Amid the litany of the apocalypse, with the pictures of fallowed farm fields and dead fish and trees and cracked mud, here are five pieces of good news on western water, both on the supply side and on the demand side. 1. Colorado River Basin storage is up Total storage in the Colorado River …
Continue reading ‘Five pieces of good news for water in the western United States’ »
Daniel Polk, an anthropologist now based at Stanford’s Lane Center has an interesting post looking at the question of our perceptions of the Salton Sea – natural or not? The lake demonstrates that the “natural” is a fluid and not fixed term. Proponents of the Salton Sea often emphasize the natural qualities of the lake. …
From a new Public Policy Institute of California white paper on water allocation reforms: Regions with drought-prone climates need reliable accounting of water availability and use. Authoritative water accounting is a foundation for the transparent, reliable, timely administration (and, if necessary, curtailment) of water rights, management of groundwater, and water trading. This drought spotlighted serious …
One of my early ideas for a western water book was going to be called “The Last Concrete”, telling the story of the last big water project to be built in the western United States. But this is a dilemma, because which will it be? And how do we know the others lingering on the …
An excellent Laura Paskus story this weekend on a new climate water risk study by Justin Mankin at Lamont-Doherty and colleagues, includes some really important comments from Mankin on the implications of the work for water policy. The study helps clarify risks to water supply in the Rio Grande (and elsewhere, notably the Colorado River …
Continue reading ‘A plea for more attention to water use demand-side projections’ »
The New Mexico water nerd joke is that Elephant Butte Reservoir is where we spread our water out to dry. Everybody probably has the same joke? Built from 1911-1916, it’s one of the first federal reclamation projects, storing Rio Grande water for irrigation in southern New Mexico and Texas. It’s one of those reservoirs that …
Continue reading ‘The great emptiness of Elephant Butte Reservoir’ »
There may be yet another important lesson in what is happening right now on the Klamath River, land of a bunch of very important water management lessons. The Klamath once was a symbol of all that is wrong with water management in the western United States (a battleground, lesson one) that had come to symbolize …
I just stumbled on a very cool tool from the folks at ESRI using U.S. government Landsat imagery (yay public goods! background here) allowing you to look at vegetation change over time. Here’s a graphic look at water use in Albuquerque 1990-2010. The bits in green are places where vegetation has increased. The bits in that …
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Despite drought, the value of California cropland land has risen 5.4 percent this year, according to the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture survey data. No doubt my economist friends can help me here with an explanation of what this says about how the market is pricing questions about uncertainty, water supply and risk. Looks like …
Continue reading ‘Another indicator of the resilience of California agriculture’ »
Following my talk in Grand Junction in September (videos linked here), Pat had some pointed questions for me about my comparisons of Las Vegas per capita water consumption to other cities. Pat’s point was well taken.