Water

There is much more water on Mars than anyone had thought -- possibly twice as much as in Greenland's ice sheet, scientists said Thursday. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted ice in five recently formed meteorite craters midway between the northern pole and the equator, researchers said in a report in the journal Science. That's the farthest south the underground ice sheet has been found. The spacecraft's instruments were able to confirm that the bluish material inside the crater was, indeed, ice. "Buried ice on Mars is much more extensive than we had thought," Shane Byrne, an astronomer at the University of Arizona, said at a news briefing Thursday at the Jet Propulsion Lab in La Cañada Flintridge.

Something is about to happen on California's second-longest river that hasn't happened this time of year since Harry Truman was president. Water is going to start flowing down two stretches of the San Joaquin that have been sucked dry since Friant Dam began diverting most of the river into two giant irrigation canals. Today dam managers will crank up releases of water into the San Joaquin as part of an ambitious restoration program intended to return chinook to the once salmon-rich river by late 2012.

Like the cinematic action hero he was, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants a big finish. With little more than a year left in office, he is willing to take hostages to get it. So as the clock ticks toward a Sunday deadline for signing or rejecting more than 700 bills on his desk, Schwarzenegger has engaged legislative leaders in a game of chicken, threatening a mass veto if lawmakers don't strike a deal to upgrade the state's water system. By most accounts, Schwarzenegger is acting with an eye on the past, present and future -- in particular, on the legacy of his administration.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is threatening to kill hundreds of bills unless the Legislature delivers one bill on water. Is that heavy-handed? No question. Is it bullying? Sure. Hostage-taking? Political terrorism? Of course. Misuse of power? Definitely not. It is a proper use of power. It's ugly. But it's an available political tool that the governor would be derelict not to use when an issue as critical as water is at stake. This isn't about some narrow scheme important only to a narrow interest.

Negotiators are on the brink of achieving the most comprehensive California water legislation in half a century. They're also in danger of an embarrassing belly flop. Both sides -- whether talking about Democrats vs. Republicans, environmentalists vs. farmers, cities vs. burgs -- have attained their top priorities, realizing gains that seemed almost impossible just 18 months ago. GOP lawmakers and San Joaquin Valley growers have secured a pathway leading to probable construction of a long-controversial canal to carry fresh Sacramento River water around the fragile, brackish delta and directly into an aqueduct heading south.

Lawmakers capped months of discussions, weeks of tedious negotiations and years of chasing a water deal with approval of major legislation in a marathon session that ended Wednesday as the sun rose. The package, which includes an $11.1-billion bond that must go before voters, would nudge California in new directions on water policy while giving something to each of the major factions that have warred over the state's supplies. The measure, likely to reach the governor's desk early next week, would establish a statewide program that for the first time would measure if too much water is being pumped from underground aquifers.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger went to a scruffy field in the San Fernando Valley on Friday to sign two pieces of water legislation passed earlier this week. The setting was the Tujunga well field of the San Fernando Valley aquifer, part of Los Angeles' water supply. One of the bills the governor signed establishes a statewide program to measure groundwater elevations. The other adds 25 state enforcement officers to track down illegal water diversions. Schwarzenegger is expected to sign the remaining parts of the water package in the coming days, including an $11.1-billion bond that will go before voters a year from now. Surrounded by state lawmakers and local officials, he informally launched the bond campaign.

If one of your resolutions for 2009 is to save more money, consider these penny-pinching travel tips: Instead of buying individual fold-out state maps for every place you visit, invest instead in the latest road atlas for the entire U.S. and Canada, and keep it in your car for your next road trip. Print out city and other, more detailed maps from your computer. You can't bring bottles of water through airport security -- but you can bring empty bottles through. Rather than paying inflated prices for bottled water at the airport, bring your own reusable bottle, send it through security empty, and fill it up at a water fountain on the way to your gate.

Crews worked through the day Monday to repair a broken water main that flooded the intersection of Alvarado and 7th streets near MacArthur Park. The streets began filling with water about 8:45 a.m. after a 12-inch pipe broke, said Department of Water and Power spokeswoman Stephanie Interiano. The agency shut off the water in the immediate area, and officials said they hoped to have service restored and the flooding cleared by late Monday. -- Corina Knoll