You can’t understand water in the west without understanding urban growth patterns. They’re joined at the hip. Here, in a single graph, is the explanation for the Vegas announcement yesterday that its two main water agencies are laying off 7.5 percent of their staff: Henry Brean explained it thus: The Southern Nevada Water Authority and …
Continue reading ‘In Las Vegas, an acknowledgment that growth is gone’ »
Photographer John Trotter on the Colorado River: When they opened those gates on (Morelos) dam and let water back into the main channel on the river, it kind of engaged those people. It brought them back into the mainstream of all the other people who are living along it in Moab or Grand Junction or …
It occurs to me that the brief and delightful pulse flow of clicks to this blog reading my recent coverage of what’s going on in the Colorado River delta might be potential book buyers. (Duh. Marketing is not my strength.) It’s called The Tree Rings’ Tale, a science book for kids (middle school aged, 13 …
Continue reading ‘Welcome, pulse flow readers. Buy my (old) book!’ »
Folks on the Colorado River delta “pulse flow” science monitoring team sent around a few pictures yesterday taken by the Sonoran Institute’s Tomás Rivas of the water arriving at the Laguna CILA environmental restoration site. The beauty of this picture for me, beyond the obvious sight of water in a formerly dry delta river channel, is …
Continue reading ‘land and water: Colorado River pulse flow arrives at Laguna’ »
Ultimately, what’s going on down in the Colorado River right now turns on a complicated mix of politics and science. The politics involves how much support advocates can gain for environmental restoration of the troubled system, on both sides of the border. The science supports those decisions After the rush of excitement about the historic …
Continue reading ‘after the rush, getting down to the science’ »
New data from NASA’s GRACE satellite, which scientists use to track changes in groundwater storage, shows some remarkable declines in the Colorado River Basin, according to a recent presentation by Jay Famiglietti of UC Irvine to a California legislative committee (huge thanks to Chris Austin for catching this and bringing it to my attention): “Unfortunately, …
Continue reading ‘declining Colorado River Basin groundwater reserves’ »
The Havasu News-Herald, which serves Lake Havasu City along the Colorado River, assured its readers today that the environmental pulse flow, which is passing through on its way from Hoover Dam to the Colorado River delta, shouldn’t have an impact on Lake Havasu recreational boating: Lake Havasu will remain at normal water levels during the …
Continue reading ‘A river means different things to different people’ »
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation sent around this updated map this afternoon on the progress of the Colorado River delta pulse flow (apologies for large file size, trying to offer up the highest resolution I can):
While many of us have had to return to more mundane lives, Jennifer Pitt remains in the Colorado River delta, documenting the environmental “pulse flow” as it makes its way toward the ocean. The water’s been slowing as it crosses dry stretches where depth to groundwater is great and dry sand soaks up a big …