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Who Gets the Water in California? Whoever Gets There First.
December 16th, 2023
Courtesy of The New York Times, a report on California which – as the world warms – is re-examining claims to its water that have gone unchallenged for generations: The story of California’s water wars begins, as so many stories do in the Golden State, with gold. The prospectors who raced westward after 1848 scoured […]
Read more »Addressing Groundwater Overdraft in the Sacramento Valley
December 15th, 2023
Via the Public Policy Institute of California, a report on ways to address groundwater overdraft in the Sacramento Valley: Although the Sacramento Valley has relatively abundant surface water supplies, groundwater is also an important resource for many of its communities and farms. In fact, one-third of the valley’s farmland depends entirely on groundwater, and more than half (60%) […]
Read more »The Race to Save the Great Salt Lake
December 15th, 2023
Via Mother Jones, a look at the race to save the Great Salt Lake: In October 2021, an increasingly dire megadrought had left Utah’s most famous lake at its lowest level in recorded history. As Great Salt Lake lay dying, Democrats introduced a modest water conservation bill requiring efficient plumbing fixtures in all new construction, […]
Read more »Opportunities for Restoring Environmental Flows in the Rio Grande–Rio Bravo Basin Spanning the US–Mexico Border
December 13th, 2023
Courtesy of ASCE, a new study published in the Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management examining opportunities for restoring environmental flows in the Rio Grande–Rio Bravo Basin spanning the US–Mexico border: Abstract The Rio Grande–Rio Bravo’s flow regime has been highly altered for more than 130 years, yet the river ecosystem still supports important biodiversity […]
Read more »Los Angeles Plans to Improve Stormwater Capture, Source 80% of Water Locally by 2045
December 13th, 2023
Via EcoWatch, a report on how Los Angeles plans to improve stormwater capture, and source 80% of water locally by 2045: Los Angeles County’s Board of Supervisors has voted for a plan to improve stormwater capture, with a goal of capturing more stormwater for local reuse rather than importing water from other regions. The L.A. […]
Read more »Could a 550-Mile Pipeline From the Ocean Save the Great Salt Lake?
December 13th, 2023
Via Smithsonian Magazine, a report on new research suggesting that the electricity costs would exceed $300 million per year and carbon dioxide emissions could approach one million metric tons annually from a proposed 550-mile pipeline to save the Great Salt Lake: A 550-mile pipeline pumping water from the Pacific Ocean to the rapidly depleting Great […]
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