Recent News

Tom Mason, Local Contributor

Whether you see a glass of water as half-full or half-empty depends on whether you are pouring or drinking.

Most of us in the greater Austin region get our drinking water from Lakes Travis and Buchanan, and as we start the New Year, our glass is almost two-thirds empty.

The past year brought us the hottest summer and driest 12-month period in recorded Texas history, and our state climatologist has warned that the drought could last until 2020. The Read More >

By JENS ERIK GOULD / LOS ANGELES Monday, Jan. 03, 2011

To quench the thirst of Southern California’s some 20 million people, water must be imported from hundreds of miles away, across a daunting array of deserts, valleys and mountains. For decades, Angelenos have muttered a doomsday refrain: our water supply isn’t sustainable and we are going to have to get smarter about managing it — at some point. The obviousness of the problem, however, instilled a kind of panicked lassitude. Read More >

To the Editor:

A Houston headline on Dec. 30 stated “City Lost Millions To Water Leaks: During drought, aging Houston system wasted 18 billion gallons.” Toward the end of the article is this quote, “The city also had to withdraw water from its emergency reserve, stored in Lake Conroe, from August to Nov. 30. As a result, Lake Conroe, already depleted from the drought and searing temperatures, dropped to an all-time record low of 9 feet below its normal level.”

As has Read More >

HOUSTON — A review of Houston water records shows the city lost more than 18 billion gallons of water potentially worth tens of millions of dollars at the height of this summer’s punishing drought.

A Houston Chronicle examination of records (http://bit.ly/vJJeLQ ) shows leaking and broken pipes sent more than 9 billion gallons of water down the drain in September in October alone when city officials were urging residents to conserve and had to tap into emergency supplies.

“Water is a valuable Read More >

This time of year we need to acknowledge God’s gift, the natural bounty afforded to us on this remarkable planet.

This great gift carries important obligations. In Genesis, the Lord grants humans dominion over all the Earth.

We must care for the fish of the sea, and presumably the sea in which the fish live; for the fowl of the air, and the atmosphere in which the fowl live; and for every living thing that moves upon the Earth and its waters.

We Read More >

DEARBORN, Mich.,

New aggressive water strategy calls for global reduction target of 30 percent per vehicle by 2015.

Between 2000 and 2010, Ford reduced its global water use by 62 percent, or 10.5 billion gallons; 71 percent in North America

On a per-vehicle basis, global water use decreased by 49 percent between 2000 and 2010; 45 percent in North America
Ford enters 2012 with plans to further reduce the amount of water used to make vehicles and continue showing efficiency is not only inherent Read More >

BERTHOUD PASS — Colorado’s snowpack — one of the most important sources of water for states in the American West — is lagging significantly below normal, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

The first manual snow sampling of the season Thursday confirmed what automated sensors have been suggesting for weeks: that the water available in Colorado’s snowpack is about a quarter below average.

Statewide, snowpack is 73 percent of normal. That ranks as the fourth-driest measurement in the last 30 years, Read More >

Taipei, Dec. 27 (CNA) Taiwan will allocate hundreds of billions of dollars for water conservation and on renewing the country’s water pipes in the following decade, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang said Tuesday.

Shih noted that the public’s average daily water use is higher than in Western Europe and Japan and he urged people to take water conservation more seriously.

He also praised the success of a waste-water recycling program implemented by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world’s largest contract Read More >

BEIJING, Dec 27 (Xinhua) — China invested a record 334.1 billion yuan (52.82 billion U.S. dollars) in water conservation this year, the Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) said Tuesday.

The central government alone invested more than 100 billion yuan in water conservation projects, up 70.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the MWR.

The funding of conservation efforts has progressed, as now China allocates 10 percent of income from land transfers to farmland irrigation and water conservancy construction, said Chen Lei, Read More >

SEABROOK — The town will increase its water rates for the first time in four years, despite objections from a handful of voters.

Selectmen voted Dec. 21 to accept the recommendations of a study performed by the Abrahams Group of Framingham, Mass., to convert the water department’s current flat rate billing system of $60 per year for up to 60,000 gallons to a flow-based system.

The new rate structure will begin Jan. 1 and billing will be combined with sewer bills, which Read More >