Water News Roundup – July 20, 2010

Even die-hard water newsies like myself have to break for vacation now and again.  I’ll be up running the Snake River over the next few days.  The water news will be back on Monday.

St. George Spectrum:  (Unfortunately the Spectrum has switched to a subscription only format on the web.  You must have a subscription to view the articles below.  I am considering leaving the Spectrum out of the Roundup because of this.  Or I can keep posting them with a note that says ‘sub only.’ What would my readers prefer?  Feedback is greatly appreciated.  Please use the comment link, also below.)

Pipeline studies plodding along – Thousands of pages in, work continues on a group of studies on the possible environmental and social impacts of a proposed $1 billion dollar pipeline…

Residents look to save water – Triple-digit temperatures and a lack of rain have some people scratching their heads about how to keep their plants and lawns green…

Salt Lake Tribune:  Public input sought for proposed otter plan – The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources is seeking public input on a proposed plan to guide northern river otter management in Utah for the next decade.

High Country News:  Dust takes a toll – Imtiaz Rangwala studies climate change on the Tibetan Plateau and, more recently, in the American West. In mid-May, the climatologist flew into Durango, Colo., through skies darkened by dust… (Subscription required.  Fortunately HCN offers a free 30-day trial.  Give this great pub a whirl!)

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 New Roundup – April 15, 2010

KSL:

Nevada water director criticizes Utah – The head of the Southern Nevada Water Authority took shots at Utah in a recent interview, ridiculing Salt Lake City and its high water usage.

(Wow!  Them’s fightin’ words Pat.  I can just see the reverse psychology here.  Pat, “You guys don’t know how to conserve!” Salt-Lakers, “Oh yeah??? Well watch THIS!”)

April storm clobbers northern Utah, raises snowpack – Thanks to a series of powerful storms, the first half of April blanketed much of the Wasatch mountain range with a fifth of its average annual snowfall.

Deseret News: Great weather for golf – (No story here, but the DN saw fit to take note that it is INDEED excellent weather for golfing… woohoo.)

Plus, The Golfing Index.

Technorati Tags: golf,Nevada,Pat Mulroy,Snake Valley,snowpack,spring,storms,Water Conservation,weather

Water News Roundup – April Fool’s edition (but no jokes… sorry)

Provo Daily Herald: Citizens groups propose bridgeless Utah Lake – Hunters, sailors, birders, recreation-lovers and environmentalists joined together on Wednesday to tell the state to leave Utah Lake bridge-free.

Salt Lake Tribune:

Brian Head resort for sale, but who will buy? – Taking advantage of a good snow year, the owners of Brian Head Resort have stepped up their efforts to sell the ski resort above Parowan in southwestern Utah.

Governor signs contentious stream bill – Gov. Gary Herbert signed a bitterly contested bill Wednesday that could restrict fishing and recreation access to some streams that cross private land, saying he believed it will foster negotiations in a clash over public water rights and private property.

KSL: Cache council to sponsor canal project – The Cache County Council will sponsor a multimillion dollar canal project aimed at restoring irrigation water to shareholders adversely affected by a canal breach in Logan last year.

New York Times: New efficiency standards for water heaters – The Obama administration on Thursday released new energy efficiency standards for water heaters and other appliances that it said would save consumers $10 billion over 30 years while cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Technorati Tags: Brian Head,canal rehabilitation,canal safety,energy efficiency,snowpack,stream access,stream bill,Utah Lake,Utah Lake bridge,water efficiency,water/energy nexus

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 – March 16, 2010

Salt Lake Tribune: Snow forecast for parts of Utah – This weekend’s snowstorm is expected to dump 1 to 2 feet of snow on central and eastern Utah through Sunday with smaller storms stretching across the state’s northern reaches.

“Most every area of the state has had something or will get something,” National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Conger said Saturday afternoon.

Provo Daily Herald: Snow levels low, reservoir levels good, temps all over – Remember all that rain back in June?  Be grateful for it. That rain is making up for the other half of the expected snowpack that northern Utah most likely will not see this winter.

Technorati Tags: snowpack,water supply forecast

Water News Roundup – March 15, 2010

Salt Lake Tribune:

Long-held water rights in Nevada could be invalid – A Nevada Supreme Court ruling has triggered a tidal wave of legal uncertainty over decades of water rights sought by thirsty Las Vegas, dealing a big setback to the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s plan for a massive pipeline project and raising questions about thousands of water rights around the state.

Snow forecast for parts of Utah – This weekend’s snowstorm is expected to dump 1 to 2 feet of snow on central and eastern Utah through Sunday with smaller storms stretching across the state’s northern reaches.

KSL: Why is the Jordan River running so fast and furious? – What’s going on with the Jordan River? We’re having a lousy snow year in Northern Utah, and the primary snowmelt season hasn’t begun. Yet the river is running fast and furious, at least in places.  Jeff Bryant is on TV! Cool!

New York Times: Saving U.S. Water and Sewer Systems Would Be Costly – One recent morning, George S. Hawkins, a long-haired environmentalist who now leads one of the largest and most prominent water and sewer systems, trudged to a street corner here where water was gushing into the air.

Happy to spot this particular article, although some of my school chums may disagree…

Wall Street Journal: Engineering Grads Earn the Most – New college graduates may be entering the worst job market in decades, but there are still some majors that pay off—and all of them are in the applied sciences.

Technorati Tags: Jordan River,Nevada,snake valley,snowpack,Weather,engineering,water infrastructure

Water News Roundup – March 1, 2010

My apologies for Thursday’s news roundup – I was attending a funeral and couldn’t quite make it back to the desktop.  Lots to catch up on because of that, as you can see…

Deseret News:

Utah has too little snow in the North and too much in the South – One of Utah’s most popular winter attractions — sleigh rides at the Hardware Ranch in Cache County — is shutting down early because there just hasn’t been enough winter. It illustrates how bad our snowpack is and the tough decisions water managers will have to make later this year.

Rainwater could legally be yours –  The rain drops collecting in the bucket on your back porch may soon be legally yours under a measure endorsed Thursday by a legislative committee.

SUU students’ project aims to help aquifer – A group of Southern Utah University students are working to maintain water levels in the Cedar Valley aquifer by accelerating the rate at which water percolates into the city’s underground aquifer.

Logan fined $10,000 for water violation – he city of Logan has been fined $10,000 after an employee dumped thousands of gallons of polluted water into a ditch.  U.S. Magistrate Judge Brooke Wells issued the fine after the city pleaded guilty Tuesday to violating the Clean Water Act.

Salt Lake Tribune:

What about the sports complex? – If the federal government declares a massive flood zone across the street, what does that mean for Salt Lake City’s planned 160-acre sports complex, which also abuts the Jordan River, but has no levee?

Environmental groups sue over lack of notice – The Friends of Great Salt Lake say they weren’t given enough notice to object to the Utah Lake Master Plan.

Canal safety bill evaporates – A bill that would require state water officials to inspect canals for safety risks and canal companies to make plans for repairs and improvements to reduce those risks faded away during a legislative committee meeting Wednesday.

Wet storm welcome but we need more – With most big storms missing the Wasatch Front this winter, water officials had to be happy about the storm that hit Wednesday night and dropped a heavy, wet snow into Thursday morning.

New York Times – Science: Rulings restrict Clean Water Act, Foiling EPA – Thousands of the nation’s largest water polluters are outside the Clean Water Act’s reach because the Supreme Court has left uncertain which waterways are protected by that law, according to interviews with regulators.

Technorati Tags: aquifer,canal legislation,canal regulation,EPA,FFSL,FOGSL,Jordan River sports complex,Logan City,snowpack,SUU,Utah Lake Master Plan,water forecast,Water Quality

Water News Roundup – February 23, 2010

Ugh… back from a balmy 70 degree Napa to 24 degree Salt Lake…. BRRRRR!

Deseret News:

National plan aims to boost water levels in the West – A new Department of Interior initiative announced Monday aims to boost the water supply in the thirsty West through an infusion of dollars and strategies aimed at patching infrastructure and boosting conservation efforts.

N. Utah’s snowpack running below level – Water sources in Utah this year aren’t producing as much as in past years, but it has nothing to do with global warming, a Natural Resources Conservation Service researcher said.

Provo Daily Herald: House hears bills on stream access – One bill that tried to compromise stream bed access sank straight to the bottom on Monday, while another is treading water.

2010 Legislature: Via Jeffry Gittins, here are a couple of recent developments with water-related legislation.

Rainwater harvesting bill – SB32 was amended for the house with the following changes:

Harvested water can be stored and used on a “parcel,” which is now a defined term (the bill previously used the word “property”).

There is a limit of one underground storage container per parcel.

There is a limit of two covered storage containers per parcel.

The maximum size of covered storage containers was increased to 100 gallons (previously, it was 55 gallons).

Also, there is a new ‘Land Use Authority Notification of Canal Development’ Bill (HB298) that affects development within 100 feet of the centerline of canals.  It will require municipalities and counties to notify water agencies of proposed development.

Water News Roundup – February 16, 2010

Deseret News:

Murdock Canal Trail finally moving forward – It’s been 14 years since Utah County Commissioner Larry Ellertson first started working on the Murdock Canal Trail project.

Ecology study ordered for sports complex plan – Panned by local environmentalists, a plan to build a multimillion-dollar sports complex along the Jordan River must first pass muster with ecologists, Mayor Ralph Becker’s administration announced Thursday.

Environmentalists seek alternatives to proposed bridge over Utah Lake – Western Utah County residents may have two future options to travel east: over land or over water.  About 25 people from the Utah Lake Sailing Club, including representatives from the Sierra Club and the Utah Lake Commission, met in the Utah Lake State Park visitors center Thursday night to discuss alternatives to a proposed bridge over Utah Lake.

KSL:

Despite poor snowpack, water supply still in good shape – Many in Northern Utah woke up to a surprise snowstorm Thursday morning and to headlines about the incredible snowfalls on the East Coast.  It’s ironic, then, that snowpack numbers in Northern Utah are grim and almost certain to stay below normal the rest of the year.

KSL investigates spending by Kearns Improvement District – The Kearns Improvement District serves more than 13,000 customers — providing clean water and maintaining sewer systems.

Salt Lake Tribune:

Project to reduce mercury in lakes gets good review – Toxic mercury makes the wipers in Newcastle Reservoir too dangerous to eat.  And, while scientists might not know why the popular fishing spot is so polluted, they think they might have a means of dramatically reducing the danger levels.

Bear Lake Commission may be eliminated – A loss of funding could force the dissolution of the 40-year-old Bear Lake Regional Commission.  The cross-state commission is comprised of city and county officials from Bear Lake-area communities in Utah and Idaho. It runs on about $100,000 annually, with both states providing about half the funding.

Technorati Tags: Kearns Improvement District,Utah Lake,Utah Lake bridge,Murdock Canal,Provo Reservoir Enclosure Project,snowpack,precipitation forecast,Bear Lake,Bear Lake Commission,mercury,Newcastle Reservoir,water quality

Water Supply Outlook – 2010

On the snow forecasting front, here is a link to Brian McInerney’s Water Supply Outlook.  It’s a great, narrated PowerPoint presentation.  Brian presents his forecast every year for the National Weather Service.

Another popular snowpack assessment by Randy Julander, our esteemed Snow Survey Supervisor from the NRCS, can be found here:  Randy’s Presentation.

Technorati Tags: water supply,hydrology,snowpack,precipitation forecast

Water News Roundup – February 11, 2010

Deseret News: Ogden OKs 5 million gallon tank – The Ogden City Council recently approved the construction of a 5 million gallon water tank, which is part of a major water system upgrade.

Provo Daily Herald: Century-old wooden pipeline unearthed in Springville – Construction crews digging a trench for a new pipeline along 400 East in Springville found out this week that some of the trench’s previous occupants never vacated.

And two stories that illustrate how too much or too little of the white stuff can be a bad thing…

Salt Lake Tribune:  Enough already: Snow shatters records – Worst winter ever? The second blizzard in less than a week buried the most populous stretch of the East Coast under nearly a foot of snow Wednesday, breaking

records for the snowiest winter and demoralizing millions of people still trying to dig out from the previous storm.

Washington Post: With warm weather, forecast calls for hauling snow in for the Vancouver Olympics – While blizzard conditions forced even the plows off the road in Washington, dump trucks on the other side of the continent hauled heaping mounds of snow up winding mountain roads, while twin-engine, heavy-load helicopters dumped large buckets of it every three minutes during daylight hours Wednesday.

Technorati Tags: pipeline,Springville,weather,snowfall

Water News Roundup – February 9, 2010

Daily Herald:

Snowpack way below normal, reservoir levels ok – Don’t let the sun, the blue sky and the comparatively warm temperatures fool you. It’s just one of the many personalities of Utah winter.

Murdock Canal trail may be in jeopardy – On Tuesday, Highland may have cast aside years of work by many cities hoping to build a 21-mile regional trail.

Salt Lake Tribune: Runoff looks lean in N. Utah – Winter storms have dumped on southwestern Utah but skimped in the north, and it appears the spring runoff, for now, will do the same.

Now that it’s (almost) legal to catch rainwater in Utah, it’s time to learn how to do it…

Water. Use it Wisely – Arizona: Harvesting Rainwater for your landscape – Rainfall amounts may be minimal here in the low desert, but harvesting rainwater to channel to your landscape plants can be well worth the effort…

Water News Roundup – February 3, 2010

The Spectrum: Snowpack could result in flooding – Last week’s storm may be over, but officials say the excess snow it left in Southern Utah’s higher elevations may result in future flooding.

Salt Lake Tribune: Gains from Grand Canyon flooding short-lived – Maintaining sandbars crucial to wildlife in the Grand Canyon would require more frequent high water flows from Glen Canyon Dam that coincide with natural flooding of Colorado River tributaries, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist said Tuesday.

Water News Roundup – January 12, 2010

Deseret News: Northern Utah water outlook is dismal – Utah’s northern region is parched and thirsty with a slim chance of achieving desirable snowpack by April, while the extreme southern portions of the state are faring much better, the latest numbers show.

Funniest comment so far… “I always pray for lots of snow since seeing pictures of Lake Powell a few years ago. My daughter always prays for no snow because being California transplants, she hates the cold. I guess we cancel each other out.”

AWRA Blog: Southwest Hydrology – Last Issue – Michael the “Aquadoc”, editor of AWRA’s blog, thanks Betsy Woodhouse for her contributions via the publication she began eight years ago “Southwest Hydrology”.  Unless they are able to find added funding this will be the last issue.