Spending a weekend (mostly) unplugged (I’m writing this on my iPod), Lissa and I ended up this afternoon at the Georgia O’Keeffe in Santa Fe. In one alcove, photos of O’Keeffe on the Colorado River in Glen Canyon, circa 1964 – the year they closed the dam and began flooding it. Apparently her friend Eliot …
About that whole Colorado River shortage thing? Chill. From a Central Arizona Project statement sent ’round to reporters today: According to the Bureau of Reclamation, current conditions on the Colorado River indicate a 97 percent probability that more than 2.5 million acre-feet (more than 850 billion gallons) of additional river water will flow from Lake …
I sat in the audience dumbfounded last month listening to Pat Mulroy speak at the 16th Annual Water Conservation/Xeriscape Expo here in Albuquerque. Mulroy is the head of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, the agency that wholesales water to the Las Vegas, Nev., area, and is arguably the most prominent figure in western water politics and …
Continue reading ‘“the largest artificial watershed in the world”’ »
The March forecast out today (pdf) for this year’s operations on the Colorado River is looking very good for the chances of extra water to be shipped downstream to help top off the dwindling supplies in Lake Mead. The magic word here is “equalization”, which means that under the river’s operating rules, there is sufficient …
We will know in a little more than a month whether Lake Mead will get a flush of “bonus water” this year, and if so how much, thanks to the better-than-average snow pack in the Upper Colorado River Basin. Right now, things look good. Current snow levels, as measured by the network of federally funded …
Reorganizing photo archives as I move to a new computer, I came across this, from a fall 2009 trip to Phoenix. Tempe Town Lake, in the words of its boosters… embodies a unique vision for the future of the Valley. Town Lake is a regional and national destination, welcoming millions each year. Recognized as a top …
U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is reported to have said in a talk this morning (Thurs. 2/24) in Washington D.C. that he believes the ongoing drought on the Colorado River could be the spark to shift conservative political opinion on climate change. From the Las Vegas Sun: In comments he delivered at a symposium hosted …
Continue reading ‘Will an Empty Lake Mead Sell Skeptics on the Reality of Climate Change?’ »
Doug Kenney, the University of Colorado law school guy who is going bold in his push toward Colorado River management solutions, has a Denver Post op-ed this morning that looks toward innovative solutions that, importantly, work the problem without requiring us to tear up the Colorado River Compact: If dry conditions continue as predicted, the …
Continue reading ‘Kenney on How to Fix Our River Management System’ »
Via the satellite data analysis folks at Chelys, a view of what used to be called the “Colorado River delta”, which is now one of the great winter vegetable growing regions of North America. That’s the Salton Sea top left, the Imperial Valley and Calexico farming regions in the center, and the Gila and Colorado …
If all goes well weather wise over the next six weeks, the US Bureau of Reclamation will release a substantial slug of extra water in 2011 to help refill Lake Mead. Thanks to a decent snow pack, there is currently a 71 percent chance that the big reservoirs on the Colorado, Mead and Powell, will …
Continue reading ‘River Beat: Yo, Vegas – Bonus Water on the Way!’ »