Watershed

Aral Sea Recovering

It's nice to find some elements of hope in such a massive, slow motion disaster.

Northern Aral Sea recovering

Kazakhstan plans second phase of project.

Daemon Fairless

The Aral Sea, whose disappearance counts as one of the world's worst environmental catastrophes, is making a modest recovery thanks to a series of water-management projects implemented by the World Bank and the government of Kazakhstan.

While the waters of the Aral Sea — now a chain of brackish lakes along the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan — continue to shrink, one portion, the northern Aral in Kazakhstan, has been steadily rising thanks to improved flood levees and dam construction. Within the past year, the northern Aral has risen to the maximum holding capacity of its newly constructed dike — a process World Bank officials expected to take at least two or three years.

The news article page has some good imagery of the recovery.

So Flas Water Wars, Even in the Hypothetical

   

Officials in Palm Beach County leery of sharing water with Broward

By Andy Reid
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted January 18 2007

A proposal to let Broward County share Palm Beach County water threatens to trigger a territorial fight over one of Florida's most coveted resources.

The plan, still in the study phase, would take storm water stored in a reservoir near Wellington and direct some of it south to replenish drinking water supplies in southern Palm Beach County and Broward County.
...
However, with a drought already forcing watering restrictions on western growers and the spread of development threatening to further strain drinking water supplies, Palm Beach County officials and activists alike want to know when to expect "extra" water.

"I just can't imagine that with all the needs for water we have up here we have enough water to send to Broward County," Palm Beach County Commissioner Karen Marcus said.

With development spreading and decades of environmentally damaging drainage to correct, Palm Beach County has no surplus of water, longtime water activist Rosa Durando said.

"If the water falls in Palm Beach County, I think there is a moral obligation to keep it here," said Durando, of the Audubon Society of the Everglades. "They talk about `extra water.' When we are all in a drought, we will all be looking for that water."

NYC Water Dept.

Free water and its discontents.

City Fails to Collect Millions for Water

By ANTHONY DePALMA and JO CRAVEN McGINTY

Published: December 12, 2006

 

For years, New York City has failed to collect on millions of dollars in overdue water bills because its records are so riddled with factual errors and outdated information that pursuing deadbeats and delinquents has become virtually impossible.

Reid: More Cost for Okeechobee Dike Repairs

Mostly, this article is about how the costs are already starting to expand for the Army Corps of Engineers to shore up the Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee.    Shocking!  Many of the cases involve immovable objects, like US 27, which takes drivers slowly through the middle of the state, winding around Okeechobee and through Palm Beach County.

However, a lot of the blockages are private residences.  Eminent Domain would appear to apply.  We just voted on an Eminent Domain restriction here in Florida, but it shouldn't apply in this case.

Strengthening Lake Okeechobee dike could cost $50 million

By Andy Reid
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted November 8 2006, 7:43 PM EST

Houses, roads and railroad tracks stand in the way of a new plan to reinforce the aging Lake Okeechobee dike.
 
Water regulators said Wednesday they will need a 150-foot-wide swath of land around much of the Herbert Hoover Dike under a new plan to strenghten the 70-year-old earthen levee by adding berms.


Many properties that stand in the way can be acquired through eminent domain powers.
 
But others, such as U.S. 27, railroad facilities and Pahokee's airport would be spared by tweaking the new construction plans and building around them.
 
"We can design a fix," said Dennis Duke, of the Army Corps of Engineers. "It is going to be more expensive."
 
The South Florida Water Management District, charged with assembling the extra property, has estimated it could cost $50 million to acquire the additional land.
...
The corps plans to start construction on the new plan in February. The water district wants to speed up the timetable to complete construction in 5 years, instead of spreading it out over almost three decades as once planned.

I believe that last it is a reaciton to Katrina, as well as Charlie, Frances, Ivan, Wilma, and other fun, revolving and uninvited visitors to the Fun State.

Reid: Okeechobee Restrictions from SFWMD

Here come the water restrictions.  These are similar to the restrcitions that Australia used in its drought last year, especially the "stop washing your damn cars" restriction.

South Florida Water Management District  approves water restrictions

By Andy Reid
Sun-Sentinel.com
Posted November 9 2006, 2:27 PM EST
  
The South Florida Water Management District today approved water restrictions for sugar cane growers, utilities and residents who tap into Lake Okeechobee.
 
The agency's governing board agreed to reduce withdrawals from the lake by 15 percent, starting Nov. 17. If dry weather continues those restrictions can go up to 60 percent.
...
The driest 12 months in 75 years prompted the restrictions, which could be expanded to more populated areas if the conditions continue. Lake Okeechobee is more than 3.5 feet below its historic average for this time of year, according to the water management district.
 
Water district officials are hoping that the El Nino conditions that kept hurricanes away from Florida this year will now help generate rain to replenish water supplies.

Orlando Chooses Lawns Over Manatees

Well, this one makes me mad.  From roughly Thanksgiving to St. Patrick's Day, Blue Spring is one of the most amazing places to see manatees in all of Florida.  They cruise out to the St. John's in the morning, and cruise back into the flow from the spring in the evening.  And Volusia County (north of Orlando) needs green lawns so badly that they may as well dig into the spring.

While the manatees are the hook for the story, the lower level details are even more interesting to me.  The problems with the Floridian Aquifer (which seems already to be getting close to the salt level) are leading water management districts to enact future restrictions, in the hopes of juicing utilities into looking for different water sources.  Like the St. John's River, in particular.

 Blue Spring water can flow less freely

Less-stringent limits balance needs of man and manatee, leaders say.

Ludmilla Lelis and Kevin Spear | Sentinel Staff Writers
Posted October 11, 2006

PALATKA -- The door opened Tuesday for new residents flowing into west Volusia County to take a gulp out of the spring that protects hundreds of endangered manatees.

Regional water managers approved a plan that could weaken the flow of water into Blue Spring, but they promised to make sure the spring flow at that critical manatee habitat will rise again by requiring utilities in fast-growing west Volusia to find a new source of water.

Environmentalists still warned that the 19-year plan for the Orange City spring, which supports more than 200 manatees, could set up a "water war" between the animals that depend on the spring and people who may not want to give up their wells.

The Blue Spring flow was decided on a day when officials with the St. Johns River Water Management District also wrestled with how to curb Central Florida's addiction to underground water supplies.

Board members launched an ambitious plan to halt more than 80 utilities from increasing water they pump from the Floridan Aquifer beyond 2013.

The Blue Spring regulation, which establishes a legal minimum for the average spring flow, should be used as a clear limit on how much groundwater can be used for Volusia utilities, district officials said.

As one of Florida's largest springs, Blue Spring flows at an average annual rate of 1,174 gallons per second, or 157 cubic feet. That flow of 72-degree water provides a vital refuge for manatees, who couldn't survive the winter cold.

The regulation does not necessarily mean more water will be pumped. But the new plan allows the average flow rate to drop to 133 cubic feet per second until March 2009. In following years, the flow rate would have to gradually rise back to 157 cubic feet per second by 2024.

That could allow utilities to pump more water and accommodate more development. District officials emphasized they wouldn't issue water-use permits that would let the spring plummet that much.

John Sowinski, an Orlando board member, likened the minimum-flow plan to a minimum income needed to support a family, saying: "I wouldn't want to live at the minimum, and neither should the manatees at the end of the day. But we want to establish that minimum, scientifically, so we know to avoid it."

Manatee advocates worried the plan could harm manatees, especially if data underestimate the number of manatees at the spring in the future.

Sandra Clinger, with the Save the Manatee Club, said the lower spring flow could confine manatees in a more crowded habitat, without knowing how that will affect survival or behavior.

...

The key to avoiding those potential problems, other board members said, depends upon west Volusia utilities scaling back pumps and turning to a different water source. Volusia utilities have until 2018 to begin converting the St. Johns River into drinking water.

The unprecedented move to cap water withdrawals from the imperiled Floridan Aquifer in 2013 is a gambit by district officials to force utilities to move quickly to build treatment plants along waterways such as the St. Johns River.

District board members agreed to the concept, expected to draw participation by the South Florida and the Southwest Florida water-management districts.

By working as partners, the three water districts hope to draft details for how utilities can share, and not fight over, the relatively tiny amount of aquifer water still available.

The concept to stop increased aquifer pumping in 2013 must be defined and given final approval in coming months. One board member pressed agency staffers for assurance the 2013 cutoff would be enforced more forcefully than district rules have been.

"A lot of us aren't going to be here when this stuff hits the fan in six or seven years," board member Robert "Clay" Albright of Ocala said. "I want something with teeth in it."

Albright said his agency should demand that utilities show specific progress in coming months toward building new treatment plants.

Another board member, William Kerr of Melbourne Beach, warned that utilities are not inclined to spend large amounts for a treatment plant that won't open until well into the next decade. Their instinct will be to focus on what's left in the Floridan Aquifer.

"There's going to be pressure to get the cheaper water," Kerr said.

Sounds about right.  And the counties in the middle of the state don't have the "easy" option iof investigating desalination, like Tampa does.  Of course, that desalination hasn;t worked out so well for Tampa so far.

Okeechobee

Oh, here we go again.

Army Corps unveils new, more costly plan to prevent flooding from Lake Okeechobee

By Andy Reid
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted October 6 2006

Stalled repairs of the aging dike surrounding Lake Okeechobee could resume in February, but a new design to reinforce the earthen levee will need more land and money.

The Army Corps of Engineers on Thursday released a plan that calls for enlarging a concrete wall intended to increase the stability of the dike. The plan also includes adding berms along the outside base to help stop water that seeps through and erodes the 70-year-old levee.

The need to strengthen the dike gained urgency in May after an independent engineering report declared the dike "poses a grave and imminent danger to the people and the environment of South Florida."

Draining Okeechobee

This has been an ongoing problem since 2004, the high level of water in Lake Okeechobee.  It has been choking the fish and plantlife in the lake, because sunlight can't get through as easily.  I don't know details of testing for water quality, but the alst time I took a personal look at Okeechobee was about two months ago, and it looked just about as brown and sluggish as it did last year.

Water worries grow as engineers propose lowering Lake Okeechobee by a foot

By Andy Reid
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted September 19 2006

Two turbulent hurricane seasons, coupled with concerns about an aging dike, persuaded water managers to come up with a new plan to lower Lake Okeechobee.
 
But lowering the level of the 730-square-mile lake about a foot, as proposed, creates water supply ripple effects felt by some of South Florida's most powerful interest groups.

Sugar cane growers, environmentalists, fishermen, the Seminoles and cities from the lake to the coast have a stake in changing lake water levels.

This article is the lead story at the Sun-Sentinel website today.  It's almost emblematic of the coverage form, because it covers every one of the classic POVs.  Here's the competing quotes in a nutshell.

A story like this almost always starts off with the embattled Army Corps of Engineers, fumbling around while trying to satisfy everyone and still serve the environment.

The push for a new lake plan came after hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 left the lake close to the 18.5-foot mark, where the potential increases for erosion of the 140-mile Herbert Hoover Dike. High water in the lake also chokes the aquatic plants that provide habitat and spawning grounds for fish and other wildlife.

A proposal from the Army Corps of Engineers calls for capping the maximum lake level at 17.25 feet instead of letting it creep past 18 feet. That would take pressure off the 70-year-old earthen dike and improve the environmental health of the lake, according to the Army Corps.

Fair enough, right?  but here comes the first objection.  FLorida citizens who want to drink water on a daily basis.

The Seminole Tribe of Florida objected to how the new plan could affect its water supply. South Florida cities use the lake as backup drinking water during drought.

...

The Seminoles are "extremely concerned" the new plan does not do enough to protect their water supply, tribe representative Michelle Diffenderfer said.

"This all has cascading impacts," Diffenderfer said.

(BTW, I know this probably makes me a bad person, but the idea of a Seminole spoesperson named "Diffenderfer" just cracks me up.  It might be a married name, but I wonder if Major William Lauderdale ever wrote in his diary during one of the Sminole Wars about the night terrors of the Lurking Diffenderfer".)

So after the locals, in this case the Seminoles, talk about drinking water issues, you get either the business complaint (either developers or growers) or the environmental group complaint.

This time, it's the growers who come first.

Despite assurances from water managers, growers question whether they will get the water they need.

Sugar cane growers lost $50 million during the drought of 2001 when there wasn't enough lake water flowing to irrigation canals to help save crops, said Charles Shinn, who monitors water issues for the Florida Farm Bureau. The new lake plan needs to allow agriculture a larger say in how to manage lake levels when the rains stop, he said.

"There is some discomfort," Shinn said. "We have got a lot at stake out there."

Whenever I read "sugar cane growers" instead of the name of an actual farmer, I always assume it's code for a corporate farm, or some other plutocratic farm owner.  Not the sugar cane growing equivalent of Mom and Pop Kent, growing corn in Iowa while Clark learns how to fight for truth, justice and the American Grange.

Maybe Charles Shinn is totally straight up, but I am finding that every story about water issues needs about 50 pages of disclosure to understand the issues below the surface.

After the growers, the enviros get their shot.

While the new lake plan does help protect the dike, it needs to do more to protect the environment, said Eric Draper, deputy director of Audubon of Florida.

Lowering the lake too far could damage the habitat of apple snails, which takes away the food source of the threatened snail kites -- hawks that once flew in greater numbers around the lake, Draper said.

"They could end up managing the lake too low," Draper said. "The lake is still being managed primarily as a reservoir."
...
Water managers shouldn't "play to the crowd" when they finalize changes to the current six-year-old lake level standards, Palm Beach County environmental activist Rosa Durando said.

"We are trying to do ... long-range problem solving," said Durando, of the Audubon Society of the Everglades.

In any case, the important thing for Florida residents to know is that the Corps is planning to hold public hearings this month, so they can finalize a plan by November.  The written comment period ends October 2, and there's supposed to be a hearing in Lake Worth.

You can send comments to the Corps at:

http://www.usace.army.mil/inet/functions/cw/hot_topics/sendme.htm

The Fast-Paced, High Powered World of Water Management

You know, having grown up in the transition period between the 60s "Engineer as Hero" vision of science and public management, and the 80s/90s "Sweep it all under the rug" Republican Party approach to science and engineering, the images in my head are often in conflict.  On the one hand, I see white lab-coated paragons, with test tubes and pure intentions, who keep our beef untainted, our streets and highways efficient, and our water clean.  Just like in the 20-year old film strips I saw when I was in kindergarden.

In direct conflict with that image is the knowledge that there's a lot of important jobs managed on the "Heckuva job, Brownie" priniciple.  Or the "Jackass" priniciple.

Which leads us to the Bsuh Creek Utility District.  Take it away, KXAN, Austin's NBC affiliate.

Shakeup In the Brush Creek Utility District

June 21, 2006 08:12 AM

Several employees at the Brushy Creek Municipal Utility District have been fired for allegedly drinking alcohol at work and swimming at a water treatment plant.

Among those given their walking papers was a top manager.

The incident happened on June 10, after the Brushy Creek Municipal Utility District had an open house to dedicate the water treatment facility.

Five people have been fired for an after-hours party that happened. A statement by the MUD's board of directors says an investigation uncovered alcohol use.

At the termination hearing that happened this past Saturday, some workers were accused of swimming in a pond that's part of the water treatment plant. They say the drinking supply was not at risk.
...
In a phone conversation with KXAN, the former interim general manager said the board could do what they wish. He said, "What happened was obviously a mistake on my part. I'll move on about my business, and they'll move about theirs."

Really, this should be a case study at Columbia Business School:  how not to get promoted from "interim general manager" to "permanenet general manager".

From London to NOLA

I thought pipes from the 1700s were bad.  At least those pipes never had to go through a hurricane.

Water leaking faster than city is using it

Sound waves will search for busted pipes
Friday, June 09, 2006
By Michelle Krupa
Staff writer

Near the corner of Frenchmen Street and St. Claude Avenue, a half-mile from the Mississippi River and more than four miles south of Lake Pontchartrain, Gregory App can hear the gushing.
...
Since at least February, App has been able to lounge in his front room and listen to water flowing beneath the floorboards of his raised 1845 cottage. Peering out the window, he can keep tabs on the growth of a 5-foot-deep cavity that has slowly enveloped his street.
...
Nine months after Hurricane Katrina, S&WB officials are scrambling to plug an untold number of underground leaks, cracks and gashes, most of which sprung when the epic storm's winds uprooted trees and pried loose the water pipes around them.

Even after the water board plugged a 15 million-gallon-per-day break this week in a main water pipe in Bywater, an estimated 85 million gallons of drinking water still are flowing every day into the easily eroded southeast Louisiana soil.

Local experts say the seepage not only leads to low water pressure but also threatens city streets, sewerage lines and potentially the structural stability of houses.

To try to get a grip on the problem, S&WB officials have hired a contractor to install 400 sensors along 80 miles of water pipes beneath the city. The detectors are designed to sense vibrations and pinpoint leaks hidden beneath the pavement.

But the water board, already facing an apparent backlog of complaints, still will have to make repairs. And because of fiscal constraints, the contract initially will cover only 5 percent of the 1,600 miles of water pipes that snake through subterranean New Orleans.
...
Before the Aug. 29 storm, New Orleans' 455,000 residents used about 120 million gallons of water every day, and about 30 percent of it regularly disappeared through cracked pipes, or was used to fight fires or for other public uses, said S&WB Executive Director Marcia St. Martin.

That means that 84 million gallons served the city's pre-Katrina citizenry.

Now, with the population estimated at 221,000, the S&WB is pumping out even more than before the storm: about 135 million gallons per day, she said. Billing records show that only 50 million gallons are needed for private use, so 85 million gallons are pouring into the ground.

Since Katrina, water board crews have patched 17,000 leaks in the drinking water system, St. Martin said.