WE WANT FULL DISCLOSURE

November 20, 2009


http://www.yumasun.com/news/pilot-54082-plant-run.html ... Desalting plant pilot run scheduled for May … A pilot run of the Yuma Desalting Plant will take place in May. The run, which will be conducted in collaboration with three water agencies from Arizona, California and Nevada, has been under consideration for some time to test the idle plant’s capabilities.

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE . . . All “desal” plants in the process of converting salty water to potable (drinking) conditions produce prodigious amounts of salt. Question … where is this reject salt being discharged …? And under what conditions …?

“We” are demanding a full, open, honest, timely DISCLOSURE on all the water parameters such as beginning water quality in terms of salt, pH, temperature, chemicals such as pesticides, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and resulting quality after going through the “desal” process…?

Or is this information proprietary (ha, ha) and our government is refusing to release it …?

… I invite “us” to consider not to shame, blame or criticize but rather simply ask … what would it look like when it’s fixed … and own that ONLY we have the power to bring about the change needed to fix it …


Just one link in a chain . . .

November 20, 2009



Quagga mussels a toxic threat to Lake Mead … Because of what they eat and excrete, quagga mussels could poison lake …Anyone who doubts that the quagga mussels in Lake Mead are a critical issue should consider this warning from the experts: If the quaggas are not stopped, they could poison the lake.
Years before they showed up in Southern Nevada, the little mollusks colonized the Great Lakes, and researchers there have found that the rise in their quagga populations correlates with increases in dangerous toxins. There are two reasons for this: poop and algae. Quaggas can poop poison pellets and can turn swaths of open lake into algae-filled dead zones.
The scoop on the poop is this: Each mussel works like a tiny liver, absorbing toxins and heavy metals such as mercury, selenium, polychlorinated biphenyls (known as PCBs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (or PAHs) from the lake water in a process called bioaccumulation.
But quaggas are not content to do a good deed. They later expel those chemicals and metals — in the form of a highly concentrated pellet. Those toxic pellets sink to the lake floor. Some of the pellets are eaten by bottom feeders. As the bottom feeders eat more and more of the pellets, the toxins concentrate in their tissues. When a whole bunch of those bottom feeders are eaten by larger fish or birds, higher concentrations of those toxins build up in those predators, in a process called biomagnification. The toxins amplify in each predator as they make their way up the food chain — all the way to fishermen and bird hunters

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE . . . It just might be time for Arizona to consider the “strenght” of this chain … ?

For any chain is only as strong as its weakest link and inasmuchas Lake Mead feeds the most vital water conduit in Arizona .. CAP … the “normal” ambient water quality of Lake Mead shoulld be of paramount importance to Arizona … but is it…?

The quagga mussel is very much in the CAP water system impacting most of our canals whick feed the water treatment plants delivery potable (drinking) water to the bulk of “metro” Phoenix residents. Are you aware of this, has your water purveyor disclosed this to you…? Do you have any idea of the methods your water purveryor utilizes in attempting to control (kill) these quagga mussels…?
How about injecting their water system with a biocide (chemical which kills) along with high concentrations of CHLORINE. But, hey, it’s OK … they dechlorinate don’t they …? And besides the reports they provide almost always show that the water they treat is SAFE … ?

Oh, by the way, they decide what to report … you and I … don’t get a seat at that table … still believe your water is safe …?

… I invite “us” to consider not to shame, blame or criticize but rather simply ask … what would it look like when it’s fixed … and own that ONLY we have the power to bring about the change needed to fix it …


DOES ANYONE FIND THIS SURPRISING ,,,?

November 20, 2009

Ariz. fiscal woes 2nd-worst … Report: Calif. is only state in worse budget shape

Tucson Citizen and The Arizona Republic… Mary Jo Pitzl
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2009/11/12/20091112peril1112.html

AZ among 10 states in worst fiscal bind … Study: Array of legal hurdles slowing action on big deficit … Tribune, Sierra Vista Herald and Arizona Daily Star… Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/317249

Pew Center says Arizona is in ‘peril’ … Phoenix Business Journal
http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2009/11/09/daily42.html?surround=lfn

Budget disasters loom in 10 states, report says
Sierra Vista Herald, Tri-Valley Dispatch, Maricopa Monitor, Arizona City Independent, Florence Reminder, Eloy Enterprise, Coolidge Examiner, Casa Grande Dispatch, Huffington Post and San Francisco Chronicle… Judy Lin, Associated Press
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/12/BAOJ1AIVLD.DTL

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE . . . With a budget legacy based solely on a “balancing-act” predicated on growth … what conclusion might your draw…?

How does Arizona grow a sustainable economy when “we” choose to play ostrich to issues of a growing water dilemma, freeways and state highways in need of repair, failing educational system – K through college, a state economy and budget predicated solely on building new homes …?

… I invite “us” to consider not to shame, blame or criticize but rather simply ask … what would it look like when it’s fixed … and own that ONLY we have the power to bring about the change needed to fix it …


ACC will grant big increa$e

November 18, 2009


DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE . . .

Count me as one who has no doubt those occupying seats on the Arizona PRO Corporation Commission will acquiesce and grant what will ultimately be a hefty rate increase to Arizona American Water without honestly providing full, open, honest, timely DISCLOSURE to the residents in Anthem.

DISCLOSURE is an anathema to these elected officials as they are skilled in playing the game whereby for-profit-corporate-interest$ falling under their auspices initially seek obscene rate increases knowing all the while what will be granted will be less all part of the show a gesture on the part of these commissioners to you they are actually looking out for your interests.

Interestingly playing this version of the old “shell-game” still works and we believe we are actually being honestly served and protected…?

… I invite “us” to consider not to shame, blame or criticize but rather simply ask … what would it look like when it’s fixed … and own that ONLY we have the power to bring about the change needed to fix it …


Las Vegas … water’s … whipping boy flavor of the day

November 18, 2009

When … WATER … is the topic in the … WEST … today Las Vegas almost instantly become everyone’s favorite “whipping boy” …

Las Vegas Gambles With an Uncertain Water Future …. By Lauren Morella of ClimateWire …Boulder City, Nev. — November 10, 2009 … excerpted … Straddling the border between Nevada and Arizona, the Hoover Dam is a symbol of human engineering might.

For more than 70 years, its massive walls have tamed the flows of the Colorado River, fueling the growth of cities like Las Vegas that depend on it to supply water and power from its generating station.

But these days, what’s most striking is the lack of water stored behind the dam’s concrete arch. A thick white band of mineral deposits marks the walls of Black Canyon above the water line. Locals call it the “bathtub ring.” It’s where the water used to be, before the start of the current decade-long drought.

For officials charged with keeping water flowing to Las Vegas and other Colorado River communities, the bathtub ring isn’t a curiosity. It’s yet another reminder that worries about climate change are reshaping their future.

“Around 2002, we really began to look at whether this was one of those traditional droughts the Colorado River has experienced — or are we looking at something very different?” said Patricia Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

Spring warming is coming earlier and harder, evaporating mountain snowpack that feeds the river and its two main reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell.

Mountain snowpack evaporates … “In two weeks in April, we lost the equivalent of 14 feet of Lake Powell in snowpack,” said Mulroy. “So it’s a pretty daunting and disconcerting reality that we’re beginning to get our heads around.”

Mulroy is not alone. Across the United States, water managers are beginning to grapple with climate change. And it’s changing the way they think about almost everything.
For the utilities that supply the nation’s drinking water, one of the first casualties is the idea that the conditions of the past can predict the future, said David Behar, deputy to the assistant general manager for water at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

“It’s a game changer for water managers,” he said. “It takes the variability that we understand, and can live with, and amplifies it by an order of magnitude.”

“You have to plan decades ahead, in terms of water supply and source water needs,” said Dan Hartnett, director of legislative affairs for the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies. “It’s too late if you wake up one morning and the tap runs dry.”
A tale of tree rings and ‘Sin City’ … Walking along Las Vegas Boulevard, it’s hard to believe Sin City is facing a water crisis. The dancing fountains at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino spring to life every half-hour, captivating tourists who gather to gawk.
The nearby Mirage features a lagoon complete with towering waterfalls and a fake volcano. And on a hot summer’s day, visitors who find the scorching desert sun discomforting can still have their drinks outside at bars equipped with machines that cool the air with a fine mist.

But those are illusions. For Mulroy, it is Lake Mead that tells the tale of Las Vegas’ water future. The reservoir’s water level fell this summer to its lowest point since 1965, when officials diverted Colorado River flows to fill the newly constructed Lake Powell. By late August, Lake Mead’s elevation hovered at just 1,092 feet above sea level.

Under the complex system of allotments that governs how Colorado River water is distributed to seven U.S. states and Mexico, that leaves just 17 feet of wiggle room before the Southern Nevada Water Authority must, by law, begin seeking alternate sources of water.

If the lake dips to 1,050 feet, the Hoover Dam’s hydroelectric power plant will shut down and Las Vegas will have to begin weaning itself off the river. It’s hard to tell how soon Lake Mead could hit this ominous milestone

The pact that governs the Colorado’s supply was negotiated early last century, one of the wettest periods in the past 1,200 years, based on climate records drawn from tree rings across the southwestern United States. Many scientists say it’s nearly inevitable that the region will become drier, moving closer to the historical average.

Right now, the best climate models predict a drop of anywhere from 5 to 25 percent in the mountain runoff that supplies the Colorado by midcentury. But a recent study by researchers at the University of Colorado suggests that the decisions water managers make can — temporarily — blunt the effects of climate change and continuing population growth.

Preparing the ‘third straw’ … The water authority has embarked on a massive construction project to build a new intake pipe to pull water from Lake Mead. Known locally as the “third straw,” it will ensure the utility can siphon water if the lake level dips below an elevation of 1,000 feet, rendering two existing intakes useless.
SNWA is also seeking permission to build a controversial $3.5 billion pipeline to transport groundwater from rural eastern Nevada, a plan that has drawn ire from ranchers and environmental groups and is currently tied up in court.

“Right now is the perfect storm,” Mulroy said in late August. “You have a daunting drought in the Colorado River that is forcing us to spend $800 million to build a third intake we never anticipated having to build, which is an excruciatingly difficult construction project. And you have connection charges that were 57 percent of the revenue for our capital funding plan that evaporated. And you have to balance the two, but you have to build the third intake. You don’t have a choice … not without endangering the community as a whole.”

If a recent study by two water utility trade groups is correct, Las Vegas’ spending could be just an opening wager in a game of climate change poker. The report, by the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies and the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, estimates that the United States’ drinking water and wastewater utilities will spend $448 billion to $944 billion between now and 2050 to adapt their infrastructure and operations to cope with the shifting climate. This estimate, large as it is, doesn’t include big societal costs likely to spring from climate-induced changes to the nation’s water supply, including impacts on ecosystems and public health.

Living with uncertainty … While the fate of America’s energy and transportation systems has dominated the country’s climate debate, water utilities have begun making their case on Capitol Hill and in academic circles. “Water utilities, right now, feel like we’re going to be among the first sectors affected by climate change,” said Marc Waage, manager of water resource planning at Denver Water.

Meanwhile, a group of larger urban systems — including Las Vegas, New York, Denver, Seattle and San Francisco — has formed the Water Utility Climate Alliance. The group is less than 2 years old, and its members’ general managers meet every three weeks via conference call as they pursue an aggressive research strategy. WUCA is finishing two white papers: one examining the latest science on how climate change will affect the water cycle, and a second that examines strategies for making decisions in the absence of precise information about what the future will look like.

What that means is that some timeworn practices in the water business “have to be challenged,” concluded Mulroy, Las Vegas’ water chief. “I think it’s a conversation for the country that’s almost unavoidable. … The worst case, as far as I’m concerned, is if we are surprised by the magnitude of climate change. We can’t move fast enough.”

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE . . . One might be inclined to note that Las Vegas choice to speak loudly, take strong positions on water, actively pursue securing water via legislations, lawsuit, collaboration or outright “taking” positions them with an extremely large target painted on its back giving others a single focus of the West’s contemporary water-villain … surpassing by leaps and bounds Los Angeles’s taking of the Owens Valley water as quintessential water villain of the West…?

Time and circumstances coupled with a population exceeding 33 million makes Los Angeles and/or California a most formidable target extremely difficult to ignore and even more difficult to challenge.

Boldly and audaciously upstart Las Vegas maneuvers on multiple levels … playing to this point quite skillfully the old “shell-game” … keeping everyone guessing what venue Las Vegas will next pursue in its chase for more water and still more water.

While I have difficulty with the ethics Las Vegas appears to demonstrate they are not the only … water-seeker … in the WEST choosing to utilize a multi-venue attack in their pursuit of water and still more water.

In Arizona both Central Arizona Project (CAP) and Salt River Project (SRP) utilize similar deceptive methods though with less finesse than it appears LV is capable of, though with equal aplomb knowing the deck is stacked in their favor with Arizona’s regulatory agencies … ADEQ (Az Dept Environmental Quality) … ADWR (Az Dept Water Resources) … ACC (Az Corp Commission) … as well as Az State Legislature … willing to kowtow to their every request.

Residents in both Arizona and Nevada currently residing in what we term – RURAL – areas, especially those currently utilizing surface water as well as subsurface water are being squeezed as they watch … alone … “metro” water purveyors in camouflage usurp water they thought they would enjoy forever.

What is for me most interesting is that Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming all part of the COMPACT OF THE RIVER are all interconnected like links in a chain. And that chain has several links which are either broken or about to break. But steadfast all these states champion positions which captures more water than actually flows in the COLORADO RIVER. Tell me, please, how does that work …?

Is it magic, voodoo, slight of hand, what is it that permits “us” … that’s you and me … to believe more water can be continuously extracted from the Colorado River than its watershed is capable of producing …?

I know it can all be explain by … neuromarketing … that emerging amalgam form of brainwashing now being regaled as science … where climate change and global weather are said to be nothing more than anomalies and not permanent nor fostering potential dire consequences for mankind.

WOW … I feel so much relief knowing that neuromarketing can save us, don’t you…?

Or is the WEST in fact looking into the eye of a perfectly forming WATER storm the likes of which mankind has not seen in many millennia…?

… I invite “us” to consider not to shame, blame or criticize but rather simply ask … what would it look like when it’s fixed … and own that ONLY we have the power to bring about the change needed to fix it …


Is it 186 or 8 …?

November 18, 2009

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE . . .

OK … is it $186 million dollars or $8 million dollars … how can two investigations show that extreme divergence…?

Something smells fishy, but then like Mark Twain noted long ago … “figures don’t lie, liars figure” …

And again we are left without full, open, honest, timely DISCLOSURE or TRANSPARENCY … but … it’s OK … we really don’t care … do we …?

… I invite “us” to consider not to shame, blame or criticize but rather simply ask … what would it look like when it’s fixed … and own that ONLY we have the power to bring about the change needed to fix it …


IT’S CALLED SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

November 18, 2009


ELECTION FRAUD

November 16, 2009

ARIZONA CRYS OUT FOR LEADERSHIP . . . BUT WILL WE CHOOSE TO RECOGNIZE HONEST COMPETENT LEADERSHIP WHEN IT IS PRESENTED TO US . . . ?

Arizona budget crisis demands strong leadership
Our view: New report underscores impossibility of simple solutions
Arizona Daily Star
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/317483

Lawmakers have run out of budget gimmicks
Our view: An immediate tax hike needs to be on the agenda this week if Arizona hopes to avert a fiscal meltdown.
Arizona Daily Sun
http://azdailysun.com/articles/2009/11/15/news/opinion/20091115_opini_207551.txt

Leaders ask wrong question
The Arizona Republic… Larry Edward Penley
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2009/11/13/20091113penley14.html

Encouraging non-partisan, objective look at fiscal facts
Arizona Daily Star… Jack Cox
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/317468

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE . . . Reviewing recent Arizona history it appears when we enter to voting booth we pull the lever for that individual who promised us the most while asking nothing of us in return.

Arizona seems poised to return to office those individuals who continuously promise to deliver but who actually deliver only to those to whom they are financially beholding … and it ain’t you or me … typically it has been for-profit-corporate-interest$ …

… I invite “us” to consider not to shame, blame or criticize but rather simply ask … what would it look like when it’s fixed … and own that ONLY we have the power to bring about the change needed to fix it …


polls vs fact vs hype

November 16, 2009

poll vs fact vs hype . . .brainwahing machine

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

Recalling the very recent article on “neuromarketing” I find I am most pessimistic about accepting as fact or the truth the results of this poll. Why…?

1. Because there is absolutely NO disclosure on who conducted the poll, how was conduct, who was interviewed, showing us the questions asked, by whom in what manner and order for starters…?

2. For what purpose was this poll conducted…?

3. Who paid for the poll…?

It may well be that our reputed pessimism is in the moment understandable given the fear-mongering to which we were subjected the last 8 years under the Bush/Cheney regime.

… I invite “us” to consider not to shame, blame or criticize but rather simply ask … what would it look like when it’s fixed … and own that ONLY we have the power to bring about the change needed to fix it …


WE SIMPLY DO NOT KNOW WHO WE CAN TRUST

November 16, 2009

trust me-2

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE . . . IF … what Buzz Aldrin writes and says is fact and true … then who can we … “trust” … why the need for deception …?

Buzz Aldrin …Astronaut, Apollo 11 mission; Best-selling author of “Magnificent Desolation” …Posted: November 9, 2009 04:56 PM … The Huffington Post … Why We Need Better Rockets … Well, it looked spectacular. … I’m referring to NASA’s recent launch of the Ares 1-X, billed as the prototype of the Ares 1 as a crew launch vehicle, a fancy term for a manned space booster. The rocket is said to have performed as planned, and ushered in the era of the Ares rockets to replace the Space Shuttle next year. Only it won’t. In fact, the much-hyped Ares 1-X was much ado about nothing.

Yes, the rocket that thundered aloft from NASA’s Launch Pad 39B sure looked like an Ares 1. But that’s where the resemblance stops. Turns out the solid booster was – literally – bought from the Space Shuttle program, since a five-segment booster being designed for Ares wasn’t ready. So they put a fake can on top of the four-segmented motor to look like the real thing. Since the real Ares’ upper stage rocket engine, called the J-2X wasn’t ready either, they mounted a fake upper stage. No Orion capsule was ready, so – you guessed it – they mounted a fake capsule with a real-looking but fake escape rocket that wouldn’t have worked if the booster had failed.

Since the guidance system for Ares wasn’t ready either they went and bought a unit from the Atlas rocket program and used it instead. Oh yes, the parachutes to recover the booster were the real thing — and one of the three failed, causing the booster to slam into the ocean too fast and banging the thing up. So, why you might ask, if the whole machine was a bit of slight-of-hand rocketry did NASA bother to spend almost half a billion dollars (that’s billion with a “b”) in developing and launching the Ares 1-X?

The answer: politics.

CONTINUED OBSERVATION … What possible good comes from having our government agency NASA … fake … the launching of a new rocket…? Why not admit there are problems which delay this launch and that when ready the “new” rocket will be tested…?

All our government has done is to further any pessimism which may well prevail within the American populous … “we” simply do not know who or what “we” can trust…?

… I invite “us” to consider not to shame, blame or criticize but rather simply ask … what would it look like when it’s fixed … and own that ONLY we have the power to bring about the change needed to fix it …