The folks at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation have crunched the numbers on how the latest 2010 Colorado River runoff forecast will affect the river’s major storage reservoirs, and the news is not good for Lake Mead. At this point, according to the Bureau of Reclamation, there is just a one in five chance that …
Continue reading ‘Chances of Extra Water for Mead Diminish’ »
Tony Davis reports in this morning’s Arizona Daily Star that the Central Arizona Project could see a shortage in its Colorado River allocation by 2012: For decades, most water experts have expected the Central Arizona Project to eventually run short, as population growth outstripped the supply of the Colorado River that long ago was over-allocated …
Continue reading ‘Arizona Could See Colorado Shortage by 2012’ »
The January Colorado River forecast for 2009-10, out last Friday, is the lowest at this point in the year since 2002-03: The range of uncertainty right now is enormous. In an average year, about 8 million acre feet flows into Lake Powell in the April-July period, which is the peak of the runoff season. This …
Tramway (Not So) Wetlands Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. January’s a time of quiet and anticipation. What water there is in our rivers is mostly what they call “base flow”, which is really just the surface manifestation of groundwater leaking into the river channel. Or they’re just dry. The runoff to come is frozen in the …
Green Gold? (more in Sunday’s paper)
James Rickman has launched a new photoblog to document the wonder that is his home town.
About five seconds with the google is enough to make one question the old alleged Twain chestnut: “Whiskey’s for drinking, water’s for fighting about.” Is that too much to ask, Mark Strassman? Especially given how not only factually wrong but conceptually misleading the reference is? Whiskey, yes, but water is frequently not for fighting about, …
Southwest Hydrology, the invaluable University of Arizona publication that is a frequent starting point when I’m researching an unfamiliar water topic, has lost its National Science Foundation funding and will be closed, Shaun McKinnon reports: The magazine’s demise was announced in notes written by founding editor, Betsy Woodhouse and Gary Woodard, associate director of the …
In my book, The Tree Rings’ Tale, in addition to sharing the stories of scientists I tried to give young readers examples of science they can do themselves. As a science journalist, I got hooked on weather years ago because the sciency bits connect so nicely to readers’ everyday experience. It’s just one short step, …
It has long been apparent that the water supply of the Colorado is inadequate for all the demands that will be made upon it, as is the case with many other streams in the West. That is G.E.P. Smith of the University of Arizona, writing in the Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers …