Shaun McKinnon has a must-read story for those interested in western water in today’s Arizona Republic about the discussion in his state about the future of agricultural and municipal water use: As Phoenix grew, the land available for farms shrank and water use shifted. As recently as 1965, 80 percent of the water delivered by …
I used the Los Angeles River’s famed concrete as a bit of a stalking horse in a piece I wrote earlier this week. But Albuquerque birdwriter Judy Liddell points out that the concrete is not all there is to the old water course: As it flows through central Los Angeles, it reverts to the concrete …
I’m always intrigued at the chance to see the price of a water transaction in the West. Usually it’s hidden, but a transaction being discussed among some Colorado River Communities offers this glimpse. From Jim Seckler’s story in the Mohave Daily News: George said the plan would be for the MCWA to keep 500-acre feet …
I wasn’t sure what additionally needed to be said about Rush Limbaugh’s shameful attack on Andy Revkin the other day, in which he suggested the New York Times reporter might help the planet by committing suicide. (Charlie Petit has a nice rundown on the various things being said about it.) But I thought the issue …
In the comments on Nora’s Salt River picture, DG shared a link to a wonderful story of a group of German World War II POW’s who escaped from a camp in Arizona: The plan was to float down the Cross Cut Canal, then to the Salt River, to the Gila River and on to the …
Cally Carswell has a story in the latest High Country News about domestic groundwater wells in Washington state that nicely illustrates a common problem throughout the western U.S., including here in New Mexico. In Washington (like in New Mexico), you can legally drill a well to serve domestic needs – essentially a single house. Individually, …
Salt River Originally uploaded by Nora Heineman-Fleck. Nora took this Sunday as we were driving out of Phoenix. The road we were on dropped down into the bed of the Salt River, which at this point requires no bridge. I asked her to get a picture for me. As she put it, “Not much river …
From this morning’s newspaper (sub/ad req.): The notion of turning the Rio Grande through Albuquerque into a concrete channel like the Los Angeles River, while we drain away the groundwater beneath us and let the bosque die, is probably a nonstarter. But the idea has a way of focusing the discussion, a sort of worst-case …
Continue reading ‘Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: On Living Within Our Water Means’ »
It’s only Monday, but I think Tim Brick nails it: If we look to the future, the Colorado River will not be a reliable source of water.
Coal burning and water supplies are integrally linked in the southwestern United States. When the Central Arizona Project was built in the 1960s, planners hoped to build hydroelectric power plants on the main stem of the Colorado River to generate the power to lift the artificial river they were building up a total of nearly …