The latest edition of Inkstain’s infrequent* Ask Me a Colorado River Question feature comes via Paolo Bacigalupi, and it wasn’t quite phrased as a question, but I’m hoping to resurrect the feature. I’ve always said “cap” for CAP and “snee-wah” for SNWA. But I have no idea why. Odd and embarrassing. @jfleck @waterwired @jonnypeace — Paolo …
Continue reading ‘AMACRQ: How do you pronounce “CAP” and “SNWA”?’ »
From Gary Woodard’s work – in Arizona… an annual drop in per-household demand of more than 2 percent between 2000 and 2013 across Maricopa and Pima counties. This trend is expected to extend through 2020, as we continue to replace appliances, fixtures, and landscape plants with new, more water-efficient ones; construct new, more water-efficient homes; and participate in water …
Continue reading ‘How low can municipal water conservation go?’ »
I took a lot of pictures on my recent trip. This is one of them.
With a dry February, the chances of a big snowpack and “bonus water” flow in 2015 that might begin to refill Lake Mead and Lake Powell are just about gone. April-July runoff into Lake Powell, the big reservoir in the Colorado River’s “Upper Basin”, is forecast to be 71 percent of average, according to the …
Continue reading ‘April-July Colorado River runoff: 71 percent’ »
It is testimony to a lousy January and most of February that the spectacular snowstorm I drove home into over the weekend left the key watersheds that provide water to the Rio Grande and Colorado River still behind average for the year. The 9 inches of snow at my house was the most since December …
Continue reading ‘West’s snowpack improves, still not great’ »
The folks at Colorado Mesa University have sent ’round their call for abstracts (pdf) for this fall’s Upper Colorado River Basin Water Forum: (Disclosure: I’m on the forum planning advisory committee.)
Precipitation this winter at Crater Lake, in northern California southern Oregon, is a tad above normal. Snowpack is at record lows: On Friday morning, the snow level was at 32 inches, tying the Feb. 27 record for low snow. However, snow was falling Friday from a new storm system bringing rain to the Rogue Valley …
Continue reading ‘In the mountains of southern Oregon, what used to be snow turns to rain’ »
Matt Jenkins, the best journalist we’ve got covering water in the western United States, has an insightful cover story in the latest High Country News on Pat Mulroy, the recently retired head of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. (Not on line yet – subscribe!) Mulroy is known for being brash and pugnacious, but Matt gets …
Brandon Loomis at the Arizona Republic, with an O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism through the Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University, is trying to help us with this: Will Arizona and the Southwest continue to lead the nation in growth as the Colorado River dries? The first round of stories, with Republic photographer …
Continue reading ‘Arizona Republic tackling the Colorado River’ »
BOULDER CITY, NEV. – I was standing at a pullout on the Arizona side of Hoover Dam late this afternoon, taking pictures of the big empty, when a Japanese family got out of their car and walked up to the edge. One of the men pointed down at the big empty, then made a broad …
Continue reading ‘Equilibrium in the Colorado River Basin’ »