The Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District will hold “frank” discussions about community water rights in the District’s post-pulp-mill water climate.
Click the image to biggify.
The meetings will cover phases 1 & 2 of a 4-part approach to address potential rate hikes or loss of local control over Humboldt County’s newest gold rush — the water.
The Water District is doing an excellent job of garnering community input to figure out what to do in the face of a rare conundrum: too much water. The district only uses about half of its current water right, meaning the state can step in and take the remainder unless it’s legally allocated. The last thing we need is the state claiming Mad River water. In addition to being important, these meetings should be interesting. Hope to see you there!
Greg King
President, Siskiyou Land Conservancy
Just what is the white jelly that won’t pass through a filter? If they need to save money why not cut the fluoride application for starters?
Thanks to the un-ending environmental lawsuits and anti-business-growth attitude of our very own HBS and assorted rabid environmental groups in Humboldt, another major business has died, and with it, precious tax revenues and the purchasing of all that water. So now what? The local tax base continues to be eroded, and rather than stopping the madness and trying to bring in new businesses, any and all development is disputed and halted, taxes are continuously being raised on the citizens and existing businesses to make up the tax downfall, and public services are being cut(school teachers, law enforcement, fire)are being cut. One would hope that yet another major industry biting the dust in Humboldt would wake people up. Maybe higher taxes will, because they are a commin’.
All the so called “lost” business interests extolled above aren’t as valuable as clean water. Sorry.
I have to admit the teabagger cabal has been brilliant at zooming through its resources and blaming “rabid environmental groups” when the jobs run out. Going back to the Redwood Park days, when they clearcut the forest, ran out of jobs, sold part of what was left for a mighty profit, then stirred up the locals to hate “tree huggers” for eliminating their jobs! Now the market is gone for pulp, the supply of chips has dried up (all because of market gaming), and they say “we’re closing because of tree huggers and government interference.” They forget, of course, our two mills were specifically exempted from the original Environmental Protection Act. And, of course, the kinds of corporate excesses that made it necessary are the same free market excesses that created the financial meltdown. I’m sure the Fox “news” spinmeisters are busily working to inculcate the same BS in the minds of Earl and his Beckian friends.
As if it’s not in use until it goes thru a pipe. The fish need it and we need the fish, need I say more?
Mad River is already suffering from low summer flows and heavy sedimentation. The wild salmon are rare at best.
Any and all attempts to divert more water out of Humboldt will be met with staunch resistance.
Sincerely, a homeland defender.
And the hatchery fish are obviously not enough to maintain a fishing industry or robust eco-system.
Good point, We’re Already Using it All: The excess Mad River flows should be available as “environmental water.” We have had this discussion with the Water District. There are roadblocks to this, however. I urge you to attend one or all of the meetings and make sure that this is an option thoroughly vetted and pursued by the Water District.
Could any of the water be used for irrigation to help support local agriculture? I would love to use this as an additional opportunity to eat local!
Our resident anarchist has brought up a salient point.
Both flouride and wqod chips are the by products of industrial processes and must be disposed of in an environmentally safe way.
Solution? Turn the lemons of capitalism into capitalist lemonade!
Flouridation is sold as good for smiles, while there is unrefutable evidence of its toxicity. Maybe diets too high in sugar and sugar substitutes and life lacking basic health care are to blame?
The pulp mill existed as a means to dispose of mountains of wood chips that used to be burned before that became illegal. More capitalist lemonade, just put a plant on Humboldt Bay to turn solid wood chip waste into cardboard. Problem is that the process is highly destructive of the environment because of the chemical processes required.
Yeah, sure we need paper but there are other plants that produce better fiber that requires much less chemical intervention to produce the product.
Humans have been producing paper for several thousand years, but not from trees.
have a peaceful day,
Bill
What a terrible graphic. Someone must have said let’s make this impossible to read.
The original is good quality. This is a .gif. Click it for easier reading.
…“environmental water.”
LOL
Or, how about “Green Water”
if we don’t need all the water, maybe we could remove R.W. Matthews Dam, drain Ruth Reservoir and allow salmon and trout to have access to the watershed upstream!
without industrial consumption, could there be enough flow in the river year ’round for all our needs?
what are our priorities here?
need to remove the dam on the eel river.
Salmon can’t make it up to Ruth without climbing gear.
Yep, take out the fluoride. Win, win.
They PAY for fluoride that kills you and your children. Instant savings cutting the industrial waste out the picture. In Europe fluoridated water is labeled as MEDICATION- only stupid sheep in Banker Occupied North America drink it. Filtration of it is expensive and leaves a white jelly behind that is great for killing weeds in sidewalk cracks.
Citizens should be advised not to business with anyone who “earns” a living from tax dollars- do not even talk to these “people”.
Cool. It works.
FYI Black Flag — if you try to embed youtube videos your comment will get snagged.
Thanks H. Being force fed videos is like waiting for pre written comments from CPR to end at a BOS meeting, or a boom box or thump thump car to finally turn the corner. Sheesh, express yourself.
“The original is good quality. This is a .gif. Click it for easier reading.”
It’s still a crime against typography.
Thanks for posting this Heraldo!
A couple points -
1) the Water District doesn’t put fluoride in the water. The Cities of Arcata and Eureka fluoridate their water *after* our meter. This has been covered many, many times and it would be great if people would stop spreading misinformation about this.
2) the dam and Water District operations actually help enhance fish habitat because we release year-round and ensure flows through the dry summer/fall season during the time most critical for the river to maintain habitat for Salmon and Steelhead. designating the rights toward “in-stream flows” is a potential option to protect the District’s water rights, though it is more complicated than some other options. for more information about the benefits of the Water District to the Mad River fisheries and ecosystem, check out our Habitat Conservation Plan – a lot of study and analysis has gone into looking at the impacts of the HBMWD on the Mad River: http://hbmwd.com/ (see the link at the very bottom of the menu on the right)
3) we really want your participation in this process!! I really hope folks will join us at these public meetings and through this process. We really are trying to be as proactive and participatory as we can, and to that end we’re trying some new things in the realm of community engagement and dialogue. We even received a grant from the folks at Common Sense CA for the innovative and experimental aspects of this process.
4) Mike B (or anyone else) – would you care to volunteer to help us make better posters and outreach materials in the future? :) We’d love your help!
Please don’t hesitate to contact me or the Water District if you have further questions or feedback about this process.
Sincerely,
Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap
HBMWD Board President
Green water, I believe we have it almost every summer now on all our sluggish rivers. It is the algae bloom that kills dogs, etc, when they drink it. The lack of good follow is killing the rivers. It’s what killed many thousands of Salmon a few years ago. There is not enough water for all of “OUR” needs.
Thanks for the post Kaitlin.
Sorry about slamming the graphic. I can help.
Or maybe Mr. TextWrapper could help. Typography rules.
Mike – ya should have known you can’t offer critique and not get roped into helping :) I’ll let staff know that we’ve got an offer for assistance. I don’t know who made it, but definitely one of our staff who was just trying to lend a hand and save us $ so we wouldn’t have to hire outside help.
Whatever Mike Buettner and textwrapper, I like their choice of fonts. It is always fun to identify all the different fonts used in a flyer. What’s up with those boring flyers with the dates and times in futura bold oblique trying to be like you can read this from a distance style? It’s all about perspective shadows and shit.
Just to make sure we’re all clear – we’re only talking about the Mad River here.
Unfortunately the HBMWD has no jurisdiction over any other watershed or river.
I’ve never seen toxic blue green algae on the Mad and flows are always much higher in the summer months than any other river in Humboldt County that I’ve ever seen (again, because of the Water District’s management of the releases at Ruth Lake). Have others had a different experience (in terms of the algae)?
Two ideas.
1) Water slide. Kids love ‘em in the summer and the weather will only be getting hotter.
2) Humboldt Bottled Water, good for growing bud/bodies. It ties in nicely with the ‘drink local’ campaign while also providing revenue for the district.
Why does the fluoride leave a white jelly behind? Please do a post on how the government bastards put drugs and toxic waste into the water and call it good.
Does the person who applies the poison show their face with pride in killing people while cashing their government check paid from stolen wealth from Citizens?
“…it would be great if people would stop spreading misinformation…”
God bless her, Ms. Sopoci-Belknap must be new to blogs.
She’s not new to the blogs nor to spreading misinformation.
http://www.cdc.gov/FLOURIDATION/safety.htm Sorry no Utube video to imbed. Most recent safety review from 2006.I trust the CDC more then black flag!
Right….take your live cancer virus flu shot too.
Real trust worthy “people”- slime that feeds off taxation.
Fluoride aside, right now we have a 60 million gallon a day water right that we are not using. There are ways for other state entities to simply take this water right from us if we cannot use it. No one wants to send water in Bladders or pipelines to Socal but at least if we are selling it then it serves us. hippie rhetoric will not help when the Sacramento criminals come for our water. We need a new beneficial use for our water quick. Come to this meeting please and listen and learn, this is BIG.
This notion of “extra” water stems from the attitude that any water making its way to sea is wasted. That is why no rivers south of the San Joaquin flow to the Pacific. In reality, there’s no such thing as wasted water. That concept rationalizes over development, over grazing, and inappropriate farming to the detriment of our coastal lifeblood, fishing. None of the water in a river system is wasted and we would do well to foster that understanding in Sackatomato and Washytoon.
“There are ways for other state entities to simply take this water right from us if we cannot use it.”
I’ve started growing rice in my backyard.
Black Flag’s Blog:
http://blackflagascending.blogspot.com/
Saving rivers would be a good use for our water. Our rivers are running dry.