Have we reached peak water?

Nevada: Lawyers eye looming water wars

RENO — As the specter of climate change looms ever closer, it has become more likely that Southern Nevada municipalities will have to fight for their lives — and those fights will be over water.

Municipal and regional water managers are recruiting an army of lawyers and preparing to go to war for resources. At stake is the West’s main water supply — a sum of water that most climate models expect to shrink as greenhouse gas emissions continue to climb and the temperatures of the Earth’s surface and seas rise.

And some battles have already begun.

CLE International, a company that prepares continuing legal education sessions for lawyers across the country, held a session Feb. 26-27 in Reno to share with water lawyers, water managers and concerned citizens the latest laws, strategies and problems facing Nevada and the West.

Nevada is home to numerous disputes over who owns and who should own the water in more than 230 hydrologic basins, water managers at the event said.

In Northern Nevada, locals are hammering out agreements that would protect property owners’ water rights while allowing rivers to run freely.

Negotiations on some of these water allotments have been going on for decades.

At the same time, ranchers and environmentalists are fighting the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s plan to pump hundreds of thousands of acre-feet of water it has acquired rights to out of rural eastern Nevada and pipe it hundreds of miles to Las Vegas.

On both sides are those battling to preserve a way of life for local residents — ranchers need water for cows, sheep and their fodder; environmentalists are trying to save animals and wild lands and the Water Authority is trying to save the Las Vegas Valley from the threat of doom should its measly portion of the Colorado River peter out.

There are more than a dozen bill draft requests in the Nevada Legislature proposing changes to water law.

Nowhere in the West is water such a key issue as in Las Vegas.

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Source: Las Vegas Sun

Shrinking Colorado River will intensify water wars

I have a classic Western postcard tacked to the bulletin board above my computer. It shows two men in a field holding shovels over their heads, locked in mock battle. Behind them runs an irrigation ditch. The caption reads: “Discussing Western Water Rights, A Western Pastime.”

I know firsthand how worked up people can get over water. At an annual ditch meeting two years ago, my western Colorado neighbors seemed on the verge of an insurrection when the board sheepishly announced that a leak in the local reservoir had not been fixed. The reservoir, which supplies our late-season water, would not fill, and the ditches would run dry by the end of July. Our green patches of grass, alfalfa and corn would quickly become brown, bare and cracked.

In years past, my neighbors might have shrugged off one shortened growing season; once the reservoir was fixed, after all, the ditches would flow copiously all summer long with snowmelt from the mountains behind town. But that was then. Nowadays, something weird is going on with the weather. The snow pack — the source of nearly all of our water — has become unpredictable, with most years on the lean side. No matter how much snow flies in the winter, it seems to melt off earlier every spring.

Climate-change scientists confirm the West’s water supply is shrinking. A difficult period of triage lies ahead. If our cities get their way, the rural areas and the Indian tribes will end up handing over their water.

It’s already happening in places like Southern California and Las Vegas, where deals are being cut to pump groundwater and divert traditional agricultural waters to the urban areas.

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Source: The Salt Lake Tribune

Expert: Europe ‘unaware’ of its water footprint

While Europe may take better care of its water resources than other continents, it in fact uses larger quantities via imports of goods such as cotton, beans or wood, which often come from regions that already suffer from water scarcity, argues a UN expert in an interview with EurActiv.

The notion of “virtual water” embedded in a commodity or a product, is an essential part of the ’water footprint’ theory but has not yet received much attention, argued Maude Barlow, a special adviser on water issues to the president of the UN General Assembly.

However, she warned: ”You are going to hear about this virtual water trade a lot more in the next few years.”

A water footprint is the total amount of water a country needs to sustain its population and industry. But while Europe tries to take good care of its own resources, it uses water from other places via its agribusiness imports. “I think it is important to find out about each country’s footprint, how much of your water comes from outside the country and what was the energy needed to bring that water here,” she said.

Barlow called into question European consumers’ way of life, with some wanting strawberries all year round. Meanwhile, African lakes are dying, because the berries suck up water which is then shipped out of the country, she said. Great Britain alone “imports two thirds of its water footprint. And it imports it from Africa, Latin America and from places which don’t have any water,” she noted.

As for biofuels, she noted that while there is a drive to grow biofuels to combat CO2 emissions, ”we don’t stop and ask what biofuels might do to other parts of nature. They are water guzzlers. Biofuels and corn ethanol use a huge amount of water”.

Water and climate change

Barlow thinks that the chance of getting water high up the agenda of the UN climate change negotiations in Copenhagen are “slim”, as “Copenhagen is already so contentious and there are so many issues”. However, she thinks that water may well become part of the post-Copenhagen talks once people become more water conscious.

“The water crisis is where climate change was five years ago. It is just starting to get into the media and people’s heads, and in five years it will be what people talk about,” she said.

Barlow also argued that the water crisis must no longer be considered a result of climate change, but rather as another side to the equation of what causes climate change. “You’ve got to get the analysis right if you’re going to get the answer right,” she said.

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Source: EurActiv

California taps sea for water needs: Drought, demand renew debate over desalination

SAN FRANCISCO — Is it time to stick a straw into the Pacific Ocean?

About 20 water agencies up and down the California coast seem to think so.

From Marin County to San Diego, small and large projects that turn seawater into tap water are gaining favor, propelled by events unprecedented in California’s history: worsening drought, dwindling species of freshwater fish, crumbling plumbing systems and unyielding demand.

“People are worried about water supply,” said Michael Carlin, assistant general manager of water at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. “Desalination is for drought supply, for an emergency, and it augments existing supply — it’s another tool in our toolbox.”

But critics argue that desalination is an expensive, environmentally questionable last resort in a sprawling state that misuses one of its greatest assets.

“People are looking for an easy solution, and they look to the ocean,” said Linda Sheehan, executive director of the California Coastkeeper Alliance, a watchdog group. “They’re ignoring the opportunities we have for conservation, storm-water reuse and water recycling.”

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Source: Seattlepi.com

Learn more about water conservation

Expert explains a world suffering from water shortage

This is a very interesting video about the water situation in the World and in the US, with some useful recommendations at the end.

One of the Largest Public Health Issues of Our Time

As the planet’s once plentiful blue resource gets used up, companies are acting to secure their supply and become more efficient users of water.  A business publication from the UK called Ethical Corporation has published an interesting report on this trend, which we’ve pulled excerpts from here:  

The world’s water supplies are drying up. Half of the planet’s wetlands have disappeared over the past century. In Europe, six in every 10 cities with more than 100,000 people are using their groundwater supplies at a faster rate than they are being replenished, the European Environment Agency reports.

Water experts have coined the phrase “water stressed” to describe the scenario. It’s reckoned that countries require 4,654 litres of water per year per person to meet citizens’ needs. If they fall short, they are said to be stressed.

Today, the term covers about 440 million people, including the inhabitants of European states such as Denmark and Poland. In much of the Middle East and some parts of Africa the situation is even worse.  By 2075, the number of people in regions with chronic water shortages is estimated to be between three and seven billion, according to the Stockholm International Water Institute.

So what’s behind the water scarcity? In short: man. The world’s population has tripled over the past century and is expected to increase by about 50% to more than nine billion by 2050.

Simple population growth is not the whole answer, however. Rapid rates of industrialisation, urbanisation and wealth accumulation mean that people are now using on average six times more water than they were a century ago. Water consumption is expected to continue doubling every two decades, a recent report by Goldman Sachs says.

Virtually every industrial activity requires water. The likes of power-generation, mining, paper and drinks sectors are particularly water intensive. Non-industrial services, meanwhile, such as tourism and entertainment, can depend heavily on water resources as well.

Even the water that industry doesn’t use up is often made unpotable. Back in 2001, before an official crackdown on pollution, Chinese businesses were dumping an estimated 23.4bn tonnes of sewage and industrial waste a year into the Yangtze river. In Europe, only five of the continent’s primary rivers are considered pollution-free.

Farming’s thirst

By far the biggest water-use culprit, however, is agriculture. Farmers are thought to be responsible for 70% of all human water use. That percentage is set to rise, according to the Sri Lanka-based International Water Management Institute. Farmers will need 2,000tn litres of water a year by 2030 to keep pace with the world’s growing food needs, the institute says.

Climate change presents an additional threat to world water supplies in the coming century.  It is predicted that global warming will increase evaporation rates across much of the planet and cause freshwater held in glaciers to melt. Rainfall could also drop off dramatically in some parts of the world.

It’s not only policymakers that need to worry about a world with less water. Business should be concerned too. Today’s panic over the scarcity of credit could be minor in comparison with tomorrow’s threat of water scarcity.

“Lack of water of adequate quality directly reduces production,” says Marc Levinson in a recent report by the investment bank JP Morgan. Agriculture, drinks and food processing are most vulnerable to water shortages, he says. All businesses, however, would be affected by the increased input costs that would result from diminishing water supplies. Companies would also see their capital expenditure rise as they were forced to find expensive new ways of treating and extracting water.

Levinson raises the further spectre of regulatory risk. To date, rules governing water use and discharge have been relatively light for companies. Many countries subsidise water use for agriculture. Introducing water permits and fixed prices are two obvious ways governments could intervene to control water use.

Drought-hit Australia shows what might be round the regulatory corner. Earlier this year, it introduced a cap on ground and surface water usage for the Murray-Darling Basin, the country’s most important agricultural area.

The probability of reputation damage presents a third major risk for the business community. As access to water decreases, people will be looking to point the blame. “Water is a very emotional issue and, although business isn’t the biggest user of water, it risks being the first to be cut off,” says Anne Léonore Boffi, water project office at the Geneva-based World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Coca-Cola knows this only too well. Five years ago, campaigners in the south Indian state of Kerala began blaming the US soft-drinks company for a sudden shortfall in local water supplies, dubbing it “Killa Cola”. Its bottling plants were accused of polluting local aquifers.

Many risks lurk in multinationals’ supply chains rather than their own direct activities: food and drink companies, for example, depend heavily on irrigated agriculture for raw materials.

JP Morgan estimates that the combined water consumption of Nestlé, Unilever, Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola and Danone approaches 575bn litres a year – enough to cover the daily basic water needs of everyone on the planet.

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Minnesota Voters approve $5.5 billion for Land and Water Conservation

SAINT PAUL, Minn., Nov 05, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ — Yesterday Minnesota voters approved the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment, the largest conservation ballot measure in history, according to The Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national conservation organization. At more than $5.5 billion dollars for land and water conservation, the winning measure nearly doubles the previous largest conservation ballot measure, New Jersey’s Constitutional Amendment in 1998, which dedicated $2.94 billion in sales tax to the Garden State Preservation Trust.

The historic success of the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment will increase investment in clean water, natural areas, cultural legacy, and parks and trails by about $290 million a year for 25 years. An estimated $220 million a year will protect and restore natural areas, parks, and lands vital for water quality.

“Minnesota voters are willing to pay to protect our waters and natural lands for our children and grandchildren,” said Susan Schmidt, director of The Trust for Public Land’s Minnesota Office. “They know that these lakes and natural lands play an important role in preserving our quality of life. With our natural lands diminishing, we could not afford to wait to protect the water quality of our rivers, lakes, and streams, or to conserve natural areas, parks, and habitat for fish and wildlife.”

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Source MarketWatch

Israel Could Bring Solutions to L.A. Water Shortage

By Lilly Fowler

There was a time when the actions to solve Los Angeles’ water problems read like a dystrophic political novel.

At the beginning of the last century, L.A. Mayor Frederick Eaton and William Mulholland, superintendent of the city’s newly created Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), plotted to gain control of water sources in Owens Valley, which left Owens Lake dry and area farmers with little recourse.

The result was the completion of the first Los Angeles Aqueduct, which supplied the city with much of its water from 1913 until a second aqueduct was completed in 1970. (Los Angeles also draws water from Northern California via the California Aqueduct and competes with other Western states for water from the Colorado River.)

The city of Los Angeles recently began atoning for its sins by returning some of the water to the Owens region, which has forced L.A.’s 3.8 million residents to do more with less. With the city’s population expected to reach 4.2 million to 4.9 million by 2020, according to the Southern California Association of Governments, solutions are needed to address the area’s growing water needs.

A recent conference at UCLA’s School of Law, “Transboundary Environmental Management in the Arava and Beyond,” proposed that Los Angeles might gain some ground regarding its often-contentious water policies if the city turned to Israel’s example.

The Sept. 9 forum, sponsored by the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, a leading teaching and research program in the Middle East, suggested that both Israel and Los Angeles have made many of the same mistakes when trying to develop water in arid, dry lands and could learn a great deal from each other when dealing with issues of water scarcity.

“There are very strong parallels between what’s going on in the Western United States and what’s going on in the Middle East,” said Peter Gleick, the keynote speaker at the conference.

Gleick, a MacArthur Fellow and co-founder of the Pacific Institute, an Oakland-based environmental research organization, said both countries are struggling with the issue of how to best share their water supplies with neighbors. Although Israel, according to Gleick, faces the more complicated problem of sharing water from sources like the Sea of Galilee, natural underground aquifers and the Jordan River with its Jordanian and Palestinian neighbors, the dilemma in both countries is much the same.

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Source: The Jewish Journal

Pennsylvania Town Requests Voluntary Water Conservation

DUBOIS – Mayor John “Herm” Suplizio is asking City of DuBois residents to voluntarily conserve water, he announced at yesterday’s city council meeting. Mayor Suplizio called on residents to eliminate unnecessary water usage in order to maintain the city’s water supply. Water levels are currently down at the city’s reservoir.”We’re not at a mandatory level yet, but we’re not far away from it,” said Mr. Suplizio. “If people don’t have to wash their cars, it would be nice of them not to. Just little things … if you don’t have to hose down your garage, things like that.”

Source: The Progress

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