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Thirsty Agriculture: Water Source For California Almonds May Run Dry
December 28th, 2014
Courtesy of the New York Times, an interesting article on the water-food nexus in the United States: California’s almond orchards have been thriving over the past decade and now provide an $11 billion annual boost to the state economy. Covering 860,000 acres, they account for 80 percent of world production. But the growth coincides with […]
Read more »How The U.S. West Was Lost
August 6th, 2014
Via National Geographic, a report on the drought gripping the U.S. west: The Colorado River at it delta Just as the settling and development of the arid American West was fueled by harnessing its available fresh water, the growing lack of water availability may well be its undoing. California’s epic drought is just the latest […]
Read more »Detroit’s Water War
June 30th, 2014
Via The Guardian, a report on a controversial plan by the City of Detroit plan to cut off water to approximately 300,000 residents as part of its economic shock therapy: It was six in the morning when city contractors showed up unannounced at Charity Hicks’ house. Since spring, up to 3000 Detroit households per week […]
Read more »Last Straw: How The Fortunes Of Las Vegas Will Rise Or Fall With Lake Mead
June 15th, 2014
Via Popular Science, a detailed look at the massive, expensive, and politically fraught project to build a new tunnel under Lake Mead to deliver water to Las Vegas: The bathtub ring can be seen for miles. The 120-foot-high band of rock, bleached nearly white by mineral-rich water, circles the shoreline of Lake Mead. Water levels […]
Read more »U.S. Southwest: High And Dry
April 28th, 2014
Via RAND Corporation, a detailed look at implications of climate change on water supplies & management in the United States’ southwest: Droughts across the western United States have left water managers worried like never before. The Colorado River and its reservoirs, upon which seven states rely, are being depleted by 14 years of drought nearly […]
Read more »Sinking Hopes: San Joaquin Valley Sinking As Farmers Race To Tap Aquifer
April 2nd, 2014
Courtesy of the San Jose Mercury News, an interesting article on the deleterious impact wells are having upon California aquifers: So wet was the San Joaquin Valley of Steve Arthur’s childhood that a single 240-foot-deep well could quench the thirst of an arid farm. Now his massive rig, bucking and belching, must drill 1,200 feet […]
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