Fishing for Kharma

  "Ok, so it's not just a water reflection but water themed kharma.

This is not how the ocean works but it is how my luck works. "

This image was submitted by Frankin R. from redding , CA.

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Meramec River

The Meramec River is one of the longest free-flowing waterways in Missouri, draining 3,980 square miles while wandering 218 miles from headwaters near Salem to where it empties into the Mississippi River near St. Louis. Once upon a time the Meramec River was  an important industrial shipping route to transport goods such as lead, iron and timber downstream by flatboat and shallow draft streamboat.Today, the river is primarily used recreationally by canoe outfitters and ferry boat excursions in addition to commercially by tourboat and gravel mining barges. 

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The District

"In 1920, the Fresno Irrigation District (District) became the successor to the privately owned Fresno Canal and Land Company.  The District inherited over 800 miles of canals and distribution networks that were constructed between 1860 and 1890.  In addition to the canals, the District also retained extensive water rights on the Kings River.  The District receives a small amount of water from the San Joaquin River through the Friant Water Authority.

The District is made up of 245,000 acres of rich farmland and urban areas all within Fresno County.  Water from our infrastructures supplies the rapidly growing metropolitan areas of the City of Fresno and the City of Clovis. 

As the premier irrigation district in the Central Valley, the District has been involved in local, valley, and state-wide water issues.    The District is proud to be involved in programs such as the Kings River Fishery Management Program and a leader in developing groundwater banking facilities.  The District continues to strive to be the good stewards of surface and groundwater supplies to meet the needs of the agricultural, urban, and environmental requirements of our constituents and neighbors."

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Tucamari, New Mexico

The US Burea of reclamation manages many water water projects in the western United States. The Tucumcari Project, has about 41,000 acres of irrigable land. The project  includes the Conchas Dam and Reservoir (constructed by the Corps of Engineers), Conchas and Hudson Canals, and a distribution and drainage system. Some  of the lands in the project area have been in cultivation for 145 years but residents of Quay and San Miguel Counties primarily have been livestock producers. Construction of the irrigation system began in 1940 and continued to December 1942, when work was suspended by the War Production Board. The project was reauthorized in April 1944 as a war emergency food project. First water was delivered to project lands in 1946 and construction was essentially completed in 1950. 

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Giving Thanks

My Your Our Water would like to take a moment to THANK all those who supported MYOW's journey to Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Michael & Madelyn Adams

Catherine Daryl Sotak Adams
Richard App

Dorothy Ginley Bahm
Joanna Benton

Howard Berry

Nancy Lowery Bregar

Sonya Sotak Elling

Dave Gaidamavice

Jenny Gryniewicz

Karrie Hovey

Chris Jagmin

Sarah Kinney

Brian Lowery

Jenny Lowery

Mike McGreal

Suzy Mitchell

Ann Morton

Leslie Olds Nicola

Kip Patrick

Stan Rader

Carol Setler

Kym Showers

Shirley Snage

Connie Sotak

Cj Sotak

Alan Stillwell

Hollie Stenson

Bret & Cindy Ward
Kathleen Wedge

Jamie Yon

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Amarillo, Texas

There are approximately 69,000 water meters in Amarillo, Texas at homes and businesses. 

The City’s water is supplied from two sources: A system of wells drawing water from the Ogallala Aquifer and Lake Meredith when water is available. Lake Meredith is dependent on rainfall and snowmelt to replace the water used by the City.  The average annual rainfall in the Amarillo area is about 20 inches.  Amarillo is considered a semi-desert area. 

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The Mississippi - Missouri

The Mississippi can be ranked as the fourth longest river in the world by adding the length of the Missouri-Jefferson (Red Rock) system to the Mississippi downstream of the Missouri-Mississippi confluence—for a combined length of 3,710 miles (5,971 km)—the 2,340-mile length of the Mississippi proper is comfortably exceeded by 19 other rivers. In volume of discharge, however, the Mississippi’s rate of roughly 600,000 cubic feet (17,000 cubic metres) per second is the largest inNorth America and the eighth greatest in the world. Including the tributaries, the Mississippi drains all or part of 31 states and Canadian provinces.

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Oklahoma

Clinton Lake in western Oklahoma is located just east of Canute. Clinton Lake has 4 miles of shoreline and 335 surface acres. Facilities include picnic areas, boat ramps, and boat docks. However there's no swimming or sailboats allowed and state regulations apply to fishing and boating. 

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Delivering Water

The drought in California has ushered in a boom in water delivery services. When wells run dry the often the solution is to simply dig a new one. However, the cost to dig a well is hefty and there's no guarantee that the new well won't run dry as well. In some parts of the state there has been an increase in water theft but in Central California many homeowners are turning to a legal water solution that’s not dependent on city water lines- water delivery.  Water delivery trucks legally hook up to fire hydrants in areas that use city water and fill up the truck. The number of gallons loaded on to the truck is reported to the city. The trucks then deliver water to customers whose wells have gone dry. This may sound like  a drain on the city water system but the Clovis Water Authority that the water used by truck haulers is less than 4 percent of the city’s yearly water production.

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Platte River, Nebraska

The Platte River is one of the most significant tributaries in the Missouri watershed draining a large portion of the Central Great Plains in Nebraska and Eastern Rocky Mountains. The Platte River is approximately 310 miles  but if measured with it's main tributary it flows over 1,050miles. It is a long, broad, meandering , shallow and muddy river with many small islands and braided streams.

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Joshua Tree

Two distinct desert ecosystems, the Mojave and the Colorado, come together in Joshua Tree National Park.  It's a vivid coming together of both high and low desert.  The landscape is rugged and exposed. The desert vegetation and animal life exist on a minute  amount of water. The average annual precipitation in Joshua Tree is 5.12 inches.

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Planes, Trains & Kayaks

From Australia to Alaska, this couple made their way to Glacier Bay to see the retreating ice.  Glacier Bay National Park is consider the gem of Alaska's inner passage with 3.3 million acres of mountains, coastlines, temperate rainforest and glaciers.

This image was shared by David and Allison from Melbourne, Australia. 

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Flint, Michigan

The City of Flint, Michigan declared a public health emergency in October of 2015 after confirming dangerous levels of lead in the city's water supply.The road to poison water in Flint is a lengthy story of  poor city management, bad economics, bad infrastructure, bad pipes, bad decisions and intentional deception. The quick of it: the City of Flint stopped buying water from Detroit and began using water from the Flint River. The city assured residents the water was safe. From the get go the water tasted and smelled bad leading residents to demand reassurance of clean safe water. Testing of the water followed.  Documents now show the City of Flint filed false reports with the EPA about testing for lead in the water. There are now documented cases of children in Flint, Michigan with elevated levels of lead.  There is no such thing as a safe blood level of lead in children.

 Flint is still without clean safe water.

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Sidewalk Washer

Sometimes, even in the high desert, where water is scarce, sidewalks are washed.

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Reststop Wastewater Treatment

Across the country many of the rest areas along the interstates have wastewater treatment facilities just a stone throw away. These facilities,  mostly built in the 1950's and 1960's,  have been reevaluated and updated with current technologies. The updated systems  of storage tanks, ump sizes and fixture requirements are mostly based on the water demands and wastewater flow at the various locations.

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Drains to the River

If you happen to be a resident in the Mile High City  you  may notice a line on your bill for  for storm drainage. The storm drainage network in place  to control rain and snow run  off.  This system maintains a safe flow of the water that has had it's natural route altered by development. "Stormwater is generated by water (from storm events or other sources) running across the surface of impervious surfaces, such as streets, sidewalks, parking lots, and roof tops where it picks up contaminants such as oil residue from cars, litter, and debris. Stormwater runs through Denver's storm drain system, where it is naturally treated and the water is reclaimed by the ecosystem."

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The Longest River : the Missouri River

Interestingly, the longest river in North America is not the Mississippi River but rather it's tributary the Missouri River. Rising in the Rocky Mountains of western Montana, the Missouri flows east and south for 2,341 miles before entering the Mississippi River north of St. Louis, Missouri. The combined Mississippi-Missouri River is considered the fourth longest river in the world.

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Big Bear

Big Bear Lake is located in the San Bernardino Mountains  in California and is  surrounded by the San Bernardino National Forest. Not unlike the rest of California, Big Bear Lake is feeling the impact of the severe drought. The Lake is down approximately 11 feet this year and continues to recede causing  large number of carp fish to die.

This image was submitted by Mary S. from Watsonville, CA

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Red Rock Dam

Red Rock Dam is located in central Iowa on the Des Moines River forming Lake Red Rock. The dam was originally constructed for flood control and was completed in 1969 by the Army Core of Engineers. The dam is currently being being retrofitted to provide hydro-electric power. It is estimated annual energy produced by the project will be 178,000 MWh, or enough to power approximately 18,000 homes.The project is scheduled to be complete in 2018.

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Wastewater Treatment in Omaha

The Missouri River Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) along the Missouri River, in Omaha City, Nebraska. The plant, owned by Metropolitan St Louis Sewer District (MSD), has an average treatment capacity of 35 million gallons per day and is undergoing capital improvements. The Missouri River WWTP receives wastewater from factories and packing plants, storm run off and domestic sewers. Industrial and domestic flows treated at the plant are equivalent to waste waters generated by 600,000 people.

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Colorado

The City of Fort Morgan began delivering water from Lake Carter to the residents and businesses of Fort Morgan, Colorado in 2000. As a result the local City's water Department was divided into two sub- departments: water distribution and water treatment.

There are approximately 4000 water customers served by the City of Fort Morgan. The water treatment plant treats a daily average of 3.8 million gallons of water a day.

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 The Mighty Mississippi

According to the National Parks Service, "The Mississippi River watershed is the fourth largest in the world, extending from the Allegheny Mountains in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west. The watershed includes all or parts of 31 states and 2 Canadian Provinces. The watershed measures approximately 1.2 million square miles, covering about 40% of the lower 48 states.

Communities up and down the river use the Mississippi to obtain freshwater and to discharge their industrial and municipal waste. We don't have good figures on water use for the whole Mississippi River Basin, but we have some clues. A January 2000 study published by the Upper Mississippi River Conservation Committee states that close to 15 million people rely on the Mississippi River or its tributaries in just the upper half of the basin (from Cairo, IL to Minneapolis, MN). A frequently cited figure of 18 million people using the Mississippi River Watershed for water supply comes from a 1982 study by the Upper Mississippi River Basin Committee. The Environmental Protection Agency simply says that more than 50 cities rely on the Mississippi for daily water supply." 

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Calumet River

The Calumet River  most often refers to a system of heavily industrialized rivers and canals in the region between the neighborhood of South Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, and the city of Gary, Indiana. Industrial development in the Calumet River area began around the 1870s, and by 1890 the West reach of the Grand Calumet River was heavily polluted with the waste of steel mills, foundries, a meat packing plant, and glue and cornstarch factoriesIn September 2008, areas of Lake and Porter County, Indiana, were declared national disaster areas when the Little Calumet River breached its levee.

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WATER: Music to Your Ears 

Singer and songwriter Olivia Brownlee likes water. For lack of a better word, water is her muse. She was kind enough to share an image of a waterfall in Laos outside of Pakse. The image is accompanied by two songs using water as inspiration

"I'm a big fan of water, I call it my "magical elixir."  I am always drawn to poems, songs and images with it. It's better than beer.  I am always looking for an excuse to incorporate its awesomeness into my conversations."

"Where There's Water"

https://m.soundcloud.com/olivia-brownlee/9-where-theres-water

"Deep Water"

https://m.soundcloud.com/olivia-brownlee/11-deep-water

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Colorado VS Kansas

Colorado VS Kansas. Everyone wants the water from the Arkansas River -the 6th longest in the U.S. at 1,469 miles. It is the 2nd major tributary to the Mississippi and used for irrigation in many areas. The Kansas-Oklahoma Arkansas River Basin Compact was created in 1965 to promote mutual consideration and equity over water use.

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Cochiti Lake

Cochiti Lake is on the Rio Grande, about half way between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Cochiti Dam is one of the ten largest earthfill dams in the United Stated at 5.5 miles long with two spillways. The reservoir is  maintained at a depth of 95 feet. It is one of the four units for flood and sediment control on the Rio Grande, operating in conjunction with Galisteo, Jemez Canyon, and Abiquiu Dams.  Park Ranger Jacob Segura took time to provide the facts and history of the dam and Cochiti area.

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Starved Rock Lock & Dam

Starved Rock Lock and Dam, also known as Lock and Dam No. 6, is a lock and dam facility managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers along the Illinois River. It is part of the Illinois Waterway and was constructed between 1926 and 1933. The Waterway was a project designed to provide a navigable channel from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River.Along the original Illinois Waterway, Starved Rock Lock and Dam is the southernmost facility. The lock and dam are located along the Illinois River near the north central Illinois village of Utica. The lock and dam is at river mile 231 just downstream from Plum Island.The facility is presently operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

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Tree Planting

Fresno, California may be in drought but trees are being planted. This arbor grouping is waiting to be planted on campus.

"It  rained quite a bit last Saturday so we don't have to use as much water landscaping right now, so that's a good thing"

This image was submitted by Jesse from Fresno, California

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Road Trip

This is Abbey. She is a 14 year old Labrador on a road trip. Her owners planned a fall weekend trip to Watson Lake outside of Prescott, Arizona. Watson Lake is one of two reservoirs at the Granite Dells that was formed when the Chino Valley Irrigation District built a dam on Granite Creek in the early 1900s. The City of Prescott bought the 380 surface acre reservoir and surrounding land in 1997 to preserve it as recreational land.

These images were shared by Jon A. from Phoenix, Arizona.

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Beat the Drought in the Shower?

"Beat the drought use a shower timer" These simple water saving shower timers are distributed in hotel bathrooms in California by Contra Costa water district. The olds chool sand timer gives 4 minutes with each flip. 

Additional water saving tips include: 

     Keep showers short. 

     Use high efficiency shower head.

     Turn the water off or limit the flow while soaping or shampooing.

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