California Water | Blue Living Ideas

Are Federal Limits on State Water Use Scientifically Justified?

Posted on Mar 23, 2010 by Scott James.

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The National Academy of Sciences published a report this week supporting federal limits on California farmers’ water use and saying they are scientifically justified. It’s the latest chapter in the state’s long battle that pits environmentalists against agriculturalists. It is often said that as California goes, so goes the nation… If that holds true, water rights and use could be the next Tea Party Issue down the road, or at least something that is on every politician’s platform. Decisions about water use that distinguish between corporate, environmental and agricultural concerns are typically hashed out in state legislatures- seeing science used as justification for federal mandates on state resources will continue to play a major role in politics for a long time to come.
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California Water: Mavericks, Sacramento and Diane Feinstein

Posted on Feb 18, 2010 by Scott James.

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My housemates left before dawn on Saturday morning for the Mavericks Surf Contest, an annual big-wave surfing competition of the coast of Half Moon Bay, California. The waves can reach 50 feet, and because of the variability of weather and water, contest organizers and surfers alike must wait for the perfect storm to appear on the horizon, sometime between November and March, when they will all have less than 24 hours to rush to Half Moon Bay from around the world and catch the biggest waves of the year. It reminded me of the sentiment expressed in Blue Gold that in truth, we don’t manage water, water manages us- and just how little regard California as a state pays to that sentiment.
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CalWater Project to Study the Impact of Climate Change on California Water

Posted on Jan 28, 2010 by Scott James.

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California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has called California’s water troubles a “holy water war… north versus south, California versus the feds, rural versus urban….” As divisive as the state’s water issues are, they are just as poorly understood. Population growth, inconsistent weather and the threat of drought are well known factors that make water planning difficult, but California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger told the water committee in late 2009 that all of these could be intensified by climate change. The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) have created CalWater, a project that brings together researchers from University of California, the California Department of Natural Resources, the California Air Resource Board, and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography among others to examine how climate change could affect water resources in California.
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Federal Government Mandates Protection of Chinook Salmon, California Calls Foul

Posted on Jun 09, 2009 by Scott James.

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Federal regulators released a court-ordered plan on June 4, 2009 to protect Californiaâ€™s Chinook salmon. The plan will open dams and limit pumping of water from the rivers. The move has prompted a flood of objections from state officials because of the resulting reduction in water availability to California farms and cities.
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