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From "ReWire" -
an online news service that is part of
KCET-TV in Los angeles -
Community Television in Southern California
Community Television in Southern California
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NEW ECO FRIENDLY WATER PIPELINE
PROBABLY NOT ALL THAT
ECO-FRIENDLY
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by Chris Clarke
Posted March 5, 2013
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It's a little far afield from the Golden State, but ReWire got an emailed press release last week that piqued our interest. The release, concerning a water pipeline project in New Mexico, made the claim that powering that pipeline with solar and hydroelectric power would make that pipeline "eco-friendly." But something about the release raised our skepticism.
Here's the release's first two paras:
As it happens, the Augustin Plains Ranch water project has been in the news for quite some time in New Mexico. As ReWire's pal and Western water maven John Fleck put it in a 2011 article in the Albuquerque Journal, 54,000 acre-feet per year is enough to meet the needs of the City of Albuqerque, and enough to make the current residents of the Augustin Plains area, near Datil, NM, rather nervous:
The Augustin Plains Ranch project has been through its ups and downs since first proposed in 2007. More than a thousand people wrote formal protests of the project. New Mexico's State Engineer denied the project's application in 2011; when developers Augustin Plains Ranch LLC went to court to ask the Engineer's decision be overturned, the court backed up the Engineer rather resoundingly in 2012.
Also in 2012, Augustin Plains Ranch LLC shifted their story on the project's hydrology to claim that they'd be shipping 54,000 acre-feet of water a year that would otherwise be lost to evaporation, causing Fleck and others to wonder aloud just where they'd heard that story before.
Now, activists at the Catron County Water Coalition are noting with alarm that project proponents seem to be trying to revive the project with better PR -- while concurrently appealing the court's November 2012 decision upholding the State Engineer. The PR sent to media outlets in far-flung places like KCET in Los Angeles would seem to be part of that.
Make no mistake: pumping water is an energy-intensive process, and we need to figure out a way to use renewable energy to do that pumping in the West. We here in California know that better than many: just one of the Department of Water Resources' pumps on the California Aqueduct, the Edmonston Pumping Plant, eats up 835 megawatts of electrical power to pump water up over the Grapevine. Half of the DWR's power consumption has traditionally been fueled by coal-fired plants: though the Department is working to reduce that amount, there's still work to do getting those pumps to run on renewable energy.
So powering a water pipeline's infrastructure with renewable energy is a good idea. But that doesn't make the pipeline "eco-friendly" all by itself. If the pipeline is pumping water out of an unrecharged aquifer to provide city dwellers with a way to water their lawns, it's not going to be "eco-friendly" even if you make it out of recycled hemp.
There's a word for the corporate practice of glossing over potentially destructive ventures with a thin green veneer. It's called "greenwashing." It's pretty prevalent, and as solar power becomes increasingly popular, solar will be used as a way to greenwash projects that might not otherwise pass the muster of public approval.
But we here in California pretty much invented deceptive water politics, Augustin Plains Ranch. We see your Milagro Beanfield War, raise you Chinatown, and call it. You're gonna have to get a lot slicker if you want to persuade us terminally jaded hipsters out here that your Owens Valley Lite isn't a bad deal for the environment: waving a solar panel at us isn't going to cut it.
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NEW YORK CITY -- As New Mexico's drought and demand-driven water crisis continues to deepen, leaders from around the state are looking hard for viable, long-term solutions to both sustain the state's population growth and protect its fragile natural environment. One of the most promising options, the Augustin Plains Ranch project, was unveiled to the nation for the first time this week at the Global Infrastructure Leadership Forum in New York City.The Augustin Plains Ranch, located in west-central New Mexico, is proposing to develop an eco-friendly, water reclamation and transport project that will pump 54 thousand acre-feet of water out of a massive underground lake and pipe it to communities in need anywhere from Santa Fe to Southern New Mexico. This "green" project will operate under its own electricity produced through hydro and solar power, and will replenish the aquifer over the years with rainwater and snowmelt that is currently being lost to evaporation. It is also expected to create hundreds of permanent jobs for New Mexicans.
As it happens, the Augustin Plains Ranch water project has been in the news for quite some time in New Mexico. As ReWire's pal and Western water maven John Fleck put it in a 2011 article in the Albuquerque Journal, 54,000 acre-feet per year is enough to meet the needs of the City of Albuqerque, and enough to make the current residents of the Augustin Plains area, near Datil, NM, rather nervous:
Those in the central New Mexico ranch country where the water would start its journey, though, fear the project would leave them high and dry.[Rancher Ray] Pittman and his wife, Carol, use a second well to provide water to two ranch houses, three horses, two donkeys, "six or seven cats," one dog and nine goldfish that call one of the stock tanks home. The Pittmans and their neighbors fear the Augustin Plains Ranch water pumping project will dry up the landscape and way of life they hold dear. "People are afraid that this will deplete the aquifer," said Carol Pittman. "We all have wells."
The proposal would "essentially dry up the whole damn basin," said Albuquerque hydrologist Frank Titus. Water would disappear from wells used by people like the Pittmans, said Titus.
The Augustin Plains Ranch project has been through its ups and downs since first proposed in 2007. More than a thousand people wrote formal protests of the project. New Mexico's State Engineer denied the project's application in 2011; when developers Augustin Plains Ranch LLC went to court to ask the Engineer's decision be overturned, the court backed up the Engineer rather resoundingly in 2012.
Also in 2012, Augustin Plains Ranch LLC shifted their story on the project's hydrology to claim that they'd be shipping 54,000 acre-feet of water a year that would otherwise be lost to evaporation, causing Fleck and others to wonder aloud just where they'd heard that story before.
Now, activists at the Catron County Water Coalition are noting with alarm that project proponents seem to be trying to revive the project with better PR -- while concurrently appealing the court's November 2012 decision upholding the State Engineer. The PR sent to media outlets in far-flung places like KCET in Los Angeles would seem to be part of that.
Make no mistake: pumping water is an energy-intensive process, and we need to figure out a way to use renewable energy to do that pumping in the West. We here in California know that better than many: just one of the Department of Water Resources' pumps on the California Aqueduct, the Edmonston Pumping Plant, eats up 835 megawatts of electrical power to pump water up over the Grapevine. Half of the DWR's power consumption has traditionally been fueled by coal-fired plants: though the Department is working to reduce that amount, there's still work to do getting those pumps to run on renewable energy.
So powering a water pipeline's infrastructure with renewable energy is a good idea. But that doesn't make the pipeline "eco-friendly" all by itself. If the pipeline is pumping water out of an unrecharged aquifer to provide city dwellers with a way to water their lawns, it's not going to be "eco-friendly" even if you make it out of recycled hemp.
There's a word for the corporate practice of glossing over potentially destructive ventures with a thin green veneer. It's called "greenwashing." It's pretty prevalent, and as solar power becomes increasingly popular, solar will be used as a way to greenwash projects that might not otherwise pass the muster of public approval.
But we here in California pretty much invented deceptive water politics, Augustin Plains Ranch. We see your Milagro Beanfield War, raise you Chinatown, and call it. You're gonna have to get a lot slicker if you want to persuade us terminally jaded hipsters out here that your Owens Valley Lite isn't a bad deal for the environment: waving a solar panel at us isn't going to cut it.
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ReWire is dedicated to covering renewable energy in California. Keep in touch by liking us on Facebook, and help shape our editorial direction by taking this quick survey here.
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Here's the press release put out by the PR firm
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Here's the press release put out by the PR firm
who now represents the LLC, the Waite Company
of Albuquerque.
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KCET is the nation's largest independent
public television station.
Chris Clarke is a natural history writer
and environmental journalist.
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More about "GREENWASHING"
Edited from Wikipedia
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Greenwashing (a compound word modelled on "whitewash"), or "green sheen,"is a form of spin in which green PR or green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that an organization's aims and policies are environmentally friendly. Whether it is to increase profits or gain political support, greenwashing may be used to manipulate popular opinion to support otherwise questionable aims.
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USAGE
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The term greenwashing was coined by New York environmentalist Jay Westervelt in a 1986 essay regarding the hotel industry's practice of placing placards in each room promoting reuse of towels ostensibly to "save the environment." Westerveld noted that, in most cases, little or no effort toward reducing energy waste was being made by these institutions—as evidenced by the lack of cost reduction this practice effected. Westerveld opined that the actual objective of this "green campaign" on the part of many hoteliers was, in fact, increased profit. Westerveld thus labeled this and other outwardly environmentally conscientious acts with a greater, underlying purpose of profit increase as greenwashing.
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The term is generally used when significantly more money or time has been spent advertising being green (that is, operating with consideration for the environment), rather than spending resources on environmentally sound practices. This is often portrayed by changing the name or label of a product to evoke the natural environment or nature—for example, putting an image of a forest on a bottle containing harmful chemicals. Environmentalists often use greenwashing to describe the actions of energy companies, which are traditionally the largest polluters.
.
In the mid 1960s, the environmental movement gained
momentum. This popularity prompted many companies to
create a new green image through advertising. Jerry Mander,
a former Madison advertising executive, called this new form
of advertising "ecopornography."
.
There's more, see the full Wikipedia entry here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwashing
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STOP THE WATER GRAB!
"The privatization of water, our core source of survival, in an era when water is becoming more and more scarce does not bode well for inhabitants of planet earth.
Large corporations are using the legal system and advertising systems to strong-arm farmers and citizens in order to take ownership of their land and water.
After privatization, prices for water are always higher, without exception."
From the BLUE GOLD - WORLD WATER WARS Website
.
.
KCET is the nation's largest independent
public television station.
Chris Clarke is a natural history writer
and environmental journalist.
.
More about "GREENWASHING"
Edited from Wikipedia
.
Greenwashing (a compound word modelled on "whitewash"), or "green sheen,"is a form of spin in which green PR or green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that an organization's aims and policies are environmentally friendly. Whether it is to increase profits or gain political support, greenwashing may be used to manipulate popular opinion to support otherwise questionable aims.
.
USAGE
.
The term greenwashing was coined by New York environmentalist Jay Westervelt in a 1986 essay regarding the hotel industry's practice of placing placards in each room promoting reuse of towels ostensibly to "save the environment." Westerveld noted that, in most cases, little or no effort toward reducing energy waste was being made by these institutions—as evidenced by the lack of cost reduction this practice effected. Westerveld opined that the actual objective of this "green campaign" on the part of many hoteliers was, in fact, increased profit. Westerveld thus labeled this and other outwardly environmentally conscientious acts with a greater, underlying purpose of profit increase as greenwashing.
.
The term is generally used when significantly more money or time has been spent advertising being green (that is, operating with consideration for the environment), rather than spending resources on environmentally sound practices. This is often portrayed by changing the name or label of a product to evoke the natural environment or nature—for example, putting an image of a forest on a bottle containing harmful chemicals. Environmentalists often use greenwashing to describe the actions of energy companies, which are traditionally the largest polluters.
.
In the mid 1960s, the environmental movement gained
momentum. This popularity prompted many companies to
create a new green image through advertising. Jerry Mander,
a former Madison advertising executive, called this new form
of advertising "ecopornography."
.
There's more, see the full Wikipedia entry here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwashing
.
STOP THE WATER GRAB!
"The privatization of water, our core source of survival, in an era when water is becoming more and more scarce does not bode well for inhabitants of planet earth.
Large corporations are using the legal system and advertising systems to strong-arm farmers and citizens in order to take ownership of their land and water.
After privatization, prices for water are always higher, without exception."
From the BLUE GOLD - WORLD WATER WARS Website
.
.
.
But you better believe they're working on it!
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