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What’s Next After Failed effort To Secure Colorado River Basin Water Rights for Arizona Tribes?
January 17th, 2025
Via the Colorado Sun, an article on how officials worked until the last second to try to pass a landmark water rights deal involving three tribes, the state of Arizona and dozens of other users in the Colorado River Basin. Now they are setting their sights on trying again with a new Congress. Advocates of […]
Read more »What Do The Los Angeles Fires Tell Us About The Coming Water Wars?
January 16th, 2025
Via The Guardian, commentary on whether water will soon be a marketable commodity or a priceless public good There’s a scene in the film Mad Max: Fury Road where the evil ruler Immortan Joe, gazing down from a cliff upon his parched, emaciated subjects, pushes two levers and water gushes from three gigantic sluices. The wretched masses […]
Read more »Mississippi Delta Could Vanish Soon, Scientists Warn
January 12th, 2025
Via Newsweek, an alarming report on the rapid deterioration of the Mississippi Delta because of rising sea levels: The Mississippi River’s Bird’s Foot Delta, a vital ecological and economic region, faces rapid deterioration because of rising sea levels, sediment shortages and invasive species. Louisiana State University (LSU) and Tulane researchers, backed by a $22 million federal […]
Read more »To Save the Great Salt Lake, Farmers Will Have to Grow Less Alfalfa
January 11th, 2025
Via Inside Climate News, an article on new research which found that alfalfa uses the vast majority of agricultural water that would otherwise replenish the largest saline lake in the nation: The Great Salt Lake is shrinking, and new research published Tuesday reports that saving it requires reducing the amount of farmland that is irrigated […]
Read more »Saving the Great Salt Lake by Rebalancing Its Water Budget
January 9th, 2025
Via Sustainable Waters, commentary on a new approach to save Great Salt Lake: In recent years I’ve had the great fortune to be able to work with some amazing teams of researchers to explore the causes of water scarcity across many geographies, including the Colorado River, the Rio Grande, the Western US, and around the globe. Importantly, we’ve gone […]
Read more »Hay Is Sucking Great Salt Lake Dry
January 7th, 2025
Via The Land Desk, a look at a new study which finds that cattle-feed irrigation is primary culprits in the Great Salt Lake’s shrinkage Detail from an 1852 map of the Great Salt Lake by J.W. Gunnison and Charles Preuss. As we traveled, the valley spread into an uncanny immensity unlike the other landscapes we […]
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