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Widespread areas of Los Angeles experienced flooding and heavy rainfall on Sunday as a winter storm moved through the area, breaking a 97-year-old record for rainfall in one day. Though the day started clear and bright, with a golden sunrise illuminating the skies, raindrops began falling by midday — and by nightfall, the drizzle had become a deluge. The Los Angeles Times reported: Damage reports piled up late Sunday as a slow-moving storm system steadily pummeled Southern California, and downtown L.A. broke a 97-year-old rainfall record. In Studio City, a debris flow sent mud and other objects flowing down the...

DWR just turned the main spillway off as the Reservoir Elevation reaches 836' (Mean Sea Level), the minimum level of the Main Spillway.

When the Wenchuan earthquake killed some 80,000 people in southwest China in May of last year, suspicion immediately fell on the reservoir behind the nearby Zipingpu Dam. Seismologists knew that several hundred million tons of water had filled the reservoir in the preceding few years and that either the water itself or its weight might have weakened a nearby fault and unleashed the quake. A new analysis finds that both scenarios are plausible, but further insight will require the cooperation of the Chinese government. Last December, an American researcher was the first to prominently report (Science, 16 January, p. 322)...

Bottled water sales are exploding! According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation the wholesale value of bottled water sold in the United States during 2006 was about $10.99 billion - a 60% increase over what was sold during 2001. Some Bottled Water History The economic value of "special water" was first cultivated in Europe during the late 1700s when people began visiting natural springs to drink the water or bathe in it. Then in 1767, Jackson's spa in Boston began bottling their water. This increased their income and shared the water with people over a broad area. In the early days...

Dan Porges/Peter Arnold Observatory In an effort to make irrigation more efficient — to obtain more “crop per drop” — farmers have adopted alternatives to flooding and other conventional methods. Among these is drip irrigation, shown above, in which water flows only to the roots. Drip systems are costly, but they save much water. Or do they? A hydrologic and economic analysis of the Upper Rio Grande basin in the Southwest, published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that subsidies and other policies that encourage conservation methods like drip irrigation can actually increase water consumption. “The...

LITITZ, Pa. — Dorothy J. Merritts, a geology professor at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., was not looking to turn hydrology on its ear when she started scouting possible research sites for her students a few years ago. But when she examined photographs of the steep, silty banks of the West Branch of Little Conestoga Creek, something did not look right. The silt was laminated, deposited in layers. She asked a colleague, Robert C. Walter, an expert on sediment, for his opinion. “Those are not stream sediments,” he told her. “Those are pond sediments.” In short, the streamscape...

In the 7th century BC, the Assyrian king Sennacherib constructed an 80-kilometre-long, 20-metre-wide stone-lined canal to bring fresh water to his capital Nineveh. Compared to 20th century standards, one is surprised to learn that the project, which included a 330-metre-long aqueduct, was completed in only one year and three months time.

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!