water supply

EPA Expands Study of Pharmaceuticals in Waterways

lynellg — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:36:15 -0700

Wed, Oct 22, 2008 on NBC San Diego online

Originally written by ENS, August 6, 2008 - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to conduct a detailed study of the disposal methods used by hospitals, long-term care facilities, hospices and veterinary hospitals that wish to discard unused pharmaceuticals.

The EPA is seeking more information on the practices of the health care industry to inform future potential regulatory actions, and identify best management and proper disposal practices. EPA has assumed that one facility in seven, approximately 3,500 facilities, would be selected to receive the detailed questionnaire.

To gather this information, the agency has drafted an Information Collection Request and is now seeking public input on the request form. Public comments on the Health Care Industry ICR will be taken for 90 days after it is published in the Federal Register, which should occur shortly.

Drugs taken for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems contaminate U.S. waterways, according to a March 2008 report by the Associated Press National Investigation Team. The findings confirm a 2002 report by the U.S. Geological Survey that was the first nationwide study of pharmaceutical pollution in the nation's rivers and streams.

The questionnaire is one of several actions the agency is taking to strengthen its understanding of disposal practices and potential risks from pharmaceuticals in water.

The agency also is commissioning the National Academy of Sciences to provide scientific advice on the potential risk to human health from low levels of pharmaceutical residues in drinking water. The Academy will convene a workshop of scientific experts December 11-12, to advise the agency on methods for screening and prioritizing pharmaceuticals to determine potential risk.

"The agency's work to increase industry stewardship and scientific understanding of pharmaceuticals in water continues," said Benjamin Grumbles, EPA's assistant administrator for water. "By reaching out to the National Academy of Sciences and requesting information from the health care industry, EPA is taking important steps to enhance its efforts," he said.

For entire article, please visit website below.

Officials: Wet Winter Crucial to Reno Water

lynellg — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 08:19:47 -0700

Source: KOLO-TV8
Written by: AP
Oct 13, 2008

Reno-area water officials say a wet winter in the Sierra Nevada is crucial to restoring diminished water supplies. Back-to-back skimpy winters have left reservoirs along the Truckee River water shed low.

"This winter is everything," said Chad Blanchard, chief deputy in the federal water master's office in Reno.

Officials say unless the fall brings unusual wet weather, Lake Tahoe, the river's largest water source, could drop below its natural rim by early December - something that hasn't happened since January 2005. While officials say the Reno area won't run out of drinking water, another dry winter likely would mean minimum flows in the Truckee River set by law may not be met.

"It's getting real hard to sugarcoat things," said Bill Hauck, water supply coordinator for the Truckee Meadows Water Authority. "We will be entirely dependent on a good winter this year." What will be affected is the ability to meet the so-called "Floriston rates," a century-old law designed to guarantee a minimum flow of Truckee River water.

That flow is measured at Farad, Calif., just upstream from the Nevada line. The law designed to ensure municipal, agricultural and power generation demands from river water can be satisfied requires that flows of at least 500 cubic feet per second be maintained through the summer, dropping to between 300 and 400 cfs over the winter, depending on available storage at Lake Tahoe.

The Lake Tahoe dam at Tahoe City allows for the storage of up to 6 feet of water above the lake's natural rim. Most of that water is now gone, with the lake level at less than a foot above the rim. Depending on factors such as fall precipitation and evaporation rates, Tahoe should drop below its rim this year by early December, Blanchard said.

At that point, water managers will depend almost exclusively on water stored at Boca Reservoir to maintain minimum river flows. Boca's currently at roughly two-thirds capacity but once it is tapped to maintain Floriston rates, "it will drop dramatically," Blanchard said.

Without added precipitation, achieving the desired rates of river flow will be impossible come mid December. A big winter would help fill Tahoe and other reservoirs and allow water managers to again meet the Floriston rates, hopefully through next summer and fall.

For entire article, please visit website.

Watershed impacts irrigation

lynellg — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 08:35:46 -0700

By Merry Thomas, Fallon Star Press, via RGJ.com
October 3, 2008

If the dry weather conditions continue into fall and early winter, the region could face a slower water release than usual and create the possibility of diverting water from the Truckee River in December, according to TCID Project Manager Dave Overvold.

Releases from Lahontan Dam resumed Wednesday after having been curtailed for nearly two weeks. As of Friday, Sept. 19, which is the latest numbers available, storage was 28,361 acre-feet. The amount of water and rate at which it is released from Lahontan depends on inflow from the Carson River, Overvold said.

The Lahontan Dam is down this season by about two-thirds the average, historically. This means it's likely area farmers will receive deliveries short by about 2,000 acre-feet this season. The maximum Truckee Canal diversion allowed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is 350 cubic feet per second, which is more than will be available by the time the flow reaches the Derby Dam, the TCID Web site stated.

"We want to keep water diverted from the Truckee River at a minimum," Overvold said.

Water gets diverted from Lake Tahoe or from Prosser or Boca reservoirs to make up the difference when there isn't enough naturally occurring water, such as rain. Tuesday, for instance, the water arriving at Derby Dam was released at 133 cfs below the dam. The rate of release from Tahoe is about 189 cfs, and the rate of flow below Derby is expected to drop this month to 113 cfs.

For entire article, please visit website.

Lake Tahoe dips to its natural rim

lynellg — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:40:23 -0700

By Greyson Howard / Sierra Sun

Now fall, Lake Tahoe and other area lakes and reservoirs are dipping, and may leave the Truckee River a comparative trickle before snow recharges the water supply again. Two slow winters in a row — feeding 31 percent and 32 percent of normal runoff into Tahoe — mean the lake could drop below its natural rim unless precipitation shows up this fall. This means the top of the Truckee River could go dry, and other water stores will have to be leaned on more heavily to supply the Reno/Sparks area.

“At this point it looks like we will get very close to Tahoe’s natural rim,” said Chad Blanchard, chief hydrologist for the U.S. District Court Water Masters Office. Currently the lake is at 6223.80, within 8 inches of the natural rim and down to just 15 percent of the dam’s total storage capacity, he said.

“As the lake drops, the amount going over the dam drops and the amount going down river drops, so we have to supplement that with others. We’re using Boca right now,” Blanchard said. “By the end of the year Boca could be very low also.”

Bill Hauck, the water supply coordinator for the Truckee Meadows Water Authority, said Boca Reservoir could empty to 5 percent of its top capacity.

Prosser Lake will dip down to about one-third its total capacity, and Stampede will be about half its normal volume, Blanchard said.

Donner Lake is being drawn down as usual this fall, emptying the top 9 feet of the lake into Donner Creek, Hauck said. Windy weather has played a major role in lake levels, especially on the enormous surface area of Tahoe, Blanchard said.

“If it is windy it creates huge amounts of evaporation off the lake,” Blanchard said.
Right now, the Truckee is meeting the minimum required rate of 500 cubic feet of water per second, called the Floriston rate, Blanchard said. Blanchard said the flow could slow beyond that minimum rate, but said water demand in Reno and Sparks also drops significantly in the winter, so supplies should be all right.

“We’re hoping for a great winter, but even if we don’t have a great winter we have adequate drought supplies in place,” Hauck said. And as for predicting what winter will bring, Blanchard said it’s too early to make any meaningful predictions. The real forecasting for water supply happens when precipitation is actually on the ground, he said.

“I talk to the weather service and the California Nevada River Forecast Center regularly,” Blanchard said. “There’s nothing concrete but we’re hoping for a wet winter.”

Water deliveries will be on hold Sept. 18-30

lynellg — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:57:22 -0700

Reno Gazette-Journal
September 19, 2008

TCID officials expect storage in Lahontan to drop down to 14,500 acre feet during the two-week shut-off. Because water will not be released between Sept. 18 and Sept. 30 and because inflow will continue from the Truckee River, it is expected that Lahontan's storage level will rise up to about 17,000 acre feet, according to Project Manager David Overvold.

Also by the end of the month, an inflow rate of between 125 cubic feet per second (cfs) and 145 cfs is expected as measured at Hazen, Overvold said.

Landmark agreement settles long-standing river dispute

lynellg — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:03:41 -0700

By MARTIN GRIFFITH,
Associated Press Writer and published online by Lahontan Valley News
September 6, 2008

RENO, Nev. (AP) - With the scenic stream flowing behind them, officials from Nevada, California and the federal government signed a landmark agreement that settles a century-plus-old dispute over the Truckee River's water.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne joined local and state officials at the signing ceremony Saturday for the Truckee River Operating Agreement. The complex document allocates the river's waters between the two states, and balances the interests of urban users, downstream farmers and the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe.

"I'm so happy that President Bush signed off on it," Reid told a crowd of about 400 at a downtown Reno park. "It's an example of what teamwork and bipartisanship can accomplish."

The Truckee flows more than 100 miles from the California side of Lake Tahoe to its terminus at Pyramid Lake on Nevada's high desert, about 30 miles northeast of Reno.

Under the agreement, California will get two-thirds of Lake Tahoe's water to Nevada's one-third, while Nevada will receive 90 percent of the Truckee's water to California's 10 percent. It also calls for Nevada to get 80 percent of the Carson River's water to California's 20 percent.

The two states approved an interstate compact on the Truckee's waters in the early 1970s, but it was never ratified by Congress. Kempthorne hailed the new agreement, saying it was similar to ones reached in recent years over the Colorado and Snake rivers. He stressed that no one surrendered any water rights under the latest deal.

"This day is part of a new day in the West - a day when step by step, agreement by agreement we resolve all the bitter water disputes in the new spirit of cooperation and partnership," he said.

The deal stemmed from Reid-sponsored legislation passed by Congress in 1990 that directed both states, the U.S., the tribe and the Reno area's water purveyor to settle their differences over the river.

Lawsuits over the Truckee spanning back to the 1800s gave it a reputation for being one of the West's most litigated rivers. Under the settlement, the amount of drought water storage for the Reno area will triple, and Reno, Sparks and Washoe County will provide water rights to improve water quality in the lower Truckee. The river system is the Reno area's only water source.

Officials said the agreement will improve conditions for the threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout and endangered cui-ui fish, as well as for Nevada wetlands. It also will enhance recreational opportunities in both states.

A final environmental study by the U.S. Department of the Interior and California Department of Water Resources found no significant adverse impacts from the agreement. The document concluded the settlement would provide a major boost to the river's water quality and fishery.

For entire article, please visit website.

Very wet winter needed to reverse drought trend for Tahoe, Northern Nevada

lynellg — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:51:39 -0700

By Jeff DeLong, Reno Gazette-Journal
September 5, 2008

Nevada continues to suffer through drought conditions, with experts saying nothing is likely to change until the arrival of winter storm season. The federal government's Climate Prediction Center forecasts persisting drought conditions through November. Western Nevada and the Sierra are experiencing moderate drought, while northeast Nevada is "abnormally dry" and east-central Nevada is in severe drought, the center reports.

Long-term weather forecasts offer little in the way of expected change with above-normal temperatures and below-normal precipitation expected for at least the next month.

"As we are right now, things are pretty bleak," said Gary Barbato, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service. "We don't expect any real improvement until at least Thanksgiving or after." That means flows of rivers and streams will continue to drop, Barbato said in a recent drought statement. Some springs and wells in the hardest-hit areas have dried up, while the region continues to face extreme wildfire danger.

Nevada officials have not declared a drought, but California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger did in early June. On Aug. 27, 53 of California's 58 counties were given disaster declarations as the result of continued drought conditions, including those nearest to Reno: Lassen, Plumas, Sierra, Nevada, Placer, El Dorado, Alpine and Mono counties.

Lake Tahoe was at 1.2 feet above its natural rim Thursday and unless some unusual storm activity arrives this fall, and none is expected, it will drop to its rim by early December.

Last weekend, cool and strong winds accelerated the evaporation rate at the lake. Over four days, .18 feet evaporated, said Chad Blanchard, chief deputy water master.

"We had a huge loss over the weekend. The evaporation rates were unbelievable," Blanchard said. "It was definitely one of the worst four-day periods I remember."

For entire article, please visit website.

Fernley Developers Targeted by Canal Proposal

lynellg — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:00:37 -0700

KOLO TV-8
September 5, 2008

FERNLEY, Nev. (AP) - Developers would face new requirements if they build homes or commercial buildings near the aging Truckee Canal in Fernley under a proposal being considered by the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District.

The district board wants to require developers to install an impermeable barrier in any section of the Truckee Canal above new development.

Dave Overvold, TCID project manager, said the barrier would be a vertical concrete wall on the canal's north bank.

A Jan. 5 breach of the canal flooded about 600 Fernley homes. The 31-mile canal, operated and maintained by the irrigation district, sends water from the Truckee River to Fallon-area farmers.

Currently, developers building homes north and downhill of the Truckee Canal are required to widen the canal bank.

Fernley City Councilman Cal Eilrich, former president of the Fernley Builders Association, said he agrees the canal needs to be reinforced, but sees it as more of a public works project than an irrigation district project. He noted that some of worst damage from the January flood occurred a half-mile downstream from the canal breech, and that a concrete wall upstream wouldn't have helped unless it extended the entire length of the canal through Fernley.

"This is an issue that affects all citizens who live in Fernley," said Eilrich, who stressed he was speaking only as a former developer.

To read entire article, please visit website.

End of water wars

lynellg — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:15:39 -0700

North Lake Tahoe Bonanza, Editorial.
September 5, 2008

Tomorrow is a historic day in the annuals of Western states water rights.The Truckee River Operating Agreement — in progress for more than 20 years and the result of 100 years of water rights controversy — will be officially signed in a ceremony Saturday morning at Reno’s Wingfield Park.

The Truckee River flows out of Lake Tahoe in California, crosses the Nevada border near Farad, and ends in Pyramid Lake. The river, claimed by California and Nevada, has been used for recreation, water supply, hydroelectric power, irrigation, fish habitat and wetlands,among other uses.

Its water was literally fought over in the 1920s when a drought caused Lake Tahoe to fall below its natural rim. Downstream water users cut a canal into the rim to drain more water, causing angry threats and beginning the legal battles over its water. Through the years, the fight has resulted in several legal decrees establishing usage of the river’s water. The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe became involved when the cui-ui fish, its historical food source, became an endangered species.

The 1990 Truckee-Carson-Pyramid Lake Water Rights Settlement Act began the process to come up with a new agreement. Years and years of negotiations, research and meetings resulted in the TROA. Lake Tahoe stakeholders spent endless hours making sure the lake’s particular interests are covered, even to such items as how much water is recovered from snowmaking.

Once enacted, the TROA will replace the 1935 Truckee River Agreement, which has managed the bistate river and established rates of flow, water storage and the conditions under which Lake Tahoe could be pumped.

Now, the decades of controversy and work are culminating in this historic signing. Signing for the mandatory parties are Dirk Kempthorne, U.S. Secretary of the Interior; Ronald Tempas, of the U.S. Justice Department; Mike Chrisman, California Secretary of Resources; for Nevada, Alan Biaggi, Director of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources; Mervin Wright Jr. of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe; and Mike Carrigan, chair of the Truckee Meadows Water Authority.

Saturday won’t be the actual end of the process — federal courts in California and Nevada must now approve it. But there is an end in sight for the embattled Truckee River.

The TROA will 1) allocate the waters of the Truckee River, Carson River, and Lake Tahoe basins between California and Nevada; 2) enhance conditions for threatened and endangered fish species; 3) increase drought protection for the Reno-Sparks area; 4) improve river water quality downstream from Sparks; 5) enhance instream flows and recreational opportunities; 6) settle long standing litigation over water rights to the Truckee River; and 7) lift a 1972 moratorium on water rights applications in the affected region.

And, hopefully, cease the battle over water.

Enhanced Runoff in Urban Areas as a Tool to Mitigate Loss of Non-Renewable Groundwater

lynellg — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:10:16 -0700

Jason M. Keller, M.S., Michael A. Milczarek, M.S., Aaron R. Graham, M.S., Tzung-Mow M. Yao, Ph.D. and Dale P. Hammermeister, Ph.D., GeoSystems Analysis Inc.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 : 3:30 p.m.

Presentation Abstract:
In semi-arid and arid locations the majority of natural recharge occurs in ephemeral stream channels. As areas become urbanized and runoff increases in response to the increased area occupied by impervious surfaces, flow in ephemeral channels also increase, creating an opportunity to capture water as focused recharge. We present case studies of semi-arid urban watersheds in which pre-development and post-urbanization recharge rates have been estimated for varying land use and precipitation scenarios. The case studies show demonstrable increases in groundwater recharge rates in response to increased impervious area (i.e. urbanization) and the focusing of runoff to capture areas. This suggests that under water deficit conditions captured runoff in urban areas can be utilized as a means to mitigate net groundwater loss, but by itself does not offer a complete remedy, and instead can serve as an important part of a larger remediation strategy.

Jason M. Keller, M.S., GeoSystems Analysis Inc. Mr. Keller has 8 years of experience performing environmental monitoring and assessment activities. His work focuses on investigating recharge and vadose zone transport behavior using field, laboratory, and numerical studies. His primary interests include quantifying natural and enhanced groundwater recharge, surface cover performance monitoring and modeling, subsurface impact assessments of waste management areas, and physical and hydraulic characterization of unsaturated and saturated zones.

Reid says he will sign river deal on Sept. 6

lynellg — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 15:08:52 -0700

Reid says he will sign river deal on Sept. 6 By Susan Voyles • svoyles@rgj.com • August 23, 2008

Saying it's the biggest thing he has ever done for Nevada, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he definitely will be on hand to sign the historic Truckee River Operating Agreement in Wingfield Park on Sept. In addition to settling 100 years of water wars between Nevada and California, the agreement provides storage for drought-year water supplies in Sierra reservoirs for years to come for the Reno and Sparks area.

That storage, officials said, will help meet demand in drought years when Truckee Meadows Water Authority is providing up to 119,000 acre-feet of water a year to customers. TMWA provides 85,000 acre-feet a year for 93,000 customers. In years when there's more than enough water, that water is managed for the fish. The plan already is in place and working under an interim agreement approved several years ago. Getting everyone to sign the deal has taken nearly 20 years. "I started working on this the night I was elected to the Senate," said Reid, D-Nev., of the plan and his 1986 election.
"It has been a real struggle," he said. In 1990, Reid got Congress to pass a settlement act that directed the U.S. Secretary of the Interior to negotiate an agreement for the river and its upstream reservoirs. He uses lists to talk about the obstacles in getting the agreement completed. "It involved two Indian tribes. Two endangered species. The cities of Reno and Sparks. Pyramid Lake. The Truckee and Carson Rivers. And Lake Tahoe.
The act also provides $65 million to the Pyramid Lake-Paiute tribe for economic development and to rebuild its fisheries, as well as $40 million for Fallon. The agreement required the homes served by TMWA to have meters, with the total conversion now set for January 2010.

For entire article, please visit website below.

Water orders accepted until Sept. 10, planned shut down Sept. 15 to Oct. 1

lynellg — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:18:45 -0700

Staff report, Lahontan Valley News

TCID expects Lahontan Reservoir to drop to 36,000 acre feet by the end of August.

The allocation to water users for this year has been increased from 75 percent to 80 percent, states a press release from the Tahoe-Carson Irrigation District's Board of Directors.
Orders taken through the close of business on Sept. 10 will be delivered until Sept. 15, at which time the releases from Lahontan will be discontinued for two weeks until Oct. 1. Water will then be released again from Lahontan until the end of the season.

TCID expects Lahontan Reservoir to drop to about 36,000 acre-feet by the end of August and to about 29,000 acre feet by the end of September, reaching 4,000 acre-feet in November. Releases from Lahontan Reservoir will be reduced to a level that prevents the storage from dropping below 4,000 acre-feet.

The maximum Truckee Canal diversion allowed is 350 cubic feet per second (cfs), which is more than is available of the Floriston Rates water that arrives at Derby Dam. For August, the Floriston Rates is 500 cfs, plus 100 cfs of fish water released from Stampede Reservoir. This fish water must pass below Derby Dam and is not available for use by TCID water users.

In addition to the fish water, TCID reports 34 cfs is required to be released below Derby Dam for Claim 1 agricultural water for the Pyramid Lake Tribe, 15 cfs is required to a transfer of water from Truckee Meadows to below Derby Dam and 81 cfs is required to be released for the unused portions of Claims 1 and 2, for a total of 230 cfs below Derby Dam.

For entire story, please visit website.

Lahontan Reservoir nears record low; boaters warned to be careful

lynellg — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 09:21:45 -0700

By Steve Timko, Reno Gazzette-Journal
August 15, 2008

The water level may reach near an historic low by the end of the summer because of a lack of rain and the Jan. 5 collapse of the Truckee River Irrigation Canal in Fernley, David Morrow, administrator for state parks, said. While boating at Lahontan Reservoir is discouraged, the boat launch at Sand Harbor on Lake Tahoe could be closed by the end of August.
"What we guess is here in another few weeks, two or three weeks, the conditions will be difficult to impossible to get your boat in at the Sand Harbor boat ramp," Morrow said. At Lahontan Reservoir, fed by the Truckee and Carson rivers, water levels dropped because of a double hit, Morrow said.
"I think there's no question that without being able to put the water they normally get from the (Truckee) canal, that made the situation worse," Morrow said. "But it's also very dry in the Carson River."
Lahontan can hold about 320,000 acre-feet. The Nevada Department of Wildlife reports the reservoir could drop this year to 13,000 to 14,000 acre-feet, still enough to protect the fish population there, spokesman Chris Healy said. Morrow said lower water levels mean more hazards for boaters. "I think the conditions are getting very, very poor and I think it would be difficult to put anything in the reservoir that was of any size," he said. Bad for business
The situation is hurting business. Missy Swain, owner of Burke's Market about 200 yards from the entrance to the reservoir, said her volume is down 80 percent. For the first time since she bought the store in 1996, she will close for the winter.

For entire article, please visit website.

Slowing of Bottled Water Market Marks Anniversary of Pepsi Announcement, A year later, competitor Coke still refuses to reveal..

lynellg — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:52:41 -0700

Slowing of Bottled Water Market Marks Anniversary of Pepsi Announcement, A year later, competitor Coke still refuses to reveal Dasani's source as tap.
Published on Aug 1, 2008 - 7:21:13 AM
By: Corporate Accountability International
BOSTON, July 31, 2008 - One year ago, Corporate Accountability International and its allies pressured industry leader Pepsi to spell out the source of its water on its Aquafina brand labels -- the tap.Since that time, leading market competitors Coke and Nestle have refused to make a similar commitment despite growing concern about what people are getting in the bottle. Such concerns, when coupled with the struggling economy, are contributing to signs of a downturn in the growth of the bottled water market at large.In May, Nestle reported that its bottled water profits had dropped, acknowledging a ˜criticism of bottled water' as a factor in decreased sales. According to Beverage Marketing Corporation, last year the U.S. bottled water industry experienced its slowest annual revenue growth in more than 15 years."In these difficult times, people are tired of being sold of bill of goods in a bottle," said Gigi Kellett, national director of Corporate Accountability International's Think Outside the Bottle campaign. "We believe these corporations shouldn't be putting a dollar value on this essential resource. So long as they are, the least they could do is let people know they are charging a thousand percent mark-up for water that comes directly from the tap."Up to 40 percent of bottled water comes from public water supplies. To profit from this packaging of a public good, bottlers pump water from municipal systems to resell to consumers at hundreds, even thousands of times of the price of what households pay per gallon for the essentially same water from the tap.This week, more than 1400 people have contacted Coke to ask that their Dasani brand follow Pepsi's lead. Corporate Accountability International is leading the call-in effort as part of its ongoing Think Outside the Bottle campaign, which has catalyzed dozens of cities, universities, religious organizations, restaurants and small businesses around a shared commitment to opt for tap over bottled water.The corporation and its trade association have worked to block stronger labeling and consumer-right-to-know laws in California and across the country.Coke also blocked a vote on a shareholders' resolution this year that would have similarly required the corporation to report on the health and quality of its bottled water brands in a manner comparable to the reporting of public water utilities."Coke is working very had to avoid addressing reasonable questions about product quality testing and disclosure, even while touting its supposedly rigorous safety and quality requirements," said Kellett. "People are wondering what exactly this corporation has to hide. It's in Coke's best interest to come clean about the misleading marketing the corporation employs to promote the Dasani brand."Nestle is also contributing to growing concerns about the lack of transparency in the bottled water industry. The corporation was recently forced to recall a batch of its Pure Life brand due to contamination from a cleaning compound. Pure Life is a processed tap water brand.Coke has yet to react to consumer requests for more information. Most callers are told, in essence, that 'Coke believes people have what they need to make informed choices about their purchase of bottled water.'Too bad what information people have is not by way of the corporation itself.Website: www.StopCorporateAbuse.org

TMWA Board Set To Back Off Lease Plan

lynellg — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:04:39 -0700

Posted: 6:25 PM Jul 22, 2008Last Updated: 4:28 AM Jul 23, 2008Reporter: Ed Pearce
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A week ago the governing board of the Truckee Meadows Water Authority voted to look into the possibility of leasing the area’s water system to a Wall Street investment band. Now, it appears that a couple of members of the board are backing away from that decision.
At those member’s urging, the board has set another meeting. The only item of consequence on the agenda for that meeting is reconsideration of last week's vote. In the space of a week, there's been input and it's apparently been persuasive.
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The offer came from the investment firm of Goldman Sachs. The deal: a 50 year lease of the Truckee Meadows Water Authority's system, the company assuming $500 million dollars in bond debt and adding $100 to 160 million dollars in cash. The numbers were attractive enough that most of the board thought it worth looking at. The vote authorized a feasibility study. The lone dissenter was TMWA chairman and Sparks City Councilman Mike Carrigan who said it had taken 26 years to get the water system back into public hands and that's where he thought it should stay.
In the days that followed others are apparently finding themselves in agreement with Carrigan, significantly Sparks Mayor Geno Martini and Reno Mayor Bob Cashell.
"We've been hearing from consituents," says Cashell. "We're concerned about the employees and we don't want to do anything to jeopardize TROA."
TROA is the Truckee River Operating Agreement, a bi-state document settling a variety of complex issues concerning the Truckee's waters. It's been in the works for 2 decades and it's about to be signed by all parties. Word the possibility of a private company operating TMWA raised immediate red flags including a caution from Senator Reid's office.For entire article, please visit website.

Offer made to lease Reno-area water authority to private investors

lynellg — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:50:40 -0700

Offer made to lease Reno-area water authority to private investors

By Jeff DeLong, Reno Gazzette Journal
July 15, 2008

Local water authority officials Wednesday will discuss whether they should consider leasing all or part of their water distribution system to outside investors.

Under one scenario, the 7-year-old Truckee Meadows Water Authority would lease its assets for 50 years in return for $100 million to $160 million payment to Reno, Sparks and Washoe County.
"Evidently, there are folks in the investment market that are very interested in investing in infrastructure assets," said Lori Williams, TMWA general manager. "It could be as broad as somebody stepping in and taking over the operation of TMWA. It could be just a piece of that."
Mike Carrigan, the Sparks councilman who chairs the nonprofit authority's board of directors, said he is open to considering a deal but is worried investors would be pressured to turn a profit by raising rates or deferring maintenance.
"The only reason somebody would do this is to make money," Carrigan said.
Williams said many employees at the utility appear uncomfortable with the proposal.
To view entire article, please visit website.

Rain Gardens Reign

lynellg — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:03:20 -0700

Kansas City sets an ambitious goal, and communities around the country follow.
Source: Stormwater Magazine, May 2008
By Margaret Buranen

Rain gardens may have started in Maryland and been developed in Maplewood and Burnsville, MN, but it was Kansas City, MO, that put them on the map of public awareness. If, as Rodgers and Hammerstein told us in their musical Oklahoma!, “Everything’s up to date in Kansas City,” the 10,000 Rain Gardens project there is on the cutting edge of stormwater management.

Rodgers and Hammerstein aside, one thing in Kansas City is very out of date: its water and wastewater infrastructure. Some pipes have been in the ground for more than 100 years. So in August 2005, voters approved a $500 million bond issue that will fund new and improved water infrastructure for Kansas City.

The bond issue is part of KC-ONE, a comprehensive plan for the management of stormwater throughout the city and its suburbs. It will be years until all of the necessary work is completed. To help manage stormwater now, Kansas City officials started the 10,000 Rain Gardens project.

The idea came from a Stormwater Coordinating Committee meeting in May 2005.

Six months later, Kansas City’s former mayor, Kay Barnes, together with Jackson County Executive Katheryn Shields and Johnson County Commission Chairman Annabeth Surbaugh, launched the program at a regional rally.

The project’s Web site (www.rainkc.com) is listed as a resource in the handouts of rain garden programs all around the country. Scott Cahail, manager for the Water Services Department of Kansas City, said in the summer of 2007 that the Web site had received more than 100,000 hits.

Barnes installed a rain garden at her home, as did Dan McCarthy, president of Black & Veatch, a global engineering company that works in the water and energy fields. Black & Veatch employees planted the first corporate rain garden in Kansas City. McCarthy wrote an editorial for the local paper, urging other corporations to install their own rain gardens.

One by one, the number of rain gardens in Kansas City grows. There are two at City Hall. The local ReHabitat store has a small rain garden. Hallmark has one at its corporate headquarters. One of the most interesting is shaped as a boomerang and measures almost 5,500 square feet. It was installed in Theis Park by students at the Kansas City Art Institute. For good measure, they added messages on taking care of the environment.

Mt. Airy Rain Catchers
Influenced by the efforts in Kansas City and other cities, community rain garden programs are starting in many locations. One such program is in Ohio.

Until the post–World War II expansion of suburbs, the Mt. Airy section of Cincinnati, OH, was a small community of farms and country homes surrounded by woodlands. Now more than 9,500 residents live in the 3-square-mile area. As in other suburban areas, the growth of population and corresponding paved surfaces has increased stormwater runoff in Mt. Airy and pollution in its Shepherd Creek watershed.

...for complete article, please visit website below.

Groundwater in Sierra Nevada: meeting/speaker

lynellg — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:54:53 -0700

Source: Truckee River Watershed Council.
"Groundwater in Sierra Nevada"
7/11/2008, 1:00-5:00 p.m. Called by Sierra and Foothill Citizens Alliance and UC Berkeley to discuss a fracture hydrology investigation to provide data on fractured rock ground water resources for land use planning.RSVP to 559-855-5653.

Truckee River draft storage and public review

lynellg — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Submitted article, Lahontan Valley News

The Bureau of Reclamation announces the availability of a Draft Storage Contract with the Truckee Meadows Water Authority (TMWA) for a 60-day public review and comment period. BOR and TMWA recently completed negotiations for the storage of TMWA's municipal and industrial water in the BOR's federal reservoirs located in the upper Truckee River Basin. A water storage contact between TMWA and BOR is required before the Truckee River Operating Agreement (TROA) can be approved.

TROA would implement Section 205(a) of the Truckee-Carson-Pyramid Lake Water Rights Settlement Act of 1990, Title II of Public Law 101-618 (Settlement Act). It would modify existing operations of designated reservoirs to enhance coordination and flexibility while ensuring that existing water rights are served and flood control and safety of dams requirements are met.

TROA would, in part, (1) enhance conditions for the threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout and endangered cui-ui in the Truckee River basin; (2) increase municipal and industrial drought protection for the Truckee Meadows (Reno-Sparks metropolitan area); (3) improve Truckee River water quality downstream from Sparks, Nevada; and (4) enhance streamflows and recreational opportunities in the Truckee River Basin.

At the time TROA takes effect, the Settlement Act provides that a permanent allocation between California and Nevada of water in the Lake Tahoe, Truckee River and Carson River basins will also take effect.

The draft storage contract is available on BOR's TROA website at http://www.usbr.gov/mp/troa. If you encounter problems accessing the document online, please contact Lynnette Wirth at (916) 978-5102 or lwirth@mp.usbr.gov.

Written comments on the draft contract must be received by close of business on Aug. 29, 2008, and should be mailed to Kenneth Parr, Bureau of Reclamation, 705 North Plaza Street, Room 320, Carson City, NV 89701-4015, or faxed to (775) 882-7592, or e-mailed to kparr@mp.usbr.gov. All comments become part of the public record.

For questions or to request a copy of the draft contract, please contact Mr. Parr at 775-882-3436. Additional information on TROA is available at http://www.usbr.gov/mp/troa/.

Planning initiative gathers more than 28,000 signatures

lynellg — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 08:20:17 -0700

By Susan Voyles • svoyles@rgj.com • June 28, 2008
Reno Gazette-Journal

More than 28,000 signatures were turned in Friday to the Washoe County Registrar of Voters for a citizens initiative to force regional planning to be based on replenishable water resources found within the county.

The 28,388 signatures are about 10,000 more than the 18,083 signatures required for the question to be put on the November ballot. If a sample shows they have more than the required number of verified voter signatures, officials said it would be the first binding question about limiting growth to appear on a Washoe ballot.

"We have no illusions that this fight is just beginning," said Bob Fulkerson, a petition leader at a short rally before turning in four boxes of signatures. "The monied interests and developers have us in their sights." Fulkerson also thanked County Commission Chairman Robert Larkin for challenging sustainable-growth advocates to do their own petition.

"On March 11, we filled the room and asked the Washoe County Commissioners to please put a sustainable water planning advisory question on the ballot," Fulkerson said. "Instead the chairman of the commission told us to go home and watch Oprah," he said.

"Did we go home and watch Oprah?" he asked a dozen supporters who responded with an emphatic "no." Rather than work for an advisory question, the petition backers decided to make their question binding. Larkin could not be reached for comment.

For entire story, please visit website.

BOR and TCID plan temporary fix of V-Line canal

lynellg — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 12:35:48 -0700

Lahontan Valley News
Submitted by BOR, as Letter To the Editor
June 15, 2008

The Bureau of Reclamation and the Truckee Carson Irrigation District (TCID) are working to determine a cause for the June 11 breach of the V-Line Canal Lewis Wasteway and complete temporary repairs. The breach occurred about 10 p.m. on Wednesday, in an area of the V-Line Canal approximately eight miles west of Fallon. The V-Line Canal is a feature of BOR's 102-year-old Newlands Project.

Kenneth Parr, Deputy Area Manager of BOR's Lahontan Basin Area Office in Carson City, said, "Reclamation and TCID are working to complete temporary repairs of the canal so we can deliver water as quickly as possible to affected farmers and wetlands.

"We will complete a thorough investigation to determine the cause of the breach, and we are beginning design construction plans for long-term repair." No injuries resulted from the breach, and no homes or commercial buildings were damaged, although some residential access roads were affected.

"Reclamation would like to assure the public that safety is our utmost concern while we work to convey water to the farms and wetlands," Parr said. The 27-mile-long V-Line Canal serves lands on the south side of the Carson River. The canal originates at the Carson River Diversion Dam, below Lahontan Dam, and provides water to the Fallon area for agricultural and wetlands purposes. The canal is operated and maintained by TCID.

Although also owned by BOR as part of the Newlands Project and operated by TCID, the 32-mile-long Truckee Canal is an entirely separate and distinct waterway. The Truckee Canal originates at the Derby Diversion Dam and diverts water from the Truckee River to the Lahontan Reservoir.

Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe approves Truckee River Operating Agreement

lynellg — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Source: Reno Gazette-Journal
June 6, 2008, Staff Report

The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe voted in a special election Saturday to approve the Truckee River Operating Agreement.

The ballot question was, "Should the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe approve and sign the Truckee River Operating Agreement (TROA) and implement TROA subject to the conditions stated in Public Law 101-618?"

The official results by eligible voters was 183-35.

The TROA is touted as a comprehensive management plan for the Truckee River, with proponents saying the agreement, among the U.S. government, Nevada, California, the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, the Truckee Meadows Water Authority, and others, would triple the amount of water storage Reno-Sparks during times of drought and enhance recreational opportunities on the river and its reservoirs.

To view entire article, please visit website.

Tahoe's water level dropping, It's an unusual time for depletion, officials say

lynellg — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Greyson Howard, Sierra Sun

A second slow winter in a row could mean water stops spilling over the dam at Lake Tahoe, cutting off the flow at the top of the Truckee River. Despite abundant snow early in the winter season, an uncharacteristically dry spring has meant runoff hasn't kept up with evaporation, dropping Lake Tahoe's level in months that traditionally refill the lake.

"The lake may come up a few hundredths of an inch, but this looks like it's about as high as it's going to get," said Chief Hydrologist Chad Blanchard with the U.S. District Court Water Masters Office.

The level of Lake Tahoe, as of Monday, was 6,225.48 feet, Blanchard said.

"We've had terrible inflow - almost as bad as last year, and last year, the snowpack was much less," Blanchard said. Because almost all precipitation fell as snow, the soil never saturated, and snowmelt went into the ground rather than running into Lake Tahoe and other reservoirs, Blanchard said.

Coupled with high winds that evaporated both the lake and snow, this spring goes into the record books as the worst for lake rise in 108 years, along with 1977, Blanchard said. "The rise into Tahoe in March and April was actually negative - evaporation was higher than inflow," he said.

This could mean that by the end of the year, Lake Tahoe could drop another 2.5 feet to the natural rim at 6,223 feet in elevation, stopping flow over the dam, Blanchard said. "The river would go dry until it gets further downstream, but by that time, hopefully we'll get new moisture," Blanchard said.

For entire article, please visit website.

Climate Change: Forests, wildlife, fire danger all expected to be affected by warming Sierra

lynellg — Sat, 31 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

By Greyson Howard, Sierra Sun

Many doomsday predictions of climate change focus on rising oceans, flooding coastlines and submerged cities, but some scientists are watching the Sierra to gauge other significant impacts.

Looking into the future it isn’t hard for researchers to picture the many different Sierra ecosystems — wrapped like bands around different elevations — retreating rapidly upward, squeezing each other and eventually running out of elevation to climb.

As future temperatures rise, predictions are for snow to melt faster and streams to swell earlier, out of sync with the breading cycles of aquatic species like fish and frogs. Dry summers would leave entire forests more susceptible to fire and pests than ever before.

And, many experts agree, the changes become amplified as they move up the food chain, throwing the Sierra Nevada’s entire ecosystem, meticulously established over millennia, out of balance in a matter of decades. The bottom line, some scientists conclude, is the extinction of vulnerable mountain species and increased fire risk for the Sierra’s human inhabitants.

“Our concern is with the rapidity of change — most species can evolve over time and the planet has always been in flux — but it’s the rate of change, which is really unlike anything we’ve been able to study,” said Josh Viers, assistant research ecologist at UC Davis.

The Sierra Nevada has been characterized as the “canary in the coal mine,” according to the U.S. Forest Service, an early alarm for the deleterious effects of rising temperatures. But all parts of the Sierra won’t be treated equal. Despite Truckee-Tahoe’s more northern latitude, the area will likely be hit harder than the taller mountains to the south.

“The area around Tahoe and Donner Summit, for example, would be more affected then Kings Canyon,” Viers said.
And so Tahoe National Forest has been picked as an open-air laboratory for climate change — a focal point in a global issue — with researchers from academic bodies, conservation groups and the U.S. Forest Service gleaning whatever they can learn from the surrounding woods.

“When I started I was a naysayer, ready to poke holes in global warming,” said Carol Kennedy, the watershed project manager for Tahoe National Forest. “I don’t poke holes anymore.”

Retreating trees
Perhaps easiest to predict and already in progress in some cases is the steady retreat of vegetation away from rising low-elevation temperatures and towards ever-shrinking snow melt, said UC Davis’ Viers.
...
The water problem
While rising temperatures will directly affect many species, indirect affects through changing water availability may be even more drastic.

“Between 7,000 and 9,000 feet the rain/snow mix line will be most severely affected,” Josh Viers said.
This means the timing and flow of streams and river could change, possibly three to seven weeks earlier, he said.

“Everything from what’s in the streams — frogs breeding to vegetation along the side of the streams — a whole series of affects, will come from just the timing,” Viers said. The breeding cycles of both the mountain red- and yellow-legged frogs of the Sierra may no longer match with stream flows he said.

Trout require cold water, no more than 20 to 21 degrees Celsius, meaning many streams could become too warm, Viers said. Flowering plants may bloom with high flows before pollinators like bees and mosquitoes emerge.

Aspen trees, already diminishing in the West, are at risk because of drying stream habitat, Nechadom said.

And moisture could be dropping on the order of 40 to 60 percent by the year 2100, Kennedy said.

To view the entire story, please visit website.

USDA Weighs In: The Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture, Land Resources, Water Resources, and Biodiversity

lynellg — Wed, 28 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The U.S. Climate Change Science Program report “Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.3 (SAP 4.3): The Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture, Land Resources, Water Resources, and Biodiversity in the United States ” integrates the Federal research efforts of 13 agencies on climate and global change. This was released 5/28/08.

The report has 38 authors from the universities, national laboratories, non-governmental organizations, and Federal service. SAP 4.3 has undergone expert peer review by 14 scientists through a Federal Advisory Committee formed by the USDA, and includes over 1,000 references. USDA was the lead agency for this report as part of its commitment to CCSP.

The report focuses on the next 25 to 50 years, and finds that climate change is already affecting U.S. water resources, agriculture, land resources, and biodiversity, and will continue to do so.

If you would like to receive the printed final report when it becomes available please send your request to ClimateReport@oce.usda.gov.

Extracted from the Executive Summary:
The CCSP agencies agreed on the following set of topics for this assessment. Descriptions of the major findings in each of these sectors can be found in Section 4 of this Executive Summary.
• Agriculture: (a) cropping systems, (b) pasture and grazing lands, and (c) animal management
• Land Resources: (a) forests and (b) arid lands
• Water Resources: (a) quantity, availability, and accessibility and (b) quality
• Biodiversity: (a) species diversity and (b) rare and sensitive ecosystems
The CCSP also agreed on a set of questions to guide the assessment process. Answers to these questions can be found in Section 3 of this summary:
• What factors influencing agriculture, land resources, water resources, and biodiversity in the United States are sensitive to climate and climate change?
• How could changes in climate exacerbate or ameliorate stresses on agriculture, land resources, water resources, and biodiversity? What are the indicators of these stresses?
• What current and potential observation systems could be used to monitor these indicators?
• Can observation systems detect changes in agriculture, land resources, water resources, and biodiversity that are caused by climate change, as opposed to being driven by other causes?

For a download of sections of this report, please visit the website.

Tests show water's fine, TMWA officials say

lynellg — Fri, 23 May 2008 16:26:48 -0700

By Steve Timko, Reno Gazzette-Journal
May 17, 2008

No pharmaceuticals turned up in the Truckee River water that was sent for testing by the area's largest water supplier.

The Truckee Meadows Water Authority in March sent samples of water taken from the river to MWH Lab in Southern California after the Associated Press reported that up to 41 million Americans drink water contaminated with trace amounts of medicine and endocrine blockers.

After testing for 31 compounds associated with medication and other chemicals, all samples came back at a level described as nondetectable, Paul Miller, TMWA manager of operations and water quality, said at a Friday news conference.

That means there was less than one part per trillion for all of the substances, Miller said. The threshold for detecting the compounds was set at one part per trillion.

"We've gotten so good at detecting things in the water, there is no such thing as zero any more," Miller said.

To view entire article, please visit website.

Report: No chem residue found in Truckee River

lynellg — Thu, 22 May 2008 14:33:40 -0700

By Jenny Goldsmith, Bonanza News Service
May 21, 2008

Results from an analysis on the purity of the Truckee River are back and confirm what Truckee wastewater treatment plant officials have been saying: The major water supply for Reno and Sparks is not contaminated.

In March, the Truckee Meadows Water Authority decided to sample the Truckee River after reports surfaced in an Associated Press investigation into pharmaceutical remnants in major metropolitan water supplies, said Paul Miller, manager of operations and water quality for Truckee Meadows Water Authority.

“The data shows that no pharmaceuticals or endocrine disrupting compounds were detected in the raw or finished water samples,” Miller said in a statement.

There are no direct discharge of treated wastewater into the Truckee River like there are in other municipal areas that are under investigation, but there is an indirect discharge.

The Tahoe-Truckee Sanitation Agency’s wastewater treatment plant — located east of the 267 Bypass and just one mile from the Truckee River — discharges an average of 4.5 million gallons of treated water a day into a disposal field by spray irrigation, said Jay Parker, chief engineer and assistant general manager of the plant.

To view entire article, please visit website.

Farmers Upset Over Reduced Flows In Nevada Canal

lynellg — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Farmers Upset Over Reduced Flows In Nevada Canal
Associated Press via KOLO News8
Posted: 11:20 AM May 9, 2008

FERNLEY, Nev. (AP) - Farmers and ranchers are expressing concern
over reduced flows spurred by a breach of a century-old irrigation canal that flooded hundreds of homes in January in Fernley, about 30 miles east of Reno.

Water for ranches and farms will be at least 10 percent less this growing season, said officials of the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District.

"Basically, less water means fewer crops, less production and less money ... We are looking at some unpleasant financial circumstances," Fallon farmer Mario G. Peraldo told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

The irrigation district, which operates the 31-mile Truckee Canal that takes water from the Truckee River near Fernley to farms and ranches around Fallon, was allowed to reopen the canal on March 21. It had been dry since Jan. 5, when the breach affected about 600 homes in Fernley.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which owns the canal, authorized
the district to initially send water through the canal at 150 cubic feet per second, 20 percent of the canal's operating capacity of 750 cfs.

For entire article, please visit website below.

Some farmers hurt by water shortage

lynellg — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

By Frank X. Mullen Jr., Reno Gazette-Journal
May 9, 2008

As water from the repaired Truckee Canal dribbles into fields and pastures, farmers and ranchers from Fernley to Fallon are anticipating some areas of parched ground and decreased crop yields.

Water for ranches and farms will be at least 10 percent less this growing season, said officials of the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District that operates the canal.

"Basically, less water means fewer crops, less production and less money," said Mario G. Peraldo, a Fallon farmer who runs a cow-calf operation and grows alfalfa and small grains. "The combination of the canal break, the canal being dry for so long and opening with decreased flow and a dry year means we are looking at some unpleasant financial circumstances."

The district on March 21 reopened the 31-mile canal, which had been dry since Jan. 5, when a breach flooded parts of Fernley affecting 590 homes. The district in March began to send water through the canal at 150 cubic feet per second, 20 percent of the canal's operating capacity of 750 cfs.

The federal Bureau of Reclamation, which owns the canal, is keeping water at low levels because they -- and Fernley residents -- fear another breach. But lower levels put farmers in a bind because it's now harder for water to get to some fields.

The flow will be increased to 250 cfs starting Saturday, but that's still too low to get water to many Fernley properties. That's because those fields are higher than the water and irrigation gates in the canal. Even at the rate of 350 cfs, the next step in the process, water for some properties will have to be pumped uphill.

The district has two pumps available but those can't meet the demand, officials and farmers said. The district has notified water rights holders that water deliveries could drop even lower than 10 percent depending on this season's runoff from the Sierra snow melt.

Going green with greywater: Petaluma home is first in the county with a permitted system that uses old wash water for irrigation

lynellg — Thu, 08 May 2008 12:16:28 -0700

May 8, 2008
By COREY YOUNG, ARGUS-COURIER

Got greywater? Everyone does.

The cloudy, soapy stuff that goes down the drains of our sinks, showers and washing machines usually gets mixed in with the same sewage flushed from toilets, headed to the wastewater treatment plant.

Next year, the creation of a new water recycling facility on Lakeville Highway will significantly boost Petaluma’s ability to turn sewage into water suitable for irrigation.

But Trathen Heckman isn’t waiting that long. The founder of Daily Acts and member of the city’s “Green Team” is putting the finishing touches on a household water re-use system that will irrigate his backyard gardens with old wash water — and lower his water bill at the same time.

Heckman’s westside home will be the first in the city — and by all accounts the county — with a legal, fully permitted greywater system.

A network of pipes and a constructed underground wetlands in his back yard will collect drainage from the sinks, showers, clothes washer and dishwasher in his two-bedroom home as well as a granny unit.

For entire article, please visit website below.

Reno Water Officials Approve Repairs to Quake-Damaged Flume

lynellg — Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

May 8, 2008

RENO, Nev. (AP) - The Truckee Meadows Water Authority has approved $2.2 million in emergency funding to make repairs to an earthquake damaged water flume.

Officials say the money is needed to build a temporary pumping system to get more Truckee River water into the Chalk Bluff water treatment plant as well as to begin repairs to the Highland Ditch flume.

A 200-foot-long section of the flume was damaged by a rock slide during the magnitude 4.7 earthquake April 25.

The damage comes at a time the area is approaching its peak summer months for water demand.

Officials say the situation is complicated by the recent failure of two newly purchased pumps at the utility's smaller Glendale water treatment plant.

Is it time to talk about 'peak water'?

lynellg — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:23:57 -0700

April 29, 2008
CNET news.com

Posted by Martin LaMonica
BOSTON--Water is the new oil--a resource where demand continues to rise but supply is limited.

Experts at the Ceres Conference here on Tuesday focused on the risks to businesses and communities that the "global water crisis" poses, one with economic, environmental, and human health impacts. Ceres is a network of environmentally oriented investors.

Availability of fresh water has long been a concern for countries that are water stressed. But water is a tangible concern to more parties, including corporations which are integrating water into their climate change strategies.

A nuclear power plant in Tennessee was derated last year because of a drought in the region. In another case, a huge brewery was shut down because of a lack of available water.

"What's different today is that the global business community is seeing water as a business risk and core to their operations," said Chris Williams, the director of water programs at the World Wildlife Fund.

In California, the electronics industry consumes 24 percent of available water. And rising temperatures from global warming are eating away at a source of water--the ice pack in the North Sierra mountains, Williams noted.

The statistics on availability of water are not encouraging: there are 1.1 billion people in the world who do not have access to safe water, a number that will more than double by 2020.

Fifty percent of the world's wetlands, which clean water and prevent flooding, have been destroyed. Seventy percent of water usage is used for agriculture, but about 50 percent of that is wasted from evaporation or inefficient use. California uses six and a half percent of its electricity to pump water.

GE ups focus on water
Conglomerates likes GE, Siemens, as well as start-ups are developing desalination technologies and other processes for developing waste water for agricultural or industrial use.

At the end of May, GE will mark the third anniversary of its Ecomagination campaign to develop clean technologies with a series of announcements on water led by CEO Jeffrey Immelt.

GE will call for more conservation of water and release tools to help its customers reduce consumption and benchmarks to compare usage within industries, said Jeffrey Connelly, vice president of water and process technologies at GE, who spoke on the panel.

For entire article, please visit website.

Water supply safe despite flume break

lynellg — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:10:57 -0700

Source: Reno Gazette Journal
By Steve Timko
April 27, 2008

The 150 feet to 200 feet of Highland Ditch flume that collapsed in Friday night's earthquake is the major source of water to the Chalk Bluff water treatment plant, but officials don't expect Truckee Meadows water supplies to be disrupted.

The Truckee Meadows Water Authority should have flume No. 14 fixed in about 60 days before the heaviest demand for water kicks in during the hotter part of summer, said Pat Nielson, TMWA manager for distribution and operations. A backup pump was used to divert water to Chalk Bluff, one of two water treatment plants in for the water authority.

"At this point in time, we'll meet all demand without any problems," Nielson said.

But Nielson cautioned the damage from the 11:40 p.m. earthquake is still being assessed and the estimate for fixing the flume -- which carries 55 million gallons of water a day from the Truckee River near Verdi to the Chalk Bluff plant at McCarran Boulevard and West Fourth Street -- could be optimistic as the damage is assessed.

"It depends how much of the mountainside we need to stabilize," Nielson said.

If it's still not fixed by July or August, he said, "it could cause some problems."

A Mogul area drainage ditch and a cement abutment built near Cliff View Drive homes kept the water from doing anything more than damaging landscaping, Nielson said. There would be no repeat of this year's Fernley flood when a Truckee-Carson Irrigation District ditch broke and flooded homes.

For entire article please visit website.

Testing begins for drugs in river

lynellg — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:29:48 -0700

STEVE TIMKO AND LENITA POWERS
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNA
Posted: 3/11/2008

The major water supplier for Reno and Sparks is checking its water for the presence of pharmaceuticals, officials said Tuesday.

The Truckee Meadows Water Authority doesn’t expect to find such drugs in any significant quantity, said Paul Miller, manager of operations and water quality for TMWA. But no test has ever been done before, so a sample was taken Monday and shipped out for examination, Miller said. Results should take several weeks for the test that costs about $2,200.

“Don’t scare the customers,” Miller said. “We shouldn’t expect any contamination of the Truckee River water.” Sparked by reports of an Associated Press investigation into pharmaceuticals in municipal water supplies, water officials decided two weeks ago to look for someone to measure trace amounts of pharmaceuticals in the water.

The Associated Press reported Monday that an array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans.

For entire article, please visit website below.

Water crisis: Every drop matters, author states

lynellg — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 10:52:00 -0800

Chico News & Review
By Ginger McGuire

The world is running out of clean water.

“We have polluted it … or we have moved it,” international water-rights activist Maude Barlow said Tuesday evening (Feb. 19) at a presentation about the world’s water crisis. “Use every drop of water twice.”

The Canadian author of Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water spoke to nearly 80 people at the Chico Grange Hall as part of a national book tour sponsored by Food & Water Watch, with this stop co-sponsored by the Butte Environmental Council and the Sacramento River Preservation Trust.

“Water is the most urgent, human [and] ecological crisis,” Barlow said, indicating that as many as two-thirds of the world’s people won’t have access to an adequate water supply by 2025 if existing practices and conditions continue.

For entire article, please visit website.

Snowpack fine for now, but more winter weather needed to increase water levels

lynellg — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:12:09 -0800

By: JEFF DELONG
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Posted: 2/17/2008

January produced a real winter for the region, but more storms will be needed for the season to end with enough snow in the mountains.

The Sierra snowpack, which provides the water needed in the arid valleys of Western Nevada and the cities of Reno, Sparks and Carson City, remains at above-average levels but the cushion isn't a big one.

Last week, the snowpack in the Lake Tahoe Basin sat at 117 percent of average for the date. The Truckee River Basin's snowpack was measured at 101 percent.

That's good news after a slow start to the winter. In late December, the snowpack measured less than half of what it should have been. Then came the back-to-back storms of January, which deposited nearly 20 feet of snow near Donner Summit and beefed up the snowpack to healthy levels.

For entire article, please visit website.

Climate change shrinking water in western U.S.

lynellg — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:12:50 -0800

Program #5460 of the Earth & Sky Radio Series
with hosts Deborah Byrd, Joel Block, Lindsay Patterson and Jorge Salazar.

A 2008 study shows that Earth’s changing climate has caused available water to shrink in the western U.S. during the last half century.

And even bigger changes lie ahead, according to lead author Tim Barnett of Scripps Oceanographic Institution in San Diego.

Tim Barnett: It’s a 20 percent decrease on average over the western U.S. in the snowpack as it exists on the first of April.

Barnett’s study compared 50 years of river and climate data with computer models. It showed that in the western U.S., about 60 percent of changes, such as shrinking snowpack, can only have a non-natural explanation: a human-induced rise in temperature caused by greenhouse gases. Barnett added that water supplies in the western U.S. might be disrupted within 20 years.

Earth & Sky asked Barnett how people will adapt.

Tim Barnett: Some of the adaptations will be conservation. Some will be taking it from farmers and giving it to a growing population. A decent adaptation would be to limit the population growth and development in the western United States. I don’t think that will ever happen. But those are the kinds of things that we’re going to have to do.

Barnett is concerned about the environmental future we’re leaving for the coming generations.

Tim Barnett: We’re altering the climate of planet in ways that we know, and in lots of ways that we don’t know. We’re making a world for today’s children and grandchildren that they’re going to have to live in, in the future. And if they don’t like it, there won’t be a thing they can do about it.

Barnett warns that dam capacity will be insufficient to hold the water coming rushing down.

To view the entire interview/article, please visit the website.

Snowpack levels healthy, but Lake Lahontan low

lynellg — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 11:15:37 -0800

While winter precipitation has reached a healthy level, Lahontan Reservoir remains low due to the breach in the Truckee Canal that is preventing diversions from the Truckee River.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service released its February 2008 water supply outlook report Friday, which forecasts the Carson River to flow 110 percent above normal at Fort Churchill from April to July, the months when the runoff from the higher-elevation snowpack feeds the river.

The snow-water content in the Carson River Basin skyrocketed in early January, climbing from 57 percent on Jan. 1 to 113 percent of average by Jan. 7. The February report states January's precipitation was 146 percent of average - much higher than last year's average of only 49 percent.

"We're in excellent shape now with the snowpack coming back," said Dan Greenlee, water supply specialist with NRCS. "January was just incredibly, phenomenally wet. It helped us recoup on that."

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Water in the West: What's On Tap? Lecture at Tahoe, Jan. 17, 08

lynellg — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 09:48:17 -0800

Lecture with Professor Jeff Mount (UC Davis)

Date: Thursday, January 17, 2008
Time: 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. Lecture begins promptly at 6:00 p.m.
Cost: $5 donation requested. No-Host Bar.
Location: Assembly Rooms 139 & 141, Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences, 291 Country Club Drive, Incline Village, Nevada

Water in California and Nevada is a limited resource that moves through an aging water supply system governed by outdated laws and policies. Climate change, population growth, and demands to allocate water for the environment increase the likelihood that water in the West will be managed by crisis in the future. Anticipating these crises--and developing ways to avoid or respond to them can reduce social and environmental costs. Yet history has shown that change, if it occurs at all, typically only takes place during and immediately after a major crisis.

Join UC Davis's own "Dr. Doom" on a look forward to future water crises in the West. From shrinking Sierran snowpacks to regional water transfers to extreme floods, Dr. Jeffrey Mount will examine an array of current and future water resource conflicts, including what to do about them and why, in most cases, we may choose to do nothing at all.

Learn what's on tap for water in California and Nevada.

Dr. Jeffrey F. Mount is a Professor in the Department of Geology at the University of California, Davis, where he was worked since 1980. Dr. Mount's research and teaching interests include fluvial geomorphology, conservation and restoration of large river systems, flood plain management and flood policy. He holds the Roy Shlemon Chair in Applied Geosciences at UC Davis, is the Director of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, and chairs the CALFED Independent Science Board. He is author of California Rivers and Streams: the Conflict between Fluvial Process and Land Use (UC Press).

For more information on these meetings and the complete article, please visit website.

How Much Water Do You Really Use? The Truth May Shock You ...

lynellg — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 10:54:35 -0800

Tue Jan 8, 2008
Hosted by Reuters.com, powered by Sphere
SOURCE Food & Water Watch
Jen Mueller of Food & Water Watch, +1-202-683-2467, jmueller@fwwatch.org

WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Climate shifts and
population increases are putting pressure on America's water sources, leading
to record-setting droughts and unprecedented water shortages. Despite the
gravity of this situation, most Americans still don't realize that they have a
role to play in protecting and conserving our precious water resources. But a
new website called H2O Conserve (www.h2oconserve.org) is coming online to show
us that it's time to do something about our 1,000-plus gallon-a-day habit.
Every aspect of our lives is connected to water, and we use enormous
amounts of it to make everything from electricity to food to household
products. For example, it takes 24 gallons of water to make a single pound of
plastic, and over a hundred gallons to make a pound of cotton. Even the
electricity we use is tied to water - with power plants consuming 40 percent
of our country's fresh water resources.
***
To read entire article, please visit website below.

Recent storms help snowpack, but still well below average

lynellg — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 09:24:39 -0800

KEITH TROUT
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Posted: 12/21/2007

A pair of December storms have improved the snowpacks for western Nevada rivers, including the Walker River; but the end result is still less than half of the normal snowpack for this time of year.

According to the NRCS SNOTEL measurements, as of Wednesday morning (Dec. 19), the Walker River Basin had a combined snow-water equivalent (depth of water in snowpack if snowpack melted) of 40 percent of average for that date.

The Basin's precipitation level was also at 42 percent of average.

That is similar to the other western basins, with the Carson River's snowpack the best at 51 percent of average, the Truckee River watershed sitting at 42 percent and Lake Tahoe at 40 percent of average snow-water equivalent (SWE).

For entire story, please visit website.

TMWA flat rate to continue

lynellg — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 16:01:32 -0800

SUSAN VOYLES, RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
12/14/2007
TMWA rates

Flat-rate customers with a three-quarter inch line pay $74.90 a month for all the water they use. Metered customers pay a service fee of $15.70 for the same line and $1.58 per 1,000 gallons for the first 6,000 gallons. Then, the rates goes up higher for more water usage.

In October, the TMWA board agreed not to raise rates for the coming year.

After hearing from senior citizens on fixed incomes, the water utility board serving most of Reno and Sparks agreed Thursday night not to "flip the switch" to force 11,000 customers onto metered rates until January 2010.

Truckee Meadows Water Authority board member Dave Aiazzi justified the two-year delay, saying the authority has no more storage room for the water saved in the conversion until the long-delayed Truckee River Operating Agreement takes effect.

It would provide additional water storage in mountain reserves for TMWA's 93,000 customers.

Aiazzi, a Reno councilman, and Reno Mayor Bob Cashell had been the most ardent supporters in flipping on meters now. But they said they changed their minds after hearing from people over the last two months.

For entire article, please visit website.