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Airlines Race Toward a Future of Powering Their Jets With Corn
February 17th, 2024
Courtesy of the New York Times, a look at the water/energy/food nexus of airlines’ efforts to replace jet fuel with ethanol to fight global warming, a transition requiring lots of corn, and lots of water: VAST STRETCHES OF AMERICA are dominated by corn, nearly 100 million acres of it, stretching from Ohio to the Dakotas. What […]
Read more »Dozens of Colorado Farmers, Ranchers and One City offer to Cut Colorado River Water Use for $8.7M
February 15th, 2024
Via Colorado Sun, a look at a Colorado River conservation program which aims to keep water in the river system as years of prolonged drought and overuse have threatened the water supply for millions of people by paying cash to those who reduce their water use: Coloradans gunning to join this year’s effort to save […]
Read more »Colorado River Rescue Plan: North vs. South in the West
February 15th, 2024
Via The Desert Sun, a look at the status of the Colorado River rescue plan: Will seven Western states be able to rapidly craft a voluntary plan to keep the Colorado River afloat for decades to come? It’s increasingly unclear, as negotiations have foundered between two sides, according to key players. There are sharp differences […]
Read more »Lithium Liabilities: The Untold Threat to Water in the Rush to Mine American Lithium
February 14th, 2024
Via Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, a report that uncovered the coming electric battery revolution in America will require billions upon billions of gallons of water to mine lithium. Many of the new U.S. mines will be located in the drought-prone American West. Nyle Pennington, a veteran water scientist who tracks groundwater for local governments, stopped […]
Read more »U.S. East Coast Is Sinking
February 14th, 2024
Courtesy of the New York Times, a look at new satellite-based research which reveals how land along the coast is slumping into the ocean, compounding the danger from global sea level rise. A major culprit: overpumping of groundwater. Researchers say a dominant cause for subsidence is groundwater depletion. A layer cake of overlapping aquifers extends […]
Read more »In a Victory for Poland Spring, Maine Rejects New Groundwater Limits
February 14th, 2024
Courtesy of the New York Times, a report on a recent legal victory for the bottled-water company which – last year – tried to kill legislation aimed at protecting aquifers at a time when many are at risk nationally. Maine’s Legislature voted down a bill that would have limited large-scale pumping of groundwater in the […]
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