Governor to Clean Lake

[CHILLIN]

Siempre Libre

Cleaning and conservation of Lake Chapala is a priority for the executive head of state, which is why the Governor of Jalisco, Jorge Aristoteles Sandoval Diaz, announced an investment of four million pesos for the extraction of lily through a program operated by the Ministry of Environment and Territorial Development (SEMADET).

"In this lake we have been slowly working, but much to rescue him. So we made the decision, and it just announced the mayor and that will benefit the mayors of Lake Chapala, which will invest four million in the extraction Lily for the first time in a comprehensive program " he said Sandoval Diaz.

The benefits of this program, detailed the state governor, will be reflected mainly in preserving the environment in the region and contribute to detonate tourism and economic activity.

Also, the Governor of Jalisco expressed support for the municipal authorities to realize the priority projects for the Ribera de Chapala, as was the inauguration of the Plaza de la Hermandad held this afternoon.

"The last of my government that we must promote large projects, programs like this linear park as Francisco Villa and González Gallo Street. Investments that will keep giving life, "he said.

So he said
"What matters to me is that people have jobs, those who are born and live and Chapala remain proud of this great city"

Jorge Aristoteles Sandoval Diaz,

Governor of Jalisco

[addtocart]

And when he's done with that, he will rearrange the stars in the sky to spell "Viva Mexico".

[Tom Leonard]

http://www.informador.com.mx/jalisco/2016/640101/6/invertiran-cuatro-mdp-para-retirar-el-lirio-del-lago-de-chapala.htm

[thevalerieleigh]

How wonderful! I was hoping when he was here this past week, he would notice where we need some much needed funding for a variety of projects.

Great news!

Valerie

[Sonia]

Highly likely here comes the Glyphosate (Roundup) as they did several years ago. If so, this is the worse solution possible.

"A study observing the impact of herbicides on the biodiversity of aquatic communities containing algae and more than 25 species of animals showed that in contrast to 2,4-D, glyphosate had great impact in the community, causing a decrease of 22% of the species richness."

"A 2014 meta-analysis of the same studies found a correlation between occupational exposure to glyphosate formulations and increased risk of B cell lymphoma, the most common kind of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Workers exposed to glyphosate were about twice as likely to get B cell lymphoma.^"

^"Monsanto and other companies produce glyphosate products with alternative surfactants specifically formulated for aquatic use, for example the Monsanto products "Biactive" and "AquaMaster". Glyphosate formulations are much more toxic for amphibians and fish than glyphosate alone.

California plans to list Roundup as cancer-causing chemical.

Sonia

[R2D2]

Highly likely here comes the Glyphosate (Roundup) as they did several years ago. If so, this is the worse solution possible.

Sonia

Ditto !

[Yo1]

There was much concern when Glyphosate was planning to be sprayed on the lirio a few years ago. None of the dire predictions came true, the lirio died and the lake was much better off than before. Lirio is a HUGE problem all over the world and Glyphosate is the herbicide of choice.

[CHILLIN]

Yes, anti sprayers will not get much traction on this one. A top level team of specialists from the U deG and Mexico studied the issue to death. It was sprayed, it was very effective, and no long term (or even short term) effects found. There is nothing new to come along.

Of course we could be wrong about this, maybe the Governor take a personal interest in this, buy a luxury party barge to float around the Lake, then come on weekends with his entourage to oversee the manual harvesting and burning. Cost to Jalisco? A mere 4 million pesos. Such a deal! This manual collection and burning was very labor intensive, and it worked - in 1912!

[bmh]

The real problem with the lake is a federal issue..The Lerma is a sewage in Mexico State , several large reservoirs in Guanajuato are holding back water. the Federal and State enviroenemnt dpt should outlaw and enforce the law of any dumping in the Lerma and then they should clean the whole basin ..good luck to us on all this , the money should be spent protecting the late not removing lirio.. but we all know what happened to Loas AMigos del Lago project when it came to start having all the states involve with protecting and cleaning up the Lerma..

[Semalu]

The real problem with the lake is a federal issue..The Lerma is a sewage in Mexico State , several large reservoirs in Guanajuato are holding back water. the Federal and State enviroenemnt dpt should outlaw and enforce the law of any dumping in the Lerma and then they should clean the whole basin ..good luck to us on all this , the money should be spent protecting the late not removing lirio.. but we all know what happened to Loas AMigos del Lago project when it came to start having all the states involve with protecting and cleaning up the Lerma..

Too true, You just have to drive the (relatively) new bypass around Toluca to get a whiff at the origin of the Lerma. One of the lakes in the Lerma catchment basin is actually called lago del baño. That should give you an idea. All that gentle aroma comes down our way and is added to at each stop. Its kind of laughable that our governor thinks he can snap his fingers and clean it up with a money drip, but I don't want to discourage his good intentions. Lets hope he goes to the source of the problem - the very heavily politicized and overly bureaucratic water management system. I wish him Good Luck.

From a quick Google for "Lerma River Maps"

http://www.transboundarywaters.orst.edu/research/case_studies/Images/River_Basin_Organization_New_clip_image004_0003.jpg

if that link doesn't work, try this one, and scroll down to the discussion on Mexico. This article is old now, from 1994, but it gives a good summary of the situation as it was then. It hasn't improved much.

http://www.transboundarywaters.orst.edu/research/case_studies/River_Basin_Organization_New.htm

and this more recent article one tells you what gets done about all, studies studies studies and not much else...

http://geo-mexico.com/?p=10750

[CHILLIN]

The governments have funded 400 million, since 2008 cleaning the Rio Santiago sewer river. They are about halfway through their already funded plans. John Pint wrote and interesting article about it, and he is no "press stooge" saying whatever the governments want him to. I would say that El Saltos falls will become a popular tourist spot again, close enough to the coast to attract foreign tourists as well.

http://www.theguadalajarareporter.com/index.php/columns/columns/john-pint/47417-the-odorous-route-to-el-salto-de-juanacatlan-is-guadalajara-s-most-infamous-waterfall-now-clean

This is what it looked like in 1909.

[Mainecoons]

I've yet to see any credible data locally that the Round Up treatment last time did any significant damage. If anyone has it, please post links.

Physical removal has been tried time and time again all over the northern hemisphere with poor results or downright failure. Hard for me to see how this would change unless they find some economically viable use for the stuff.

The larger issue is the lack of water flow into and through the lake and the pollution running into it. Address this and the rest becomes more manageable.

I remember when rivers caught fire in the U.S. and some lakes were little better than cesspools. Mexico is moving in the right direction. The larger problem here IMO is the corruption which causes government to allow international or NOB companies to discharge industrial wastes for which the treatment technologies are effective and well understood and these same companies are using them in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Whereas in the U.S. it was necessary to develop these technologies first, here it is purely a political problem of corrupt politicians being paid to look the other way when both they and the companies know the solutions are readily available, reasonable in cost and can be implemented fairly quickly.

[bmh]

Chillin they may have spent whatever , just go and look at the Lerma at differnt stages of its route..We do that twice a year and I do not see a major change. The water fall from 1909 gives us a good idea on how much water is held back by the dams as well.

[lcscats]

There was a huge study in Mass. on roundup and it found problems with Amphibians however on closer study it was not the active chemical in Roundup but the soap like chemical that contained the active ingredient in solution that caused the problems. I do not understand how Roundup works in water but on land you are only suppose to apply when it is sunny as the sun turns the roundup into an acid which goes into the soil after it kills the unwanted plants. I am not a huge fan of roundup but wonder how it would effect the lake or does the sun change the chemical like on land into an acid?? I am more worried about over application or improper use of roundup than the roundup itself. Problem will probably take care of itself as we can now see that roundup tolerant plants do have some problems as they become roundup tolerant and soon roundup will become useless anyhoo as a crop treatment.

[mattoleriver]

Here is what one community is doing. No round up required.

[Yo1]

I saw in the Guad Reporter today that the Governor will initiate a physical removal of the lirio. Guess he wants to reinvent the wheel. We have been through this all before. How many of you remember watching the giant bulldozers with the raking attachment pushing the lirio up on the Chapala beach? Jalisco doesn't have excess dinero to waste like this. Spraying the lirio in the mouth of the Lerma River as well as the lake will do the most good. Although a current analysis of the lirio, so it can be used as fertilizer or woven as the Nigerian woman above suggests, would be good. The analysis the last time the lake had this problem showed that the heavy metals absorbed by the lirio made it unacceptable as compost or fertilizer as well as employing it in any useful way. It was given a mass burial, I believe.

[john everett]

So, if it soaks up heavy metals, isn't that a good thing?

[bezerk]

Oh yes a nice pretty clean lake and hundreds of folks with lymphoma in 15-20 years.

Been hearing about a clean lake so on and so forth for almost 20 years..fix the sewage issues, sewers do not work, overflow constantly and yup guess where that goes.

Fix the streets...many in my area have not been done for many years but they used to be done every few years...

If the lake is not going to be used as a recreational assett then what is all the fuss. No money made, no big draw for tourism and poisons to deform, kill, and make suffering of people.

[horses]

those pumps taking Lake Chapala water to Guadalajara every day should be stopped.

How can the lake sustain any level with all this water pumped out

The lake is so polluted there are not many fish left..

[dave0415]

those pumps taking Lake Chapala water to Guadalajara every day should be stopped.

How can the lake sustain any level with all this water pumped out

The lake is so polluted there are not many fish left..

The biggest loss is due to evaporation which is many times the water pumped to Guadalajara. Check Dr Stong's articles on this.

[Mainecoons]

Close. The idea is to have parallel lines as is SOP NOB and elsewhere in the developed world so that one can be shut down for maintenance. Guadalajara is limited by law in how much water they can take out of the lake, whether one or two pipelines.

Building the parallel line would have resulted in eliminating most of the current loss such that GDL would actually need to take LESS water out of the lake then now because a lot more would make it to the other end.

The plan was to build the second line and immediately shut down the original one for major rehab.

You are right about the ignorant part. Not only did the opponents not understand basic engineering they also couldn't seem to grasp where the real water diversion is occurring, namely wasteful irrigation practices. GDL should have been viewed as a very strong ally of those who want more water going into the lake as it is in their interests to cut down on the irrigation waste as well.

[Yo1]

those pumps taking Lake Chapala water to Guadalajara every day should be stopped.

How can the lake sustain any level with all this water pumped out

The lake is so polluted there are not many fish left..

If I remember correctly, Guadalajara takes 11 cm of water a year off the lake. If it weren't for the influence of Guadalajara on the upstream irrigaters, there would be even less water in the lake during dry years. The lake is full of fish, in fact there are fish cages in the deeper part of the lake where fish are grown commercially. Horses, you evidently haven't listened to a talk by Dr. Todd Stong about the state of the lake and the fact that the fish are edible that are taken from the lake. He has done many, many studies and knows the most about Lake Chapala. He just had a talk at Open Circle last week. Hopefully, he will have another talk before he leaves for the US in April. You should really educate yourself before publishing erroneous statements.