Archive of posts filed under the Colorado River category.

US-Mexico water talks stalling – what I learned from a new water blog

Posted by on

Chris Austin, the long time brains behind the invaluable Aquafornia (done in partnership with the Water Education Foundation), has a launched a new blog aimed at diving deeper into the weeds. I’ve already learned stuff from it that I didn’t know, such as this: Negotiations with Mexico: Regarding bi-national negotiations with Mexico on Colorado River issues, …

Continue reading ‘US-Mexico water talks stalling – what I learned from a new water blog’ »

Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: the Colorado River’s supply-demand problem

Posted by on

While it’s easy to get caught up in the climate wars rhetoric about the Colorado River, and the effect of anthropogenic warming on the river’s flows, it’s important to remember that’s only one of the variables changing in my region’s water future: With population growth pushing up Colorado River Basin water demand as climate change …

Continue reading ‘Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: the Colorado River’s supply-demand problem’ »

The Colorado River. And tubeworms.

Posted by on

Is this Michelle Nijhuis piece on the Colorado River terrific because she’s willing to go against the grain and argue for an optimistic future? [D]eputy secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior David Hayes, ecologist Osvel Hinojosa Huerta of the Mexican conservation group Pronatura Noroeste and University of Arizona paleoclimatologist Jonathan Overpeck all described …

Continue reading ‘The Colorado River. And tubeworms.’ »

Who needs water in the Colorado basin

Posted by on

In the past, I’ve used the Bureau of Reclamation’s Yuma Desalting Plant as a sort of benchmark for measuring who’s the most desperate for water in the Lower Colorado River Basin, and the level of that desperation. Tony Davis had an excellent look at the project this past week in the Arizona Daily Star, and …

Continue reading ‘Who needs water in the Colorado basin’ »

On dams, pipes, and western water

Posted by on

When I interviewed Mike Connor, the Bureau of Reclamation’s then-newly minted commissioner, back in 2009, one of his central points was that the era of American dam building was behind us: Michael Connor, the New Mexican who took over as head of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation three months ago, inherited an empire. It is …

Continue reading ‘On dams, pipes, and western water’ »

The Sacramento Delta and the Colorado River – a comparison

Posted by on

Barry Nelson had an insightful post today comparing and contrasting the Colorado River and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta systems. There are important similarities – crashing (or crashed) ecosystems and water supplies for human systems that are stretched beyond the point of sustainability. But the institutional frameworks for addressing those problems and the prospect of …

Continue reading ‘The Sacramento Delta and the Colorado River – a comparison’ »

In Arizona, a Colorado River shortfall would hit ag first

Posted by on

What’s the Colorado River failure mode? By which I mean, with as much specificity as we can muster, when the water begins to run short, who will get less? I’m pushing this question because of a frustration with the doom scenarios generated by simply extrapolating the diverging supply and demand curves forward in time and invoking …

Continue reading ‘In Arizona, a Colorado River shortfall would hit ag first’ »

On the Colorado, chance of surplus early, shortage down the road

Posted by on

I know it is in the mission statement of all card-carrying western water journalists to harp on the gloomy prospects of shortage. But in the near term, the odds of a surplus on the Colorado River are greater than the chances of a shortage, according to new calculations by the US Bureau of Reclamation. Don’t …

Continue reading ‘On the Colorado, chance of surplus early, shortage down the road’ »