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Hoover Dam Made Life in the West Possible. Or So We Thought.
May 19th, 2021
Courtesy of The New York Times, an OpEd on water scarcity in the U.S. west: Few things force you to confront hubris and genius at the same time as much as the magnificent harness on the Colorado River that created the largest reservoir in the United States. To build Hoover Dam in the 1930s, an army of […]
Read more »Water Created California and The West, but Will Drought Finish Them Off?
May 2nd, 2021
Via the LA Times, an article on the U.S. west’s increasing problem with water scarcity: In what may become an iconic image for drought-stricken California, Gov. Gavin Newsom stood on the parched bed of Lake Mendocino on April 21 to announce an emergency declaration for Sonoma and Mendocino counties. “I’m standing currently 40 feet underwater,” he said, […]
Read more »Key Colorado River Reservoir Could Sink To Record Low Later This Year
April 19th, 2021
Via CNN, a report on new projections that show a key Colorado River reservoir could sink to a record low later this year: Wracked by drought, climate change and overuse, a key reservoir on the Colorado River could sink to historically low levels later this year, new US government projections show, potentially triggering significant water cutbacks in […]
Read more »Drought In US West
April 2nd, 2021
Via The Economist, a report on how the lack of snow in the US west is worsening the Colorado River’s supply problem: On March 13th, Denverites watched from frozen windows as the fourth-biggest snowstorm ever to hit their city buried Colorado’s capital two feet deep, and added fresh powder to the foothills of the Rockies. Local officials […]
Read more »In Drying Colorado River Basin, Indian Tribes Are Water Dealmakers
March 4th, 2021
Via Circle of Blue, a look at how native Americans – who hold 20 percent of the basin’s water rights – will shape the future of the Southwest: Mired in drought and torched by one of the hottest years ever measured, the seven states of the Colorado River Basin are acutely aware of how a […]
Read more »Future Upper Colorado River Basin Water Use Estimates Confound Planning
March 3rd, 2021
Via The Colorado Sun, an article on the complexity and politics involved in Colorado River water use estimates: Some water experts fear that a long-held aspiration to develop more water in the Upper Colorado River Basin is creating another chance to let politics and not science lead the way on river management. “Alternative Management Paradigms […]
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