Gray water's red tape

THE Western red bud trees, ceanothus, island snapdragon and other native flora have been planted with care and precision in front of a new Santa Monica house. Good thing they're not thirsty plants, because not one drop of water has flowed from a special irrigation system installed last June.

Homeowner Steve Glenn is frustrated. He's still waiting for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to sign off in order to turn on the underground drip system, which will recycle water from his bathroom sinks, showers, laundry sink and clothes washer.

Using so-called gray water during what may be a record dry year seems like a no-brainer, but Glenn is finding otherwise. Residents who want to conserve a precious natural resource encounter road blocks, often in the form of red tape.

"I knew there weren't many residential gray-water systems," Glenn says of the drawn-out procedure to get his final certificate of occupancy. "I knew the process was not refined, but I didn't realize it would be this hard."

California authorized the use of gray water statewide for single-family homes in 1992. The state Department of Water Resources developed standards and provided a Graywater Guide for homeowners and others (www.owue.water.ca.gov/docs/graywater_guide_book.pdf). But particulars such as permit and inspection requirements were left to local jurisdictions. In Santa Monica and Los Angeles, for example, the building and safety departments oversee gray-water construction. Both cities also require approval from the L.A. County health department.

from the LA Times

Southland's dry spell could get worse

Nature is pulling a triple whammy on Southern California this year. Whether it's the Sierra, the Southland or the Colorado River Basin, every place that provides water to the region is dry.

It's a rare and troubling pattern, and if it persists it could thrust the region into what researchers have dubbed the perfect Southern California drought: when nature shortchanges every major branch of the far-flung water network that sustains 18 million people.

Usually, it's reasonably wet in at least one of those places. But not this year.

The mountain snowpack vital to water imports from Northern California is at the lowest level in nearly two decades. The Los Angeles area has received record low rainfall this winter, contributing to an early wildfire season that included Friday's blaze in the Hollywood Hills. And the Colorado River system remains in the grip of one of the worst basin droughts in centuries.

"I have been concerned that we might be putting all the pieces in place to develop a new perfect drought," said UCLA geography professor Glen MacDonald, who has researched drought patterns in California and the Colorado River Basin over the last 1,000 years.

"You have extreme to severe drought extending over Southern California and also along the east and west slopes of the Sierra, and then you have it in the Colorado [basin], particularly Wyoming."

from the LA Times

Moves to save the not-so-blue Danube

When Johann Strauss gazed upon Europe's grandest waterway 140 years ago, it inspired him to compose the Blue Danube Waltz, went on to become an unofficial anthem of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Today, the river that flows beneath the bridges of the Hungarian capital is anything but blue. Befouled with sewage, fertilizers, and industrial waste, the opaque, brown Danube has become a drainage canal for half a continent, so poisonous that it has devastated life in the Black Sea, which lies at the end of the 1,800-mile long river.

Last week, the Switzerland-based environmental group WWF-International (a branch of the World Wildlife Fund) named the Danube one of the world's 10 most threatened rivers, along withthe Yangtze, Nile, Ganges, and Rio Grande.

"Some of the rivers on the list are so damaged that they may really be lost, but others are in a better state and could still be saved if correct action is taken," says Christine Bratrich of WWF's Vienna-based Danube-Carpathian Programme. "The Danube still has the potential to be preserved."

More than 80 percent of the Danube's floodplains and wetlands have been lost to development and navigational projects, exterminatingthe river's sturgeon stocks and lowering water quality in the main channel. Extensive sewage and agricultural pollution – particularly in the former Communist nations of the middle and lower basin – triggered algae blooms that snuffed out much of the life in the Black Sea in the early 1990s.

Solving these problems is complicated by the fact that the Danube basin is shared by 19 countries. Cooperation on environmental issues was all but impossible during the cold war, which divided the basin in two, and little better in the 1990s, when the Yugsolav wars turned swaths of it into a battleground.

from The Christian Science Monitor

County's pill plans hope to avoid bad drug scene

Wait. Don’t flush those old prescription drugs down the toilet. It could cause serious problems for the region’s water treatment plants. It also could harm fish and wildlife that depend on local rivers and streams.

That’s why Washington County’s Clean Water Services and other agencies are working with local governments to create a new expired drug take-back program.

The plan, which is in the very early stages, would provide an alternative to flushing pills down the drain by allowing people to turn their drugs in at take-back centers.

“Our two objectives are to create awareness that there is a better alternative and to establish a program that gets rid of the pharmaceuticals safely,” said Brenda Bateman, public policy coordinator for the Tualatin Valley Water District.

from the Beaverton Times

Water, Water . . .

The drought that gripped Washington in the summer of 1966 was one for the record books. Already suffering from several straight years of below-normal rainfall, the region watched and sweated as the precipitation deficit mounted. From May through August, when usually about 16 inches of rain fall to wet our lawns and keep the Potomac flowing, the gauges measured just 7 inches.

In the Maryland and Virginia countryside, it was a tough year for farmers. Clouds of dust rose from the hard-baked soil as it was prepped for spring planting, ponds and wells began going dry, and most of the counties around Washington were declared federal disaster areas. A dairy farmer in Herndon told the Washington Post his hay crop “wouldn’t feed a goat,” and yields were down in corn, soybeans, tobacco, peanuts, apples, peaches, and tomatoes. At the farmers market in Bethesda, the supply of sweet corn was so short that the price rose to a shocking $1 for a dozen ears.

In the heart of the District, lawns were brown and public fountains were shut down to preserve water—all reminders that drought may develop slowly but has devastating effects. Lady Bird Johnson, the First Lady who had made beautification of the landscape a national cause, was saddened to hear that hundreds of trees just planted along the Baltimore-Washington Parkway were dying and that watering of the White House flower beds was being curtailed. She issued a plea for citizens to dump leftover dishwater on their trees and shrubs.

from the Washingtonian (DC)

Tiny island with a global warning

The tiny Indian island of Ghoramara, in the delta where the River Ganges meets the Bay of Bengal, is a symbol of the crisis the world is facing as it struggles to feed a growing population.

It is a tiny place - just a few kilometres across - and it is getting tinier.

The island, part of a chain called the Sundarbans, was first settled by farmers in colonial times when the authorities decided to expand rice production to feed the multitudes in the city of Calcutta.

But when I visited Ghoramara there was powerful evidence that soil erosion caused in part by farming and the rising surrounding sea level caused by global warming were gradually making the island disappear.

Ajoy Kumar Patra, the headman on the island, stood on the shore looking across the broad choppy waters.

In the far distance a couple of kilometres away I could just make out another low-lying spit of land:

"This island and that piece of land over there used to be separated by just a narrow channel of water", says Mr Patra. "All the land which is now underwater used to be rice paddies".

from the BBC

Water use in Rochester, Dover may be harming river

The cities of Rochester and Dover are withdrawing too much water from the Isinglass River and not properly putting enough back in, state environmental officials say.

Dover avoids withdrawals during periods the state identifies as having low flows, but Rochester has diverted water during such times. One local official says the city is willing to work with the state, but isn't convinced the withdrawals are a problem.

The state in recent years on the Seacoast has recorded withdrawals above standards from the Isinglass, Exeter and Lamprey rivers. Withdrawals from the Isinglass were above standards during all of 2003 and 2004, while the others were above primarily in summer months.

Excessive withdrawals could lead to low river flows resulting in water shortages and environmental harm.

Foster's Daily Democrat (NH)

Powerless Plight As Lake Chad Shrinks

For 40 years, people living along the shores of Lake Chad have watched helplessly as it vanished before their eyes. Stark warnings, grand pledges of action and prayers have failed to make a difference -- Africa's fourth largest lake has been drying up like snow melting in the sun since the 1960s, experts say.

"You see, last year the lake came to here," Isaac Bikhat, an official in the office of the Chadian environment minister said, anxiously drawing the river in the sand. "Today, it is five metres (16 feet) lower."

Lake Chad, which lies in hot and arid territory on the southern edge of the Sahara desert, shrunk from 25,000 square kilometres (9,650 square miles) in 1964 to less than 2,000 square kilometres in 1990 -- the sort of problem that will be in the spotlight on World Water Day on Thursday.

Designated by the UN General Assembly, the day has been observed internationally every March 22 since 1993 to focus on problems surrounding this precious commodity. This year's theme is water scarcity, notably as global warming begins to bite.

For Lake Chad, climate change and increased human use of its waters for fishing and agriculture are blamed for the fall in the water level of what is the world's third largest totally landlocked lake.

However, older residents of Bol, a town about 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of the capital N'Djamena, say the lake's rise and fall is a cyclical phenomenon which occurs every 40 years.

"Children of today don't believe us but, we, who have seen the two eras, are surprised," Youssouf Bodoum Bani, the head of Bol's highest traditional regional authority said.

from Terra Daily

A Sluggish Response to Humanity's Biggest Mass Poisoning

Until the mid-1990s, the biggest foe of Gouchan and Renubala Ari and their extended family was poverty. Then a more insidious menace began to stalk the Ari home in Chandalathi, a cluster of mud huts on the edge of a yellow mustard field some 60 kilometers north of Kolkata. The first signs of trouble were brown spots on their hands and feet that, as the months passed, developed into thick calluses and lesions. It was several years later that doctors visiting the area recognized the hallmark symptoms of arsenic poisoning.

Tests confirmed that water from the well the Aris were using was laden with arsenic. Their oldest son and his wife were diagnosed with skin cancer, a disease linked with chronic low-level arsenic exposure. Gouchan sold his cow, goats, and ducks to pay for their treatment. The couple died anyway. Afraid of suffering the same fate, two younger sons moved to other parts of India. "Arsenic destroyed our home," says Gouchan, a frail 76-year-old who walks with a limp because of arsenic lesions. "I'm tired of showing my calluses to strangers," adds Renubala. "Who can understand our misery?"

from the AAAS

Rivers run towards 'crisis point'

Some of the world's major rivers are reaching crisis point because of dams, shipping, pollution and climate change, according to the environment group WWF.

Its report, World's Top 10 Rivers at Risk, says the river "crisis" rivals climate change in importance.

Five of its "top 10" are in Asia, such as the Yangtse, Mekong, and Ganges, though Europe's Danube and North America's Rio Grande are also included.

WWF says governments should see water as an issue of national security.

Its report is issued in advance of World Water Day (22 March).

Economic and sustainable

"The world is facing a massive freshwater crisis, which has the potential to be every bit as devastating as climate change," said Dr David Tickner, head of the freshwater programme at WWF-UK.

from the BBC

see the report at WWF online

To reduce water use, farmers in Colorado tax themselves

On the one hand, the wells with which he irrigates his corn crop are producing lots of water on good land, and corn prices are at near-record highs. On the other, several of those wells – the ones closest to the Republican River – may soon be shut down, as this area struggles to reduce the amount of water it uses from the river.

His neighbors here in eastern Colorado have been raising money for a program to pay farmers like Mr. Fix to retire some of those wells, but it would mean giving up on productive land in a great market. If he doesn't participate, they could get shut down anyway by the state, without compensation.

"It's a tough decision to make," says Fix, who lives on the same farm where he was born more than 70 years ago. "I don't want to give up my water with no chance of ever getting it back. We're going to wait until the end of this year and see where we are."

As the once-plentiful water in the aquifer in this and other areas dwindles, farmers needing irrigation, like Fix, are beginning to see it as a limited resource. Interstate compacts like the one governing the Republican River and other competing water demands are forcing tough choices.

Against that backdrop, farmers in Yuma County are taking significant steps to voluntarily reduce the water they use. They've taxed themselves to kickstart a federal program to get farmers like Fix to retire certain wells. And they're working with conservationists and other unlikely partners to come up with the softest landing possible for farmers, who regard their wells as liquid gold in a region with frequent droughts and little rain.

"They're being very proactive," says Ken Knox, Colorado's chief deputy state engineer, who says he's been receiving calls from other Western states that would like to emulate the Republican River farmers. He is trying to help farmers in the Rio Grande valley set up a similar model, he says. "They're assessing themselves. So even at a personal cost they're trying to work with the state – which I find refreshing – and they're looking for a long-term solution. It's a bit unique."

from the Christian Science Monitor

Panels blast coastal master plan

With an April 12 deadline fast approaching, the team developing the state's master plan for coastal restoration and storm protection may be gaining scientific consensus in only one area: What it's doing wrong.

On Wednesday alone, two official review panels used the current draft as a punching bag, while another group of top scientists, not included in the process, went public with its own darts in a letter to Gov. Kathleen Blanco and the head of the Army Corps of Engineers.

The list of complaints includes charges that the Integrated Planning Team, in a legislatively imposed rush, has slapped together confusing and misleading documents; excluded some of the state's top minds on the subject; and emphasized misguided plans for large levees across marshes -- derisively called the "Great Wall of Louisiana" -- that could hasten the already rapid erosion of the coast, a vital buffer against hurricanes.

from the Times Picayune

animation of LA wetlands historyfrom the Times Picayune

Cape Town rivers pose a serious health risk

Most rivers in greater Cape Town are badly degraded from over-extraction, pollution and sewage overflows and are in need of rehabilitation, a new study has found.

The State of Rivers Report for the city, compiled by CapeNature, is part of the Western Cape River Health Programme funded by the department of water affairs and forestry.

The report found that generally only a few of the upper reaches of greater Cape Town's rivers are still in a good state.

The report also found that current water demand already exceeds the water yield available for greater Cape Town, which has been exacerbated by recent dry winters.

from IOL (South Africa)

On the banks of Disaster

IT WAS November 2000 and Richard Kingsford was up to his neck in the Macquarie Marshes, leading a party of sceptical followers covered from shoulder to ankle in leeches. Far from being worried, the shaggy professor of environmental science at the University of NSW, then a senior researcher with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, looked like a swamp troll in his element.

With gleeful eyes, dripping beard and determined semi-swimming stride, it was hard to believe he was one of Australia's most respected and senior inland river scientists.

Kingsford was leading a team towards a vast breeding ground of straw-necked ibis. To get there a helicopter had landed on a tiny speck of land surrounded by what seemed like an inland sea. Kangaroos were swimming through the marshes and life had exploded on a breathtaking scale.

We plunged in and soon only chests and heads were out of the snake-infested swamp. We pressed on for about a kilometre towards thousands of the noisy, breeding ibis.

Water is what Kingsford lives for - volumes with numbers so big that the only way to conceptualise them is by referring to "syd 'arbs". One "syd 'arb" is the equivalent in volume to all of Sydney Harbour - about 500,000 million litres (megalitres) of water.

from the Sydney Morning Herald

Demand for water filters gushing

Baffled and embittered Montrealers blundered yesterday among store aisles lined with water filters, trying to figure out their options.

"I'm here because I'm scared about the water," Cote St. Luc resident Argentina Kelen said as she shopped for filters at the Reno-Depot store in Notre Dame de Grace.

"And I drink bottled water."

Kelen is scared because the city sent her and the residents of 75,000 houses and buildings across Montreal Island letters advising them their drinking water might contain slightly more lead than called for by provincial standards.

Lead pipes leading to their homes are to blame.

While municipal officials and health experts stress there's no reason to fear, recommendations that pregnant women and children under 6 years old should drink filtered water have sent a worrisome message.

from the Montreal Gazette

Dutch pioneer floating eco-homes

Small and densely populated, the Netherlands is one of the countries most at risk from climate change and rising sea levels.

But in one village in the south of the country, they are trying out a new way of living with an increased risk of floods.

A small ferry shuttles back and forth from one bank of the River Maas to the other. This is the only way of reaching Maasbommel, in Gelderland province, from the south.

The landscape is saturated with water, criss-crossed by rivers and the network of dykes which are supposed to protect the area from flooding.

But the dykes are not always enough. In 1993 and again in 1995, floods forced tens of thousands of people to leave their homes.

from the BBC

The Niger River in Intensive Care

Stretching over more than 4,000 kilometres, the Niger is West Africa's longest river, and greatly threatened in the country of the same name by environmental degradation that is causing the water course to silt up.

"The lack of vegetation along the river prevents water retention during rainfall, and opens the door to soil erosion…So, gullies are created that channel water, sand and all sorts of debris towards the river," says Mahaman Laminou Attaou, national director for the environment in Niger's Ministry of Water Affairs, Environment and the Fight Against Desertification.

This trend has worsened as rains have become more torrential, and now compromises activities such as fishing, irrigation and navigation of the river by boat.

''We no longer have good fishing for much of the year. It has also become impossible to do irrigation because the river no longer has enough water," Abass Sorko, a resident of Kombo in the centre of the country, said.

from IPS via allAfrica.com