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Colorado River Deal Opens Cash Spigot For Big Farms
December 3rd, 2023
Via Politico, an article on how billions of dollars of Inflation Reduction Act money meant to tackle drought looks likely to make it more expensive to clinch a broader deal critical to economies in several states: A widely hailed deal to conserve water from the shrinking Colorado River is turning into a windfall for some […]
Read more »Two Companies That Dominate The U.S. Carrot Crop …And Water Use
December 1st, 2023
Courtesy of Forbes, a report on the two companies that dominate the U.S. carrot crop, and dominate water use in Southern California’s Cuyama Valley, where residents are calling for a boycott of Big Carrot over the amount of water their farms are sucking out of the ground: It sounds weird to say that carrots are […]
Read more »Tensions Bubbling At Thirsty Arizona Alfalfa Farms Owned By Foreign Firms
November 30th, 2023
Via National Post, an article on the continued tensions bubbling up at thirsty Arizona alfalfa farms as foreign firms exploit unregulated water: A blanket of bright green alfalfa spreads across western Arizona’s McMullen Valley, ringed by rolling mountains and warmed by the hot desert sun. Matthew Hancock’s family has used groundwater to grow forage crops […]
Read more »In California, Farmers Test a Method to Sink More Water into Underground Stores
November 30th, 2023
Courtesy of Inside Climate News, a look at a novel California program which reimburses landowners for replenishing groundwater, in a bid to add regularity to the state’s boom and bust water system: In recent decades, as water has grown increasingly precious, Californians have tried countless ways to find more of it and make it last […]
Read more »The Libertarian Developer Who Spent Decades Guzzling West Maui’s Water
November 30th, 2023
Via Grist, a report on Peter Martin, he libertarian developer looming over West Maui’s water conflict: Just weeks after the deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history ripped through the coastal town of L?hain?, Native Hawaiian taro farmers, environmentalists, and other residents of West Maui crowded into a narrow conference room in Honolulu for a state […]
Read more »Lithium in Paradox: Drought Could Halt New Utah Mining Activity
November 28th, 2023
Via The Land Desk, a look at how water scarcity could stop a new Utah mining rush: Myriad proposals to tap lithium deposits in southeastern Utah are progressing from the conceptual to the exploratory phases. But they are running up against a familiar obstacle in these arid parts: concern about how the projects might affect diminishing […]
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