Archive of posts filed under the water category.

drought kills seem to be reducing streamflow in the arid southwest

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The authors acknowledge that the result when they looked at the effect of piñon die-off from the Four Corners drought a decade ago seems counterintuitive: Basins with the most tree die-off showed a significant decrease in streamflow over several years following die-off, and this decrease was not attributable to climate variability alone. The results are counterintuitive …

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Should we embrace the Bellagio Fountain?

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Humans here in the West use and therefore value water for basically three sorts of reasons: for domestic use (cooking, bathing, drinking, flushing away waste) for economic purposes (agriculture being the most obvious, but also things like computer chip manufacturing) for environmental purposes (water in the river to look at and enjoy, for recreation, or …

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Isenberg: you want more storage? who’s gonna pay?

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Phil Isenberg, head of California’s Delta Stewardship Council, gets to the heart of the matter in the discussion of the possibility that California needs more water storage capability: The council agrees with Assemblyman Logue that water storage is a critical component of any solution to meet the state’s water supply and environmental needs. Over the …

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When is a forecast not a forecast?

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I had to laugh when I looked at today’s long-lead precipitation forecasts from the Climate Prediction Center. Those little splotches of color are forecasts. All that white is what the forecasters call “equal chances”, which basically means they have no idea other than historical climatology what might happen. In other words, it could be wet, …

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A border water fight – not over how much, but rather when

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We’ve got a fascinating border water fight going on between Mexico and irrigators in the United States over water from the Rio Grande right now. But rather than the usual issue – who gets how much – this one’s over when the water is used. Under US-Mexico treaty, Mexican irrigators are entitled to a set …

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Stuff I wrote elsewhere: latest on Albuquerque jet fuel groundwater contamination

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From the morning paper, the latest on efforts to corral jet fuel that leaked from Kirtland Air Force Base and is now spreading through Albuquerque groundwater: Kirtland Air Force Base’s efforts to determine the extent of jet fuel groundwater contamination are “inadequate,” according to the New Mexico Environment Department, which is demanding new, deeper monitoring …

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In Arizona, push-back against instream water rights

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Via Chris Brooks, an interesting discussion of legislation in Arizona that appears aimed at making it harder to leave water in rivers for its own sake: The motivation for preventing the growth of instream flow rights appears to stem from the fact that they have become, in practice, more powerful than they appear on paper. …

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usually rivers get bigger as you go downstream

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Usually rivers get bigger and bigger as you go farther downstream. But the Colorado just keeps getting smaller. That’s Will Stauffer-Norris in the Aspen Times talking about the trip he and Zak Podmore made down the Colorado River, from end to end. In this case, a dusty, had-to-walk kind of end. It’s a a great line …

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