When I was a little kid, I thought John Wesley Powell was the coolest, the one-armed adventurer daring the unknown as he ran the rapids of the Grand Canyon – the “Great Unknown” – for the first time. Standing on the Grand Canyon’s south rim, I would stare down at those little glimpses you get …
Given the sturm und drang over Lake Mead’s dropping levels and their implications for the water future of Las Vegas, the preliminary numbers in the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s 2010 Annual Operating Plan are worthy of note. The latest posted version of the plan is marked “final draft”, but I’m told it’s essentially complete, and …
Continue reading ‘Will Mead Get an Extra Shot Of Water in 2010?’ »
It’s worth noting that the current conversation about Atlanta’s water future has not arisen because of questions about sustainability of water supplies for the various users in Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin. It’s instead the result of a legal issue: Atlanta’s primary source of supply, Lake Lanier, was never authorized by Congress to serve as a water …
Continue reading ‘Atlanta’s Remarkable Water Conversation’ »
Pasadena, CA, blogger Wayne Lusvardi, who sometimes writes about that city’s water problems, had a post recently suggesting that global warming might lead to increased flows in the Colorado River. This would, of course, be excellent news for Pasadena and others who use Colorado River water (thought it does conflict with some of the literature …
Continue reading ‘Could Global Warming Be Good for Colorado River Flows?’ »
Drought conditions are getting remarkably bad in our neighbor to the west (that would be Arizona): That’s from this week’s Drought Monitor.
This picture of student protests at UCLA, which came across the twitter today, reminded me of one of my all time favorite bits of graffiti: It must have been 1975 or ’76, and I was at UCLA with my dad to see art. In the parking garage elevator was this poem, written in black felt …
Is this how it begins? Kelloggs said today production problems have led to a shortage of its popular Eggo frozen waffle products. They say they will be able to restore full waffle production by the middle of next year. Of course that’s what they’re going to say – that it’s all OK, that this is …
This weekend, I ran across a terrific piece Matt Jenkins wrote for High Country News back in 2005 about Phoenix’s water problems. It holds up well: much of the core issues he’s describing are still problems, especially the quirky loopholes in the water laws that were intended to ensure groundwater sustainability. But there’s a new …
Henry Brean observes that Hoover Dam’s ability to generate electricity is down 20 percent with low lake levels, a reminder of the tight integration of water and power questions along the Colorado River. The history of the big dams on the Colorado River, and the question of who gets their water, is inextricably linked with questions …
Daniel Collins (via haiku!) notes the important point that water folks are increasingly raising about climate change: it’s not just whether rainfall goes up or down. Increased evaporation and transpiration as the climate warms is the critical water supply variable. From Cai and others in GRL – since 1950, nearly half the reduction in soil …