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Colorada To Spend $2B To Replace Water-Hungry Grass
March 2nd, 2024
Via the Colorado Sun, a report on Colorado’s plan to spend >$2B replacing water-hungry grass in the name of conservation: One of Colorado’s leading urban water conservation strategies — turf replacement — could require up to $2.5 billion to save 20,000 acre-feet of water, according to a recent report commissioned by the state’s top water […]
Read more »Court Rulings Give U.S. States New Power to Protect Groundwater
March 1st, 2024
Courtesy of the New York Times, a report on how – in the space of a few weeks – judges in Idaho, Nevada and Montana have altered the landscape for conserving dwindling aquifers: After years of dangerous decline in the nation’s groundwater, a series of developments in Western states indicate that state and federal officials […]
Read more »One Of The World’s Great Lakes Is Vanishing – and Leaving Toxic Dust In Its Wake
March 1st, 2024
Via The Independent, a report on the Great Salt Lake, the largest saline lake in the western hemisphere, which is at risk of disappearing in just five years: Some things are so precious, so essential for the common good, they cannot be bought or sold. They fall, instead, to the public trust, a doctrine of […]
Read more »Arizona Communities Sink After Saudi Arabia Pumps Water Out of the State
February 28th, 2024
Via The Cool Down, an article on the subsidence impact of an Emirate-owned farm’s water use in Arizona; Arizona took steps to rectify the overuse of water in October, but it is reportedly still dealing with the fallout after years’ worth of groundwater drilling. The Copper Courier reported in December that residents of Arizona’s McMullen Valley have seen their […]
Read more »Humans Killed Cataract Canyon. It Brought Itself Back to Life
February 26th, 2024
Courtesy of Rolling Stone, a look at how – after damming the Colorado River wiped out a magnificent stretch of rapids for half a century – they are now, incredibly, returning — on their own: THE RIVER CHURNS a muddy brown as it carries us through towering vermilion rock walls toward the roar of Gypsum Canyon […]
Read more »On The Colorado River, There Are No Simple Disputes
February 23rd, 2024
Via J. Fleck’s Inkstain, commentary on the foundational disputes that are holding up a new agreement on the Colorado River: One of the commentors to our January 19th, 2024, blog post titled “Are We headed for the First Colorado River Compact Tripwire?” – John C. (who, by-the-way runs a very talented water resources engineering firm) […]
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