A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
October 22, 2007
3. Watersheds
DELTA ISSUES:
Delta pumps trap thousands of fish; Tiny baitfish caught in system rescued by salvage facilities - Inside Bay Area
Supes to lobby state over delta issues - Fairfield Daily Republic
Supes want some say on Delta water vision - Woodland Daily Democrat
Guest Opinion: Why we should save the delta smelt; The tiny fish is a bigger deal than you think. Saving it is worth a little sacrifice - Los Angeles Times
QUAGGA MUSSELS:
Why quagga mussels are dangerous; Prolific species has spread to reservoirs - San Diego Union Tribune
STEELHEAD RECOVERY:
Outline for recovery of coast steelhead - Ventura County Star
OTTERS IN THE RESERVOIR:
Otters stump PID - Paradise Post
THE SALMON RETURN:
Rise of the salmon: Annual fish hatchery festival focuses on education, protecting area species - Redding Record Searchlight
ALGAE IN THE RESERVOIRS:
Blue-green algae levels lower in some areas, officials say -
Guest Column: Embrace your watershed - Ukiah Daily Journal
DELTA ISSUES:
Delta pumps trap thousands of fish; Tiny baitfish caught in system rescued by salvage facilities
Inside Bay Area – 10/21/07
By Mike Taugher, staff writer
Giant pumps that deliver water to
The episode peaked on Tuesday, when nearly 250,000 shad, a popular baitfish, showed up at the pumps — so many that instead of trucking them all back to the Delta many of the fish had to be buried.
"It was so many, all at once. It complicated the operation," said U.S. Bureau of Reclamation spokesman Jeff McCracken.
In all, an estimated 370,000 threadfin shad were collected at the federal pumps near
Biologists said the event was not unusual. Threadfin shad swim in large schools, so they tend to arrive at the pumps in bunches.
And each year, millions of the fish are trapped in collection buckets before they would otherwise be ground up at the federal pumps near
In 2001, for example, the fish salvage facilities at the two sets of pumps collected 10 million threadfin shad.
"We had a blip here but it's not that much different from what we historically see," said Perry Hergesell, a water policy advisor for the Department of Fish and Game. "It's not really out of the ordinary."
Still, the episode raised anxieties because threadfin shad, though still relatively common, are among the fish that have dwindled in the last five years and have remained at near-record low population levels.
Taken together, the two sets of pumps deliver water to millions of acres of farmland and 23 million people from the
This week, the pumps were churning at a combined rate of about 7,500 cubic-feet per second, enough to flood 20 square miles, an area the size of
"Everything that's down there is getting sucked into the pumps, everything," said Tina Swanson, a fisheries biologist at the Bay Institute, an environmental group.
Water deliveries were cut this spring to prevent Delta smelt from being killed, but the federal pumps were kept on full this week because threadfin shad are not an endangered species.
Threadfin shad were introduced to the Delta a few decades ago and are among the most common fish in the Delta. But, along with young striped bass and the rarer Delta smelt and longfin smelt, its numbers have fallen dramatically.
The fish collected every day in the buckets are returned to the Delta by truck, but how well they survive the rough journey to predator-laden waters is unknown. Water officials contend that the threadfin shad survival rates are probably pretty good.
In addition to water pumping, biologists studying the decline of Delta fish say pollution and invasive species disrupting the ecosystem also play a role in the declines. They plan to issue a report further explaining the collapse of fish species by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the pressure on water deliveries is building.
A federal judge imposed water cutbacks beginning in 2008 after ruling that a federal permit was too lenient to prevent Delta smelt from going extinct. The Zone 7 Water Agency, which serves
The same judge is considering whether a permit to protect salmon and steelhead is legal, and environmentalists are asking regulators to add longfin smelt to the list of endangered species.
Concern is also growing among biologists that Delta smelt may have entered a death spiral of sorts toward extinction as the few remaining fish have less chance of reproducing.
The latest numbers are discouraging. The September results from the key fall survey for Delta smelt were very low, with only eight fish collected. That number could improve over the course of the survey, which continues through December. #
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/ci_7241640
Supes to lobby state over delta issues
By Barry Eberling, staff writer
Now the Solano County Board of Supervisors wants to make certain its voice is heard in
A letter signed by Board Chairman Mike Reagan could just be the beginning. The board on Tuesday will consider various lobbying and information-gathering efforts that could total $130,000 to $200,000.
Board members meet at 9 a.m. in their chamber at
Things are coming to a head. The state's Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is to make initial recommendations by January 2008 and complete a strategic plan by January 2009.
Supervisors until their Oct. 9 meeting had said little publicly about all of that. That changed with a vengeance. They told staff to hire advocates and consultants as soon as possible.
"It is absolutely critical we take charge of our own destiny, if that's possible," Supervisor Barbara Kondylis said.
One concern is that using a peripheral canal or some other system to convey fresh water around the Delta would allow the
"Prior to state water project exports, the City of
Supervisors are also concerned Delta habitat restoration plans might attract rare fish to the North Bay Aqueduct pumps in the eastern county. These pumps bring water to
Reagan asked that the state help pay to relocate the pumps to the
Talk about enlarging the Yolo bypass also concerns the board. The Yolo bypass takes
Deteriorating levees near farmland and duck clubs are yet another concern. Reagan suggested stockpiling rock and other materials near
Also Tuesday, the board will consider helping Florida-based Republic Services get $53 million to spend on its trash collection and dumps in
Republic Services would borrow the money from the California Municipal Finance Authority, which would issue tax-exempt revenue bonds. This can happen only if a local government joins the authority and holds a public hearing.
The county would have no liability for the bonds, wrote Charles Lomeli, the county's treasurer/tax collector/clerk. The authority would give the county $2,000 to $5,000 of the issuance fee and donate a similar amount to a local charity chosen by the board, he wrote.
Republic Services occasionally takes on projects or makes purchases that benefit the environment, Kevin Finn of the company wrote to the county. Those expenditures qualify for tax-exempt financing, he wrote.
The company wants to build new liners and disposal cells at the existing dump, improve systems collecting water leaching from the dump and buy new trucks that pollute less, among other things, he wrote. #
http://local.dailyrepublic.net/story_localnews.php?a=news05.txt
Supes want some say on Delta water vision
Woodland Daily Democrat – 10/22/07
By Danny Bernardini, staff writer
In an attempt to be included in future Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta water issues,
The Solano County Board of Supervisors will hear this plan Tuesday, as well as review how other counties handle the Delta water vision.
Supervisors may also direct staff to develop a set of guiding principles governing the county's position on the Delta vision process.
The issues was first raised at the board's last meeting, Oct. 9, when members of the California Delta Protection Commission and other water agencies updated the supervisors on management plans currently taking place.
Included in those documents that suggest a wide-range of options for Delta use were two emerging visions from the Stakeholder Coordination Group and eight others submitted by the public.
Two additional drafts of a vision will also be sent out to the public this year and implementation is set to take place in 2008.
Included in the county's strategy are four main areas:
• Lobbying - A multi-pronged approach by lobbyists will attempt to gain more access in the decision process. This aspect is estimated to cost $45,000.
• Information gathering - County staff is recommending to extend their contract with the University of California's Agricultural Issues Center to study the economic impacts of changes to the current Delta system in Solano County. The study would likely cost $9,000.
• Technical Support - The county is currently in discussions with well-known leaders in flood and water issues and may hire one consultant to represent
• Memberships - One additional step would be for
The Solano County Board of Supervisors meets at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the Board's chamber in
http://www.dailydemocrat.com//ci_7248275?IADID=Search-www.dailydemocrat.com-www.dailydemocrat.com
Guest Opinion: Why we should save the delta smelt; The tiny fish is a bigger deal than you think. Saving it is worth a little sacrifice
By Gordy Slack, author of "The
The delta smelt makes no heroic journey across the ocean or up river rapids to reproduce. Once superabundant, Chinese fishermen used to harvest the fish by net, but the little thing, a weak swimmer, wouldn't put up any fight at the end of a line.
And a smelt would not even make a decent snack. Frankly, on first glance, the fish just isn't much to look at either.
So why should millions of Californians who rely on water pumped south from the delta make economic and social sacrifices -- including the possibility of rationing -- for a basically unremarkable fish?
There are at least four good reasons.
First, it is the law. The Endangered Species Act prohibits the government from doing anything that jeopardizes the continued existence of endangered or threatened species, and it forbids any government agency, corporation or citizen from harming, harassing or killing endangered animals without a permit. It is a sound law, put in place by the Nixon administration in 1973 to protect imperiled plants and animals "from the consequences of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation."
By drawing a bright legal line this side of annihilating whole kinds of creatures, the law is to thank for saving the bald eagle, the gray whale, the California condor and the Pacific green sea turtle, among other animals. And it's a law that will be especially important in
But obeying even a good law may seem unjustified when it comes time to make sacrifices for a ghostlike fish that conveys no clear benefits to mankind. That common perception brings us to the second reason to save the smelt: The goal of the Endangered Species Act is not just to protect single species but also the ecosystems on which they depend. The delta smelt is what Peter Moyle, a fisheries biologist at UC Davis, calls an indicator species: Its condition reflects the overall health of an ecosystem.
In the case of the delta, we're talking about a once-magnificent place that is in serious trouble. It is 16,000 square miles of wetland and open water -- the West Coast's largest estuary -- and the end point of about 40% of
Twenty-nine known fish species once called the delta home. Twelve of those are either gone altogether or are threatened with extinction. The
The thicktail chub disappeared in the 1950s. Many other fish are in rapid decline too, victims of pollution, overfishing and habitat destruction as big portions of the delta were diked and drained for agriculture, and the natural exchange of fresh and salt water was altered by the huge, sucking pumps that send water south. As for the delta smelt, Moyle has been charting its decline for decades. But that decline turned into a nose-dive a couple of years ago because of increased water diversions from the delta. This year's spring survey found 90% fewer fish than in 2006, the previous record low.
Reducing the amount of water sucked from the delta, increasing the release of fresh water upriver and controlling pollutants would help save the delta smelt and help protect spring- and winter-run Chinook, striped bass, steelhead trout, green sturgeon and the entire delta ecosystem. If we don't take these steps, and if we let the delta smelt go down, the longfin smelt, the next most endangered species in the delta, will follow. Then maybe the striped bass and the
Why care? The species in an ecosystem are woven together like characters in a Shakespeare play. Start pulling them out, and the play's integrity is lost. Removing the delta smelt would be like pulling the ghost from "Macbeth." Forever. You'd still have a play, but it wouldn't work. Then pull, say, Banquo and the three witches and replace them with characters who don't belong there. You'd have some kind of absurdist sitcom where you once had a masterpiece. Without the native fish and other species that populate the delta, it won't work either.
A slightly closer look at the delta smelt shows us a third reason to rescue the fish from oblivion -- it's actually pretty impressive. While most fish are hard-wired either for salt or fresh water, the delta smelt tolerates both, a talent that allows it to exploit the brackish zone where the waters meet. Before there were giant aquatic vacuum cleaners in its midst to send water south, it could afford to be a weak swimmer because it mastered the cyclical ebbs and flows of the estuary, exploiting the system's inhalations and exhalations to get where it needed to go.
During the dry season, when the salt water moves up the estuary toward the
Finally, the Torah says that if you save an individual, you save an entire universe. How much truer that is for a whole kind of creature. Nothing else on Earth lives the way the delta smelt does, senses the world the way it does, looks like it, moves like it, fits into an ecosystem the way it does. If we drive it from existence, we will have obliterated an entire world, willingly, in order for a while longer to grow cotton, rice and alfalfa in the desert, to keep our swimming pools topped off and open, to keep the price of water cheap.
If we can face our growing need for water, and our diminishing supply of it, without driving whole species to extinction, it might be more expensive and inconvenient in the short term. But if it saves the fish, saves the delta and saves a world, it would be well worth the price. #
QUAGGA MUSSELS:
Why quagga mussels are dangerous; Prolific species has spread to reservoirs
By Terry Rodgers, staff writer
Water managers in the county are trying to coordinate their efforts against quagga mussels, small but hardy mollusks that have invaded the region's reservoirs.
The officials hope to release a plan for controlling quaggas before they clog pipes and harm the ecosystem of reservoirs, which provide drinking water to millions of people.
Here are answers to some questions about the mussels, based on interviews and other reporting.
What are quagga mussels?
They are mollusks that reproduce in prolific numbers, clustering together like barnacles. They live in fresh water from the surface to more than 400 feet deep.
Quaggas will thrive anywhere – sandy bottoms and hard surfaces – in fresh water that contains calcium. Their larvae are microscopic and hard to detect.
Typically, each mussel won't grow much bigger than a thumbnail. The quaggas' sharp, triangular shells can cut bare feet.
Adult quaggas have no human food value, and most birds and fish avoid them. However, they can be made into attractive earrings.
How do they affect bodies of water?
Quaggas are filter feeders that consume vast amounts of phytoplankton that would otherwise feed fish, clams, shrimp and other aquatic wildlife.
By concentrating metals and other pollutants in their tissue, they contribute to the accumulation of toxins in the food chain. For instance, ducks have been poisoned by eating quaggas.
In addition, bodies of water infested with quaggas become much clearer. While that's great for scuba divers, the increased amount of sunlight penetrating the water promotes the growth of aquatic weeds. This heavy weed presence can sour the taste of drinking water.
Why should Californians care about quaggas?
Wherever they have spread, quaggas and the closely related zebra mussels have raised the cost of everything from food to electrical power because of the maintenance problems they create.
For example, an infestation of zebra mussels in the
Once quaggas become established in lakes and reservoirs, it's impossible to eradicate them. The mussels clog intake pipes at power stations, water treatment plants and agricultural irrigation lines.
“Our water system is quagga-mussel nirvana,” said Russell Moll, a quagga expert and director of the California SeaGrant Program at the
Quaggas are troublesome for boat owners, too. They attach themselves to boat hulls, motors and steering components. At rivers and lakes infested with quaggas, boaters have experienced a 50 percent increase in overheated motors. If quaggas continue to spread,
How did these mussels reach
Quaggas, which are native to
Evidence suggests that quaggas were brought across the Continental Divide a year ago on the hull of a boat that was transported west from the
The mussels were discovered in Lake Mead,
What is being done to control the spread of quaggas?
Officials statewide are focused on preventing these mussels from spreading to Northern or
Inspections have increased at border checkpoints operated by the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Hundreds of state game wardens and employees of water agencies are learning how to find quaggas at reservoirs and inside boat motors.
Portable wash stations have been installed at boat ramps throughout the state.
In addition, thousands of educational pamphlets have been sent to boat owners, and informational posters have been put up at lakes and reservoirs.
The Metropolitan Water District, which supplies water to 17 million people in
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20071021-9999-1m21quagga.html
STEELHEAD RECOVERY:
Outline for recovery of coast steelhead
By Russ Baggerly, of Ojai, is on the Casitas Municipal Water District board of directors
The National Marine Fisheries Service has published the "2007 Federal Recovery Outline for the Distinct Population Segment of Southern California Coast Steelhead." It is like a road map with clear guideposts for removing impediments to the survival and recovery of steelhead.
The Recovery Outline informs the public about major threats to the fish and the actions needed to continue the recovery effort. It sets out specific goals necessary to achieve recovery of the species. To help place the Recovery Outline in perspective, it is not a regulatory document. Communities are responsible for taking the lead on specific recovery actions, but in a framework that will most likely ensure successful recovery and, ultimately, delisting of the species.
This is an important point because there have been attempts in the past to stir up hostility about saving the steelhead. Even now, there may be some who will try to discredit the body of scientific information that has been compiled by the National Marine Fisheries Service over the last 10 years to educate the public about steelhead and how its historic role can be re-established in our communities.
We are now on the threshold of an environmental and economic success story with something good for most everyone at the end of the final chapter.
The travel and recreation industry in
Related to potential positive economic impacts, it is important to keep in mind that the rivers and streams of
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007/oct/21/outline-for-recovery-of-coast-steelhead/
OTTERS IN THE RESERVOIR:
Otters stump PID
By Paul Wellersdick, staff writer
Paradise Irrigation District is stumped with an otter problem at
"I was on my canoe and I saw these heads bobbing around the shoreline and I thought now what is that," he said.
Earlier this month Vickery counted eight of the critters eating fish near the south west section of the lake, near the intake pipe that feeds the Magalia reservoir. They're clearly multiplying, he said.
"They've got a home down in a 50-year-old stump," he said.
He notified the lake patrolman Greg Dobbs, Vickery said.
"I said 'Hey those bloody things are going to eat up all the fish,'" he said.
PID cannot legally do anything about the creatures at this time. PID Manager George Barber and the board reviewed options at a meeting Wednesday night. The district is concerned about water quality because otters have been known to carry giardia, a gastric parasite. The district would like to relocate them, Barber said.
"That is not an option," he said.
Vickery would like them relocated to the
"[If] they get a hold of one of those salmon, it'd take days to eat," he said.
Vickery's concerned about the habitat. The otters are destructive to
"They eat all the fish that the PID people stock the lake with," he said. "I reckon those little buggers need to eat two to three fish a day. That's 24 fish a day times 365, that's (more than) 8,000 fish." Barber said Rick Terrano, PID treatment plant operator, noticed four otters in the Magalia reservoir while observing construction of the Magalia bypass system that draws water to the treatment plant from above the reservoir.
PID is unsure at this time what to do about the otters and is unsure if the four otters in the Magalia reservoir are the same ones from
http://www.paradisepost.com//ci_7228490?IADID=Search-www.paradisepost.com-www.paradisepost.com
THE SALMON RETURN:
Rise of the salmon: Annual fish hatchery festival focuses on education, protecting area species
Redding Record Searchlight – 10/21/07
By Ryan Sabalow, staff writer
"It's so cool," the
Sure enough, another king-sized buck salmon slapped the water with its nearly foot-wide tail as it gave one final splashing lunge up the ladder into a calmer holding area.
"Look at how big they are," Ryder's mother, Megan Klenk, said to the boy. "Look at their large tails. Could you swim up that?"
It was a scene that repeated itself again and again Saturday at the Return of the Salmon Festival at the Coleman National Fish Hatchery.
Part biology lesson, part street fair, the 17th annual festival drew about 14,000 people last year.
Scott Hamelberg, the hatchery's chief administrator, said this year's event could very well match or surpass that number of attendees.
Hamelberg said the festival is designed to showcase the hatchery's mission of helping sustain salmon populations, while giving families a chance to gather together and learn more about wildlife.
Nearly 60 exhibits made mostly of nonprofit groups, area watershed organizations, wildlife activists and a handful of vendors were on display. Many offered games and activities.
Children and their families took turns learning to fly fish, played croquet, watched salmon in a portable, glass-walled tank or painted on model salmon molds.
"Fun and informative -- that's our goal," Hamelberg said.
The hatchery was built in 1942 to offset the building of Keswick and Shasta dams, which effectively blocked 200 miles of salmon-spawning habitat.
The Coleman hatchery collects nearly 15 million fall-run salmon eggs a year, and hatchery workers nurture 12 million fall-run smolts, which are released back into the Sacramento River tributary,
In between three and six years, a small percentage of the salmon return to the hatchery to begin the cycle all over again.
But it's a one-way trip back for the fish, which don't eat during their long journey and die naturally after breeding.
At the hatchery, that process is expedited.
Some gasped as they watched salmon being bonked over the head by a club-wielding worker inside the hatchery's spawning room, after the fish were pulled from a carbonated tank, which anesthetizes them.
Workers then squeeze sperm-rich milt out of the dead males; others harvest eggs from the females.
The sperm and eggs are mixed in plastic tubs, and in a few weeks, baby salmon are born.
Nothing goes to waste.
The dead fish are sent to a plant in
For 3-year-old Wyatt Bailey of
"That's a baby salmon right there," she said.
The boy's eyes were transfixed on the tiny life-to-be. #
http://www.redding.com/news/2007/oct/21/rise-of-the-salmon/
ALGAE IN THE RESERVOIRS:
Blue-green algae levels lower in some areas, officials say
Blue-green algae levels are now safe in some areas, but others remain above warning levels, officials said this week.
Warnings were originally issued on July 3 due to the high levels of toxic algae in Copco and Iron Gate reservoirs, and on Oct. 1 for the Klamath River mainstem below
Water sampling by the Klamath Blue-Green Algae Work Group shows that levels of the algae that produce toxins have dropped in the mainstem Klamath River downstream from
Toxic algae concentrations still remain above warning levels in both the Copco and
While the health alert has been lifted in some areas, the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, State Water Resources Control Board, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services, and the Yurok and Karuk Tribes advise people who use the river to look for signs of algal blooms.
People and their pets should avoid water contact if there are visible scums of algae in the water.
BOX: For more information, visit:
California Department of Public Health:
http://www.cdph.ca.gov/healthinfo/environhealth/water/Pages/Bluegreenalgae.aspx
State Water Resources Control Board
HYPERLINK "http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/bluegreenalgae/index.html" http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/bluegreenalgae/index.html
HYPERLINK "http://www.cdc.gov/hab/cyanobacteria/facts.htm" http://www.cdc.gov/hab/cyanobacteria/facts.htm
http://co.humboldt.ca.us/health/envhealth/
(707) 445-6215
Yurok Tribe Real Time Water Quality and BGA Data
http://exchange.yuroktribe.nsn.us/lrgsclient/stations/stations.html
http://www.times-standard.com//ci_7247916?IADID=Search-www.times-standard.com-www.times-standard.com
Guest Column: Embrace your watershed
Ukiah Daily Journal – 10/22/07
By Rachel Olivieri, member of the Willits Economic Localization project and the leader of the Water Focus Group
There are two kinds of solutions -- degenerative or regenerative. The former degrades and becomes obsolete in time and requires energy inputs to function and creates negative impacts. A dam, water diversion, impervious parking lots, streets and sidewalks, and modern urban developments are degenerative.
Regenerative solutions grow, improve and produce more resources than it consumes while serving multiple functions. A free-flowing river, forest, grassland, wetland, and urban stormwater raingardens are regenerative.
Regenerative solutions come from understanding relationships. Relationships include watershed condition, budget, storage, population, and water requirements for environment, people, industry, and food production.
When considering the county s water challenges, each district has it s own particular requirement, yet, when it comes to water literacy, all districts share a common theme -- Retention -- Recharge - Recycle -- Restore. Willits rainfall and specific water issues provide a model to illustrate these themes.
An in-depth watershed study conducted by Department of Fish and Game (DFG) chronicling historic land developments was presented to the Willits City Council. It found the watersheds ability to hold water and support life is degenerative. Ridge-to-ridge, Little Lake basin is the most hydrologically altered -- Second only to the Potter Valley Project covering 3,600 square miles of
Willits rainfall is between 35" to 90" per year -- 58" is average and 35" a drought. Using annual drought figures, 1 million gallons per acre (MGPA) is precipitated annually. Average 58" year is 1.6 MGPA. Less evaporation and infiltration, based on six households per acre, each residential lot produces 77,500 gallons of polluted runoff/yr. Over 2500 households that s 194 MGPY or 600
Why would anyone give up on a watershed that produces 1 MGPA in a drought year? Mimicking natural cycles in urban settings is doable -- Retention -- Recharge - Recycle -- Restore.
Recharge capability of the valley is known. Two hydrologic studies -- Cardwell 1965 -- Farrar 1986 -- conducted a one year study -- 19 wells -- findings - southern valley has 2000 acre feet of rechargeable aquifer. See full study:
www.dpla2.water.ca.gov/publications/water_quality/Willits_doc1.pdf
Another study -- City of
Wells are doable -- but only after paying attention to recharge -- this reasoning accounts for my opposition to the original city well proposal -- it lacked retention foresight -- a view supported by the DFG study. As I expressed in a letter to the city council, "its defeat was the right vote for the wrong reasons."
Willits has eight pressure points -- large water tanks fed by the reservoir. These tanks could be outfitted with catchment aprons to capture screened rainwater. That much less reservoir water is captured and treated and more water for the creeks. Additional large locally-manufactured tanks could be installed within designated sectors to capture rainfall.
As defined by previous studies, strategically placed wells can be a primary water source by capturing and retaining runoff, recharging 600-830 AF per year from runoff alone. That recharged water is earth-cleaned and kept fresh as groundwater storage.
Rainwater economics can be as creative as solar buybacks. Watershed Investment for a Sound Ecology-based Economy is WISEE and local. Consider the possibilities of infiltrating stormwater -- There's still straightup conservation, graywater recycling, and residential harvesting to explore.
Example -- Every gallon of shower, sink, washer or dishwasher graywater feeds a fruit tree, a garden, or a landscape which cleans the water and the air, produces fruit or vegetables, evapotranspires for more rain, recharges aquifer, becomes underground flow, creeks run year round -- which supports the greatest inland protein energy system known to man, salmon -- Regenerative or Degenerative?
Molly Ivins wisdom, "When one finds themselves in hole - stop digging." To: Johnny Pinches,
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