Bottled Water Recall, 11 States Affected - - If you’re a bottled water drinker, you may want to check the label. Over 14 brands of bottled water distributed to 11 states have been recalled due to a potential E. coli contamination. Among these are food store brands Shoprite, Stop & Shop, Giant, Acme and Wegman’s. The voluntary recall was issued at two of its Pennsylvania facilities after a spring found traces of E. coli in its water. “This is a voluntary recall. Even if the spring has an issue, none of the water showed any issues in our tests,” says Stan Bratskeir, a spokesperson for Niagara Bottling, a family-owned bottled water company in the United States. The following brands bottled between June 10th and June 18th were affected: Acadia, Acme, Big Y, Best Yet, 7-11, Niagara, Nature's Place, Pricerite, Superchill, Morning Fresh, Shaws, Shoprite, Western Beef Blue and Wegman's. “This affects a regional level. Over the eight days, this bottled water was shipped to over 11 states," says Bratskeir in a FOXBusiness.com interview. The states affected include Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Vermont, Virginia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
China Caught Smugglers Trying to Sell Meat from the 1970s -- BBC reports that Chinese authorities seized over 100,000 tons of meat from smugglers in the Hunan province, some dating back to the Carter Administration, as part of a nationwide crackdown on poor food standards. The estimated $438 million worth of flesh—which had been frozen, thawed, and refrozen again during its trek from places like Brazil and India through neighboring countries and into the bellies of unsuspecting consumers—included beef, chick feet, and duck necks. While Chinese anti-smuggling authorities are investigating 21 gangs, having already arrested 20 people in the Hunan province alone, this seizure coincides with news of a Chinese food safety watchdog urging the Shaanxi province to order a recall on three milk producers in the area, after finding a curiously high amount of nitrate levels in infant formula powders. Food standard issues are nothing new to the country that engineers genius babies and uses the black market to coax white English speakers to come teach. Back in 2008, Chinese milk producers released a product contaminated by melamine, killing six kids and leaving some 300,000 others ill—and there's also that whole dog meat festival thing.
Poor Sanitation in India May Afflict Well-Fed Children With Malnutrition - His parents seemed to be doing all the right things. His mother still breast-fed him. His family had six goats, access to fresh buffalo milk and a hut filled with hundreds of pounds of wheat and potatoes. The economy of the state where he lives has for years grown faster than almost any other. His mother said she fed him as much as he would eat and took him four times to doctors, who diagnosed malnutrition. Just before Vivek was born in this green landscape of small plots and grazing water buffalo near the Nepali border, the family even got electricity. So why was Vivek malnourished? It is a question being asked about children across India, where a long economic boom has done little to reduce the vast number of children who are malnourished and stunted, leaving them with mental and physical deficits that will haunt them their entire lives. Now, an emerging body of scientific studies suggest that Vivek and many of the 162 million other children under the age of 5 in the world who are malnourished are suffering less a lack of food than poor sanitation.Like almost everyone else in their village, Vivek and his family have no toilet, and the district where they live has the highest concentration of people who defecate outdoors. As a result, children are exposed to a bacterial brew that often sickens them, leaving them unable to attain a healthy body weight no matter how much food they eat.“These children’s bodies divert energy and nutrients away from growth and brain development to prioritize infection-fighting survival,” said Jean Humphrey, a professor of human nutrition at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “When this happens during the first two years of life, children become stunted. What’s particularly disturbing is that the lost height and intelligence are permanent.”
Children of Smog in Delhi: Real News video & transcript - Last year the World Health Organization reported that Delhi, the capital city of India, has the worst air pollution of any major city in the world. The issue has begun to get attention in the national and international press. The New York Times, for example, recently reported that nearly half of the city's 4.4 million schoolchildren have irreversible lung damage from the poisonous air they breathe. Here to talk about all of this with us today, who has recently returned from Delhi after spending his spring there, is James K. Boyce. James is the director of the Environment Program at the Political Economy Research Institute in Amherst, Massachusetts. He has joined us again after a long time. Jim, thank you for coming on The Real News.
Remember That Weird In-Flight Mass Fainting Episode? Boeing Faces Lawsuit - Four flight attendants sued the Boeing Company on Tuesday, alleging that crew and passengers are sometimes exposed to toxic fumes in airplane cabins that can lead to devastating health problems. All Boeing commercial jets—with the exception of the company's newest model (the 787 Dreamliner)—use a venting system in which air is pulled through the compressor of the engine to provide pressurization in the cabin. Airbus, Boeing's rival, uses the same system. When something goes wrong in that process—like a leaking engine seal or an overfilling oil reservoir—air can be contaminated by the chemicals in the oil of the engine, mishaps known as "fume events." "Since stepping on that plane my life has been turned upside down," says one of the plaintiffs.The four flight attendants allege that such an event occurred during a 2013 Alaska Airlines flight from Boston to San Diego. Three of the four women lost consciousness, leading the plane to land early in Chicago, where they were hospitalized. According to the complaint, all four flight attendants still suffer from medical problems, including tremors, blurred vision, memory loss, and chronic fatigue. Two of the four flight attendants can no longer work. "Since stepping on that plane my life has been turned upside down," says Vanessa Woods, one of the plaintiffs.
Johnson & Johnson Has a Dirty Secret About Microbeads --Instead of moving to safe, natural alternatives, Johnson & Johnson wants to replace plastic microbeads with more plastic. They recently came out in the New York Times against the California microbead ban, even after pledging in 2013 to ban microbeads in their products. Across the country in states like Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey and Oregon, Johnson & Johnson is working to sabotage microbead bans with a sneaky loophole. By subtly tweaking the definition of a microbead, the loophole would allow companies to replace traditional plastic microbeads with other types of dangerous plastics, like the type used in cigarette filters. Plastic microbeads are found in beauty products like toothpaste and facial scrubs in staggering quantities. One tube of exfoliating scrub can contain more than 350,000 plastic microbeads. It’s estimated that 471 million microbeads are released into the San Francisco Bay every day. No microbead alterative that still uses plastic will stop the toxic effect microbeads has on our oceans and our health.
Climate Change Health Risk Is a 'Medical Emergency,’ Experts Warn - The threat to human health from climate change is so great that it could undermine the last 50 years of gains in development and global health, experts warned on Tuesday. Extreme weather events such as floods and heat waves bring rising risks of infectious diseases, poor nutrition and stress, the specialists said, while polluted cities where people work long hours and have no time or space to walk, cycle or relax are bad for the heart as well as respiratory and mental health. Almost 200 countries have set a 2 degrees C global average temperature rise above pre-industrial times as a ceiling to limit climate change, but scientists say the current trajectory could lead to around a 4 degrees C rise in average temperatures, risking droughts, floods, storms and rising sea levels. "That has very serious and potentially catastrophic effects for human health and human survival,” said Anthony Costello, director of University College London’s (UCL) Institute for Global Health, who co-led the report.The report, commissioned and published by The Lancet medical journal, was compiled by a panel of specialists including European and Chinese climate scientists and geographers, social, environmental and energy scientists, biodiversity experts and health professionals. It said that because responses to mitigate climate change have direct and indirect health benefits - from reducing air pollution to improving diet - a concerted effort would also provide a great opportunity to improve global health. The report said direct health impacts of climate change come from more frequent and intense extreme weather events, while indirect impacts come from changes in infectious disease patterns, air pollution, food insecurity and malnutrition, displacement and conflicts.
Why Researchers Are Sounding The Alarm About Climate Change’s Health Impacts - Climate change and air pollution make a dangerous pair. That’s one of the findings of a report published Monday from the Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change, a group that represents a collaboration between European and Chinese climate scientists and geographers, social and environmental scientists, biodiversity experts, energy policy and health experts, and other professionals. The report, which laid out the health risks of climate change and makes policy recommendations, called air pollution among the most serious of the indirect health effects of global warming. Here’s why that is: gases that result from the burning of fossil fuels pollute the air, and cause global warming. At the same time, rising temperatures worsen air pollution by increasing ground level ozone, a chemical reaction between sunlight and emissions and the main component of smog. We are seeing the impacts of climate on lung health, and that is a huge concern. The resulting dirty air — a combination of ozone and fine particles — is very bad for humans, especially children whose lungs are still developing, as well as for the elderly and people with asthma, heart disease or chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD). Experts even believe it hurts healthy people as well. “Exposure to air pollution has been directly linked to worsening respiratory disease, and not just in asthmatics,’’ “Pollution has a direct impact, there is no question. We’re seeing a rise in childhood asthma and adult onset asthma too, and increases in COPD, which is becoming a tremendous problem in this country. People are developing it who never smoked, or never had family members who smoked.’’ “We are seeing the impacts of climate on lung health, and that is a huge concern,’’ said Janice E. Nolen, assistant vice president for national policy at the American Lung Association. “We are very worried about the threat it poses today, and will pose in the future.’’
Why climate change is increasingly seen as an urgent health issue - When people think about health, they generally think about things individuals can do to ward off disease — seeing a doctor, taking medicine, or dieting. But increasingly, many health experts think this mindset needs to change. When we think about health, they say, we need to start thinking about how environmental factors can matter as much as — maybe even more than — any personal behaviors. And that includes big things like climate change: In a big new report released Monday, The Lancet brought together the world’s leading experts on environmental health. They argue that "[t]he implications of climate change for a global population of 9 billion people threatens to undermine the last half century of gains in development and global health": The direct effects of climate change include increased heat stress, floods, drought, and increased frequency of intense storms, with the indirect threatening population health through adverse changes in air pollution, the spread of disease vectors, food insecurity and under-nutrition, displacement, and mental ill health. Over the next five years, the authors urge governments to pay more attention to the health implications of climate change. That includes steps like:
Investing in climate change research and surveillance to better understand how the environment is affecting population health
Phasing out coal as a source of energy in order to protect people's cardiovascular and respiratory health
Redesigning cities to promote healthier lifestyles
Drought, Bird Flu: Farm Sector Earnings Plunge in Early 2015 - Earnings for workers in the U.S. farm sector plunged in the early months of 2015, with all but nine states posting declines, the Commerce Department said Monday. Farm earnings fell 22.4% in the first quarter, which Commerce attributed primarily to lower livestock output. In Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota—where farmers have grappled with severe drought and the spread of avian influenza—first-quarter earnings growth in other sectors was entirely offset by the drop in farm earnings. That led to an overall decline in personal income in those four states, the only states where personal income fell in the first quarter compared with the previous quarter. Iowa posted the biggest drop, at 1.2%. Personal income includes all wages and salaries, property income and government benefits, such as Social Security and Medicaid. Earnings in the mining sector also fell, reflecting the sharp drop in oil prices that has pummeled the energy industry. Mining earnings fell 3.5% in the first quarter, the first decline since the third quarter of 2009. The biggest declines occurred in Wyoming, Louisiana, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Texas. Overall, state personal income grew 0.9% on average in the first quarter, a slower pace than the fourth quarter’s 1.1% growth rate.
Leading Cancer Experts: 2,4-D Weed-Killer Is ‘Possibly Carcinogenic to Humans’ - The decision by an organization of the world’s leading cancer experts to classify the herbicide 2,4-D as a possible carcinogen underscores the risk posed by the U.S. government’s recent approval of 2,4-D for use on genetically engineered, or GMO, crops. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a branch of the World Health Organization, said 2,4-D is “possibly carcinogenic to humans” because there is “strong evidence that 2,4-D induces oxidative stress that can operate in humans and moderate evidence that 2,4-D causes immunosuppression, based on in-vivo and in-vitro studies.” “We have known for decades that 2,4-D is harmful to the environment and human health, especially for the farmers and farm workers applying these chemicals to crops,” said Mary Ellen Kustin, senior policy analyst for the Environmental Working Group. “Now that farmers are planting 2,4-D-tolerant GMO crops, this herbicide is slated to explode in use much the way glyphosate did with the first generation of GMO crops. And we know from experience—and basic biology—that weeds will soon grow resistant to these herbicides, making GMO crop growers only more dependent on the next chemical fix.” 2,4-D is one of the two active ingredients in Enlist Duo, a toxic weed-killing cocktail marketed by Dow AgroSciences, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently approved for use in 15 states. The other herbicide in Enlist Duo is glyphosate, which the international cancer agency had previously classified as “probably carcinogenic.” Exposure to both chemicals has separately been linked to non-Hodgkin lymphoma.When the EPA approved Enlist Duo for use on GMO crops, the agency did not consider the effects the two harmful defoliants may have on human health when mixed together.
Pope Francis Slams GMOs and Pesticides for Destroying the Earth’s ‘Complex Web of Ecosystems’ -- Pope Francis’s encyclical didn’t just cover climate change, he also denounced pesticides and genetically engineered (GE) crops, declaring “the spread of these crops destroys the complex web of ecosystems, decreases diversity in production and affects the present and the future of regional economies.” Biotech companies claim their products are key to solving hunger, but the Pope knows this isn’t true. No commercial GE crops are engineered for increased yield. The Pope’s message couldn’t come at a better time. Pesticide use is at an all-time high. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says glyphosate use on corn and soy increased from 10 million pounds in 1996, the year Roundup Ready crops were introduced, to 204 million in 2013. The U.S. Geological Survey routinely finds glyphosate in our water. The Word Health Organization just declared glyphosate a probable carcinogen. The Pope observed that pesticide use “creates a vicious circle in which the intervention of the human being to solve a problem often worsens the situation further.” He said, “many birds and insects die out as a result of toxic pesticides created by technology … [and this] actually causes the Earth we live in to become less rich and beautiful, more and more limited and gray …” Pesticides have already made our Earth less rich and more gray by nearly wiping out monarch butterflies, which have declined by 90 percent, largely because increased glyphosate use has wiped out the monarch’s sole host plant, milkweed. Pesticides are a leading cause of our current pollinator collapse. With one-third of the bites we eat requiring bee-pollination, many world leaders, including President Obama, are waking up to the need for action. With this encyclical, the Pope reminds us that our fates are intertwined with all species, and calls us to action.
Raisins: When Insiders Set the Rules: Earlier this week, the US Supreme Court in Horne et al. vs. Department of Agriculture overturned an arrangement that had stood since 1937 for the sale of raisins. The case turned on what is apparently a non-obvious question, given that this program had been around for eight decades and lower courts had ruled differently: Does taking 47% of someone's crop count as a a "taking" in the legal sense prohibited by the 5th Amendment to the US Constitution, which ends with the words " ... nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the decision for an 8-1 majority. He begins with a compact overview of past practice: The Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937 authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to promulgate “marketing orders” to help maintain stable markets for particular agricultural products. The marketing order for raisins requires growers in certain years to give a percentage of their crop to the Government, free of charge. The required allocation is determined by the Raisin Administrative Committee, a Government entity composed largely of growers and others in the raisin business appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture. In 2002–2003, this Committee ordered raisin growers to turn over 47 percent of their crop. In 2003–2004, 30 percent. Growers generally ship their raisins to a raisin “handler,” who physically separates the raisins due the Government (called “reserve raisins”), pays the growers only for the remainder (“free-tonnage raisins”), and packs and sells the free-tonnage raisins. The Raisin Committee acquires title to the reserve raisins that have been set aside, and decides how to dispose of them in its discretion. It sells them in noncompetitive markets, for example to exporters, federal agencies, or foreign governments; donates them to charitable causes; releases them to growers who agree to reduce their raisin production; or disposes of them by “any other means” consistent with the purposes of the raisin program.
CRP Acreage Down 34 Percent Since 2007 - Kay McDonald - The Agricultural Act of 2014 gradually reduces the cap on land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) from 32 million acres to 24 million acres by 2017. CRP acreage declined 34 percent since 2007, falling from 36.8 million acres to 24.2 million by April 2015. While initially enrolling mainly whole fields or farms (through periodically announced general signups), CRP increasingly uses “continuous signup” (which has stricter eligibility requirements than general signup) to enroll high-priority parcels that often provide greater per-acre environmental benefits. Conservation practices on these acres include riparian buffers, filter strips, grassed waterways, and wetland restoration. Riparian buffers, for example, are vegetated areas that help shade and partially protect a stream from the impact of adjacent land uses by intercepting nutrients and other materials, and provide habitat and wildlife corridors. Enrollment under continuous signup increased by about 50 percent, from 3.8 million acres in 2007 to 5.7 million acres in 2014. (see graphics)
The Surprising Environmental Reason Weed Should Be Legal - Marijuana has a strange legal status. In California, it’s been medically legal for almost two decades, but growing it and selling it for recreational purposes is in a gray area of law enforcement, with federal law prohibiting it altogether and state and local laws cobbled together in a patchwork of regulation. But according to a new study, this pseudo-legalization is bad news for the environment. The $31 billion marijuana growing business is draining local streams and allowing pesticide runoff to poison fish and wildlife, and it’s “high time” to include environmental regulations in the legalization conversation, states the report, published this week by a team of scientists from the Nature Conservancy, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and University of California Berkeley. “Illegal marijuana production in California is centered in sensitive watersheds with high biodiversity,” the authors write in the report, which appeared in the journal BioScience. Environmental enforcement bodies don’t have the resources to regulate rogue, unregulated pot growers under a patchwork of state and local legislation, and the federal prohibition “encourages secrecy and invisibility among producers,” the report states, further complicating enforcement. Growers are often squatting on public land, unlicensed and unregistered. The study’s authors take care to note that they are not weighing in on whether marijuana should be legalized — they are simply saying that the environmental implications need to be included in the debate.
Only 60 Years of Farming Left If Soil Degradation Continues - Scientific American - Generating three centimeters of top soil takes 1,000 years, and if current rates of degradation continue all of the world's top soil could be gone within 60 years, a senior UN official said on Friday. About a third of the world's soil has already been degraded, Maria-Helena Semedo of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) told a forum marking World Soil Day. The causes of soil destruction include chemical-heavy farming techniques, deforestation which increases erosion, and global warming. The earth under our feet is too often ignored by policymakers, experts said. "Soils are the basis of life," said Semedo, FAO's deputy director general of natural resources. "Ninety five percent of our food comes from the soil." Unless new approaches are adopted, the global amount of arable and productive land per person in 2050 will be only a quarter of the level in 1960, the FAO reported, due to growing populations and soil degradation. Soils play a key role in absorbing carbon and filtering water, the FAO reported. Soil destruction creates a vicious cycle, in which less carbon is stored, the world gets hotter, and the land is further degraded. "We are losing 30 soccer fields of soil every minute, mostly due to intensive farming,"
New Research Warns Of Catastrophic Food Shortages Due To Unchecked Climate Change - New research supported by the United Kingdom’s Foreign Office and insurer Lloyd’s of London finds that, absent major changes, humanity risks a catastrophic collapse in its ability to feed itself by mid-century, due in significant part to human-caused climate change. Last year, the United Nations’ “highly conservative” IPCC climate panel warned that humanity is risking a “breakdown of food systems linked to warming, drought, flooding, and precipitation variability and extremes” on its current path of unrestricted carbon pollution. Many studies in the last 12 months have strengthened the scientific case (see this, for instance). The new research is from the Global Resource Observatory, a project of Anglia Ruskin University’s Global Sustainability Institute (GSI) partnering with the UK government’s Foreign Office; Lloyds of London; a “coalition of leaders from business, politics and civil society”; the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries; and both the Africa and Asian Development Banks. The GSI group does business-as-usual forecasting using system dynamics modeling — arguably the only type of modeling that treats feedbacks and time delays well enough to even approximate what is coming. GSI Director Aled Jones explains that the group “ran the model forward to the year 2040.” The results were stunning:“The results show that based on plausible climate trends, and a total failure to change course, the global food supply system would face catastrophic losses, and an unprecedented epidemic of food riots. In this scenario, global society essentially collapses as food production falls permanently short of consumption.” The “good” news: That only happens if humanity doesn’t actually do any serious planning for this outcome — and doesn’t do any serious reacting as it plays out. But homo sapiens isn’t a “brainless frog,” are we?
Water Wars Crush California Wineries: "Whoever Has The Longest Straw Wins" --Eerily reminiscent of the determinedly evil oil baron from the movie 'There Will Be Blood', Reuters reports the growing tensions amid California's drought-stricken wineries are boiling over: "There is way too much demand. I blame a lot of vineyards like other people do... It's a matter of who has the longest straw at the bottom of the bucket." No one should worry though, because the government is here to help - with a new water management agency... Between 1990 and 2014, harvested wine grape acreage in the growing region around Paso Robles nearly quintupled to 37,408 acres, as vintners discovered that the area's rolling hills, rocky soil and mild climate were perfect for coaxing rich, sultry flavors from red wine grapes. But, as Reuters reports, in the last few years, California's ongoing drought has hit the region hard, reducing grape yields and depleting the vast aquifer that most of the area’s vineyards and rural residents rely on as their sole source of water other than rain. Across the region, residential and vineyard wells have gone dry. Those who can afford to – including a number of large wineries and growers – have drilled ever-deeper wells, igniting tensions and leading some to question whether Paso Robles' burgeoning wine industry is sustainable. "All of our water is being turned purple and shipped out of here in green glass," said Cam Berlogar, who delivers water, cuts custom lumber and sells classic truck parts in the Paso Robles-area community of Creston. "There are a lot of farmers who are going to have to farm with a hell of a lot less water." But, spurred by the drought, California Governor Jerry Brown last year signed a package of bills requiring groundwater-dependent areas to establish local water sustainability agencies by 2017. The agencies will then have between three and five years to adopt water management plans, and then another two decades to implement those plans. Some residents worry that Paso Robles can't wait that long.
Troubled Delta System Is California’s Water Battleground - — Fighting over water is a tradition in California, but nowhere are the lines of dispute more sharply drawn than here in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a 720,000-acre network of islands and canals that is the hub of the state’s water system.Giant pumps pull in water flowing to the delta from the mountainous north of the state, where the majority of precipitation falls, and send it to farms, towns and cities in the Central Valley and Southern California, where the demand for water is greatest.For decades, the shortcomings of this water transportation system, among the most ambitious and complex ever constructed, have been a source of conflict and complaint.But in the fourth year of a profound drought, the delta has become a central battle zone, pitting north against south, farmers against environmental groups, farmers against one another and many local residents against California’s governor, Jerry Brown, whose plan to fix the delta’s problems upsets them almost as much as the drought itself. Water pumped from the delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast, accounts for only about 15 percent of the total water from above-ground sources that is used in California.But the delta pumps help feed more than three million acres of farmland, much of it in the San Joaquin Valley, the agricultural heartland of the state. The estuary’s water is also home to hundreds of wildlife species, including fish — like the winter-run Chinook salmon and the delta smelt — that are listed as endangered and federally protected.
Drought May Prompt Californians to Let Personal Hygiene Slide - Forget the brown lawns. California’s historic drought may make the state’s residents less keen on washing their bodies and their homes. The water woes in the Western U.S. may cut sales of traditional cleaning products sold by the likes of Procter & Gamble Co., Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Deborah Aitken and Gregory Elders wrote in a report Friday. But it could boost sales of dry shampoos, which customers spray on and comb through their hair in lieu of washing in the shower, they said. Consumers changing their cleaning patterns in response to a drought isn’t unheard of. Unilever Chief Executive Officer Paul Polman recently told analysts and investors that Brazilians are showering 15 percent less because of water shortages. Meanwhile, the company’s products that are geared toward helping consumers use fewer resources are growing twice as fast as its other brands, and they’re more profitable, Polman said at a conference this month. Why Everyone in the U.S. Will Feel California's Drought Dry shampoos already had started to gain traction because more consumers want to keep their hair’s natural oils intact and avoid harsh substances. Sales of the products are growing five times as fast as the 2 percent gain predicted for the total shampoo category through 2019, Aitken said, citing Euromonitor International data. “It is now a case of skip a wash, or even two, among some of the users I know,”
California Drought: Support grows in Bay Area for toilet to tap water - Bay Area residents consider California's historic drought so dire that a majority say they would be willing to drink purified toilet water.That's not the only finding in a Bay Area Council poll released Wednesday that used to be considered hard to swallow. Many Bay Area residents appear to be putting aside some long-held notions about the environment, health and public costs to support bolder options to increase the water supply. While 58 percent of those polled say they favor adding appropriately treated recycled water to the drinking water supply, 63 percent say they support building more dams and reservoirs, with 23 percent strongly in favor. "That's a high number in an environmentally-conscious place like the Bay Area," said Rufus Jeffris, a spokesman for the Bay Area Council, a pro-business advocacy group. "This all suggests that people want to look more seriously at these types of solutions that, in the past, haven't had this great acceptance either because of environmental, health or cost reasons."
Drought So Bad, California Received 1 Year Worth Of Rain Over Last 4 Years « — Brown grass, low reservoirs and worsening wildfires are undeniable signs of California’s worsening drought. New rainfall comparisons highlight just how thirsty the Golden State is, but rising ocean temperatures are giving climate experts hope for a wet winter.The National Weather Service showcased those unsettling rainfall totals in an illustration to document the change in climate since July 2011, when California’s drought began.The below graph shows San Francisco received a four year deficit of 31.51 inches of accumulated participation , or 133 percent of annual normal. Meanwhile, Livermore saw a deficit of 21.87 inches of rainfall and Santa Cruz a staggering 50.54 inches — 161 percent of the yearly average. While California has received some rainfall from passing winter storms, particularly during the Bay Area’s “hella storm” last December, the overall number of sub-tropic “atmospheric rivers” responsible for those torrential downpours are well below average. Instead, a stronger than usual high-pressure ridge over the western U.S. continues to push storms to the north, creating long-term dry conditions. But lately, climate experts are leaning into new El Nino data that shows rising Pacific Ocean surface temperatures. An anomaly in the range of 1.5 to 3.5 degrees Celsius would be considered characteristic of an El Nino. The warmer and more widespread the water in the Pacific Ocean, the stronger the El Nino. The temperature anomaly is presently 1.8 degrees Celsius, according to the National Weather Service. In July, scientists will compare the latest computer models for a better idea of what California’s winter may look like.
Republicans Introduce Bill Based On The Idea That Environmentalists Caused California’s Drought --The bill, introduced this week by Rep. David Valadao (R-CA), would direct officials to release more water through the state’s Central Valley Project, which provides irrigation and city water sources to a large portion of the state’s Central Valley. Under the bill, water flows couldn’t be limited by concerns about fish species like salmon and the Delta smelt unless there was concern over extinction of the species. By ensuring that more water moves through the project’s canals, supporters hope to make water more available to residents. The bill has the backing of California’s entire Republican House delegation, the Hill reports. Valadao’s bill is based of an idea that’s been cited by Republicans before: that environmentalists have prevented California from building key water infrastructure, in part because of their concerns about the Delta smelt, a threatened fish species that could be nearing extinction. In 2008, in an attempt to protect the fish, the Fish and Wildlife Service moved to restrict the amount of water that’s pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta south to water districts and farms.Valadao’s office said in a statement that water policy aimed at protecting “certain species of fish listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is a significant obstacle hindering water delivery in Central and Southern California.” The bill, the statement said, “will cut red tape holding back major water storage projects that have been authorized for over a decade, which will aid the entire Western United States during dry years.” Several California Republicans agree with Valadao’s premise. “Droughts are nature’s fault; water shortages are our fault,” California Rep. Tom McClintock, a supporter of Valadao’s bill, said in a statement. “For a generation, we have failed to build the facilities needed to store water from wet years to have it in dry ones and radical environmental laws have squandered the water we did store. Our water shortage is caused by a shortage of sensible water policy. This bill begins fixing that.”
Lake Mead sinks to record low, risking water shortage --Lake Mead sunk to a record low Tuesday night, falling below the point that would trigger a water-supply shortage if the reservoir doesn't recover soon. Water managers expect the lake's level to rebound enough to ward off a 2016 shortage thanks to a wetter-than-expected spring. But in the long run, as a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation spokeswoman said, "We still need a lot more water." The reservoir stores water for parts of Arizona, Southern California, southern Nevada and northern Mexico — all of which have endured a 15-year drought that continues. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will announce a 2016 shortage in August if it projects Lake Mead won't rise above 1,075 feet by January. Assessments are updated in the middle of every month. This month's report forecasts an improved outlook. But Tuesday's record low — registering 1,074.99 feet — signals that Colorado River water users consume more than the river provides, said water-policy manager Drew Beckwith of the Western Resource Advocates, a nonprofit environmental law and policy organization."This is the check-engine light," Beckwith said. "It really does (make critical) the fact that we have to start changing." For Las Vegas, the record reinforces the need for a nearly $1.5 billion project to tap deeper into Lake Mead. The Southern Nevada Water Authority soon will complete a 3-mile tunnel that will suck water from an 860-foot elevation level. The plan also includes a pumping station.
Lake Mead Hits Historic Low -- Lake Mead hit a record low last night by falling below 1,075 feet in elevation at 1,074.98 feet, which would trigger a water-supply shortage if the reservoir doesn’t recover by January. The threshold for mandatory cuts was set in a 2007 agreement as part of the U.S. Department of Interior’s Colorado River Interim Guidelines. These cuts would be the first set of mandatory water delivery curtailments to Lake Mead. Should the water levels continue to drop, as they are expected to, more cuts would be required. “Water managers expect the lake’s elevation level to rebound enough to ward off a 2016 shortage thanks to a wetter-than-expected spring,” says The Arizona Republic. However, Rose Davis, a Bureau of Reclamation spokeswoman, told The Arizona Republic, “We still need a lot more water.” The U.S. had the wettest month ever recorded in May—”the wettest places were parts of Arizona, Southern California, Northern Utah, a tiny spot in Nevada and a small spot on the border of Texas and Oklahoma, where precipitation was at least 500 percent of average,” said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Still, the recent rains were not enough to end the Southwest’s 15-year drought. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will announce a 2016 shortage this August if its projections show that Lake Mead will still be below 1,075 feet in January. The elevation, which is recorded hourly, climbed to 1,075.05 feet this morning. Davis says the agency is expecting several more drops below 1,075 feet in the coming weeks, but they estimate the lake level will rise by the end of the year to about 1,081 feet, according to CBS News. Still, many water policy experts are pushing for long-term solutions.
Leaking Las Vegas: Lake Mead At Record Lows, "We Have To Change" - This is it, warns one water advocate, "it really does (make critical) the fact that we have to start changing." Lake Mead water levels have sunk to their lowest levels on record (below the levels when the dam was built) at 1075 feet. This is a major problem, as USA Today reports,since Las Vegas water authority's current "straws" glean water from 1,050 feet and 1,000 feet - leaving the first straw just 25 feet away from pulling in air. With the drought only set to get worse as the summer begins, the water wars are just beginning as Lower-basin states are still taking more than the river system can sustain. As USA Today reports, Lake Mead sunk to a record low Tuesday night, falling below the point that would trigger a water-supply shortage if the reservoir doesn't recover soon. ...in the long run, as a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation spokeswoman said, "We still need a lot more water." The reservoir stores water for parts of Arizona, Southern California, southern Nevada and northern Mexico — all of which have endured a 15-year drought that continues.
Caribbean swelters under worst drought in five years - The worst drought in five years is creeping across the Caribbean. From Puerto Rico to Cuba to St Lucia, crops are withering, reservoirs are drying up and cattle are dying while forecasters worry that the situation could only grow worse in the coming months. Thanks to El Niño, a warming of the tropical Pacific that affects global weather, forecasters expect the hurricane season that began in June to be quieter than normal, with a shorter period of rains. That means less water to help refill Puerto Rico’s thirsty Carraizo and La Plata reservoirs as well as the La Plata river in the central island community of Naranjito. A tropical disturbance that hit the US territory on Monday did not fill up those rese