Water Works

Wet.

The City of Portland is debating what, if anything, to do about their already high and rising public water water supply costs. While it is true that Portlanders pay more for their water than most major cities, even Phoenix, Arizona, that proponents of cost reductions use this as evidence in favor of making water more affordable only shows their lack of understanding of the issue. Portland water is more expensive than Phoenix because of bad water policy in Phoenix, not exorbitant prices in Portland. Arizona has a long history of devaluing water even as it becomes more and more scarce. Arizonans use water that is shuttled through the desert for hundreds of miles in open-air aqueducts that allow more than fifty percent of the water to evaporate before reaching its destination. Once it arrives in Phoenix it is used in misters, to water lawns that should never live in the desert, and to wash cars, but not for drinking. Arizona, like much of the rest of the country has terrible tasting drinking water.

Portland is different. Even though we live in one of the few areas of the world that has a water surplus (in non-drought years) Oregonians have implemented good policies around water quality. We have a pristine and well protected natural water source, and we just pent over a billion dollars for a much needed upgrade to our sewage system that will prevent raw sewage from leaking into the Willamette river every time it rains. The tap water in Portland tastes great.

That a city that prides itself on it's environmental image does not understand that good clean water is both important and expensive bewilders me. We chose to upgrade our sewer system, and now we have to pay for it, which we should, if for no other reason than to remind ourselves how very important this resource is. Call or email a Portland City Council member or County Commissioner or the Mayor today and tell them that the best things in life are never free. Good water is worth it.

Picture
www.filmforager.com

Gone Dry

Water.

Much of the water used for irrigation, drinking, swimming pools, and misters in the Southwestern states comes from the Colorado river. So much water, in fact, is diverted from the Colorado that it no longer, and has not for many years, reaches it's own outlet, instead running dry someplace in the desert. The water diverted from the river is carried hundreds of miles through the desert in largely open-air aqueducts, a practice that can mean the loss of more than 60% of the water due to evaporation in the desert heat. That water is essential to our survival is a non-issue. So is the fact that it is a finite resource. For a country that bothers to advocate water conservation in the home to school children with concepts like turning off the water when brushing your teeth, the denial of the Arizona aqueduct as a problem seems like a massive amount of denial. Water, not oil, is the major resource issue of the 21st century. It's time we started acting like it. 

Where does your water come from? How long will it last? 

Picture:

http://tucsoncitizen.com/view-from-baja-arizona/tag/colorado-river-aqueduct/

The Sun, The Sun

Shine.

Like the birds I am flying south in winter. I am fleeing the gray days, the low clouds and the press of winter cold for sun and cacti and the company of good friends. I love the vast deserts of Arizona, the rock yards, the saguaro, the stoic sense of endurance that comes with such harsh conditions. I relish the big sky and the forlorn cries of the coyote. I am grateful for the time to step away, slow down, and view the world from another context. The escape will do me good.

Photograph:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saguaro_Sunset.jpg

A Nice Ride

spotted.

For the last few months there has been ongoing debate over a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision to neither designate critical habitat nor develop a recovery plan for the endangered jaguar. A recent ruling by U.S. District Judge John Roll said the agency did not use the best scientific evidence available in deciding that critical habitat for the jaguar was "not prudent" because Fish and Wildlife contended that its main threat in the United States was from being hunted, not from lack of habitat.

Jaguars once roamed from the southern tip of South America north to the region surrounding the U.S.-Mexico border. Today significant numbers of jaguars are found only in remote regions of South and Central America—particularly in the Amazon basin. In fact, of the three to five jaguars believed to still spend any portion of their time within the United States, only one is considered to have the majority of its habitat in the U.S.

That cat, known as Macho B, may have been the oldest know jaguar in the world.

On March 2, the Arizona Game and Fish Department resolved the issue independent of the legal system. Macho B was captured on Feb. 18 in a snare placed by the Arizona Game and Fish Department in an area outside Tuscon. The cat, which was described in field reports as healthy and robust, was tranquilized, equipped with a radio-tracking collar, and released.

Macho B was recaptured on March 2 after wildlife personnel reportedly feared that it might be in poor health. It was transported to the Phoenix Zoo, where a veterinarian said it had irreversible kidney failure and was euthanized the same day.

The federal government has opened a criminal investigation into the capture and death of Macho B amid accusations that a biologist working for the state illegally baited a trap to attract the cat.
The tragedy in this is that we will now spend more in legal fees, press coverage, and public outrage and debate far more resources than would have been allocated to the protection of critical habitat in the first place. And all the noise and outrage in the world will do nothing to help the few remaining jaguars whose range extends into the United States. Lets hope that what we learn from this is that we can’t afford to wait, or rather, the species with whom we share our home cannot afford for us to wait. Habitat protection, hunting restrictions, and recovery plans are crucial to maintaining biodiversity and our own quality of life. Do something.

To read the endangered species act:
http://www.fws.gov/laws/lawsdigest/ESACT.html

To take action:
http://www.worldwildlife.org/
http://www.nrdc.org/
http://www.wildlifeimages.org/


References:http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/jaguar.html
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/04/02/macho-b-jaguar.html
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2009/04/01/20090401jaguar0401.html
http://travel.mongabay.com/colombia/600/co06-1366.jpg