Water News Roundup – August 23, 2010

Ogden Standard Examiner:

Morgan County says municipalities should handle water infrastructure – While county officials wait for the end of a water moratorium and the overdue publication of a water study, they are saying that municipalities should shoulder future responsibility for water infrastructure.

Farmington authorizes new city well – A project to drill for a new city well will move ahead, despite some second thoughts among city officials after hearing from local residents.

Salt Lake Tribune  – Editorial: Teachable moment – Eternal optimists were flummoxed by the Red Butte Creek oil spill. What good can possibly come from 33,600 gallons of crude pouring from a ruptured Chevron pipeline into the creek?

Las Vegas Sun: State reconsidering request to pump water from upstate – State Engineer Jason King has set new deadlines for handling the applications filed in 1989 to pump billions of gallons of water from rural Nevada to Las Vegas.

St. George Spectrum (requires sub.): Vegas water pipeline foes seek NV court hearing – Opponents of a proposed multibillion-dollar water pipeline from northeastern Nevada to Las Vegas are mounting a procedural challenge to a Nevada Supreme Court order sending the case to a state official for review.

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 11, 2010

Provo Daily Herald: Pleasant Grove weighs water options – A years-long argument about how to provide water and sewer to Manilla residents continued progress at a snail’s pace on Tuesday. Pleasant Grove elected officials spent more than an hour discussing how to end a stalemate that has now outlasted several mayors.

Salt Lake Tribune: Who dumped paint into City Creek? – The Salt Lake Valley Health Department is trying to determine who dumped latex paint and mortar residue into a storm drain leading into City Creek.

Wall Street Journal: California puts off vote on huge water-upgrade effort – California lawmakers have voted to delay putting an $11.1 billion water bond to voters, extending a battle to rework the biggest effort in decades to upgrade the state’s water system.

Water News Roundup – July 13, 2010

Las Vegas Sun:  Vegas water agency halts ‘third straw’ tunnel work – Work has stopped on a tunnel for a new drinking water intake pipeline between Las Vegas and Lake Mead after a cavern that took two years to excavate unexpectedly filled with water.

ASCE Newsbrief:  Seattle’s price tag for clean water: $500 million – Keeping the water around Seattle clean is going to cost the city half a billion dollars over the next fifteen years.  Seattle Public Utilities will soon begin a federally-mandated, $500 million city-wide infrastructure improvement program designed to reduce storm and wastewater pollution. This will mean higher sewer and drainage bills for people, beginning next year, and for years afterwards.

KSL:  Salt Lake water ranked highly despite number of breaks – Salt Lake City’s water infrastructure suffers hundreds of breaks every year, in spite of a heavy investment from taxpayers. But a recent study shows the city is doing pretty well, by comparison.

Water News Roundup – June 15, 2010

KSL: Warm temperatures lead to flooding in Utah and Summit counties – An irrigation canal in Utah County got a lot more water than it could handle Monday. It’s now a swift-moving river, and residents in Lehi are bracing themselves for round two of the flooding.

Deseret News:

Aftermath of the S.L. oil spill: Did power line cause the break? – At ground zero of the weekend’s oil spill into Red Butte Creek, a welding crew is furiously at work, high-voltage power lines swinging overhead.

Water break causes geyser-like explosion in Fairpark – Salt Lake City public utilities officials said the cast-iron pipe, installed in 1929, gave way, and the pressure pushed the water to the top, creating “a nice plume of water,” public utilities maintenance supervisor Bret Shelley said.

Click here for Brian McInerney’s recent Flooding Update

Water News Roundup – May 25, 2010

KSL: Wet spring give boost to Utah’s water supply – Though some Utahns are cursing this cold, wet spring, it has made a big difference in the water we’re storing up for later on in our reservoirs.

St. George Spectrum: Water threatened – Regardless of how serious the threat posed by the possible quagga mussel found Friday in Sand Hollow Reservoir turns out to be, two things are certain for Washington County: water rates will go up and boating will change dramatically.

Utah Water Law & Water Rights Blog: Utah Waterways Taskforce – The Utah Waterways Task Force has set its first meeting for June 24, 2010 at 10:00 am at the Department of Natural Resources building (1594 West North Temple, Salt Lake City). The meeting notice can be viewed here.

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 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 – May 5, 2010

Ogden Standard Examiner: Exploring our feathered friends – The state’s premier bird festival might be organized by Davis County, but it reaches well beyond the county borders to explore and celebrate the diverse wild bird populations throughout the Great Salt Lake ecosystem and Northern Utah in general.

KSL: Salt Lake City residents could see water rate increase – Currently, the city is refurbishing an old sewer main dating from the 1960s. Almost $4 million is needed for projects like this one.

Technorati Tags: Great Salt Lake,Great Salt Lake Bird Festival,Salt Lake City,water infrastructure

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 3, 2010

Salt Lake Tribune:

Canal bill advances to the Senate – A bill that would require city and county officials to notify canal companies of applications to build on land within 100 feet of a canal cleared a legislative committee Tuesday.

Six water companies not compliant – Six water companies in Utah have been listed as noncompliant with the state’s Water Conservation Plan Act.

Deseret News:

Water bill clears the House – A legislative proposal that clarifies water rights in a time of shortage such as a drought or natural disaster unanimously received support from the House.

Six water systems out of compliance – Six water companies in Utah are not compliant with the Water Conservation Plan Act because they failed to submit water conservation plans by the February deadline.

For anyone whose taken a muncipal water system class, this article will be fascinating.  It may well change the way we distribute water to through urban communities…

Science Daily:  Leaf veins inspire new model for distribution networks – A team of biophysicists at Rockefeller University developed a mathematical model showing that complex sets of interconnecting loops — like the netted veins that transport water in a leaf — provide the best distribution network for supplying fluctuating loads to varying parts of the system. It also shows that such a network can best handle damage.

Technorati Tags: water conservation plans,Water Rights,water shortage

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.