The March forecast out today (pdf) for this year’s operations on the Colorado River is looking very good for the chances of extra water to be shipped downstream to help top off the dwindling supplies in Lake Mead. The magic word here is “equalization”, which means that under the river’s operating rules, there is sufficient …
In a thread last month, Francis offered this as one explanation for the prominence of lawyers in western US water policy discussions: The states are co-equal sovereigns, and the feds have not invoked federal supremacy. It applies elsewhere. In Georgia, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, the state will go to court next week to argue for …
Continue reading ‘Fighting for Atlanta’s water: what was it I was saying about lawyers?’ »
Chris Corbin argues that flood irrigation isn’t the bogeyman it’s frequently made out to be. Some footnotes Chris and I came up in a twitter conversation: Ward and Pulido-Velazquez, PNAS, Water conservation in irrigation can increase water use Huffaker, WRR, Conservation potential of agricultural water conservation subsidies Pfeiffer and Lin, The Effect of Irrigation Technology on Groundwater Use This …
We will know in a little more than a month whether Lake Mead will get a flush of “bonus water” this year, and if so how much, thanks to the better-than-average snow pack in the Upper Colorado River Basin. Right now, things look good. Current snow levels, as measured by the network of federally funded …
Let me preface this by saying I am fond of lawyers. We kid because we love! Please don’t sue! I had a bright light epiphany yesterday when talking to a smart water policy friend who works both in the United States and internationally. He was hosting a group of Australians here learning about Colorado River …
Continue reading ‘The first thing we do, let’s kill all the water lawyers…’ »
Reorganizing photo archives as I move to a new computer, I came across this, from a fall 2009 trip to Phoenix. Tempe Town Lake, in the words of its boosters… embodies a unique vision for the future of the Valley. Town Lake is a regional and national destination, welcoming millions each year. Recognized as a top …
U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is reported to have said in a talk this morning (Thurs. 2/24) in Washington D.C. that he believes the ongoing drought on the Colorado River could be the spark to shift conservative political opinion on climate change. From the Las Vegas Sun: In comments he delivered at a symposium hosted …
Continue reading ‘Will an Empty Lake Mead Sell Skeptics on the Reality of Climate Change?’ »
Peter Fawcett has a terrific paper in Nature this week on southwestern megadrought. I’ve been “upstream” (as the science journos like to say) for a while, having been along when Peter and others did some of their very first field work in the Valle Grande in Northern New Mexico back in 2003, and I’ve been …
Doug Kenney, the University of Colorado law school guy who is going bold in his push toward Colorado River management solutions, has a Denver Post op-ed this morning that looks toward innovative solutions that, importantly, work the problem without requiring us to tear up the Colorado River Compact: If dry conditions continue as predicted, the …
Continue reading ‘Kenney on How to Fix Our River Management System’ »
I’m told that twice in the last few decades enough water spilled past the Colorado River’s dams to wet the old Colorado River Delta and bring back the life – once during the great El Niño season of 1983, when there was so much water in the system that we almost lost Glen Canyon Dam, …