Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
October 23, 2008
5. Agencies, Programs, People –
Approved: Tahoe Regional Planning Agency OK's shorezone program
Tahoe Daily Tribune
Well owners urged to come forward
Mohave Daily News
New Google tool reveals marine protected areas
Associated Press
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Approved: Tahoe Regional Planning Agency OK's shorezone program
Tahoe Daily Tribune – 10/22/08
By Adam Jensen
After more than two decades of debate and more than eight hours of discussion by regulators on Wednesday,
By an 8-5 vote, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s Governing Board approved
The decision left two of the most divergent interest groups in the debate — conservation organizations and the Tahoe Lakefront Owners’ Association — disappointed.
Representatives from each side said they would be looking at their “options” to appeal the decision following Wednesday’s meeting.
Potential lawsuits stemming from adoption the shorezone program were a frequent topic of discussion at the meeting.
Two lawyers from Earth Justice, the legal arm of the Sierra Club, spoke on behalf of the Tahoe Area Sierra Club and the League to Save Lake Tahoe.
One of the lawyers, Wendy Park, said the shorezone program’s environmental impact statement fails to assess the program’s true impacts on
While the details still need to be examined, the possibility of a lawsuit arising from adoption of the shorezone program is “likely,” said Trent Orr, the second lawyer from Earth Justice.
Much of the debate on Wednesday focused around a section in the shorezone program which required the TRPA to consult with either
Dan O’Hanlon, a lawyer representing the Tahoe Lakefront Owners’ Association, said the wording would place the board in a position where it would have to decide what “legal public access” is in
“It’s not something we want to do, but it’s something we’re prepared to do,” O’Hanlon said.
Near the end of the meeting, board member Shelly Aldean suggested the language in the code referring to “legal public access” apply only to
Jan Brisco, executive director of the Tahoe Lakefront Owner’s Association, questioned the legality of the move following the meeting.
Several last minute changes were made to the shorezone program on Wednesday and some board members wondered if its adoption should be postponed until some of the new language and outstanding issues could be more closely examined.
“We’re trying to push something right now that we’re trying to massage the heck out of,” said board member Donna Ruthe.
Several board members said they considered the shorezone update imperfect, but said 20 years of debate was enough.
“We’ve got to recognize the time has come to move forward with this,” said board member Allen Biaggi, adding the program can still be modified to address problems which arise.
Among its provisions, the shorezone program will allow the construction of 128 new piers and the placement of 1,862 new buoys on
The shorezone program is scheduled to take effect in December, while the details of a “Blue Boating” program to mitigate the effects of increased boating on Lake Tahoe is expected to be discussed by the Governing Board in March.#
Well owners urged to come forward
Mohave Daily News – 10/23/08
By NEIL YOUNG/The Daily News
Responsible for almost all the water from the
He wants “undocumented” well owners to come out of the shadows for their own good. Even those on file should make sure the information the MVIDD has is accurate, Sherrill said.
“We're not going to put meters on your wells,” he assured his audience. The MVIDD needs to update its records to give an accurate accounting to the federal Bureau of Reclamation as to how much water is being used in the district so it can be protected, Sherrill said.
Too many cities and states in the thirsty Southwest have designs on the MVIDD's 41,000 acre-feet allocation of
For example, if a parcel of land has been subdivided into five residential lots, “we need to know that so we can protect that water,” Sherrill said. “It's going to be a lot more use for five lots than it is going to be for one.”
He asked landowners to “allow us to come on your property” so they can put a meter on the well to determine how much is being used, to figure the proper allocation.
Sherrill said the feds consider just about every drop of water in the district - including all well water - to be Colorado River water and someone would have to spend thousands of dollars in legal fees to try to prove otherwise. “This aquifer goes a long ways back (from the river),” he said.
Most of the MVIDD's water is used for agricultural purposes, Sherrill said, “which is a good thing, because it protects our water.”
He said there will come a day when the feds declare an official drought.
“When the drought comes, they're going to take water from us,” Sherrill said. “They'll come to the farmers and the big users ... and they will have to stop farming part of that ground.”
Sherrill urged residents in the irrigation district to bring in their lot and tax information to the district office at
http://www.mohavedailynews.com/articles/2008/10/23/news/local/local1.txt
New Google tool reveals marine protected areas
Associated Press – 10/23/08
By DANIEL WOOLLS - AP
BARCELONA, Spain -- Conservationists working with Google Inc. have unveiled a tool that lets people view protected marine areas with the click of a mouse - a bid to harness the Internet's top search engine to raise awareness of endangered ocean habitats.
The feature on Google Earth displays icons indicating sensitive areas of the world's oceans, from the waters off the Galapagos Islands to the
A click on them brings up photos and/or video of the sites and marine life there, as well as text explaining the sites, how they are managed and local maritime lore.
Google Earth project manager Steve Miller said the tool presented Tuesday, which Google Earth calls a layer, is the culmination of a yearlong project to let conservationists bring hard science to the general public in an entertaining way.
"We sat down and said 'let's open this up, let people around the world who might be passionate about their (marine protected area), who might be passionate about the water in their backyard, let them contribute to this,'" Miller said.
The new feature was presented at a congress of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a grouping of more than 1,000 government and nongovernment organizations and almost 11,000 volunteer scientists in more than 160 countries.
Google Earth is the platform for the new tool and helped develop it with the IUCN and the World Commission on Protected Areas.
Around 4,500 spots scattered around the world's oceans have been designated as marine protected areas, which means activities such as commercial or recreational fishing are restricted or outright banned to protect dwindling stocks of fish and other marine species.
Not all of them are featured on the Google tool, but its creators say it is nonetheless a groundbreaking way to get people all over the world interested in the environment.
At the same presentation, National Geographic unveiled another novelty: a live, continuous underwater video feed of a coral reef, off
National Geographic has been attaching cameras to land animals like lions and sea creatures like turtles for years and sharing the footage, but this project is believed to be the first such experiment that provides a live, nonstop feed, said Torre Stockard of National Geographic's remote imaging department.
Laffoley said he was viewing it the other day during the testing phase, sipping his first cup of morning coffee as dawn broke in
"It is going to be addictive for a lot of people to have this kind of connectivity," he said.
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/wildcambelize/
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http://www.sacbee.com/702/story/1334510.html
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