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Mississippi’s Claim That Tennessee Is Stealing Groundwater Is A U.S. Supreme Court First
October 8th, 2016
Courtesy of Circle of Blue, an interesting look at Mississippi’s lawsuit against Tennessee, the first lawsuit over a shared aquifer to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court: Sometime in the next few months, lawyers for the state of Mississippi will stand before a U.S. Supreme Court-appointed legal expert, clear their throats, and argue that Tennessee, […]
Read more »USA: Irrigation Nation Faces A Dry Future
September 20th, 2016
Via Pacific Standard, an interesting look at how irrigation helped create America’s breadbasket and how it threatens to destroy it: Rick Hammond turned a yellow dial until it locked into place with a hollow clank, and a high-pressure hum filled the air. Across the windswept field, a light started blinking atop a metal contraption that […]
Read more »Native American Water War Reveals Oil’s Fatal Flaw
September 15th, 2016
Via Fusion, a report on an ongoing crisis related to the Dakota Access Pipeline, which is causing some Native Americans to urge the public to change the way water is thought of and valued: Someday water will be worth more than oil. Just like it was for most of human existence until some clever men […]
Read more »Droughtlandia USA
May 25th, 2016
Courtesy of the Pacific Standard, an interesting commentary on what happens when climate change causes Californians to migrate north to Oregon and Washington: In a rumpled suit jacket and faded jeans, Giles Slade stands atop an earthen levee and looks out over a vast expanse of water. It’s mid-November, and the Fraser River runs gray […]
Read more »Southwest US: As Lake Mead Dwindles, Can An Interstate Water War Be Far Behind?
May 25th, 2016
Via the Los Angeles Times, an article on the growing tension over the dwindling Colorado River: The last time two states went to war over water, it was 1934. The combatants were California and Arizona and the casus belli was the start of construction of Parker Dam, which would direct water from the Colorado River into California via […]
Read more »Water: The Other U.S.-Mexico Border Issue
May 13th, 2016
Courtesy of STRATFOR (subscription required), a detailed analysis of the growing tension over the Rio Grande watershed: When determining borders, a river is often the clearest delineation between sovereign nations. But that clarity abruptly ends when countries must decide how to use the water that the river provides. Even managing rivers that do not determine […]
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