In western water, what’s the right role for the feds?

After spending the day reading about the federal government’s, shall we say, persuasive role in assisting Imperial Valley farmers that it was in their best interests to figure out a way to share a bit of their water across San Gorgonio Pass with the city folk to their west, I this evening ran across this: …

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In British rivers, pollution control seems to be working

Pollution control efforts seem to be working on Britain’s urban rivers: Britain’s urban rivers are the cleanest they have been for more than two decades, a study has found. More than 2,300 river sites in England and Wales were analysed between 1991 and 2011 by Cardiff University. They examined the presence and spread of 78 …

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That thing I wrote about Lake Mead being the lowest ever turned out to be true

If I wanted to make mischief, I’d write a blog post pointing out that Lake Mead ended May at a historic low right after release of 105,392 acre feet of water for a historic environmental flow through the Colorado River Delta. I’d calculate how much higher Lake Mead would be if that 105,392 acre feet …

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Monthly weather report, May 2014

  Poking in the garden this morning, I’d never have guessed without actual rain gauge data that we just finished a wet month. It’s really dry out there. But drought is a funny thing, eh? 0.55 inches (1.4 cm) of rain at our house in May was the first above-average month since November. My total …

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Lake Mead: lowest end-of-May levels in history

Unless tropical depression Amanda does something miraculous, and quickly, Lake Mead will end May at its lowest level for this point in the year since Elwood Mead and his buddies filled the reservoir in the 1930s, 20 feet in surface elevation below last year at this time. The “tropical storm Amanda” thing was a joke. …

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Pollution cleanup as a solution to water supply shortfalls

As Southern California looks at its next water supply steps, one of the top items on its agenda is cleaning up groundwater contamination. It’s cheaper than building more storage. So says MWD’s Jeff Kightlinger: I think you’re going to see the next wave of investments over the next decades in Southern California focused around issues …

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