I got what may be my all time favorite reader comment a couple of weeks back when I tried to explain that the summer rains New Mexico has been getting do not mean our drought is over: This article is miserablism at its absolute worst. How about looking at important progress in reservoirs like Conchas …
Continue reading ‘July rain: what a difference a month makes’ »
Emily Green: The cheapest source of new water is being less wasteful with old water.
The Independent – Dirty water and poor hygiene stunting growth of millions: The BBC – Clean water and soap ‘boost growth’ in young children:
Here’s a striking graph distributed this week at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s 2014 Colorado River Annual Operating Plan consultation meeting in Las Vegas: That’s annual unregulated* inflow into Lake Powell on the Colorado River. A couple of things worth noting: 2012 and 2013 are two of only four years since Glen Canyon Dam was completed with …
Continue reading ‘Fourteen years of Colorado River Basin drought’ »
In the arid west, increased irrigation efficiency is one of the most commonly suggested solutions to our water problems. But Jay Lund and Thomas Harter point out the dilemma: In many areas, drought-year groundwater supplies depend substantially on irrigation inefficiency in wetter years, when surface water is available and used by farmers. Ironically, local inefficiency …
There’s a little concrete check dam in Albuquerque’s riverside woods at the bottom of a pond built by humans as wildlife habitat. Among the wildlife that has taken up residence is a family of beavers, who have built a palatial home on the island in the middle of the pond. But they seem dissatisfied with …
As I learn about the development of large-scale water management institutions in regions other than my own (the southwestern United States), I’m increasingly convinced that our oft-discussed tradition of conflict – Marc Reisner famously described the Colorado as “the most legislated, most debated, and most litigated river in the entire world” – may really be viewed …
Continue reading ‘Why fighting over water isn’t a bad thing’ »
Here’s another look into the western water solution space – an agreement on the Lower Rio Grande under which willing farmers will have a chance to sell their water rights for use recreating lost riparian habitat (story behind survey wall for non-subscribers): To the list of the Lower Rio Grande’s famous crops, like Hatch’s chile …
Continue reading ‘Stuff I wrote elsewhere: farming cottonwoods’ »
The latest monthly Colorado River water management report from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (pdf) takes a major step toward the river’s first ever shortage declaration. We’ll know more in a month, but the preliminary estimates now show drops in the level of Lake Powell by the end of this year could trigger provisions of …
Continue reading ‘Creeping toward shortage on the Colorado River’ »
Brett Walton explains new research on the water lost in the Great Texas Drought of 2011. It’s a lot. But the thing that caught my eye was where most of the water loss occurred: “Groundwater depletion can be significant locally. However, by taking Texas as a whole, most water depletion comes from soil moisture during …
Continue reading ‘Texas drought: it’s all about the soil moisture’ »