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Essays - August 2012

A SPRINKLING OF THOUGHTS ON WATER

     Given that the last couple of weeks were the hottest of summer 2012, it's possible that many of you spent a little more time thinking about water than usual - heading down to the pool or ocean to cool off, grabbing a cold, ice-filled drink, or watering a scorched lawn or garden. Unless there is a drought, or unless water doesn't come out of the tap when it's turned on, however, water is not likely to be something one thinks about much on any given day. This third and final essay in the water series will present some basic water facts and briefly survey aspects of water and the water infrastructure in California.

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     Take a look at the two photos just slightly farther down the page. On the left is a NASA photograph of the earth focusing on the Pacific Ocean. The area of the deep blue water appears immense. Then take a look at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) picture on the right. The three small blue spheres (the third is barely visible below the smaller of the other two on the right) represent the volume of various amounts of water compared to the overall volume of planet earth. (n1) The largest of the three represents the volume of all the water on the earth. The next smaller one represents the total volume of fresh (not saline) water in the ground, lakes, swamps and rivers, and the smallest (barely visible) one represents fresh water in lakes and rivers. The photo shows that "in comparison to the volume of the globe, the amount of water on the planet is very small - and the oceans are only a 'thin film' of water on the [planet's] surface." (n2)

     After looking at them, consider the following:

• All forms of life need water to survive . . . The human body is more than 70% water; other plants and animals range from 50 - 97% water. (n3)

• The earth is covered by 326 million cubic miles of water, but less than 3 percent of this total is fresh water, with most of it locked up in polar ice caps, in glaciers, in lakes, in flows through soil, and in river and stream systems [leading] back to an increasingly salty sea. (n4) (You can view this information in graphic form, particularly as it relates to the photo above on the right, by clicking here.)

• The maintenance of life on this planet depends critically on an adequate supply of water of an acceptable quality and also on a well-regulated temperature and humidity environment. (n5) [For each species there is a definite temperature above which it can exist for only very limited periods. (n6)]

• "Of all the potential threats posed by climate variability and change, those associated with water resources are arguably the most consequential for both society and the environment. Climatic effects on agriculture, aquatic ecosystems, energy and industry and strongly influenced by climatic effects on water." (n7)

Photo credits: NASA Earth Observatory photo, planet Earth and Pacific Ocean (left), and U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey photo by Howard Perlman, with globe illustration by Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Adam Nieman. (right)

While most people know that water freezes at 0 degrees C/32 degrees F, exists as a gas at temperatures above 100 degrees C/212 degrees F, and has the chemical formula H2O, many would be surprised by the notion that the water existing and used today is the same that has been used by humans throughout their history. Water is continually in motion, both in bodies of water such as the oceans and among its solid, liquid and gaseous states, across the entire planet. In order to fully comprehend this, as well as some of the statements above, it is necessary to understand the hydrologic - or water - cycle. For those well versed in water issues, the information will be very familiar, if not old hat. Given that this time of the year starts the back-to-school season, however, that is where the rest of us will be heading for the next part of the essay -- back to the US Geological Survey (USGS) water science school to look a bit more closely at the water cycle.

USGS Water Science and The Water Cycle

     What is the USGS? "Founded in 1879, the USGS is the Nation's largest water, earth and biological science and civilian mapping agency. The USGS collects, monitors, analyzes, and provides scientific understanding about natural resource conditions, issues and problems. The USGS provides impartial scientific information on the health of our ecosystems and environment, the natural hazards that threaten us, the natural resources we rely on, the impacts of climate and land-use changes, and the core science systems that help . . . provide timely, relevant and useable information." (n8)

     What is the water (hydrologic) cycle? The water cycle describes the movement of water on, in and above the earth. It is important to understand because "water is the primary medium through which climate change influences Earth's ecosystem. Climate change affects the water cycle directly and, through it, the quantity and quality of water resources available to meet the needs of societies." (n9)

     This section will allow a self-tutorial on the water cycle (based on and citing USGS information) on one of three levels. Viewers can: 1) Look at the diagram below, then continue on with the rest of the essay, 2) view the diagram and read a summary of information on the significance of each element in the water cycle, or 3) view the diagram and click on the highlighted word or words for each step of the cycle. Clicking on the word(s) will lead to a two to three page, detailed description of that stage of the cycle, along with related facts and links to other information. Basic information on the water cycle is available in more than 50 languages, with language links accessible by clicking here. There really is no "starting" or "ending" point to the continuous cycle, but since the oceans contain nearly 97% of all the earth's water, the introduction to the cycle will begin with the storage of water in the oceans.

Photo credits: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), John Evans and Howard Perlman

WATER STORAGE IN OCEANS: The storehouses for the vast majority of all water on Earth are the oceans, and it also is estimated that the oceans supply 90% of the evaporated water that goes into the water cycle. Ocean water is saline, or containing significant amounts of dissolved salt. Water is saline if it has a concentration of more than 1,000 parts per million (ppm) of dissolved salts; ocean water contains about 35,000 ppm of salt. Over the short term (100s of years) the oceans' volume doesn't change much, but over the long term is does. During colder climatic periods more ice caps and glaciers form, and enough of the global water supply accumulates as ice to lessen the amount of water in other parts of the cycle. The reverse is true during warm periods. During the last ice age, glaciers covered almost one third of the Earth's land mass, with the result being that the oceans were about 400 feet lower than today. During the last global "warm spell" about 125,000 years ago, the seas were about 18 feet higher than they are now. About three million years ago the oceans could have been up to 165 feet higher.

EVAPORATION: Evaporation is the process by which water changes from a liquid to a gas or vapor. It is the primary pathway moving water from the liquid state back into the water cycle as atmospheric water vapor. Evaporation drives the water cycle, and the large surface area of the oceans provides the opportunity for large-scale evaporation to occur. On a global scale, the amount of water evaporating is about the same as the amount of water delivered to the Earth as precipitation, though this varies geographically. The process of evaporation is so great that without precipitation runoff and groundwater discharge from aquifers, oceans would become nearly empty.

CONDENSATION: Condensation, or the opposite of evaporation, is the process by which water vapor in the air is changed into liquid water. Condensation is crucial to the water cycle because it is responsible for the formation of clouds. Clouds may produce precipitation, which is the primary route for water to return to the Earth's surface within the water cycle. The earth's surface is warmed by solar radiation leading to evaporation, but the atmosphere cools above the earth's surface which allows for condensation. Condensation also occurs at ground level in the form of fog.

EVAPOTRANSPIRATION: Evapotranspiration is the sum of evaporation and transpiration. Transpiration is the evaporation of water from plant leaves, and it accounts for about 10 percent of the moisture in the atmosphere. The amount of water that plants transpire can be affected by temperature, relative humidity, wind and air movement, soil moisture availability and the type of plant (since plants transpire water at different rates).

WATER STORAGE IN ATMOSPHERE: Although the atmosphere may not be a great storehouse of water, it is the superhighway used to move water around the globe. Evaporation and transpiration change liquid water into vapor, which ascends into the atmosphere. Cooler temperatures in the atmosphere allow the vapor to condense into clouds and strong winds move the clouds around the world until the water falls as precipitation. There is always water in the atmosphere. Clouds are the most visible manifestation of atmospheric water, but even clear air contains water in particles too small to be seen.

PRECIPITATION: Precipitation is water released from clouds in the form of rain, freezing rain, sleet, snow or hail. It is the primary connection in the water cycle that provides for the delivery of atmospheric water to the Earth. Precipitation does not fall in the same amounts throughout the world, in a country or even in a city.

SURFACE RUNOFF: Surface runoff is precipitation runoff over the landscape. When rain hits saturated or impervious ground it begins to flow overland downhill. Meteorological factors affecting runoff include the type of precipitation, rainfall intensity, amount and duration, and distribution or rainfall over a drainage basin. Physical characteristics affecting runoff include land use, vegetation, soil type, drainage area, elevation, topography and ponds, lakes, etc. which prevent or delay the runoff from continuing downstream. The oceans are kept full by precipitation and also by runoff and discharge from rivers and the ground. Urbanization can have a great effect on hydrologic processes such as surface runoff patterns.

FRESHWATER STORAGE: One part of the water cycle essential to all life on Earth is the freshwater existing on the land surface. Freshwater, or water containing less than 1,000 ppm of dissolved solids, represents only about three percent of all water on Earth. Though lakes are among the most visible parts of freshwater storage in the water cycle, lakes and swamps account for only .29 percent of the Earth's freshwater. Twenty percent of all fresh surface water is in one lake, Lake Baikal in Asia, and another twenty percent is stored in the Great Lakes.

STORAGE IN ICE AND SNOW: The majority of freshwater on Earth, about 68.7%, is held in ice caps and glaciers. The water cycle describes how water moves above, on and through the Earth. But, in fact, much more water is "in storage" at any one time than is actually moving through the cycle. Storage means that it is locked up in its present state for a relatively long period of time. Short-term storage might be days or weeks for water in a lake, but it could be thousands of years or longer at the bottom of an ice cap. In the grand scheme of things, the water is still part of the water cycle. Almost 90 percent of the Earth's ice mass is in Antarctica, and glacial ice covers about 10 - 11 percent of all land. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), if all glaciers melted today the seas would rise about 230 feet.

Two views of glacier areas in southern New Zealand near Queenstown. On the left is an aerial view of the valley cut by the glacier's movement. In the upper right corner of the picture, the wing of the plane from which the picture was taken can be seen. On the right is a picture of the glacier's surface. A similar plane can be seen on the surface of the glacier in the bottom right corner. Visitors land on the glacier and are allowed a short walk across the surface. Photos © 1985 Dorothy A. Birsic.

SUBLIMATION: Sublimation is the conversion between the solid and gaseous phases of matter with no intermediate liquid stage. In terms of the water cycle, it is most often used to describe the process of snow and ice changing to water vapor in the air without first melting into water. This occurs mostly at high altitudes and is best understood by visualizing dry ice, which goes directly from a solid into gas.

SNOWMELT RUNOFF TO STREAMS: In the world-wide scheme of the water cycle, runoff from snowmelt is a major component of the global movement of water. Mountain snow fields act as natural reservoirs for many western United States water-supply systems, storing precipitation from the cool season, when most precipitation falls and forms snowpacks, until the warm season when the snowpacks melt and release water into rivers. The importance of snowmelt varies geographically.

STREAMFLOW: The USGS uses the term "streamflow" to refer to the amount of water flowing in a river. A lot of runoff ends up in creeks, streams and rivers, flowing downhill towards the oceans. Unless the river flows into a closed lake (a rare occurrence) or is diverted for human's use (a common occurrence), it empties back into the ocean, completing the water cycle. When looking at the location of rivers and the amount of streamflow in rivers, the key concept is the river's "watershed." A watershed is the area of land where all of the water that falls in it and drains off of it goes to the same place. Larger watersheds can contain many smaller watersheds, but everything depends on the outflow point. All of the land that drains water to the outflow point is the watershed for that outflow location.

INFILTRATION: A portion of the water that falls as rain or snow infiltrates into the subsurface soil and rock. How much infiltrates depends on the amount of precipitation, soil characteristics, soil saturation, land cover, slope of the land and evapotranspiration. As precipitation infiltrates into the subsurface soil, it forms an unsaturated zone, where it is used by plants, among other things, and a saturated zone.

GROUNDWATER STORAGE: Large amounts of water are stored in the ground. The upper layer of the soil is the unsaturated zone, where water is present in varying amounts that change over time. Below this layer is the saturated zone, where all of the pores, cracks and spaces between rock particles are saturated with water. The term ground water is used to describe this area. Another term for ground water is "aquifer." Aquifers are huge storehouses of Earth's water and people all over the world depend on ground water in their daily lives. The top of the surface where ground water occurs is called the water table, and the pumping of wells can have a great deal of influence on water levels below ground. Of all the earth's ground water, about 46% is freshwater and about 54% is saline.

SPRINGS: A spring is a water resource formed when the side of a hill, a valley bottom or other excavation intersects a flowing body of ground water at or below the local water table, below which the subsurface material is saturated with water. A spring is the result of an aquifer being filled to the point that the water overflows onto the land surface. The quality of the water in the local ground-water system will generally determine the quality of the spring water.

GROUNDWATER DISCHARGE: Once water has infiltrated into the ground, some travels close to the surface where it emerges quickly as discharge into streambeds. Water continuing to move downward can continue moving deeper into the ground, or it may meet more dense and water-resistant non-porous rock and soil. This may cause it to flow in a more horizontal fashion, generally toward streams or the ocean, also completing the water cycle.

     As stated earlier, climate change affects the water cycle directly. Changes in climate may result in changes in precipitation, seasonal flows from snow and rain, sea levels, water temperatures, and human water demands, as well as increases in extreme weather events such as flooding, cyclones or droughts. In addition, with growing populations, changes in the availability of existing water supplies, and needs in areas of realtive water scarcity, sources of new water supplies are being evaluated continually. With more than 96% of all water stored in the ocean, and with more than 50% of groundwater being unusable in its existing state, the question that might be asked is "Why not simply convert some of this saline or brackish water to a more usable form?"

Desalination

     The sun naturally desalinates sea water through the process of evaporation, and the condensed water vapor returns to the ground as fresh water through precipitation. "Desalination" as a technology refers to the process of creating potable fresh water by treating water to remove salts and other dissolved solids. "Some form of desalination is . . . used in approximately 130 countries . . . [but] while desalination provides a substantial part of the water supply in certain oil-rich Middle Eastern nations, [as of 2005] globally installed desalination plants had the capacity to provide just 3/1000 of total world freshwater use." (n10) In the U.S., desalination plants have been built in every state, though primarily to treat brackish or river water (as opposed to sea water), and as of 2005 provided less than 4/1000 of total water use. (n11) In California, desalination has been a minor component of the State's water supply portfolio. (n12)

     In 2003, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Sandia National Laboratories published the report "Desalination and Water Purification Technology Roadmap," which was intended to serve as a strategic pathway for future research in the field. The report was augmented in 2008 by a study of the National Research Council sponsored by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. EPA called "Desalination: A National Perspective." The publication is available for download in pdf format from the National Academies Press at www.nap.edu/catalog/12184.html. It presents information on the state of desalination technology, environmental issues associated with desalination, cost/benefit analyses, and a strategic research agenda for desalination. There were recommendations for "two overarching goals: 1) to understand the environmental impacts of desalination and develop approaches to minimize [those] impacts relative to other water supply alternatives; and 2) [to] develop approaches to lower the financial costs of desalination so that it is an attractive option relative to other alternatives in locations where traditional sources of water are inadqeuate." (n13)

     The two major types of desalination technologies are thermal distillation and membrane-based. Both processes mimic processes in nature. "The basic concept of thermal distillation is to heat a saline solution to generate water vapor. If this vapor is directed toward a cool surface, it can be condensed to liquid water containing very little of the original salt." (n14) Membrane technologies use membranes to "selectively permit or prohibit the passage of certain ions, including salts. Membranes play an important role in the separation of salts in the natural processes of dialysis and osmosis, and this natural principle has been adapted in two commercially important desalinating processes: electrodialysis (ED) and reverse osmosis (RO)." (n15) Both types of processes have their advantages and disadvantages, and it is said that there is no single "best" method of desalination. (n16)

     Cost and environmental issues are the two primary drawbacks associated with desalination technologies. Environmental issues "fall into four general categories: 1) impacts from the aquisition of source water, 2) impacts from the management of waste products and concentrate from the desalination process, 3) issues with desalinated product waters, and 4) the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions from [the] energy-intensive processes." (n17) Cost is an issue because the desalination process is energy intensive and therefore sensitive to the price of energy. The California-based Pacific Institute estimates that of total costs for a typical reverse osmosis plant, 37% are fixed costs and 44% are costs of electrical energy. (n18; view the figures online at www.pacinst.org/images/desal_typical_costs.gif).

     It was said earlier that in California desalination has been a minor component of the State's water supply portfolio. In 2002, California voters approved the Water Security, Clean Drinking Water, Coastal and Beach Protection Act of 2002. The Act included $50 million for grants for desalination projects, to be administered by the California Department of Water Resources (www.water.ca.gov). The California Desalination Planning Handbook can be viewed online at www.water.ca.gov/desalination. As of July of this year, 17 seawater desalination plants had been proposed for development along the California coast, plus two other in Baja Mexico. The full list of these facilities can be found in the Pacific Institute's "Proposed Seawater Desalination Facilities in California" report, available online at www.pacinst.org.

California's Water and the State Water Project

     Though desalination has had little to no role in the overall water scheme in California to date, the history of California is deeply intertwined with the history of water development in the State. Unlike many other states, "California's water system is in large part self-contained. With few exceptions, Californians have focused their efforts at water development upon surface and groundwater resources which lie almost entirely within the state's borders. The all-important exception to this rule is the Colorado River." (n19) Though the Colorado River will not be discussed in the context of this essay, one other major aspect of water development and use will be -- the State Water Project.

     Consider the following description of California and its water in the context of the water cycle described above:

     "The amount of precipitation that falls on California has not varied significantly between the time of European contact and the present. The annual rain- and snowfall produce approximately 200 million acre-feet . . . Most of this precipitation -- about 65 percent -- evaporates directly into the atmosphere, with nearly all the remaining 71 million acre-feet making its way into streams and, ultimately, in aboriginal times, the ocean, save for the water entering underground basins or aquifers. Over the ages, the groundwater in California's approximately 450 aquifers increased enormously, probably reaching the total estimated capacity of 1.3 billion acre-feet, or enough to cover the entire state to a depth of thirteen feet. In modern times overpumping has reduced that volume to some 850 million acre-feet, of which perhaps less than half is usable because of quality considerations and the cost of withdrawal.

     . . . The source of all this water is the Pacific Ocean. Vast clouds of moisture rise in the Gulf of Alaska or in the vicinity of the Hawaiian Islands and are driven ashore by the prevailing easterly moving wind currents . . . When the heavily-laden clouds strike first the Coastal Range and later the Sierra Nevada, they are driven higher into colder elevations, where their capacity to retain moisture decreases. The result is an often torrential volume of rain and snow, especially in the so-called El Nino years, when a band of warm water moves east across the Pacific toward South America, altering the jet stream and worldwide weather conditions and producing for California a deluge of water . . . The opposite event became popularized as La Nina: warm ocean water stretching westward from the mid-Pacific to South Africa, that alters the jet stream and produces in California reduced rainfall and even drought . . . Moreover, on occasion, a dramatically larger portion of the Pacific Ocean can undergo cooling or warming and produce two, three, four or more decades of severe drought or intense precipitation, hence the term Pacific Decadal Oscillation.

     Such erratic precipitation patterns, together with California's extraordinarily diverse landforms, help explain why the state is a land of many climates . . . Because . . . storms ordinarily originate in the North Pacific, the northern part of the state is more heavily watered than the southern. In terms of averages, precipitation varies from fifty inches annually along California's northern coast to approximately 18 inches on the southern coastal plain, and down to five inches or less in the inland desert valleys. Nearly all this precipitation arrives not in the summer growing season but between November and March." (n20)

     While most of the rain does fall in the northern part of the state, most of California's agricultural land and major population centers are in the middle and southern parts of the state. In order to address this imbalance, the Burns-Porter Act, formally called the California Water Resources Development Bond Act, was placed on the ballot and approved by voters in 1960 during the administration of then-Governor Edmond Brown. The Act authorized $1.75 billion for the construction of the State Water Project (SWP).

Photo credits: Pyramid Lake (left) and the Antelope Valley Aqueduct (right). California Department of Water Resources newsroom, State Water Project photos.

     Built gradually from north to south, today the SWP is "the largest state-built and operated multi purpose water and power system in the United States." (n21) From Antelope Dam and Lake, Frenchman Dam and Lake, Grizzly Valley Dam and Lake Davis, and Oroville Dam and Lake in the north to Castaic Dam and Lake, Cedar Springs Dam and Silverwood Lake, Perris Dam and Lake Perris, and the East Branch Extension in the south, the SWP includes 701 miles of canals and pipeline, 21 lakes and reservoirs and five hydroelectric power plants among a number of other structures. (n22) Water from the SWP reaches 23 million Californians, from north of the Bay Area to the Mexican border, and irrigates 755,000 acres of farmland. (n23)

     Today there are 29 contracting agencies to the SWP. Each of these contractors, such as the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (www.mwdh2o.com, a cooperative of 26 cities and agencies serving 19 million people in LA, Orange, Ventura, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties), receives a specified annual amount of water through 2035. These contractors also are repaying the original bonds which originally funded the SWP's construction as well as current costs necessary to operate and maintain all project facilities. (n24) The California Department of Water Resources operates and maintains the SWP.

     Despite the success of projects like the SWP, in recent years "a shift away from the construction of new water infrastructure and toward rethinking active management of water use has started to occur. [This is] in part because of the improved understanding of the true financial, social and environmental costs of large infrastructure [developments], and in part as a result of new thinking about how best to meet the water requirements of human needs and desires." (n25) One example of an agency taking a broader approach to water management is the San Diego County Water Authority, a wholesaler of water. "In 1991, the agency imported 95% of its water from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD). Since that time, the . . . Authority has pursued a strategy of developing a broader portfolio of tools, diversifying its sources of supply, maximizing the efficient use of existing resources, and reducing its demands on imported supplies [which] tend to be vulnerable to . . . earthquakes . . . and other sources of uncertainty such as drought and local disputes over water rights and water allocations." (n26). In addition to conservation efficiencies which have reduced water demand by eight percent, in 2020 the Authority expects to import only 29 percent of its water from the MWD and include seawater desalination (six percent), local surface water (seven percent), recycled water (six percent), groundwater (ten percent) and dry year water transfers (11 percent), among other sources, as part of the overall water supply. (n27)

     The management of sometimes scarce and increasingly valuable water supplies is a challenge faced not only here in California but globally as well. Every three years the United Nations releases a new edition of the World Water Development Report, a flagship UN-Water report published by UNESCO. A quote appears in the report which seems as applicable to California as to any other country in the world when it comes to managing the valuable resource, and so this final essay in the water series will close with this thought:

     Water managers and decision-makers concerned with meeting humans' basic water-related needs are faced with some important questions: How much water are we using now? How efficiently are we using it? How much will we need 30 years from now? Fifty years? Although these questions appear simple, getting the answers right is not as straightforward as it might seem.

     Each of the water use sectors is driven by a number of external forces (such as demographic changes, technological developments, economic growth and prosperity, changing diets, and social and cultural values) which in turn dictate their current and future demands for water. Unfortunately, predicting how these drivers will evolve over the next few decades - and how they will ultimately affect water demand - is fraught with a multiplicity of uncertainties. Future water demands will depend not only on the amount of food, energy, industrial activity and rural and urban water-related services [necessary] to meet the requirements of growing populations and changing socio-economic landscapes, but also on how efficiently . . . limited water supplies [can be used] in meeting [those] needs." (n28)

FOOTNOTES - The following are the footnotes indicated in the text in parentheses with the letter "n" and a number. If you click the asterisk at the end of the footnote, it will take you back to the paragraph where you left off.

n1 - "Where is the Earth's Water Located?" viewed online August 2012 at http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthwherewater.html (*)

n2 - "How Much Water is Available?" detail from USGS multimedia gallery/photographs at http://gallery.usgs.gov/collections/water (*)

n3 - Spellman, Frank R. The Science of Water: Concepts and Applications. Lancaster, PA: Technomic Publishing, 1998, p. 14 (*)

n4 - Ibid., p. 1 (*)

n5 - Franks, Felix. Water (2nd edition): A Matrix of Life. Cambridge, UK: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), 2000 p. 17 (*)

n6 - Franks, Felix, ed. Water - A Comprehensive Treatise, Volume 1: The Physics and Physical Chemistry of Water. New York/London: Plenum Press, 1972, p. 8 (*)

n7 - Lins, Harry F., Hirsch, Robert M. and Kiang, Julie, "Water - The Nation's Fundamental Climate Issue. A White Paper on the US Geological Survey's Role and Capabilities," USGS Circular 1347, Reston, VA: USGS, 2010, p. 1 (*)

n8 - Castle, Anne, prepared statement in Domestic and Global Water Supply Issues, Hearing before the Subcommittee on Water and Power of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, US Senate, 112th Congress, First Session, December 8, 2011, Washington D.C.: USGPO, 2012, p. 5 (*)

n9 - United Nations/UN-Water, Climate Change Adaptation: The Pivotal Role of Water, UN-Water Policy Brief, p. 3. Viewed online August 2012 at http://www.unwater.org/downloads/unw_ccpol_web.pdf (*)

n10 - Cooley, Heather, Gleick, Peter H. and Wolff, Gary, Desalination, with a Grain of Salt: A California Perspective. Oakland, CA: Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security, June 2006, p. 19 (*)

n11 - Ibid., pp. 21-22 (*)

n12 - Ibid., p. 25(*)

n13 - Castle, Anne, prepared statement in Domestic and Global Water Supply Issues, U.S. Senate hearing, p. 9 (*)

n14 - Committee on Advancing Desalination Techology, Water Science and Technology Board, Division on Earth and Life Studies, National Research Council of the National Academies, Desalination: A National Perspective," (prepublication copy), Washington D.C.: National Academies Press, 2008, p. 60. Available online at http://www.nap.edu/catalog/ 12184.html (*)

n15 - Ibid. (*)

n16 - Ibid., p. 61 (*)

n17 - Ibid., p. 90 (*)

n18 - Pacific Institute, "Typical Costs for a Reverse-Osmosis Desalination Plant," viewed online August 2012 at http://www.pacinst.org/images/desal_typical_costs.gif (*)

n19 - State of California, Office of Planning and Research, California Water Atlas, Sacramento: CA Office of Planning and Research, 1979, p. 38 (*)

n20 - Hundley, Norris Jr., The Great Thirst (Revised Edition). Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001, pp. 8-10 (*)

n21 - State of California, Department of Water Resouces, "California State Water Project at a Glance," p. 1. Brochure viewed online August 2012 at http://water.ca.gov (*)

n22 - Ibid, p. 2, and State of California, Department of Water Resources, California State Water Project Atlas, Sacramento: California Department of Water Resources, 1999, p. 29 (*)

n23 - Bourne, Joel K. Jr. "California's Pipe Dream," National Geographic, Vol. 217, No. 4, April 2010, p. 142 (*)

n24 - California Department of Water Resources, California State Water Project Atlas, p. 24 (*)

n25 - National Academies Press, Desalination: A National Perspective,, p. 32 (*)

n26 - Ibid., p. 46 (*)

n27 - Stapleton, Maureen A., prepared statement in Perspectives on California Water Supply: Challenges and Opportunities. Oversight field hearing before the Subcommittee on Water and Power of the Committee on Natural Resources, U.S. House of Representatives, 111th Congress, 2nd Session, Serial No. 111-43, January 25, 2010. Washington D.C.: USGPO, 2010, p. 48 (*)

n28 - Coates, David, Connor, Richard, Leclerc, Liza, Rast, Walter, and Schumann, Kristin/World Water Assessment Program, "Water Demand: What Drive Consumption?" in United Nations World Water Development Report 4, Volume 1 - Managing Water Under Undertainty and Risk. Paris: UNESCO, 2012, p. 45 (*)

LINKS LIST - The following is a list of links external to the website found in the essay.

BIBLIOGRAPHY - The Bibliography for the August essay is included below.

Bourne, Joel K. Jr. "California's Pipe Dream," National Geographic, Vol. 217, No. 4, April 2010, pp. 132 - 149

Castle, Anne, prepared statement in Domestic and Global Water Supply Issues, Hearing before the Subcommittee on Water and Power of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, US Senate, 112th Congress, First Session, December 8, 2011, Washington D.C.: USGPO, 2012

Committee on Advancing Desalination Techology, Water Science and Technology Board, Division on Earth and Life Studies, National Research Council of the National Academies. Desalination: A National Perspective," (prepublication copy), Washington D.C.: National Academies Press, 2008. Available online at http://www.nap.edu/catalog/ 12184.html

Cooley, Heather and Donnelly, Kristina. Proposed Seawater Desalination Facilities in California. Oakland, CA: Pacific Institute, July 2012

Cooley, Heather, Gleick, Peter H. and Wolff, Gary Desalination, with a Grain of Salt: A California Perspective. Oakland, CA: Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security, June 2006

Drought and Climate Change on Water Resources. Hearing before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, United States Senate, 112th Congress, First Session, April 27, 2011, Washington D.C.: USGPO, 2011

Franks, Felix. Water (2nd edition): A Matrix of Life. Cambridge, UK: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), 2000

Franks, Felix, ed. Water - A Comprehensive Treatise, Volume 1: The Physics and Physical Chemistry of Water. New York/London: Plenum Press, 1972

Hundley, Norris Jr., The Great Thirst (Revised Edition). Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001.

Larmer, Brook, "The Big Melt," National Geographic, Vol. 217, No. 4, April 2010, pp. 60 - 79

Lins, Harry F., Hirsch, Robert M. and Kiang, Julie, "Water - The Nation's Fundamental Climate Issue. A White Paper on the US Geological Survey's Role and Capabilities," USGS Circular 1347, Reston, VA: USGS, 2010

Pacific Institute, "Typical Costs for a Reverse-Osmosis Desalination Plant," viewed online August 2012 at http://www.pacinst.org/images/desal_typical_costs.gif

Royte, Elizabeth, "The Last Drop," National Geographic, Vol. 217, No. 4, April 2010, pp. 172 - 177

Spellman, Frank R. The Science of Water: Concepts and Applications. Lancaster, PA: Technomic Publishing, 1998

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United Nations World Water Assessment Program. United Nations World Water Development Report 4. Paris: UNESCO, 2012

United States Congress, Congressional Budget Office. Public Spending on Transportation and Water Infrastructure. Pub No. 4088. Washington D.C.: CBO, November 2010

United States Department of the Interior, USGS "How Much Water is Available?" detail from USGS multimedia gallery/photographs at http://gallery.usgs.gov/collections/water

United States Department of the Interior, USGS "The Water Cycle," USGS Water Science information and component links. Viewed online August 2012 at http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycle.html

United States Department of the Interior, USGS, "Where is the Earth's Water Located?" viewed online August 2012 at http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthwherewater.html

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