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‘Free Water’ Was Never Free, According To Historian of the American West
November 29th, 2022
Via The Revelator, commentary on how subsidized water cultivated the West, but this required becoming increasingly profligate with the region’s scarcest resource. The West uses too much water. For such a simple problem, the obvious solution — use less — lies frustratingly out of reach. That inability to change may seem hard to understand, but […]
Read more »The Colorado River Compact Turns 100 Years Old. Is It Still Working?
November 29th, 2022
Via Inside Climate News, a look at the Colorado River company, an agreement that didn’t consider the needs of Native Americans, Mexico or ecosystems and which – since its signing – the river has dropped, demand has skyrocketed and states have failed to agree on how to share it. On a chilly fall day, Eric Kuhn […]
Read more »California: Desalination From Disaster To Solution
November 15th, 2022
Courtesy of the Los Angeles Times, a report on California’s renewed interest in desalination: For decades, environmentalists have decried ocean desalination as an ecological disaster, while cost-savvy water managers have thumbed their noses at desal’s lofty price tag. But as the American Southwest barrels into a new era of extreme heat, drought and aridification, officials and […]
Read more »How A Utah Utility Is Helping An Estonian Company Hoard Colorado River Water
November 9th, 2022
Via Grist, an article on how a Utah utility is helping a foreign oil company hoard Colorado River water: Millions of years before dinosaurs went extinct, what is now Utah was submerged by a broad, shallow sea. Over millennia, as the water receded and tectonic plates shifted, rich organic marine material accumulated, forming thick layers […]
Read more »Drought Looms Over U.S. Midterm Elections In Arid West
November 8th, 2022
Via Grist, an article on how drought looms over U.S. midterm elections in the arid West: Mark Kelly, the incumbent Democratic senator from Arizona, is facing a strong reelection challenge from far-right Republican nominee Blake Masters, in a race that could be key for control of the Senate. Last month, during a televised debate between […]
Read more »Colorado River Conditions Worsening Quicker Than Expected
November 5th, 2022
Via The Denver Post, an article on how the drought plaguing the US West is worsening and Lake Powell could sink below a critical level without adequate snow this winter: Running out of time and options to save water along the drying Colorado River, federal officials said they’re considering whether to release less water from the […]
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