Gorbachev launches ‘Peace with Water’ initiative

The former Soviet leader launched a high-profile water initiative in the European Parliament on February 12, calling for water issues to be included in UN negotiations over a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December.

Launching a Memorandum for a World Water Protocol in the European Parliament in Brussels, Mikhail Gorbachev said the inclusion of water in global climate talks should be a high priority.

“Water is without no doubt a political problem, and a crisis of development that is unsustainable. It is part of a global political crisis,” Gorbachev said. Meanwhile, the current global economic crisis may even act as a catalyst for a new order to help overcome “our old unsustainable model of development,” he said.

Gorbachev called for clear political leadership on water, demanding that all nations help the United Nations to ”enshrine the right to water as the most important human right”.

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Source: EurActiv

Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport and Area Cities Develop Water Conservation Project

By Max B. Baker, Star-Telegram

ARLINGTON — Several area cities and Dallas/Fort Worth Airport are considering joining forces in a multimillion-dollar conservation project to irrigate parks, golf courses and highway medians using highly treated water from a Fort Worth wastewater treatment plant.

The Arlington City Council is expected to consider joining a regional partnership next month that would use reclaimed water from the Village Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant at the Ditto Golf Course, J.W. Dunlop Sports Center and the city landfill.

And D/FW and Euless are considering joining a program developed by Fort Worth to sell the plant’s effluent — which is suitable for industrial uses but not drinking — and cut back on using costly drinking water from East Texas reservoirs.

Officials are increasingly taking a regional approach to providing water and fighting drought. Last week, the Tarrant Regional Water District, which is the area’s major raw water supplier, said enhanced water restrictions may be necessary by summer if conditions don’t improve.

“It is a money-saving venture because you are keeping water that is already in the area and using it again after it is processed,” said Julia Hunt, director of Arlington’s Water Department. “It allows us to offset or reduce the amount of water that is brought in from East Texas.”

On Feb. 17, the Arlington council will be asked to consider joining the partnership and spending $358,000 to design the first phase of the pipeline. The city hopes the pipeline, which may cost about $4.4 million to build, will be operational by 2010, said Terry Benton, assistant director of water utilities.

Eventually, it could be extended to the entertainment district for use at Six Flags Over Texas, the new Cowboys Stadium and the Texas Rangers ballpark, he said.

While the water is not suitable for drinking, it can be used for irrigation, gas well drilling and other types of industry, said Mary Gugliuzza, spokeswoman for the Fort Worth Water Department.

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Source: Star-Telegram.com

Nuprana.com becomes first water conservation store to offer free shipping on every product

Nuprana.com, the first online water conservation resource that provides information, products, news, and advocacy recommendations all in one place, is now the first one to offer FREE SHIPPING on every product in its online water conservation store.

September 16, 2008 — Online sales are growing at a faster pace every day, especially among environmentally conscious shoppers who are realizing that shopping at online stores has a much lower carbon footprint than driving to a 300,000 square foot ‘energy guzzling, garbage producing’ superstore or worse, having to drive to several stores in one day to find what they need.  Some shoppers continue to drive to do their shopping because of increasing shipping costs at online stores, due to the infamous “fuel surcharge” that carriers are now including in their rates. This additional surcharge often represents 20-30% of the total shipping rate which takes the final price tag way above what shoppers are comfortable paying.

Now Nuprana.com makes it easy for green homes and businesses to shop for water conservation products without the hassle of driving all over town or spending hours online searching for what you need and then paying high shipping costs. At Nuprana.com every single item offers free shipping without a minimum amount or minimum quantity of items.  For example, you can buy the smallest item in the store– the ‘Toilet Leak Detection Tablets’ for $1.99– and it offers free shipping.

“We are trying to eliminate all of the barriers that keep American households from saving more water and protecting our environment” explains Elizabeth Beachy, co-founder of Nuprana and an expert in Behavior Change Communication related to Public Health issues. “We know our costs will increase because of this decision, but we want our clients to make their decisions based not on how much the shipping costs, but on how much water they want to save” added Mrs. Beachy.

About Nuprana.com:

Nuprana LLC is a family-owned, on-line green business dedicated to water conservation that offers affordable, user-friendly water conservation products for green homes and businesses, in addition to water conservation information, news and advocacy recommendations. It was founded by Elizabeth Beachy and Osvaldo Gomez with the vision of conscious water use, cleaner waterways, safe drinking water, and pristine freshwater sources preserved and revered for their natural beauty. The couple resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They started Nuprana after the birth of their son inspired them to help improve the world awaiting his generation.

EPA Decision Protects 67,000 Acres of Mississippi Wetlands

(Washington, D.C. – Sept. 2, 2008) Today EPA is announcing its final decision under the Clean Water Act (CWA) to prohibit construction of the proposed Yazoo Pumps Project in the Mississippi Delta. EPA is taking this action following an extensive evaluation of the environmental impacts the project poses to tens of thousands of acres of wetlands and other water resources.

“Together with our state and federal partners we can improve flood protection and ensure environmental protection,” said Assistant Administrator for Water Benjamin H. Grumbles. “We’re helping to identify a better project that reduces flooding, protects the environment and saves taxpayer dollars.”

EPA continues to support the goal of providing improved flood protection for the residents of the Mississippi Delta while safeguarding the area’s valuable natural resources. The cost of the Yazoo Pumps Project would be more than $220 million for construction, with an annual operational cost of more than $2 million.

EPA is committed to working with other federal and state agencies, and the public, to identify an alternative project for providing improved flood protection.

The Yazoo Backwater Project is a federally funded U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposal first authorized in 1941, designed to reduce flooding in an area in the state of Mississippi between the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers. The primary component is a 14,000 cubic feet per second pumping station that would pump rainwater out of the South Delta during high water events on the Mississippi River.

The Yazoo Backwater Area contains some of the richest wetland and aquatic resources in the nation, and serves as critical fish and wildlife habitat. EPA concluded that the proposed project would result in unacceptable damage to these valuable resources that are used for wildlife, economic, and recreational purposes.

Under the CWA, EPA can prohibit, restrict, or deny using waters of the United States as a disposal site for fill material when it determines it will have an unacceptable effect on municipal water supplies, shellfish beds and fishery areas, wildlife, or recreational areas. EPA has used this CWA authority only 11 times since the law was passed in 1972.

Source: EPA

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Rainwater collectors work to ease shortages

SAN FRANCISCO, CA-Tara Hui climbed under her deck, nudged past a cluster of 55-gallon barrels and a roosting chicken, and pointed to a shiny metal gutter spout.

“See that?” she said. “That’s where the rainwater comes in from the roof.”

Hui is one of a growing band of people across the country turning to collected rainwater for non-drinking uses like watering plants, flushing toilets and washing laundry.

Concern over drought and wasted resources, and stricter water conservation laws have revitalized the practice of capturing rainwater during storms and stockpiling it for use in drier times. A fixture of building design in the Roman empire and in outposts along the American frontier, rainwater harvesting is making a comeback in states including Texas, North Carolina, and California.

“We call it ‘the movement that’s taking the nation by storm,’” said Robyn Hadley, spokeswoman for the Austin, Texas-based American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association, whose membership has jumped by more than 40 percent this year.

Hui, 37, got her first 55-gallon plastic barrel for free five years ago. The barrel had been packed with maraschino cherries, so when rain first filled it the water smelled like candied fruit.

Now, she has a daisy chain of 25 linked barrels under her back deck with a combined capacity of nearly 1,250 gallons. She built the system herself, after searching the Internet for information and buying the necessary plumbing parts at a hardware store. The whole setup cost her $200.

The average American uses 101 gallons of water a day at home and in the yard. Add in agricultural and industrial water use and that climbs to an average of 1,430 gallons per day per person.

Scientists warn that climate change will result in more severe droughts and erratic storms worldwide, and this spring was the driest in California’s 114 years of record-keeping. Extreme drought and abnormally dry conditions persist across large swaths of the country, with states in the West and Southeast hardest hit.

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Source: BusinessWeek

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‘Green Olympics’ help China Conserve Water

BEIJING — Underground water levels in Beijing are rising this year, reversing a nearly decadelong decline, in part because of conservation efforts tied to the Olympics.

Aquifer levels in the Chinese capital have risen about half a meter this year, after having fallen about one meter each year since 1999 due to drought. The shortage had forced the city to dig ever-deeper wells, which provide the bulk of its municipal water.

The increase comes despite warnings from environmentalists that the Olympics would contribute to a greater strain on Beijing’s water resources, with water being diverted from neighboring regions to supply everything from competition venues to the 40 million ornamental flowers around the city.

The government has rejected those admonitions. Officials say the water supply has benefited from unusually plentiful summer rains as well as decreasing demand and greater water recycling that the government pushed as part Beijing’s efforts toward a “Green Olympics.” Overall, water consumption fell to less than 3.4 billion cubic meters last year, from 4.04 billion cubic meters in 2000, officials say. Waste-water treatment rates have passed 90% as the city rolled out new treatment plants in time for the Games.

The data suggest that some of the environmental-protection efforts for the Olympics could have a lasting impact. “I think there’s a real legacy here,” says Deborah Seligsohn, director of the China program at the World Resources Institute.

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Source: The Wall Street Journal

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Growing more with less water

EAGLE COUNTY — Crawling through the pastures at the Albertson Cattle Company in Burns, high above the Colorado River and on the edge of the Flat Tops Wilderness, is a 900-foot long sprinkler system that looks like a giant robotic caterpillar.

The caterpillar takes it time, slowly inching through about 80 acres of grass on big black wheels. Dozens of spray nozzles hang off its belly, and a large water gun is perched on its head. This crawling irrigation system is designed to apply the perfect amount of water so the grass can grow, be cut down and turned to hay without waste. It all works by gravity.

Just two years ago, these 80 acres of pasture were regularly flooded with inches of water to get the grass growing. When you flood fields, a lot more water is used than what the grass actually needs to grow.

Now, two “gravity-fed pivots,” or crawling sprinkler systems, do the irrigating. These “pivots” use about 70 percent less water than flooding but end up producing more hay than ever. “The productivity is getting close to double what we used to do,” said Kevin Wahlert, a rancher at Albertson Cattle Company.

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Source: Vail Daily

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Water conservation efforts pay off in Northern California

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California meeting explores water conservation solutions

SAN BERNARDINO- Susan Lien Longville says she got a “less than enthusiastic” reaction from developers at the inaugural San Bernardino County Water Conference last year when she proposed using wastewater from homes to irrigate lawns.  Longville, director of the Water Resources Institute at Cal State San Bernardino, said developers’ attitudes at this year’s conference was much more receptive.

Hundreds of people from local government, the building industry and water agencies gathered at the Ontario Convention Center Thursday to discuss solutions to the state’s looming water crisis. Gov. Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought in June, and a recent court order reduced the amount of water available to Southern California from the Central Valley and State Water projects.

Panel speakers agreed that there needed to be a coordinated effort to address the problem: builders installing water-efficient fixtures; municipalities passing ordinances to require permeable paving surfaces to reduce water runoff; homeowners cutting lawn watering by half and using water-controlled shower heads and water-efficient washing machines.  “Everybody’s in the water business,” said Celeste Cantu, Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority.

Schwarzenegger has set a goal for the state to reduce per capita water consumption by 20 percent by 2020. Several panel speakers Thursday said the goal was achievable.  Asked whether economic development and conservation can co-exist, Kirby Brill, general manager of the Mojave Water Agency, said “absolutely. … without a doubt.”

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Source:  The Press-Enterprise