Bloggers discuss the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, the Colorado River, and California’s Water Bond

With 67 million people blogging and news blogs rivaling mainstream media, the amount of information being churned out in posts is overwhelming—but over the last two weeks a few themes have emerged that warrant attention.

 

The BDCP
As the Bay Delta Conservation Plan continues, Dan Bacher of the San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center (“IndyBay”), questions whether this project could ever be in favor of the health of the estuary. He emphasizes how the lack of financial planning, operating plans, and construction plans indicate a failure of the BDCP.

 

Drought Plans
Brett Walton a correspondent for the Circle of Blue writes about the possible actions the Colorado Basin states are considering to manage the scarce water of the Colorado as the continued drought forces them into unprecedented scarcity situations.

 

California Water Supplies
In a comparison of the State Water and Central Valley Projects, the Colorado River provides a more reliable water supply than the State Water Project and Central Valley Project.  While there is a difference in the priority of the water rights, Jeff Simonetti of the Hydrowonk Blog notes that storage would be key for improving reliability of the SWP and CVP.

In the fourth installment of his series on how to increase water supplies, Dr. Jeff Masters of the Weather Underground discusses the idea of building more “enormous water work programs” to satisfy California’s enduring water scarcity.  The state already has the State Water Project, Central Valley Project, All-American Canal and Colorado River Aqueduct, which carry water from sources of supply to the arid areas in need of water.  However since there is no additional water in the West, and since, citing Drew Beckwith, “you can’t build more water,” Masters explores some of the more costly and unusual project ideas and ultimately urges returning to water conservation strategies.

 

California’s Water Bond
Rodney T. Smith, Ph.D  of the Hydrowonk Blog, explores the possibility of drawing on the crowd’s wisdom to predict the fate of the 2009 water bond—whether it will pass, if it will be replaced by a new bond measure and the size of the new bond measure.

Written by Stratecon staff