In this morning’s Arizona Star, Tucson journalist Tony Davis asks, “Is California trying to take our water?” In journalism, there’s a joke known as “Betteridge’s Law“: “Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no.” As Tony’s story strongly suggests, the notion making the rounds these days in some Arizona political …
This Alex Breitler story reminds how running out of water is almost invariably as much a problem of governance as much as it is of drought: MOUNTAIN HOUSE — Years before the first shovelful of earth was turned on this master-plan community near Tracy, developers and county officials knew that its sole source of water could …
Continue reading ‘Running out water – again with the governance’ »
My University of New Mexico office is a short walk from the campus Duck Pond, which though it was never an official name, we’ve come to capitalize. It’s a very important place. I often come to campus on Saturdays to write, and on those Saturdays I generally take keyboard breaks to go for a walk. …
On May 1, the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center projected 3 million acre feet of runoff into Lake Powell from Aril 1 through the end of July. This was bad. Then it started raining. On June 1, the forecast was increased to 5 million acre feet. As of late last week, the estimate actual inflow …
In his dissent from the majority on today’s gay marriage ruling, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia weighed in on a central question confronting those of us in the western United States: Is California in The West? The court, Scalia notes, contains “not a single Southwesterner or even, to tell the truth, a genuine Westerner. …
Continue reading ‘I am a Californian. I am a Westerner. I proudly wear flip-flops.’ »
By the powers invested in my by no one in particular, I hereby declare Albuquerque’s 2015 Monsoon Season underway. The weather radar is showing blobs of color in the high country to the southwest, there are high clouds popping up above the mountains to the east of the city, but the real clue was how …
Continue reading ‘Albuquerque’s monsoon officially underway’ »
You can’t supply unlimited amounts of water to every person for every purpose. – Phil Isenberg, vice chairman of California’s Delta Stewardship Council, in today’s New York Times.
Crystal: “I’m not even going to the pool.” Cop: “What’s with the noodle, then.” Also, a dude busted for eating almonds.
The June mid-month forecast from the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center is up a million acre feet from June 1. Total April-July inflow into Lake Powell is now projected to be 6 million acre feet, up from 5 million acre feet forecast on June 1. That’s still below average, just 84 percent of the mean. …
Continue reading ‘Halfway through June, another million acre feet on the Colorado River’ »
Wyoming is pursuing federal legislation to take another 150,000 acre feet per year from its share of the Colorado River’s Upper Basin allotment: If successful, the project would allow the state to use the bulk of its remaining allocation under the Colorado River Compact, diverting another 149,600 acre-feet from the Green River annually, according to …
Continue reading ‘Taking more water from the Colorado River’s upper basin’ »