Department of Water Resources
California Water News
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
July 2, 2009
5. Agencies, Programs, People –
Oxnard gets $20 million in stimulus money for water project
Ventura County Star
Palm Desert selected for smart water study
The Desert Sun
Yolobus hydrates its riders
Woodland Daily Democrat
Making Plants That Sip, Not Gulp, Water
Voice of San Diego
Free seminar covers water conservation
The Desert Sun
Hawaii's cheapest cruise sails into sunset
The Oakland Tribune
Fishing the North Coast: A rough ocean commands respect
Eureka Times-Standard
Our View: Local swimming death water safety reminder
Marysville Appeal-Democrat
Riding wave to change
Costa Mesa Daily Pilot
Baby ducklings getting royal treatment outside St. Joseph neonatal intensive care unit
L.A. Daily News
Rain barrels turn into art
San Luis Obispo Tribune
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Oxnard gets $20 million in stimulus money for water project
Ventura County Star-7/1/09
By Michael Collins
It took Oxnard five years to win Congress’ approval to expand its water system, but less than three months to land millions of dollars in federal funding for the project.
The Bureau of Reclamation announced Wednesday that the city has been awarded $20 million in federal stimulus funding to help cover the project’s design, planning and construction costs.
The money will come through the $787 billion stimulus package that President Barack Obama signed into law last February to jump-start the sputtering economy.
“When I got the call an hour or so ago and they told me it was going to happen, I just about fell out of my chair,” said Ken Ortega, the city’s public works director.
City officials had applied for the stimulus funding back in April and hoped to get at least some funds to help pay for the water system expansion. But they never really expected to get the $20 million in a lump sum, Ortega said.
Congress authorized Oxnard to seek up to $20 million in federal funding for the project when it gave the city permission to expand its water system back in March. The city had thought it would have to go back to Congress year after year to request the funding.
That will no longer be necessary now that the city will be getting the full $20 million from the stimulus package. However, the city will be under greater pressure to complete the project in a timely manner. Because the city accepted stimulus funds, the project must be finished no later than September 2011, Ortega said.
“We are going to be up against the wall pushing like crazy to get this thing done,” Ortega said. “But we are confident we are up to the task.”
The first phase of the project includes a desalination plant to provide additional water for Oxnard and surrounding communities and a water recycling system to treat domestic and industrial wastewater for agricultural use.
The desalination plant actually was completed last year without federal funds and has been providing water since early December. Construction of the water recycling facility is expected to begin in September or October.
The city originally estimated the cost of the project at $55 million, but now says it will probably be closer to $100 million when the cost of pipelines, consultants and other expenses are factored in.
Besides the federal money, the project will be financed with $80 million in bonds and state and local grants and subsidies.
Rep. Lois Capps, a Santa Barbara Democrat who worked for more than five years to win federal approval for the project, said Oxnard’s water expansion is “a perfect use” of the stimulus funds.
The project “creates jobs quickly, meets an important immediate need and encourages long-term economic growth in our area,” Capps said.#
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2009/jul/01/oxnard-gets-20-million-in-stimulus-money-for/
Palm Desert selected for smart water study
The Desert Sun-7/2/09
By Gina Tenorio
A recently approved agreement between Palm Desert and the Coachella Valley Water District has formally established a partnership that will work to complete a study on water use.
The agreement was approved at the June 25 council meeting. It affirms the goals of a Smart Water Meter Demonstration Study being conducted in the city.
“The two main goals are to determine if we, through incentives and education, can shift peoples use of water to none peak hours,” said Spencer Knight, landscape manager for Palm Desert. “A second goal is water conservation. We're hoping to be able to know when people are actually doing their irrigation.”
Palm Desert is only one of two locations nationwide chosen for the study. The other is Florida, city officials said.
The study officially began in May. Coachella Valley Water officials recruited several customers and selected 100.
Of those, 60 are residential, 20 are commercial and 20 are outdoor irrigation sites.
Each individual group is further split in half. One is the study group, and are being asked to change their usage, while the other is the control group, said Jack Porrelli, spokesman with the Coachella Valley Water District spokesman.
Data will be collected using automatic read meters, which use a newer type of data logger.
Meter readers can drive by periodically and collect the information remotely, Knight said.
Some data have been collected but are awaiting analysis and interpretation, Porrelli said.
“All we can really say at this point is that the (study group) who are participating are doing a better job conserving during peak hours than those who are not.”
The program is partially funded through a $400,000 grant from the California Energy Commission, district officials said.
Palm Desert has contributed $20,000 toward the program.#
http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009907010347
Yolobus hydrates its riders
Woodland Daily Democrat-7/2/09
In hot weather Yolobus made sure to keep its riders hydrated, on Monday in triple digit temperatures Yolobus employees handed out bottles of water to passengers at bus stops and transit centers in West Sacramento and Woodland.
Terry Basset, executive director of Yolobus, said in about a week Yolobus plans to distribute reusable water bottles to its afternoon riders.
"A little kindness goes a long way," said Basset in an e-mail. "We had some very happy riders at the transit centers in Woodland and West Sacramento."#
http://www.dailydemocrat.com/ci_12739709?IADID=Search-www.dailydemocrat.com-www.dailydemocrat.com
Making Plants That Sip, Not Gulp, Water
Voice of San Diego-7/2/09
By Jonathan Parkinson
For the family farm, the margin between profit and loss is razor thin in the best of times. These are certainly not the best of times for farmers in San Diego County.
The wildfires of 2003 and 2007, coupled with a crippling drought -- now in its third year -- have forced some local farmers out of business. And, with agriculture accounting for 80 percent of California's water use, those still in business are being hit hard.
They are enduring record water price increases, and, in some cases, mandatory usage cutbacks as high as 30 percent.
"One (water) district was proposing increases of more than 100 percent," said Mike Mellano, a cut flower producer in Oceanside and president of the San Diego County Farm Bureau. Mellano said the record price increases and rationing, along with the worsening economic climate, have created "a little bit of a perfect storm" for county farmers.
One way to weather the storm is to make crops that don't need as much water. This is the focus of pioneering research by University of California, San Diego biologist Julian Schroeder. He is a leader among scientists developing a new generation of crops that could ultimately protect agriculture from the scourge of drought.
But as with all of humankind's attempts to improve on nature, Schroeder's innovation has high hurdles to overcome in both the scientific and cultural realms.
"The bad news is there is no magic bullet," said Schroeder.
"The good news is that drought-tolerant mechanisms are multifarious," he adds, meaning there are multiple approaches scientists can take that will yield an improvement.
Schroeder's lab at UCSD studies a drought-tolerance mechanism involving stomata, microscopic pores found on the leaves of plants that breathe in carbon dioxide. The structures are crucial to photosynthesis, but plants lose up to 95 percent of the water they take in through the stomata.
To conserve water and stay alive during drought conditions, plants narrow or even close the pores in their leaves by making a hormone called abscisic acid. The hormone signals the sausage-shaped guard cells bordering the stomata on the leaf skin to close them off. This strategy means a tradeoff for the plant: Its growth slows to a crawl, but by conserving its water the plant lives to grow another day.
In recent years Schroeder's lab has discovered ways to improve this natural process, by identifying genes that regulate how abscisic acid works. Through genetic engineering, Schroeder has found alterations to plants that can make them more sensitive to the hormone. The altered plant is then more likely to close its stomata sooner and stay green through a long drought.
Schroeder's discoveries have already been turned to several practical applications. One Canadian biotech firm, Performance Plants, has used his innovations to develop drought-tolerant varieties of canola, corn and turf grass. Performance Plants has in turn licensed their technology to companies like Syngenta and Scotts MiracleGro for commercialization.
But for all their advantages, these drought-tolerant crops aren't a perfect solution. The farmers might still end up using the same amount of water on the drought-resistant crops, and just get better yields. However, in times like these, when water is scarce and prices are high, drought-tolerant plants could give farmers a fighting chance.
"Under drought stress, you have yield losses, you can lose 30, 40, 50% of your yield," Schroeder said. "And if you could reduce that loss by half, that's a huge improvement." And for some plants, like turf grass and other ornamentals, drought tolerance could be even more significant since yield is not important in landscape plants.
Schroeder believes the quest for a drought-defying crop is only just beginning. "My view of this field -- I see it as being a little like the microelectronics revolution. The first product you could buy back in the 1970s was a transistor radio with a single transistor in it. ... And in this field we're still at those early stages."
The potential for improvement, Schroeder said, is tremendous and largely untapped. However, exploiting that potential may take time, especially since a new discovery can take anywhere from seven to 15 years to make it to market.
Another approach is being pursued by St. Louis-based Monsanto, which is considered the king of crop biotech. Monsanto has bred a transgenic corn variety using a gene taken from a soil bacteria, and claims to have shown a 6-to-10 percent yield improvement in tests.
Ordinarily the gene helps the bacteria withstand cold; in the plant it helps sustain normal growth during a drought. "We hope to have [drought-tolerant corn] on the market roundabout 2012," said Riddhi Trivedi-St. Clair, a Monsanto spokeswoman.
Monsanto plans to develop a second-generation version as well; its lead rivals, Syngenta and DuPont, are working on drought-tolerant crops they hope to market beginning early next decade.
The innovations with these field crops won't have a big impact on San Diego County farmers because only a small percentage of the county's agricultural production is in field crops.
But given that 90 percent of San Diego's water is imported, any reduction in water use statewide indirectly benefits the county. And the next generation of drought-resistant crops could include avocados and strawberries, which are the mainstays of San Diego's farming industry.
Once on the market, it's also possible new drought-tolerant crops could excite controversy, like other genetically engineered products before them. When genetically altered crops were first introduced in the mid-1990s, they sparked heated debate that led some countries to require labeling or even ban the new crops outright.
The European Union, for instance, imposed a moratorium on genetically engineered crops until 2004, and some EU and Asian countries still regard genetically engineered crops with suspicion.
In the United States, genetically engineered crops have become increasingly common. Today, 92 percent of soybeans and 80 percent of corn grown in the United States is genetically engineered. These crops require approval from both the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration before going on the market.
Skeptics argue that the technology is overrated or that its ramifications may be poorly understood. For example, biotech critics often express concern over cross-pollination of genetically engineered crops with closely related wild species. The resulting wild plants with new traits could change the ecosystem in unpredictable ways.
Opponents also raise political and cultural issues, most prominently that developing nations could become overly dependent on companies from industrialized nations for their food, and that under no circumstance should science mess with nature's handiwork.
Proponents of genetically engineered crops counter that because crossbreeding or any method of developing a new variety modifies a plant's genes, genetically engineered crops in their view are no different from any others.
The ongoing controversy means that farmers face an uncertain market for genetically engineered crops. But if this withering dry spell becomes the rule -- as many fear -- most scientists and farmers agree that one hard truth will win out.
"Regardless of where you're at or what you're doing," said Mellano, the Farm Bureau president, "water is a precious and scarce commodity. People talk about oil. You can live without oil in a lot of instances, but you can't live without water."#
http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2009/07/01/science/885droughtresist070109.txt
Free seminar covers water conservation
The Desert Sun-7/2/09
Palm Springs-based American Leak Detection will offer homeowners a class on water conservation July 9 at the La Quinta Resort, 49-499 Eisenhower Drive.
The class, part of the resort's La Quinta University how-to seminar series, will include tips on finding leaks, reading a water meter and maintaining a swimming pool.
“Many people don't realize just how easy it is to save money when it comes to water conservation,” said Jim Carter, senior director of corporate field services for American Leak Detection.
The registration cost for the entire La Quinta University series is $59.
Information: (760) 779-9000 or justsignmeup.com
http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009906300359
Hawaii's cheapest cruise sails into sunset
The Oakland Tribune-7/2/09
By David Briscoe (Associated Press)
Crewmembers hooted and applauded as the last boat in Honolulu's failed city ferry service sailed into another gorgeous Hawaii sunset to end one of the seas' best bargains for tourists and commuters.
TheBoat, for $2 or a public bus transfer, offered flying fish, dolphins and whales against a backdrop of Diamond Head and the Honolulu skyline.
A capacity 149 passengers took the last hour-long trip late Tuesday—more than five times as many as normal. Crewmembers crowded onto the bow as the catamaran sailed into Kalaeloa harbor and the captain blasted the horn for the last time.
Scuttled by low ridership and costs estimated at $120 per roundtrip passenger, Hawaii's short-lived version of the Staten Island Ferry has now gone the way of the interisland Hawaii Superferry and two giant island-hopping cruise liners that have abandoned Hawaii waters.
Two of the island's three boats were being lifted aboard a barge for return to Washington state Wednesday, and the third, still named Catalina Adventure from a previous assignment, was to return to California.
It's one more sign these islands settled by Polynesian voyagers centuries ago are now more friendly to planes, trains and automobiles.
"It's horrible. I don't think they gave it a chance," said regular rider Shari Kimokeo, who rode TheBoat for the peace and quiet it offered on her daily commute to a job at a downtown brokerage firm.
"We have water, but we can't enjoy it," said Lieu Morimoto, as she and her husband, Dale, basked in a glimmering sunrise on one of TheBoat's last voyages.
For nearly two years, TheBoat has been a little-used leg of Oahu's TheBus system, three 75-foot double-hulled vessels running six roundtrips daily, sailing between the Aloha Tower Marketplace and the growing communities of West Oahu.
The City Council ended the service, which had been subsidized by city and federal funds.
Passengers cite the lack of parking at both ends, early mechanical problems that led to cancellation of many trips, choppy seas during parts of the year that make for a bouncy ride, and military restrictions that prevented use of a much shorter route across the mouth of Pearl Harbor.
TheBoat's departure follows the loss of the far more ambitious Hawaii Superferry system, forced by environmental legal challenges to scuttle and send back one 800-passenger, 200-vehicle vessel even before a second one could be delivered. The Superferry was Hawaii's first passenger-car service with plans to serve Oahu, Maui, the Big Island and Kauai.
Now, the only interisland passenger service is by air.
Two giant NCL America cruise ships built especially for the Hawaiian Islands—Pride of Aloha and Pride of Hawaii—have also left in the face of heavy losses. Only Pride of America remains.
Oahu voters narrowly approved another transportation alternative—a rail transit system that will link Waikiki with West Oahu. The first leg is to be running by 2012.
Buses are being added to make up for the loss of the water commute, but many boat passengers say they'd rather drive than go back to the bus. The drive ordinarily takes less time than the boat, but a single traffic accident can lead to long delays on an island with only one major transportation corridor.
Besides the spectacular shoreline vistas, the hour-long voyage on TheBoat offered amenities not found on Honolulu's often-crowded bus system: a snack bar, free newspapers, tables for creating a traveling office, high-backed seats, wireless Internet and an attentive crew.
"I feel for the regular riders," said ship's mate Diane Harrison. "They're the ones who have to go back to the bus when this could have been a viable means of ridership." Harrison and other crew-members will be looking for new jobs in a tough market.
Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann said he still supports the idea of a city ferry and it could come back when it becomes more viable.
A poster aboard the last voyage had a smiling Hannemann saying, "Aloha! Thanks for trying TheBoat."
Fishing the North Coast: A rough ocean commands respect
Eureka Times-Standard-7/2/09
By Kenny Priest
Last Friday, an incident occurred at a nearby beach with some friends of mine that reminded me just how powerful and dangerous the ocean can be. What began as a relaxing afternoon of redtail perch fishing quickly turned frantic and nearly had a disastrous ending.
On this particular day, the ocean and fishing conditions were horrible and no one had any business being anywhere near the water. The wind was howling -- blowing 15 to 25 knots and eight to ten foot swells pounded the beach every eight to nine seconds. Luckily, one person's swift thinking probably saved an angler's life.
It all started when one of the older gentlemen of the fishing group, who was wearing hip boots, walked down to the edge of the surf to make a cast in between waves. As soon as he made his cast, he turned his back and started walking up the beach toward dry ground.
Halfway up the beach, a large wave hit him squarely in the back sending him face-first into the sand. Obviously rattled, he tried to lift himself up, but quickly realized his hip boots had begun to fill with water and sand from the waves backwash.
The youngest angler of the group, who was standing at a safe distance from the surf, quickly ran down the beach and began pulling the angler, who was in shock and struggling to save his fishing rod, toward higher ground.
Luckily, before the next wave crashed, both men made it up the beach to safety. Although both were clearly shaken, they knew the outcome could have ended up a lot
worse.
If you plan to fish from the surf, there are a few guidelines to help keep you safe: 1) Never turn your back on the ocean; 2) Before going near the water, watch for 15-20 minutes to check for sets of large waves; 3) Use a designated spotter to watch the waves at all times; 4) Always assume the waves can reach you; 5) No piece of fishing equipment is worth a life or serious injury. If it falls down the cliff or is washed away let it go, it can be replaced.#
http://www.times-standard.com/ci_12739511?IADID=Search-www.times-standard.com-www.times-standard.com
Our View: Local swimming death water safety reminder
Marysville Appeal-Democrat-7/2/09
Michael McCullah will be mourned tonight during a memorial gathering at Sam Brannan Park in Yuba City. The Linda resident drowned last week in Lake Francis in the Yuba County foothills. McCullah's death is the just most recent painful reminder that being in and around the water carries some risk.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 3,600 Americans died by unintentional drowning in 2005. More than 700 others drowned or died from other causes in boating incidents. The percentage of fatal drowning victims age 14 and younger tops 25 percent.
Also, drowning is the second-leading cause of accidental deaths for persons 15-44 years of age, according to the National Water Safety Program, which offers these basic safety tips for swimmers:
• Don't take chances, by over estimating your swimming skills.
• Swim only in designated swimming areas.
• Never swim alone.
With summer temperatures soaring, people are naturally flocking to pools, rivers and swimming holes to beat the heat. The Fourth of July holiday weekend offers the potential for great fun in the water — as well as tragedy.
We urge everyone to act safely and responsibly - and live to swim another day.
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/articles/drowning-83939-water-safety.html
Riding wave to change
Costa Mesa Daily Pilot-7/1/09
By Brianna Bailey
Paul Orellana, a 19-year-old from Costa Mesa with a scruffy beard and serious eyes, describes himself as being “lost” before meeting Newport Beach surfer Artemio Rosas a few months ago.
Standing on the beach near 15th Street with a surfboard on a recent, hazy Sunday morning, Orellana surveyed members of Rosas’ Christianos Surf Team paddling out into the water.
“Since I’ve been surfing, I’ve changed a lot,” Orellana said. “I wasn’t doing so good before. I was into partying, hanging out with the wrong people and doing drugs. I was pretty much lost.”
Rosas, who stole money and sold drugs as a teenager to make his way from Mexico to Newport Beach with dreams of becoming a professional surfer, founded the Christianos Surf Team eight months ago to help Latino kids from low-income families learn how to surf and teach them about the Bible.
The Christian team holds church services and sings songs each Sunday on the sand in Newport Beach before heading out into the water with donated wet suits and surfboards.
Orellana, who immigrated to the United States with his family from Guatemala when he was 8, never surfed before he met Rosas three months ago. Now he’s helping the younger kids learn, and Rosas wants him to become one of the leaders of the team as it grows.
“I feel good doing good for other kids who might just be hanging around and don’t have a way to get here and surf on their own,” Rosas said. “I’m committed to helping them and teaching them.”
Rosas started surfing when he was about 7 near Acapulco where he was born.
“It was tough to even find a surfboard,” Rosas remembers. “I had to borrow from friends.”
As a teenager, he dreamed of surfing the waters off Southern California after he saw photographs of surfers in Newport Beach in a magazine.
Rosas stole money from his sister for a bus ticket to Tijuana when he was just 15, with visions of surfing in Orange County.
In Tijuana, he tried to cross the border into the United States illegally with the help of a coyote, but the man bolted when he saw two Border Patrol agents, leaving Rosas to fend for himself miles from civilization along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Rosas managed to escape detection, crossing into the United States, running across a golf course and walking along a busy freeway part of the way, he said.
“For the first time, I got down on my knees after that,” Rosas said. “I thanked God and promised I would do something good, something to glorify Him.”
He went to work selling cocaine for a drug dealer in San Diego, where he earned enough money to take a taxi all the way up the 5 Freeway into Orange County, Rosas said.
Rosas started attending Newport Harbor High School and was a member of the surf team there.
He’s traveled around over the years, surfing professionally and gathering sponsorships from companies like Costa Azul and Bam Bridge Surfboards, but also has spent time working construction in Washington state.
Now Rosas lives in the United States legally and has a work visa.
Living in Newport Beach again, Rosas drives a taxi to support his wife and three children, who live in Mexico.
“While I’m out driving in Santa Ana or Anaheim, I’ll go out and talk to kids I see about surfing,” he said. “Sometimes I knock on doors.”
The team has gathered about 30 members so far, and Rosas hopes to buy more surf boards and attract even more members.
“This is like the hook for kids to get to know God,” said Querubin Pizana, a church leader from the Costa Mesa Spanish Seventh-Day Adventist Church, which Rosas has partnered with to sponsor the team. “[Rosas’] spirituality is very high.”
Twelve-year-old Enid Robles, of Costa Mesa, has been surfing with the team since February. She’s now proficient enough to catch a wave.
“It felt good the first time I did it,” she said.#
http://www.dailypilot.com/articles/2009/07/02/topstory/dpt-surfteam063009.txt
Baby ducklings getting royal treatment outside St. Joseph neonatal intensive care unit
L.A. Daily News-7/1/0-9
By Dennis McCarthy
I hope we haven't made life too easy for them." – Susan Romberger, neonatal nurse manager.
Time will tell. If momma duck and her nine spoiled ducklings don't fly off the patio outside the labor and delivery room at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank pretty soon, I'd start to worry.
They may be getting used to the room service, heated swimming pool and fresh blankets every day.
It's been almost two months now and momma duck has shown no inclination to uproot her babies from the lap of luxury and show them what life is like fending for themselves in the wild.
Smart duck.
How many pregnant ducks have the foresight to give birth to their brood in a terrace planter outside a hospital labor-and-delivery ward where all the patients and staff feel an instant kinship and fall in love with them?
Momma duck's been getting better care for her nine offspring than Octomom did for her eight. And she had Kaiser.
So, here's how it all went down, according to the staff and volunteers at St. Joes.
After Nonamom had her chicks, she dropped them four feet from the planter onto the neonatal intensive care unit patio floor.
"We started giving them a little food, like ground up crackers, then someone donated a 25 pound bag of poultry feed," says Lisa Van Noordwyk, NICU secretary.
"The wash basin we provided for the little guys to swim in was soon outgrown, so someone brought them a nice big plastic pool.
"We provided a blanket for momma duck to cuddle with her babies, and basins of water for them to drink from. We feed them each day, clean their pool, patio, and drinking water, and check to make sure all nine plus mom are still accounted for," she said.
They always are and why not? They're on bloody vacation.
The staff has even contacted duck experts at the Audobon and Humane societies who told them to relax, mom knows what she's doing. When Nanomom is ready to check out with her ducklings, she will.
"They said to let them be, she'll train them and they'll fly away," says Susan Romberger, assistant nurse manager of the NICU at St. Joe's.
"But it's been nearly 60 days and there's no flying going on yet. I hope we haven't made life too easy for them."
Nonamom and her brood have become stars at the hospital. Everybody wants a peep at them.
"People from all over the hospital are constantly calling us asking how the ducks are doing, if they've been fed, if they need anything," Nurse Romberger said.
"Physical therapists have told us that patients on the floors above are motivated to walk in the halls just so they can go to the window and look down on the terrace to see the ducks.
"Visitors bring children to the third floor lobby to look at them. They've gained instant celebrity."
When will they fly away? Anybody's guess. At two months old they should be mature enough to take off now, but Nonamom doesn't look like she's in any rush.
Probably waiting for the TV cameras to show up so she can sell her story to the tabs, TMZ, and Access Hollywood.#
Rain barrels turn into art
San Luis Obispo Tribune-7/2/09
By Mary Beth Breckenridge (Akron Beacon Journal)
Rain barrels are good for the Earth, but they're not always easy on the eye. So a group of young artists has set out to change that.
The 10 teens have been turning plain plastic barrels into works of functional art as participants in Arts LIFT, a three-week arts apprenticeship at the University of Akron (Ohio) that ended Wednesday. The 50 decorated rain barrels will be auctioned at two events, and any that remain will be sold online by Keep Akron Beautiful.
The project was the idea of Elisa Gargarella, an art education professor at the university and the director of Arts LIFT. (LIFT stands for Lola Isroff Fund for Teens, the endowment fund that pays for the program.)
Gargarella has a background in environmental education and a rain barrel in her own yard, but she's heard friends say they wouldn't want one because they're ugly.
That sparked an idea of turning the containers into works of public art. It's a way "to marry art and function and do good," she said.
The barrels will benefit not only the environment, but Keep Akron Beautiful as well. Proceeds from their sale will go to the organization to help fund its Greenprint for Akron environmentalism programs.
A rain barrel is a large, closed drum that is connected to a downspout to collect and hold rainwater that runs off the roof. The water is tapped from a spigot near the bottom of the barrel. The water can't be consumed, but it can be used for purposes such as watering plants or washing cars.
The barrels decorated by the Arts LIFT students were made from recycled 55-gallon containers that once held tomato juice.
During the process, the students have been guided by Greg Nanney and Nick Alley, fine-art printmakers who work with a traveling educational outreach project called Drive by Press. The two visit universities to lecture on printmaking and its context in art history and to display the more than 2,000 fine-art prints that artists have given them in their travels - an undertaking they fund by selling T-shirts they print out of the back of their van.
The rain barrel project isn't just an art experience, however. Gargarella first wanted to increase the students' understanding of water-use issues, so the project started with some environmental education.
The participants toured Akron's sewage treatment plant - a memory that later prompted some wrinkled noses - and heard lectures about collecting rainwater and conserving water.
They then developed designs for their barrels, a challenge that involved properly scaling the designs and making sure they would translate well from a two-dimensional piece of paper to a three-dimensional cylinder. Some elements of the designs were spray painted onto the barrels using stencils the students created; others were screen printed onto paper, cut out and attached to the plastic barrels. The barrels are to be coated with polyurethane to protect the designs.
Each student transferred his or her design to four barrels. The rest of the barrels were decorated in a collaborative effort.
The students have had to learn to adapt their designs, accept criticism and work together on the group designs. For some, it might have been the most one-on-one attention - and the most intense critiques - they'd ever experienced from art instructors, noted Amy Szwast, the Arts LIFT director's assistant.
"That's a hard thing, I think, for young people to take," Gargarella said.
J-C Jones-Kern, who will be a junior at Firestone High School in the fall, had to change her design for purely practical reasons: She'd intended her flock of birds to be printed all in orange, "but they ran out of ink," she said. Still, it was a happy compromise. She liked the haphazardly mottled look that resulted from using two colors instead of one.
J-C also was challenged by having to enlarge her design 650 percent to fit the barrel. "There's a surprising amount of math that goes into screen printing," she said.
Josh Palan, another Firestone junior, designed his barrel to resemble a can of soda pop, complete with a bar code with "free refill" written underneath and "rain barrel facts" in place of the nutrition facts (serving size, 55 fl. gal.; servings per container, 1; contains: 100 percent all natural rain water).
The project involved scanning elements from the label of a Diet Coke bottle into his computer, reworking them with Photoshop and researching information to incorporate into his new label. He'd never done a project like that, he said, so it helped the creative process that he had no preconceived ideas. "I put myself out of my element," he said.
The other Arts LIFT participants are Garfield High School junior Mariana Juarez; recent Firestone graduate Elizabeth Aronhalt, who is headed for Miami University; Firestone juniors Rebecca Aronhalt, Jacob Steele and Lauren Purkhiser; and Firestone seniors Heather Trimble, Simone Griffiths and Nick Hafner.
The annual summer program is open to students from Akron's public high schools, who are selected through an application process.
Gargarella and Szwast said they hope the experience encourages the students to take a more responsible role in their communities and use their art for the greater good.
"Art can speak volumes and have an activist role," Gargarella said. "I want students to think about what place their art has in the world."
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/528/story/771205.html
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