turtle and goose
I wasn’t close enough to hear what they were talking about, but the turtle looked pissed.
Archive of entries posted by jfleck
the palm is a water loving plant
One of the fundamental propositions of date culture is that the palm requires a large supply of water for irrigation. This rule is apparently subject to some striking exceptions and future experiments will probably change our ideas on the subject still more, though they can hardly shake the fact that the palm is a water …
Colorado River System Conservation Program
We’re beginning to see details of a pilot program to conserve water in the Colorado River Basin to prop up declining water levels in the basin’s major reservoirs by paying water users to not use water. The Southern Nevada Water Authority’s board last week approved that agency’s $2 million contribution to what would be a …
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An update on California towns running out of water. Or not.
The AP’s Jason Dearen has an update on California communities at risk of running out of water: In February, the California Department of Public Health listed 17 mostly rural water systems as having less than two months water supply in storage. But in recent weeks that number has fallen to three. In February, as media …
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El Niño and the Colorado River Basin
One of the epic Colorado River stories involves the Great El Niño of 1983, the year they almost lost Glen Canyon Dam. With a massive snowpack melting off in a hurry in June of that year, Lake Powell filled to the spillways, which couldn’t handle the load, and it is said we came close to catastrophe. …
stuff I wrote elsewhere: a dry summer on the Rio Grande
Here’s a picture of the Rio Grande, at Embudo, with water: Here’s a newspaper story about the Rio Grande, at Albuquerque, without water: Without good summer rains, the Rio Grande through Albuquerque could see its lowest sustained levels since the 1970s, water managers said Wednesday. In the midst of the fourth consecutive year of extreme …
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“the groundwater problem”
Water is energy, and in arid lands it rearranges humans and human ways and human appetites around its flow. Groundwater is a nonrenewable source of such energy. These facts are the core of the impact when groundwater is developed in such places. Humans build their societies around consumption of fossil water long buried in the …
Whose river is the Animas?
Jonathan Thompson takes High Country News readers to his home town of Durango for a reprise of a western saga we’ve seen before: who gets to define the Animas River around which his city was built? [I]t’s somewhat luxurious, maybe even decadent, to be able to have a community-wide fight over whether a park has …
stuff I wrote elsewhere: with water sales and revenue down, Albuquerque eyes another rate hike
From the morning paper: With revenue down as a result of dropping water sales, the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority board at its Wednesday evening meeting will consider a 5 percent rate increase beginning July 1. The average homeowner’s water bill would rise roughly $3 per month, according to a report to be presented …
Swimming Pool for Registered Guests Only
The Desert Sands Motor Hotel on old Route 66 in Albuquerque has all the modern amenities. If you look closely, you’ll see a small television satellite dish.