parks to see if they can be run more efficiently than they are now.

Lake Powell slobs foment revolt – Each summer I do penance at Lake Powell for the environmental sins of its visitors. This summer was no exception as I volunteered to work on a houseboat called the Trash Tracker. Our job: picking up debris in 108-degree heat along 100 miles or so of the 1,900-mile shoreline.

Ogden Standard Examiner:  Artificial catfish nests being placed in Bountiful lake – As a pelican swoops overhead and the cattail sways along the shore, Eric Stephenson lowers a love nest into the water.

Times Free Press:  Hot river forces costly cutback for TVA – The Tennessee Valley Authority has lost nearly $50 million in power generation from its biggest nuclear plant because the Tennessee River in Alabama is too hot.

Water News Roundup – August 24, 2010

Deseret News: Lake Powell ruled mussel free zone – The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources has officially ruled Lake Powell mussel-free three years after a false positive detection.

Salt Lake Tribune: West can lead the new energy economy – The West, with its wealth of wind, solar, geothermal and other clean, renewable energy resources, is poised to lead the nation toward a new energy future.

The Hill: EPA unveils strategy to modernize clean water programs – The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday floated a draft strategy to improve water quality nationwide, one that bluntly recognizes that today’s pollution sources are often difficult to target with traditional Clean Water Act controls.

New York Times – Science: Levels plummet in crucial reservoir – Water levels in Lake Mead, the Colorado River reservoir, fell sharply again this summer and are nearing an elevation that would set off the first-ever official water shortage on the river, The Arizona Republic reported last week.

Indian Point nuclear plant’s toll on river stirs debate – Just beneath the wind-stippled surface of the Hudson River here, huge pipes suck enough water into the Indian Point nuclear plant every second to fill three Olympic swimming pools.

Water News Roundup – August 17, 2010

Salt Lake Tribune:  Mexico, US talking about Colorado River water – A powerful Easter Sunday earthquake along the Mexico border has had ripple effects in Nevada, spurring international talks about future use of the Colorado River and the water level in Lake Mead.

Salt Lake Tribune – Editorial: Shrinking Mead – Some marinas at Lake Mead are high and dry; new roads now meander on dry ground that used to be far under water. The huge reservoir is shrinking.

New York Times:  Lake Mead’s water level plunges as 11-year drought lingers – Lake Mead, the enormous reservoir of Colorado River water that hydrates Arizona, Nevada, California and northern Mexico, is receding to a level not seen since it was first being filled in the 1930s, stoking existential fears about water supply in the parched Southwest.

City Brights w/ Peter Gleick: Water and energy: obey the law on cooling systems – The connections between energy and water are significant and complex. We use vast amounts of energy to collect, move, treat, use, and clean water. And we use vast amounts of water to produce energy, including for mining, drilling, and processing fossil and nuclear fuels, and especially for cooling power plants.

Water News Roundup – August 12, 2010

Will be visiting beautiful New Mexico next Monday.  Not sure if I’ll have internet access, but we might have a ‘New Mexico Water News’ edition.  If not, see you Tuesday!

Salt Lake Tribune: Public allowed access to Jordan River again – The Salt Lake Valley Health Department has lifted a health order limiting public access to parts of the Jordan River following a June oil leak.

Logan Canal fix might leave out some water users – Cache County residents are wondering how they are going to get irrigation water 13 months after a mudslide along the Logan Northern Canal breached the waterway and claimed the lives of three people.

Wall Street Journal: Cash flows in water deals – Indianapolis is selling its water and sewer systems to a public trust to get money for crumbling streets and bridges. San Jose, Calif., fresh from cutting 49 firefighters, might take its water utility private. “Excess” tap water in Sacramento, Calif., is helping supply a Nestlé SA bottling plant.

Via Gayle Leonard at Thirsty in Suburbia: 1971 Mad Magazine reveals the future – Sad that the thing they got wrong was the newspaper.

Water News Roundup – August 2, 2010

Will be at all day training sessions August 3-4.  No water news these days, but back on Thursday.  Thanks for checking in!

Deseret News: State forestry division plans open houses to craft Great Salt Lake Management Plan – With the wind rustling in the cattails and birds bobbing on the water of the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, members of the new Great Salt Lake Advisory Council convened their second meeting — a get-acquainted session on topics related to the unique body of water.

Those meetings are:

Aug. 10, Weber County.

Aug. 17, Salt Lake and Davis counties.

Aug. 24, Tooele County.

Aug. 31, Box Elder County.

More information can be found at www.ffsl.utah.gov/sovlands/gsl.php.

Flash floods set off mudslides and close access to roads in Utah, Duchesne counties – Flash flooding triggered mudslides and closed off access to U.S. 89 near Bird’s Eye Sunday evening but forecasters predict the weather will clear up by Monday.

KSL: Storm floods parts of Utah County – A quick-moving rain storm caused major problems in Utah County Saturday evening.

Salt Lake Tribune: Storms cause flooding in S. Utah – Residents spent Saturday filling sandbags and clearing thick red mud from Kanab streets and basements, caused by floodwaters from torrential rains that swept into town.

Provo Daily Herald: New water restrictions for Pleasant Grove – Residents are using much more water this summer than last year and it is causing a concern about the city’s secondary water supply.

AWRA Blog: Western Governor’s Association DC Workshop: Drought, Climate and Water– The Western Governors’ Association and the Western States Water Council will sponsor a two-day workshop in DC, 14-15 September 2010, on: Drought, Climate and Water: Using Today’s Information and Designing Tomorrow’s Services.

Water News Roundup – July 28, 2010

Deseret News: Strawberry River restoration project brings promise – Along a section of the Strawberry River, the bare earthen bank tells the story of man’s meddling gone wrong, of ripping away vegetation that once held together the soil.

Provo Daily Herald: Pleasant Grove officially joins aquifer study – Hoping that the city may someday be able to store water for future use, the Pleasant Grove City Council has agreed to join other north county cities in the North Utah County Aquifer Association.

Salt Lake Tribune: Groups challenge plans for Utah tar sands mine – A small Canadian company, in need of millions for its ambitious plans, also is facing stiff opposition from two Utah environmental groups that are trying to thwart its efforts to build one of the first commercial tar sand mines in the country.

MSNBC: Pipeline leak pollutes major Michigan river – Crews were working Tuesday to contain and clean up more than 800,000 gallons of oil that poured into a creek and flowed into the Kalamazoo River in southern Michigan, coating birds and fish.

HCN: It’s getting warmer and drier – A new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) offers a mixed picture of how climate change will affect Western water supplies.

Water News Roundup – July 27, 2010

KSL: Tests show no source for sheen seen in underground streams – Water managers in Salt Lake City say test results reveal no link, so far, between a sheen found on water running through several east bench properties a few blocks north of Red Butte Creek and the Chevron oil spill into that stream. Still, the source of the sheen is mystery.

Deseret News: How bad was the Red Butte spill? – Neil Vickers would like to know what made him and his wife sick the weekend a Chevron pipeline leak sent tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil down the creek that runs through his east Salt Lake City yard.

Science Daily: New water management tool may help ease effects of drought – Continued improvement of climate forecasts is resulting in better information about what rainfall and streamflow may look like months in advance.

After reading this article, I feel slightly better about not obsessing about drinking 64 oz. of water each day.  Too much of a good thing, etc…….

Scientific American: Strange but true, drinking too much water can kill you – Liquid H₂O is the sine qua non of life. Making up about 66 percent of the human body, water runs through the blood, inhabits the cells, and lurks in the spaces between.

Water News Roundup – July 26, 2010

Provo Daily Herald: Residents learn more about canal, trail project – Jackie Adamson says seeing plans for the $150 million Provo Reservoir Canal Enclosure Project is like watching a life-long dream come true.

Deseret News:

Most residents voice support for Murdock canal, trail plan – Few people pay attention to the “No Trespassing” sign that warns people off the maintenance road along the Murdock Canal.  Every day, walkers, runners and cyclists can be found using the dirt road, and no one stops them.

Safe drinking water a goal of Utah agencies, cities – Orders to boil water issued in two cities about a month apart this year highlighted an aspect of modern-day living most people take for granted — safe drinking water as close as the kitchen faucet.

KSL: Southern Utah officials help residents save water – Water officials in southern Utah are continuing a program that offers free irrigation system checks to residents so they can save water.

AWRA Blog: Evaluating sustainability of water demands in 2050 under climate change –Tetra Tech and the Natural Resources Defense Council have just released the report, Evaluating Sustainability of Projected Water Demands under Future Climate Change Scenarios.

St. George Spectrum (sub. required): The Slide Divide – A discussion that initially started out over a battle of water rights for a few individuals on Cedar Mountain has escalated to an issue that could affect all of Iron County and its taxpayers.

Water News Roundup – July 15, 2010

KSL: Chevron cited for oil spill in Salt Lake City – State regulators have cited Chevron Corp. for a pipeline leak that spilled crude oil into a Salt Lake City creek.

Washington Post: EPA seeks comment on Denver fracking study – Natural gas industry groups on Tuesday urged the Environmental Protection Agency to limit the scope of an upcoming study on the effects of a natural gas extraction process known as fracking.

New York Times: May the best flusher win – What does the Grand Canyon have in common with the world’s largest toilet? They’re both stops on the Environmental Protection Agency’s latest promotional campaign, a “We’re for Water” cross-country road trip aimed at educating consumers about water-saving behavior and products certified through the agency’s WaterSense program.

Water News Roundup – July 14, 2010

Provo Daily Herald: Canal project coming quickly – A major construction project will soon be having a big impact on north county cities.  The Interstate 15 rebuild? No, the other big effort getting under way in the region is the Provo Reservoir Canal Enclosure Project. Enclosing the waterway — a.k.a. the Murdock Canal — is a $15 million project that has been years in the making and involved a host of government agencies, including the U.S. Congress.

KSL: Public meetings kick off Murdock Canal project – A major construction project is about to get underway to enclose the Murdock Canal, the open waterway that carries water from Provo Canyon to the Point of the Mountain.  (Steve Cain, Facilities and Lands Manager for PRWUA, gets some serious facetime on KSL.  Usually they let you speak for about five seconds and then clip the take.  Steve manages to get in almost 30 seconds… go Steve!)

Ogden Standard Examiner: New reservoir ready to service two cities – A $3.2 million secondary water reservoir that becomes fully operational on Wednesday will save culinary water costs for two expanding north Davis cities.

KCPW: Lingering concerns dominate town hall meeting on oil spill – The second town hall meeting convened on the Red Butte Creek oil pipeline spill lasted more than three hours last night at Clayton Middle School in Salt Lake City.

Wall Street Journal: Water policy for NY power plants draws reliability concerns – Authorities in charge of the reliability of New York State’s power supply warn a policy to protect aquatic life could threaten the dependability of electricity supplies and increase air pollution.

Water News Roundup – May 18, 2010

Ogden Standard Examiner: Warmer Utah temps mean faster and more dangerous rivers – A spike in temperatures means Utah’s mountain-fed rivers and streams are quickly swelling — some tripling in volume in a matter of days — and raising the risk for those who recreate around them.

Brian McInerney’s April Water Supply Forecast (Waiting for May’s to be posted.)

New York Times: From Budding Poets, an Ode to Water –

Where do New York City’s budding poets find inspiration?

If you are Jeffrey Weiner, a sixth grader at Horace Mann School in the Bronx, you find it in one of the city’s sewage treatment plants handling more than 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater a day.

Treatment at wastewater plants must be quite quick,
To remove the pollutants so you don’t get sick.
In a mere seven hours, the job is complete,
Compared to weeks in nature to perform the same feat!

Water News Roundup – May 6, 2010

Not much in the way of local water news today, so a few national tidbits instead.  Enjoy!

Washington Post: New EPA water infrastructure policy seeks to encourage smart growth – If you build it, they will come. And, if you don’t, they won’t.  Such is the thinking behind a policy released late last month by the Environmental Protection Agency that instructs states to adopt smart-growth principles in allocating the $3.3 billion in water infrastructure funding that the federal government doles out each year. States, it asserts, should prioritize projects that upgrade the drinking water and wastewater infrastructure in cities over projects intended to serve new developments on the suburban fringe.

Waterwired (NSFW? You decide…probably if you live/work in Utah ;)): Colorado River as the butt of many jokes

“Hope these folks are not upstream of a drinking water intake.

First, Kay craps out, now this! Rumor has it that David Zetland has the photo taken from the other riverbank and is checking its market value.

Seriously, check out SavetheColorado.org.“

(Really great maps of the Colorado on this site.)

On the Water Front Blog: A Bay-Delta photo tour

Technorati Tags: Bay Delta,EPA,water infrastructure,Water Funding,Colorado River

Water News Roundup – April 28, 2010

Current conditions:  SNOWING!!! Rrrrrr!

Salt Lake Tribune: Professor says law supports Great Salt Lake water allocation – Great Salt Lake needs a water allocation.  That will be the message presented at the 2010 Great Salt Lake Issues Forum today through Friday at the University of Utah, featuring several experts speaking at the Ft. Douglas Officer’s Club.

Deseret News: Construction underway for water conservation center – The district broke ground Tuesday on the WaterSmart Education Center — a $3.5 million, 9,400-square-foot building at the entrance of the Conservation Garden Park, 8215 S. 1300 West. The multi-use facility will act as home base for horticulturists, with classrooms, exhibits and a greenhouse.

Las Vegas Sun: Gov. waiting to see if state Supreme Court reconsiders ruling on water rights – Gov. Jim Gibbons is going to wait before deciding what action to take to see if the Nevada Supreme Court reconsiders a ruling involving pumping 40,000 acre feet of water from eastern Nevada to Las Vegas.

Technorati Tags: Great Salt Lake,water education center,water conservation,snake valley,SNWA

Water News Roundup – April 20, 2010

The Spectrum: Winning water bottled in Beaver – Tushar Mountain Bottling, Inc. has two products available for purchase as proof and was an indirect winner named as “Best Bottled Water in the World” during the 20th Annual Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting contest in February. (Anybody tried the water in Beaver?  Is it all that?  Something tells me this doesn’t bode well for the aquifer.)

Ogden Standard Examiner:  Snow tonight as winter hangs on – A spring storm will blow into Utah late tonight and Wednesday, dumping 6 to 12 inches of new snow on the Wasatch Mountains, rain in the valleys, and causing hazardous driving conditions in mountain passes Wednesday evening.

Las Vegas Sun: State appoints new engineer on water issues – The state of Nevada has appointed Jason King as the new state engineer. King is an engineer and has worked for the Division of Water Resources for more than 19 years.

New York Times – Science: Calculating water use, direct and indirect – Your household water meter only tells part of the story — what was directly used for washing, cooking and other tasks. But what about the water that was used to grow the food you ate for dinner? Or to manufacture the book you bought or the gasoline your car burned?

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have estimated this kind of direct and indirect water use — not for households, but for American industries. Their goal was to create a tool for better assessing the impact on water use of decisions made up and down the industrial supply chain, just as one might assess cost or carbon footprint.

Technorati Tags: Beaver,bottled water,Nevada state engineer,precipitation forecast,snowpack,water footprint,water usage

Water News Roundup – April 19, 2010

Salt Lake Tribune:

Reservoir expected to spur Kanab growth – The southern Utah town of Kanab, known for its red sandstone cliffs and mesas is getting a lake.  About 200 residents and dignitaries gathered Friday at a ranch house in the city’s outskirts and broke ground on an earthen dam that will create the Jackson Flat Reservoir.

Anglers prepare for new restrictions – New laws frequently create more questions than they answer. The Recreational Use of Public Water on Private Property law, more commonly known as HB141, is no different.

“There has been a lot of misinformation flying around. Some people think they can no longer fish streams on public land and that is just not true,” said Dean Mitchell, Outreach coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR).

The Spectrum: Conserving water – The Central Iron County Water Conservancy District is evaluating suggestions for water conservation made in a study by Montgomery, Watson and Harza, a consulting company that has been conducting studies on the Lake Powell Pipeline project.

KSL: Southern Nevada water director: comments weren’t meant personally – The director of the Southern Nevada Water Authority says her comments about Salt Lake City were not meant as an attack against the citizens of Utah.  Earlier this week, Pat Mulroy told television station KCVB in Las Vegas, “They can’t spell conservation in Salt Lake City.”

Deseret News: Bountiful arsenic finding spurs water study – Bountiful city officials are funding a groundwater study after tests of water from a well near a community landfill found increased levels of arsenic.

Technorati Tags: Arsenic,Bountiful City,CICWCD,Jackson Flat Reservoir,Kanab,Lake Powell Pipeline,Pat Mulroy,SNWA,Water Conservation