Archive of entries posted by jfleck

The Imperial Irrigation District’s Problem – LA Might Get the Water!

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You would think that on the over-appropriated Lower Colorado River, downstream from dwindling Lake Mead, getting by on less water would be a good thing. But this little news blurb from KXO radio in El Centro, in California’s Imperial Valley, suggests otherwise. The problem, apparently, is that the Imperial Irrigation District, the largest water rights …

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Spam Bot Knows Whereof It Speaks

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A spambot recently left the following comment on one of my water posts: water conservation should be done because we are already having some water shortage these days It was accompanied by a link to a web site apparently selling products intended to alleviate gastrointestinal distress. Less flushing, I guess?

Why I Don’t Think We’ll Abandon Phoenix

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Michael Campana prodded me a bit this morning on Waterwired regarding a discussion happening here and elsewhere about the possibility of abandoning Phoenix as the place runs out of water. It’s a strong meme, and it comes up frequently among those who recognize the fragile nature of cities of the desert southwest as growth-fueled water …

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Water Quote

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“Water is the classic common property resource. No one really owns the problem. Therefore, no one really owns the solution.” – Ban Ki-moon, quoted in Grafton et al.

Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: On Water and Institutional Structures

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Saturday’s post about Phoenix and the need for proper institutional structures to sort out the West’s water problems was really a bit of shadowboxing with a piece I was working on for today’s paper about New Mexico (sub. ad req.) It’s about an ongoing argument here about a proposed water rights agreement between our Interstate …

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Water in the Desert: Moving Flash Floods

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We had a nice line of thundershowers move across Albuquerque this afternoon. After dinner, Lissa and I headed to the north end of town to view the results. The metro area’s North Diversion Channel drains roughly 100 square miles of city, and flood control engineers tell me it’s a relatively unusual terrain for a major …

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Phoenix and water – what’s plan B?

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James Lawrence Powell concludes his otherwise excellent western water history Dead Pool with an apocalyptic vision of the abandonment of Phoenix, “a Grapes of Wrath-like exodus in reverse” as drought saps the Arizona city of its last reserves of water. It’s a vision I don’t buy (hence my “otherwise excellent” tag), because we won’t abandon …

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