Dry Days

Uplift.

California is evaporating. Continued drought combined with collective denial have spurred the loss of 63 trillion gallons of the states reserve waters. You can see for yourself what this looks like in satellite images from NASA here. Hetch Hetchy, the reservoir famously protected by John Muir that provides the majority of water to San Fransisco, is at 63 percent its normal level. The loss of this massive volume of water has been large enough to initiate a rebound effect in the Earths crust; California is also rising, to the tune of more than half an inch in less than a decade.

According to the State of California, close to half of many residents water use is for outdoor urban areas.

Drain the pools. Turn off the misters. Let the lawns go brown. Get it together people.

https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/severe-drought-causing-western-us-rise
photograph courtesy of Science@NASA

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/

Drop In the Bucket

Cycle.

The water cycle is one of the first things taught in almost any natural science course.  That water is cyclical and therefore finite is a hugely important thing for people to understand in terms of how we relate to and behave with respect to the environment.  But oceans and rivers are big, and our planet seems so blue, with such an abundance of water, that it is hard for us to visualize how deeply connected we are through water.  

Consider for example a few simple things.  Human bodies are made of about 60% water.  Only three percent of the water on Earth is freshwater.  There are river channels in China in which flow fluids that can no longer be classified as water because of the high concentrations of pollutants, these rivers run with aqueous solutions.  It is important for us to understand how and why water moves throughout the world. 

Artists Helen Friel, Jess Deacon and Chris Turner produced an pop-up book animation showing the water cycle that is a wonderful fusion of art, design, multimedia, with scientific content.  There is still a vast and growing gap between those who are science literate and those who are not.  Projects like this help bring important scientific concepts into the mainstream consciousness. And it is visually stunning.  We all live here together, we need to make sure that everyone is participating with informed consent. 

To watch Revolutions:

http://www.helenfriel.com/Revolution-Animation

References/Links:

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/propertyyou.html