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, as well as Environmental Justice, Global Warming and Fracking, and believe it or not Forests.
See also Ocean and Food Scarcity.
World Water Day is March 22
Contents
Big Picture Overview
Video overview, another one, a video infographic, and one from National Geographic. The Cycle of Insanity: The Real Story of Water is a short, animated film made by the Surfrider Foundation on the broken water cycle. Greenpeace on rivers.
Environmental Working Group info on chemicals and effects, including ecosystems. ***
The Pacific Institute is an excellent resource on water issues, especially California.
Chemicals: Mark Shapiro's new book Exposed (review) Multiple audio interviews Text interview Here's a local audio interview 2007
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)
Water Wars 3/13.
Water Woes: Japan, Haiti and Kenya Among World's Trouble Spots (PBS video 3/11).
Waterkeepers (related to Riverkeepers and Baykeepers) are activist whistleblowers who use ju jitsu by getting a bit of the fines for busting polluters to fund their operations. A recent action looks to shut down efforts to build the XL pipeline. It works on stormwater runoff (urban) as well as agricultural runoff See also Clean Water Act at 40.
Prepare for the Next Conflict: Water Wars (see also on Africa.
Brock Dolman (College Eight '92, Environmental Studies/Biology), Director of The WATER Institute Ecologist Permaculture Program. Bioneers interview video. Bio TEDx video: Watershed City 2.0 (Re-thinking and Retrofitting for Resilience).
American Rivers, an advocacy organization, announced their 2013 report of the country's 10 most endangered rivers. The Colorado River is at the top of the list as recreation-based economies, wildlife, and world-renowned canyons continue to be threatened by what American Rivers is calling "outdated water management" policies in the region. We get its water in California (see Cadillac Desert below). Two guys paddled and walked for over 1,700 miles, following the Colorado from source to sea. Watch a 3-minute time lapse of the journey below to see how this iconic river begins -- and where it eventually ends up.
News
News Sources
KQED QUEST PBS (includes videos).
Aquafornia Blog, news with links to other water resources.
Yale's Environment 360 has timely articles on water topics
Peter Gleick of the Pacific Institute *** 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.
Significant Figures by Peter Gleick sample Water wars.
Stories
world forecast 5/18
Lead poisoning in Flint Michigan because Koch backed governor takes over the city, undermining democracy.
Science Suggests We're Making Fish Homicidal Through Antidepressants We Flush Into the Water 12/17.
Drought update, CA water history overview 4/17 ***audio interview with The Atlas of California: Mapping the Challenge of a New Era Richard A. Walker (UCB), Suresh K. Lodha (UCSC).
THE WEST COAST’S LARGEST ESTUARY IS BEING STARVED OF WATER 10/16 .
Billions of Gallons of Animal Waste From Factory Farms Poses Health Risks in Wake of Hurricane Matthew see climate change and Food 10/16.
Nestlé Can Keep Piping Water Out of Drought-Stricken California Despite Permit Expiring in 1988 9/16
This Woman Is Paddling from Chicago to New Orleans to Fight for Clean Water 8/16.
For 28 years, the U.S. Forest Service allowed Nestlé to pump water out of the San Bernardino National Forest under an expired permit, virtually free of charge, for bottled water. See Plastic.
Percolating ideas: Grad student Sarah Beganskas is studying what could become part of the solution to California’s water crisis: collecting storm runoff so it can seep into the ground instead of being diverted to rivers and seas. 4/16
Driscoll's strawberry cut water use.
CA irrigating our crops with benzene and arsenic laden wastewater left over from fracking 1/16 see Environmental Justice. See also lead in Flint Michigan.
U.S. 'Megadroughts' Are Likely Later This Century, Study Finds 2/15.
2 Billion People to Face Water Shortages as Snowpack Declines 11/15
Global Warming Worsens California Drought as July Becomes Hottest Month on Record: in the absence of global warming, the drought in California would have been somewhere between 8 and 27 percent less severe. 8/15.
Cactivism purifies water, creates food.
96m WATER-SAVING SHADE BALLS RELEASED INTO LA RESERVOIR (VIDEO).8/15.
Is the Los Angeles Water Supply Being Poisoned? 7/15.
Cowspiracy: As California Faces Drought, Film Links Meat Industry to Water Scarcity & Climate Change 5/15, 55% of water in CA goes to meat and dairy.
Better rainwater management. 6/15
6 Reasons to Celebrate the Signing of the Clean Water Rule 5/15.
Fracking Chemicals Found in Drinking Water, New Study Says 5/15.
ProPublica needs your water use info 3/15.
California Water Wars: Another Form of Asset Stripping?
Highway Billboard That Grows Organic Lettuce and Generates Drinking Water.
World Could Have 40 Percent Water Shortfall By 2030, UN Warns.
Epic Drought Spurs California to Build Largest Desalination Plant in Western Hemisphere 3/15.
Water Pore high tech rain collection. Cool COSMOS system used free UV light 2/15.
Whale-Shaped Floating Garden Designed to Clean the World's Rivers 3/15.
Groundbreaking Report Calculates Damage Done by Fracking includes 280 billion gallons of toxic wastewater generated by fracking in 2012—enough to flood all of Washington, DC, in a 22-foot deep toxic lagoon. See Fracking.
The Best Reporting on California’s Drought 8/14.
US Cities ranked by drought vulnerability. 9/14.
NASA Bombshell: Global Groundwater Crisis Threatens Our Food Supplies And Our Security 10/14.
Fracking is Making California's Drought Worse 8/14. See Fracking and Water.
Ohio Water Ban Lifted; Toledo Mayor Says City's Water Is Safe after climate change and agricultural runoff combine in toxic algae bloom update and analysisas well as a comic/graphic. 8/14.
Dams Cause Climate Change, They Are Not Clean Energy 8/14see also DamNation documentary.
40 Million People Depend on the Colorado River. Now It's Drying Up 8/14.
All of California Is Now Under Drought Conditions, and That's Bad News for All of Us. 5/14.
7 States Running Out Of Water 5/14
California Has Driest Year Ever -- And It May Get Worse 1/14.
In ‘Pulse Flow,’ Colorado River Reaches Its Delta For First Time This Century 5/14.
Toilet to Tap 5/14.
Discovery: Huge Water Reserve in Kenya Brings Hope to Most Vulnerable 9/13. See also Carbon for Water video documentary on social entrepreneur project that will bring clean water to 900K ppl in Kenya. 2/14.
Sacramento Delta update 11/13. 11/17/13 audio interview.
This shower saves energy by letting you wash yourself in used bathwater.
Climate change/drought update 10/13.
Student Designed Water Filtration System Save Millions Of Lives 10/13.
The Immediate Climate Threat Isn't Rising Sea Levels, It's Water Scarcity 10/13.
220,000 Pounds Of Poisoned Dead Fish Scooped Up In China In Reminder Of Pollution Plaguing Country 9/13.
Is Climate Change Driving the Southwest Toward a Dust Bowl? 7/13.
For the first time in 50 years, Bostonians took a dip in the Charles River 7/13.
Colorado River Meeting In San Diego Brings Western States, Tribes And Conservation Groups Together 6/13.
Fracking threatens to escalate the West’s water wars 5/13.
Arsenic levels are required to be lowered by EPA, but poor communities are not benefitting.
Groundwater aquifer recharge by farmers (can cause land subsidance).
Dean Kamen's Slingshot Aims To Bring Fresh Water To The World 3/13. See Eco-heroes.
Phoenix in the Climate Crosshairs: We Are Long Past Coal Mine Canaries. 3/13.
This billboard sucks water out of the air and delivers it to families below
US Marshall islands threatened by sea level rise so is US water supply.
Water use for electricity production set to double globally by 2035 1/13.
Mood-Altering Drugs We Pee Out May Affect Ecosystem 2/13 see also.
Matt Damon toilet strike he wants you to join him. 2/13.
Land and water grabs in developing Third World countries 1/13.
Fracking has been getting a lot of attention lately, but a long-standing problem has been injection wells. 6.12 12.12 UPDATE.
Diverting the Missouri River to the West: 'Can' Does Not Mean 'Should' 12/12.
Colorado River Pact Signed Between The U.S. And Mexico 11/12 New Rules for Sharing the Shrinking Colorado River 12/12 (audio).
Tulare water contaminated by farms. 11/12
US Megadrought 9/12. U.S. Drought Expands In Kansas, Oklahoma And Texas will affect food supply 12/12
Rebecca Solnit, Climate and Clarity 10/12
Somalia Drought Is 'Worst Humanitarian Crisis': U.N. 7/11
UC research on CA drought 7/09
Restoration of Hetch Hetchy, rematch of the fight that broke John Muir's heart. audio and links, see also KQED's Quest. Extensive discussion (video). 10/12.
Age-Old Fixes for India’s Water 10/12.
The Sierra Club has questions about the Sacramento Delta water. maps. Panel discussion audio 3/13. See also Aboard the Tugnacious With Dr. Doom.
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 see also Fracking page
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
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
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
Saltwater agriculture is possible examples include Mexico and Eritrea in Africa.
Reports
Eat Less Water, by Florencia Ramirez, audio interview 6/18 see
Killing the Colorado: The Truth Behind the Water Crisis in the West. California’s Drought Is Part of a Much Bigger Water Crisis. Here’s What You Need to Know 3/16.
Research from Environment America shows that 2012 was a bigger year for toxic chemical dumping than most of us could have imagined. Industrial facilities across the U.S. dumped more than 206 million pounds of toxic chemicals into waterways in 2012, according to the “Wasting Our Waterways” report. The figures about the nation, as a whole, are stark, as are figures about individual regions and companies. For instance, Tyson Foods Inc. alone dumped more than 18.5 million pounds—about 9 percent of the nationwide total. Report pdf 6/14.
Wastewater Use To Increase As Worldwide Supplies Of Freshwater Dry Up, Study Says 9/13.
Restoring the San Joaquin River and Recalling Its History 8/13.
Never Again Enough: Field Notes from a Drying West an essay by William deBuys. See A Great Aridness book below.
Chromium VI: EPA Contaminated by Conflict of Interest
Third National Assessment of global warming (summary) has chapters on what will happen with water, forests, native ppl etc.
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.
Water Wars: 21st Century Conflicts? As almost half of humanity will face water scarcity by 2030, strategists from Israel to Central Asia prepare for strife.
Interactive/Maps
Animated CA drought map 8/14.
World Maps and timeline of conflicts from Pacific Institute. 11/19.
On World Water Day, the World Resources Institute (WRI) has released a study that maps for the first time the water resources available to support fracking in the world’s largest shale exploration areas. 9/14.
What's in your Water? (search by ZIP code) 11/19
Where does your water come from?
America's Most Endangered Rivers.
Infographics: examples.
Drought Monitor Map (current conditions). See also Maps page. US Megadrought 9/12. effect on food supply 10/12. Drought worsens 11/12: The report showed that 60.1 percent of the lower 48 states were in some form of drought The amount of land in extreme or exceptional drought — the two worst classifications — increased to 19.04 percent.
Delta maps current and historical alt link 11/19.
USGS CA Water Maps includes ground subsidence from pumping aquifers. 11/19.
Books
The Poisoned City video talk BookTV talked to journalist Anna Clark about the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. interview 11/18 see Environmental Justice.
Cadillac Desert, is a ground-breaking book about water in the Western US. See also video.****
Eat Less Water, by Florencia Ramirez, audio interview 6/18.
New Books update May 2018 example: A Thirsty Land: The Making of an American Water Crisis by Seamus McGraw—Using Texas as a case study, McGraw's book proves that the United States simply isn't ready for the next big drought or flood. This is a problem that's been brewing for a long time, and climate change is about to make it worse.
The West without Water: What Past Floods, Droughts, and Other Climatic Clues Tell Us about Tomorrow 2015 by B. Lynn Ingram (UCB), Frances Malamud-Roam audio interview 3/26/15 10 am.
Mark Shapiro's new book Exposed on chemicals in drinking water (review) Multiple audio interviews Text interview Here's a local audio interview 2007
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. See also Never Again Enough: Field Notes from a Drying West an essay by William deBuys. See A Great Aridness.
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 Google Book S&E Stacks TD345 .S53 2002
Cochabamba!: Water War in Bolivia by Oscar Olivera and Tom Lewis, see also Cochabamba!: Water Rebellion in Bolivia by Oscar Olivera.
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. one-long talk at UCB 2008.
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 (Go Slugs!) 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.
The Water–Energy Nexus in the American West: The Energy Implications of Desalination by Heather Cooley (go Bears) of the Pacific Institute.
Video
Cowspiracy: As California Faces Drought, Film Links Meat Industry to Water Scarcity & Climate Change 5/15, 55% of water in CA goes to meat and dairy, major cause of deforestation.
Dean Kamen is best known for trying to solve the last mile problem and thus revolutionize transportation with the electric Segway, which began as a wheelchair to make people whole. SlingShot is intimate and inspirational portrait of Segway inventor, Dean Kamen, and his 15-year quest to solve the world’s safe water crisis. Also founder of First robotics competition.
a new film, The OceanMaker, 3D animated short film which highlights how precious our water resources are. The film, which has appeared in many film festivals including SXSW, is set in a dystopian future where the seas have vanished and a young female pilot has to battle sky pirates for the last of the remaining water residing in the clouds.
Watch how much water goes into your food 3/15. See also meat.
Lake Tahoe clarity 12/13.
Last Call at the Oasis, Participant Media’s new film about the global water crisis. review.
Chasing Water: The Colorado River; Flowing Through Conflict is also a book see also [1]. Photographer Peter McBride traveled along the Colorado River from its source high in the Rocky Mountains to its historic mouth at the Sea of Cortez. He follows the natural course of the Colorado by raft, on foot, and overhead in a small plane, telling the story of a river whose water is siphoned off at every turn, leaving it high and dry 80 miles from the sea.
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
Goldman Winner Alwash has restored marshes destroyed by Saddam.
Activist Maude Barlow talks about the main points of her new book, BLUE COVENANT: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water. 2008.
Audio
Sacramento Delta plan 7/12. Panel discussion audio 3/13. maps. See also Aboard the Tugnacious With Dr. Doom.
New Rules for Sharing the Shrinking Colorado River 12/12
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 how to by Art Ludwig (go Bears!); (book);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
Calif. Releases Initial Fracking Regulations 12/12.
Water Pollution and Underground Aquifers 12/12.
California
(see also California main page)
The Pacific Institute is an excellent resource on water issues. Example Peter Glick on Peak Water and Fracking.
Cowspiracy: As California Faces Drought, Film Links Meat Industry to Water Scarcity & Climate Change 5/15, 55% of water in CA goes to meat and dairy, major cause of deforestation. ****
THE WEST COAST’S LARGEST ESTUARY IS BEING STARVED OF WATER 10/16
Killing the Colorado: The Truth Behind the Water Crisis in the West. California’s Drought Is Part of a Much Bigger Water Crisis. Here’s What You Need to Know 3/16.
96 million WATER-SAVING SHADE BALLS RELEASED INTO LA RESERVOIR (VIDEO).
Global Warming Worsens California Drought as July Becomes Hottest Month on Record: in the absence of global warming, the drought in California would have been somewhere between 8 and 27 percent less severe. 8/15.
Epic Drought Spurs California to Build Largest Desalination Plant in Western Hemisphere 3/15.
Alarming Consequences Of The California Drought You May Not Have Expected 3/15 (hint: iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee).
Fracking Flowback From California Oil Wells Contains High Levels Of Carcinogenic Chemicals 2/15.
NASA Bombshell: Global Groundwater Crisis Threatens Our Food Supplies And Our Security 10/14.
The Best Reporting on California’s Drought 8/14.
Fracking is Making California's Drought Worse 8/14. See Fracking and Water.
40 Million People (including CA) Depend on the Colorado River. Now It's Drying Up 8/14.
American Rivers has distinguished the San Joaquin River of California with the dubious title of “most endangered” river in the nation. Since 2009 the stream has been celebrated as a path-breaking example of restoration—status that could now be threatened. 8/14
California Has Driest Year Ever -- And It May Get Worse 1/14.
Auburn Dam: The Water Project That Won’t Die 5/14.
San Joaquin/Sacramento Bay Delta is critically important to the whole state. audio discussion 7/12. Panel discussion audio UPDATE 3/13. map. See also Aboard the Tugnacious With Dr. Doom. 2/14 Update: interview with journalist Joachim Palamino on history of Westlands Water District and Bay Delta Plan (audio).
Lake Tahoe clarity 12/13. (video).
Napa Wetlands Nearly Restored After 20-Year Sonoma Marsh Restoration Project In California 9/13.
Is Climate Change Driving the Southwest Toward a Dust Bowl? 7/13.
Calif. Releases Initial Fracking Regulations 12/12.
Restoring the San Joaquin River and Recalling Its History 8/13.
Groundwater aquifer recharge by farmers (can cause land subsidance). audio. 4/13.
LA River slideshow, see also Kayaking the LA River: Revitalizing an Urban River. The film Rock the Boat follows a controversial kayaking expedition down the partially cemented Los Angeles River, an act of civil disobedience led by satirical writer George Wolfe, whose goal was to have the Environmental Protection Agency declare the river navigable so that it could gain protection under the Clean Water Act. Boating down the LA River became a political movement which lead to changes in federal policy and opened up public access to a long-neglected waterway.
Bourne, Joel "California's Pipe Dream": A heroic system of dams, pumps, and canals can’t stave off a water crisis.Pipe Dream" National Geographic (video).
San Francisco Bay: SF Bay sea level rise also maps. KQED's Quest. baykeeper. Friends of the the SF Estuary, Save the Bay.
American Rivers, an advocacy organization, announced their 2013 report of the country's 10 most endangered rivers. The Colorado River is at the top of the list as recreation-based economies, wildlife, and world-renowned canyons continue to be threatened by what American Rivers is calling "outdated water management" policies in the region. We get its water in California (see Cadillac Desert). Two guys paddled and walked for over 1,700 miles, following the Colorado from source to sea. Watch a 3-minute time lapse of the journey below to see how this iconic river begins -- and where it eventually ends up.
Books
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. Great PBS documentary video. The Water Fight That Inspired ‘Chinatown’ 5/12.
The West without Water: What Past Floods, Droughts, and Other Climatic Clues Tell Us about Tomorrow 2015 by B. Lynn Ingram (UCB), Frances Malamud-Roam audio interview 3/26/15 10 am. alt: The West without Water: What Past Floods, Droughts, and Other Climatic Clues Tell Us about Tomorrow. B. Lynn Ingram (Audio interview), Frances Malamud-Roam (Author).excerpt.
Dead Pool centers on Lake Powell.
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.
Video
Brock Dolman (College Eight '92, Environmental Studies/Biology), Director of The WATER Institute Ecologist Permaculture Program. Bioneers interview video. Bio TEDx video: Watershed City 2.0 (Re-thinking and Retrofitting for Resilience). Great overview on water.
Dams Cause Climate Change, They Are Not Clean Energy 8/14 see also (trailer) DamNation documentary.
Kayaking the LA: Revitalizing an Urban River. The film Rock the Boat follows a controversial kayaking expedition down the partially cemented Los Angeles River, an act of civil disobedience led by satirical writer George Wolfe, whose goal was to have the Environmental Protection Agency declare the river navigable so that it could gain protection under the Clean Water Act. Boating down the LA River became a political movement which lead to changes in federal policy and opened up public access to a long-neglected waterway.
Primer on farmer use of fertilizer that leads to dead zones more info and solutions.
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.
14-Year-old is America's Top Young Scientist: Her Solar-Powered Jug Purifies Water `11/12
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.
Diverting the Missouri River to the West: 'Can' Does Not Mean 'Should' 12/12.
Colorado River Pact Signed Between The U.S. And Mexico 11/12 New Rules for Sharing the Shrinking Colorado River 12/12 (audio).
sewage spills April 09 video KQED Quest.
Delta: The Sierra Club has questions about the Sacramento Delta water. maps. Commonwealth Club(audio) held a panel discussion(video) 10/13.
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.
San Francisco Bay: Baykeeper report; 10/9 story on mercury in SF Bay; sewage spills April 09 video KQED Quest.
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/Organizations
Environmental Working Group info on chemicals and effects, including ecosystems. ***
World Resources Institute has great info , including maps. 12/18.
In Asia, Africa, and Latin America, International Rivers protects rivers and human rights threatened by some of the world’s most potentially destructive dam projects.
ImagineH2O is a tech incubator to accelerate innovation in water use. The have a design challenge (audio).
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).
Pictures: Greening the Desert.
Heart of Dryness: How the Kalahari Bushmen Can Help California Endure the Coming Permanent Drought JAMES WORKMAN audio (Realplayer) 9/09
Waterkeepers (related the Riverkeepers[(https://www.riverkeepers.org/projects-activities/river-friendly-house-and-yard-management/ urban runoff prevention tips)] and Baykeepers) are activist whistleblowers who use ju jitsu by getting a bit of the fines for busting polluters to fund their operations. A recent action looks to shut down efforts to build the XL pipeline. It works on stormwater runoff (urban) as well as agricultural runoff See also Clean Water Act at 40.
Matt Damon toilet strike he wants you to join him. 2/13.
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
California finds widespread water contamination of ‘forever chemicals’ PFAS Map 10/19.
Chemicals in drinking water: Mark Shapiro's new book Exposed (review) Multiple audio interviews Text interview Here's a local audio interview 2007
Stealth Farm bill would cut funding to reduce fertilizer runoff that leads to dead zones see also drinking water. Extensive coverage of environmental and health effects of farming from EWG.org.
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 Sacramento Delta maps.
How to capture rainwater (audio and video) also here.
Selected UCSC Research
(see also Slugs in Action)
Directory of UCSC water experts
Percolating ideas: Grad student Sarah Beganskas is studying what could become part of the solution to California’s water crisis: collecting storm runoff so it can seep into the ground instead of being diverted to rivers and seas. 4/16
Ruth Langridge, Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, is to review the history, development, overall condition and current management practices for all of California’s court-adjudicated groundwater basins. 1/16.
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.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. online course with many California resources.
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.
Ph.D. student Jessica Roy was struck and killed by a car while walking in Nairobi in 2004. She was studying women and water use in Kenya. Ben Crow Ben Crow and others have continued her work, using GPS, and found that women invest their freed-up time in income-generating activities such as raising seedlings for coffee and tea growers in the region or raising livestock.
Mary Silver researches algae blooms.
Brock Dolman (College Eight '92, Environmental Studies/Biology), Director of The WATER Institute Ecologist Permaculture Program. Bioneers interview video. Bio TEDx video: Watershed City 2.0 (Re-thinking and Retrofitting for Resilience).
Jeffrey Mount, a retired UC Davis scientist, was dubbed “Doctor Doom” for his dire pronouncements about the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
Subcategories
This category has the following 4 subcategories, out of 4 total.
Articles in category "Water"
The following 14 pages are in this category, out of 14 total.
