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 for May 19th 2010

Last week I posted about taking care of sick kids, but this week it’s me!  *cough cough*  Hope this roundup finds you all well.  Don’t take your health for granted!

Last week I was able to meet Michael ‘the Aquadoc’ Campana at the AWRA Utah Section Conference.  He’s posted some additional analysis about one talk in particular given by State Senator Dennis Stowell on local groundwater management.  This also follows an article in High Country News I posted a few days ago.  David Zetland at Aquanomics has also re-posted on this topic.  It’s interesting that local governance of groundwater resources would garner such attention.  Here is Michael’s most recent review:

Waterwired: Unitization in Utah – Unitization in Utah? What could that be?

Last week I posted on the great time I had at a water conference in Utah (28 Hours in Utah…).  Prior to arriving in Salt Lake City I’d read a story in the 10 May 2010 issue of the High Country News (now requires a subscription to read) about the passage of a bill to allow the residents of southwestern Utah’s Escalante Valley to manage their own groundwater. At the conference I then heard a talk (via phone) by State Sen. Dennis Stowell (R), the main sponsor of SB 20, who told the story of the bill.

And now for the rest of the news…

Provo Daily Herald: Drinking water ordinance shelved so BYU can resolve concerns – An already overdue drinking water protection effort has been delayed another two weeks because of concerns expressed by Brigham Young University.

KSL: Experts warn of swift waters in rivers and streams – Search and rescue crews are warning people to be aware of high and fast-moving water in Utah’s rivers and streams. Warm days can quickly melt mountain snow, creating dangerous conditions.

Provo Daily Herald: Provo leaders raise power, water rates – It’s going to cost a little more to live in Provo — about $100 more over the next year.  The City Council on Tuesday approved increases in power and water rates beginning in July.

Water News Roundup – May 13, 2010

Sorry for the delay – working from home today with a very sick kiddo. 😦

High Country News: It takes a district – Escalante Valley citizens plan to save their declining aquifer – Standing in a circle of verdant alfalfa shoots, Cody Staheli peers from under his Staheli Farms ball cap, looking beyond the irrigation lines to the snow-packed mountains framing southern Utah’s Escalante Valley. This year’s snowmelt is expected to be higher than average. “I try not to cuss at the mud,” Staheli says. (This article requires a registration for a free trial period – hopefully you are already subscribing to HCN.  If not, this is a great chance to give it a try for 30 days.)

Deseret News: Great Salt Lake Bird Festival starts Thursday – Birders from all over Utah are converging on Farmington this weekend for the 12th annual Great Salt Lake Bird Festival.  The festival runs through Monday, and some bird-watching field trips are still available. To book a field trip, call 801-451-3286.

Salt Lake Tribune: Water pipeline going in along 3200 West – The Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District, the agency that provides most of the drinking water for the communities in the Salt Lake Valley, has launched a major pipeline expansion that will begin in Taylorsville and run through West Jordan and South Jordan.

Water News Roundup – May 4, 2010

Deseret News: More than 1,600 file protests over plan to tap Snake Valley aquifer – The protests are piling up over a plan that proposes to tap water from an aquifer in Snake Valley that straddles the border of Utah and Nevada.

St. George Spectrum: Water week educates residents – Water managers across Utah kicked off a series of tours, educational events and other activities Monday as part of Water Week, a statewide effort to promote water conservation and educate about how people use water.

Salt Lake Tribune – Editorial: Shrinking lake – The Great Salt Lake is shrinking, taking vital wetlands with it. While the lake level historically rises and falls dramatically, warming temperatures and dwindling snowpack could mean a permanently smaller lake. If that happens, millions of birds and other wildlife could lose vital food, shelter and nesting areas.

Technorati Tags: Great Salt Lake,groundwater management,Nevada,Snake Valley,SNWA,Water Conservation,Water Week

Water News Roundup – April 12, 2010

Salt Lake Tribune:

Sides gear up for new water fight – Ranchers, county governments, conservation groups and the Goshute tribe are crafting protests against a Nevada water utility’s new applications to pump Snake Valley water to Las Vegas, a conservation group said.

Utah’s first N-plant won’t float without water rights – The former uranium boomtown of Green River sits along I-70 in eastern Utah, 100 miles from the closest city. Now it may become the Western outpost of America’s nascent nuclear renaissance. Blue Castle Holdings, a three-year-old, politically connected startup, wants to build a nuclear power plant there — Utah’s first, and the first in the West since 1987.

Salt Lake Tribune – Editorial: Wilderness bill – An act of Congress to set aside 26,000 additional acres of wilderness in the Wasatch Mountain canyons east of the Salt Lake Valley could benefit water users. It could also benefit its sponsor, Utah Rep. Jim Matheson, whose vote against health care legislation has made him unpopular with some Democratic voters in the 2nd Congressional District.

Las Vegas Sun: Las Vegas can’t handle another era of unimpeded growth – A report by the Sonoran Institute, an Arizona-based nonprofit think tank, says that if the Las Vegas Valley’s population grows to capacity using the Bureau of Land Management acreage designated for development, even the most stringent water conservation measures won’t be enough to ensure that everyone has enough H2O.

Technorati Tags: groundwater management,Nevada,nuclear power,Snake Valley,Water Conservation,water/energy nexus,watershed protection,wilderness designation

Water News Roundup – April 6, 2010

KSL: Court, Moab group can sue to stop subdivision – The Utah Supreme Court says neighbors have the right to challenge an approved subdivision south of Moab on top of a freshwater underground aquifer.

Provo Daily Herald – Opinion: A bridge to somewhere – Dreams of preserving Utah Lake in its natural state are more than ever on a collision course with the Utah County that actually exists.

Salt Lake Tribune – Opinion: Countdown – It’s been nine months since the Logan & Northern Canal failed, contributing to a mudslide that inundated Canyon Road in Logan, killing a family of three.

Technorati Tags: aquifer,canal regulation,canal safety,groundwater management,Logan Canal,Utah Lake,Utah Lake bridge

Water News Roundup – March 29, 2010

Salt Lake Tribune: Feds seek public input on rerouting river for June Suckers – With carp eradication under way, federal officials are looking to the next step to make Utah Lake more hospitable to June suckers.

Deseret News: Proposal for treated groundwater could affect Great Salt Lake – Bolstered by a four-year, $2 million study and more than two decades of planning, a project that aims to pipe the byproduct of treated groundwater to a bay at the Great Salt Lake is inching forward.

Scientific American: Awash in Awareness: Knowing a product’s “Water Footprint” may help consumers conserve H2O – If you think your morning cup of joe only has 12 ounces (35 centiliters) of water in it, you’re sorely mistaken—it has closer to 40 gallons (150 liters). Conservation scientists say it’s time consumers become aware of the quantity and source of water that goes into growing, manufacturing and shipping food.

Technorati Tags: Great Salt Lake,groundwater management,JSRIP,June sucker,Provo River,water footprint

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 – January 17, 2010

Deseret News: Two bills on stream access pass committee – Like that pesky carp that keeps returning to your fishing line, the controversial issue of accessing public streams on private property is presenting lawmakers with a boatload of debate.

Salt Lake Tribune: Two bills on stream access pass House panels – Two different Utah House committees passed separate stream access bills Friday.  The bills and the debate are the result of a 2008 Utah Supreme Court decision called the Conaster Ruling that gave anglers and river enthusiasts the right to access waterways on private property as long as they stayed in the riverbed and entered the river on public property.

The Spectrum: Local water district bill put on hold – Proposed by Sen. Dennis Stowell, R-Dist. 28, Senate Bill 20 focuses on creating a special local district to help develop and execute a groundwater management plan throughout the state.

Courtesy of Jeffrey Gittens at Utah Water Law: Water Rights Deed Addendum Bill – Representative Ben Ferry has introduced House Bill 314 (HB 314) entitled “Water Rights Addendums to Deeds.” The bill would require a water rights addendum (i.e., a “deed rider”) to be included with every deed that conveys land or water rights.

NPR: Warming planet can mean more snow – With snow blanketing much of the country, the topic of global warming has become the butt of jokes.  For scientists who study the climate, it’s all a bit much. They’re trying to dig out.  Most don’t see a contradiction between a warming world and lots of snow. That includes Kevin Trenberth, a prominent climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado.

Technorati Tags: Climate Change,groundwater management,precipitation,public access,snow,stream access,Utah Legislature 2010,Water Rights