Archive of posts filed under the water category.

Drought means we should do that thing I already knew we should do

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Mark Lubell at U.C. Davis has a fascinating post about the history and politics of drought: [N]early every scientist, commentator, and politician is using drought to make some call for their preferred political change. Regulate groundwater. More storage. Build the twin tunnels. Pass the long-delayed water bond. So given that we’ve been here before (click …

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Here’s an upside to the decline of Lake Mead I never thought of

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While Lake Mead’s drawdown might be viewed negatively from a perspective of maintaining full-pool water storage, it has re-exposed a vast area of new terrestrial habitat increasingly colonized by native species as invasive species abundance declines through time. That’s from “Plant colonization and soil properties on newly exposed shoreline during drawdown of Lake Mead, Mojave …

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The origins of the “practicably irrigable acreage” standard, part II

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tl;dr – It wasn’t the U.S. government “reserving” water rights on behalf of the Indians. It was the Indians keeping the rights they already had. Longer version: After I last took a stab at writing about the “practicably irrigable acreage” standard that sort of underpins U.S. Native American water rights in the west, a member of …

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Twain Whiskey-Water Quote Watch, Arizona Supreme Court edition

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In 2001, the Arizona Supreme Court at least had the wisdom to acknowledge that Mark Twain might never have said the thing about whiskey and water and drinkin’ and fightin’. But the court used it anyway: We wish it were possible to dispose of this matter by establishing a bright line standard, easily applied, in …

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Stuff I wrote elsewhere: decision-making under scientific uncertainty

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Here in Albuquerque, we have a really big groundwater contamination problem under and adjacent to the Air Force base on the city’s south side. It is a textbook model of decision-making under scientific uncertainty: how long will it take to reach the nearest drinking water wells? I’ve seen an increasing confusion among the public, politicians …

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How much should Rio Rancho charge for this water?

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Rio Rancho, New Mexico, has a dilemma. My colleague Rosalie Rayburn has been writing about the trials and tribulations of the privately owned Chamisa Hills Golf and Country Club, which has had a lot of both. In her latest story, Rosalie describes … a recent request by potential Chamisa Hills buyers Bob Gallagher and Jhett Browne …

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The ag water conservation paradox

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With drought gripping California, there’s a renewed push for spending on ag water conservation measures. Brett Walton explains why not every gallon saved is really a gallon saved: “Farmers are several times smarter than politicians, and they have done a good job convincing the government to help pay for more efficient irrigation systems. Politicians actually …

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Stuff I wrote elsewhere: “an insatiable greed for water”

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From the morning paper, a look at the U.S. government’s filing in the case of Texas v. New Mexico (and Colorado*) over water-sharing (or lack thereof) on the Rio Grande: In a brief filed Thursday, U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli alleged that excess groundwater pumping in New Mexico is intercepting water in the shallow aquifer …

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Stuff I wrote elsewhere: the giant rubber duck risk

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OK, this was just fun: Absent a really giant floating rubber ducky, the Rail Runner bridge across Albuquerque’s main flood control channel appears to be safe. “The thing about water that people don’t understand is that it is so powerful,” said Adrienne Martinez as she stood over water rushing beneath a scale model of the …

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