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[affreca]

I am always tickled pink to see articles about my obscure neck of the woods in the media. Especially in the international media. So I was finally skimming the Economist yesterday, and I came across a neat article about water back home. I disagree with characterizing East River as the dry west. In fact, that area has access to quite a few aquifers (if I remember the section in my hydro book, apparently SoDak has some classic aquifers). In contrast to western Kansas's water wars with Colorado, the problem comes the amount of stuff that has gotten into the water. And they don't even bring up ethanol plants.

So comments?

Another aspect is realizing how much the Economist skims over in their articles. It makes me wonder what details I'm missing in their other articles about places I know nothing about.

Comments

[ninja-tech.livejournal.com]

As much as I would love to attempt to engage in banter about what is left out of different kinds of media and the aquifers in SoDak - alas, reading too much manga has made my brain mushy. I did however, take almost enough journalism classes to have a minor in PR, so I really do take an interest in media biases and how what is put in and left out can make a huge difference in...something *mind has finally imploded*

[(Anonymous)]

It is worth contemplating, and I do as I drive by the construction on my commute to and from work. One of the things left out of the article is that the pipeline has some legal problems in addition to financial ones. One of which is being debated during the current SD legislative session. And there are other broader questions. What should happen to cities (Sioux Falls) that outgrow their resource base? The contamination of the shallow aquifers has been occurring for quite some time, and have we done anything to slow down the rate of contamination? What happens to the environmentally-sensitive plants and animals as we take that much water out of one spot? What happens to small towns that don't have a water supply? DJP

[(Anonymous)]

it's not just the eastern side of the state that is dealing with water issues. since the corps of enigineers released water from the dams to help st. louis' barge traffic (insubstantial, especially this time of year), all of the lakes, resiviors and bodies of water dependant upon the missouri river have been drying up. these lowered water levels automatically lend to the water being more polluted. anywho, this rant isn't exactly related, but we just talked about this in one of my classes, so there you have it. the late-night ramblings of a tired biscuit.