Difference between revisions of "Category:Water"

One of Earth's most plentiful and vital natural resources. There's an old saying that "In the West, whiskey's for drinking and water's for fighting over."

This category includes information on freshwater quantity and quality. For environmental issues pertaining to freshwater, see Chemicals, Global Warming and Fracking.

See also ocean.

Big Picture Overview

Video overview and one from National Geographic.

Infographic

EPA page

UN site

Earth Policy Institute overview/stats/status Link 2006

Extensive coverage of the California drought and climate change.

Time Magazine 2009 fine overview on toxins, including drugs in water system.

Water Education Foundation has lots of good info on US West.

National Geographic Freshwater site, includes images, people (for example, Sandra Postel, founder of the Global Water Policy Project, is recognized as one of the world's most respected authorities on freshwater issues and is hailed for her "inspiring, innovative, and practical approach" to promoting the preservation and sustainable use of Earth’s freshwater. X, and video (example, CA canal)

Scarce, costly and uncertain: water access in Kibera, Nairobi by Crow, Ben, University of California Santa Cruz; Odaba, Edmond, examines gender issues in developing countries.

Water Woes: Japan, Haiti and Kenya Among World's Trouble Spots (PBS video 3/11).

News

US Megadrought 9/12.

Restoration of Hetch Hetchy, rematch of the fight that broke John Muir's heart.

The Sierra Club has questions about the Sacramento Delta water.

CA Desalination plants see also Opponent activist site.

New Fracking study on water contamination. 7.12

New short film on fracking by Gasland director. 7.12

Fracking has been getting a lot of attention lately, but a long-standing problem has been injection wells. 6.12

Link to Nature article on climate change drought affect on food supply. 5/12

The earth’s water cycle is speeding up twice as fast as climate models predicted, which means more droughts and more floods. 4/12

Aquafornia Blog, news with links to other water resources.

Yale's Environment 360 has timely articles on water topics

Peter Gleick on Peak Water and a short video. Recent Congressional testimony Powerpoint slides 5/11 See also Worldwater.org. "We've known for a long time that bottled water costs far more than safe, reliable, municipal tap water systems, with those costs falling on individuals, communities, and the environment. But there is new and growing evidence that the failure to provide safe drinking water, or the fear (or reality) of contamination in tap water that forces people to buy bottled water, imposes special financial burdens on poor and minority communities. More. His blog on water issues. video chat 11/11.

Overview article: "The Age of Thirst" about US SW. 12/11. A Great Aridness: Climate Change and the Future of the American Southwest by William deBuys.

Clearcutting forests endangers California water supply10/11.

Mexico's Newest Export To U.S. May Be Water (desal plants) 10/11.

Blog Action Day is an annual event held every October 15 that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking a global discussion and driving collective action. This year's topic is water. Grist

Fracking, injecting solutions into the earth to force out oil and gas, contaminating the water supply (See the documentary Gasland):

Living On Earth (audio 5/11).

60 Minutes segment on Fracking, injecting chemicals under high pressure to extract natural gas. 11/10

Wyoming story.

Solar Water Disinfecting Tar­paulin, a flexible, adaptable vessel to render it simpler and more effective for both carrying water and making it safe to drink. Winner of NextGen design competition (see Design Challenges Page for more), and was inspired by Kennedy’s Portable Light Prototype—a small, lightweight mat containing solid-state lighting and solar cells. The mat absorbs the sun’s rays during the day and provides illumination for up to eight hours at night.

China is build large numbers of dams, which could lead to conflict in the region. 4/11

Water as a source of international conflict by Gary Nabhan. 5/11

Pervious concrete helps solve the problem of urban runoff.

Forecasting ‘Dead Zone’ Conditions in the Gulf NPR audio 5/11

World Bank/corporation study of water in case you want to know what they're thinking. 2/12

A run-down urban neighborhood finds life in a dead stream. 3/12

Reports

In a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers have made the most detailed estimate to date of the scale and patterns of humanity's water consumption. The result is a large number -- 9,087 billion cubic meters (2,400 trillion gallons) per year. That's a volume equivalent to the annual flow of 500 Colorado Rivers. 3/12.

A new study on scarcity in the journal PLoS ONE, coauthored by Nature Conservancy scientist Brian Richter, provides fresh insight into the factors behind water shortages in the world’s most important river basins. 3/12

Strange Day, Troubled Waters from National Geographic and PBS.

Interactive

What's in your Water?

Where does your water come from?

America's Most Endangered Rivers.

Infographics: examples

Books

Cadillac Desert, is a ground-breaking book about water in the Western US. See also video.

Alex Prud'homme discusses his new book on water, The Ripple Effect, on [The Daily Show. (video) 5/11.

A Great Aridness: Climate Change and the Future of the American Southwest by William deBuys. Overview article: "The Age of Thirst" about US SW.

Burning Riversis about four urban-industrial rivers in North America that were so polluted they have in the past actually caught fire. Their condition then is described, as is the work taken to restore them, an encouraging and instructive account of how man's destructive effect on the environment can be overcome.

In a Fast Company cover story published in 2007, Fishman examined how the bottled water industry turned what was once a free natural resource into a multibillion-dollar business. He expands his investigation of the water industry in the new book The Big Thirst, which examines the future of a natural resource that, Fishman says, we can no longer take for granted. excerpt and audio interview. 4/11

Peter Gleick, a freshwater expert, is the author of Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water link to book and npr audio interview. The book is published by an UC alum who runs Island Press. His blog on water issues. video chat 11/11.

Running Out of Water: The Looming Crisis and Solutions to Conserve Our Most Precious Resource by Peter Rogers, Susan Leal, and Congressman Edward Markey.

Elizabeth Royte's new book Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It (includes audio interview). Another interview, text. (See also our own former Provost Szasz's book Shopping Our Way to Safety.Excerpt. It includes bottled water and his inverted quarantine concept.

Unquenchable: America's Water Crisis and What To Do About It by Robert Glennon 2009

Infrastructure, including drinking and sewage, in the United States is under-funded and woefully outdated. NPR's Living on Earth’s Steve Curwood hears two different views on how to reform our ailing grid. Nick Rosen, author of “Off the Grid,” suggests decentralizing utilities, while Scott Huler, who wrote “On the Grid,” wants to stay plugged in and work to improve the system. audio and text

The Holy Order of Water By William E. Marks (Google book)

Water Wars by Vandana Shiva

Water Wars by Vandana Shiva Google Book S&E Stacks TD345 .S53 2002

Cochabamba!: Water War in Bolivia by Oscar Olivera and Tom Lewis

Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water by Maude Barlow McH Stacks HD1691 .B366 2008. KQED radio interview 2008 Democracy Now

Blue Gold video based on the book

Ripple Effect Global Social entrepreneur project to provide water in Africa (partnership of IDEO, Acumen Fund and others).

Island Press teamed with the Society for Ecological Restoration to produce the Science and Practice of Ecological Restoration series, which serves as a forum for new information on restoration theory, practice, and techniques. For example, one book in the series, River Futures, offers comprehensive information on river rehabilitation. And case studies in Large-Scale Ecological Restoration describe the complex political and social trade-offs of restoring large-scale river systems such as the Upper Mississippi and Platte Rivers. Rivers for Life and Restoring Colorado River Ecosystems, offer practical advice on how to undo damage to river systems. More important, they offer reassurance that rivers can be brought back to life.

Video

Last Call at the Oasis, Participant Media’s new film about the global water crisis. Review. 5/12

Blue Gold video based on the book.

Poisoned Waters PBS Frontline. summary 2009

Damian Palin TEDtalk Mining minerals from seawater produces freshwater too 12.6

Audio

Social Entrepreneur Daniel Smith, Project Coordinator for AguaClara, talks about about strategies, innovations, and their recent recognition as the Tech Awards 2011 laureate of the Intel Environment Award. They leverage gravity rather than costly and unreliable electricity to provide for the water treatment needs in small villages.

Greywater recycling on Terra Verde radio.

John Muir fought hard to save Hetch Hetchy, a sister valley more beautiful then Yosemite (the loss is said to have broken his heart). Debate on restoring Hetch Hetchy. 12/11

Fracking has been getting a lot of attention lately, but a long-standing problem has been injection wells. 6.12

California (see also California main page)

CA Desalination plants

"The Age of Thirst"

Cadillac Desert by Reisner, Wiliam , explores how crucial the development of dams were to the West. Introduction. Chapter 1 includes John Wesley Powell, a one-armed Civil War officer who was the first to explore the Grand Canyon by boat. White speaks of regionalism, an idea pioneered by Powell. NPR audio**** highly recommended. video.

Steven Erie, a professor of political science at UCSD is author of ‘Beyond Chinatown’ on water; short overview of LA and SF infrastructure.

Rivers of Empire: water, aridity, and the growth of the American West by Donald Worster "The American West, blessed with an abundance of earth and sky but cursed with a scarcity of life's most fundamental need, has long dreamed of harnessing all its rivers to produce unlimited wealth and power. In Rivers of Empire, award-winning historian Donald Worster tells the story of this dream and its outcome. He shows how, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Mormons were the first attempting to make that dream a reality, damming and diverting rivers to irrigate their land. He follows this intriguing history through the 1930s, when the federal government built hundreds of dams on every major western river, thereby laying the foundation for the cities and farms, money and power of today's West. Yet while these cities have become paradigms of modern American urban centers, and the farms successful high-tech enterprises, Worster reminds us that the costs have been extremely high. Along with the wealth has come massive ecological damage, a redistribution of power to bureaucratic and economic elites, and a class conflict still on the upswing. As a result, the future of this "hydraulic West" is increasingly uncertain, as water continues to be a scarce resource, inadequate to the demand, and declining in quality. Rivers of Empire represents a radically new vision of the American West and its historical significance. Showing how ecological change is inextricably intertwined with social evolution, and reevaluating the old mythic and celebratory approach to the development of the West, Worster offers the most probing, critical analysis of the region to date." Past College 8 core required reading.

Dirty Water is the riveting story of how Howard Bennett, a Los Angeles schoolteacher with a gift for outrageous rhetoric, fought pollution in Santa Monica Bay--and won. The story begins in 1985, when many scientists considered the bay to be one of the most polluted bodies of water in the world. The insecticide DDT covered portions of the sea floor. Los Angeles discharged partially treated sewage into its waters. Lifeguards came down with mysterious illnesses. And Howard Bennett happily swam in it every morning. By accident, Bennett learned that Los Angeles had applied for a waiver from the Clean Water Act to continue discharging sewage into the bay. Incensed that he had been swimming in dirty water, Bennett organized oddball coalition to orchestrate stunts such as wrapping brown ribbon around LA's city hall and issuing Dirty Toilet Awards to chastise the city's administration. This is the fast-paced story of how this unusual cast of characters created an environmental movement in Los Angeles that continues to this day with the nationally recognized Heal the Bay. Character-driven, compelling, and uplifting, Dirty Water tells how even the most polluted water can be cleaned up-by ordinary people. audio interview. UCSC S&E library owns TD763 .S557 2010 .

The Hoover Dam was dedicated 75 years ago on September 30, 1935. The following years saw the Western US transformed from uninhabitable desert to cities and farmland. Pulitzer prize winning journalist Michael Hiltzik wrote the new book "Colossus", which documents the history and impact of the Hoover Dam audio interview"Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century" is a story of the largest public works project in US history. 11/10 audio interview

Introduction to Water in California David Carle The food each of us consumes per day represents an investment of 4,500 gallons of water, according to the California Farm Bureau. In this densely populated state where it rains only six months out of the year, where does all that water come from? This thoroughly engaging, concise book tells the story of California's most precious resource, tracing the journey of water in the state from the atmosphere to the snowpack to our faucets and foods. Along the way, we learn much about California itself as the book describes its rivers, lakes, wetlands, dams, and aqueducts and discusses the role of water in agriculture, the environment, and politics. Essential reading in a state facing the future with an already overextended water supply, this fascinating book shows that, for all Californians, every drop counts. A new preface on recent water issues brings the book up to the minute. UC Press

The Great Thirst: Californians and Water—A History, Revised Edition. Norris Hundley, Jr.The story of "the great thirst" is brought up to date in this revised edition of Norris Hundley's outstanding history, with additional photographs and incisive descriptions of the major water-policy issues facing California now: accelerating urbanization of farmland and open spaces, persisting despoliation of water supplies, and demands for equity in water allocation for an exploding population. People the world over confront these problems, and Hundley examines them with clarity and eloquence in the unruly laboratory of California. The obsession with water has shaped California to a remarkable extent, literally as well as politically and culturally. Hundley tells how aboriginal Americans and then early Spanish and Mexican immigrants contrived to use and share the available water and how American settlers, arriving in ever-increasing numbers after the Gold Rush, transformed California into the home of the nation's preeminent water seekers. The desire to use, profit from, manipulate, and control water drives the people and events in this fascinating narrative until, by the end of the twentieth century, a large, colorful cast of characters and communities has wheeled and dealed, built, diverted, and connived its way to an entirely different statewide waterscape.

Pipe Dream" about CA canal system from National Geographic.

SF Bay sea level rise also maps. KQED's Quest

Video

Tapped, a new documentary about the bottled water industry from director Stephanie Soechtig and the producers of Who Killed the Electric Car?, is a pretty damning look at how consumers have been tricked into spending too much money on water packaged in plastic and quite often not as clean as what's available from the faucet.trailer

Slow the Flowbrings to life practices and projects that individuals and communities have created to steward our watersheds and slow down the flow of stormwater, one of the largest contributors of pollution into our waterways. Audio interview on topic.

Gasland, a documentary on Fracking.

Rob Harmon: How the market can keep streams flowing TEDtalk 3/11

UCTV environmental videos cover a number of water issues, including CA.

Cadillac Desert VT4840 **** History of water in the West based on Reisner's excellent book. online.

John Muir and the Yosemite dam (Hetch Hetchy).

John Todd created a "living machine" to purify water. video.

With wisdom and wit, Anupam Mishra talks about the amazing feats of engineering built centuries ago by the people of India's Golden Desert to harvest water. These structures are still used today -- and are often superior to modern water megaprojects.TEDtalk.

PBS Newshours has good coverage including Seattle rain gardens capture significant rainfall and prevent stormwater runoff. 12/11 and largest US dam removal project.

== California == (see also California main page)

The California Report from KQED radio, includes ClimateWatch. It has series on How water and power interrelate, cap and trade and water supply

Aquafornia water blog.

KQED's Quest has special coverage of SF Bay water issues. Examples: California Water video KQED Quest. 10/9 story on mercury in SF Bay

sewage spills April 09 video KQED Quest.

The Sierra Club has questions about the Sacramento Delta water.

CA Desalination plants see also Opponent activist site.

Toxic Episode - Imperial Valley 1 In the burning fields of Southern California’s Imperial Valley, the honey bee population is dying, and so are millions of fish in the Salton Sea. Meanwhile, the squatters of Slab City try to live off the grid and hold on to what’s left of the American Wild West. VBS travels to this apocalyptic landscape.

California Drought 60 Minutes segment 12/09

Cadillac Desert is a four-part Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) video series on the remaking of America's West through startling feats of engineering and the consequences that this manipulation of water and nature has wrought. The first three programs are based on Marc Reisner's groundbreaking book "Cadillac Desert," an examination of how water created the modern American West--the most successful "hydrologic society" in history. The series begins with the story of Los Angeles and its unquenchable thirst for water in "Mulholland's Dream." The second program, "An American Nile," tell how the Colorado River became the most regulated river in history. Next in the series is "The Mercy of Nature" which tracks the political and environmental battles that ended in California's Great Central Valley being transformed from a semiarid desert into the richest agricultural region in the world. The fourth and final program is based on the award-winning book, "Last Oasis" by Sandra Postel. It examines the ramifications of the export of America's water development expertise to the rest of the world, and shows how conservation, recycling, and efficiency offer hopeful and sustainable solutions to the world's gathering water crisis. McHenry Library VT4840. Cadillac Desert VT4840 **** History of water in the West based on Reisner's excellent book. online

From the Toilet to the Tap Today, cities around the world are shifting away from the historical focus of wastewater management (i.e. the miracle of making the wastewater go away somewhere where we can't see it) and adopting a new paradigm of re-use. David Sedlak, professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Berkeley, studies wastewater and spoke about water recycling at the 2009 Nobel Conference on water conservation issues.

UC research on CA drought 7/09

Transitions Santa Cruz water working group

United States

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hendrick Smith details widespread pollution of America's waterways in the PBS Frontline documentary Poisoned Waters (all online). Audio interview April 20, 2009

River of Renewal looks at struggle over water on the Klamath River between farmers, fisheries and Native people. Documents the extensive recent fish kills of salmon due to water diversion.

World

PBS Newshour special series on water showing situation in Third World countries. Video.

Up the Yangtze explores lives transformed by the biggest hydroelectric dam in history, a hotly contested symbol of the Chinese economic miracle. Nearing completion, China's massive Three Gorges Dam is altering the landscape and the lives of people living along the fabled Yangtze River. Countless ancient villages and historic locales will be submerged, and 2 million people will lose their homes and livelihoods.

PBS series narrated by Robert Redford, Saving the Bay explores the history of one of America’s greatest natural resources — San Francisco Bay — with four one-hour episodes tracing the Bay from its geologic origins following the last Ice Age through years of catastrophic exploitation to restoration efforts of today. Available online

Water Conflicts in Developing Nations Forum 01/06/2010 Panelists talked about ways to prevent and mitigate water conflicts due to issues such as scarcity, access, and pollution. The discussion was held in conjuction with a new publication by the Catholic Relief Service, Water and Conflict. Link.

Dean Kamen, inventor of Segway, speaks about creation of prosthetic limbs. TEDtalk video. he has also created an amazing power source and water distiller for Third World countries TEDtalk video.

Ö Tede'wa, owners of the water : conflict and collaboration over rivers "A central Brazilian Xavante, a Wayuu from Venezuela, and a US anthropologist explore an indigenous campaign to protect a river from devastating effects of uncontrolled Amazonian soy cultivation. The film results from long collaboration between anthropologist Laura Graham and Xavante, and more recent collaboration with Wayuu. The Association Xavante Warã, a Xavante organization that promotes indigenous knowledge and ways of living in the central Brazilian cerrado ( a spiritually and materially integrated space that Xavante know as ʹró) and conservation of this unique environment, invited Graham to tell the story of its campaign to save the Rio das Mortes. 2009 McHenry DVD7701

More UC research on watersheds (2008)

World Wildlife Fund new 2008 report has extensive info on water, also video

The New Oil: Energy Demand and Water Aspen Institute 2009

Blue Gold video based on the book

Short video interviews with social entrepreneurs who are working on water issues (from Skoll Foundation)

Flow: For Love of Water (video 2007) includes Vandana Shiva, global overview, including chemicals and privatization.

How to capture rain water audio and video.

Activists educate people in Jordan

Engineer Michael Pritchard invented the portable Lifesaver filter, which can make the most revolting water drinkable in seconds. An amazing demo from TEDGlobal 2009.

Other Resources

Audio interview with journalist Charles Duhigg who reports on the "worsening pollution in American waters" — and regulators' responses to the problem — in his New York Times series, "Toxic Waters.", which has led to Congressional hearings (10/09)

Heart of Dryness: How the Kalahari Bushmen Can Help California Endure the Coming Permanent Drought JAMES WORKMAN audio (Realplayer) 9/09

Water Public Relations scams from PR Watch 4/09

USGS Reports and facts about water resources in California including drought maps.

Los Angeles plan to capture rain water Audio 2/10 KQED California Report NPR

California Coastal Commission Water Quality Program contains information about water quality along California’s coasts. There are also other links and resources for information about important coastal projects.

California Department of Water Resources has a lot of information on the current drought in California and the plan to create a 2009 Drought Water Bank.

Great general site: info on Colorado River and general info on your city (thanks to P. Meier)

A history of the water problems in Southern California.

EPA including info on your watershed

Specific Water Issues

Stormwater runoff (nonpoint source) Slow the Flowbrings to life practices and projects that individuals and communities have created to steward our watersheds and slow down the flow of stormwater, one of the largest contributors of pollution into our waterways. Audio interview on topic 12/10

Video overview on ocean health (beware greenwash ad at end).

California Water wars PBS story on allocation.

NPR/PBS audio series on CA water supply and Global Warming.

PBS video on "Peak Water" in Southwest.

Plastic's effect on Marine ecosystems. Includes videos.

Peripheral Canal around the Delta

How to capture rainwater (audio and video) also dew.

Local

Urban Watch Water Quality Monitoring (you can look at map with data) Wednesday, June 23 2010, 8:30am. Do you care about water quality, and the health of fish and other organisms in our waterways? Join the Coastal Watershed Council as we collect water quality data as part of the Urban Watch program. This volunteer-based program monitors storm drain outfalls for common urban pollutants like detergent, chlorine and ammonia-nitrogen. Urban Watch program participants work in teams with CWC staff to monitor water quality at storm drains in Live Oak and Aptos every two weeks from June through October. Urban Watch program volunteers run in-field chemical analysis on water collected from these storm drains. Location : 3701 Portola Drive, Santa Cruz CA Contact:email: volunteer AT coastalws.org

== Selected UCSC Research == (see also Slugs in Action)

Ben Crow studies inequality around water and land issues.

Brent Haddad is an authority on water issues, and in 1999 published the book Rivers of Gold: Designing Markets to Allocate Water in California (HD1694.C2 H23 1999). He is currently working on a new book in which he will discuss the issue of worldwide potable water.

Andrew Fisher, professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UC Santa Cruz, leads UCSC's participation in the Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations (C-DEBI). He will be a co-chief scientist (with Takeshi Tsuji of Kyoto University) on an expedition this summer to the eastern flank of the Juan de Fuca Ridge off the coast of British Columbia, where he has been studying the flow of water beneath the seafloor since the mid-1990s. Also he is working at an infiltration pond in California's Pajaro Valley that has become a laboratory where scientists are working to improve techniques for recharging the region's depleted aquifer More

Michael E. Loik, (environmental studies )investigates how changing precipitation patterns will affect the ecosystems that help to feed, fuel, and house us.

Marc Los Huertos investigates nitrogen in river and ocean systems including the Pajaro River.

Donald Potts, a professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology is studying increasing ocean acidification, which has often focused on its potential effects on coral reefs, but broader disruptions of biological processes in the oceans may be more significant.

Mary Silver researches algae blooms.

Ecologist Brock Dolman (UCSC alum, College Eight '92, Environmental Studies/Biology), is Director of The WATER Institute as well as a Permaculture Program. Bioneers interview video.