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U.S. Southwest Water Problem About ‘People and Politics’
October 6th, 2022
Via Grand Junction Sentinel, commentary on the relationship between water and politics: The most important long-term issue for Colorado today is the same as it was 120 years ago… water. In 2010, Smithsonian Magazine published an article titled, “The Colorado River Runs Dry.” The article included a quotation from Brad Udall of Colorado State University, […]
Read more »Ogallala Aquifer: The Wells Dried Up This Year
October 5th, 2022
Via KTIC’s Rural Radio, a report on the dire impact the summer’s drought had on the Ogallala Aquifer: A post on social media from Haskell County, Kansas, pointed to a stark example of the impact of extreme drought and high crop irrigation demand in the 2022 year. “(The) well is basically out of water now. Been […]
Read more »Heavily Subsidized Water Is Driving Utah Dry
October 1st, 2022
Courtesy of The Guardian, an article on how heavily subsidized water ‘made the desert bloom’ in Salt Lake City, but the tradition is now driving Utah dry: In June 2021, Marlene and Emron Esplin stopped watering their front lawn. Given that the Esplins live in Utah, where maintaining lush green turf is often associated with the […]
Read more »Will Drought Put U.S. Alfalfa Farmers Out Of Business?
October 1st, 2022
Via The Guardian, an article on how agriculture – mainly alfalfa – consumes 80% of the Colorado River’s dwindling water supply, prompting calls for conservation: On an early August morning in California’s Imperial Valley, tractors rumble across verdant fields of alfalfa, mowing down the tall grass and leaving it to dry in shaggy heaps under […]
Read more »How A 100-year-old Miscalculation Drained The Colorado River
October 1st, 2022
Via Vox, an article on how an epic drought in the West is drying up the river, but that’s only part of the story: By now, you may have heard that the Colorado River is drying up. The river’s flow is down by about 20 percent, compared to the 1900s, and the two largest reservoirs it feeds […]
Read more »The Rio Grande/Río Bravo Basin: old disputes in a new century
September 28th, 2022
Via the Global Water Forum, an article on the lingering disputes over the Rio Grande and Río Bravo basin: The Rio Grande River, known in Mexico as the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Originating in Colorado in the U.S., the Rio Grande flows over 3,000 […]
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