The News Review:

- Farmers sell water to cities As shortage worsens, many find it’s…
- Raleigh may tap lake’s depths
- Toxic leak threatens Kalamazoo water
- Water official discusses its future demand, development in Taiwan

Farmers sell water to cities As shortage worsens, many find it’s…
San Francisco Chronicle – Jan 25, 2008
“It’s been a good decade since there’s been this much interest in buying and selling water on the open market,” said Jack King, national public affairs manager for the California Farm Bureau Federation. “We’re prepared to see significant fallowing in several key parts of the state. Water from Northern California rivers irrigates most of the country’s winter vegetables and keeps faucets flowing in the Los Angeles area. But it must be shipped south through a complex network of pumps, pipes and aqueducts, and that system recently developed a kink when a federal judge ordered new restrictions on pumping to save a threatened fish. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California legislators argue about how to solve the state’s water crisis, the bottleneck has sent the demand for water soaring in cities and farming districts far to the south. Residents of Long Beach can’t run fountains, and it’s now illegal for restaurants to serve customers a glass of water unless they ask for it…
But even Rolen, who expects to harvest a bumper crop next year after idling 100 acres of his rice fields, says selling water is only a temporary fix to the problem. “The state is growing almost exponentially and we have never totally satisfied agricultural water needs in the San Joaquin Valley and the southern part of the state,” he said. “I hate to say it, but the supplies that we have now are just tapped out on a good year. This article appeared on page B – 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Raleigh may tap lake’s depths
News & Observer – Jan 25, 2008
Reallocating 10 percent of the flood storage to Raleigh would boost the city’s water supply by half. And raising the lake while also drawing from the sedimentation pool at the bottom would boost Raleigh’s allocation in Falls Lake by 77 percent. That’s at least twice as much additional water supply as Raleigh stands to gain from Lake Benson south of Garner and Raleigh’s planned Little River Reservoir in eastern Wake County. comp –> Related Content…
It holds about 8 billion gallons of surplus water, a bit more than half as much as the city’s water allocation. More room for waterThe dark, cold, murky stratum is home to bass, crappie, catfish, and the mud that washes gradually into the 24-mile-long reservoir north of the city. The water could require additional chemical treatment to make it safe to drink, which would add to the cost, city officials say. A federal study in the 1990s found that Falls Lake’s bottom is filling more slowly than expected, leaving more room for water than first planned. In theory, the lake’s bottom layer holds enough water to supply Raleigh and the seven other Wake County towns it serves for two to three months. That’s up to 87 days’ worth at the lake’s current draw-down rate, assuming no rain.

Toxic leak threatens Kalamazoo water
mlive.com – Jan 25, 2008
In 1998, the state paid to remove the leaking tanks and gasoline-soaked soil and install a system to pump out the contaminated groundwater before it could get to the wells grouped beside Axtell Creek. Between 2001 and 2002, more than 100 million gallons of polluted water was removed, the work was never finished. “Then they ran out of funding to keep the system going,” said John Paquin, water-resources manager for the city of Kalamazoo. “We’ve essentially kept the well-field off line because of that. The former McDonald’s gas station, which has sat empty since the late 1990s, is among the most serious cases of underground pollution in Kalamazoo County because of its proximity to a source of drinking water, state officials say. While officials stress that the city’s water supply is safe because of frequent monitoring, chronic underfunding at the state level has kept cleanups at other sites around the city from being completed. The city’s water system – the state’s second-largest groundwater-based system – serves not only city residents but also customers in the northern part of Portage, the village of Richland and seven surrounding townships…
“We’ve essentially kept the well-field off line because of that. The former McDonald’s gas station, which has sat empty since the late 1990s, is among the most serious cases of underground pollution in Kalamazoo County because of its proximity to a source of drinking water, state officials say. While officials stress that the city’s water supply is safe because of frequent monitoring, chronic underfunding at the state level has kept cleanups at other sites around the city from being completed. The city’s water system – the state’s second-largest groundwater-based system – serves not only city residents but also customers in the northern part of Portage, the village of Richland and seven surrounding townships. A statewide problemThere are at least 135 sites where gasoline has leaked from underground storage tanks in the city of Kalamazoo. Those sites account for 75 percent of the leaks in Kalamazoo County. Some of those leaks of gasoline or other hazardous chemicals were first reported in the 1980s.

Water official discusses its future demand, development in Taiwan
China Post – Jan 25, 2008
Given limited natural water resources, Chen believes that Taiwan should set a ceiling of 20 billion tons per year by 2021. Despite conservation efforts, however, Chen suggested that Taiwan will see water demand peak before that. Currently, 72 percent of Taiwan’s water goes to agriculture, 10 percent to industry and 18 percent to residences. In 2007, because of abundant rainfalls brought by several typhoons, storage rates of most reservoirs exceeded 80 percent, said Chen. It is estimated that the water supply for domestic and industrial usage will be stable in the first half year of 2008…
Currently, 72 percent of Taiwan’s water goes to agriculture, 10 percent to industry and 18 percent to residences. In 2007, because of abundant rainfalls brought by several typhoons, storage rates of most reservoirs exceeded 80 percent, said Chen. It is estimated that the water supply for domestic and industrial usage will be stable in the first half year of 2008. In addition, demand for irrigation of the first rice crop should be sufficient. "We are optimistic about water supply for the last half year of 2008 because that is Taiwan’s wet season," he explained. The main tasks of the island’s water authority are proposal and implementation of water policies; development, allocation, management and conservation of water resources; regulation and management of basins and creation of water environments; and prevention, mitigation and response to floods and droughts. Annual rainfall in Taiwan is 2,467 millimeters per year, said Chen, but only 4,074 cubic meters per capita is available for use by industry, agriculture and residence.