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Colorado River Basin: Hay, Cheeseburgers, and Feed-Driven Water Inefficiency
May 30th, 2023
Courtesy of The Land Desk, an insightful look at the water/food nexus as it revolves around alfalfa: Alfalfa fields in La Paz County, Arizona. Many of the fields pictured are owned by Fondomonte Farms, a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Arabian food and beverage giant Almarai, which touts itself as the world’s largest vertically integrated […]
Read more »Will Colorado River Cuts Create A New Dust Bowl?
May 30th, 2023
Courtesy of The Land Desk, commentary on the impact that the recently agreed upon Colorado River cuts may have: What effect will fallowing thousands of acres of fields have? Will it lead to another Dust Bowl? Is the electricity from the dams used to deliver water (e.g. to power the pumps for the Central Arizona […]
Read more »Colorado River States: Bought Time But Need To Think Bigger
May 27th, 2023
Via Coyote Gulch, commentary on how Colorado River states bought time with a 3-year water conservation deal, but now they need to think bigger: Arizona, California and Nevada have narrowly averted a regional water crisis by agreeing to reduce their use of Colorado River water over the next three years. This deal represents a temporary solution to a […]
Read more »In Iowa: A Tale of Politics, Power, and Contaminated Water
May 27th, 2023
Courtesy of Circle of Blue, a look at how – on the same day when the US Supreme Court dramatically rolled back the protections of the Clean Water Act – this report from Iowa exposed the political machinations related to a “torrent of (agricultural) run-off that contaminates virtually every mile of the state’s streams and […]
Read more »U.S. Supreme Court Limits EPA’s Power to Address Water Pollution
May 27th, 2023
Courtesy of The New York Times, an article on a recent US Supreme Court decision that experts say will sharply undercut the agency’s authority to protect millions of acres of wetlands under the Clean Water Act, leaving them subject to pollution without penalty: The Supreme Court on Thursday curtailed the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to police millions […]
Read more »Once ‘Paradise,’ Parched Colorado Valley Grapples With Arsenic In Water
May 25th, 2023
Via NPR, a report on the link between climate change-driven drought and intensifying levels of heavy metals in drinking water: When John Mestas’ ancestors moved to Colorado over 100 years ago to raise sheep in the San Luis Valley, they “hit paradise,” he says. “There was so much water, they thought it would never end,” […]
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