12 Water – Page 24 – Public Intelligence Blog

2012/11/282012/11/28

Yoda: Mississippi Down? Lower the Ocean, Raise the River — Army Corps of Engineers Finds a New Challenge, a New Way — But Who Will Pay?

yoda with light saber — Got Crowd? BE the Force!

Mississippi River may hit record low, halt traffic in December

Michael Winter

USA TODAY,

Obama is urged to declare emergency so Army Corps can take steps to keep 200-mile stretch open.

8:27PM EST November 28. 2012 – A key stretch of the drought-ravaged Mississippi River may fall to a record low by mid-December, halting barge traffic and disrupting billions in commerce on the nation's busiest inland waterway.

President Obama on Tuesday was urged to declare an emergency so the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can take steps to boost the river's flow and deepen the channel along the 200-mile segment between St. Louis and Cairo, Ill.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., plans to meet Thursday with the Pentagon official who oversees the corps to ask that it quickly dynamite exposed rock pinnacles and increase Missouri River reservoir flows to keep the river open, the St. Louis Beacon reported Wednesday.

The corps annually reduces Missouri River releases — mandated by Congress — to conserve water for spring and recreation. The last time it dynamited Mississippi rock obstructions was during the drought of 1988-89, a spokesman told The Wall Street Journal. The current drought is forecast to extend into next year.

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota: We have not done the math, but we are beginning to see some convergence among various challenges (mostly not enough fresh water) and various solutions (mostly solar and wind power, but decentralizes). We connect dots. So connect the above dot with the below dot. Anyone who has the math, please share it. We strongly suspect that if a viable solution can be found for desalinating ocean water to stop the drught shallows now and fill the aquifers later, that those who stand to lose close to $4 billion a month from use of this public waterway just might find a way to earmark $100 million and up for a novel persistent solutioin.

2012/11/022012/11/02

Worth a Look: Water Abundance & Resilient Strategies from John Robb

12 Water, Worth A Look

If you subscsribe now, you will also get my first topical report, entitled: ‘Water Abundance: How to Declare Your Water Sovereignty’.

How climate change will actually impact you
What you can do to limit the impact of climate change on you and your community
The three things you need to begin capturing water
Eight principles of resilient water from “the Rainman”
Using swales and berms to control water flows
How to calculate how much water you will need and where you can get it
Nine simple water saving tips that are used in Australia
Details on the tools used to collect rainwater
A sample rainwater irrigation system, complete with pictures of each step in the process
Q&A with an innovative expert on how these tactics can be used to grow a local business
And most importantly…how easily a family of four can use these methods to have enough water to grow a large and bountiful garden

Subscription Page

2012/10/112012/10/11

Berto Jongman: Food Security Index & Map 2013

01 Agriculture, 03 Economy, 05 Energy, 06 Family, 07 Health, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, 12 Water, Earth Intelligence

Food security in 75% of African countries at high or extreme risk – Maplecroft global index

‘Arab Awakening' countries at increased risk from 2013 food price shocks

10/10/2012

Despite strong economic growth, food security remains an issue of primary importance for Africa, according to a new study by risk analysis company Maplecroft, which classifies 75% of the continent’s countries at ‘high’ or ‘extreme risk.’

food_security_risk_index_2013_map — Click on Image to Enlarge

In the light of recent food price spikes, the findings are especially significant for areas of sub-Saharan Africa where poverty, armed conflict, civil unrest, drought, displacement and poor governance can combine to create conditions where a food crisis may take hold.

Africa accounts for 39 of the 59 most at risk countries in Maplecroft’s Food Security Risk Index and hosts nine of the eleven countries in the ‘extreme risk’ category. These include: Somalia and DR Congo (ranked joint 1st in the index), Burundi (4), Chad (5), Ethiopia (6), Eritrea (7), South Sudan (9), Comoros (10) and Sierra Leone (11). The countries of Haiti (3) and Afghanistan (8) complete the category.

Read full article.

2012/09/04

John Steiner: Global Fallout from Fukishima

01 Agriculture, 03 Economy, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, 12 Water

Following is a link to the most detailed, in-depth article I have yet to read on GLOBAL Fukishima fallout…including fallout in the southern hemisphere (yes, dorothy).

Time to really start being careful about what you eat and drink…in most countries, and both hemispheres.

Read the article. Be informed. This is real.

No Place to Hide – Fukushima Fallout Findings Widespread

2012/06/242012/06/24

Josh Kilbourn: Injection Wells: The Poison Beneath Us

03 Economy, 12 Water, Commerce, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government

Injection Wells: The Poison Beneath Us

Abrahm Lustgarten

ProPublica, 21 June 2012

Over the past several decades, U.S. industries have injected more than 30 trillion gallons of toxic liquid deep into the earth, using broad expanses of the nation's geology as an invisible dumping ground.

No company would be allowed to pour such dangerous chemicals into the rivers or onto the soil. But until recently, scientists and environmental officials have assumed that deep layers of rock beneath the earth would safely entomb the waste for millennia.

Injection-Wells-Class1 — Click on Image to Enlarge

There are growing signs they were mistaken.

Records from disparate corners of the United States show that wells drilled to bury this waste deep beneath the ground have repeatedly leaked, sending dangerous chemicals and waste gurgling to the surface or, on occasion, seeping into shallow aquifers that store a significant portion of the nation's drinking water.

In 2010, contaminants from such a well bubbled up in a west Los Angeles dog park. Within the past three years, similar fountains of oil and gas drilling waste have appeared in Oklahoma and Louisiana. In South Florida, 20 of the nation's most stringently regulated disposal wells failed in the early 1990s, releasing partly treated sewage into aquifers that may one day be needed to supply Miami's drinking water.

There are more than 680,000 underground waste and injection wells nationwide, more than 150,000 of which shoot industrial fluids thousands of feet below the surface. Scientists and federal regulators acknowledge they do not know how many of the sites are leaking.

Federal officials and many geologists insist that the risks posed by all this dumping are minimal. Accidents are uncommon, they say, and groundwater reserves — from which most Americans get their drinking water — remain safe and far exceed any plausible threat posed by injecting toxic chemicals into the ground.

But in interviews, several key experts acknowledged that the idea that injection is safe rests on science that has not kept pace with reality, and on oversight that doesn't always work.

Read full article.

2012/05/112012/05/11

Owl: Frack Fluids Can Migrate to Aquifers Within Years

07 Other Atrocities, 12 Water, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, General Accountability Office, Government, Idiocy, Office of Management and Budget

New Study Predicts Frack Fluids Can Migrate to Aquifers Within Years

A new study has raised fresh concerns about the safety of gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, concluding that fracking chemicals injected into the ground could migrate toward drinking water supplies far more quickly than experts have previously predicted.

More than 5,000 wells were drilled in the Marcellus between mid-2009 and mid-2010, according to the study, which was published in the journal Ground Water two weeks ago. Operators inject up to 4 million gallons of fluid, under more than 10,000 pounds of pressure, to drill and frack each well.

Scientists have theorized that impermeable layers of rock would keep the fluid, which contains benzene and other dangerous chemicals, safely locked nearly a mile below water supplies. This view of the earth's underground geology is a cornerstone of the industry's argument that fracking poses minimal threats to the environment.

But the study, using computer modeling, concluded that natural faults and fractures in the Marcellus, exacerbated by the effects of fracking itself, could allow chemicals to reach the surface in as little as “just a few years.”

“Simply put, [the rock layers] are not impermeable,” said the study's author, Tom Myers, an independent hydrogeologist whose clients include the federal government and environmental groups.

“The Marcellus shale is being fracked into a very high permeability,” he said. “Fluids could move from most any injection process.”

2012/05/05

Sepp Hasslberger: Wind Into Water

01 Agriculture, 05 Energy, 12 Water, Earth Intelligence

French company uses wind turbine to create fresh water

(Phys.org) — French company Eole Water has announced that they have developed and are now in the process of selling wind turbines that have been modified to produce fresh drinking water.

“The turbines work by combining two current types of technology; traditional generation of electricity using wind as the driving force, and compressors commonly used by dehumidifiers and refrigerators.”

“The water that is produced drips down to the base of the turbine tower where it is filtered and delivered for use.”

“The new turbines do have one major drawback and that is the price…”