Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: NM Water Rights Ruling
My education in economics included a lot of discussion of the importance of clarity in property rights regimes. You’ve got to know who owns what. New Mexico water law in this regard is a tangled mess. In large areas of the state, we lack formal adjudication of water rights. We do know some things about [...]
Who Needs to Understand Drought?
Ed Polasko had a great comment on one of my recent Lake Mead posts that I thought was worth elevating. I was riffing on the lack of public understanding, even in the face of Mead’s dropping levels, of the drought and water use problem facing the West. Ed’s response: For the average Joe/Mary, drought will [...]
Energy and Water in the California Desert
Osha Gray Davidson, writing about yesterday’s Blythe Solar Power Project announcement, highlights a key issue: [T]he project will now have a much smaller “water footprint” thanks to a decision to use air cooling, which consumes no water, at the cost of somewhat reduced efficiency. Cynthia Barnett, a noted water expert and author, calls the Blythe [...]
Powell and Watersheds in the 21st Century
John Wesley Powell, the 19th century explorer, scientist and visionary who first tried to map and explain the West’s water resources, famously argued that government jurisdictions should be established based on watershed boundaries. He was ignored on this point (as he was on others). But I’ve been playing recently with an argument that elaborates on [...]
River Beat: The Investment Perspective
Investors need to take long term water supply risks into account as they think about municipal bonds, according to a new analysis by the environmental-investor group Ceres published this week: The report shows that some of the nation’s largest public utilities may face moderate to severe water supply shortfalls in the coming years, yet these [...]
Hoover Dam
Mom says I drew a picture of Hoover Dam when I was five and gave a “report” on it in kindergarten for “what I did on my Christmas vacation”. As mom tells the story, the teacher was impressed with the rigor and detail I offered. I was an exceptional child. At least that’s how mom [...]
Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: Meanwhile, Back on the Rio Grande
While I’ve been away, my friends back in Albuquerque were kind enough to print a bunch of copies of my ruminations on La Niña and the Rio Grande and throw them on people’s driveways this morning (sub/ad req): [M]ore than La Niña is at work this year, according to Glen MacDonald, a climate researcher at [...]
River Beat: Another Place There Used To Be A Lake
One of the guys at the Las Vegas Marina yesterday was sounding optimistic. Sure, the lake level’s low, he said, but they expect it to start rising soon. Plus, he said he heard they expect it to eventually come up another 60 feet. He shrugged as if to say, “Dunno, but that’s what I heard,” [...]
The Stilling Well
Down a long, dank corridor inside Hoover Dam that seems to be known as the “1211 tunnel” (things in the dam tend to be named after their elevation above sea level) and up a flight of stairs sits the top of the dam’s “stilling well”. It’s essentially a long tube that runs to the bottom [...]
