Circle of Blue | WaterNews

T. Boone Pickens: Largest private U.S. water owner

C.T. Pope — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 02:54:07 +0000

Texas - Businessman T. Boone Pickens is buying water and lots of it. The 80 year-old king of the cooperate takeover, has set his sights on the twenty-first century’s new oil.

He plans to sell some 65 billion gallons of water a year to the Texas counties and municipalities lying south of his Mesa Vista ranch, where he’s secured the water-rights and become the largest private owner of water in the U.S.

Read more here.

Source : BusinessWeek

Commentary: Bottled Water for Dogs?

C.T. Pope — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 02:46:12 +0000

Bottled water — now considered an extravagance by many — remains a growing market in the United States and its newest economic niche seems to have taken the product to the height of indulgence: bottled water for dogs.

At least four companies have begun marketing the product for pets. Often fortified with vitamins and flavored, these dog-waters are marketed with a ting of guilt. For example, the PetRefresh website asks, “if you’re avoiding your tap water and drinking bottled water … shouldn’t you be giving the same consideration to your pet?”

The Pacfic Institute warned of the economic and environmental costs of bottled water for human consumption recently, finding that every gallon of bottled water uses twice that amount for production. In other words, every gallon of water that Fido laps up represents a water footprint of three gallons — a net waste of two gallons of drinkable water.

The companies making these bottled waters are seeing increased demand every quarter too, a sure sign that bottled water for pets will be around for the foreseeable future.

Original Source : Mutts blog

Aquatic canaries - using fish to test city water

C.T. Pope — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 02:40:49 +0000

Taipei, Taiwan - Singaporean scientists have developed a simple automated way to monitor city water supplies: use a computer to watch fish.

The fishcam monitors water quality by observing the number of dead fish in aquariums filled with city water. Updates to the system will allow the fishcam’s computer software to not only detect deaths, but subtle changes in fish behavior, indicating toxicity. While current systems using humans to monitor these aquatic canaries, the new system is completely automated.

Read more here.

Source : vnunet.com

Lake Victoria beset by environmental problems

C.T. Pope — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 02:36:05 +0000

Kisumu, Kenya - Lake Victoria, the largest freshwater lake in Africa, is shrinking, dropping some six feet in the last four years. Over 30 million people in three East African nations depend on the lake’s water for their livelihoods and biologists fear that if the overdraw from the lake doesn’t decrease, Victoria could surfer from serious ecological problems.

Read more here.

Source : San Fransico Chronicle

Circle of Blue recently profiled another dieing lake in Africa: Lake Chad.

Despite promises, Sacramento tops U.S. daily average for water use

C.T. Pope — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 02:27:41 +0000

Sacramento, CA - Even after promising to reduce water consumption significantly in 2000, the majority Sacramento’s water regions failed to meet the 16 conservation goals set-up. Only one region met all the goals and collectively they failed meet even half the goals. Instead, water consumption in Sacramento actually increased in the last eight years, topping the U.S. national average for water use.

Read more here.

Source : Sacramento Bee

New life for dry sea

Eric Daigh — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 02:24:14 +0000

KOK ARAL, Kazakhstan - There is not a drop of water to be seen around the port of Aralsk — a silent testament to decades of Soviet experiments with nature that have turned the Aral Sea, once the world’s fourth largest lake, into a salt-encrusted desert.

Read more here.

Source : Reuters

California drought forces farmers to take extreme action

C.T. Pope — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:59:00 +0000

CALIFORNIA - In the midst of the worst drought in 15 years, California farmers are taking drastic measures to save their crops and their livelihoods, Bloomberg reports. Even as Governor Schwarzenegger called for more water aid for agriculture, struggling farmers in the San Joaquin Valley have begun abandoning crops and spending millions on short term solutions. Some have resorted to digging 1,200 foot wells and pumping water with above normal salt content — a move the could have serious longterm consequences if drought relief doesn’t come soon.

The drought has caused the price of free-market water to skyrocket throughout the afflicted areas: up to $1000 per acre-foot, ten times the amount charged by U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (one acre-foot is the equivalent to 326,000 gallons). Taking extreme actions, over-pumping from underground aquifers has caused the ground to sink in some areas and scientists warn that too much unregulated withdrawal could eventually threaten the future of drinking water throughout the state.

Read more here.

Source : Bloomberg

North Pole May Be Ice Free for First Time This Summer

Eric Daigh — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:09:33 +0000

The Arctic could be ice-free this summer for the first time in known history, National Geographic reports. The freeing of Arctic ice wasn’t predicted to happen until at least 2013, but last year’s summer conditions have expediated the process. If the ice-melts, new passages for shipping will temporarily open, but the ecological costs could be castrophic.

Read more here.

Source : National Geographic

Water crisis could collapse Chinese capital

Eric Daigh — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:57:10 +0000

BEIJING - Beijing’s water crisis is so critical that the city is facing economic collapse and the need to resettle part of its population in coming decades, a leading development policy group said Friday.

Experts predict the Chinese capital could run out of water in five to ten years, according to Grainne Ryder, policy director at Probe International.

Read more here.

Source: AFP

Water access could trigger conflict

Eric Daigh — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:37:32 +0000

SINGAPORE - Singapore’s prime minister said on Tuesday that water security may be a source of conflicts, while launching an institute in the city-state to research Asia’s water problems.

Lee Hsien Loong told water industry players at the start of a one-week water summit in Singapore that the provision of safe and cheap water was becoming harder because cities were growing bigger and global warming was having an effect.

Read more here.

Source : Reuters