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Lithium Companies Fight Over Water in the Arid Great Basin
April 8th, 2024
Via Inside Climate News, an article on the fight between water and clean energy in the US southwest: Over the past few decades, the United States has imported most of its lithium from Chile and Argentina, but there’s one major domestic source of the mineral—Nevada. Clayton Valley, a remote basin in the nation’s driest state, […]
Read more »Why Does US West Grow So Much Alfalfa?
April 4th, 2024
Via Sustainable Waters, commentary on the nexus between water use and food production in the US West: During recent years I’ve had the great fortune to work with some amazing scientists on some really interesting research projects focused on water use and food production in the American West. Due to widespread concerns over water scarcity […]
Read more »Amazon: A River In Flux
March 31st, 2024
Via Inside Climate News, a report on the Amazon River, where extreme flooding and droughts may be the new norm, challenging its people and ecosystems: Jochen Schöngart darts back and forth along an escarpment just above the Amazon River, a short water taxi ride from downtown Manaus, Brazil. It’s still early this October morning in […]
Read more »Last Call: New Mexico’s Colorado River Deliveries Vulnerable To Existing Water Management Framework
March 30th, 2024
Courtesy of the Colorado Environmental Law Journal, a new article that digs into dig into the law surrounding the New Mexico’s San Juan-Chama Project, which imports Colorado River water into the Rio Grande Basin that has become vital to water supplies in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and New Mexico’s Middle Rio Grande Valley. A summary of learnings was that New […]
Read more »New Water Accounting Reveals Why Colorado River No Longer Reaches The Sea
March 29th, 2024
Via Nature, a new study that demonstrates how new water accounting reveals why the Colorado River no longer reaches the sea: Abstract Persistent overuse of water supplies from the Colorado River during recent decades has substantially depleted large storage reservoirs and triggered mandatory cutbacks in water use. The river holds critical importance to more than […]
Read more »Hay Grown For Cattle Consumes Nearly Half The Water Drawn From Colorado River
March 29th, 2024
Courtesy of the Los Angeles Times, an article on a new study showing that hay grown for cattle consumes nearly half the water drawn from Colorado River: With chronic water shortages afflicting the Colorado River, discussions about how to cut usage have increasingly focused on a thirsty crop that consumes an especially large share of […]
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