The speaker at today's water presentation sponsored by the University of Idaho was Professor, V. Sridhar, Ph.D., P.E., from BSU. I didn't take my program with me and was amused to hear one of the class members in another venue (it is transmitted live to four other sites in Idaho) call him by name. I thought he was saying "Dear Sweetheart."
Anyway, most of his talk concerned the "Sand Hills of Nebraska," although he did talk a bit about nature's balancing act with energy and water.
He and his colleagues have calculated the direction the sand dunes of Nebraska would take if wind directions changed a bit. I thought it was interesting that winds blowing north to south, or vice versa, are warmer than winds blowing east to west or the reverse. Most of the Nebraska area of sand supports a few inches of grass and doesn't reveal the thousands of tons of sand below or the precarious situation of that little bit of topsoil. He had praise for an organization known as the "Sandhills Taskforce," a group of volunteers trying to maintain a healthy system of farms and ranches that rely on grassy terrain for optimal grazing.
I have a feeling I'll be hearing more about Idaho Rivers United from here on. The city hall for Garden City is off Glenwood on Marigold. I think the best way to get there is from the Eagle exchange on the freeway, definitely not from downtown Boise!
Susan Stacy, the author of When the River Rises, was present and received accolades for her book about the history of the Boise River. In 1962-63, the river was so polluted that it smelled bad. Really bad. The cheapest homes were by the river, and nobody wanted to live there.
The Clean Water Act was first known as the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and was established in 1948. With various amendments, in 1966 it became The Clean Water Pollution Control Act, and in 1977 it became the Clean Water Act (CWA). (For a brief look at the history of the CWA, go to the Website maintained by The Bureau of Land Management.)
Some points I learned:
- Storm water runoff is also ruled by the permit process.
- Run a pipe into the river, and it is covered by discharge permit rules.
- The Boise River in and near the city supports more recreation any other river space in the state.
- Because of scant water flows, the black cottonwood is being replaced in the Boise River by the silver maple, an import from New England.
- The black cottonwood supports nesting birds because it has strong roots and stays upright when it dies or is blown over.
- The silver maple falls over into the river and doesn't encourage nesting.
- The result of the above two points: Less black cottonwood means a lower bird population as well as fewer insects to provide food for the birds and small animals along the river.
- Elected officials are much easier to reach and talk to about your water concerns than are business owners. That's their job.
- Just point out what is happening and why and ask a simple question: "This is the road we're going down. Are you sure it's the one you want to take?"
I signed up as a potential volunteer. I suspect I'll hear from them again.
This is a picture of our water supply in Idaho as of September 24, 2007.
In case it's a bit hard to read, here are the numbers in the above chart:
Reservoirs
Lucky Peak: 30% full, capacity 264,400 acre feet
Arrowrock: 23% full, capacity 272,200 acre feet
Anderson Ranch: 18% full, capacity 413,100 acre feet
Cascade: 52% full, capacity 646,460 acre feet
Lake Lowell: 49% full, capacity 119,400 acre feet
Deadwood: 25% full, capacity 161,900 acre feetThe raging issue at the moment is control of water at the Lucky Peak reservoir, because that is the source for the water that flows in the Boise River during the winter.
A panel of experts is scheduled to speak on the topic tonight at the Garden City Hall. The program is sponsored by Idaho Rivers United and the Garden City Library.
I plan to be there.
A water war is stirring in our state over selenium coming into the water supply from phosphate mining in southeast Idaho.
Phosphate is used in fertilizer and animal feed, and selenium is a mineral we need in tiny quantities for optimal health.
The problem is that too much selenium can be lethal. Six horses and more than 550 sheep in Idaho have died from grazing in forage laced with selenium, and researchers blame selenium for die-offs of salamander, deformed embryos of coot and Canada geese, and the death of beaver, cranes, and pelicans. Fish are absent from two streams in Caribou County, where most of the phosphate mining takes place in Idaho and the location of Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge.
The war has two fronts. First is the war to stir up some action on the part of the government to deal with selenium pollution, which has been documented for years, and to enforce cleanup of past pollution messes related to mining. The second is to prevent the Simplot company from enlarging their Smoky Canyon phosphate mine near the Idaho-Wyoming border.
Read more: "Environmentalist say feds colluded with phosphate companies to cover up pollution," Salt Lake Tribune.
And this: Facts about selenium. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
