The News Review:
- Concerns are rising on water overuse
- Iraq warns Turkey on Euphrates water supplies
- Jury awards cotton farmer $8.5M in water lawsuit
Concerns are rising on water overuse
Boston Globe
Massachusetts Water Works Association which represents the state’s water suppliers says the 65-gallon limit – the equivalent of 1040 glasses of water – is unrealistic arguing that nationally the daily residential average is closer to 100 gallons per person. Some suppliers also say that if water is ample people should be allowed to use as much as they need. “I can understand limiting water in a stressed basin but we aren’t in one” said Don Rugg of Sarian Company Inc. which manages the water supply for Plymouth Water Company. “Sixty-five gallons a day doesn’t cut the mustard not if you have a family of four laundry car washing and teenage girls that can take a shower for an hour. “Yet Burt and water conservationists insist 65 gallons is a reasonable goal that most communities should try to abide by – even if they have healthy water supplies or are not required to – in order to protect sources before they go scarce. The average US home consumes about 69 gallons of water per person each day for indoor use and 32 gallons outdoors according to federal statistics and the 2001 Handbook of Water Use and Conservation.
Iraq warns Turkey on Euphrates water supplies
Reuters
Turkish authorities told a visiting Iraqi lawmaker last month they had boosted the flow of the Euphrates through Turkish dams upstream of Iraq to help farmers cope with drought. But Iraq’s Water Resources Minister Abdul Latif Rasheed told Turkey on Sunday nothing had been done his ministry said. "The minister asked that the flow of water be increased by 500 cubic metres per second" it said in a statement. Iraq is mostly desert. Its inhabitable areas are fed by the Tigris from Turkey the Euphrates from Turkey and Syria and a network of smaller rivers from Iran. Iraq accuses Turkey and to a lesser extent Syria of choking the Euphrates with hydroelectric dams that have restricted the flow damaging the farm sector already suffering from decades of war sanctions and neglect.
Jury awards cotton farmer $8.5M in water lawsuit
San Jose Mercury News
5 million more than what a jury previously awarded before the case was retried said farm attorney Michael Stump. The Starrhs sued Aera Energy LLC in 2001 alleging the company knowingly allowed 600 million barrels of oil wastewater to seep into the subsurface of their farm. They claimed Aera damaged water they could have used on their crops that is less expensive than water from an aqueduct. A call to Aera on Sunday was not immediately returned but the Bakersfield-based company has contended it did no damage. ——— Information from: The Bakersfield Californian.
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