watercrunch

Host a Water Sunday?

2012-01-17T07:35:00.000-05:00

Last Fall, I had the opportunity to spend an afternoon at Water Missions' office tucked away behind a strip mall in Charleston, SC. I had heard tales about this Christian engineering relief organization, but what I didn't know was that they had a real story to share.

Our group spent the afternoon putting together essentially a rugged, self-contained miniature, water treatment plant that can treat about 10 gallons (38 liters) of water per minute from raw water sources. Much like an operating system for your computer, they have continued to perfect this innovative design.

Witnessing the passion of volunteers and leadership was impressive. Unimpressive was witnessing my lack of skills as an electrician. I was assigned to help with the wiring of the solar panels. Thank goodness they have quality control folks there.

Yesterday, Water Missions rolled out a new initiative for congregations around the world focused on the global water crisis. Basically, they are looking for 50 churches to commit to hosting a Water Sunday in March.

What is a Water Sunday? This would be one Sunday where your church dedicates its service to educating your congregation about the lack access to safe drinking water around the world. They have put together all the materials to make your Sunday a success (video, print materials, etc). They have already received interest from churches around the US. They even had a Canadian church interested in joining, eh.

I predict two things. They will have no problem reaching their goal of signing up 50 churches and this initiative could grow larger in the next few years. This initiative will light a fire with water and change lives!

For more information:

online: Water Missions's Water Sunday
Follow them on Twitter here.

contact: Kevin Herr | Church Engagement Coordinator | Water Missions International KHerr@watermissions.org | 843-769-7395

If I fail, the blog dies: A public challenge

2012-01-02T12:21:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year! I am a sucker for new beginnings and fresh starts. You can see where this is going, right?

I have not written anything here since August. While it's easy to stop writing, my ideas on posts keep percolating. A curse I suppose.

So why did I stop? I could blame the standard excuse of not enough time or dedicating more time to work off an extra ten pounds, but I think really it was writer's block. Once I discovered more folks that were reading my stuff, the harder it was for me to write and balance my consulting career. Weird, huh.

Blogging with frequency has been rewarding to me personally and professionally. In engineering and in writing one can constantly tweak a memo or a design, but "pressing print" is therapeutic. Putting a period to an idea is powerful.

I thought about putting a period today on this blog and retiring this blog. However, it really seems like I would be admitting defeat to my own writers block.

So, here is my public 90 day challenge to myself to see if I can break through this wall. If I fail, the blog dies.

Write at least one post a week.

Everything is fair game. With a name like watercrunch I always felt like I needed to talk about water scarcity issues especially here in the Southeast. While interesting, it's sometimes a bit constraining. All of life's goodness is now fair game! Yes, this means not all posts will be about water.

I am turning off blog comments. I am going to violating the cardinal rule one of any blog which is try to generate comments and discussion. Forget this. I will focus on my writing. I really hate getting spam comments or reading the occasional lunatic commenters. This does nothing for me.

Consume less media. Have you seen Goodnight ipad? This is what my house has become. Funny & sad.

So there it is. Yikes, now it is time to publish this post.

Drought's Doppler Radar: the Drought Monitor Uncovered.

2011-08-04T08:22:00.001-04:00

8:00 AM today, just like every Thursday morning since 1999, a map is posted online. This is no ordinary map. This map is the everyman's doppler radar for droughts; helping to show the complex nature of drought and its impacts in a simple way. This map is the Drought Monitor.

Drought Monitor's origins can be traced to The National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) which was founded in the mid 1990s at the University of Nebraska by Dr. Don Wilhite. NDMC approached NOAA with the idea of a regular product that would monitor drought for the United States. After some initial testing and collaboration, the Drought Monitor was officially born in August of 1999.

One of the biggest misconceptions with the Drought Monitor is that they have some Google like deck of servers crunching an immense set of climate algorithms to produce these drought maps on a weekly basis. This is not the case. No Staples Easy button here to push.

The process begins with one of the eleven primary authors of the Drought Monitor. Each author is in charge for a two week interval before relinquishing responsibility to the next author. The primary author releases a first draft of the map every Monday to over 300 local experts for input. After receiving input and impact information, the author adjusts, if needed, the map and releases subsequent drafts. The map is finalized for publishing every Thursday morning.

Unbelievably, there is no allocated federal budget to produce the weekly Drought Monitor. The Drought Monitor continues to post–thanks only to "in kind" contributions from the NDMC, USDA, and NOAA. Even with limited funding they are investigating new technologies including the use of higher resolution data sources to better represent the Drought Monitor map at the county level.

I am not sure they realize it, but the Drought Monitor owns Google search on the word drought. Don't believe me, type in the word drought into Google. Basically, anyone from a congressman, to a farmer, to an engineer, or to a landscaper, that is interested in drought will go to the Drought Monitor.

Would it be blasphemy to think about online ads on the Drought Monitor to fund improvements? Any other suggestions for the great folks that produce the Drought Monitor.

Special Thanks to Brian A. Fuchs, Climatologist, with National Drought Mitigation Center for answering my questions about the Drought Monitor.

Drought's Perfect Metaphor

2011-07-19T06:17:00.000-04:00

Droughts are like economic recessions. Right? They are both difficult to know when they both start and end. However, I think the economic metrics for defining a recession are more universally accepted than those used for drought. So, maybe this is not the perfect metaphor.

I called our last major drought in the southeast a dreadnought, but a comparison to a dreadnought is so early 20th-century. I am pretty sure those battleships have become obsolete with anti-ship missiles skimming across the sea.

So what is a better metaphor? Alex Prud'Homme, author of “The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Fresh Water in the 21st Century”, exclaimed in a recent New York Times opinion that "the python of drought is already wrapped tightly around us, and in weeks — and years — to come it will squeeze us dangerously dry". This is not a bad metaphor. Yes, a python is a big scary snake. Yes, it does squeeze its victims to death. But unlike a drought, a python can be easily defined even as it is squeezing you. Droughts are ill defined.

Lets see, so what are the characteristics of droughts?

Unlike a tornado, the onset of droughts can be slow.
Impacts are difficult to measure in many sectors of the economy. In fact, a drought can be felt outside region, even globally.
No universally accepted definition.
A drought has a unique DNA. No two droughts are the same. No watershed responds exactly to the same drought.
Exposes vulnerability in a watershed at that moment in time
Fundamentally a recurring phenomena.

So what is a better metaphor? Here is my list.

A drought is like a stress test on a bank.
A drought is when your tread on your tire gets thin.
A drought is being asked to dance when you can't dance.
A drought is when a gambler's lost turns to an addiction.
A drought is like being too hot while your spouse is too cold.
A drought is when you dance with the devil and lose.
A drought is keeping your blog in an indefinite pause.

OK, I give up. Help?

This Story Sucks! The Unknown Story of World's First Hydraulic Suction Dredge

2011-04-25T07:00:00.003-04:00

Prior to the first shots over Fort Sumter, South Carolina had over 120,000 acres of hydraulic water wonder land filled with ditches, pumps, and small diversion dams. Believe it or not, this land led in North American rice production from the 1600s through 1880s. If it wasn't for the millions of mosquitos, I am sure it would have been a sight to see. Out of this environment, came a radical invention that revolutionized the Port of Charleston and soon, other ports around the world.

Shifting sands formed a shallow barrier to the Port of Charleston. In fact, the allowable draft on ships was reduced from 13 feet in 1780 to 10.7 feet in 1851. Without a port deep enough for shipping, the Charleston port was going to get shoaled out of existence and commerce would find another port (sound familiar?). An experiment to use a big bucket ( aka clam hopper) to scoop out the sand failed in the 1850s.

Enter Nathaniel Lebby.

He had toiled in the rice plantations working on pumps that were used to flood the fields with river water and to drain them for harvest. He thought he had a better idea. He noticed his centrifugal pumps often passed rocks and all sorts of debris while working in the rice plantations. I suppose he may have thought, "If you can't scoop it out, why not suck!"

With a vision and financing, the ship named General Moultrie was forged. The ship had a pump that sucked up sands from the area under the dredge and discharged the slurry into a hopper. Water poured over the top of the hopper leaving the dredge material in the hopper. When the material began to run out the top, pumping was stopped and the ship moved to the dump site. Results were impressive, however, progress was cut short, because of the outbreak of the Civil War.

Soon the first hydraulic suction dredge, General Moultrie, faced an unglamorous end as a blockade runner. One night, carrying 163 bales of cotton, she slipped out of Charleston undetected. No one knows exactly what happened to her after that night. A Nassau paper reported that it had been sold in 1866. Too bad.

5 Truths about the Suez Canal

2011-02-07T07:41:00.003-05:00

With the events happening this past week, I realized I was a bit of canal snob and really did not know a lot about the Suez canal. What I knew was that it was a big ditch through the desert dug by an enthusiastic and suave frenchman in the 1850s who met his match later in the jungles of Panama.

The Suez was about dredging mud and sand. The Panama canal was about moving mountains. Building the Suez was more about diplomacy. Building the Panama canal was about converting raw American power into a revolutionary mechanical waterway.

The Suez Canal's 100-mile waterway is still impressive. It has no locks, takes about 15 hours to go through, carries 10% of world trade and 4.5% of world oil production. Here are five truths I discovered about building and maintaining the Suez Canal.

1. Bigger is always better

The canal has grown since first construction as new ships have grown in size and there is no end in sight.

In January of 2010, the Suez Canal Authority has completed its planned phase to increase the Canal permissible draft to 66 ft.

2. The Canal is Unsustainable.

I guess it goes without saying that if dredging stopped, the canal would over time fill up with sediment. Amazingly the Suez Canal authority has a fleet of over twelve dredges working year round. If you look at the Canal on Google Maps you can see them working. Here is one working in the Bitter Sea (a low depression that formed a lake in the middle of the canal).

3. Surveys need to be correct

In 1798 Napoleon lead an effort to construct the canal. However it was abandoned after a survey concluded that the Red Sea was 10 metres or 33 ft higher than the Mediterranean.

4. First you Build it then You Build Around it.

With non-stop traffic and dredgers working to keep the artery deep, the canal is alive. You can't shut it down, except maybe in a war like the Six day war. This means you have to get creative when working around the canal like pumping a freshwater canal under the Suez Canal.

It also means developing the worlds largest swinging railroad bridge in the world.

5. You can never control your legacy.

In 1854 the french engineer, Ferdinand de Lesseps, created the company to construct the canal open to ships of all nations. After ten years of work with 30,000 people working directly on the canal it was opened in November 17, 1869. Beyond the fact that this poor man later went crazy from his failure to build the Panama Canal. His name is now an adjective when discussing the ongoing migration of species across the Suez Canal usually from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.

Apparently Lessepsian migration can also be used to describe any animal migration over any man-made structures that would not have occurred had it not been for the presence of an artificial structure.

I suppose you never want your name to be used as an adjective unless you are someone like Newton. Always great advice. Hopefully Osbornian will mean something epic for future generations.

Banning Popular Water Quotes

2011-01-31T06:05:00.002-05:00

Usually it's the opening quote in a paper or PowerPoint presentation. If you are a water wonk, you know the quote by heart. It almost could be part of a chorus to some folk song from the '60s. I can almost hear the guitar in the background.

"Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over." - Mark Twain

This article last week seemed to discount the whole quote. I love it. Several Twain scholars who have gone through his correspondence, papers, and articles have found no evidence of the quote. While most said it just sounded like something he would say, in the end they said there was no proof. It's like the myth of the Cuyahoga fire. Lots of smoke, but no fire.

Halleluia! Reason enough to ban the quote.

Are there any other water quotes that need to be banned from overuse or questionable origins? I think this quote "When the well is dry, we know the worth of water." that purported to be in Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard’s 1746 Almanac might be a close second. Is it really in Poor Richard's 1746 Almanac? A quick check this morning and I could not spot it here. Hmm.

Icebergs in the South?

2011-01-10T15:00:00.000-05:00

Today we have six inches of snow which is a record for this area. Snow in the south is as odd as getting asked if you want un-sweetened tea. I suppose that is why I have written about early snow melting machines and homemade southern style snow making. I am just curious. Today, I wondered if icebergs had ever been spotted in the South?

Apparently, living here we are protected from the threat of icebergs from one simple phenomena. It's not the weather. It's not our sandy beaches. It's the fact that the gulf stream travels off our coast and heads up towards England. It serves as warm-water melting iceberg force field. Very few icebergs cross this threshold. However, sometimes they do.

In June of 1926, a British steamer reported an iceberg 150 miles from Bermuda (30–20°N, 62–32°W). The iceberg was no was 30 feet by 15 feet by 3 feet. Another reported rare occurrence happened in 1912 when an iceberg of unknown proportions was sighted 75 miles east of the Chesapeake Bay. Actually, we have the Titanic to thank for the plethora of iceberg data. Because of this accident, an International Ice Patrol composed of 20 nations was formed and still patrols for icebergs during the spring. Some other extreme iceberg locations are shown on the map below:

Thankfully, we don't have deal with them, because apparently you can't destroy them. Why?

"In 1959 and 1960, the Ice Patrol conducted a series of tests using the combustion of thermite. Early experiments by other scientists indicated that thermite, which explodes in ice with an extremely high temperature, would have a thermal "shock" or fracturing effect on icebergs. Ice Patrol experiments demonstrated that, under operational conditions, such was not the case. Natural deterioration remains the most practical process for the elimination of icebergs. Other than through these natural processes, the icebergs prove nearly indestructible." - From the International Ice Patrol

7 Tips to Search for Water circa 1958

2010-11-25T09:46:00.001-05:00

I stumbled on this Popular Science article from 1958 last week. A self-help guide caught my eye. There were the following 7 easy tips to help a person search for water when they left the city or suburbs for good ole country living:

1. Look for a stream that flows all year round. This is a good sign of underground water; so are swamp areas.

2. Talk to old-timers and bring up the subject of water casually. You will learn something.

3. In regions of dense rock outcroppings you are strictly on your own. It's hit or miss.

4. State or county water authority will have facts and figures on the local situation.

5. Water is where you find it. A shallow well next to a deep, dry hole may give plenty.

6. In arid areas, learn about the special grasses, shrubs and trees that indicate water.

7. Before picking your man, interview several well drillers. You may get some good tips.

The article stated that a minimum of 50 gallons a day should be allowed for each member of the family, but suggested ensuring 100 gallons a day per person. Oh, how times have changed.

So, if we were going to modify the list 52 years later what would you add or delete?

7 iphone Apps about Water

2010-11-18T07:18:00.001-05:00

When did this happen? Overnight it seems like I have stopped using the web.

I used to log into Google Reader and read though all my RSS feeds. Now, not so much.

Most of my "getting" is through apps on the go. Hands down my favorite for news/twitter/facebook app right now is Flipboard. This one app is worth the cost of an iPad.

I guess I am not alone.

In January over 3 billion apps, just in the Apple ecosystem, were downloaded since the creation of the app store. Incredibly, this amount more than doubled to 7 billion apps by this past month.

I thought I would dig through the mountain of apps this morning and download 7 apps somehow related to water and give them a testdrive.

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority

While I don't live in Dubai, this app looked to be a good example. This utility provides a mobile app to its customers where a customer can check their bills, use a mapping tool to find closest place to pay bills, and even watch utility videos. Will all water utilities provide a water app in the future?

I don't think I would be interested in this type of app, until it can provide my water or electrical daily demand. Now that would be powerful.

Virtual Water

This app calculates the volume of freshwater used to produce a product and was based on a poster designed by Timm Kekeritz. This is simple to use with close thirty food products, such as steaks, bananas and apples. You can input how many apples you are eating and it will tell you its waterfootprint.

Maybe its just me, but needing to know how much water is used for my delicious steak is not a recurring mobile need. Pass.

Waterprint

This app is similar to Virtual Water, but with more items. It even has a calculator so you can add up your whole meal. However, it is kind of clunky. Again, not sure about the pent up mobile need for this app.

Water Facts

Oh my, 89 water facts in one mobile app. My first thought was I better not have paid for this piece of junk of an app. You can shake your iphone and then it displays a small water fact such as “It takes X gallons to take a bath” This is beyond awful. Double Pass.

Drip Detective

This app helps you calculate the yearly cost of any drips in your house. You tap the screen to match drip rate and the app calculates the yearly cost. While it is simple to use, I am not sure if I would every download. This app needs to be apart of a bigger app. Pass.

Water: Environmental Quiz

This app looks like it sponsored by the Sierra Club Example question: Name the three counties that still have whaling operations. Pass.

CreekWatch.

This app was developed by IBM as a part of their smarter planet initiative as a possible way to “crowdsource” watershed data. A person can report on a particular waterway, use the app to take a picture and report how much trash or how much water there is. You can see contributions from other people on a map.

The Creek Watch App uses the following data:
1. The amount of water: empty, some, or full.
2. The rate of flow: still, moving slowly, or moving fast.
3. The amount of trash: none, some (a few pieces), or a lot (10 or more)

While this is a real app with the muscle of IBM backing it, it is only a start. What would be really cool is if they tied this crowdsource collected data with USGS gaging stations and other other online data sources. Give it a try.

Please comment if there are some other ones out there that are good.

Carolina's Water War ends with a wimper or a woot!

2010-11-13T11:40:00.000-05:00

So, the word is out. This interstate water war is ending. Its ending on a wimper or a woot depending on where you stand.

Catawba-Wateree River Basin Advisory Commission listened to a presentation yesterday detailing a proposed agreement on ending the SC vs. NC "Water Wars" Supreme Court case. The commission later unanimously supported the arrangement.

I can’t believe it was over three years ago when South Carolina sued North Carolina under the original jurisdiction of the United States Supreme Court. South Carolina said North Carolina was basically taking more than its fair share out of the Catawba and was violating the U.S. Constitution because one state’s decision cannot directly affect another state. South Carolina asked the Court to divide up the river’s flows between the states. For any water wonks…great summary and history of the case over at Water Wiki.

While I am sure the actual agreement is complex, some basic provisions from the joint settlement agreement were reported to be:

All users (NC and SC) of Catawba water, including interbasin transfers, are subject to drought response plans no less stringent than those of Duke Energy’s Low Inflow Protocol system.
Both states, along with the Catawba-Wateree Water Management Group, will update the information on water conditions every 10 years.
Neither state is allowed to file a Supreme Court action against its neighbor as long as conditions of the relicensing agreement are met or until 2058.
Both states must provide notice of transfer applications to water users in both states and provide additional documentation of the need for an interbasin transfer.

South Carolina has reportedly spent close to $3.2 million dollars on this lawsuit. So as a South Carolinean I hope this agreement was worth this.

“I think it’s a gorgeous day for a settlement"

-Bob Cook, deputy attorney general for South Carolina.

“We’re going to be neighbors for a long time. We’re going to have to share this river for a long time.”

- Jim Gulick, senior deputy attorney general for North Carolina.

Water Risk in the Municipal Bond Market

2010-11-01T05:47:00.000-04:00

the report: The Ripple Effect: Water Risk in the Municipal Bond Market

authors: Ceres: National coalition of investors, environmental groups and other groups with a passion for sustainability challenges. Pricewaterhouse Coopers: Big company focusing on audit and assurance, tax and advisory services. Water Asset Management: A global equity investor in public and private water related companies

why?: Municipal bonds are bought based on their credit ratings. This report contends these ratings "take little account of utilities’ vulnerability to increased water competition, nor do they account for climate change, which in many areas is rendering utility assets obsolete. Consequently, investors are blindly placing bets on which utilities are positioned to manage these growing risks".

The big three examples in the report:

The City of Atlanta’s water supply and the possibility that supply could be cut by nearly 40 percent as early as 2012 due to the ruling of a federal judge.
Lake Mead and the possibility of reduced water deliveries to Arizona and Nevada;
Hoover Dam and the possibility of the reduction of electricity production as soon as 2013 if water levels in Lake Mead don’t begin to recover

Some Southeast examples noted:

During the last drought, Southern Company was forced to buy $33 million in fossil fuels to replace lost power in Atlanta when hydropower generation declined by half due to low water levels
Hilton Head has abandoned eight of the island’s 12 supply wells since 1990 due to saltwater intrusion.
In August 2010, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) reduced generation at three of its facilities in Alabama and Tennessee when a heat wave pushed water temperatures to the permitted maximum temperature.

The Beef: The report says the credit rating methods "obscure the vulnerability of water utilities to water risks, and may even discourage utilities from taking necessary steps to manage a sustainable system". They reviewed credit risk assessment methodology by Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, and Fitch and found the following faults with their assumptions:

Water flows are assumed to be consistent with the recent past. Basically, credit ratings typically do not consider "the revenue effects of natural reductions to water supply, or the likelihood of such reductions".
Supply projections are not stress-tested to consider impacts on rate and revenue.
Water constraints are not assessed across the supply chain between wholesale and retail providers.
Unless a utility is in the midst of severe supply constrictions, credit agencies are almost hostile to conservation pricing and demand-side management.

Report Recommendations: Water Utilities

Improve disclosure of material water stresses such as exposure to persistent drought or long-term climatic changes, interstate legal conflicts over shared water resources, and potential and existing regulatory actions related to environmental flows.
Implement strategies to manage demand and reduce leakage, such as cost- effective infrastructure improvements to reduce water loss, and deployment of conservation incentives and new pricing strategies that reflect water scarcity and reward water-savings.
Invest in infrastructure that reduces risk such as “closed loop” alternative supplies (including indirect potable reuse), and green infrastructure.

Rating Agencies

Employ water risk stress tests to understand an issuer’s sensitivity to stresses such as legal rulings over contested resources, restrictions for environmental reasons, or changing climatic conditions.
Factor water intensity into rating opinions for electric utilities.
Reward with higher opinions utilities that manage water demand through pricing in anticipation of future supply constraints.

10 Simple Secret Typographic Tips for Everyone

2010-09-11T10:17:00.021-04:00

I am an engineer, not a graphic designer. However, over the years I have learned to respect graphic designers. They can take whatever I do and make it more professional and eye-popping.

So what are some of their simple secrets about type design that we can steal?

Here are a few things I have learned.

You only need one space after periods. I know for some of us who learned to type in pre-computer days it was two spaces, but with modern computers no extra space is needed.
This is an apostrophe ’ and this is a foot mark '. There is a difference.
Never underline. Underlining was designed for typewriters. Instead use italics.
NEVER USE ALL CAPS. All caps are harder to read. Never use All Caps.
Learn to kern, however one needs to kern to learn. Kerning is the process of adjusting the space between individual letters. There are no magical formulas. It is all based on the eye. You have to practice. Here is an example.

Never hit two returns between paragraphs. Again, this is left over from typewriter days. Use paragraph spacing in your document controls.
Until a few years ago I did not know there were two major groups of fonts; Serif and Sans Serif. Serif has more detail at the ends while Sans Serif does not. Sans Serif fonts are easier to recognize at short glance, while Serif fonts are more readable for longer text forms, such as books.

I am guilty of this, but never combine more than two typefaces on the same page. Period.
Don't use gray boxes behind text. Experiment. Look at the example below:

Learn to like white space. I am a recovering white space filler. Text with white space around it is actually is more readable. I always think of this funny video from a few years ago when I think about white space.

Most of this post was inspired and adapted from Robin Williams excellent book, The Mac is Not a typewriter. I would encourage anyone remotely interested in type to pick up this one book.

If you want to move beyond this, she wrote a really good follow-up, The The Non-Designer's Type Book, 2nd Edition.

Women and Washing Dishes : Two lessons

2010-08-25T09:09:00.003-04:00

It was like a sudoku puzzle that somehow could not be solved. No matter how much detergent or the arrangement of dishes, dishes on the top rack of the dishwasher were not getting washed. Glasses looked like they were coated with the spit from chewing tobacco. I ignored the problem knowing that when I got some time I would call someone to repair this two year-old dishwasher.

Yesterday my wife said that she fixed it. What?? She did a Google search and thanks to some How-To YouTube videos, took it apart and found there was a place where dishwasher debris collected. This also happen to be the place where water is pumped to the top of the rack. By removing this gunk, everything works great now. Humbly, I was impressed.

Apparently over one hundred thirty years ago before there were dishwashers another woman was fed up and just acted without a man in sight. Josephine Cochran was fed up with her servants chipping her fine china while washing them. She was quoted as saying "If nobody else is going to invent a dishwashing machine, I'll do it myself." She sat down at a table studied dishes and developed the first practical dishwasher.

While early attempts at dishwashing machines tried to scrub the dishes in a Jetson like fashion. She relied on hot soapy water and wire baskets to hold and clean the dishes. The machine then blew hot air to dry the dishes. The machine was able to wash and dry over 240 dishes at a time. Because of the size and cost, hotels were the early adopters. After her death, the Garis-Cochran Dishwashing Company eventually became Kitchenaid.

Lesson learned: Never stand in the way of a woman and dirty dishes.

Indus River Flow During the Flooding [infographic]

2010-08-21T11:06:00.000-04:00

I have seen pictures of the flooding in Pakistan, read articles, but I have not seen any Indus River flow graphs yet.

Thanks to data provided by the Pakistan Meterological Department, I was able to put this graphic together this morning. Click on the image to enlarge. It shows hydrographs from different points along the Indus River for the month of August. WOW!

If you have not seen Boston's Big Picture collection of the flood photos, check it out here.

South's New Water Language

2010-08-19T07:05:00.006-04:00

South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia each passed legislation this year that changes how water flows through the legal landscape.

North Carolina passed a bill to develop river basin modeling as a foundation to future watershed planning. South Carolina enacted a new surface water permitting bill that requires a permit to withdraw water. Georgia passed the water efficiency bill just in time to negotiate with Florida and Alabama.

Separate bills. Different goals. New rules.

Freeing each bill from its state borders, I compiled the text from these bills and produced a word cloud this morning. Totally unscientific, I know. I am not sure why exactly I did this except maybe to see what it would look like. As you can imagine, the new language of water involves words like withdraw, permit, and flows. Click on it to enlarge.

Do You Want a Good Waterproof Camera?

2010-08-11T06:49:00.007-04:00

I never imagined it would last the entire summer. Then again I never thought I would write a product review, however, this little camera earned some accolades.

A cheap digital waterproof camera. Too good to be true? I probably had this Fujifilm camera underwater on ten separate occasions this summer. Pictures are Facebook quality. Camera is small enough to fit easily in your pocket. I found myself taking it to most outdoor water activities and leaving our more expensive camera at home. Here are some sample pictures.

If you have got some water activities planned in the twilight of summer, I recommend this little camera Fujifilm FinePix XP10 12 MP Waterproof Digital Camera. Also, if you think the pictures are fun. You can also take 720p HD video underwater. Check out a sample I took on the Flint river in Georgia.

Dam Failures are Spectacular Flukes?

2010-08-09T06:26:00.000-04:00

If mother nature followed a set schedule, it would have held off until one of the three floodgates on the dam was repaired. However, 10 inches of rain fell and soon the discharge limited dam overtopped slicing a channel in the earthen dam. Within a short time, most of the 440-acre lake drained out through the new hole. 900 homes around the lake now have a great view of a river and muck.

Was the Lake Delhi Dam failure in northeastern Iowa's Delaware County two weeks ago a spectacular fluke?

I don't think so.

Seven years ago, 8 inches of rain caused an 80 year old earthen dam in North Carolina to breach when one of the floodgates failed to open and water came over the dam. Sound familiar? However, last month engineers noticed erosion around the dam and decided to release two-feet of water from the lake. According to media reports, while releasing water, part of the dam's foundation gave way causing the lake to drain. Now Hope Mills Lake is drained and in need of a major repair.

There have been over 20 dam failures or near dam failures in the US since 2001. Seepage through the dam, foundation defects, and spillway problems are often the main cause of failure. Dams are not sexy, but they need our constant love and attention.

Read more about dam safety?

Fermented and Flavored : South Carolina Gets a New Water Bill

2010-07-12T07:39:00.003-04:00

Born out of the last drought, fermented and flavored for five years in the legislature, South Carolina's first water surface permitting bill was signed into law last month. Remember, for most cases as long as an interbasin water transfer was not involved, one did not need any permit to withdraw water from a stream in South Carolina.

It a brand new day. This new bill establishes a surface water permitting program to be operated through the state Department of Health and Environmental Control(DHEC). This bill basically grandfathers existing users and sets up new requirements for new users. A new surface water user would now have to show DHEC the following (directly from the bill):

(1) the minimum instream flow or minimum water level and the safe yield for the surface water source at the location of the proposed surface water withdrawal;

(2) the anticipated effect of the applicant's proposed use on existing users of the same surface water source including, but not limited to, present agricultural, municipal, industrial, electrical generation, and instream users;

(3) the reasonably foreseeable future need for the surface water including, but not limited to, reasonably foreseeable agricultural, municipal, industrial, electrical generation, and instream uses;

(4) whether it is reasonably foreseeable that the applicant's proposed withdrawals would result in a significant, detrimental impact on navigation, fish and wildlife habitat, or recreation;

(5) the applicant's reasonably foreseeable future water needs from that surface water;

(6) the beneficial impact on the State and its political subdivisions from a proposed withdrawal;

(7) the impact of applicable industry standards on the efficient use of water, if followed by the applicant;

(8) the anticipated effect of the applicant's proposed use on the following if the permit is granted:

(a) interstate and intrastate water use;

(b) public health and welfare;

(c) economic development and the economy of the State.

The bill stipulates existing surface water users can withdraw water in an amount equal to one of the following:

documented historical water use,
current permitted treatment capacity,
design capacity of the intake
structure as of the effective date of this chapter,
design capacity of a pending intake structure permit application,
an amount necessary to recover indebtedness from an outstanding bond or revenue certificate issued through the sale of surface water, or for a publicly owned water utility
the safe yield of the utility's existing or permitted water supply only reservoir, whichever is greatest.

This is a great first step, however, the next step may take more time ...watershed level planning and management.

Crunch Interstate Water Issues Conference in September

2010-06-22T08:01:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the posting drought. I have been working on lots of fun side projects which have gotten in the way of my writing. One of the projects has been helping to organize a regional water resources conference in September. I thought I would share our flyer and registration form. If you are interested in more details, we just posted a draft agenda online at the conference website. Check it out here.

Crunch IWI Flyer and Registration Form

Oil Spill Timeline in Numbers [infographic]

2010-05-10T07:19:00.000-04:00

Gulf Oil Spill Timeline

This timeline was compiled from numbers published by Deepwater Horizon Unified Command.

What is Plan B? Containing the oil spill

2010-05-06T07:33:00.002-04:00

Turning the blowout preventer off has not worked so far (see my previous post).

So, now what? Plan B is a go.

As early as tomorrow, BP is going to try to put a lid over over the largest leak source. The containment chamber is designed to collect the oil so that it can be pumped to a tanker at the surface.

The system is made up of a 125-ton, 14’ x 24’ x 40’ containment chamber that will be set on top of the largest leak source which is about 600 feet from the wellhead. A 5,000 foot riser will convey the hydrocarbons to the surface ship, the Deepwater Enterprise, which has the ability to separate the oil from the water and gas. The oil can then be offloaded later at a terminal onshore.

Sounds easy, right? Wrong.

This is the first time this system will be used at this water depth. BP says at best this system could divert only 85% of oil rising from the seafloor. After Katrina, these type of structures were lowered over damaged wellheads to allow divers to repair wellheads, but at much shallower depths. There also may be a danger of pressure building in the containment structure as the oil gushes in.

Containment Chambers in Pictures

View more presentations from Robert Osborne.

Fingers are crossed.

Update on May 13, 2010

Failed, at least so far. However, they released a cool video of the effort today.

Oil Spill's Failure Nexus : the Blowout Preventer

2010-05-03T07:29:00.000-04:00

During the wild and early days of oilfield operations, gushers would occur when underground pressures were encountered during drilling. There was no way to stop them until James Smither Abercrombie and Harry S. Cameron in 1922 devised a solution. Two horizontally opposed hydraulic rams were designed to close off a well at the surface of the wellhead. It was the the first blowout preventer or BOP.

To be honest, I never knew out about blowout preventers before this term entered the national lexicon last week with the continuing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

In actuality there is not just one hydraulic ram on the modern day BOP. It is built to be foolproof with multiple redundancies. There are a series of hydraulic rams and a different valve called an annular preventer. As shown in the diagram below, the annular preventer usually sits on top of the BOP and has a rubber doughnut that is mechanically squeezed inward to seal the pipe.

Houston we have a problem. Right now, engineers and specialist are gathered in Houston trying to figure out if this blowout preventer can be closed using six remotely operated robotic submersibles. So far attempts at closing this blowout preventer have been unsuccessful.

Lets hope they figure it out.

Section Cuts of Rams:
WorldWide Oilfield Machine Co.

How Much Water is Consumed for a Google Search?

2010-04-12T05:56:00.005-04:00

It is not their fault. They only give you less than a half a second to think about what just happened.

Maybe if you could hear the digital chirps, like when you mistakenly dial a fax line, this would remind you what is going on behind the scenes after you clicked that Google search button.

First you would hear a short chirp of the web server sending your search to an index server and then another server would chime in saying it is retrieving the snippets of stored documents for each search. Google has previously reported that .0003 kwH is used for each search.

So, how much water is used per search?

I calculated this for a presentation I did a few months ago to illustrate the water energy nexus. Assuming a typical thermoelectric plant provides the energy (400 gallons/mwH evaporated or consumed), a Google search would evaporate or consume 1/10 of a teaspoon of water. This does not sound like a lot until you think how many Google searches there are per day.

Hint. There are over 293 million google searches a day. I'll leave this math with someone else.

Deconstructing Georgia's New Water Conservation Bill

2010-03-22T06:18:00.012-04:00

Some folks are saying this bill makes Georgia the the country's leader in water efficiency. I am not sure if that is true, but I do know though that Georgia's water conservation bill was approved by the Georgia General Assembly last week and is just waiting only on Gov. Sonny Perdue's signature to become law.

I finally read through the Water Stewardship Act of 2010 this morning. Here are some bullet points.

The bill creates new standards after July 1, 2012, for toilets, lavatory and kitchen sink faucets, and urinals required in all new construction. This also applies to the replacement of existing fixtures. These standards include the following:

Toilets that use more than an average of 1.28 gallons of water per flush would be prohibited in this state.
A shower head can use no more than an average of 2.5 gallons of water per minute at 60 pounds per square inch of pressure.
A urinal can use no more than 0.5 gallons of water per flush.
A lavatory faucet or lavatory replacement aerator that allows a flow of no more than 1.5 gallons of water per minute at a pressure of 60 pounds per square inch.

Any person who installs any toilet, faucet, urinal, or shower head in violation of this Code section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. Ouch.

All new multi-unit retail and light industrial buildings permitted or with a pending permit application on or after July 1, 2012, will require "sub-metering" of water use by each unit.

The bill also includes a prohibition on landscape watering between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. However, the prohibition only applies to sprinkler systems and other specific uses, such as watering with a soaker hose are exempt.

In addition to the rules and restrictions, the bill also encourages every state agency and department to look at its water conservation practices, and requires that water systems implement leak detection programs. By January 1, 2012, public water systems serving at least 10,000 individuals must have conducted a water loss audit and by January 1, 2013, all other public water systems should have conducted a water loss audit. Georgia will also adopt rules for the minimum standards and best practices for monitoring and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of water use by public water systems to improve water conservation. This includes:

The establishment of an infrastructure leakage index;
The establishment of categories of public water systems based on geographical size and service population;
A phased-in approach requiring public water systems to conduct standardized annual water loss audits according to the International Water Association water audit method/standard and to submit those audits to the division;
A phased-in approach requiring public water systems to implement water loss detection programs; and
The development of a technical assistance program to provide guidance to public water systems for water loss detection programs, to include without limitation metering techniques, utilization of portable and permanent water loss detection devices, and funding when available.

By August 1, 2010, Georgia will also identify and provide for rules, regulations, incentives, or opportunities to:

Include water conservation measures in the comprehensive plans submitted to the Department of Community Affairs by local governments;
Provide technical assistance to local governments and public water systems for water loss abatement activities;
Support state-wide water campaigns and public outreach programs, such as Conserve Georgia and WaterFirst programs;
Encourage residential and commercial retrofits for water efficient fixtures and equipment;
Encourage residential and commercial retrofits for water efficient landscaping irrigation systems;
Encourage the installation of landscapes in commercial and residential settings utilizing landscape best management practices that include soil preparation, plant selection, and water use efficiency;
Encourage the use of rain water and gray water, where appropriate, in lieu of potable water;
Encourage the installation of submeters on existing nonsubmetered multifamily complexes and multiunit commercial and industrial complexes;
Encourage public water systems to develop and improve water loss abatement programs;
Encourage public water systems to implement the industry's best management practices for controlling water loss and achieve the recommended standards;
Provide incentives for residential and commercial water conservation pricing by public water systems;
Provide incentives for public water systems to use full cost accounting;
Encourage voluntary inclusion of water conservation guidelines in applications fornew ground-water withdrawal permits and surface-water withdrawal permits; and
Examine the effect that water conservation has on water rates and consider policies to mitigate the financial impact that rate increases or reductions in water use have on water utilities and water users.

Really, I tried to make this a brief summary.

Early Snow Melting Marvels Stuck in Beta

2010-03-02T07:18:00.001-05:00

Cool. I had no idea. You can melt it and not move it. Makes sense, I guess.

Last week, I was quizzing someone from the Northeast about how their city removed all the snow. He said their community just bought a new machine to melt their recent snow. Not just any machine, a Snow Dragon melter. Some of these units can melt 60 tons of snow per hour or the equivalent of 20 to 25 truckloads per hour.

So, with a little bit of wide-eyed wonder, I discovered snow melting machines were generally stuck in beta for about 100 years.

Revecca Rickard in 1808 patented the first device to clear snow from pavements. Think of it as a fireplace on wheels. A person could move the firebox over the snow to be melted. I don't think this device was too successful.
Soon bigger vehicles, some horse drawn, some with revolving brushes, were designed. Most melted snow at less than a cubic yard per minute. Most failed due to the cost of melting, the lack of speed, or because the machine could not handle the rigors of use on the streets.

Take a look at these early snow melting machines.

Me + Blender = Water Conference Video

2010-02-26T05:35:00.008-05:00

This seems like good Friday blog post material. I thought I would share the opening of the South Carolina Environmental conference video I worked on last year. Yes, that is me with a blender. Yes, the blender still works. No, I did not throw up.Check it out here.

This year to help market the conference we created a series video ads to parody those UPS Whiteboard ads. We started to release some of the ads this week. Here is one of them. And no, that is not me in the wig.

If you are interested in attending the conference, its only 16 days aways. Here is the flyer.

2010scecbrochure Final

First Glimpse of the new Apple Data Center in NC

2010-02-23T07:03:00.004-05:00

Its really there.

Apple has started building a new 500,000-square feet data center in Maiden, North Carolina with construction to be completed by late 2010. The data center reportedly will use about 20 megawatts annually – enough to power 16,000 homes. Here is the first glimpse from the air:

The new Apple facility will be the company’s East Coast operations center and would according to some take advantage of the 3 hour time change on the East Coast to facilitate communications between European operations/sales and California for data transmission.

This data center is estimated to cost over a billion dollars which is double the cost that Google is investing in a large data center in Lenoir, NC, 28 miles to the north.

Related Posts:7 Reasons Apple picked Maiden, NC
Behind the Scenes at a Google Data Center

Mudhole Water Skiing Southern Style

2010-01-13T06:00:00.005-05:00

Honestly, I was going to write this morning about a new water permitting bill being proposed in South Carolina. I was going to breakout its major components, but it's just going to have to wait.

This is another reason why I love living in South Carolina. There is no shortage of ingenuity, adaptibility, and perseverance. Bring on climate change. As long as there is some muddy water left and a little carbon to burn, we are fine.

This spurred me into making a motivation poster.

Ok. Just one more poster.

Must stop now. I could have fun with this all day long.

Debunking the #1 Water Scarcity Myth

2010-01-11T06:01:00.003-05:00

I thought CBS News's story about water scarcity was good considering the short duration (Watch the video here). However, one myth continues to be spread in the popular press. The myth is that 36 states will face water shortages.

This statement comes from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in a report published in 2003 titled "FRESHWATER SUPPLY: States’ Views of How Federal Agencies Could Help Them Meet the Challenges of Expected Shortages" The report was generated after the 2002 drought to help federal agencies determine how their activities affect states and how they can be more supportive of state efforts to meet their future water needs.

The report states that "even under normal conditions, water managers in 36 states anticipate shortages in localities, regions, or statewide in the next 10 years."

How did all the water resource planners in the GAO calculate this shortage?

They didn't.

The results were only a compilation of web-based surveys of state water managers. Three important states didn't even participate; California, Michigan, and New Mexico.

FAIL.

CBS News's Water Scarcity Story

2010-01-10T07:47:00.007-05:00

I finally watched CBS News's coverage of water scarcity that was shown last Friday. Coverage was above normal and I liked the use of graphics. However, there is a pervasive water statistical myth mentioned that still bugs me. I'll write about it tomorrow morning.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Reclaiming the Everglades in the 19th Century in Pictures

2010-01-08T06:25:00.001-05:00

19th century progress in the Everglades.

Interesting.

Homemade Southern Style Snow Making

2010-01-06T06:49:00.000-05:00

We all have gifts. Some lay hidden for years, some we unwrap and toss into the closet, while some we look for, but they are simply not there.

The mechanical gift is missing for me. I have no patience when it comes to working on a car or building or retrofitting most anything. My brother, however, has this gift.

Before Christmas I wrote about making your own white christmas. Well, by gosh, my brother built a homemade snow maker out of parts and pieces from Lowe's. I thought I would share these pictures. Pretty cool. I am jealous.

You want to build it? Click here for the plan. Just don't ask me any questions. :)

How does Atlanta Find Water by 2012?

2010-01-04T06:04:00.002-05:00

Thanks again for reading my blog and Happy New Year! I have been writing now for three years. While my posting frequency dropped off more than I would have liked last year, this just means I have more great material filling my Evernote basket of ideas that I want to share with you this year. I can't wait!

-Robert

This fall a Georgia task force of eighty business, environmental and government officials have been studying a long list of options to address Judge Paul Magnuson ruling that metro Atlanta’s use of Lake Lanier for drinking water could be reduced in 2012. Four days before Christmas, the task force published their report. I finally downloaded the report this morning.

The report says if the judge’s ruling stands, there are no other options for to "close the gap" by 2012. Simply put, they said Lake Lanier for water supply is the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly option. The task force found metro Atlanta alone would take a $26 billion annual hit to its economy if no action is taken. Now, that's shock and awe.

Here is the report.

Water Contingency Final Report height="450" width="400" > value="http://d1.scribdassets.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=24739865&access_key=key-rlrxkmun8se7yekn460&page=1&version=1&viewMode=list">

How to Make Your Own White Christmas

2009-12-24T10:45:00.003-05:00

Forget about dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones you used to know. Statistically speaking many of us will not have a white Christmas this year.

As of yesterday, here is the current snow cover for the US along with the the statistical probability in percent that a snow depth of at least 1 inch will be observed on December 25th (Thanks to the National Climatic Data Center).

So, can you ignore mother nature and just make your own snow? No, mother nature still needs to give you a couple things from her kitchen: good ambient temperature and good humidity. Temperature is a given, but humidity? In late summer in the sticky south, one knows you can't seem to sweat enough. This sticky principle is the same for snow. When there is high humidity in the air, water in the air can not evaporate to remove some of its heat. Heat is the enemy of snow (the Frosty the Snowman principle).

Check on this online snowmaking weather chart to see if the conditions are right to make snow in your part of the world. Apparently, I missed out on 12 great snow making days last year here in Clemson.

Some snow-making tools of envy include:

For the Suburban Snowmaker: The SG6 X-Stream™ Complete Snow Making Package contains everything you need, and everything you want when making snow including an SG6 X-Stream™ snow maker, a 1.75gpm Electric Pressure Washer, and a 5.5cfm Campbell Hausfeld Air Compressor. Cost is $1,248.

For the Unlimited Budget: YORK Neige makes a new generation snow sprayer called the Safyr (Sapphire). The Safyr touts itself as a low energy, high volume snow producer and claims to achieve huge flows in the range of 220 gallons per minute. The Safyr can even adjust the size of the water droplets. Bigger droplets mean less drift, reduced evaporative loss, and increased volume. All you need to go with this is a water source and a really big pump.

Spike the Punch: Still can't get the snow size you need? Why not add a little juice to your snow making water? Snomax, produced by York Snow, allows easier snow making at warmer temperatures. Snomax is an ice nucleating protein from the naturally occurring bacterium (Pseudomium syringae, strain 31 -A to be exact ). After fermentation, the bacterium is pelletized, freeze-dried to reduce water content, and irradiated to kill the bacterium. The protein produced by the bacterium is Snomax.

TVA Fly Ash Spill One Year After

2009-12-21T06:59:00.000-05:00

The failure was not instantaneous, but "a progressive sequence of ruptures over a period of approximately one hour." The rupture released the 5.4 million cubic yards of fly ash and dike material on December 22, 2008 into the Emory River.

So what has happened this year. Amazingly, an army of 400-500 workers have removed two-thirds of the spill material from the river and are overall halfway through the $1-billion cleanup. However, the removal of all material may not be completed until 2013.

Pretty dramatic aerial footage comparing last year to this past December. View it Here.

As a result of the spill, EPA will be issuing new regulations for handling coal-ash waste nationwide. TVA will be eliminating all wet ash and gypsum storage from its facilities. Learn how they are removing the fly ash from the river.

Top 10 Potential Lunar Bottled Water Slogans

2009-11-16T06:10:00.000-05:00

Last week, NASA said they had found "significant amounts" of water on the moon. One day in the not too distant future a bottled water company may set up shop on the moon and sell bottled water back to us on Earth. To assist with this effort, I have come up with some potential slogans this morning.

1. Its your world. Do your own moonwalk.

2. Make it a Full Moon everyday

3. Drink the most natural water out of this world

4. The antidote for sustainability

5. Drink and take one large step for mankind everyday

6. Howl with the Moon

7. Born out of this World.

8. Blasted, but never filtered. Moonwater.

9. Drink our water and save your earth

10. Miles away from the ordinary (actually 238,857 miles)

Toccoa Falls Dam Failure Anniversary

2009-11-06T07:19:00.001-05:00

Just after midnight 32 years ago today on November 6, 1977, the Kelly Barnes Dam failed, releasing 176 million gallons of water just above Toccoa Falls College campus in northern Georgia. Thirty-nine people lost their lives.

I wrote a series of blog posts about this incident a couple years ago.

Here is a video I also made with the series.

The Single Most Important Day to Learn About Water

2009-11-04T06:22:00.001-05:00

I think we have topped ourselves from last year. Although I am a bit biased, we have lined up some impressive speakers this year. This one-day water resource workshop will be held in Columbia, SC on December 2, 2009.

Registration is now open. You can register here. Take a look the flyer below (I had fun creating it!).

South Carolina Water Resource Workshop

The Miracle Behind the World's Biggest Cruise Ship

2009-11-02T06:11:00.002-05:00

Hook, line, and sinker. I am a sucker for the big-isms when explaining something that is the world's biggest. I was hooked when I read last week about Royal Caribean's newest cruise ship.

Let me uncork these -isms so I can share the cool construction pictures:

Right off the bat, this ship is longer, taller, and wider than any other passenger ship ever built.
The smokestack had to be retracted this weekend just so it could squeeze under a bridge in Denmark and make it to the Atlantic and on to its home port, Port Everglades in Florida. Amazingly it had less than a 2-foot gap between the bridge and smokestack.
The ship features 16 passenger decks and 2,704 staterooms.
The total power output of the ship's engines is 97,000 kW and the cruise speed is 22.6 knots.
Ship includes an open-air park with trees and hanging gardens, a pool that changes into a stage, an ice rink, and a small golf course.
It reuses its waste water and consumes 25 percent less power than similar, but smaller, cruise liners.
This ship cost $1.5 billion dollars to construct.

Huge cranes and a gigantic dry dock helped to build this ship, but the true miracle for these new breed of ships is modular construction. Components of the ship were fabricated and assembled separately. Each of the 181 sections of the ship were then lowered into the dry dock and welded to the previous sections.

Thanks to this miracle of modular assembly, a $1.5 billion dollar ship took less than two years to construct.

7 Engaging Videos about Hurricane Hugo : 20 Years Later

2009-09-21T07:22:00.002-04:00

I was a freshman at Clemson when twenty years ago this Category 5 hurricane struck Guadeloupe, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, St. Croix, South Carolina and North Carolina in September of 1989, killing 82 people.

Some quick facts:

Hugo's toll in dollars was greater than the total insured losses of the 10 most costly hurricanes prior to it.
In South Carolina, there was one insurance claim for every four households.
Duke Energy (then Duke Power) used or replaced 8,800 poles, 700 miles of cable and wire, 6,300 transformers, 165,000 automatic splices, 37,500 meter sockets, 17,000 electric meters, 600 chainsaws and 5,500 rain suits.

Here are some engaging videos I found on YouTube. These brought back some memories, especially the last one which has the last great governor Carroll Campbell narrating video over Myrtle Beach.

Abandoned Nuclear Power Plant from The Abyss

2009-08-24T05:50:00.003-04:00

James Cameron had a problem. The script was done, but he had no location to shoot his movie called "The Abyss". Do you remember this movie from 1989? Civilian divers encounter aliens while trying to rescue a stricken nuclear submarine. Most of the action was underwater. He could shoot the movie at sea, but he would be at the mercy of waves, weather, and way out of this world insurance premiums.

Not far from the peach fields of Gaffney, SC, a perfect location was found in an abandoned nuclear power plant. In the 1970s Duke Power began construction on a new nuclear plant. After spending over a billion dollars in today's dollars and with only one of three reactors partially completed, work was halted and the project was abandoned.

Soon after, a local businessman bought the site and converted the complex into a movie studio. The ultimate green movie set? Cameron soon came came calling and determined he could fill the containment vessel with 7.5 million gallons of water and turn it into the largest underwater set ever. After the production went above budget, the set was never dismantled. Check out the pictures.

Pictures From HistoricDecay.com

You can't visit this place anymore. The old nuclear power plant and the set was demolished in 2007 to make way for a new $11 billion two-unit nuclear power plant at the site. I need to blog about this new project in the future.

Drought Yields Ancient Roman City

2009-08-03T22:16:00.008-04:00

During a severe drought in 2007, researchers reviewed aerial images of crops just north of Italy's Venice airport in several wavelengths of visible light and in near-infrared. They found lighter crops traced the outlines of buildings and even a canal below the surface. What they discovered was the ancient roman city of Altinum.

Aerial Image

Map of the City

Pretty Cool! Read more in this USA Today article.

Texas Drought Heats Up

2009-08-03T05:34:00.000-04:00

I have not been checking the Drought Monitor as much as last year, but I was surprised to see that 77 of the Texas's 254 counties are in extreme or exceptional drought. Parts of Texas have had drought conditions for the last two years.

230 public water systems are under mandatory water restrictions, including San Antonio, Dallas, Houston and Austin. There are reports of up to $3.6 billion in crop and livestock losses caused by the drought in the past nine months.

Lake Travis which helps provide drinking water for more than 1 million people is 50% below normal.

Three Grandiose Projects to use Canada's Water

2009-07-27T06:44:00.004-04:00

You know the joke. Water flows uphill toward money.

So, what if we really opened our wallets and diverted water from Canada for use here in the U.S.? Dreamers have been thinking about this for the past 60 years. Here are three proposed grandiose water projects for bringing water out of Canada to the United States.

1. NAWAPA Plan for Western USA

I remember the first time I read about this grand scheme in Michael's WaterWired blog and thinking no way.

Yes way. The North American Water and Power Alliance (NAWAPA) was designed to tap 1.3 million square miles of water in Canada and supply water to 35 states. The Parsons Company‘s original 1964 estimate was $80 billion. The upgraded plan was estimated to cost $130 billion in 1979. The drainage area to be tapped was approximately 1.3 million square miles. Here was a promotional video of this plan (Thanks Michael for finding this!).

2. CeNAWAP - Central USA
Apparently in the late 1960s, the Washington State Resource Center developed plans for the Central North American Water Project (CeNAWAP). This plan involved a series of canals and pumping stations from Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake to the Great Lakes for ready transport to the U.S.

3. GRAND - Eastern USA
The Great Recycling And Northern Development Canal (GRAND) plan's linchpin was a dike to be built across James Bay at the mouth of Hudson Bay. With this new giant fresh water reservoir 17% of the fresh water in Quebec and Ontario would have been captured and diverted to the south by a 167 mile canal to Lake Superior and Lake Huron. This project was estimated in 1994 to cost $100 billion to build and another $1 billion a year to operate.

Me and My Boat

2009-07-25T22:41:00.005-04:00

This picture sums up how I feel about some the back-end stuff with this blog. Everything works, but it is not quite the best.

Well, the house is quiet and I have decided to finally move my blog over to watercrunch.com. I have put this off for over two years. I will also move my RSS feed service. I have got my fingers crossed that everything should be seamless for you all, but you never know. If you don't see a blog post by next Monday then check out watercrunch.com here.

Top 10 Water War Quotes

2009-07-24T06:37:00.003-04:00

Last Friday afternoon, a federal judge ruled the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been illegally reallocating water from Lake Lanier to meet metro Atlanta’s needs. Yesterday Georgia announced a new task force will develop "multi-pronged" strategies from appealing the decision to exploring other options.

I thought I would capture this morning a few of the quotes concerning the fallout from this ruling before they are drowned out completely on the web.

"I will not negotiate a deal that's harmful to the future of Georgia. Just won't happen, We'll take our chance in court before we'll agree to a deal that does not meet the needs of a growing and prosperous Georgia."- Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue

"Even if it is appealed, we would win again. What they have been doing is illegal. They should not be able to continue to do something that is illegal.” -Alabama Gov. Bob Riley

the ruling “was a huge step in the right direction. "- Florida Gov. Charlie Crist

"... we need to sit down and make an agreement. Then hopefully we can appeal to a higher calling and that higher calling will get everyone to put aside past differences." Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson

"I think the governors all felt they were likely to be victorious. I kept telling them that if you don't settle it, somebody's going to win and somebody's going to lose," - US Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.

"Now we’re going to have to deal not with just two other states — we’re literally going to have 50 states involved, It’s going to be a real challenge.”- U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia

"Floridians love to make fun of wasteful and sprawling Atlanta. But guess what? Water use there at its worst was about 120 gallons per person per day in the 10-county metro region. Florida's statewide average is 158 gallons a person" - Cynthia Barnett, author of Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S.

“All of us have 18 months left. All of us are Republicans. There’s no reason the three governors can’t get together and come up with a solution that addresses the needs of the three states.” -Alabama Gov. Bob Riley

"Georgia's Republican leaders have been using lawyers and engineers and political fixers to put off this day, and all of the millions of dollars poured into that effort has finally come to nothing,"- Georgia House Democratic leader and gubernatorial candidate DuBose Porter

"Atlanta has based its growth on the idea that it could take whatever water it wanted whenever it wanted it, and that the downstream states would simply have to make do with less. Following the court's ruling today, this massive illegal water grab will be coming to an end." - Alabama Gov. Bob Riley

Back to the Future Runner-Up:

“I can see Florida and Alabama from my house, Hopefully, that gives me some broader perspective.” -Alec Poitevint in 2003

Digging Deep with the Incredible Rudy Van Prooyen

2009-07-20T06:13:00.001-04:00

While some of us will be inside enjoying the wonders of air conditioning the rest of this summer, Rudy Van Prooyen will be biking 2,000 miles in 40 days starting in San Francisco. Unbelievably this is after he warms up by completing the San Francisco Marathon on July 26th.

He will travel through some fourteen metropolitan areas including here in the Southeast, with Washington DC as the final destination. He is raising $20,000 for the Blue Planet Run Foundation, which translates roughly into $10 per mile.

I caught up with Rudy this past week and here is what he had to say.

So, how did you get originally involved with Blue Planet Run?

I first heard about the Blue Planet Run at the Atlanta Marathon Expo in November 2006 and was shocked to learn that so many people lacked access to safe drinking water. Going from attraction to action, I logged on to www.blueplanetrun.org that night, applied for the Blue Planet Run, and made a donation to the cause. Never thinking to hear from them again, several months later they contacted me for an interview. Over the next several months more than 350 applicants were screened and reviewed and I ended up as one of the 21 runners selected.

I felt exuberant and honored to be included in this incredible mission. A truly life changing moment and I will never forget it.

Why did you choose safe drinking water?

The facts are that unlike all of us, over one billion people on earth have no safe drinking water. Women and children may walk up to 6 hours a day to get water, and even then, it may not be enough, or safe enough to drink.

Many drink contaminated water and then get sick. 2.2 million human beings die each year from water borne illnesses. 6,000 people die every day and 240 children die every hour. But there is hope, because the solutions are so simple and collectively we have the power to solve this human crisis that is going on in front of our very own eyes, tragically mostly unnoticed.

How do you hope this coast-to-coast cycling adventure will raise awareness of clean water issues?

While fundraising is one of my goals, I hope that I can also create more awareness. Before I met the Blue Planet Foundation, I had an idea about worldwide water problems, but not a clue about the range, types and size.

I have learned much since then, but found out from giving presentations on the subject matter, that many others, including educators, today are not well informed on the size and scope of the core water problems. The technology today of social networks like facebook, twitter, youthnoise, linkedin etc. makes it possible to get a message out fast and furious.

So my iphone and me will try our best to inform my network of friends of the crisis and urgency to participate in solving this human tragedy. Then I hope that many will see the need for speed to save lives, and follow my ride electronically or on the road and help with a donation. When that happens, I will be able to call this “Rudy” initiative a success. See the zero carbon footprint Blue Planet Ride unfold on www.tourdewater.blogspot.com.

What is the biggest hurdle in preparing for this type of an event?

For me without little prior experience it is important to be flexible and not get overzealous on ideas and aspirations. The only objective is to raise funds and awareness and get across the land without cuts and bruises, everything else is commentary.

One of the challenges certainly is the limited amount of luggage I can carry since it is an unsupported ride. Everything for the 50- days transcontinental voyage must fit on the rack and panniers. And since this is a one-way trip I can’t use a hard case for the bike and have to resort to a used cardboard box from the bike store. So far the planning is going well and friends and family have been very supportive. And when the going gets tough I will just have to dig deep, grind my teeth and think about all those people that lack access to safe drinking water and are struggling and dying because of contaminated water sources. That will keep me motivated for sure.

What is your training schedule this week?

Since my bike ride begins with a marathon run in San Francisco I train by running three days a week, then spin and swim four days a week and ride on the trainer or on the road two hours twice a week. I bought the Bike-o-Vision DVD series, that ones inserted in to the player takes my stationary bike ride on High Definition scenic routes throughout the US and Europe without any danger of heatstroke, wildlife, dogs and road rage drivers.

How can someone help you?

Readers, interested parties and abolitionists, can simply make a donation and appeal and pass on my blog and messages to their circle of friends and family. Since I will be passing through some major metropolitan areas, anyone can involve themselves by fundraising for the event on a local level.

I will be happy to get out of the saddle, and hold a town hall meeting over a tall glass of water. I have also allotted time for local fundraising (5 – 10 K) runs or rides with running and cycling clubs. A corporation can sponsor one of the five scenic byways I will be riding, for a certain $ amount or simply make it part of their corporate social responsibility program. This information is detailed on my blog and people can email me for further information at: rudy@blueplanetrun.org

What advise would you pass on to a dad with young children?

My advise is to teach our children that we are collectively responsible to take care of one and other, near and far, no matter what creed, color or religion. And that only by role modeling our actions we can be an example to them, so that they can learn this most valuable life lesson and sustain this obligation from generation to generation. Because making a positive difference is our duty and should be a human response for living on this planet.

Way to go Rudy! I will be looking forward to reading the updates. I like this quote below from Rudy's blog:

“There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open." -Jawaharlal Nehru

Can Congress Allocate Atlanta's Water In Three Years?

2009-07-18T09:02:00.009-04:00

Yesterday was a big day in the Southeast Water wars arena. Nothing like a typical late Friday ruling to light up everyone's blackberries.

A federal judge ruled the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been illegally reallocating water from Lake Lanier to meet metro Atlanta’s needs. Georgia basically has three years to seek congressional approval or water withdrawals from the lake are cut and only Gainesville and Buford will be allowed to withdraw water.

Is this Draconian? Read on from the ruling...

"The Court recognizes that this is a draconian result. It is, however, the only result that recognizes how far the operation of the Buford project has strayed from the original authorization. As the Court stated at the hearing, the slow pace at which the Corps operates has only served to further complicate and provoke this already complicated and inflammatory case.

It is beyond comprehension that the current operating manual for the Buford Dam is more than 50 years old. Certainly, the pendency of this litigation has made the Corps’s completion of plans and manuals more difficult. However, the states and municipalities that rely on the ACF basin for water cannot determine how the operation of the project will affect their interests if they do not understand how the Corps intends to operate the project.

The uncertainty created by the Corps’s alarmingly slow pace only adds to the frustration of all parties involved in this litigation. The Court encourages the Corps to complete its plans for the ACF basin as quickly as possible, to allow the parties and Congress to analyze more effectively the future of this vital resource. The blame for the current situation cannot be placed solely on the Corps’s shoulders,however. Too often, state, local, and even national government actors do not consider the long-term consequences of their decisions.

Local governments allow unchecked growthbecause it increases tax revenue, but these same governments do not sufficiently plan for the resources such unchecked growth will require. Nor do individual citizens consider frequently enough their consumption of our scarce resources, absent a crisis situation such as that experienced in the ACF basin in the last few years.

The problems faced in the ACF basin will continue to be repeated throughout this country, as the population grows and more undeveloped land is developed. Only by cooperating, planning, and conserving can we avoid the situations that gave rise to this litigation."

-Paul A. Magnuson United States District Court Judge

So, can congress allocate Atlanta's Water in three years? I guess we will find out.
District Court Order Regarding Atlanta on July 17, 2009

The Greatest Dam of Antiquity

2009-07-13T05:55:00.000-04:00

When were you last surprised by a book?

I bought a 1956 textbook on Engineering in History for a dollar on Amazon a couple of weeks ago thinking it may just sit on the shelf. I was wrong. Reading history through an engineering lens magnified past accomplishments for me and made clear whose shoulders I am standing on.

Case in point, if you are like me, you will never believe where the greatest dam of antiquity was located. Try Southern Arabia in the present day country of Yemen.

While some simple dams and canals were built in the area as far back as 2000 BC, the building of the first Marib dam began somewhere around 750 BC. The earthen dam spanned over 1,800 feet.

In 115 BC the dam height was increased to 45 feet with 25 foot thick walls connecting the dam to the canyon walls. The dam was not designed for a massive amount of storage, but to divert water into channels which allowed the irrigation of 25,000 acres.

The earthen portion of the dam is long gone. These pictures below show some of the surviving stoneworks on the northern and southern ends of the dam that diverted the water into the canals.

Pictures from Panoramio

The final destruction of the dam is noted in the Qur'an and the consequential failure of the irrigation system some say resulted in the migration of up to 50,000 people. In 1986 a new earth dam was completed 3 km upstream of the ruins of the old Marib dam. It took some aerial searching, but I found the remnants of the dam on Google.

View Marib Dam - The Greatest Dam of Antiquity in a larger map

7 Reasons Why Apple Decided to Build a Data Center in Maiden, NC

2009-07-09T06:06:00.006-04:00

View Larger Map

Google and Apple are placing big bets on the future of computing. They say the future will involve having all our data and apps in a giant internet cloud called cloud computing. It's nice to see this ethereal idea of cloud computing begins with concrete on the ground.

Apple is close to officially dropping a billion dollars for a new data center in Maiden, North Carolina. Construction of the 500,000-square feet building could begin in August and would be completed by late 2010 employing some 750 construction workers.

The new Apple facility will be the company’s East Coast operations center and would according to some take advantage of the 3 hour time change on the East Coast to facilitate communications between European operations/sales and California for data transmission. This data center is close to twice the $600 million that Google is investing in a large data center in Lenoir, NC, 28 miles to the north.

Catawba County Board of Commissioners and the Maiden Town Council approved economic incentive packages that could grant Apple $20.7 million in tax breaks during the next 10 years. Last month, the state changed its tax calculations to land the data center, giving Apple a tax break estimated at $46 million in the next 10 years.

So, what makes this area a good location, especially from an infrastructure point of view? Here are seven reasons, not including the healthy tax breaks.

Up to 120+ MW available to site from Duke Energy (45% Nuclear)
Low cost reliable power - 3.8 - 4.4 cents/kilowatt hour
Multiple Transmission lines at multiple voltages
Low natural disaster risk
Multiple fiber carriers (AT&T DukeNet Charter PalmettoNet)
1 mile to AT&T Central Office, 4.6 miles to redundant AT&T CO
Water: Town of Maiden – 12” main in street and Town of Newton – 12” redundant main available

Updated:

07.12.09 : The data center will use about 20 megawatts annually – enough to power 16,000 homes. From Charlotte Observer

What Caused the Spill at TVA's Kingston Plant?

2009-07-06T07:00:00.000-04:00

Failure was not instantaneous, but "a progressive sequence of ruptures over a period of approximately one hour" that released the 5.4 million cubic yards of fly ash and dike material on December 22, 2008.

Last week, TVA released a comprehensive report which detailed the probable cause of the failure. In a nutshell, there was an inherent weakness under the dike that probably contributed to the failure.

This weakness consisted of a six-inch thick "slimes" layer of flyash, eroded dike soils and re-deposited river sediments formed from how the plant was operated in the 1950s. The layer was named for its slippery, viscous feel. Creep failure of this slime layer occurred under the loose wet ash which may have started the failure sequence.

Meanwhile, EPA now is reviewing all 427 coal-ash impoundments in the U.S., including those recently identified as having “high hazard potential." North Carolina which has 12 of these ponds, more than any other state, is also considering a bill that would tighten regulations for coal-ash disposal and would prohibit construction of new ash ponds.

Images from Root Cause Analysis full report.

Little Known Birthplace of Our Interstate Highway System

2009-07-01T05:53:00.000-04:00

If you are driving east bound on I -80 toward Ottawa, Illinois, and looked out your window, this image below is what you see.

Remnants of an old race track? Here is what it looks from above. So, what is it?

From Google Map

Let me first give some background. In 1956, the the government signed legislation that would stitch the country together with 41,000 miles of interstate highways. As the country was gearing up for this monumental task, there was one big problem. There was no manual or standards from which roads could be designed from.

Thus the largest road experiment of its time commenced in August of 1956. Sponsored by the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO), six test track loops two lanes wide were built with with varying types of designs, bases, subbases, and thicknesses.

The defense department supplied vehicles for testing and soldiers to drive 24 hours a day starting October 1958 until November of 1960. The tests were conducted by running cargo of different weights. How would like that job? I wonder how fast they had to go?

The basis of design for the pavements and bridges on the Interstate System was born from this facility. The pictures above shows the last remnants of one of the test tracks. Drive really slow past them to pay your respects.

Are There Toilets on the Appalachian Trail?

2009-06-29T06:05:00.003-04:00

Honestly, I actually hiked on the Appalachian trail two weeks ago in Maine and my wife was there, too! From our base at Lake Nahmakanta, we hiked enough on the trail to get a good view of Mount Katahdin (see picture below). We even met a couple young hikers straight out of college heading south.

These hikers are going to cross or see some 1,800 streams, rivers and lakes found along the trail. They are literally walking at the head of 64 major watersheds.

As you can imagine outdoor toilets will not be plentiful. There are 265 constructed toilets along the AT as of 2005. Nearly 75% are basic pit toilets.

So what are some of the ways of dealing with waste on the trail. The following is adapted from the Backcountry Sanitation Manual by the Appalachian Trail Conference.

Pit toilets — They breakdown wastes slowly with pathogen potentially remaining viable for years. They work well when properly sited and matched to local soil characteristics and not overused.
Modified pit toilets — These attempt to create aerobic decomposition by having users throw in additional organic matter after use. Some provide access to mix and aerate the wastes if needed.
Catholes — Dig a hole, squat, and cover with soil. Studies have shown human pathogens remain viable for up to two years in catholes. To increase effectiveness users must break up wastes with a stick, mixing them thoroughly with leaves within the cathole. This creates a mini-composting pile.
Composting toilets — This is the preferred method where applicable. High water tables and/or heavy use have led to different varieties. But, in general, wastes are are sufficiently decomposed so they can be spread over the forest floor.
Dehydration and incineration toilets — Burn it up baby! Results have been mixed. Fuel can be expensive.
Removal of wastes — Typically by helicopter, truck or mule. I suppose this is the option of last resort you can't handle it onsite.

I wonder where those hikers are now. Their goal was to be done in November. Ten years ago I would be envious, not now. I am too soft.

World's Ultimate Floating Radar

2009-06-24T06:55:00.000-04:00

Today's question is, What in the world is this?

Last week, I am sure you heard the Defense Department deployed mobile, ground-based interceptors to Hawaii and ordered a seaborne radar into the waters off Hawaii. I saw this picture above in a related article and had no clue what it was until I did a bit of research.

Let's break it down. At it's core, its a mobile oil-drilling platform that Norway designed and was actually built in Russia. Larger than a football field, it is supposedly stable in high winds and wild sea conditions. In Ingleside, Texas, the Missile Defense Agency pimped this wanna be oil platform to be the world's ultimate radar.

The key to this roving radar platform is the large dome that encloses and protects a 2,000 ton phased-array X band radar antenna, the most sophisticated in the world. The radar was described by the Director of the Missile Defense agency as being able to track an object the size of a baseball over San Francisco from Virginia approximately 2,900 miles away.

Here are some pictures during construction that show how ridiculously big this one antenna is.

The X band frequency uses its short wavelength to track incoming ballistic missiles through space when they are outside the Earth’s atmosphere. The platform will transmit tracking information to a ground based missiles and help coordinate other layers of defense. To support the electrical demands, the platform currently has six, 3.6 megawatt diesel generators.

While it looks like a floating death star, this station has the bling where it counts like the capability to track ballistic missiles and their warheads, discriminate among various objects in flight, and provide data for intercepting targets and their destruction.

"Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force" - Darth Vader

Drought is Over, But...

2009-06-22T06:26:00.001-04:00

I missed it.

I have been writing about it for over two years ago, but it happened while I was away on vacation. The drought in my part of the world is over.

In Georgia residents can resume unlimited outdoor water use on the odd/even address schedule, a first since June 2006. In South Carolina, the S.C. Drought Response Committee lifted the remaining drought declarations which is also a first since August 2006.

Only one full year, 2005, in the past 12 years has South Carolina been "drought free". Will we be drought free next year? I doubt it.

Here is a slideshow of drought monitor images in June for the last nine years.

The Best and Worst Water Wikis

2009-06-04T06:48:00.002-04:00

First, The Best Water Wiki

Let see, in the last few months:

The State of Georgia is in the middle of the most comprehensive water supply planning effort currently underway on the East coast.

South Carolina was a stone's throw from passing a historic water permitting bill with another good shot of passing the bill in January 2010.

North Carolina senators introduced the a foundation building act which would require the state to develop science-based models for all 17 of its major river basins.

I don't even pretend to try to keep up with all of this. However, for the past year, I have been using UNC School of Government's Water Wiki to help me keep up with water policy and legislative developments in the Southeast. I realized this morning I have not given them sufficient credit or publicity. Sorry.

Next step, I need to contribute some content.

The Worst Water Wiki Site.

Aquarudder.com. What can I say? It is not even half-backed. Saying its even warm would be too giving. It stinks. It is a broken shell of a wiki.

Alright, I am having a bit of fun at my own expense. I started this wiki site as one of my random ideas last year to help build an open database of organizations and charities dedicated to clean water around the world.

Dream on, Robert.

I didn't have the patience to learn all the back end stuff on configuring the wiki, so it never got off the ground. If anyone thinks there some validity in trying to link some of these water charities together in an open format such as a wiki...shoot me an email.

But seriously, visit Water Wiki. It is the real deal.

Behind the Scenes at a Google Data Center

2009-06-01T06:40:00.002-04:00

This is the most revealing behind the scenes video I have seen of inside a Google data center. Beware do not watch this if you have seen the Matrix or Terminator movies in the last two weeks. You may end up moving to Mexico to prepare for when these computers become self aware and try to exterminate us...

WOW! Google says this data center has slots for over 45,000 servers in those 45 containers. Did you see in the video all the chillers and maze of water piping necessary in removing the tremendous amount of heat generated by the servers?

Two things to keep in mind:

It always costs money to move water around.
While those big chillers keep the AC costs down, they also evaporate/consume a lot of water. For a typical 15MW Data Center roughly 360,000 gallons per day can be used.

This next video detail's Google's Water Treatment Plant at its new data center in Belgium, which is located next to an industrial canal.

Other Stuff:

Powering a Google Search.

Check out all the data center locations.

Apple may be building a new data Center in NC.

"I know you and Frank were planning to disconnect me, and I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen." 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Ultimate Water and Energy Nexus Graphic

2009-05-22T05:53:00.003-04:00

Housekeeping Note: I think I am the last one on the planet to start using Twitter. I remember last year boasting to Michael at WaterWired that I would never use Twitter. Like the sage he is, he predicted in a blog post that I would eventually. He was right. Visit My Page.

Its been awhile since I have posted some groovy graphs. I stumbled across this graph last night.I have seen different graphs like this, but not quite put together like this. I like it.

Source: World Resources Institute

After the First Scoop : Hudson River Cleanup

2009-05-21T06:04:00.001-04:00

This is a continuation from my previous blog post about one of the largest environmental cleanup projects ever attempted in the United States.

So, what exactly happens with the sediment?

The barges holding the sediment will be moved to a new waterfront barge unloading facility along the Champion Canal.

An excavator puts the sediment into a trommel which separates finer sediments from the debris, gravel and rocks. The remaining material is pumped into one of two hydrocyclones, where grit and sand is removed.

The slurry that's left is piped to an 80-foot diameter gravity thickener tank where polymer is added to clump larger particles together. The thickened slurry is then pumped from the bottom of the tank to one of 12 filter presses housed inside the dewatering building.

Filter plates inside the presses basically squeeze water from the slurry to form filter cake. Water removed during processing is filtered and discharged into the Champlain Canal.

The filter cake is loaded on to an 81-car train for disposal to a toxic waste facility in Andrews, Texas. GE has purchased an astonishing 450 new rail cars for this project. When this project is at full throttle and processing 500 cubic yards of sediment every day, the train will be leaving every 2.5 days.

The entire project will remove a staggering 1.8 million cubic yards of sediment.

Hudson's Dredging Hardware Revealed

2009-05-18T06:04:00.001-04:00

Last Friday with lots of fanfare a single scoop of PCB enriched sediment was dredged from the bottom of the Hudson River. By some estimates 1.3 million pounds of PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, entered into the upper Hudson from two General Electric factories for three decades before they were banned, in 1977.

While the media concentrated on the history and significance of this event, I don't there was sufficient shock and awe to the mechanics of the dredging operation. This six year dredging operation is unique in its size and scope.

First, a breakdown of the dredging hardware:

1. Environmental Clamshell Bucket. The excavators are equipped with environmental clamshell buckets that seal and minimize overspill. The Environmental Clamshell Bucket differs from traditional dredging buckets by allowing water to pass through its top moveable vents as it submerges, thereby contributing to the reduced turbidity.

2. Flexifloat barges. This is the swiss army knife of all barges. Modular deck barges attach to one another and can be configured in many ways. This is a simple, quick and economical method of moving all types of construction material on water. They even have been used as floating bridges.

3. Dredge. A dredge consists of an excavator on one of the Flexifloat barges. Up to 12 dredges will operate in and around the dredging area at any time.

4. Hopper barges. Seventeen barges will be used to transport the sediment dredged from the river to the treatment facility. Each barge can hold 100 tons of sediment. The barges were transported all the way from Louisiana.

5. Tugboats. Eighteen new tugboats will be used to push the barges to the project areas and to the Processing, Treatment and Transportation Facility.

6. Miscellaneous Survey, Crew, Support Boats. They will use these various vessels for getting to the dredging sites, testing and monitoring, and oversight. Survey crews check monitoring equipment this past Friday in the picture below.

Next blog post, I will try to breakdown what happens to the contaminated soil.

Related Post: Deconstructing Dredging Equipment For the Coal Ash Spill

Pictures from GE's Hudson River Dredging Project Website

How I Got Worms and How You Can Get Them, too

2009-04-22T06:31:00.000-04:00

It all started in January. My new year's resolution was to see if I could eat a raw food diet for a whole month. Yes, raw. No pizza, no cheeseburgers, and no Chick-fil-a. Only fruits, and vegetables.

Jealous.

Believe me its not easy in the dead of winter. I survived and felt pretty good towards the end. I did not give up beer and wine. I am not that crazy. Interested? This book was my guide.

One secret for surviving this type of radical (at least it was radical for me) diet change was buying a good juicer. This one is awesome. You can put whole apples in it. I made and continue to make in the morning something called Green Lemonade (4 apples, a lemon, some ginger root, 4 celery sticks, and kale) Man, you feel pumped in the mornings with this. No one can say this bulldozing loving engineer is not green. It oozes green goodness.

As you can imagine, with this much juicing you really generate a lot of pulp. We were filling our compost bin outside too fast. However, our daughter needed a science fair project idea and we needed a better way of handling this pulp.

Enter worms.

After buying some red wrigglers (another story for another blog post) we went to work building the worms a home to feed on our pulp. Here is what we did.

First, the materials.

The worms.

Added cardboard to the bottom.

Next added a mixture of soil, newspaper and leaves.

Here is food, the juice pulp. UMMM So good.

This is a good Saturday afternoon project. There is nothing like showing guests at your house the worm home that resides under the kitchen sink.

The Cuyahoga River Fire Myth

2009-04-20T06:39:00.001-04:00

So, this is where it all started. This is the river that burned. I remember visiting Cleveland last year about this time of year and thinking these thoughts as we walked along the Cuyahoga riverfront.

We all know the story. On June 22, 1969, an oil slick and debris in the Cuyahoga river caught fire in Cleveland, Ohio. This event would become the "poster child" of environmental degradation and some would say the impetus of the American environmental movement. So how bad was this fire?

Here is story that ran on page 11 of the Cleveland's Plain Dealer:

A burning oil slick floating on the Cuyahoga River caused $50,000 damage to two key railroad trestles at the foot of Campbell Road Hill S.E. about noon yesterday, closing one to traffic.

Ballalion 7 Fire chief Bernard E. Campbell said the fire was reported at 11:56 a.m. and was under control by 12:20 p.m. The burning slick floated under the wooden bridges and set them on fire. Cause of the blaze was undetermined, said Campbell. A fireboat battled the flames on the water while units from three battalions brought the fire on the trestles under control.

Campbell said a bridge belonging to Norfolk and Western Railway Co. sustained $45,000 damage, closing both of its tracks. The other, one-track trestle is open. The fire did $5,000 damage to the timbers of this Newburgh & South Shore Railroad Co. crossing.

Flames climbed as high as five stories, said Campbell. Campbell pointed out a fireboat patrols the Cuyahoga River daily checking for oil slicks and clearing them away. He said waterfront industries are responsible, dumping oil wastes into the river rather than reclaiming them.

So in summary:

This Cuyahoga River fire lasted just thirty minutes.

The fire only caused 50,000 dollars in damage mostly to a few railroad bridges.

And more importantly,

No one has been able to produce a photo of this Cuyahoga fire.

So, how did this event become a legend?

When Time magazine ran a story of this, they used a photo from the 1952 fire on the river. Apparently, there were fires in multiple years. Fires occurred on the Cuyahoga River in 1868, 1883, 1887, 1912, 1922, 1936, 1941, 1948, and in 1952. The 1952 fire was actually the worst causing over 1.5 million dollars in damage.

The start of our environment movement was actually propelled using a picture from the previous decade. Humm. What current stories this earth day week could we reuse pictures from the last decade?

Here is the 1952 picture used in 1969.

Learn more about water and the hidden world of infrastructure at WaterCrunch

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South Carolina's Water Bill Needs a Nudge : Can Tony Help?

2009-04-15T05:55:00.001-04:00

Last fall, I admit it. I bought a series of DVDs that are advertised heavily on late night infomercials. Ok. I am sure I am not the first person to do this. A friend of mine swore to me that they were good.

You may have seen them. P90X consists of 12 gruelling workouts hosted by Tony Horton, designed to transform your body from regular to ripped in just 90 days. Now I am too old to be worried about getting ripped, however, I was interested in adding variety to my normal workout training for my triathlons.

Here is Tony talking about Ab Ripper X. Tony is good, but all cheese.

Now I have learned a few motivational quotes from Tony that may help South Carolina's water bill stalled in the statehouse. As I have mentioned over the years, South Carolina has no authority in permitting water. For several years now we have tried to get a bill passed. Last year the bill died under the weight of disagreements about downstream minimum flow and water use restrictions.

It has a small window of passing this year, but that window is closing. A Senate Agriculture subcommittee postponed a decision on the bill today with the hope of taking a vote on it next week. Although it may not be the best bill, I believe this bill is better than no bill.

Now watching these videos over and over, I have memorized some of Tony's cheesy quotes. Here are some of my favorites from these videos that could be piped into the State House:

are you ready?....'cause its coming

just keep coming back everyday and pushing play.

Do your best and... Forget the rest

yeah get the fire in there your gonna need it, oh the burn is here when the burn comes breathe breathe more.

You got to bring it

Hamburger bad, fries bad, coca-cola bad. There you go, I said it, drink your water people!

5 Top Cool Tools for a Modern Arctic Survey Expedition

2009-04-09T06:01:00.004-04:00

Wouldn't it be cool to be on an expedition? One of my favorite expedition accounts was Shackleton's Incredible Voyage. You just can't beat that golden age of polar exploration.

This morning I was reading about a modern expedition that is currently working to reach the North Geographic pole. Trying to get a better understanding of the sea ice, this team will travel for over 90 days over drifting sea ice taking over 50 different types of measurements and samples.

While the herioic clash of man versus nature is a bit muted in the modern age we live in, it is still impressive. So what are their top tools?

1. Don't leave home without your SPRITE.

SPRITE comprises a robust and portable, ice-penetrating impulse radar. At just 4kg in weight mounted behind the survey’s sledge-boat effectively converting the traditional sledge into a small survey vessel

2. Hands Free Instant Communication

Everyone wears a headset and all the communication signals are routed through the sledge. Basically anything they say is bounced off a sledge and a satellite and is heard back at their UK base and anything said in the UK base can be heard by all the ice team.

3. Artic-Proof Computer

The custom-built, onboard sledge computer coupled to a multi-modem, Iridium data-uplink system was designed to withstand the deep cold and rough use in a polar environment. This equipment transmits all of the vital science, image, audio, video and bio-telemetry data back to the UK base.

4. Don't Just Guess on your Wellbeing

The team will also be wearing the Equivital™ physiological monitoring system, developed by the Cambridge-based company, Hidalgo. The Equivital™ units will continuously measure and record the physiological condition of the team and detailed physiological data, such as heart rate, respiration rate and effort, skin temperature and body orientation.

Team members will also ingest a ‘core pill’ which passes through the stomach into the intestines. This pill contains a miniature temperature sensor, battery and radio transmitter and communicates core body temperature readings to the Equivital™ unit.

5. An Ultralight CTD

This system consists of an ultra light weight winch system and a high resolution Conductivity Temperature Depth sensor package (CTD). After a small hole is made in the ice, this CTD sensor is lowered from just under the ice to a depth of 300m at about 0.5 m/s, and samples conductivity, temperature and depth 4 times a second, and records this within the package, allowing the data to be downloaded later to the onboard sledge computer.

You can follow the team here.

Seth Wheeler had Squares to Spare : History of Toilet Paper

2009-03-30T06:01:00.000-04:00

Ever heard of Seth Wheeler?

He is the man we probably should thank everyday. He first conceived of the present day perforated toilet paper roll and dispensor. His first patent forerunner for this idea was in 1871.

In 1883 Seth was granted a patent that most resembles our present day roll of perforated toilet paper supported in the center with a tube. His company, Albany Perforated Wrapping Paper, manufactured this paper.
Seth also had patents for mounted brackets that held the rolls.

Fast forward to today where twenty-six billion rolls of toilet paper, worth about $2.4 billion, are sold yearly in America. Americans use an average of 23.6 rolls per capita a year.

Not a bad legacy.

Victory Garden War Posters : Is it Time Yet?

2009-03-20T05:59:00.003-04:00

Could you imagine 20 million Americans right now deciding to plant a garden?

During World War II, 20 million Americans did just that and planted so called "Victory Gardens." By some estimates about 40 percent of all vegetables produced in the U.S. came from Victory Gardens. The Department of Agriculture estimated over one million tons of vegetables were produced during World War II.

Here are some slightly encouraging posters from both World War I and II.

Today Michelle Obama will host a groundbreaking for a 1,000 square foot White House garden on the South Lawn that will include 55 kinds of vegetables. Eating local and freshly grown food is good on so many levels.

Is it time for a new era of "Victory Gardens"?

Learn more about water and the hidden world of infrastructure at WaterCrunch

Visit me on Twitter.

Deconstructing Dredging Equipment For the Coal Ash Spill

2009-03-09T05:58:00.000-04:00

Last Tuesday Tennessee approved the start of river dredging for the cleanup of the coal ash spill at TVA's Kingston Fossil Plant about 40 miles west of Knoxville. TVA wants to remove the ash from the Emory River while not disturbing the native or original sediments and restore the Emory River navigation channel flow to an elevation of 710 feet.

How are they going to do this? Three Ellicott 370HP dredging machine s will provide the backbone.

Think of these as big floating vacuum cleaners with a huge rotating bristles. Each dredge has a capacity to pump up to 5,000 gallons per minute water with up to 20 % solids a distance of 6,000 feet. Basically, one dredging machine can move 3,000 cubic yards of material during 24 hours of operation.

The 'bristles" are a 32" diameter cutter head which will allow dredging to a specific depth. A GPS on board will allow the dredge to be placed with precision. Bathymetric surveys will be utilized on a monthly basis to verify progress of the ash removal.

These dredges are still small enough to be hauled easily to different locations.

Check out this 3D Animation of this dredge in action.

Facebook for Trees : Encouraging Green Infrastructure in Georgia

2009-03-04T06:31:00.001-05:00

Do you and your family celebrate Arbor Day? My family doesn't. In fact, we usually cut down a random tree on this day. OK. I am just joking.

Seriously, I just googled when Arbor day is celebrated and learned that Arbor Day is actually celebrated on different days depending on what state you live in. South Carolina is in December, while Georgia is celebrated in February. Go figure.

The playing field to empower, encourage, and educate the public about the importance of trees is ripe for innovation. I think the Georgia Urban Forest Council and Georgia Forestry Commission have just stepped up to the plate with their new social networking website: The Grove.

54 acres of forested land each day in the Atlanta area alone are lost due to land development. Their hope is to reach a broad audience of people who could then get informed and excited about Georgia's green legacy and spread the word. They may be on to something. No other state's forestry agency has a social networking program designed to encourage residents to plant trees.

Georgia residents are encouraged to plant a tree with family and friends, upload their photos of planted trees and post their stories to share the experience with other Grove members. An interactive Tree Match Tool provides guidance on choosing the right tree to commemorate a special event, as well as information on tree planting, tree care tips and the benefits of maintaining a healthy urban forest.

They have future plans to create bulletin boards, wikis and social networking applications for other sites such as Facebook to increase their visibility. Check out the site.

Also learn more about the social skills of social media from Eric's recent presentation posted at Water Words that Work and learn what are the Five Toughest Questions About Social Media. Good stuff.

Warning Graphic Images of Drought in Snow

2009-03-02T07:52:00.002-05:00

The skies have opened up for the last two days. So much so, that I literally got on my boots to check how much flow was coming out of my retaining wall's weep holes in my backyard, how much flow was being bypassed from my rain barrel, and how much flow was in the ditch in our front yard. Water still amazes me.

As a bonus, we even had close to 3 inches of snow last night. Now, Clemson is a one snow a year town. So, needless to say, all schools in the area are cancelled today. So, it looks like I will be on a micro vacation. Time to fashion some sort of sled from assorted materials in the garage.

Even with all this rain and snow, I still wonder whether we will ever come out of this drought. Here is why:

The little red spot over Clemson shrinks and expands but never goes away. We have been in a drought 8 of the last 10 years.
No improvement really on the horizon.

We have a 5% chance of getting enough precipitation to end the drought in six months. I am not sure if I like those odds.
We would need close to 20 inches of rain in the next two months to put a nail in this drought's coffin. I am not buying any nails soon.

Finally, here is the last four year's worth of water elevation data for Lake Hartwell. Notice any patterns?

Stumbling Upon Our Steam History

2009-02-26T06:13:00.001-05:00

Ten years ago, my wife and I were paddling the Allagash river for seven days in Maine. Near our camp one day, we stumbled upon an old steam locomotive that was slowly becoming part of the forest. So cool. A bridge to the past refusing to become part of the past.

Now, imagine stumbling upon this Panama Canal relic in Colorado below. This steam shovel's last days were spent in a mine until the mine closed in 1971 and it sat for the next 35 years waiting to be recognized.

This was not ordinary steam shovel. This Bucyrus Model 50-B Steam Shovel was built in 1923, the largest tracked steam shovel built in the world at that time. As I wrote on Tuesday, the first steam shovels were rail based. This model was one of the first that did not need railroad tracks.

This particular shovel helped to build the Panama Canal and is the only survivor of 25 similar shovels used there. All others were destroyed on site. The shovel was donated to the Nederland Area Historical Society in 2005.

Young William Otis Moved the Earth

2009-02-24T05:58:00.000-05:00

Today, 170 years ago on February 24, 1839, William Otis was granted Patent No. 1089 on a history changing machine. This mechanism and its siblings would forever erase the four absolutes of any large earthmoving project in the early 1800s - a shovel, a pick, a wheelbarrow, and a strong back.

While working on a railroad project in 1835, like all good inventors Otis thought there had to be a better way to move the dirt. He began to tinker and soon he developed the worlds's first steam shovel excavator. By today's standards it was a clumsy device, like modern day beta software, but it was revolutionary at the same time.

The bucket could be raised and lowered by a steam -powered chain hoist. The excavator was built to be supported by rails. To move the bucket from side to side, men on either side of the bucket would use ropes to move the bucket to where it needed to dig and release its material. They would also open the bucket door latch with rope. Pretty crude, but it worked.

Sadly, while working with his shovel for the Western Railroad of Massachusetts, Otis contracted Typhus fever and died on November 13, 1839, the same year he received his patent. He was only 26 years old. Too young to die, but his legacy lives on.

Pictures from Steam Shovels and Steam Shovel Work by E.A. Hermann in 1894.

Fighting the Water Wars With Spitballs

2009-02-23T06:07:00.000-05:00

The imploding economy is continuing to suck air out of most sectors of the economy. I know I am seeing projects that being delayed or put on the shelf. What about lawyers specializing in water litigation? Surely, they are safe. There will always be water rights to protect, litigate, mediate, and arbitrate. Right?

According to news reports, South Carolina needs 2.3 million dollars in next year's budget to continue to pay all the legal costs with the U.S. Supreme Court case against North Carolina. There could be some lawyers with a reduced workload.

Not having enough money to fight the case “would be like sending this state to fight North Carolina with spitballs" -Attorney General Henry McMaster’s officespokesman Mark Plowden.

South Carolina sued North Carolina in June of 2007 under the original jurisdiction of the United States Supreme Court. South Carolina's says North Carolina can not take water out of the Catawba basin because it violates the U.S. Constitution because one state’s decision cannot directly affect another state.

South Carolina wants not only to stop this, but also they want a seat at the table for any future transfers of water. So far, it's hard to tell who is winning. South Carolina has persuaded the Supreme Court to appoint a special judge to hear the dispute over how to apportion the river.

I guess we may never know due to a lack of money. Is it time for a stimulus package for lawyers?

Who is Sylvia Earle and What is Her Wish?

2009-02-21T07:14:00.013-05:00

"There's a lot of talk these days about thinking green, but you have to remember, without the blue, there is no green." -Sylvia Earle (aka Her Deepness)

Sylvia Earle has lived most of her life exploring a frontier I have never seen with my own eyes. Since 1966 when Sylvia Earle received her Ph.D. from Duke, she has made a lifelong project of cataloguing every species of plant that can be found in the Gulf of Mexico. In 1979, Sylvia Earle walked untethered on the sea floor at a lower depth than any other woman before or since. Today she is a "explorer-in-residence" at the National Geographic Society.

She is one of the three recent 2009 TED prize winners. The three winners are awarded the opportunity to share "one wish to change the world," along with $100,000 each to fund the pursuit of that wish.

Here is Earle's wish:

I wish you would use all means at your disposal -- the films, the expeditions, the web! -- to ignite public support for a global network of marine protected areas, hope spots large enough to save and restore the ocean, the blue heart of the planet.

If you have time this weekend, her talk at the TED conference is worth a watch.

She has also been credited with being the inspiration behind the new Google Earth.

First Shovel Ready Project. Missouri Wins AGAIN!

2009-02-18T06:02:00.002-05:00

Missouri does not play around with roads and bridges. Yesterday a Missouri bridge replacement project was the first in the nation to break ground using financing from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Within a minute of President Obama signing the law on Tuesday, according to reports, Gov. Jay Nixon sounded a horn, and a backhoe operator began digging a hole for a support beam of the new bridge while others began working on the old bridge. The project will replace the 1,000-foot-long bridge built in 1933 in central Missouri near Lake Ozark. How is that for shovel ready?

Interestingly, over fifty years ago the Show Me State achieved another first in the nation. Missouri became the first state to begin construction on the Interstate System. Work began on I-70. I suppose it may be time for a new state motto....Shovel Ready State?

Crunching the Stimulus Bill for Infrastructure : WaterCrunch Gets Money!

2009-02-14T08:28:00.001-05:00

I am feeling good. I called my lobbyist this morning and told him thanks. The $787 billion stimulus package was approved by the House on Friday, then by the Senate last night. So much money to go around. Buried deep in the text was an $10,000 allocation for WaterCrunch to develop infrastructure educational material. I can not believe this got through. This was the easiest thing I have ever done in my life.

What else is in the bill? I tried to seperate the water and transportation from the bill. View a larger image of this breakdown.

20.1 billion was alloted for water and environmental type projects. Here are the big ticket items:

DOE environmental cleanup: $6 billion
EPA Clean Water and Drinking Water funds: $6 billion
EPA cleanup, including Superfund: $1.2 billion
Agriculture Dept., rural water and waste disposal facilities: $1.28 billion appropriations
Army Corps of Engineers civil works: $4.6 billion
Bureau of Reclamation: $1 billion

47.8 billion was alloted for transportation projects. Again, here are some of the heavy hitters in this category:

Highways: $27.5 billion
Transit: $8.4 billion
New discretionary grant program: $1.5 billion for highways, transit, rail, seaports, other projects.
Airport Improvement Program construction grants: $1.1 billion
Rail: $9.3 billion, including allocations for Amtrak and high-speed rail.

Update:

My lobbyist just called. Drat! My allocation for WaterCrunch apparently was cut at the last minute. Oh well, there will always be another bill.

Visit Read the Stimulus Bill.org to learn more.

5 Wartime Water Conservation Posters

2009-02-11T06:11:00.002-05:00

I like the No Water, No Guns poster the best. Simple.

How about you?

Compare with more modern water conservation ads.

A French Hydraulic Engineer and the B-2 Bomber Crash

2009-02-09T06:01:00.001-05:00

In the early 1700s there was not an accepted method for measuring streamflow until a French hydraulic engineer had an idea. His idea started with a glass tube bent at 90°. By inserting this tube in a stream flow, with its opening pointed upstream, water entered the tube and rose a distance, h, above the surface as shown on the figure. So,if friction losses are negligible, the velocity of the stream, V, is approximately 2gh, where g is the acceleration of gravity.

Henri Pitot had just invented the pitot tube which is very similar to the modern day pitot tube protruding from an airplane. Instead of a stream flow, a plane's pitot tube measures air flow which for an aircraft is its airspeed. Pitots are used is every type of aircraft from a single engine airplane to the most advanced bomber in the world, the B-2 Bomber.

Yes the B-2 bomber. You know this bomber with its distinctive flying wing design. On February 23, 2008, a 1.2 billon dollar B-2 stealth bomber plunged to the ground shortly after taking off from an air base in Guam on February 23, 2008. Both pilots amazingly ejected safely. This was the first time one had crashed.

So, what was the cause?

Several months after the accident the Air Force said "distorted data introduced by a B-2 Spirit's air data system skewed information entering the bomber's flight control computers ultimately causing the crash of the aircraft on takeoff." To put this simply, moisture in the plane's pitot tube caused the wrong airspeed to be reported. This caused control computers to calculate an inaccurate airspeed and a negative angle of attack upon takeoff.

This accident is not without precedent. This type of accident has happened in military and civilian planes in the past. In the case of the B-2, earlier crews had learned of the vulnerability and had developed a simple fix - turn on the pitot tube heater to evaporate the water. Unfortunately, the procedure wasn't documented and not everyone knew of it.

Still Interested: Check out an impressive early all wing aircraft from the 1940s

Weekend Watch and Reads : Bill Gates Saves the World

2009-02-07T07:12:00.004-05:00

A Paper Water Bottle? It is 100% recyclable and made from 100% renewable resources, plus it's completely food safe and capable of carrying all liquid types. From Green Daily

Is Coal Ash in Soil a Good Idea? Tons of coal ash are recycled in soil, raising questions about a buildup of arsenic and other toxic substances in food crops. From Scientific American

Could the weight of 320 million tons of water in the Zipingpu Reservoir caused the quake? From the NYtimes.

Michigan Governor Granholm this week issued an Executive Directive that effectively prevents any new coal plants from being permitted. From Great Lakes Water Law

Fighting North Carolina and South Carolina Water Wars is costly. SC needs 2.2 million this year to keep the litigation going. Read more from MSNBC.

5 Biggest Water Supply Projects. From Popular Mechanics.

With the ongoing recession reducing port traffic around the country, it could be 15 years before a proposed new port on the Savannah River could be built. From the Beaufort Gazette.

And finally, what made this week so special? Duke Getting Pummeled. Priceless. The 74-47 victory over the Blue Devils was Clemson's largest margin of victory (27 points) over a top-25 team in program history.

Can You Plunder a Sunken Ship? : HMS Victory and Sovereign Immunity

2009-02-02T06:07:00.005-05:00

Today, if news reports are correct, Odyssey Marine Exploration will reveal that they have found the original HMS Victory, a 110 gun British man-of-war that sank October 4, 1744 in the English Channel. Odyssey found this more than 50 miles from where anybody would have thought it went down.

Federal court records filed by Odyssey in Tampa reportedly seeks the exclusive salvage rights for the site that is 25 to 40 miles from the English coast, outside of its territorial waters. A British Ministry of Defense spokesman said yesterday that "assuming the wreck is indeed that of a British warship, her remains are sovereign immune."

So, what does sovereign immune mean?

Basically, it means that Odyssey Marine Exploration can not take anything off that ship without the express consent of the United Kingdom. Here in the U.S., the Department of the Navy retains custody of all its sunken ships regardless of whether they were sunk in U.S., foreign, or international waters. The navy says these wrecks are not abandoned, but remain the property of the government and are immune from the law of salvage.

However, the claim of sovereign immunity apparently does not guarantee a pause in the plundering. In March 2007, Odyssey salvaged 17 tons of mainly silver and some gold coins from a wreck believed to be the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, which sank off the coast of Spain. The government of Spain says it has never expressly abandoned any of its vessels lost at sea and wants every last coin returned. Odyssey asserts that the cargo recovered do not represent an entity to which sovereign immunity would apply. Spain had argued in September that the U.S. Federal Court did not have jurisdiction over the case and that the case should therefore be dismissed. This case is still in the courts.

While there is no multilateral treaty governing the treatment of sunken warships, sovereign immunity doctrine does help prevent destruction and wrongful taking of submerged ships. However, just like with most water issues, legal issues with shipwrecks are complicated.

Learn more: Sovereign Immunity and the Management of United States Naval Shipwrecks

Weekend Watch and Reads : The Shovel Ready Edition

2009-01-31T06:43:00.002-05:00

"Using long, drawn-out processes to put money into circulation to meet an emergency is like mailing a letter to the fire department to tell them that your house is on fire."

- Thomas Sowell on the CBO's analysis showing only a small portion of public works package will be spent this year.

According to Wordspy the first reported use of the term "shovel ready" was in the Worchester Telegram & Gazette in February 22, 1995.

Five weeks ago, Barack Obama urged passage of a massive economic stimulus package, vowing that it would "create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s." However, the bill passed by the House yesterday dedicates only about 5 percent of the $819 billion measure to highway, mass transit, and rail projects, analysts said. Read more at Boston Globe.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors has identified 4,029 “shovel ready” projects that could create more than 271,000 jobs in 2009 and 2010 for an investment of $23.4 billion. View Projects in Your Neighborhood.

Comparison of House and Senate Economic Recovery Bills Funding. (House Funding passed floor on 1/28 in billions | Senate Funding passed committees on 1/27 in billions)

Clean Water State Revolving Fund (6.0|4.0)
Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (2.0|2.0)
Rural Water and Waste Disposal (1.5|1.4)
Corps of Engineers (4.5|4.6)
Watershed Infrastructure (.4|.1)
Highway Infrastructure (30|27.60)
Amtrak (.8|.85)

From the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Read the whole list.

The following is an excerpt from the 2009 ASCE Report Card for America's Infrastructure

DAMS    D
As dams age and downstream development increases, the number of deficient dams has risen to more than 4,000, including 1,819 high hazard potential dams. Over the past six years, for every deficient, high hazard potential dam repaired, nearly two more were declared deficient. There are more than 85,000 dams in the U.S., and the average age is just over 51 years old.
DRINKING WATER    D-
America's drinking water systems face an annual shortfall of at least $11 billion to replace aging facilities that are near the end of their useful life and to comply with existing and future federal water regulations. This does not account for growth in the demand for drinking water over the next 20 years. Leaking pipes lose an estimated seven billion gallons of clean drinking water a day.
LEVEES    D-
More than 85% of the nation's estimated 100,000 miles of levees are locally owned and maintained. The reliability of many of these levees is unknown. Many are over 50 years old and were originally built to protect crops from flooding. With an increase in development behind these levees, the risk to public health and safety from failure has increased. Rough estimates put the cost at more than $100 billion to repair and rehabilitate the nation's levees.
INLAND WATERWAYS    D-
The average tow barge can carry the equivalent of 870 tractor trailer loads. Of the 257 locks still in use on the nation's inland waterways, 30 were built in the 1800s and another 92 are more than 60 years old. The average age of all federally owned or operated locks is nearly 60 years, well past their planned design life of 50 years. The cost to replace the present system of locks is estimated at more than $125 billion.
WASTEWATER    D-
Aging systems discharge billions of gallons of untreated wastewater into U.S. surface waters each year. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the nation must invest $390 billion over the next 20 years to update or replace existing systems and build new ones to meet increasing demand.

ASCE Recommends the following 5 solutions.

Increase Federal Leadership in Infrastructure
Promote Sustainability and Resilence
Develop Infrastructure Plans.
Address Life-cycle Costs
Increase and Improve Investment from all stakeholders

And finally,Variety is reporting that the classic 1980’s TV show The A-Team is about to be made into a Hollywood movie, directed by Joe Carnahan and produced by Ridley and Tony Scott. They’re aiming for a June 2010 release date.

Weekend Watch & Reads : Manatees and Abandoned Nuclear Lighthouses

2009-01-24T09:55:00.006-05:00

Different Water Perspectives

How manatees could provoke more water supply challenges. Link
An Australia Newspaper writes about how the US copes with drought. Link
An Alabama view of long-running tri-state water war. Link

Abandoned Nuclear Lighthouses. Amazing Pictures. I am not sure if I would go into these.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Georgia Water Science Center, announced recently a newly-published easy to read fact sheet entitled Hydrologic Streamflow Conditions for Georgia. Thanks Andrea for the heads up. Visit it here: http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2008/3099/

Foreign competition and roller-coaster fuel prices didn't help South Carolina's shrimpers, who say they've ended their worst season on the water since 2005. Post and Courier News Article

And finally,

Bill sent only two emails. George sent no emails. However, the National Security Agency has approved a $3,350 smartphone -- inevitably dubbed the "BarackBerry" -- for Obama's use. From CNN

Deconstructing the Lincoln Memorial Reflection Pool

2009-01-19T08:48:00.000-05:00

What a concert yesterday. I don't ever remember watching an outside concert for the inauguration. I guess we have had them before. What I enjoyed just as much as watching the performers was seeing the crowds of people surrounding the Lincoln Memorial Reflection Pool. Thousands of people all bundled up beside this one pool.

When Pierre L'Enfant drew up a plan for a city 10-miles square and centered on the Congress House (Capitol), there were no plans past the Washington monument in the mall area. In fact, the area where the Lincoln Memorial stands was the Potomic River.

L'Enfant's Plan

In 1901 Senator James McMillan of Michigan organized the Senate Park Commission, later known as the McMillan Commission, to undertake a new plan for the Mall. The McMillan Plan extended the Mall by filling the river to form the sites for the future Lincoln Memorial and Jefferson Memorial. I am pretty sure permitting this fill was not a concern.

McMillan Commission Plan (Notice the pool was conceived as a cross)

The Lincoln Memorial was sited by the McMillan Commission and designed by architect Henry Bacon. Construction for the memorial began in 1914, but it did not open to the public until 1922. The Reflecting Pool was also designed by Bacon and was constructed after the Lincoln memorial was built between 1922 and 1923.

The pool is 2,029 feet long, 167 feet wide, and is about 18 inches deep on the sides and 30 inches deep in the middle. It holds approximately 6,750,000 gallons of water. Material excavated for the pool was used to landscape around the Lincoln Memorial.

Construction of the pool

So how did they waterproof the pool? The bottom was covered in cinders, followed by alternate layers of asphalt and tar paper. A final layer of slate was then laid on top. North Carolina Mt. Airy granite was used for the sides.

Ice skating on the pool was very popular when it first opened. It was reported on Feb 19, 1923, that by midafternoon there were 500 skaters enjoying the pool. People enjoyed skating in the park so much that there was some consideration in 1920s t0 add pipes and chillers to ensure the pool could be used all wintertime for skating. This idea was abandoned, however, after the price was reported to be $500k.

Notice anything strange in the next picture? Temporary buildings were erected during World War I and World War II to the north and south of the Reflecting Pool. Two wooden walkways were built over the pool during World War II. After some protest, these walkways were removed after the war in 1947.

Learn more about the Mall: Save the Mall

Weekend Watch & Reads

2009-01-17T08:00:00.005-05:00

TVA is still cleaning up that coal spill. I created a video of some of the cleanup images.

Good

Can you live with just 13 gallons of water of water a day. Check out Water for the Ages.
Rain is a good thing. Lake Hartwell is now up Six Feet. Greenville News
A new 30 acre plant in Spartanburg SC, can produce 100 million pounds of recycled PET plastic each year for reuse in bottles, which is equivalent to 2 billion 20-ounce plastic bottles. Some say this is the world's largest plastic bottle-to-bottle recycling plant. AJC
Coastal Carolinas chosen for National Environmental Study. McClatchy Newspapers.
NOAA has established no fish zones off the Southeast coast.

NOAA has established eight separate marine protected areas encompassing a total of 529 square nautical miles in south Atlantic federal waters to shield deep-water fish species and their habitats from fishing. All fishing for snappers, groupers, tilefishes, grunts, porgies, and sea basses is prohibited throughout the protected areas, which are located off the coast from North Carolina south to Florida. NOAA.

Obama's National Agenda for Drinking Water. Michael at Waterwired

Impact

The impacts to 4.8 miles of streams and more than 3,900 acres of wetlands represent the largest destruction of wetlands ever permitted in North Carolina. News & Observer
Six New Reservoirs for Atlanta? AJC.
Two New Nuclear Plants in Georgia draws protest. Some say they would use 80 million gallons of water per day out of the Savannah River Basin Morris News Service

Litigation

South Carolina's attorney general wants the U.S. Supreme Court to block Duke Energy and others from intervening in the state's federal lawsuit against North Carolina. Associated Press.
Georgia failed in its last-ditch effort to save a 2003 agreement that would have given metro Atlanta more water from Lake Lanier. AJC

How Do You Ditch a Plane Over Water?

2009-01-16T08:16:00.005-05:00

I still can not believe those pictures of the US Airways Flight 1549 floating in Hudson yesterday. What a miracle. I kept wondering, however, how a pilot technically prepares a plane for a water landing besides minimizing speed and staying in control. I found my answer this morning. Pilots actually have a "Ditching Button."

From the NYtimes:

Ditching can be tricky. The first step is to extend the slats and the flaps, the movable surfaces on the front and back edges of the wings that allow the plane to fly more slowly and to descend to just over the water’s surface.

Another step is to hit the “ditching button,” which seals the openings in the plane. One is the intake, where the engines grab air to pressurize and force it into the cabin, essential to high-altitude flight. Another is the valve at the back that lets air out.

When the plane is flying low enough, it will generate its own cushion of air, a phenomenon called “ground effect,” that lets it fly even more slowly.

“The whole point is to get the airplane slow, to minimize the damage and the forces on the airplane,” said John Cox, a safety consultant who flew the A320 for US Airways and USAir for six years.

From the Globe and Mail:

Passenger jets are designed to remain buoyant long enough to let passengers exit after landing. When the doors are opened, inflatable emergency slides automatically deploy, then detach from the aircraft so they can be used as life rafts.

When pilots face an emergency landing caused by power failure, water is often preferable to dry land, which is typically covered with obstacles such as buildings, power lines, hills or roads. In general, ditching follows the same flying principles as landing on a paved runway. “You want to minimize the speed and stay in control,” said a pilot for one major U.S. airline. “You just treat it like a landing, but you leave the gear up.”

Thank You and Lots of Free Stuff

2009-01-05T05:59:00.001-05:00

A big thank you to all who read this blog. Watercrunch is now 2 years old. In Internet time, I suppose it is the same age as me.

I had no idea when I started writing that it would become an enduring hobby of mine. Two years ago I wondered if there was enough material to blog solely about water. This answer was solved quickly. I can say material has never been a problem. Here are 7 of my most popular posts this year:

I have one rule of thumb with this blog - If it feels like work, don't blog today. I really try to write when I feel like I have something unique to say and have sufficient time and interest. Time is of short supply. Your attention is a gift and I'm grateful. I will continue my best to make your attention worth it.

Since I can not pay you all year-end bonuses, I thought I would share some free web services that you may not know about. Enjoy.

1. Do you Bookmooch? BookMooch is an online community for exchanging used books. There is no cost to join or use the web site: your only cost is mailing your books to others. This has been great way for me to clear some books out of the house. Check out some of my books I am giving away.

2. Don't have time to read books? There is no excuse with Dailylit. They email you installments of books. Last fall I did one of Tom Peter's business books and loved it.

3. Need to get your groove on? I think I have tried all the audio streaming services, but right now I am grooving out to Grooveshark. Any song you want is available to be streamed all for free and all is legal. I love it.

4. Ready to start your own blog? A few years ago the Blogger platform was really behind, however, Google rebuilt it and this year they have been on a roll releasing great features. Hey its free, give it a try.

5. Want to watch a movie online? I have tried Hulu and its O.K., but nothing beats Watch Instantly on Netflix. Technically it's not free, but it's free with a $8.00 membership to Netflix. I bought the $99 Roku standalone device for the TV this fall. It absolutely rocks. Great picture quality and they are about to release multiple channels besides Netflix. This was my number one gadget for 2008. I think it even beats my Kindle.

6. Tired of this liquidity crunch? You have got to try Mint.com. It has helped me this past year keep up with our family's finances.

7. Load up your ipod with great free podcasts. I travel a good bit in the car and podcasts have really been the caffeine to my brain. I even got rid of my satellite radio. Some of my favorites include "This American Life" and "Science Friday".

How Do You Clean Up a Fly Ash Spill?

2009-01-02T08:01:00.008-05:00

In short, lots of people and lots of equipment. Helicopters. Amphibious Trackhoes. Barge-mounted Vacuum Suction Devices. Floating Booms. Boats of all sizes.

Over 200 workers are working day and night to cleanup this spill (see map and video). This weekend the TVA will start temporary dust control spraying to minimize dust and erosion from the spill by spraying seed and straw using a helicopter. For areas that they can't assess by air, the TVA will use an amphibious vehicle to spread the seed and straw. Get ready for folks claiming a green cover-up, since after the seed is sprayed, the area will appear green in color for about two months.

On Sunday, I wrote about the floating Cenospheres, now I actually have some pictures. I also have a picture of the temporary underwater rock containment weir that is being constructed to inhibit the downstream movement of ash solids and sediment resulting from the spill.

Pictures from TVA.

Floating Cenospheres in Tennessee Fly Ash Spill

2008-12-28T09:53:00.004-05:00

Can you imagine 3,000 acres. Now imagine fly ash one foot deep in those 3,000 acres. Based on a new aerial survey from TVA, this is the amount of fly ash that was released earlier this week (See the aerial video I posted earlier).

While the scale of this release is huge, a mention of an unknown small particle caught my attention. NYtimes reported "Several booms, or skimmers, were installed on nearby rivers to catch floating cenospheres."

So, what are cenoshperes?

A cenosphere is a lightweight, inert, hollow sphere filled with inert air or gas, produced as a byproduct of burning coal. The color of cenospheres varies from gray to almost white and they are extremely buoyant.

Cenospheres are hard and rigid, light, waterproof, innoxious, and insulative. These properties make them useful for a variety of products, particularly fillers. They are used in plastics, paints, bowling bowls, thermal coatings, epoxies, light weight aggregate for cement, ceramics and many other construction products.

Cenospheres are not harmful to the environment, however, could cause sneezing or coughing if inhaled. According to the TVA, about 3,000 feet of skimmer booms are in place to contain the cenospheres on the water surface. Additional booms are being placed in the water. Two vacuum trucks, located on a flat barge, are operating 12 hours per day to remove the cenospheres.

Update: Pictures of these cenospheres and cleanup

Aerial Footage of Recent TVA Retaining Wall Failure

2008-12-24T09:32:00.004-05:00

A retaining wall holding 80 acres of flyash failed at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston coal-fired power plant early monday morning. 2.6 million cubic yards of fly ash were released and covered 250 to 400 acres with four to six feet of ash. Eleven homes were damaged and evacuated. Thankfully, no injuries or fatalities were reported.

So far, local water supplies have not been impacted. According to news reports, barriers have been constructed to prevent the ash from reaching the Tennessee River. Fly ash does contain trace concentrations of many heavy metals. Currently, the EPA does not regulate fly ash as a hazardous waste material.

View Larger Map

At the time it was finished in 1955, Kingston was the largest coal-burning power plant in the world, a distinction it held for more than a decade. It generates 10 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, enough to supply the needs of about 670,000 homes in the Tennessee Valley. The plant consumes some 14,000 tons of coal a day.

Update: Cleanup Pictures

Year in Review : Drought 2008

2008-12-22T11:28:00.003-05:00

Last year, over 50 percent of the southeast was in an extreme or exceptional drought. Thanks to recent rain, just 5 percent of the southeast was in an extreme or worse drought. The drought's epicenter continues to be the upstate of South Carolina and western North Carolina. For the last six months, it expands and shrinks, but never quite goes away.

You know it's getting close to the end of the year when you start reading all the "year in review" articles. I'll add my own log to that fire today. This morning I updated the data that drives my drought motion chart I created earlier this year.

Again, here are the basics about the chart:

Size of circle is based on each State's Population.
Color of circle indicates State.
One axis is the percent of the area of the State that isn't in a drought (Example, if 100% - No portions of the state are in a drought).
The other axis is the percent of the area of the State in greater than a Severe Drought (Example, if 100% - All portions of the state are in a greater than a Severe Drought).
Data is from April 17, 2007 - December 16, 2008.

Play around with the graph below. Hit play or you can individually step through each time series. Graph really shows a dramatic change in December.

The Adventures of the Incredible Shrinking Lake

2008-12-15T05:55:00.001-05:00

Since I last wrote about the Southeast's new drought poster child one month ago, Lake Hartwell has dropped another foot. I have posted more pictures online. Here is a picture of one of our favorite swimming spots with the kids. Something is missing, I just don't know what...

Beside walking in a dry lakebed, seeing Memorial Bridge which has been underwater since the lake was flooded has been weird and cool at the same time. Some pre-1950s and current pictures of the bridge below:

The Origin of the Interstate System, Part I

2008-12-11T06:01:00.002-05:00

Obama says his planned investment in infrastructure will be the largest since President Dwight D. Eisenhower created the interstate highway system a half-century ago. This sounds big doesn't it. So how much have we spent on the Interstate System? How did this system really get started?

With some of these questions in my head, I have been reading this week Dan McNichol's book "The Roads that Built America". Let me share what I have been learning and for you water lovers, pardon this diversion.

We really take our roads for granted. Only a hundered years ago:

Most roads were dirt and mud
The few paved roads in and near cities were cobblestones or brick
Slow going even on the best roads with speeds at no more than 25 miles per hour
There was not a single numbered highway between states
There were no standard traffic signs
The first transcontinental trip by truck in 1911 took nearly three months

Enter General John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing, the only person to be promoted in his own lifetime to the highest rank ever held in the United States Army—General of the Armies. Pershing led the American Expeditionary Force in World War I. In 1922, he presented to Congress a map of a proposed national highway system. This map, shown below, became known as the Pershing Map and predicted many of the routes for the Interstate Highway System.

According to Steven Dutch, Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin,

"Pershing wanted roads close to the borders; Canada was no threat but memories of Pancho Villa's raids into the U.S. were still vivid. In a world without air transportation he placed more emphasis on access to seaports, and in a world without military air power he wanted roads close to the coasts for coastal defense. He also placed emphasis on access to the iron ports on Lake Superior. There's no highway to Miami because Miami simply did not exist at the time. "

Most of the roads Pershing proposed eventually became a Federal highway or an Interstate. How is that for a legacy?

First Tricked Out WaterSense Certified house in the United States

2008-12-07T06:28:00.003-05:00

What if EPA had a show like MTV Cribs to showcase WaterSense certified homes? Here is my sample promo... (cool announcer voice)

Tired of watching the water just drain away in your house in those inefficient fixtures? Get ready to pry. EPA's Cribs will be snooping on everyone saving water this season. Get ready to be jealous.

Tricked out toilets. Check. Over-the-top faucets. Check. Huge underground cisterns. Check.

This is an all-access pass inside their homes, just like you always dreamed about!

Well, until this happens; Did you know the first WaterSense certified house in the United States was recently completed and is located just south of Chapel Hill, North Carolina?

The 2,560-square-foot model home includes low-flow faucets, dual-flush toilets, insulated hot water lines and a recirculating hot water system. The house also has a 1,700-gallon underground cistern to store water collected from the yard and roof to use for irrigation. WaterSense guidelines are designed to use about 20 percent less water than a conventional house.

According to articles, the base price for a water-efficient home of this design is $319,900 and prices range from $260,000 to about $450,000. The basic water-efficiency features in the WaterSense program are said to add about $3,000 to $5,000 to the cost, depending on the size of the home,

"We wanted to encourage Americans to no longer take water for granted. The home you see today in the future for our nation. We want more homes built like this one."
-Stephen L. Johnson, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

A 20 percent more water efficient home means that homeowners can reduce their water usage about 10,000 gallons of water a year and save on their power bills.

Edwards Saved Clemson from Flooding

2008-12-04T19:34:00.008-05:00

Robert Cook Edwards, 94, former president of Clemson University for 21 years and a pillar in the Clemson community, died today. Edwards had many accomplishments, but the one I find most interesting is that he led the fight to save Clemson from flooding as a result of the Hartwell Dam Project in the 1950s. Yes, it would have flooded Memorial Stadium.

Excerpts from "Tradition: A History of the Presidency of Clemson University," edited by Donald M. McKale and Jerome V. Reel, Jr.

"…Barely had he settled into the Clemson job when he found himself coordinating an effort to save the college. The United States Army Corps of Engineers had revealed plans for a dam and reservoir which, if constructed as designed, would literally turn Clemson into an island. The proposal for the construction of the Hartwell Dam and Reservoir, a multipurpose project for electric power generation, flood control, and recreation, first surfaced in 1940.

The idea attracted many in the state who still yearned for liberation from the remnants of the Depression. Between 1951 and 1955 opposition to the Hartwell project gathered momentum. A resulting study for the board by Lockwood-Greene, an engineering firm in Spartanburg, confirmed many of the dam opponents’ worst fears. The reservoir would flood 9,000 acres of Clemson property, including 1,600 acres of priceless bottom lands critical to the college’s agricultural experiment programs. Many campus building and facilities would have to be relocated; in addition, it was determined that the football stadium would be flooded.Edwards played a key role in organizing the college’s strategy.

… By the end of October 1956 the momentum had shifted to Clemson. The board, at the suggestion of Edwards and public information officer Joe Sherman, initiated a public relations offensive. Edwards proposed that either the height of the dam be lowered or the Seneca River be diverted “around the important lands of the college.” The resolution, adopted by the board, also called for “any other modification of the plans” that would spare the bottom lands from inundation and for Clemson to be “fully reimbursed for any and all developing damages.” The showdown occurred on 20 December when the trustees, college administration, and congressional delegation made their case to the Secretary of the Army and the chief of the Corps of Engineers.

Edwards played a crucial role at the meeting, officially presenting Clemson’s policy and summarizing its primary objective of saving lands that “we feel cannot be evaluated in monetary terms.” The Corps agreed in principle to what became known as “Plan X,” the proposal that was eventually put into effect. In the end, both parties agreed to a settlement of $1,150,000, which Clemson used to purchase the lands for the present-day Simpson Agricultural Experiment Station.

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Water

2008-12-01T05:45:00.003-05:00

This Wednesday we are going to try something new. We have never attempted a one day water resource workshop, however, there is no shortage of topics or speakers.

SCAWWA / WEASC Water Resources Committee Workshop will host this one day workshop in Columbia titled "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Water…But Were Afraid to Ask: 2009 & Beyond!"

Here is the lineup:

8:30 – 9:00 AM Registration
9:00 – 9:30 AM Introductions/Welcome

9:30 – 10:30 AM Surface Water Withdrawal & Reporting Act

10:45 – 11:15 AM Recalculation of 7Q10 Flows

11:15 – 11:45 AM Minimum Releases in the Southeast

11:45 – 12:45 PM LUNCH‐ Keynote Speaker: Savannah Army Corps of Engineers
12:45 – 1:15 PM DNR Groundwater Mapping
1:15 – 1:45 PM Emerging Contaminants
1:45 – 2:15 PM BJWSA Results & Experience of Emerging Contaminants Testing
2:30 – 3:00 PM Communicating Emerging Contaminants Test Results to Your Customers
3:00 – 3:30 PM Impact of New Stormwater Regulations on Water Quality

Register on Monday. Here is a signup form.

Climate Change Ad of the Week?

2008-11-30T07:21:00.000-05:00

How does the world's first carbon neutral bank generate interest for their new website about climate change? A clever ad never hurts.

Start with an empty pool. Apply a photo realistic decal of a city to the bottom of the pool. Fill it up. Gawk away.

HSBC Bank hired advertising agency Oglivy & Mather n Mumbai to create a campaign for their website, about the reality of global warming. They printed an URL on the side of the pool, and were able to increase traffic to the site by 300%.

Related Posts:
Smart Ads - A variation of this same concept
Best Water Conservation Ads - Some Clever Ads from Denver Water

Praise for Our Local Seafood

2008-11-28T07:30:00.011-05:00

For the past several Thanksgivings we have decided to share the holidays on the coast on Edisto Island. No to-do lists and plenty of food. Tonight. Low Country Boil. I ride my bike to the marina to get some fresh carolina shrimp. I love getting any seafood where I can see and smell where the boats are bringing them in. Shrimp, oysters, oh so good.

One surprising fact I learned this morning was that South Carolina produced more oysters than North Carolina, Georgia, or the eastern side of Florida combined. There was a story in the newspaper today about how many folks along the coast are planting oyster reefs alongside waterfront homes as an alternative to riprap or a sea wall. This sounds like a win-win solution for people and the environment.

"Water quality is "the big 'but.' Of all the fisheries, the one where we have really good potential to expand is shellfish. But we've got to be really careful about our water quality."
-Mel Bell, S.C. Department of Natural Resources fisheries management director.

While we are doing well with oysters, our oyster production is nowhere near historical production levels. I found this graph below (click on it to expand) which shows the historical expansion and collapse of oyster fisheries for each state.

Turn off the Tap, Snow Mountain is Back!

2008-11-25T05:44:00.000-05:00

Stone Mountain Park, after lots of criticism, canceled a 400-foot-long and 200 foot wide ski slope attraction last year. The Park had already invested some $5 million in the venture and the purchase of snow-making equipment. The problem with this venture was not the marketing, but the business model's key ingredient. The park was going to use 1 million gallons of tap water to make snow.

However, it's back this year with a new twist. They are no longer going to use tap water. They are going to pump water from Stone Mountain Lake, treat it and then make snow. Melted snow will be returned to the lake via storm line drainage.

Cool.

Two Climate Change Winners

2008-11-24T06:46:00.001-05:00

Russia has the potential to gain the most from increasingly temperate weather. Russia has vast untapped reserves of natural gas and oil in Siberia and also offshore in the Arctic, and warmer temperatures should make the reserves considerably more accessible. This would be a huge boon to the Russian economy, as presently 80 percent of the country’s exports and 32 percent of government revenues derive from the production of energy and raw materials. In addition, the opening of an Arctic waterway could provide economic and commercial advantages. However, Russia could be hurt by damaged infrastructure as the Arctic tundra melts and will need new technology to develop the region’s fossil energy.

Canada will be spared several serious North American climate-related developments— intense hurricanes and withering heat waves—and climate change could open up millions of square miles to development. Access to the resource-rich Hudson Bay would be improved, and being a circumpolar power ringing a major portion of a warming Arctic could be a geopolitical and economic bonus. Additionally, agricultural growing seasons will lengthen, net energy demand for heating/cooling will likely drop, and forests will expand somewhat into the tundra. However, not all soil in Canada can take advantage of the change in growing season, and some forest products are already experiencing damage due to changes in pest infestation enabled by warmer climates.

-Excerpt from "Global Trends 2025" a 120-page document from the National Intelligence Council (NIC), a center of strategic thinking for the U.S. government, with input from the various intelligence agencies. This report is issued every four years.

Waterblogged Face to Face

2008-11-23T21:10:00.006-05:00

Looking out the taxi window as I left, I saw all the underpinnings of a modern city. Big Buildings. Big Freeways. Anywhere USA as some would say. While I quizzed the taxi driver about Katrina on the ride back to the airport, I still did not know much about New Orleans.

Reading someone's blog that you have never met is sort of like driving through a city and not getting out to meet folks face to face. You may see familiar landmarks, may make some guesses on the local cuisine, but you are just guessing through a window.

In New Orleans last week I had a great opportunity to shatter a window and actually meet some fellow water bloggers. I was part of a panel with other water bloggers and one water web 2.0 entrepreneur titled "Waterblogged: Water in the Blogosphere" as part of the AWRA National Conference. Michael at WaterWired organized this webcentric session. Fellow panelists included:

Abigail Brown, Water For The Ages
Kaveh Madani, WaterSISWEB
Jane Rowan, AWRA Blog, President, AWRA
Michael E. Campana, WaterWired

I had a great time and I know I will enjoy their web work even more! If blogging doesn't die out from the likes of the one sentence Twitters out there, I think more face to face opportunities for fellow bloggers and readers are a good thing.