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 10 days a few themes have emerged that warrant attention.
Water Supply in California
The impending end of California’s “anemic rainy season” prompted Dr. Jeff Masters of the Weather Underground to begin a series exploring where California can find more water to meet future water demands. In this post, he discusses the feasibility and cost of conservation.
The non-profit environmental group TreePeople also presented a solution to water supply needs—plant trees. The group has posted about their campaign and a forum that they hosted at Los Angeles City Hall.
While the California State Water Project yield is still at zero percent, increased precipitation in February lead the Hydrowonk Blog’s Rodney T. Smith, Ph.D. to update predications about what the final SWP allocation will be this year.
The Future of the Colorado River
In the National Geographic Water Currents blog, Jennifer Pitt of Environmental Defense Fund reviews a recent report by Carpe Diem West and, echoing a theme voiced by Pat Mulroy in her keynote address at the Colorado River Water User’ Association annual meeting and as she wrapped up her tenure at the Southern Nevada Water Authority, reasons that solutions to the challenges facing the basin require water leaders to work together on solutions that address the needs of the river as a whole.
Fracking
With countries around the globe exploring the feasibility of fracking, a duo from Ceres looks at the challenges policymakers throughout the U.S. are having keeping up with speed and scale of development in the various the plays and the ensuing need to understand the impacts of the process, and they recommend that other countries heed the lessons learned in the U.S.
Meanwhile, Jeff Simonetti of the Hydrowonk Blog looks at how technology and innovation are addressing the water supply and water quality issues posed by fracking.
World’s Most Stressed Rivers
A post by the World Resources Institute, summarizes an analysis by the WRI Aqueduct project of the world’s 100 most populated river basins that names the world’s 18 most stressed rivers—including two of the lifeblood rivers in the western U.S., the Colorado and Rio Grande.
The BDCP
In a venomous piece opposed to Governor Brown’s environmental record—and especially the peripheral tunnels plan— Dan Bacher of the San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center (“IndyBay”), questions the Department of Water Resources’ claim that the recent court ruling preventing them from access private property to conduct studies the Delta will not have “any material impact” on the BDCP schedule.
Written by Marta Weismann