JAWRA Blog

Like every editor on the planet, I have been bombarded the past week with emails from the Heartland Institute decrying the activities of Peter Gleick in exposing some of their internal materials. I might have been tempted to tighten the spam settings for a conservative, anti-climate change outfit like this, but, as they say, keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Peter is in hot water because he apparently mixed the roles of scientist and journalist. Heartland also is feeling heat because some of the things he exposed seem shady. A Congressional investigation has been called for. (Ooh, that will get to the truth! ) Strange business. I hope the outcome does not deprive us of an outspoken voice for science.

Potomac River Basin

Heard a good talk this afternoon, by Joe Hoffmann, Executive Director of the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin (ICPRB). A threatened species.

The ICPRB should be an unquestioned success story. When I came to the Washington, D.C. area in 1969, people were talking about water supply as the ultimate limit to growth. The Corps of Engineers, still at that time in full building mode, had proposed a set of 20 dams in the upper basin. Costing billions, the project likely would have decimated the shad fishery. With a then-radical view of the system as a whole, the ICPRB brokered an agreement whereby three major water suppliers managed their resources jointly. Cost? A tiny fraction of what had been proposed. Water security: No longer a critical issue in the region. Environmental impacts: The Potomac now supplies shad fingerlings to other basins.

So how do our Virginia legislators reward such enlightened management? (See AWRA blog.) Not only has Virginia not funded the ICPRB for the past two years, it threatens to pull out of the agreement entirely. To call such a action stupid would be  an insult to stupid people!

Ken's Montblanc pen

A minor tragedy happened the other day at JAWRA World Editorial HQ. Casey, the official JAWRA cat, jumped up for her customary mid-morning scritch and brushed my Montblanc pen to the floor. A plastic part inside cracked. OMG! I’ve used that pen for almost 30 years. It’s been all around the world producing a shelf of travel diaries. Every paper I’ve written, every speech, and (true!) every computer program has started in outline form from that gold nib. I feel struck dumb, or at least illiterate.

For those into fine pens, the pen in question is a Montblanc Generations model 320P in burgundy. It’s no longer sold to individuals because Montblanc realized it was way too good for an entry level model. Sleek and light, it fit comfortably in my pocket, and it wrote (Why do I use the past tense?) writes like a dream. The pen is a minor celebrity on the Web. It served as the model when I created a banner for the Contact USGS page.

My cherished pen now is on its way to the Montblanc pen hospital. A repair probably will cost me, but it’s only money. I just hope the parts are available.

Why all this concern over a piece of technology which has long been obsolete? Even I now take more notes on my iPad than on paper. My slide rule, once a constant companion, likely will never be used again for serious calculations. A fine pen, with its smooth feel and tactile feedback is a reminder that good writing is more than just a bunch of electrons. It is thought.