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The Colorado River Basin’s Daunting New Math
August 15th, 2021
Via Circle of Blue, an article examining how the Colorado River basin’s big reservoirs have fallen to uncharted territory, with a dire forecast in the future: Lakes Mead and Powell, icons of 20th century water engineering in the American West, are in bad shape. The story of their decline is written into the edges of the […]
Read more »The Massive Plumbing System Moving Water Across Colorado’s Mountains Has Less To Work With
July 21st, 2021
Via Aspen Public Radio, a look at the massive plumbing system that moves water across Colorado’s mountains which – this year – is finding less to go around: High up on Colorado’s Independence Pass, a narrow, winding road weaves through the evergreens and across mountain streams, up and over the Continental Divide at more than […]
Read more »Why Intel and TSMC are Building Thirsty Chip Factories In Dry U.S. Southwest
July 12th, 2021
Via CNBC, a look at why Intel and TSMC are building water-dependent chip factories in one of the driest U.S. states: KEY POINTS The Grand Canyon State may not seem like the most obvious place for a chip “foundry” or “fab” since the high-tech manufacturing plants guzzle millions of gallons of water every day. Arizona […]
Read more »Why Water Levels in Megadrought-Impacted Southwestern States Have Experts Concerned
July 4th, 2021
Via ABC News, an article on why water levels in megadrought-impacted Southwestern states have some experts concerned: California was once the site of a gold rush. But now arguably one of the most precious commodities in parts of the state and in the Southwest is something else entirely — water — as the region grapples […]
Read more »Day Zero On The Colorado River
June 29th, 2021
Via Sustainable Waters, an article on the increasing water stress on the Colorado River: The US Bureau of Reclamation, in its most recently published “24 Month Study,” projects that Lake Powell on the Colorado River will be three-quarters empty by New Years Day. There are three reasons that Lake Powell is drying up: (1) natural […]
Read more »Decades-long ‘Megadroughts’ in U.S. Southwest and Central Plains More Likely Due to Climate Change
June 26th, 2021
Via Circle of Blue, a report on how droughts that are extreme by today’s standards will be normal by the end of the century: If the world continues to add carbon to the atmosphere at current rates, ‘megadroughts’ lasting more than two decades will be commonplace by the end of the century in the driest […]
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