Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Blogging and the media Ed Cone: "A study shows that '84 percent of journalists say they would or already have used blogs as a primary or secondary source for articles.'" Category: 2008 Presidential Election 7:24:57 AM     American Rivers funding for restoration projects From American Rivers, "Wondering how you can get your project funded through the American Rivers-NOAA Community-based Restoration Partnership grant program? Take a look at our online application and funding guidelines soon. RFPs for our next round are due December 3!" Thanks to Restoring Rivers for the link. Category: Colorado Water 7:00:07 AM     Prescott Valley auctions off effluent From U.S. Water News Online, "The Town of Prescott Valley sold 2,724 acre-feet of effluent water for more than $67 million during an innovative two-day auction on Oct. 29-30. The town awarded the effluent water to the highest bidder -- Water Property Investors LLC, a New York-based water-resource-investment firm -- for $24,650 per acre-foot. Water Property Investors can re-sell or use the water to meet state water supply requirements for new subdivision developments. The auction attracted both local and national bidders through the use of a unique price-floor bid process that the town's consultants, WestWater Research LLC, developed and arranged. The town set a minimum-bid price by negotiating a $53-million agreement with Aqua Capital Management, a Nebraska-based private equity fund. The agreement would have awarded the effluent to Aqua Capital at $19,500 per acre-foot if the town did not receive a higher bid during the two-day auction. "An auction format with a price-floor agreement is an innovative way to address the increasing water needs in the Southwest and to create a market environment for water trading," said Clay Landry, managing director of WestWater Research. "The price floor protected the town from losses and the auction format encouraged a competitive-market outcome worth $14 million more than the original price-floor agreement.'" Category: Colorado Water 6:49:41 AM     Water policy Politicians in the 2008 presidential race have barely scratched the surface of water issues facing the nation. Here's a report from The Associated Press. From the article: When it comes to water, the 2008 presidential candidates are remarkably parched for words. They are well aware that there are few faster ways for a candidate to get into political trouble than to wade into the sensitive subject of the water shortages afflicting large areas of the nation. That's especially true when it comes to proposals for regional water sharing. Water-rich regions such as the Great Lakes states have long been wary that water-scarce, but politically robust regions like the Sun Belt will try to siphon off their precious resource. Such competing regional interests are laden with political implications. The handful of states leading off the presidential nominating contests in January tentatively includes the Great Lakes state of Michigan, as well as Nevada in the desert Southwest and South Carolina and Florida in the Southeast, which is suffering a historic drought. Several Great Lakes states, including Ohio, are also swing states certain to be top priorities in the general election. Yet sidestepping the problem is a luxury that presidential candidates won't have forever, Duke University political scientist David Rohde said. Population is surging in the arid West, where water shortages are chronic, and in the Southeast, where the drought has prompted spats between neighboring states... The government projects that at least 36 states will face water shortages within five years because of rising temperatures and evaporation rates, lack of rain, urban sprawl, waste and overuse. Water levels of the three biggest Great Lakes -- Superior, Huron and Michigan -- have been in steep decline since the late 1990s. The region's eight state legislatures are considering a compact that would prohibit sending water outside the drainage basin except to localities that straddle the boundary. A group representing the governors of the eight Great Lakes states urged the presidential contenders last week to endorse a wide-ranging plan for protecting the lakes -- including keeping them off-limits to outsiders... The Associated Press asked the leading Democratic and Republican presidential candidates a series of written questions about water policy, including whether regions that have relatively plentiful supplies, such as the Great Lakes, should share with those running short. Campaign officials for Republicans Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson and Democrat John Edwards declined comment or didn't answer. Only Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, responded at length, saying she opposes diverting water from the Great Lakes, "one of our most precious natural resources." The lakes compose about 90 percent of the nation's fresh surface water and nearly 20 percent of the world supply. "I would not overrule a state's lawful right to protect its water supplies," Clinton said in an e-mail. She also advocated techniques to stretch water supplies... Republicans John McCain and Mitt Romney responded to reporters' questions at recent campaign stops in Michigan. McCain, an Arizona senator, said the federal government should not require diversion of Great Lakes water, and the Southwest should focus on ways to conserve while building new storage projects. Romney would not comment specifically on the Great Lakes, but said a water sharing agreement reached this year among seven Western states dependent on the Colorado River set a good example for others. Democrat Barack Obama said in an e-mail that the federal government "needs to be a fair dealer between competing water consumers" and should "create a national plan to help communities adopt water use policies that better conserve water." Democrat Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico, has been one of the few candidates to raise the issue with voters. In a recent interview with the Las Vegas Sun, Richardson called for a national water policy and observed that "Wisconsin is awash in water," which many in the lakes region interpreted as a threat to grab their treasure. Suddenly, Richardson was a whipping boy on editorial pages, Internet message boards and talk shows from Minnesota to New York. Questioned by reporters in Detroit, Richardson insisted he had never suggested piping Great Lakes water elsewhere and that he was calling for states to swap ideas, not their water. Category: 2008 Presidential Election 6:33:38 AM     Conservation From The Fort Collins Coloradoan, "The Big Thompson and Fort Collins conservation districts have hired a new staff member to provide technical assistance to area landowners on natural resource conservation issues. Beau Davis was hired through a cooperative effort of the districts, the Colorado State Conservation Board and the Natural Resources Conservation Service. The districts along with the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, and the Big Thompson Watershed Forum provided 25 percent of the money, the state Soil Conservation Board provided 25 percent and the NRCS 50 percent. Davis will be providing engineering technical assistance for conservation programs at the local level, which benefits the community by improving water quality, reducing erosion and increasing wildlife habitat. For more information on the program, contact the Fort Collins Field Office of the NRCS at 295-5650." Category: Colorado Water 6:22:07 AM

© Copyright 2007 John Orr. Last update: 12/1/07; 10:33:18 AM.