Angry Irish

The Emerald Isle, with its damp climate, extensive greenery and abundant water supply has truly never experienced a true water shortage, and has many local thriving fish and wildlife habitats.  But currently, people of the town of Boyle, in County Roscommon in the western part of Ireland are having to boil their tap water due to the fact that it is practically toxic to drink.  The water supply has been contaminated by a new bacteria that the town’s out-of-date water treatment plants cannot purify.  The consequence to drinking the water, “You’re going to be violently sick for 24 hours-it’s as simple as that.  It happened to me twice.  But not a third time” Sean O’Dowd was quoted saying as he and many others were photographed stalking up on bottled water supplies.  The contamination is caused by a severe downfall in the quality of local water infrastructures, due mostly to the lack of investment on part of the local government following the 2010 economic collapse of Ireland.  Irish Water, the company chosen to take over the once locally operated water system plans on spending over 2 billion Euros or 2.5 billion US dollars to bring the waterworks up to safe standards.  This project is going to be supported by issuing a never before seen water fee for all water usage.  Up until now water infrastructure and management was funded from central and local government taxes, now households will be responsible for paying for the water that they use in their homes and businesses, a procedure we have long become accustomed to in the U.S.  “We have a big problem in terms of our infrastructure-it’s not at a state that’s fit to meet the needs of a modern economy,” says Irish Water’s Elizabeth Arnett.  

Colorado Basin Disappearing From Below

The Colorado River Basin is one of the most important sources of water for most of the Western United states.  It provides water to 40 million Americans and over 4 million acres of farmland in seven western states.  Quite alarmingly in the last few years, research has shown that groundwater is vanishing from the basin much quicker than ever expected.  In the last 9 years the basin has lost approximately 65 cubic kilometers of fresh water.  This quantity is nearly double the size of the nations largest reservoir, Lake Mead.  Many were stunned when NASA weather satellites showed such a drastic decline in such a seemingly short period of time.  More incredibly almost two thirds of the water lost, was groundwater.  The information gap arises because of the fact that surface water residing in the Colorado River Basin is closely regulated and monitored by the US Bureau of Reclamation, while there are no interstate regulations on how the states monitor and measure groundwater levels.  With consistent water table information from monitoring wells being readily unavailable, researchers are having a very hard time tracking the declines and identifying what in fact caused the sudden drop.  Clearly this supply issue has a potential of impacting most of the western united states, and could be developmentally crippling to their rapidly growing cities.

Water Water Everywhere

Far above our heads, there are currently astronauts working away in attempt to repair the International Space System's cooling station .  Currently the space station in operating on only one cooling system which would leave the astronauts vulnerable to being left without a working system should the current cooling unit fail.  After a seemingly successful mission on Saturday, astronaut Rick Mastracchio discovered something interesting in his spacesuit, water had gathered in his suit's sublimator which is a device that's designed to dissipate excess heat.  Usually the suits have water based systems in them that remove moisture, and cool the astronauts.  But it is unusual for the water to accumulate.  The spacewalk on Saturday consisted of a 5 hour and 28 minute mission removing a faulty coolant pump module, this mission will continue tomorrow December 24th and no further issues are expected to arise.  This unfortunately is not the first time that water has been a problem is space.  In July an astronaut's suit malfunctioned causing him to nearly drown inside his suit.  NASA officials have declared that the two problems are not related and they believe the suits to now have a "clean bill of health" although they have added makeshift snorkels and absorbent pads to the suits as a precaution.  Water water everywhere, even up there.

It's Not Just Happening to Us...

Several years of dry winters and unusually hot summers have left Canada's subarctic regions in serious trouble, causing severe and worrisome desiccation of the regions' lakes.  After the exclusive study of 70 lakes near Old Crow, Yukon and Churchill, Manitoba it became apparent that most of the lakes had become less than a meter deep, with dead vegetation banking the shores.  The problem comes primarily from a decline in "melt-water" that usually supplies the lakes.  For example, from 2010 to 2012 the average winter precipitation in Churchill decreased by 76mm when compared to the average that had been recorded between the years 1971 and 2000.  "With this type of lake, precipitation in the form of snow represents 30% to 50% of the annual water supply," explained the study's lead author, Frederic Bouchard.  Clearly, a lack on snow fall will rapidly and drastically affect the water levels and viability of the lakes.  With several ecological and environmental concerns buzzing through the air researchers have become increasingly concerned, in addition to the realization that this decline has not been seen in the 200 years of its observation.  So folks, back here in the USA we surely are not the only ones feeling the pressure and concern associated with water resources and conservation.  Just one of the many issues concerning water around the globe.

   

NYC's Underground Undertaking

On October 16th the mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg announced the opening of the Manhattan section of a water tunnel project that began in 1950 but didn't get under way till 1970.  The $4.7 billion dollar project has already claimed the lives of 24 people during its construction so far.  Once the massive construction is finally complete, the tunnel will stretch more than 60 miles bringing water to Brooklyn and Queens from reservoirs located north of New York City.  The tunnel will both serve as a backup for the primary water tunnel used in the area and will give city workers and engineers an opportunity to inspect and repair the old tunnel for the first time in almost 100 years.  In order to finance this project, the city Water Board has initiated years of rate hikes, and bills are projected to continue increasing 7.5% a year for the next three years.  Definitely quite the underground undertaking here if you ask me.

The Water Poet - John Taylor

John Taylor Portrait from his 1630 Poetry Anthology

John Taylor lived in London in the late 1500's and died in 1653.  He dubbed himself "The Water Poet", but it's maybe not for the reasons you may be thinking - and certainly not for the reasons I read the explanation.

He didn't write incessantly about water and how spiritual it is, or anything like that.  No, that would have been a gold mine of information for this kind of blog.  The truth is he was a Thames waterman - a member of the boatman and ferry guild that transported people and products across the Thames River in a time when only 1 bridge - the London Bridge - spanned the great river. 

It is only through his writings that some of London's history relative to the ferry industry has been captured.  The best examples of this are his works: To the Right Honorable Assembly (Commons Petition); and The True Cause of the Watermen's Suit Concerning Players.  In these two works he describes how the workers try to change the leadership of the watermen's guild to more of a democratic operation, and the watermen disputes of 1641-42 when the theater companies moved all the theaters across the river to eliminate ferry charges - a move that did not sit well with the tightly organized ferrymen.

He was not a particularly refined writer, but he did know human nature and was a good observer of  people and social styles of the period, so was reasonably popular. He did many works by subscription - suggesting a book, asking for subscriptions, and writing the book only after receiving enough support to cover the costs.  The Pennylesse Pilgrimage (The Moneylesse Perambulation of John Taylor, alias the Kings Magesties Water-Poet); and How He TRAVAILED on Foot from London to Edenborough in Scotland, Not Carrying any Money To or Fro, Neither Begging, Borrowing, or Asking Meate, Drinke, or Lodging are two such examples.  Anyone who defaulted on their promised subscription would be roasted the following year, though, and remember, he was NOT a refined writer so the followups tended to be embarrassing.

His only other "water" work was "The Praise of Hemp-Seed" - a tale of his journey traveling from London to Queenborough in a paper boat with two fish tied to canes for oars.  Incidentally, this work was one of the first to mention the passing of William Shakespeare (died in 1616).  It was written in 1620.

Two final tidbits just for added interest.  First, John Taylor is credited with the early palindrome "Lewd did I live & evil I did dwel.".  Being a ferryman I can actually believe this one.  Secondly, he also authored a new language called Barmoodan.  You have to wonder about someone who invents a new language when he is the only one in the world who can use it.  I can't find any examples of this language, but I'd like to believe John was influenced by the Eskimo and created 22 words for "water".  That would be fitting. 

Water Data as Art? Perhaps.

"Drawing Water"

David Wicks turns environmental data into art through computer software that he creates.  One of his latest projects has to do with rainfall data and is shown as this post's visual.  (Click to enlarge)  What looks like a cool rendering of the United States, is actually 2011 winter rainfall data by location, tweaked, and placed in reference to regional water consumption by cities. In other words, this is a visual rendering of the relationship of where water falls in the US to where it is used.  The numbers that make up the rendering are rainfall data from the NOAA/NWS and water consumption data from the USGS.  

In his own words.. "The final placement and color of each line are determined by the influence of urban water consumers. The more water a city uses, the stronger its pull on the rainfall. As rainfall is pulled farther from where it fell, it becomes desaturated, turning from blue to black in print and to white in the projected installation."   For more detail on the data and/or the process click here.

My personal take on the artwork is one of trending more toward the abstract.  I don't see the water use relationships that I think were intended to be seen.  I can only surmise that Colby, Kansas doesn't show up because either we don't use much rainfall in the winter, or, we use exclusively groundwater.  It does appear that most of our rainfall heads somewhere East of St. Louis, though.  (I'm only kidding - I never expected to see Colby's influence!)

But actually, that's not all.  His program also includes an interactive component that allows a user to select a smaller portion of the US and to look at the last few days of precipitation, or one of several other preselected time periods.  This could be cool, but I still don't think I'm going to see Colby patterns that will result in an "aha" moment.  However, all said, I applaud Mr. Wicks' interest in the political nature of water and in attempting to portray this critical resource in a new and innovative way.  And I guess I'll mention it before anyone else does - it doesn't seem to me like California or Texas are getting their fair share.  Or am I looking at the picture backwards?

Water and Morals and Dogmas

As I may have mentioned before, my wife and I bought an older home in Colby that came with a stocked library of many eclectic titles.  I've blogged before about my copy of the 1892 Snow White Cookbook and its recipes and remedies (mostly water-related).

At this time I'm trudging through a 1950's reprinted edition of "Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry" that was originally published in 1871 by the pen of Albert Pike.  This 861-page tome (which also has a 218-page Digest-Index stuffed in at the end) covers all 32 degrees of this order.  Oddly enough Albert Pike and the Supreme Council profess to be 33 degree members.  Can't do much better than that!

Anyway, in the 32nd degree script, there is a wonderful description of water - even describing groundwater quite eloquently.  From the book:  "Two invisible gases, combined by the action of a force of God, and compressed, become and remain the water that fills the great basins of the seas, flows in the rivers and rivulets, leaps forth from the rocks or springs, drops upon the earth in rains, or whitens it with snows, and bridges the Danubes with ice, or gathers in vast reservoirs in the earth's bosom."

Just a page later the text turns its attention to the weather cycle:  Incessantly the great currents and rivers of air flow and rush and roll from the equator to the frozen polar regions, and back from these to the torrid equatorial realms. Necessarily incident to these great, immense, equilibriated and beneficient movements, caused by the antagonism of equatorial heat and polar cold, are the typhoons, tornadoes, and cyclones that result from the conflicts between rushing currents."

It's too bad they didn't reverse these two descriptions to better describe the integrated water cycle, but hey, this is 32 degree stuff, which, incidentally sports the title of:  "Master of the Royal Secret".

Much of the book is brimstone and fire type of preaching as far as I'm concerned, but what I'm most worried about is the large printed NOTICE prominently placed on the inside Title Page:

"ESOTERIC BOOK, FOR SCOTTISH

RITE USE ONLY; TO BE RETURNED

UPON WITHDRAWAL OR DEATH

OF RECIPIENT."

I had really planned on leaving these books for the next owner of this fine old library collection, but now I'm severely torn!  Any advice from the Freemasonry members out there?

CO2 Sequestration in Kansas? Good Idea or Bad?

Just over 3,000 feet below the South Central Kansas landscape and capped by up to hundreds and hundreds of feet of Permian evaporites there is a study on-going by the Kansas Geological Survey (KGS) and others to assess the potential for CO2 sequestration in the depleting oil and gas formations of the Arbuckle Group.  Not only will the extensive and relatively thick formations be looked at as the possible storage vessel for manmade sources of CO2 for the mitigation of climate change, but the injections could also squeeze the last vestiges of oil and gas from within - a win-win situation - if all goes well.

KGS is working primarily from $9.9 million in grants from the Department of Energy on this $12.6 million project - slated to be done in December, 2012.  No injections will be made as this study is simply to assess the potential to use these formations if US policy embraces underground CO2 sequestration.  KGS seems to think there is a 600 year storage capacity here, and a good industry could be generated by this situation.  Several issues are under the gun, though:  Who owns the pore spaces in these deep formations?  How much CO2 can be stored within?  Will it stay contained over time?  Will it be an effective enhanced oil recovery process?  What chemical and physical reactions can we expect?  How will injected material attenuate over space and time?  And the list goes on.

The study materials are all neatly located on the KGS website for this project at this link.  Warning:  A close look at this site is NOT for the timid. There is a lot of material - technical and otherwise. Quite frankly, I was surprised to learn about the on-going and planned CO2 sequestration projects worldwide - and much more about the issues - international and domestic.  This site is worth some time if you have any interest at all. 

National Yield Contests

Is it just me, or are the national yield contests sending the wrong message?  Let's talk corn. 

I know corn yield contests are supposed to be about increasing production to feed a hungry world, but they can also push input limits - fertilizers, micro nutrients, water - to the max as well.  In every case, promoting the elusive 400 bushel per acre corn yield can be considerably input (water) intensive.   I also know there are a number of classes in the contest, including non-irrigated - and this is fine.  In 2008 over 6,000 participants were in the national corn growing contest - pushing their production skills to the limit.  And 2010 was the 49th year of the contest.

Most ag schools will tell you that maximum yield rarely (if ever) provides the producer the best net returns.  Like yield's response to water being curvilinear toward the top end, (See earlier irrigation post) yield response to fertilizer and all other inputs is the same.  It simply ends up costing the producer more in inputs than the last few bushels of grain are worth - thus lowering net returns.  Unfortunately, yield contests are all about top production - regardless.

In 2010 the irrigated class was consistently above 300 bushels per acre yield.  But I noted that all but a few of the top irrigated producers were from Texas and Colorado - dry climate states.  The top 2010 irrigated producer managed 368 bushels per acre from a Virginia farm. 

Maybe it's time we start thinking about the input side of crop production in a contest form.  Maybe the contest should be about crop yield efficiency - the highest yield with the least amount of inputs - especially water.  Classes within the National Corm Yield Contest for limited irrigation would do this - it'd be a start, at least.  When water gets really limited, it'll all be about growing maximum bushels with minimum water anyway, so maybe we should be pushing these frontiers a bit more now.  And maybe I'm all wet, too.  Comments?

New Use for Water?

I ran across a description of the newest thing in fly control consisting of a 1 gallon zip lock bag filled partially with water.  Hung over the area you want fly-free, the pundits say that the lens-effect of the water makes flies so nervous they don't hang around.

I was skeptical so I tried it.  I ate 5 meals outside, cooking one of them on the grill just to attract the maximum number of flies possible.   Only 2 flies came into range of my plate, and once shooed, those two never returned.  It was positively pleasant, so I have to conclude that I think it works!  Did nothing for the mosquitoes, ladybugs and other critters, but flies are by far the worst meal-time pest at my house.

Lots more testing needs to be done, though.   It looks a little "tobacco-road-ish" perhaps, but a small price to pay for effective fly-control.  Just thought you'd like to know this little trick if you haven't seen it yet.  BTW, my super-skepical, fly-magnet, wife Linda also noticed an improvement - at least she said she did.  That's proof enough for me!

September 14, 2009 Update:  According to "The Straight Dope":

"Apparently the water bags do drive houseflies away. Not mosquitoes, not no-see-ums, not spiders, not roaches, not yellowjacket wasps, just houseflies. Evidently, houseflies, being highly edible and defenseless, are nervous types, and don't like to sit still when they see something moving nearby, because it could be a predator. The water bag acts a bit like a lens--try it some time--in which the movements of people in the area are reflected. Even if the fly is too far from the action to see it directly, it can see a shifting of light and dark in the water bag, which it interprets as nearby movement, and it will fly away from the bag. The reason it doesn't work on any other insects is that the other insects listed don't have eyesight worth a plugged nickel."

Public Interest and Takings

As water becomes more scarce and more sought after, managers and governments are going to get more creative in their pursuits. One creative way to change the system is to redefine the basic foundations of water law. One of those foundations is the concept of "public interest" - probably the least well-defined term in today's water law, certainly in Kansas water law.

Everyone has a notion of what the public interest is, and in Kansas water law it is very loosely defined. Therein lies the problem (opportunity). Want to eliminate inefficient ag water use so it can be used for public water supply? Define or litigate it as not being in the public interest. Done. Whatever you (or a water manager or a government) wants to do with the water, redefining "public interest" can achieve it without even changing any water law.

Another example is current S. 787 now going through Congress. The clean water act currently applies to "navigable waters of the U.S.". S. 787 redefines applicable water to simply "waters of the U.S.". Such a simple redefinition, that once done, will place all waters of the U.S. under federal regulatory control. I'm not saying this will be a good thing or bad thing - only that it will change the regulatory water focus of the federal government significantly.

The only saving grace in this approach to shifting water use is that because a redefinition of "public interest" is made, it's virtually impossible to argue that the shift is for any other reason than to satisfy the public interest. This means that regulatory (or actual) takings now becomes a real secondary issue.

But regardless of the methods used, I think the posturing for control of water is only going to get way more interesting.