Free Webinar on Nitrate in Groundwater - Focus on Oregon's Southern Willamette Valley Groundwater Management Area

This is very short notice, but perhaps someone can take advantage out there?

There is a joint presentation on the issue of nitrate in groundwater – here is a fantastic opportunity to hear the latest information on the Southern Willamette Valley Groundwater Management Area - as well as views from Wisconsin’s Public Drinking Water Program and an update from USGS on their NAWQA project including national data on nitrate in groundwater.

Here is the EPA website information – and there is a link to register for this Webinar below.

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EPA's Watershed Academy is pleased to sponsor its 57th free Webcast Seminar.

Webcast on Tuesday, March 29, 2011 - 10 AM PT

"Nitrogen and Phosphorus Pollution Series: Nitrate in Ground Water"
by Jill Jonas, Director, Bureau of Drinking Water and Groundwater, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources,
Audrey Eldridge, Coordinator for the Southern Willamette Valley Groundwater Management Area, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, and
Neil M. Dubrovsky, PhD, Chief, Nutrients and Trace Elements National Synthesis Project, National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA), U.S. Geological Survey



Please use this link to register

http://water.epa.gov/learn/training/wacademy/webcasts_index.cfm

So much for the water they drink (Part 2)

I have a bit of a correction to make from my previous post. I misinterpreted some comments/events and ascribed the pushover vote to the wrong pushover. The second vote to repeal the local ordinance to protect groundwater will come from the Republican party, not the Democratic party, in Deschutes County. I apologize for the error. Either way, I smell blood in the water but I be afeared it is the local habitat for endangered fish species that is food for the sharks and not the so-called higher thinkers that make the decisions for that region of Oregon.

By the way, the word on whether the Democratic vote on this issue will be a pushover as well is still out. The vote will purportedly take place on this Wednesday, March 23rd.

Further, the juiciest bit of gossip is that the local representative from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality expressed dismay at the possibility of this ordinance being repealed. From what I have read on the issue so far, which I am sorry to report has taken much more of my life than I intended (there is a huge amount of info available online, is that the DEQ has taken a completely milk-toast stance on the issue. They have been so politically correct in their verbiage that you can't tell if they support protecting groundwater quality or not. They say the right things over all in terms of DEQ's program goals, but when it comes to the specifics of this matter in Central Oregon that affects one of the major rivers in the state, the tone and words are best described as bland, almost to the point of indifference. What did we the people hire these "professionals" to do?

Anyway, it appears from this vantage point that the endangered fish species (steelhead) in this basin don't have a voice. Where are the advocates that will fight to restore and prevent the further decline what was formerly a world class trout fishing stream? Where are the folks that would take action under the Endangered Species Act and use this nice little Citizen's guide to better understand their rights?

Here is state and local government using public resources to work to ensure there is one more reason not to come to Oregon.

Pamplona has Nothing on this Bull Run

Here's a nice piece on one of my favorite watersheds:

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/08/bull_run_watershed_journey_to.html

Take Back the Power!

Or, How We Can Really Make the Power Companies Even More Dependent on We the Ratepayers

This posting is ostensibly about power generation, so why am I, Oregon Water Thorn, tackling this topic?  Because the issue of distribution and big utilities can, naturally, be translated to water or sewage distribution/collection.  Think about the parallels:

I have a friend that lives over in Bend that was griping the other day about the local electric utility raising rates. A normal response, in fact, a great response, because the rate hike prompted a declaration that the family would lower their electricity use to avoid paying more. Assuming that the electric utility's goal was to cover the increasing costs of electricity generation, then this family's response is perfect. After all, conservation is the cheapest, fastest, and easiest way to increase system capacity regardless of whether a given distribution system delivers electricity or water services. In short, these kinds of homeowners end up working towards the utility's goal of maximizing the resource in the cheapest way possible.

But I know that most homeowners don't understand the real power that comes with distributed power generation. And I use the dualistic word "power" in this context in the "We the People" sense because without we the ratepayers, utilities would not exist.

Given this fundamental linkage between paying rates and the big utility (to draw the obvious comparison for you, paying taxes and the big guv'mint), I don't understand why Tea Party types don't all have grid- or non-grid-tied photovoltaic, or wind, systems on their land. This is the common person's arena where they can jump in to free themselves of the big utility. Free themselves of rate increases. Become independent in that true American homesteading fashion. And, with grid-tied systems, an individual property becomes part of the electric production network which makes the utility just that little bit beholden to you for their stock in trade.

Power to the people, by the people, for the people.

The photovoltaic, or PV, system on the roof of our state capitol building is a most elegant representation of this concept and, in my opinion, one of the best investments Oregon has ever made. And it makes me wonder, why aren't more of us free of monthly power bills?

I suspect it is because of the upfront investment that's needed to take back the power. In a sense, it is the very corporate concept that it takes money to make money that prevents a lot of cash-strapped folks I know from making the investment. But I also know a lot of non-cash-strapped folks that could easily make the investment and that are the classic Tea Party type complainers.

So I have to ask, what is freedom worth? What is it worth to a nation of so-called rugged individualists to be truly independent in such a fundamental part of their lives? Apparently it is not worth much if the ever increasing complaints about rates are any measure.

So to return to my by-line, do I need to draw the parallel with water and wastewater? What is it worth to the folks that want small government to reduce the capacity of our water and wastewater systems? What is it worth to get off the grid of our municipal water and wastewater plants by using less, by harvesting rainwater, by reusing wastewater or greywater on our land? What is it worth to be free of that tie? Again, apparently not much, given the number of people I know that want to tie themselves to the big wastewater treatment system.