The Weekly 3: Water
Every day, we scour media, blogs and social media to track news and trends in water. You’ll find the three biggest stories of the week in your in-box every Friday, or you can follow LPAWater on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news and analysis.
#1 – Westlands may sell water to MWD – Whodathunkit?
Water is a funny thing. One year ago, farmers in the expansive Westlands Water District were quite literally dying on the vine. Court rulings in environmentalist lawsuits over delta smelt and various salmon species and another year of drought had left them waterless, firing the “Fish vs. Farmers” debate. This year, the farmers expected more of the same and left fields fallow, but a lot more rain and a little more pumping has left them with surplus water, so a deal may be in the works to sell it to MWD.
#2 – The NRDC speaks and the media fawn
The Natural Resources Defense Council released a study claiming one third of US counties are in danger of drought because of global warming, and media from USA Today to the Idaho Mountain Express rushed to make it news. But was it? NRDC hired a consultant that ran climate models to “prove” a point. Doesn’t that seem worth questioning, especially if it comes from the outfit that brought us the false Alar scare? We think so, and we much prefer this study based on historic climate cycles, but doubt it will get much media play.
#3 – PPIC: Californians are very concerned about water supply
The Public Policy Institute of California released its annual Californians and the Environment public opinion survey on Thursday, and we immediately turned to the annual ranking of “the most important environmental issue facing California today.” Oddly, given the continuous improvements in air quality in the state, “air pollution/vehicle emissions” came in first, with 23 percent thinking it was the top issue. “Water supply/drought” came in second, at 12 percent. In contrast, water pollution came in at three percent and global warming at four percent.
Click here to subscribe to our Weekly Three emails.
This entry was posted on Friday, July 30th, 2010 at 1:29 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
