The News Review:

- Quarries hold hope for thirsty Triangle
- Watch that water
- Missouri must be proactive to maintain clean water supply
- Winter Forecast Shows Little Drought Relief for Southeast

Quarries hold hope for thirsty Triangle
News & Observer – Dec 20, 2007
Raleigh has no immediate plans to store water in a quarry. In a region that has battled severe droughts for three of the past seven years, planners say other water system administrators should be on the hunt for places to pool water in times of plenty. “Quarries are the most obvious of those,” said David Moreau, director of the N. Water Resources Research Institute. “We’ve developed most of the good reservoir sites that nature gave us, so there are not a whole lot left. “With their watertight, craggy stone walls and depths of 200 to 400 feet, abandoned stone mines have proven to be good water-storage facilities.

Watch that water
Fiji Times – Dec 20, 2007
“We are concerned at the expansion and increasing usage of water resources commercially when there are people out there who do not have a decent water supply,” Mr Finau said. “Withdrawing safe or sustainable amounts of groundwater for whatever use should not be a problem. Groundwater aquifers have been in use around the world for water supply since time immemorial. “It is the over-extraction of water resources that will have harmful effects not only on the environment but firstly on the bottled water company itself,” Mr Finau said. Island Chill general manager Jay Dayal said all bottling companies should comply with a sustainable extraction rate to ensure groundwater was not overdrawn. “It is essential that every bottler must have a protected zone and not allowing more than one plant in a given area to protect the source quality and quantity,” Mr Dayal said. “Our borehole extraction capacity is one million liters per day per borehole,” he said.

Missouri must be proactive to maintain clean water supply
Columbia Missourian – Dec 20, 2007
CST BY Sandra Labadia, MU graduate student This year so far, 22 Missouri counties have been declared natural disaster areas due to drought conditions; if these sorts of conditions are more widespread over the state and river water is inordinately or unfairly cotained upstream in the Dakotas or Montana, the results to our state could be devastating. Ron Kucera, former deputy director of police for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, gives us a succinct warning: âThe Missouri River is shrinking like all of the Western rivers. If Missourians donât wake up and do something about the loss of the riverâs flow, they will find out they will have lost a resource, and it will be an irretrievable loss. âMany states are facing crisis conditions from water shortages and severe drought conditions, leading to legal battles over river flows and reservoirs…
If Missourians donât wake up and do something about the loss of the riverâs flow, they will find out they will have lost a resource, and it will be an irretrievable loss. âMany states are facing crisis conditions from water shortages and severe drought conditions, leading to legal battles over river flows and reservoirs. These battles are indicative of the sort of âwater warsâ we in Missouri will be facing in the years ahead with states upstream on our major rivers â particularly the Missouri River. We need to take action now!A lifeline Constitution for the State of Missouri will guarantee every citizen in the state equitable daily access to water, meeting the standards of both state and federal regulatory agencies. By establishing local water governance councils, we become stewards of our local water systems. Local communities must establish co-governing structures with elected citizens and local government water authorities to jointly oversee wise water management.

Winter Forecast Shows Little Drought Relief for Southeast
Environment News Service – Dec 20, 2007
“We appreciate the public’s understanding and compliance with these necessary restrictions that will result in measurable water savings. In drought-stricken Georgia, Governor Sonny Perdue has asked all residents to cut their water usage by 10 percent. State officials warn that Lake Lanier, a 38,000-acre north Georgia reservoir that supplies Atlanta residents with water, could be depleted by mid-January. Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and Department of Watershed Management Commissioner Rob Hunter say they will comply with the governor’s request and announced a set of new initiatives intended to cut water use throughout the city. The city is offering a $1 million ultra-low-flow toilet rebate program in conjunction with the Atlanta Regional Commission and Home Depot. There will be large customer conservation workshops in cooperation with the Georgia Environmental Protection Divisions aimed at the city’s 50 largest water users. In addition, the city will help fund water conservation audits for large users.