Water – Kristen Baumlier

Category: Water

There It Is—Take It! A Car Audio Tour about the Los Angeles Aqueduct System and Owen Valley

Posted on September 27, 2013September 28, 2013 by Kbaumlier

California has one of the world’s largest, most productive, and most controversial water system. It manages over 40,000,000 acre feet of water per year. serves over 30 million people and irrigates over 5,680,000 acres (2,300,000 ha) of farmland.

To create this water system, there were many disagreements between the city of Los Angeles, farmers and ranchers in the Owens Valley of Eastern California, and environmentalists. By the 1920s, so much water was diverted from the Owens Valley that farming became difficult to do in this area. By 1926, Owens Lake at the bottom of Owens Valley was completely dry due to water diversion.

The story about how this water system came to be is chronicled in the movie Chinatown, and the book and documentary series Cadillac Desert. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the construction of the original aqueduct designed by William Mulholland, the Department of Water and Power’s (LADWP) first superintendent and head engineer of the project. There It Is—Take It!, is a free, 90-minute long downloadable audio program that seeks to shed light on the mutual past, present, and possible future of Los Angeles and Owens Valley.

The project combines interviews, field recordings, music, and archival audio and presents the historic physical source of drinking water for the Los Angeles municipality while simultaneously revealing the relationship these two seemingly polar regions of California. The audio program is meant to be played while experiencing the Owens Valley landscape along U.S. Route 395.

Stories of the one hundred year old system are told from various perspectives and viewpoints by historians, biologists, activists, native speakers, environmentalists, litigators, LADWP employees, and residents from both Los Angeles and the Owens Valley.

The 90-minute long downloadable audio program, There It Is—Take It! Is available free online. Next time I am in los Angeles, I plan to check out the Owens Valley, and play the tour. The project was created by Kim Stringfellow, who is an artist and educator living in Joshua Tree, California.

Links and Image Sources:

Listen to the There It Is – Take It! program online

thereitistakeit.org/

Thirsty for Rainwater? Head to Casa del Agua in Mexico

Posted on February 1, 2013February 4, 2013 by Kbaumlier

When is the last time that you drank rainwater? If you happen to be in Mexico City you might just get a chance to do so. Clean water in Mexico can be hard to find, and 70% of drinking water is imported. A new artisan water boutique called Casa del Agua was created in order to provide clean local water, and so that anyone could stop in and get a drink of rainwater.

The water is harvested and filtered on-site, and as the Casa del Agua website says, “We stimulate water with our basic values, love, gratitude, and respect, therefore it reaches its highest potential. Simple and clear. Our water is craft bottled in a calm environment.”

The Casa del Agua space is clean and modern, and was designed by Hector Esrawe and Iganacio Cadena. A dramatic water/bottle setup is at the center of the space, and all the water is put into beautifully designed bottles. The water goes through the highest possible purification standard, going through a process of triple filtration, evaporation and condensation that makes it pure and clean. It is then rematerialized and ionized, increasing its alkaline and antioxidant properties.

Thirsty yet? I’m going to get a glass of water right now.

Image Source:
http://casadelagua.com.mx

Links:

http://casadelagua.com.mx

How Much Water Do You Use a Day? GOOD.is Infographic

Posted on August 20, 2012August 21, 2012 by Kbaumlier

As I site here staring at my waterbottle, I wonder how much water I drink each day. I seem to fill it up a few times a day. Combine the water I drink with the occasional shower, flushing the toilet, brushing my teeth, and cooking and I’m sure that I use quite a bit of water each day.

There is an interactive Infographic application on Good.is where you can learn about water use and estimate how much water you use each day. Many people in the world exist on 3 gallons of water per day or less. Most of us in America use that amount in one flush of the toilet.

The water use interactive infographic was created by Good.is in partnership with Levi’s, who is doing lots of campaigns lately about saving water.

I went through the interface twice and learned that water can’t be created. It is all recycled over and over, so we are using water that has existed on Earth billions of years ago.

According to the site, the majority of water use is not from what we use but from the food and products that we use each day. When I would choose a hamburger over chicken or pasta – the water used would increase by quite a bit.

I interacted with the site and determined that I use somewhere between 8 and 16 gallons of water a day.

How much water do you use?

Links:

http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/1204/your-daily-dose-of-water/flash.html

Thirsty? Need a drink from the “bubbler?”

Posted on June 17, 2012June 27, 2012 by Kbaumlier

When I was growing up, bottled water was not sold yet. In fact – my mom used to make our water bottles out of empty maple syrup containers. There are pictures of us at baseball games drinking out of our syrup bottles.

The main place that we used to drink from at school and on the road was at the “bubbler.” If this means something to you – you probably originate from Wisconsin or a few other states where drinking fountains are sometimes called “bubblers.”

The term bubbler comes from a Bubbler, a trademarked name for a drinking fountain product invented in 1888 by the Kohler Company, which is based in Kohler, Wisconsin. The original Bubbler shot water one inch straight into the air, creating the bubbling phenomenon that gave the product its name.

Later, this was redesigned to cause the water to arc, which made drinking from it easier. The Bubbler name was trademarked, so other companies made drinking fountains that had names like the “Gurgler” and the “Gusher.”

The name bubbler is reported to still be used in most of Wisconsin, Portland, OR where 20 Bubbler fountains were installed in the late 1800s, Rhode Island, in a couple of cities in Massachusetts, and in Australia.

I recently have been filling up my water bottle with tap water, since the water in my town is tested and has healthy results. I will refill at work and head over to the bubbler to fill it up – but since I am in in Ohio now, I have to say drinkinfgfountain if I say it out loud or people look at me funny.

Image Source:
www.offbeatoregon.com

What would it be like with rain in your house? I Wish You Hadn’t Asked

Posted on March 27, 2012March 28, 2012 by Kbaumlier

What would be like if rain was to fall inside of your house instead of outside? I Wish You Hadn’t Asked, an artwork created in Denmark explores this idea and is a house where over 300,000 liters of water enter the structure as part of the piece.

The project is the work of the group The Glue Societyand was made for the Sculpture By the Sea Festival in Denmark. The fully furnished house was built, shipped in and outfitted with pipes that drop over 200 liters of water per minute into the rooms of the house.

The water is recycled – and is a semi-closed system, with pumps that get the water into the structure. As the artists say the piece explores the idea of “that moment in a relationship when something is said, or done, that can’t be taken back. And the rot sets in.”

A the beginning of the show, visitors could walk through (either wearing or not wearing a raincoat) but overtime it will not be safe to occupy.

The Glue Society is an independent creative collective based in Sydney and New York. It was founded in 1998 by Gary Freedman and Jonathan Kneebone and now includes five other writers, directors and artists: Matt Devine, Luke Crethar, James Dive, Pete Baker and Paul Bruty.

Image Source:
www.gluesociety.com

Links: