The News Review:

- Prop. 1E needed to fix levees, backers say; foes blast bond’s cost
- Senator Feinstein Joins Environmental & Water Leaders in San…
- China's water supply

Prop. 1E needed to fix levees, backers say; foes blast bond’s cost
San Diego Union Tribune – Oct 26, 2006
“We would get lesser quality water and less amounts” if a disruption occurred, said Les Harder, deputy director for public safety at the state Department of Water Resources. The estimated cost to the economy: more than $40 billion over five years. Protecting water supplies is an argument made by supporters of a $4. 1 billion flood-control bond, Proposition 1E, part of a record $37. 3 billion public-works bond package placed on the November ballot by lawmakers. Opponents argue that levees should be repaired by local and federal government, not by a bond that would add to the debt of a state budget that has had a chronic shortfall for years. The urgent repair of Delta levees, some protecting wind-eroded islands 15 to 20 feet below sea level, is an appeal made by bond supporters to Southern Californians who live far from where most of the money would be spent…
The disastrous flooding of New Orleans in August of last year, when levees failed during Hurricane Katrina, is one of the reasons that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature put Proposition 1E on the ballot. But the state Department of Water Resources had issued a white paper in January 2005, “Flood Warnings: Responding to California's Flood Crisis,” declaring that Central Valley levees are a “ticking time bomb. ”The paper said that as some levees are “literally washing away,” maintenance funds have been cut, and housing developments in the rapidly growing Central Valley are pushing into vulnerable flood plains. Army Corps of Engineers survey found dozens of severely eroded levee sites, Schwarzenegger declared a levee emergency in February.

Senator Feinstein Joins Environmental & Water Leaders in San…
Free with registration – PR Newswire – AccessMyLibrary.com – Oct 26, 2006
Senator Dianne Feinstein today urged passage of Proposition 84 — the Clean Water and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2006, which has gained the largest coalition of supporters of any measure on the November statewide ballot. The Senator was joined by water and conservation leaders at Crissy Field to call attention to the overwhelming need to invest in California’s water and land resources. Today, more than 60% of rivers and streams tested in California are so polluted they violate federal clean water standards. This pollution threatens our sources of.

China's water supply
economist.com – Oct 26, 2006
In order to gain access to it please either Log in, Activate your complimentary web account if you are a print subscriber, or Subscribe now China's water supply China’s water trials Oct 26th 2006 From The Economist print edition HOW to provide sufficient clean water to the vast and arid north of China has long been a headache for its rulers. Of late they have considered some ambitious proposals. One of the most hotly debated, to divert water hundreds of kilometres from Tibet at a cost of tens of billions of dollars, was scorned this week by the water minister. What about a more modest (and less Maoist) approach: using market-driven prices to deter waste and pollution? Market solutions do not come naturally to Chinese officials. For the past four years two huge diversion projects have been under way to bring water from the Yangzi River basin to northern China…
In order to gain access to it please either Log in, Activate your complimentary web account if you are a print subscriber, or Subscribe now China's water supply China’s water trials Oct 26th 2006 From The Economist print edition HOW to provide sufficient clean water to the vast and arid north of China has long been a headache for its rulers. Of late they have considered some ambitious proposals. One of the most hotly debated, to divert water hundreds of kilometres from Tibet at a cost of tens of billions of dollars, was scorned this week by the water minister. What about a more modest (and less Maoist) approach: using market-driven prices to deter waste and pollution? Market solutions do not come naturally to Chinese officials. For the past four years two huge diversion projects have been under way to bring water from the Yangzi River basin to northern China. Work on a more technologically challenging third route, involving blasting through mountains to link the Yangzi’s upper reaches to the Yellow River, is expected to begin around 2010. The proposal castigated by the water minister, Wang Shucheng, on October 24th was even more grandiose.