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Agriculture Built These U.S. High Plains Towns, But Now It Might Run Them Dry
January 30th, 2024
Via Stateline, an article on efforts by rural midwestern towns to keep their sole water source – the Ogalla Aquifer – intact: Brownie Wilson pulls off a remote dirt road right through a steep ditch and onto a farmer’s field. He hops out of his white Silverado pickup, mud covering nearly all of it except […]
Read more »Groundwater Levels Around the World Are Dropping Quickly, Often at Accelerating Rates
January 28th, 2024
Via Inside Climate News, highlights of a starting report showing rapid declines in groundwater are most common in aquifers under croplands in drier regions, including California: Groundwater supplies are dwindling in aquifers around the world, a groundbreaking new study found, with the rates of decline accelerating over the past four decades in nearly a third […]
Read more »‘Hot Droughts’: Becoming More Common In Arid U.S. West
January 28th, 2024
Via NPR, an article on a new study confirming that ‘hot droughts’ are becoming more common in the arid U.S. west: Take a period of limited rainfall. Add heat. And you have what scientists call a ‘hot drought’ – dry conditions made more intense by the evaporative power of hotter temperatures. A new study, published […]
Read more »Supreme Court to Resolve Decade-Old Rio Grande Water Dispute
January 26th, 2024
Via Bloomberg Law, an article on the U.S. Supreme Court agreement to resolve a decade-old Rio Grande water dispute: ‘Original jurisdiction’ case involves 1930’s Rio Grande Compact US opposes settlement between Colorado, New Mexico, Texas The US Supreme Court has agreed to resolve a water dispute involving the Rio Grande River that’s been pending at […]
Read more »The Freshwater Crisis and What Can Be Done
January 26th, 2024
Via Stanford Law School, an interesting interview with Barton “Buzz” Thompson, JD/MBA ’76 (BA ’72) – a global expert on water and natural resources – focused on how to improve resource management through legal, institutional, and technological innovation: On a recent episode of the Stanford Law School (SLS) podcast, Stanford Legal, Professor Barton “Buzz” Thompson, JD/MBA ’76 (BA […]
Read more »They Abducted a River in California. And Nobody Stopped Them.
January 23rd, 2024
Courtesy of The New York Times, a report on how farms drained part of the Merced for months. Officials didn’t find out until after the fact, raising questions about the state’s ability to manage supplies during droughts. During California’s most recent drought, officials went to great lengths to safeguard water supplies, issuing emergency regulations to […]
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