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Joliet, Illinois, Plans to Source Its Future Drinking Water From Lake Michigan. Will Other Cities Follow?
September 30th, 2024
Via Inside Climate News, a report that – as aquifers dry up – some Midwest communities are looking to the region’s greatest natural resources for a solution. A 2008 law governs access to it—with an exemption for Illinois. The aquifer from which Joliet, Illinois, sources its drinking water is likely going to run too dry […]
Read more »Millions Depend On The Mississippi—But The Mighty River Is Running Dry
September 27th, 2024
Tons of grains and crops are shipped down the Mississippi River every year. This National Geographic article examines what will happen if increasingly persistent droughts shrink America’s longest river? About eighty miles south of St. Louis, Brian Ragsdale’s boat, the Dredge Potter, has been deployed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to carve a […]
Read more »How Cities Run Dry
September 24th, 2024
Via Yale Climate Connection, an article on how – with rivers, lakes, and reservoirs long strained by overuse now facing climate change – some cities are turning to water restrictions to get back on track: In April 2024, more than 9 million residents of Bogotá, Colombia’s capital city, were told to collect rainwater – if the city […]
Read more »Western Water: Where Values, Math, and the “Law of the River” Collide
September 14th, 2024
Via The Land Desk, an essay on water in the U.S. West – where values, math, and the “Law of the River” collide: This spring, I had the pleasure to sit on a panel on water in the West with Paolo Bacigalupi and Heather Hansman, two writers I’ve long admired. During the question & answer period, […]
Read more »Another Midwest Drought Is Causing Transportation Headaches on the Mississippi River
September 14th, 2024
Via Inside Climate News, a report on abnormally dry conditions which have caused low water levels that disrupt barge transports carrying fuel and grain. Climatologists say it could be part of a larger trend. For the third year in a row, extreme drought conditions in the Midwest are drawing down water levels on the Mississippi […]
Read more »Does the Colorado River Need Bank Reform?
September 13th, 2024
Via Western Water Notes, commentary on the most important bank you’ve maybe never heard of – the Southwest water bank: Holding back the Colorado River at the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead serves as a visual marker for water scarcity in the Southwest. During the past 20 years, Lake Mead has fallen so far that visitors […]
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