Book Description

The Louisiana Atchafalaya River Basin is one of the most dynamic and critical environments in the country. The river's immense floodway is the ancestral home of the American Cajun population; it sustains the nation's last cypress-tupelo wetland and provides habitat for many species of animals. Perhaps most crucial, it remains a primary component of the plan to control the Mississippi River and relieve flooding in communities in the lower river valley.

The continuing health of the basin is a reflection not of nature, but of the work of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. With levee building and clearing in the nineteenth century and damming, dredging, and floodway construction in the twentieth, the basin was converted from a vast forested swamp into a designer wetland, where human aspirations and nature needs maintained a precarious equilibrium.

Originally published by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, this history of the Atchafalaya Basin was hailed as a balanced yet unflinching account of the transformation of an area that has endured perhaps more human manipulation than any other natural environment in the nation. Martin Reuss provides a new preface to bring us up-to-date on the state of the basin, which remains both an engineering contrivance and natural wonder. ... Read more

Book Description

WATER: THE DROP OF LIFE is a companion to a public television documentary that will begin airing this Fall.

The story of water is a story of life...and death. A story of rich...and poor...of unknown beauty...despair...crisis. And of hope. Much of the time, water is taken for granted. But often it moves to the forefront of our lives from sheer necessity because the supply, the price, or the purity is a constant source of anxiety.

The world's population of 6 billion people uses 4 billion gallons (15 billion liters) of water every day. It is projected that in 2025 almost one-fourth of the world's population will suffer severe water scarcity.

Water: The Drop of Life brings into focus the realization that for millions of people, worldwide, our global well is literally running dry. The situation is not all doom and gloom, but we must face the problem and take up the challenge. We must change both our attitudes and our practices in order to sustain the well, for ourselves and our future generations.

As a companion to the Public Television Series, this book attempts to show how important the world's fresh water supply is, and how vulnerable it is.

Highlights
€ Status of the global water supply for the 21st century is a hot topic worldwide.
€Stunning photographs vividly show how water is used around the world.
€Locations addressed include Africa, Australia, Canada, England, Ecuador, Germany, India, Mexico, and 5 major areas of the United States.
€Chapter topics include Agriculture, Industry, Pollution, Religion, and Transportation.
€Celebrity spokespeople include Kofi Annan, Jimmy Carter, Johan Cruyff, Dalai Lama, Ted Danson, Mikhail Gorbachev, Queen Noor, Shimon Peres. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

The gift of water
"Water: The Drop Of Life", is a companion book to the PBS series about water. The book is well written, and also stands well on it's own describing water usage in much of the world today. Water is a precious resource, but it is often not thought of in that way. Instead, water is often wasted and misused in many places. Contaminated water is also the source of great tragedy and suffering. Millions of people die every year from water borne diseases, including a huge number of children. This book tells the story of the consequences of bad water, and of ongoing efforts to improve the quality of water everywhere. With continuing increases in the world's population, water resources are being strained as never before. Something has to be done on a worldwide scale, or there is going to be a massive water crisis in this century. This book helps to bring the problem into clear focus, and provides possible solutions for the future. It helps us to understand one of nature's greatest gifts; a gift that is far too often taken for granted. This book provides valuable insights and information into the many uses of water.

A Simple Look at the Issues Concerning Better Use of Water
Television by its nature usually focuses on a low education level and works fast, before interest fades. Translated into a book, that means all the facts are there . . . but in highly summarized form.

If you follow water at all, you know that we have a severe shortage of clean water in many of the most populous parts of the world. Rapid growth in population means that the pressure is increasing, and that we have to put more effort and innovation into solutions. The ways we use water can stand some reforming along the way. In other areas, too much water causes horrible problems related to floods. Our past conservation efforts have often been misguided and caused new problems.

The book does a nice job of briefly alluding to the most common issues -- people in water-rich areas treating water wastefully, the lack of capabilities to clean up rivers that millions use like the Ganges, and the tremendous problems of desert areas. You also will find a section on the most important part of the rain forest in Ecuador, which is the home of the most biodiverse jungle population on the planet (because it was spared in the last Ice Age).

Some of the technologies are very interesting because they mimic nature (dew nets), the practices of aboriginal ancestors (for farming), and common sense (reuse water where there is no downside). Advanced technologies are also described.

I have not seen the show, but the appearance of worldwide celebrities in the book will certainly help make the message more meaningful to teenagers and young adults. It was nice these people made themselves available for the program.

Mikhail Gorbachev's foreword is brief, but nicely summarizes where we are. "Water, like religion and ideology, has the power to move millions of people." "But we stand today on the brink of a global water crisis." In thinking about this he urges us to see that "access to clean water is a universal human right . . . ." He also calls us to action, "Just as we are moved by water, we must now move in order to save it." His comments about the geo-political effects of water were sobering, that no nation can have security without an adequate supply of pure water for all of its inhabitants.

The book has many beautiful photographs, but almost all of them are reproduced in very small sizes that diminish the enjoyment and benefit you can gain from them.

Rather than making the book as a simple companion to the television show (which I have not yet seen), it would have been better to have made this more seamlessly into a book. Now, it seems to "jump" from one sound bite and quick pan to the next in a scrapbook-like way.

I think this book would make an excellent gift to a young person who has not yet had much chance to travel and learn about global water issues.

What can you do to make more appropriate use of water in your life, household, community, and nation?

May you always have all the clean water that good health requires!

Appreciated. Comment on infant baptism is inappropriate.
I am trying to keep current of water supply and quality issues and found this book, though not a gusher of information, perhaps because only 143 pages, refreshing. I believe I hadn't previously known about "DRiWATER," (pp.136-137), a gel which, as it is slowly eaten by soil microbes, slowly releases water to the soil. I had previously read of fog catchers (pp. 42-43), but the photographs really impressed me with the utter simplicity of the technology. Two things annoyed me bit. First, the photographs should be captioned to identify the location and perhaps give more detail about the scenes. Second, the author seems to have some theological preoccupations. This might seem overly sensitive, but on p. 109, he wrote: "...the Roman aqueducts were not infallible." I've no problem with that mildly witty diction. But on p. 31, we are told that "[t]he practice of infant baptism did not become a normal practice until the fifth century, and there is still a debate today as to whether or not this constitutes a proper baptism." While I have elsewhere encountered a perhaps respectable argument against infant baptism, I remain convinced that it is better to baptise infants than to defer their baptism. I believe infant baptism harmonizes better with the biblical data. I understand that infant baptism was widespread even in the sub-apostolic era (first and second centuries) without criticism, and that even though he was baptised as an adult, St. Augustine (354-430) reported that infant baptism was an apostolic teaching. The author seems to have pulled the fifth century out of thin air for the establishment of the normalcy of infant baptism. Why commentary on infant baptism is dropped into a short book on water, I don't know.

Water, The Drop of Life by Peter Swanson
This book is a companion to the PBS series by the same name. To date, the program has not been available in our area but the book has enhanced my desire to see the program. The book describes water issues throughout the world in words and pictures. I was left with the desire to conserve water in my daily life. The book certainly makes it clear that we have a problem with water now that will get worse in the future. We must work to protect this vital resource for future generations. Water, The Drop of Life is a book I would recommend to everyone. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (1)

Very clear and understanable book
The book covers most of the hydrology. Students should keep this book as a handbook. I recommend this book all level of hdyrology students. ... Read more

Book Description

Based on a symposium sponsored by the Environmental Division of the American Chemical Society, Perchlorate in the Environment is the first comprehensive book to address perchlorate as a potable water contaminant. The two main topics are: analytical chemistry (focusing on ion chromatography and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry), and treatment or remediation. Also included are topics such as ion exchange, phytoremediation, bacterial reduction of perchlorate, bioreactors, and in situ bioremediation. To provide complete coverage, background chapters on fundamental chemistry, toxicology, and reulatory issues are also included. The authors are environmental consultants, government researchers, industry experts, and university professors from a wide array of disciplines. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The editor's review
Of course I gave my own book five stars. This book is largely the proceedings of a symposium held at the fall 1999 American Chemical Society meeting. It is the first book published on perchlorate as an environmental contaminant since its widespread discovery in 1997. Topics range from toxicology to analytical techniques to treatment/remediation. The book starts with the fundamental chemistry of perchlorate and moves on through other topics. I have encouraged chapter authors to make their works readable to a general science audience. Relative to its content, the price is fair; it's a pretty thick book for the money. This book is not for everyone. It's geared more for researchers and regulators. I have tried to make it as complete as the science would allow at the time. Many studies involving perchlorate are underway, and many papers are being published in the literature. However, this book will give consultants, researchers, and students a good overview of what was known in August 1999. Certainly, there have been advances since then, but the information remains valuable and applicable now. A lot of people put a lot of work into putting this book together, and I think it shows. ... Read more

Book Description

The supply and management of fresh water for the world's billions of inhabitants is likely to be one of the most daunting challenges of the coming century. For countries that share river basins with others, questions of how best to use and protect precious water resources always become entangled in complex political, legal, environmental, and economic considerations. This book focuses on the issues that face all international river basins by examining in detail the Nile Basin and the ten countries that lay claim to its waters.John Waterbury applies collective action theory and international relations theory to the challenges of the ten Nile nations. Confronting issues ranging from food security and famine prevention to political stability, these countries have yet to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of how to manage the Nile's resources. Waterbury proposes a series of steps leading to the formulation of environmentally sound policies and regulations by individual states, the establishment of accords among groups of states, and the critical participation of third-party sources of funding like the World Bank. He concludes that if there is to be a solution to the dilemmas of the Nile Basin countries, it must be based upon contractual understandings, brokered by third-party funders, and based on the national interests of each basin state. ... Read more

Book Description

This book shows why the protesters are wrong and how more reforms could save the millions of lives and improve the lives of hundred of others. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A very good introduction to this topic
A few years ago I came across a magazine article that discussed the importance of the Ogallala Aquifer to American agriculture, geography, and society. Realizing that I knew absolutely nothing about this topic I picked up John Opie's book. It's safe to say that I now know more about the Ogallala Aquifer than I could ever have imagined possible.

The book begins with a discussion of the geology of the aquifer, and then moves into the history of irrigation efforts on the Plains since the 19th century, and finally to a discussion of the various irrigation technologies currently used to exploit the aquifer. There is ample discussion along the way about how these technologies have changed over the years as environmental consciousness and the problems of declining aquifer levels have become more prevalent.

This book is not only a very informative look at the Ogallala Aquifer but is pleasantly readable as well. And now that it is (finally) available in a more affordable paperback edition, I'm going to go buy a copy for myself. ... Read more

Book Description

Irrigation came to the arid West in a wave of optimism about the power of water to make the desert bloom. Mark Fiege's fascinating and innovative study of irrigation in southern Idaho's Snake River valley describes a complex interplay of human and natural systems. Using vast quantities of labor, irrigators built dams, excavated canals, laid out farms, and brought millions of acres into cultivation. But at each step, nature rebounded and compromised the intended agricultural order. The result was a new and richly textured landscape made of layer upon layer of technology and intractable natural forces-one that engineers and farmers did not control with the precision they had anticipated. Irrigated Eden vividly portrays how human actions inadvertently helped to create a strange and sometimes baffling ecology.

... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great reading for genisis of Idaho Snake River Water Use!
Irrigated Eden

In summary water along the Snake River in Idaho is unpredictable, not quantifiable, fickle and limited. Even in the 1920s when there were no uses competing with ariculture it had to be rationed. The surface water, ground water and aquifer commingle freely and as such should be jointly monitored and managed with "honest" diligence. When it comes to the water there is no such thing as partitioned individual water rights anywhere along the Sanke River in Idaho because we are all inextricably woven together in one tub and an action by one entity will affect everyone else in the tub. What one man passes another man drinks.Mark Fiege has done an excellent job of quantifying both the temporal and philosophical circumstances surrounding the acquisition and use of water for agriculture along the Snake River in Idaho up until about 1920. This book is a great place for one to begin to understand the genesis of water acquisition and husbandry for agriculture in Sountern Idaho. The first two thirds of the book and the notes are the best features of the book. The last third tends to drift away into a philosophical stretch without any real conclusions. Mark should now write a book that brings the use of water along the Sanke River in Southern Idaho up to the present time and weave together all of the contemporary competing uses for that water. Based on his research Mark should take the next step and make some recommendations for the future husbandry of our water. Mark has only done the first half of the job because the story is exponentially dynamic and just beginning. Finnish the story. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Lesson in Citizen Action
This book covers the changing of the guard in American politics, when authority was no longer unquestioned and citizens were learning how to organize and exert their positions.In hindsight, it is amazing that suchan ill conceived idea as transporting 800,000 cubic yards of water over 100miles to irrigate land inherently unsuited to irrigation could have heldsway for three decades before being exposed as impractical.The fact thatthis feat was accomplished by a handful of citizens, against the uniteddesires of the press and business and political leaders, makes it even moreinteresting reading.

During the period that this drama was being actedout, I served as a Special Assistant to the Governor of South Dakota, and Iwas impressed by the clear, interesting and straightforward telling of thisstory.While I would dispute some of the details, to a reader that did notlive out this drama, these are of a minor consequence.As the staff memberthat authorized funding of the study of transporting Missouri River waterto Wyoming, I can assure the readers that this study was done solely todetermine the impact of providing clean, fresh water to ranches and smallcommunities in western South Dakota and was completely unrelated to theOahe project.Governor Kneip quickly distanced himself from this studywhen objections arose from our political base in eastern South Dakota. This study, however, documented the importance of clean water supplies tothe public health and the raising of livestock.The rural water systemsthat were created in the wake of Oahe addressed this need and as the authornoted, this was the lasting legacy of the Oahe Project.

There is anatural tendency in books like this to paint the good guys as pure and theestablishment as universally bad.In this case as part of theestablishment, there were major differences of opinion within the Kneipadministration on the feasibility and desirability of the Oahe Project. The decision to "leak" and make public a wide array of documents that weredestined to aid the opponents was thoroughly debated and I admire GovernorKneip's tolerance of those that prevailed in providing the public thetruth.

The lesson that citizens can overcome incredible odds in fightingproposed developments is a fascinating story that deserved telling. ... Read more

Book Description

An update and extension of the first edition, c1983. Puts emphasis on the developments over the last two decades, especially with regards to water quality, usage, economics, and policies. Also looks at water's role in the life sciences and ecology and its influence on dissolved substances. ... Read more

Book Description

The authors describe the status of water resource use and water quality in Canada, the US and Mexico at the start of the third millenium. The book summarizes future water use and supply projections, plus the primary challenges currently facing water resource managers. The analysis regarding resource projections and management needs are derived from government reports and position papers published by private resource advocacy organizations. The report is organized to provide general information about North America, its water management infrastructure, water use by sector, water quality, and future infrastructure needs. ... Read more

Book Description

Despite impressive innovations by some states, western water laws and institutions now in place were designed chiefly for an earlier era and have not adapted to the new demands and stresses on water resources.In Water and the Arid Lands of the Western United States the authors explore the nature of water demands in the agricultural and municipal sectors and set forth prescriptions for the west to move away from its historical reliance on expensive supply-side projects and toward better management of existing supplies.Six cases studies by experts in the field illustrate specific examples of water management issues.Taking as foci the Central Valley of California, the High Plains of Texas, and the Upper Basin of the Colorado River, three of the case studies examine problems faced by the large urban areas of southern California; Tucson, Arizona; and Denver, Colorado. A concluding chapter suggests practical policy options and politically feasible institutional changes for maximizing the efficiency of water use and minimizing the conflict associated with the reallocation of limited water supplies. ... Read more

Book Description

Nature Incorporated explores the Industrial Revolution in New England from an environmental perspective.The advent of the industrial age brought about significant changes in gender and class relations, and also in work and culture.But it also involved a fundamental change in the way the natural world was handled.Focusing on the legendary Waltham-Lowell style mills, this book examines how these textile factories brought water under their exclusive control.It examines the legal issues that arose in settling disputes over water, and describes the far reaching ecological consequences of industrial change. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Each day at least 10,000 people worldwide die from disease-infected water. This is just one of the startling statistics contained in this collection of 13 essays, which address a wide variety of water-related issues, including global scarcity, pollution, privatization, poor distribution, and desalinization. In many parts of the world, useable fresh water (about 1% of the planet's total) is a resource more valuable than oil and even more essential to life. This book makes clear the sobering connection between inadequate clean water and poverty and the potential for increasing international conflicts (especially in parched places such as Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa), as well as some of the steps that might be taken to alleviate these problems: conservation, technological innovation, and effective cross-boundary water management. Its contributors--scientists, professors, journalists, and politicians--pile on one grim statistic after another, often repeating material from earlier chapters, which tends to dull what ultimately is a very compelling argument: that we use too much water, waste it foolishly, and degrade the environment by draining underground aquifers faster than they can be replenished.

By 2015, some 3 billion people will live in countries where fresh water is in short supply; by 2050, the number could be as high as 7 billion. Numbers this large are difficult to comprehend, which is why the most specific examples are the most horrifying. Consider the Taliban’s unauthorized construction of a dam on the Helmand River in eastern Afghanistan in the 1990s and its effect on neighboring Iran, where a 4,000-square-kilometer lake has been sucked bone-dry. All fish have disappeared and so has the village that until recently depended on catching them. What remains is an exposed lakebed, rapidly being covered by dunes from frequent sandstorms. A modest example maybe, but a particularly haunting symbol for a growing global problem. --Keith Moerer ... Read more