A group of U.S. Bureau of Land Management interns trekked three days this week across a blistering stretch of Utah desert, recreating part of the 1846 path of the ill-fated Donner Party.
From The New York Times, in a commentary by David Bornstein:
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that public water systems lose, on average, one-sixth of their water — mainly from leaks in pipes. The E.P.A. asserts that 75 percent of that water is recoverable.
After three weeks and about 400 miles, I finished my kayaking (and walking) journey down the “most endangered” river in America: California’s San Joaquin. This page collects the tweets from my adventure.
Three weeks and about 400 miles ago, I started a trip down the “most endangered” river in the United States, California’s San Joaquin. The underloved river is born in the Sierra Nevada and snakes across one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world, California’s Central Valley.
Environmentalists who want to bolster endangered coho salmon populations are hoping to launch an initiative to purchase homes along San Geronimo Creek, make them fish-friendly, then return them to market at affordable prices.
From the Las Vegas Review-Journal, in a commentary by David Festa and John Entsminger:
“Today, there is water flowing in the Colorado River Delta — where water has not flowed regularly for half a century — all because water managers, conservation organizations and policymakers in both the United States and Mexico were able to find common ground. …Someone cue music heralding the ‘new era of Western water management.’”
From the California Department of Water Resources (DWR):
“Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom brought his technology and institutional change message to the Resources Building Auditorium on Monday, May 12, as a guest of the DWR Enterprise Geographic Information Systems Committee.”
From EPA Connect: The Official Blog of EPA’s Leadership, in a post by Bob Perciasepe:
“The EnviroAtlas combines hundreds of separate data layers developed through a collaboration between EPA researchers and their partners from around the country, including the U.S Geological Survey, the U.S. Forest Service, states, and a number of non-profit organizations and universities.”
“The TID [Turlock Irrigation District] has started to fit its canal gates – the openings that let water into fields and orchards – with higher-tech devices that constantly measure the flow.”
“Inventor David Malcolm always believed the low-flow showerhead he created would do well. But even he has been surprised by the boost in business his tiny Coarsegold company — High Sierra Showerheads — has been getting lately.”
“Desperate times call for desperate measures, and California’s severe drought is already inspiring a few.
“Water districts in the San Joaquin Valley are proposing a drought tactic that’s never been tried: they want to reverse the state’s plumbing by running the California Aqueduct backwards.”
“They’re less slimy, and certainly less smelly, than a fish carcass would be. But the dry, brown pellets that biologists distributed Tuesday in a backwater channel of Dry Creek may prove to be the vitamin that once-prolific North Coast salmon streams need.”
“Tesla Motors should build its “gigafactory” next to the Salton Sea so it can have easy access to lithium extracted from recycled brine from geothermal plants.”
“The fear of scarce water is really the fear of scarce food.
“In its third year, the drought has already forced California growers to leave 800,000 farm acres unplanted this year, says Dave Kranz of the California Farm Bureau.”
“Construction will begin in May for a $3.5 million water recovery testing center at Stanford University, partly funded by a Santa Cruz couple.
“The William and Cloy Codiga Resource Recovery Center, expected to be completed in February, will test new technologies intended to recover clean water, energy and materials from wastewater.”
“The snowpack atop mountain peaks in California and Colorado has a new set of eyes watching from high above to better gauge the amount of water that will rumble down rivers and streams each spring as runoff.
“In a new mission, NASA fixed a lumbering twin-engine plane with high-tech equipment to make regular snow surveys, starting last weekend in drought-stricken California before the weather front expected to bring snow to the Sierra this week.”
