Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance
Posts related to water in California, historical, canals, use, conservation, irrigation, flooding, Folsom Dam, American River
With Governor Brown’s declarations of a drought emergency in 2014 and subsequent State Water Resources Control Board’s (SWRCB) decisions that some water districts must conserve up 36% of their consumption over the baseline 2013 year, many homeowners are wondering how they can conserve enough water without killing their entire landscaping. While some homeowners have voluntarily […]
Sometimes the craziest ideas actually become reality. In 1870 one man proposed tunneling underneath the Sierra Nevada mountain range to ship Tahoe lake water to San Francisco. While that may seem like an audacious scheme today, similar projects were already underway in the 19th century and parts of the tunnel project under the Sierras have […]
What would you do if you learned the business you worked for had their revenue drop by 20% every month for the past year? If nothing else, you’d probably be concerned about your job and if the company was going to stay in business. Then, what if you learned your company was asking customers not […]
As if to defy traditional market economics, the water consumption in the Granite Bay retail division of the San Juan Water District dropped without the advent price hikes. This water conservation, solely at the behest of the water districts and California officials, illustrates that consumers can change their consumption based on good information and awareness […]
The drought of 2014 is affecting California communities unevenly. Where Granite Bay residents may be facing a severe Stage 5 water emergency declaration by year’s end, homeowners 10 or 20 miles away may still be keeping their grass green with daily irrigation. The visual triggers in order to get people to conserve water along with […]
With Folsom reservoir dropping to historically low levels in the autumn of 2013 and record low rain fall, there was no question that Northern California was in the grip of a drought. The question posed by San Juan Water District Board member Bob Walters to the assembled drought water committee at their second meeting was, […]
San Juan Water District convened their inaugural meeting of the 2014 Drought Committee at their district headquarters this past June 2nd. The committee is comprised of representatives from neighboring municipal districts, professionals from the pool, golf course and nursery industries, along with community residents served by the San Juan Water District. The focus of the […]
At a recent San Juan Water District (SJWD) Board meeting one of the Board members declared that the district would defend, with a lawsuit if necessary, their pre-1914 water rights to American River water during a period of drought. This board member’s passion that this government agency “owned” water because of a man made dam built during California’s gold rush struck me as pure folly. Water rights are a myth. No one owns the water flowing in a river.
In its very essence, the Freeport Regional Water Project is a peripheral water conveyance system designed to have Bureau of Reclamation water purchased by EBMUD not pass through the Delta. Even though this water is being used to service East Bay communities, there is no reason that some simple modifications to the EBMUD aqueducts would allow the water to be sent south to Southern California. Perhaps the Metropolitan Water District in Southern California should fund the construction of the necessary modifications to allow the discharge of water from the EBMUD aqueducts in the event of an emergency situation where Sacramento River water can’t be conveyed through the Delta.
I’ll admit that I’m addicted to flavored water. For years I have been buying Aquafina Flavor Splash and recently started purchasing Mio Orange Tangerine Liquid Enhancer concentrate. When I looked at the ingredients of these two products I realized that I could make a similar concentrated to flavor water at home. While my home brew chemical mixture isn’t quite as perfect as the store bought products, it tastes good and it’s fun to tinker with the ingredients.
