Watershed

Wave Farming for Power

UK: First commercial-scale floating Wave Energy Converter

Portugal to Get World's First Commercial Wave Farm

OPD's Pelamis P-750 wage energy converter is an elongated metal unit that looks like a big semi-submerged sausage, with hinged segments that rock with the sea, up and down and side to side, pumping fluid to hydraulic motors that drive generators.

This seems pretty neat in concept.  I wonder if surfers love or hate the idea, the same way hunters hate extensive housing development snapping up hunting lands.

The explanations of how this works aren't entirely clear, though it sounds similar to most other hydroelectric plants except that the Portugal facility is generating its own waves.

Here's a collection of links I found that cover various aspects of the idea.

- Marine Energy - Wave Power
- Wave energy test centre launched
- Riding waves of energy

- Ocean Power Delivery
   The company that is making the "Pelamis wave energy convertor".  They're looking to
    hire a Production Supervisor, if you're interested.

- The Pelamis Wave Energy Converter
    Includes an interactive model.

I can absolutely see the biggest problem being Jetski riders using the Pelamis structure for launching ramps, the same way they jump the wake of the Nantucket Ferry.  (OK, OK, I just saw a surfing documentary about Big Hawaii Waves on PBS.  It's still in my head.)

This is nasty -- and dirty! The EPA says so!

Aging sewer systems fouling Great Lakes waters, report says

Some of the issues are unsurprising.  Federal guidelines haven't been met, but then again, he Feds have slashed budgets to make necessary upgrades to systems.  An industry group says the current system has worked for 20 years, even though it dumps "bacteria, viruses and parasites to metals such as mercury and lead" into the Great Lakes.

Basically, a significant amount of the sewage systems aorund the Great Lakes use combined systems where sewage and stormwater share the same pipes.  When storms are particularly fierce, the syetems overflow, and a large number of them overflow into the lakes.  The solution is pretty simple:  create a system with separate pipes.

And there we get back to the budget issue.

(Every time I hear about sewage in the Great Lakes, I feel like I'm back in 1975 all over again.  Weirdly, Indiana seems to be pretty good on this issue.

(Lake Michigan water politics have always contained a large element of "blame the guy upstream".  Michigan City blames the Region, the Region blames Chicago, and Chicago blames Milwaukee.  The chain of blame trickles off there.  Milwaukee could blame the UP, maybe, but who would be kidding who?  Plus, best not to pick fights with Crazy Michigan Bastards.)

Fruitful Careers in Water Management

Back when I first learned about the stock market, I was taught that utility companies were the stable, boring, dividend-earning kind of companies that oldsters should invest in for stability in their portfolio. I'll bet that made a lot of utility company managers upset. "How dare they say my industry is dull! I power the who world!" Eventually, that kind of "I'm a big, swinging CEO, too!" thinking lead to a company like Enron, which was happy to manipulate electrical power production and rates just to clear a profit.

In the same way, some of the format Chicago water departmenr officials must have been inspired by Enron. Water isn't dull! I can collect over $200K for being a water guy!

[Gerald] Wesolowski pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy, admitting he was the "bag man" for collecting $200,000 in bribes from various trucking companies and claimed that he passed $196,000 -- or almost all of that cash to [Donald] Tomczak (former head of the Chicago Water Dept.] and other higher-ups in the scheme.

I have to say, only getting 4 grand out of all that effort hardly seems worth it. I would have thought a good bagman would get at least a 5% finder's fee.

Former City Water Official Pleads Guilty In Trucking Scandal
http://cbs2chicago.com/politics/local_story_122121138.html