The scale of the “third straw” Las Vegas is poking into Lake Mead is one of those made-for-journalism anecdotes that tells the story of a great western city’s thirst. The new intake is insurance that Vegas can still get water from Mead if lake levels drop below intakes one and two, a tacit admission of …
With the latest monthly report from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, we now have end-of-water year numbers, and a chance to take stock. It’s been a terrific year for water supply on the Colorado River system: Lake Mead ended the year with a surface elevation of 1,116 feet above sea level, up 32 feet from …
Continue reading ‘There seems to be a lot of water in Lake Mead. Relatively speaking.’ »
Lorri Gray-Lee, who has headed the Bureau of Reclamation’s Boulder City office (the folks with that big dam) is heading to the Pacific Northwest, and Terry Fulp, her deputy, is stepping in as acting chief. This is one of the Bureau’s more important jobs, herding the Lower Colorado cats. Not exactly herding, even. Cajoling. Persuading. …
Continue reading ‘River Beat: Gray-Lee moves on, Fulp steps in’ »
Alex Breitler has done us all a useful service, not only debunking the Not Twain “Whiskey’s for drinkin’” quote but also pinning down, via Barbara Schmidt, where it first got attached to Twain: She believes, based on a Google Books search, that the quote probably was first attributed to Twain in the 1960s.
I had occasion this evening to revisit “Sensitivity of Streamflow in the Colorado Basin to Climatic Changes,” by Linda Nash and Peter Gleick, circa 1991: Water availability, quality, and demand may be affected by higher temperatures, new precipitation patterns, rising sea level, and changes in storm frequency and intensity. Water supply and water management in …
I’ve become entranced with “Stein’s Law” as an alternative to the faux Twain “water’s for fightin’ over” as a cliche to help guide water policy rhetoric: If something cannot go on forever, it will stop. The draining of Bonny Reservoir in eastern Colorado to comply with the terms of the Republican River Compact – such …
It’s that time of year when a water wonk’s thoughts turn to the hills, to the romance of the beginnings of a winter snowpack’s accumulation. But there is a problem every year at this time – soil moisture. In particular, a lack of data about soil moisture. This matters come spring, when things start to …
On the subject of the problem of declining revenue from water conservation, there is this, from the February 2009 10-k filed by American Water Works, a private water utility, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission: Increased water conservation, including through the use of more efficient household fixtures and appliances among residential consumers, combined with …
Continue reading ‘The conservation-revenue dilemma, private sector edition’ »
We see this over and over again. Generally speaking, water is free to municipal/industrial customers in the United States. What we pay in our water bill is for the cost of delivery – the pumps and pipes. We’re paying for water delivery infrastructure, not the commodity itself. But we nevertheless generally price the water by …
Continue reading ‘Conservation and the water pricing dilemma’ »
An economic analysis released last week suggested a Peripheral Tunnel to move California’s water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta could create 129,000 jobs. (Good Alex Breitler story lays out the details.) The boosters at the Southern California Water Committee jumped on the argument: This new jobs study on the tunnel options is the first major …
Continue reading ‘After we’re done with the Peripheral Tunnel, pyramids!’ »