Water

WaterWatch

July 18, 2005

The USGS has a great tool called WaterWatch. The site gives real-time information from stream flow sensors around the country. In addition to giving information about how the current flow compares to historical data, the information would be very useful to anyone doing water rescue across the country. This site provides one more example of why SAR incident command posts will need to have a good internet connection sooner rather than later and how incident commanders will need to broaden their thinking in the kinds of information they can have at hand.

PICO HOLDINGS INC May 27, 2005 10-K filing

June 2, 2005

Future looking statements from PICO HOLDING's annual 10-k filing considering its subsidary VIDLER WATER COMPANY, INC.

BACKGROUND

We believe that continuing trends in Nevada and Arizona indicate strong future demand for Vidler's water rights and water storage assets.

Based on census figures, in the three years ended July 1, 2003, the population of Clark County, Nevada, which includes metropolitan Las Vegas, increased 14.6% to almost 1.6 million residents. Around 70,000 people are moving to the area annually. Currently Las Vegas takes most of its water supply from Lake Mead. Due to the continued growth in demand for water and 5 years of drought, the level of Lake Mead has reached 50 year lows. Accordingly, Las Vegas is aggressively seeking to conserve water (e.g., rules have been introduced restricting water use in new homes) and to diversify its sources of water supply. At the same time, the increasing cost of housing in Las Vegas is leading to more rapid growth in outlying areas within commuting distance.

Over time, we believe that these factors will lead to demand for water in parts of southern Nevada where Vidler owns or has an interest in water rights, including southern Lincoln County/northern Clark County and Sandy Valley and Muddy River in Clark County. If growth management initiatives are introduced in Las Vegas, this will lead to even more rapid growth in the areas surrounding metropolitan Las Vegas.

In Arizona, the continued growth of the municipalities surrounding Phoenix in Maricopa County is likely to lead to strong demand for Vidler's water rights in the Harquahala Valley. According to census estimates, the population of Maricopa County increased 9.5% in the three years to July 1, 2003, to almost 3.4 million residents. Many of the municipalities surrounding Phoenix/Scottsdale where the growth is concentrated, do not receive allotments of water from the Colorado River, and are therefore forced to find alternative supplies of water.

Wasted Water

July 23, 2004

An amazing story out of Denver today. It seems for the last decade Denver Water has been running a 4-inch fire hydrant at full flow into the sewer. That's right, while Denver has been suffering through dry year after dry year each week more than 3 million gallons of treated, potable water are going down the drain. The article says that Denver Water hasn't been able to find anybody who could use the water.

I'd suggest they need to replace the folks running Denver Water with some who are slightly better at their jobs. In a market where water is a scarce commodity they can't find anybody who wants the 1.5 billion gallons of water they've sent down the drain. Let's see it only took a few seconds of reading the article to come up with several workable solutions.

Discourse

July 22, 2004

I had a great lunch yesterday with a couple of Senator Reid's staffers. We met to talk about a great program - Nevada Boys' State. It's a program I participated in while in high school and was a counselor for the next year. I look forward to getting back involved with a great program. We also had a great discussion of issues that we don't see eye to eye on. For example we discussed the LIncoln County Development Act of 2004 which the Senator co-sponsored. It reminds me though, why I choose to go back to work in education. It is refreshing to be in an institution where open discourse and debate can occur without people walking away hurt afterwards.

Vidler Water Company

This information was taken from http://www.picoholdings.com/WaterRightsStorage.html - the Pico Holdings page about their Vidler Water Company holding. As of July 2004 the page appears not to have been updated in some time and is archived here against it's accidental removal.

 

Vidler Water Company, Inc.

Vidler Water Company, Inc. ("Vidler") is the leading private
company in the water resource development business in the southwestern United
States. PICO identified water resource development in the Southwest as an
attractive business opportunity due to the continued growth in demand for water
resulting from population growth, economic development, environmental
requirements, and the claims of Native Americans. Vidler is not a water utility,
and does not intend to enter into regulated utility activities. We develop new
sources of water for municipal and industrial use, and necessary storage
infrastructure to facilitate the efficient allocation of available water
supplies.

Opportunities for Vidler result from inefficient allocation
of available water between agricultural users and municipal or industrial users,
or the lack of available known water supply for a particular area:

Submitted by Joshua Brauer on July 17, 2004 - 22:48

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