The News Review:

- Big brain drain
- Water train heads for derailment
- Celebrate Drinking Water Week Through May 16
- WATEROfwat addresses competition.(News)(licensing water supply )
- Full water supply seen for Yakima

Big brain drain
NEWS.com.au – May 11, 2007
" Even the experts tried to warn this Government. In 2003, for instance, Monash University’s Centre for Dynamical Meteorology and Oceanography said low winter rainfalls could be back to stay, and "our cities (may) start to run out of water". A deadline was put on that by the Government’s own Water Resources Strategy committee back in 2002, when it warned we faced severe shortages by 2013 at the very latest. But for too long, Thwaites and his green-blinded colleagues refused to do anything, and then contented themselves with simply telling us to make do with less. " It takes a genius to think up that strategy for coping with a shortage. In fact, rather than find new water sources, the Government drained the ones we had…
Extra "environmental flows" of dam water were sent down the Snowy, Murray, Yarra and Thomson. And most stupid of all, the Government turned the dam reservation on Gippsland’s Mitchell River into a national park to stop it from ever being used for Melbourne’s drinking water. Let me tell you how good the Mitchell could be for a city’s water supply. River flow charts show a dam there would fill more than three times faster, on average, than our Thomson Dam, which holds 60 per cent of Melbourne’s water. Or put it this way: The Mitchell River flowed so fast in 1974 it could have filled the Thomson Dam twice. (I’d tell you about the Mitchell’s flows today, but Thwaites’ department has now taken that data off its water resources website. ) Even better, a Mitchell dam could be built for not much more than $1 billion, says Thwaites himself – cheaper by far than any of the alternatives he’s at last considering instead.

Water train heads for derailment
Capital Press – Capital Press (subscription) – May 11, 2007
The California Department of Water Resources reported that the statewide Sierra snowpack averaged 29 percent of normal, the lowest level since 1988. Water officials, while not alarmed, have called for added conservation efforts by local and regional water agencies to stretch supplies as far as practical. State Water Resources Director Lester Snow has stated that California isn’t in crisis yet thanks to water supplies behind the state’s major dams. But how much can California continue to capture or store water?Snow has emphasized, “We know that current and future droughts are going to be deeper than historic droughts. “Many counties and cities have called for conservation. The ramifications of drought for California are a real and present danger. Even if there are healthy snows and rains, California’s thirst continues to increase to unquenchable levels.

Celebrate Drinking Water Week Through May 16
Hicksville Illustrated News – May 11, 2007
It creates jobs, attracts industry and investment, and provides for the health and welfare of citizens in ways ranging from disease prevention to fire suppression. We often take water resources for granted unless we are living through a drought or when depleted water supplies threaten a community’s future. Water plays a vital role in our daily lives, and this year the Hicksville Water District and all local water suppliers in conjunction with the AWWA will be celebrating what “Only Tap Water Delivers That No Other Water Can. ” Like most towns in the United States, Hicksville enjoys a very sophisticated drinking water system that you can drink from virtually any public tap in the community and be assured that the water is safe and good-tasting. Given that fact, it’s hard to explain that many people are willing to pay a $1. 50 for 20 ounces of bottled water.

WATEROfwat addresses competition.(News)(licensing water supply )
Free with registration – Utility Week – AccessMyLibrary.com – May 11, 2007
(News)(licensing water supply ) –> COPYRIGHT 2007 Reed Business Information Ltd. by Steve Hobson Regulator Ofwat has launched two consultation documents outlining options to boost water competition – but has instructed the water companies to act as if the proposed measures took immediate effect. The first consultation sets out a range of proposed amendments to Ofwat’s water supply licensing guidance. These include: abolishing fees paid by new entrants.

Full water supply seen for Yakima
Capital Press – Capital Press (subscription) – May 11, 2007
Bureau of Reclamation said May 7. The updated water forecast is based on flow data, current snowpack and this year’s precipitation data. “We are expecting a near-average water supply at this time,” Chuck Garner, Yakima Project river operations supervisor, said in a news release.