https://www.howwillwe.com/thrive?sf64943841=1#water-map
Where water is scarce, energy (oil, gas, hydropower) can become more costly, crops can fail and food processing may be disrupted.
Read on….
Here’s a market solution to consider, President Trump
Researchers propose a new financial tool. Implications for Great Lakes?
I am quoting from an article written by Bret Walton for Circle Blue. He lays out the problem of water shortages out west and introduces the idea of “water insurance” just as we have car or flood insurance.
Greg Characklis, professor at UNC at Chapel Hill, further explains the notion in the following paragraphs:
“Utilities need to change their business models to adapt to 21st-century conditions. In an era of conservation, argues Greg Characklis, water utilities must become more sophisticated financial managers. One way they are doing this is by changing their rate structures so that they earn more revenue from “fixed” fees that do not fluctuate with the amount of water sold.
Characklis, a professor in the department of environmental sciences and engineering at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, has another idea: insurance markets. Farmers buy crop insurance to protect against unpredictable weather and drivers purchase accident protection, but no similar product exists for water utilities. Characklis and his colleagues are assessing the viability of the new financial tool.”
Flooding of Mississippi river and its tributaries, drought in the Southwest and low/high water levels of the Great Lakes, water is in the news:
“On one side was Texas, accused of trying to divert water from Oklahoma under terms of a four-state compact that entitled each state up to 25% of the Red River’s bounty. On the other side was Oklahoma, asserting that Texas can get the water from within its borders or elsewhere.
The battle is being watched closely by other states with similar interstate compacts, such as the one the two states share with Arkansas and Louisiana. There are as many as 50 such compacts, mostly in the West, and at least nine with similar provisions.”
Read on ….
Excerpt on future release of extreme water levels for Great Lakes restoration:
Recent lake levels studies suggest that the best way to address the potential for extreme water levels and the uncertainties, including those associated with climate change, is through adaptive management. A draft Adaptive Management Plan for the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River System will be released for public review next week. The plan aims to provide a more efficient and cost-effective way to monitor climate trends and support decision-making aimed at reducing the risk to communities, the economy and the environment from extreme water levels.
Your comments on this comprehensive and collaborative draft plan will be invited from March 15-April 15. The International Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Adaptive Management Task Team will consider comments received before making final recommendations to the International Joint Commission in May 2013.
Federal funding remains a focus. While levels for 2013 and 2014 are still unknown, expectations are that President Obama and Congress will continue the precedent-setting $1 billion-plus investment in the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative over the last three years – dollars slated to clean up past pollution, reduce nutrient loads from agriculture and cities, and prevent invasive species. Many thanks to White House Council of Environmental Quality Chairwoman Nancy Sutley for personally telling the Healing Our Waters coalition that Great Lakes restoration would continue.
For specifics on public comments go to website:
http://www.saveoursodus.com/2013/03/08/draft-plan-for-extreme-water-levels-is-coming-soon/
Excerpt on future release of extreme water levels for Great Lakes restoration:
Recent lake levels studies suggest that the best way to address the potential for extreme water levels and the uncertainties, including those associated with climate change, is through adaptive management. A draft Adaptive Management Plan for the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River System will be released for public review next week. The plan aims to provide a more efficient and cost-effective way to monitor climate trends and support decision-making aimed at reducing the risk to communities, the economy and the environment from extreme water levels.
Your comments on this comprehensive and collaborative draft plan will be invited from March 15-April 15. The International Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Adaptive Management Task Team will consider comments received before making final recommendations to the International Joint Commission in May 2013.
Federal funding remains a focus. While levels for 2013 and 2014 are still unknown, expectations are that President Obama and Congress will continue the precedent-setting $1 billion-plus investment in the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative over the last three years – dollars slated to clean up past pollution, reduce nutrient loads from agriculture and cities, and prevent invasive species. Many thanks to White House Council of Environmental Quality Chairwoman Nancy Sutley for personally telling the Healing Our Waters coalition that Great Lakes restoration would continue.
For specifics on public comments go to website:
http://www.saveoursodus.com/2013/03/08/draft-plan-for-extreme-water-levels-is-coming-soon/
This report is just out from the USGS upon request of the Congress on ‘substantial’ drop in Ogallala water levels in certain areas. Link to report provided. This is USGS posting:
The U.S. Geological Survey has released a new report detailing changes of groundwater levels in the High Plains Aquifer. The report presents water-level change data in the aquifer in two separate periods: from 1950–the time prior to significant groundwater irrigation development–to 2011, and 2009 to 2011.
In 2011, the total water stored in the aquifer was about 2.96 billion acre-feet, an overall decline of about 246 million acre-feet (or 8 percent) since pre-development. Change in water in storage from 2009 to 2011 was an overall decline of 2.8 million acre-feet. The overall average water-level decline in the aquifer was 14.2 feet from pre-development to 2011, and 0.1 foot from 2009 to 2011.
The study used water-level measurements from 3,322 wells for pre-development to 2011 and 7,376 wells for 2009 to 2011.
The High Plains Aquifer, also known as the Ogallala Aquifer, underlies about 112 million acres (175,000 square miles) in parts of eight states Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. The USGS, at the request of the U.S. Congress, has published reports on water-level changes in the High Plains Aquifer since 1988. Congress requested these reports in response to substantial water-level declines in large areas of the aquifer.
This multi-state, groundwater-level monitoring program has allowed water-level changes in all eight states to be tracked over time and has provided data critical to evaluating different options for groundwater management. This level of coordinated groundwater-level monitoring is unique among major, multi-state regional aquifers in the country.
The report “Water-Level and Storage Changes in the High Plains Aquifer, Predevelopment to 2011 and 2009–11” is available online.
San Diego county contracting to buy water from Carlsbad plant. NYTimes: In California, What Price Water? http://nyti.ms/15m9qHI
Great Lake levels are at their lowest with 29 inches below their long term average. This is a concern as droughts and floods are erratically impacting our ability to produce and transport goods and services in our economy. http://www.upnorthlive.com/news/story.aspx?id=856940#.URXkameko7u
Lake Levels 