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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 »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 »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 […]
Read more »Colorado River Crisis: How Did The Nation’s Two Largest Reservoirs Nearly Go Dry?
November 23rd, 2023
Via The Colorado Sun, a look at how historic drought, poor planning, competing political agendas and climate-change denial contributed to dangerously low levels at Lake Mead and Lake Powell, experts say: During the drought-choked summer of 2021, Colorado’s largest reservoir, Blue Mesa, was low, its shoreline exposed and dusty like a dirty white collar. The […]
Read more »Pumped Storage Hydro: Key to the Clean Energy Transition, but Where Will the Water Come From?
November 21st, 2023
Via Inside Climate News, a look at dozens of proposed projects that would pump water uphill to reservoirs before releasing it to generate electricity when wind and solar can’t. But their reliance on groundwater in the drought-stricken Southwest is leading to pushback: The smell of piñon pine filled the air as the Ghost Train of […]
Read more »Tribes Gain Clout As Colorado River Shrinks
November 18th, 2023
Via Water Education Foundation, a report on the growing influence of First Nations as the Colorado River shrinks: The climate-driven shrinking of the Colorado River is expanding the influence of Native American tribes over how the river’s flows are divided among cities, farms and reservations across the Southwest. The tribes are seeing the value of […]
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