Two incomparable golf courses, with large golf course lakes,  elevate Hualalai to the status of one of the elite golf resorts in world constructed with the world's most-reliable geomembrane liners.  The Hualalai Golf Course is the first Nicklaus design on Hawai‘i and is home to the prestigious MasterCard Championship at Hualalai, a PGA TOUR Champions Tour event. This course is available for play to Hualalai Club members, their guests, and the guests of the Four Seasons Resort.  Nicklaus uses high-strength lake liners to ensure his water hazards present daunting challenges for anyone's game.  Watersaver Company fabricated these golf course lake liners in their CO facility.  No temporary erosion control products were used on this site during construction.

The City Council on Tuesday approved a "control gate" at the foot of Aetna Mountain Road in the Cummings Cove development in Lookout Valley.  Alan Solon, a partner in the development of the remainder of Cummings Cove as well as a thousand acres on top of the mountain, said the gate was needed to prevent trespassers and to protect private property.  Steve Leach, city public works administrator, said the old dirt road up the mountain is regularly used by Jeepers and four-wheelers. He said those using the road have destroyed survey markers as well as stolen material at building sites.  He said those using the road have trespassed on private and created extensive erosion problems.   NPDES rules and regulations require the use of erosion control blankets, turf reinforecement mats, hydraulic mulch, silt fence, straw wattles and other erosion control products to eliminate sediment from leaving a jobsite >1 acre in size.  Sedimentation ponds, lined with high-strength geomembrane liners, help control high flow areas from overburdening these erosion control measures during large storm events.

Source: SacBee - Scientists who for decades reported that famously clear Lake Tahoe was turning murkier have discovered that its clarity actually has been stabilizing since 2001.  Using a new, more sophisticated statistical analysis of environmental data, researchers also determined that a reduced rate of visibility loss in the lake was likely the payoff from decades of erosion control, purchases of environmentally sensitive land and restrictive building rules designed to curb runoff.  NPDES rules and regulations require the use of erosion control blankets, turf reinforecement mats, hydraulic mulch, silt fence, straw wattles and other erosion control products to eliminate sediment from leaving a jobsite >1 acre in size.  Sedimentation ponds, lined with high-strength geomembrane liners, help control high flow areas from overburdening these erosion control measures during large storm events.

A brush fire began raging across Griffith Park on May 8, 2007, and scorched 1,200 acres before firefighters put it out. The park has been steadily making a comeback. "What we are in agreement about is to let nature do its thing . . . however long it takes," said Michael Shull, the superintendent of planning and development for Los Angeles' Recreation and Parks Department. "I don't think anybody's in any rush that it's not coming back fast enough." A progress report:

Now: Park officials have spread hydromulch over 500 acres to protect the seeds in the remaining soil and slow down runoff. It will likely take another five to seven years before the park looks anything like its former self.  Hydraulic mulch is highly effective in protecting native seeds from getting washed down steep hillsides before they can germinate.

Gibson County High School may have to move its graduation ceremony out of the school's gymnasium as a result of an ongoing renovation project, school district officials said.  At Thursday's School Board meeting, the board voted to accept $107,000 in bids for an elevator, bleachers and a sound system for the new gymnasium and little theater at Gibson County High School. The three were the remaining items that needed to be bid on for the $5.2 million renovation project. The project includes the addition of a new theater, science labs and gymnasium.  The School Board heard a report on the renovations and the construction of a new high school from construction company Lashlee-Rich.  Billy Hill Jr. with Lashlee-Rich said he anticipates it taking two to three weeks to finish work on underground utilities at the school. Erosion control blankets have been submitted for approvals; No word yet.  He estimated work starting on the foundation for the building on June 2.  The dirt work on the new South Gibson High School will begin after approval for erosion control is given.  "It's due anytime, and we're ready to start the ground-breaking as soon as we get it," Hill said after the meeting.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The state is committing millions of dollars to erosion control projects to help protect some of Alaska's coastal villages.  State officials say they are ready to take a leadership role to protect coastal villages threatened by the sea. A Palin administration cabinet group is calling for extending seawalls in two villages this summer and building a new excavation road in a third.  State officials say they hope the millions in state money will attract new federal aid to keep the villages from washing away. The problem, they say, stems from climate change and loss of seasonal sea ice that used to protect the villages from fall storms.  Without state leadership, a half-dozen threatened communities were left to compete for limited federal funds and attention from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  Now, the corps is working with the state in setting a new priority list.  "The hope is we won't see random acts of government activity that are not focused on the same shared vision," said Patricia Opheen, the chief of engineering for the Army corps Alaska District and federal co-chair of the working group that drew up the plans.  The new money appropriated by the Legislature represents 35 percent of the total anticipated cost of several seawall projects. That 35 percent state share was set in discussions with the corps, said the state's co-chair, Mike Black, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development.  "We're real pleased with the efforts of the state," said Steve Ivanoff, a transportation planner based in Unalakleet for the regional nonprofit agency Kawerak. "The state had been absent from all the discussions in the past. They would only protect (Department of Transportation) properties using erosion control products, not residential areas."  The new priority list commits the state to protecting the endangered villages now, not just waiting for a possible move in the future, said Black.  One community that did not garner new construction funds from the state this year is Shishmaref, where the village is still working on a rock seawall extension by installing turf reinforcement mats begun last year with federal funding. The Army corps awarded a $6.8 million contract last year for the Shishmaref work.  "I guess other communities are needing protection too," said Shishmaref Erosion and Relocation Coalition member Tony Weyiouanna. He said an emergency evacuation of Kivalina during a fall storm last year "kind of put them up higher on the need for funding."  In Shaktoolik and Koyukuk, the state is only providing planning funds.  The new state money includes $3.3 million to build a riprap rock seawall with a high-strength geomembrane liner in Kivalina, replacing part of a $3 million, 1,800-foot wall that relied on wire baskets and bags of sand and gravel. The earlier wall failed quickly and was given up for lost in last fall's storm.  The corps is already putting $4 million into rock work this summer at Kivalina.  In addition, the state is putting $5 million toward a new seawall for Unalakleet. The full 1,500-foot wall there is expected to cost $13.5 million.  Unalakleet leaders hope to get the new seawall under way this summer, before the next round of fall storms.  "The problem with this whole thing," said Ivanoff, "is we don't know when the next big one is."  Kivalina and Shishmaref are built on barrier islands, but Newtok faces a different problem: Tundra beneath the village is melting and collapsing into a tidal river exposed to sea waves.  An effort to move the Bering Sea village to high ground is starting, with $3 million in new state money helping to build a barge landing and evacuation road. Next step will be to find funding for a $4.5 million evacuation center, the state said.

KENDRAPARA, May 12: Expressing deep concern over abysmal lack of disaster preparedness, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) charged the government agencies of jeopardising the safety of people in natural disaster prone Kendrapara district.  “It’s a failure of disaster preparedness mechanism in Kendrapara district. The government has not learnt lessons from the past blunders.” alleged Kendrapara MLA Mr Utkal Keshari Parida while briefing reporters here recently.  "The government was forced to transfer the then Collector during 2005 flood for utter negligence charge. Nothing has changed in the mind set of officials exposing the people to unpredictable Nature," he observed.  Kendrapara, one of the most cyclone prone districts, is presently without an emergency officer. The emergency wing of the administration has almost come to a standstill. While the region is reeling under heat wave, it is not equipped with instrument to measure day temperature. "What has one to say, the telephones of the wing have stopped functioning," he said.
As many as 26 HAM radios, vital communication link during disastrous hours, have turned dysfunctional. Those had been installed in the aftermath 1999 super cyclone in remote seaside villages considered highly vulnerable to cyclonic strike.  Sea is turning violent and eating into large coastal areas of this district. Major areas in Rajnagar including the block headquarters town are now threatened by sea erosion. But the government measure to arrest the erosion is conspicuous by absence. The saline embankments that checkmate the ingress of tidal waves are lying highly vulnerable. "Funds spent for its repair have been embezzled by officials and BJD leaders exposing the residents to onslaught of nature’s fury," he said.
While flood is a recurring feature in this part of the state, flood control mechanism has abysmally failed here. The flood-induced breaches on the river embankments have not been given facelift. More than the half of the river embankments are in enfeebled state and are highly susceptible to possible flood.  Simply introducing erosion control products to the coastal areas like erosion control blankets, hydraulic mulches, turf reinforcement mats, etc. would greatly diminish the cyclones' effects.
"There has been a rampant misuse of flood control grant from the centre," said Mr Parida citing the cases of refurbishment of irrigation bungalows owned by the irrigation department. "The flood control grants were diverted for repair of government rest houses and installation of air conditioners," he added.
As many as 26 mechanised vessels provided to the district by the state port engineering department have turned idle. "The engaged employees and crew members are left with no work to do," Mr Parida said. These vessels come in handy for relief and rescue operation during flood and ingress of tidal waters into this coastal region.
Besides the funds to provide relief to people from heat wave have been largely misused. The Sarpanch of each of the 230 gram panchayats have received Rs 5,000 for heat wave control measures. Barring a few exceptions, the funds have served as pocket expenditure for the PRI members. "The district administration has also failed to judiciously use the special relief commission grants for heat wave relief measures," Mr Parida said.

Mirage Property Group was fined for contempt of court for failing to report to Nambucca Shire Council on works it was undertaking to protect the Nambucca River from soil pollution.  The company was also ordered to pay some of council’s court costs, up to $40,000.  Red clay from the housing development site was funneled down Beer Creek from West Street into the Nambucca River, which local oyster growers feared would impact on the industry’s productivity.  Mirage Property Group’s director Stephen Johnson said all the additional physical environmental barriers outlined by the court in December were complete.  He said the finding against him in the court this time around was a result of failing to report weekly to Nambucca Shire Council on the progress of the improved water control methods (i.e. installing erosion control blankets, hydraulic mulch, straw wattles, silt fence or other erosion control products).  “The orders were unclear on reporting requirements,” he said.  Mr Johnson said the delay in reporting was due to problems in finding a suitable supervisor to oversee the project.  “The judge (at the Land and Environment Court) said he was not trying someone for a polluting offence, it was about the reporting.”  In December, the Land and Environment Court ruled the company would have to make regular reports to council, as well as engaging a qualified person to implement a new soil and erosion control plan.  Mirage Property Group was fined and ordered to pay Nambucca Shire Council’s costs.  The measures included increasing the turf cover around the roads and on hills and building more dams to catch and sift the red soil before it left the West Street development site.

The government is slowly waking up for the sea erosion and its impact on the life of coastal population at large considering the number of people living in coastal areas ranging from east, south and west. Though gradual but continuous Sea degradation has affected coastline at many areas in the country in varying magnitude and hence regarded as a long term coastal hazard.  The Union and state governments are now planning to conduct a series of erosion control work with the centrally sponsored scheme “Critical Anti-Erosion Works in Coastal and other than Ganga Basin States,” which is under consideration. The ministry has also formulated a National Coastal Protection Project to arrange external funding for protection of coastal areas of Maritime States/UTs.  As per a recent government release several other steps are taken to control coastal erosion, which are as follows:

• Central Government has issued the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification, 1991 under Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 to regulate all development activities in the CRZ area for protection of the coastal environment.

• The ecological damages that have taken place due to the recent tsunami have been got assessed by the Ministry of Environment & Forests through nine scientific institutions. The concerned State Governments and Union Territories have taken up the control measures which include mangrove afforestation and development of bio shields.

• Under the Coastal Ocean Monitoring and Prediction System (COMAPA) Programme of Department of Ocean Development, the quality of sea water is regularly monitored at 72 earmarked Stations along the coastline.

• Schemes have been launched by Coastal Erosion Directorate, Ministry of Water Resources to take up measures for protection of coastal areas of maritime States/Union Territories.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) today announced that the Conference Committee has completed deliberation on the 2007 Farm Bill. This legislation includes the Stabenow provision to improve the Great Lakes Basin Program for Soil Erosion and Sediment Control, which targets clean-up activities in severely polluted watersheds and restores urban watersheds that have been degraded by development. The Farm Bill will also help implement the Great Lakes Regional Collaborative Strategy, which is dedicated to water cleanliness, combating invasive species, habitat and land conservation, and wildlife protection.

“Making sure our beautiful lakes, waterways, lands and wildlife are preserved and protected is vital to the very identity of our state and our nation,” said Stabenow. “This Farm Bill places a premium on conservation which is critical to our environment and economy.”  The Farm Bill expands essential programs like the Wetlands Reserve Program, the Conservation Security Program, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, and the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program. Additionally, the farm bill would establish new incentives for taxpayers who take voluntary measures to aid in the recovery of certain endangered species.  As a member of the Farm Bill Conference Committee and Senate Agriculture Committee, Stabenow has served as a leading voice for Michigan throughout the crafting of this legislation. She has served on agricultural committees in all four legislative bodies in which she was a member, including the Michigan House, Michigan Senate, U.S. House and currently, the U.S. Senate. She is also the first Senator from Michigan to serve on the Senate Agriculture Committee since Senator Phil Hart from 1959 to 1962.

Conservation/Great Lakes Provisions Included in the Farm Bill:  The Great Lakes Basin Program for Soil Erosion and Sediment Control