Drought in Spain exposes Relic Church

A drought in the vicinity of Barcelona, Spain has recently exposed the medieval San Romà de Sau church, which has been inundated since 1964 when the Sau dam was built on the Ter River.

Water levels typical hovered about halfway up the tower. Barcelona is even having drinking water shipped in from other parts of the Mediterranean. They project that these shipments of water will go on until October of 2008. (click church for larger image)

In a year that so far ranks as Spain's driest since records began 60 years ago, the reservoir is currently holding as little as 18% of its capacity - at a time of year after which winter rains would usually have provided an essential boost.

Sources/For More information:

• GigaPan: Draught in the Sau Reservoir
  - Photos by Vicenç Palà on February 07, 2008
• NALMS Notes June 2008 - Information source

Be Bold

Be bold. We manage lakes to protect them or to improve them. If some policy, process, or technique is not working, change it. I can think of no better example than the prevention of aquatic invasive species. Because most of these nasty plants, animals, and viruses cannot be eradicated once established in a lake, bold measures must be on the table. We must be open to cultural changes such as inspections or quarantines in some cases if we are serious about protecting lakes. Simply, we must be as aggressive as these exotic pests.

Another area where we must be open to new thinking is adapting to climate change. Changing climate may undermine the design criteria for many of our stormwater management and control facilities, thereby threatening to under-protect the lakes downstream. As well, many native flora and fauna in our lakes may not be able to weather (sorry, pun) altered climate patterns and our lakes may be less able to stand insults. Again, we are managing lakes in a changing environment (the theme of our symposium in November, see below) – so we will need to be open to different policies, processes, and techniques.

If you have developed a new approach or technique, please share it with NALMS members and the lake management community. Consider submitting your thoughts and observations in this newsletter, in LakeLine, in the Journal, or at a technical session in our symposium. We become better lake managers and our lakes become better managed the more we share our collective wisdom and experience.

Article by Guest Author, Dick Osgood, President, North American Lake Management Society (NALMS)
Visit the NALMS Notes newsletter for more information about NALMS at http://www.nalms.org/Publications/NALMSNotes/notes08-6.html

EPA's Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds 2007 Annual Report Released

The Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds (OWOW) 2007 Annual Report provides a snapshot of OWOW's notable accomplishments in calendar year 2007. Accomplishments include: the completion of more than 4,000 watershed cleanup plans in 2007, the 20th anniversary celebration of the National Estuary Program, and the release of the Nonpoint Source Outreach Toolbox, an on-line repository of watershed outreach materials, including nearly 800 public service announcements, radio, TV and print ads. To download the report, visit: http://www.epa.gov/owow/pdf/owowannualreport07.pdf

Source: EPA Water Headlines

New EPA Website: Impaired Waters and Total Maximum Daily Loads

EPA recently released a new "Impaired Waters and Total Maximum Daily Loads" (TMDLs) homepage at www.epa.gov/owow/tmdl. The new Web page features an overview of the Clean Water Act section 303(d) program activities, highlights new resources, and provides easier access to program resources, such as EPA?s new Water Quality Assessment and TMDL Information (ATTAINS) Web site. The Web site revamping was prompted by the desire to improve navigation for a variety of audiences and to distinguish two key activities, e.g., 303(d) listing of impaired waters and development of TMDLs. The site also features a new "TMDL Stormwater Resources" page that hosts several stormwater-source TMDLs and case studies highlighting the innovative approaches states are using to address stormwater (see www.epa.gov/owow/tmdl/stormwater/). Additional pages that are coming soon include a new "TMDLs at Work" page, which will highlight successful restoration efforts where TMDL/303(d) activities were an important part of the process, and a "TMDL Mercury Air Deposition" page that will host a variety of resources and examples for developing TMDLs for waters impaired by mercury.

Source: EPA Water Headlines for June 9, 2008

EPA Announces "Green" Podcast Series about Smart Growth and Green Development

EPA's Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds Posts First Podcast About Green Streets: From Gray Funnels to Green Sponges

EPA's OWOW posted its inaugural podcast, the first audio program in a planned series about smart growth and green development entitled, From Gray Funnels to Green Sponges.

Hosted by EPA's Jamal Kadri, this program features a discussion with EPA's senior urban designer and smart growth expert Clark Wilson on how communities can more effectively manage rainwater and snow melt where it falls. Green streets can make great places, preserve water quality and restore our nation's waterways. These and other practices like rain gardens and green roofs are helping many urban communities like Portland, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. manage stormwater runoff as well as provide aesthetic benefits. In addition, green streets and other environmentally-friendly landscape designs can help minimize urban heat island effect, reduce a community's carbon footprint, and cool the planet.

To access the podcast, visit: http://www.epa.gov/owow/podcasts. Watershed Academy Webcasts are also available as podcasts from iTunes. Visit http://www.epa.gov/watershedwebcasts.

Source: EPA Water News

New Look for LakeStewardship.org

Check out the new, streamlined look for LakeStewardship.org where you can find links to information about Critical Issues -- addressing critical environmental issues affectng lake and watershed management, with links to web pages and reports on such topics as acid rain, algal toxins, invasive species, wetlands and wildlife, and water quality.

You will also find loads of links to useful web resources related to lake management and lake stewardship.

Be sure and check out the ever-changing lake and water related quotes provided each time you visit the home page.

"There is nothing softer and weaker than water,
And yet there is nothing better for attacking hard and strong things.
For this reason there is no substitute for it."
-Lao-Tzu- (c. B.C. 550)

Has EPA failed to implement the Clean water Act?

The following article has been contributed by invited guest author Peter Maier. The editor takes no side in this issue, but presents it for your cogitation. You may comment directly to this post on the LakeStewardship Blog and to Peter using the contact information at the end of this article. The author's website provides a variety of additional information on this topic - Michael R. Martin, LakeStewardship.org -

Why EPA failed to implement the Clean water Act.

As long as EPA does not consider nitrogenous waste (urine and protein) pollution, we will never implement the Clean Water Act, as it was intended. This waste not only, like fecal waste, exerts an oxygen demand, but also is a fertilizer for algae and aquatic plant growth, causing eutrophication and eventually dead zones.

The reason EPA ignored this pollution is caused by a worldwide incorrect applied pollution test, EPA used to implement the Clean Water Act and although EPA in 1984 acknowledged this incorrect use, in stead of correcting the test, it allowed an alternative test and thereby officially ignored this type of pollution and by doing so lowered the goal of the CWA from 100% treatment (elimination of all pollution by 1985) to a measly 35% treatment, without even notifying Congress.

Other problems caused by this incorrect applied test are that we do not know the real performance of a sewage treatment plants and have no idea what the effluent waste loading is on receiving water bodies, besides also the possibility that such plants are designed to treat the wrong waste in sewage.

In an attempt to correct its mistake, EPA initiated watershed programs, where all contributing pollution form different runoff sources is established, among others the effluents of sewage treatment plants or also called point-source pollution. Though this program, EPA hoped that much better treatment would be required for what it determined to be secondary treatment.

This program, however, violates the intend of the CWA as Congress demanded the Act to be implemented with a ‘technology-based’ program, demanding ‘bets available technology’ and not a ‘water quality-based’ program, whereby effluent standards of sewage treatment plant could be set based on the water quality of receiving water bodies. Such a program, Congress felt, could be easily manipulated by local politicians and would defeat the original intend of the act to set uniform nation-wide standards to treat sewage.

Sal Lake County recently published a draft report of such a watershed TMDL study and whiles it, besides the actual flow rates, monitors ten different chemical analyzes for the non-point sources, while it only has two water quality analyses of the effluents of the point sources, while these flows clearly dominate the water quality of the river.

If interested in my comments of the study contact me at pmaier@erda.net or if you like know about incorrect test that caused the failure of the CWA, visit www.petermaier.net and read the description of this test (BOD) in the Technical PDF section.

Peter Maier, PhD, PE