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By Robert Glennon, Island Press. Posted March 21, 2009.
Our water crisis should occasion grave concern but not panic. We have solutions available; now we need a national commitment to pursue them.
The following is an excerpt from “Unquenchable: American’s Water Crisis and What We Can Do About It” by Robert Glennon. Copyright 2009 Robert Glennon. Reproduced by permission of Island Press, Washington DC.
Editor’s Note: This excerpt is from the introduction of Glennon’s new book and follows a narrative about the water profligacy of Las Vegas. The timing of this excerpt is perfect for World Water Day, but the timing of the book in terms of the water issues facing American and the rest of the world is also incredibly important.
“When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water,” observed Benjamin Franklin in 1774. But he was wrong. In the United States, we utterly fail to appreciate the value of water, even as we are running out. We Americans are spoiled. When we turn on the tap, out comes a limitless quantity of high-quality water for less money than we pay for our cell phone service or cable television. But as we’ll see, what is happening in Vegas is not staying in Vegas. It’s becoming a national epidemic.
Ignorance is bliss when it comes to water. In almost every state in the country, a landowner can drill a domestic well anywhere, anytime-no questions asked. Many states don’t even require permits for commercial wells unless the pumping will exceed 100,000 gallons a day (that’s 36 million gallons annually). For each well. We know so little about this pumping that the federal government cannot even estimate the total number of these wells across the country. In many agricultural regions where the government does know the number of wells, such as California’s Central Valley, it is still clueless as to how much water farmers pump out of those wells, because they’re unmetered.
Water is a valuable, exhaustible resource, but as Las Vegas did until just a few years ago, we treat it as valueless and inexhaustible. Just as the energy crisis brought to the nation’s consciousness an acute awareness of energy consumption, global warming, and carbon footprints, so too the impending national water crisis will inspire us to rethink how and why we use water.
My aim in this book is to explore the crisis and to stimulate that rethinking. Part of the problem is that water shortages in many parts of the country, lacking the exhibitionist tendencies of Las Vegas, are often hidden. This book will illustrate the true dimensions of the crisis and offer solutions to it. Alas, the dimensions are immense.
Water lubricates the American economy just as oil does. It is intimately linked to energy because it takes water to make energy, and it takes energy to divert, pump, move, and cleanse water. Water plays a critical role in virtually every segment of the economy, from heavy industry to food production, from making semiconductors to providing Internet service. A prosperous future depends on a secure and reliable water supply. And we don’t have it. To be sure, water still flows from taps, but we’re draining our reserves like gamblers at the craps table.
We tend to look at Las Vegas and think it’s a unique case, perhaps a cautionary tale but barely relevant to where the rest of us live. But the truth is, when it comes to water, Vegas offers us a glimpse of our own future. The evidence is everywhere-though if it is noticed, it is forgotten with the next drenching rain. Consider the following events that have occurred since 2007:
- Colorado farmers watched their crops wither because of a lack of irrigation water.
- Atlanta, Georgia, came within three months of running out, so it banned watering lawns, washing cars, and filling swimming pools.
- Orme, Tennessee, did run out and was forced to truck water in from Alabama.
- Scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography predicted that Lake Mead, which supplies water to Los Angeles and Phoenix, could dry up by 2021.
- Hundreds of workers lost their jobs at Bowater, a South Carolina paper company, because low river flows prevented the plant from discharging its wastewater.
- Lack of adequate water prompted the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to rebuff Southern Nuclear Operating Company’s request to build two new reactors in Georgia.
- Water shortages caused California farmers to cut the tops off hundreds of healthy, mature avocado trees in a desperate attempt to keep them alive.
- Lake Superior, the earth’s largest freshwater body, was too shallow to float fully loaded cargo ships.
- Decimated salmon runs prompted cancellation of the commercial fishing season off the coasts of California and Oregon.
- A lack of adequate water led regulators in Idaho, Arizona, and Montana to deny permits for new coal-fired power plants.
- In Riverside County, California, water shortages forced a water district to put on hold seven proposed commercial and residential developments.
To understand the depth of the water crisis, consider that more than thirty-five of the lower forty-eight states are fighting with their neighbors over water.
Our existing supplies are stretched to the limit, yet demographers expect the U.S. population to grow by 120 million by midcentury. Before the crisis becomes a catastrophe, we must embark in a fundamentally new direction. Business as usual just won’t cut it. We have traditionally engineered our way out of water shortages by building dams, diverting rivers, and drilling wells. But proposals for new dams engender immense political and environmental opposition, diversions have already dried up many rivers and reduced the flow in others to a trickle, and groundwater tables are plummeting around the United States. Meanwhile, the environment suffers as excessive water use causes springs, creeks, rivers, and wetlands to go dry, salt water to contaminate potable supplies, the ground to collapse, and sinkholes to appear. Even lakes are not immune. Dozens in Florida have already gone dry.
Are there alternatives to business as usual? Some dreamers offer grandiose plans that include seeding clouds and towing icebergs from Alaska, but these are not viable options. We can expand the supply by reusing municipal effluent and by desalinating ocean water, but neither of these choices is a panacea. On the demand side, we can encourage water conservation. In some water-wasteful regions, conservation has great potential; however, many water-stressed communities have already implemented ambitious conservation programs but need to reduce demand even more. The reality is that reusing, desalinating, and conserving water may help to alleviate our crisis but will not solve it. We must find other ways to free up water. Las Vegas has pioneered very expensive solutions, but they can succeed only by taking water from other places. Is this sustainable?
In his 2005 book Collapse, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jared Diamond describes how flourishing societies have precipitously collapsed. Examining spatially and temporally diverse cultures, such as those of Easter Island in the South Pacific, Norse settlements in Scandinavia, and the Anasazi in North America, Diamond finds a disturbing pattern, one that resembles contemporary conditions in the United States. As these societies grew and flourished, they mismanaged natural resources, eventually stretching the resources’ carrying capacity to the breaking point. Still, the societies continued on in their customary practices, assuming that what they were familiar with was the norm. Then something happened-environmental damage, climate change, hostile neighbors, loss of trading partners, or the culture’s own response to its environmental problems-to change the familiar, but it was too late for the society to correct course and avert a catastrophe. With the Anasazi, a growing population depended on ever-increasing use of water and firewood. When a sustained drought hit in the twelfth century and lasted more than fifty years, the society collapsed.
We, however, still control our destiny. The United States is entering an era of water reallocation, when water for new uses will come from existing users who have incentives to use less. Sounds good, but how will this happen? One possible approach is for the government to target wasteful practices by simply prohibiting current water users from using so much. However, heavy-handed government mandates would generate bitter political controversy and endless litigation. What we can do, yet haven’t done, in the United States is encourage water conservation by using price signals and market forces. Pricing water appropriately would stimulate all users to reexamine their uses and decide for themselves, on the basis of their own pocketbooks, which uses to curtail and which to continue. The government should encourage a voluntary reallocation of water between current and new users. The alternative is to fight over the water. Which do we prefer?
Water nourishes our bodies and our souls. Our lives are impoverished without the sight, sound, smell, and touch of bubbling brooks, cascading waterfalls, and quiet ponds. The terrifying future depicted in science fiction doomsday novels conspicuously features barren landscapes. Our future needn’t be so bleak. Our water crisis should occasion grave concern but not panic. We have solutions available; now we need a national commitment to pursue them.
Source: http://www.alternet.org/water/132703/unquenchable%3A_america%27s_water_crisis_and_what_we_can_do_about_it/
By Shannyn Moore, Huffington Post. Posted March 31, 2009.
Currently 6 million gallons of crude oil sit at the base of a volcano that has erupted 19 times in the last eight days.
Mount Redoubt is awake. Our governor is not. I’m beyond annoyed.
Currently, 6 million gallons of Alaska crude oil wait at the base of a volcano that has puked, spewed and gone half mad 19 times in the last 8 days. The years of colonization have made flaccid the response of many Alaskans. For good reason; collective PTSD from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill and subsequent 20 year wait only to have the Supreme Court deliver Exxon a reach-around while Alaskans grabbed their ankles fuels collective disillusionment. It’s ironic we need petroleum products to deal with an oil company. Sadly, our governor couldn’t remember “Exxon v. Baker” when asked by Katie Couric about Supreme Court decisions she disagreed with. The 20th solemn observance of the catastrophic spill last week would have been an appropriate time for a statement, but she was loudly silent. It is a very real possibility that history could be repeated.
The Drift River marine terminal started operating in 1967. Brilliant. I know, let’s put an oil storage facility at the base of a volcano. You would think it was the secret lair of the Evil Dr. Cheney; or some hilariously funny and misguided plotline from an Austin Powers film. Pipelined in from another facility, it merely holds the crude until it’s ready to ride to the refinery across the inlet.
One of the reasons given for leaving 6 million gallons of crude in the storage tanks is stability; the tanks are much more stable when they have something in them. Chevron referenced Katrina and the need to keep the tanks heavy enough so they don’t float away in a flood. The environmental coupon clippers decided to risk Cook Inlet in order to save empty storage tanks. DID I MENTION THEY ARE AT THE BASE OF AN ACTIVE AND EXPLODING VOLCANO? Drift River is also permitted by the EPA to treat ballast water from tankers. Were the storage tanks emptied of oil, they could be filled to safe and stable weight levels with sea water-called BALLAST when it’s in a boat.
The volcanic eruption of 1989 was severe, but Cook Inlet was not at risk – the storage tanks had been emptied. 20 years later, industry initially wouldn’t release the amount of oil left in the tanks citing a threat to “homeland security”. So, by that logic, the terrorists would attack if they knew the crude supply in a storage facility was running a little low? REALLY? The Palin Administration, the Coast Guard, and the EPA rolled with that and regurgitated the corporate line of drivel without question. Why don’t the terrorists attack the Port of Valdez? They release their crude number every day. Finally, due to relentless pressure from Cook Inlet Keepers, Chevron finally owned the fact they decided to store 6 million gallons of crude oil at the base of Mt Redoubt.
After months of seismic activity, rumblings, belches…well, all the volcanic foreplay you would expect before an eruption…why are 6 million gallons of oil still there? That’s over half the size of the reported Exxon Valdez oil spill. The Coast Guard, Chevron and the State have collectively admitted that there is a lack of response equipment if the Drift River oil tanks rupture or collapse.
According to state statutes for lease conditions;
“Mitigative, Preventive, and Abatement Activities Required (a) The LESSEE will, at its own expense ….The LESSEE shall prevent or, if the procedure, activity, event or condition already exists or has occurred, shall abate, as completely as practicable, using the BEST PRACTICABLE TECHNOLOGY AVAILABLE…immediate, serious, or irreparable harm or damage to the environment (including but not limited to soil, sediments, water and air quality, areas of vegetation, fish or other wildlife populations or their habitats, or any other natural resource).”
HOLY CRAP! It’s the Pottery Barn Rule! You break it…you buy it. That’s hilarious! Exxon just disproved it, and the Supreme Court set precedent for multinational corporations to have an “accident” and get a pass-just the cost of doing business. It’s time to demand the State of Alaska enforce the laws we already have. It doesn’t take an economist to realize a “Free-Market” capitalist society is very expensive. Chevron, like Exxon, privatize their profits and socialize their risk and loss with the livelihoods and lifestyles of the people and environment of Cook Inlet.
The Cook Inletkeepers have a call to action. This is Vitamin Democracy.
Write to the Captain of the Port – Mark Hamiltion – mark.h.hamilton@uscg.mil – and ask him to:
1) draw down the oil in the tanks at the Drift River Terminal until the volcano subsides and
2) position spill response equipment so we’re ready in case things turn south.
Join Cook Inletkeepers. You can tell them I sent you. Join Renewable Resources Coalition to keep an eye on the Bristol Bay watershed and Pebble Mine updates.
I could bang my head and tell you the controlling forces in Alaska have better things to focus on…like denying vaginal rights, bringing back the death penalty (Jesus would have loved that…oh wait, maybe not), and the “I-did-a-dog” bestiality bill. Palin’s pandering appointments of W.A.R. (extremist Wayne Anthony Ross) for Attorney General and the newly converted and recent Republican Tim Grussendorf to replace Democrat Kim Elton’s vacated Alaska State Senate seat are just short of a “F*@# YOU, Alaska!” press release.
But I won’t rant on that just now, WE DON’T HAVE TIME!
Source: http://www.alternet.org/water/134341/why_sarah_palin_and_chevron_may_be_responsible_for_the_next_massive_oil_spill_in_alaska/?page=2
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 01. 3.08
United Technologies Corp.’s Hamilton Sundstrand unit, is teaming with US Renewables Group to commercialize a solar-power plant that will use molten salt to store the sun’s heat and release it in a controlled manner for steady steam turbine power generation.
Hamilton Sundstrand officials say the solar-power business will be managed through a new entity called SolarReserve, which will hold the exclusive license to market and operate utility-scale solar-power plants world-wide. Under the agreement with US Renewables Group, Hamilton Sundstrand’s Rocketdyne segment will provide heat-resistant pumps and other equipment, as well as the expertise in handling and storing salt that has been heated to more than 1,050 degrees Fahrenheit. The company says plants using this method will be able to generate as much as 500 megawatts of peak power or run continuously at 50 megawatts. One megawatt is enough power to supply about 1,000 U.S. households.
The salt system looks to be very efficient at heat storage. Potential issues are: 1,) the genius’ at US Dept. of Homeland Security might regard the salt repositories as needing to be guarded from potential terrorists (potassium nitrate is a component of black powder); and 2.) concern trolls will point out that the commercially supplied nitrates are made from syngas produced either with natural gas or coal as feedstock.
…According to the company, molten salt loses only about 1% of its heat during a day, making it possible to store energy for long periods of time. The salt is a mixture of sodium and potassium nitrate.
Via::WSJ, Solar Venture Will Draw on Molten Salt; United Technologies, US Renewables Link Up For Clean-Fuel Project
Source: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/01/molten_salt_as.php
March 26, 2009 — The race is on to develop smaller, more powerful and more solid batteries for devices like laptop computers, cell phones, GPS receivers and other portable devices.
Scientists at MIT are taking the opposite approach, developing large, eco-friendly stationary batteries made entirely from liquid metal that would store large amounts of power from wind farms or solar cells or serve as backup power sources for hospitals.
“Since these batteries won’t be in someone’s hand or in a car, we don’t have to make them crash-worthy, idiot-proof, and it doesn’t have to operate at around body temperature,” said Don Sadoway, a scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who, along with graduate student David Bradwell and fellow professor Gerbrand Ceder, is developing the molten metal battery.
“Our batteries have no solid materials in them; no solid electrodes, no solid membranes, no solid anything,” said Sadoway.
Any battery, solid, liquid, or a combination of the two, is simply a way to store energy chemically. To do this, any battery needs three parts: a positively charged cathode, a negatively charged anode, and a membrane between the positive and negative charges.
Most batteries, including the one in your laptop or TV remote, use solid materials like zinc or lithium cobalt for the cathode, graphite for the anode, and a liquid salt solution for the electrolytic membrane.
Sadoway’s battery is different. The anode, the cathode, the membrane, all of them are liquids, hot, molten, and sloshy liquids.
Sadoway has tried many different combination of liquid materials during the last few years. One of the first compilations used molten antimony and magnesium as the charge holders with a layer of sodium sulfide between the two.
The three layers don’t mix with each other because each material has a different weight. They naturally separate into three layers. If something disturbs those layers they will naturally separate again because of their weight.
Sadoway won’t release specific details of his current battery materials. Whatever they are made up of, the batteries are encased in stainless steel and are about the size of a soda can.
Like the materials inside the battery, the final size of the battery is yet to be determined.
“This should be easy to scale up. If we want to make a battery the size of a 33 gallon garbage can we can do it,” said Sadoway. “If we want to make [a battery] the size of a football field we could do it.”
One issue in scaling the size of the battery up is coming up with a cheap way to keep the liquid metal liquid. Right now the batteries have to be heated to a minimum of 500 degrees Celsius, just above the maximum temperature of the standard home oven.
Liquid metal batteries would require about the same safety measures as a home oven, and could one day become a part of homes, hospitals, and other permanent structures. The batteries would be ideal for storing energy from wind or solar farms for use when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.
Fully liquid metal batteries are most likely to replace other molten metal batteries (which have a solid membrane between anode and cathode), such as sodium sulfur batteries, which serve as back up batteries for hospitals during power outages, or could draw power from the electrical grid at night and then put the energy back into the grid when it’s needed most, during the day.
Fully liquid metal batteries are still years away however, say both Sadoway and other battery experts, including Marca Doeff, a material scientist and battery expert at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California.
“This is still a conceptual idea,” said Doeff. “There are still engineering challenges that need to be overcome.”
Video: http://www.technologyreview.com/video/?vid=264
Source: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/03/26/liquid-battery-solar.html
By Wesley Joseph on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009
You may be watching as the economy threatens to turn its, “recession,” moniker into, “depression,” all while reports about the dire circumstances our environment is in continue to mount.
Need a couple of examples? Try here 
and here. Below, you can find ten great ways to green your life on the cheap and save money while you do it!
While the economy plummets, you may be asking yourself, “can I really afford to be, ‘green,’ during these economic times?”
I’m here to tell you, “Absolutely you can!”
Here I have compiled a list of ten articles from Earthascope that outline different ways to improve your envirohuman impact while saving money. You don’t have to stop your efforts to pollute less just because of bad economic times!
Think of it as turning the recession into your own, “green session”!
- Greener Under Twenty: Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs
- Whatcha Gonna Do With All that Junk? (All That Junk Inside Your Trunk)
- Greener Under Twenty: Use Power Strips
- Greener Under Twenty: Milk Jug Watering Can
- EHI Quick Tip: Buy a Tea Kettle
- Greener Under Twenty: Use Rechargeable Batteries
- Greener Under Twenty: Buy Organic Foods
- Greener Under Twenty: Rubber Scraper
- EHI Quick Tip: Defrost Food in Fridge Overnight
- Greener Under Twenty: Start With Seeds, Not Seedlings
Hopefully, this list has been helpful and you have found a few actions you can soon take to save money while improving your envirohuman impact!
Let us know if you have ideas for greening one’s life on the cheap in the comments section below!
Related posts:
- Four Ways to Green Your Wallet (and the Environment) How can you tighten your belt while improving your EHI?…
- Five Simple Ways to Green Your Life Today Check out five simple approaches to a greener life, starting…
- Hot Tomale! Green Tomale?
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Corn husk or food wrapper?
Tomales!…
Source: http://www.earthascope.com/ten-ways-to-go-green-on-the-cheap/
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