Water News Roundup – March 22, 2010

Salt Lake Tribune:

Pumping too much water is sinking Cedar Valley – Since 1939, the Cedar Valley spreading west and north of Cedar City has dropped 100 feet and the only way to stop or slow the process is replenish the underlying aquifer with at least as much water as is being discharged through pumping.

Snake Valley water deal stalled for this year – A court ruling, and the inaction of Nevada lawmakers, means any agreement on Snake Valley water won’t happen until at least 2011, according to Mike Styler, executive director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources.

KSL: Spring ends a tale of 2 winters in Utah – Two winters came to Utah this year.  One, in southern Utah, delivered storm after storm that piled deeper-than-normal drifts of snow in the mountains.  The other, in northern Utah, offered only sporadic snow but nothing close to the 30-year average.

The Spectrum: UGS report: Water table down 4 feet – Reports on the Enoch Subsidence Study by the Utah Geological Survey topped the agenda at the Central Iron County Water Conservancy District meeting Thursday.

Technorati Tags: Cedar City,Enoch,groundwater management,Nevada,precipitation,Snake Valley,snowpack,subsidence

Water News Roundup – St. Patty’s Edition

Happy St. Patty’s Day!

KSL:

Heavy snow has S. Utah preparing for potential floods – Temperatures Tuesday pushed above 60 degrees for the first time this year in Cedar City, renewing attention on the possibility of flooding.

NV users seek quick resolution to water ruling – State water officials and others are hoping for a quick resolution to a Nevada Supreme Court ruling that many believe throws the validity of thousands of water rights into question.

The Spectrum: Fissures study to be presented at water district – Reports from the Utah Geological Survey are topping the agenda at Thursday’s Central Iron County Water Conservancy District meeting.

Wall Street Journal: U.S. Opens Spigot for California Farmers – Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced a sharp increase in federal water supplies for California’s agricultural Central Valley, further easing drought concerns in a state where El Niño rains have raised the mountain snowpack after three severely dry years.

Technorati Tags: California drought,Cedar City,CICWCD,Enoch,flooding,ground water monitoring,Nevada,Snake Valley,water shortage

Water News Roundup – January 26, 2010

The Spectrum: Water standards lax?  If you Google Cedar City safe drinking water, a link on the first page takes you to test results collected by an environmental group that are posted both on the group’s Web site, www.ewg.org, and the New York Times Web site.

Salt Lake Tribune – Editorial: Utah’s pipeline problem – I have been fighting the proposed pipeline from Utah’s Snake Valley to Las Vegas for five years. This misguided project is one of three that seek to take water from Utah and move it out of state. It is astounding that Utah’s governor and the state Department of Natural Resources appear willing at some point to let the Snake Valley plan happen.

Big Gulp – A guy named Million wants to spend billions to pipe part of Wyoming’s Green River 400 miles to Denver and beyond. But as global warming threatens the flows in the Green, it would be foolhardy to suck great gulps of water from the stream. To sustain both wildlife and humans, the waters should be left alone.