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With Climate Change, Colorado River Officials Peer Into Muddy Future
February 12th, 2024
Via the Washington Post, a report on efforts to use innovative, web-based tools to predict the Colorado River’s future flows: To ensure that the Colorado River can remain a lifeline for 40 million people, the federal government is looking for answers in the extremes of the distant past and the warnings of a hotter future. In a low-slung […]
Read more »Romancing the River: The Appropriation Doctrine – and Its Appropriation
February 10th, 2024
Via Sibley’s Rivers, commentary on the Colorado River Compact and the appropriation doctrine: ‘The single biggest roadblock to solving the problem of stabilizing the river is the priority system.’ – Tom Buschatzke, Director of Arizona’s ? Department of Water Resource Last post, I laid out some reasons why the water mavens now engaged in mapping […]
Read more »Aridity Could Dry Up Southwestern Mine Proposals
January 23rd, 2024
Via Inside Climate News, a look at how – while critical minerals for the clean energy transition are abundant in the Southwest – dozens of mines proposed to access them will require vast sums of water, something in short supply in the desert: One by one, leaders from across Arizona gave speeches touting the importance […]
Read more »Are We Headed for the First Colorado River Compact Tripwire?
January 21st, 2024
Via JFleck at Inkstain, commentary on whether the U.S. southwest is headed for the first Colorado River Compact tripwire? The Bureau of Reclamation’s January 2024 “Most Probable” 24-month study forecasts that annual releases from Glen Canyon Dam for both Water Years 2025 and 2026 will be 7.48 million acre-feet per year (maf). If this happens, the ten-year […]
Read more »How Imperial Valley Became a Target for Water
January 10th, 2024
Via The Desert Review, commentary on how California’s Imperial Valley became a target for water: If you were paying attention, strange things started happening in 2022. Reporters from the Washington Post, the New York Times, and other major news outlets began showing up in Holtville, Westmorland, and even in unassuming fields across the valley. Meanwhile, hedge […]
Read more »Will Arizona Close a Loophole That Kets Developers Build Without Water?
January 9th, 2024
Via Grist, an article on Arizona where – despite water woes in “wildcat” neighborhoods – lawmakers may not act to close loopholes exploited by developers: When a small Arizona community called Rio Verde Foothills lost its water supply one year ago, forcing locals to skip showers and eat off paper plates, it became a poster child for unwise desert development. […]
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