Ed Polasko had a great comment on one of my recent Lake Mead posts that I thought was worth elevating. I was riffing on the lack of public understanding, even in the face of Mead’s dropping levels, of the drought and water use problem facing the West. Ed’s response: For the average Joe/Mary, drought will …
Osha Gray Davidson, writing about yesterday’s Blythe Solar Power Project announcement, highlights a key issue: [T]he project will now have a much smaller “water footprint” thanks to a decision to use air cooling, which consumes no water, at the cost of somewhat reduced efficiency. Cynthia Barnett, a noted water expert and author, calls the Blythe …
Continue reading ‘Energy and Water in the California Desert’ »
John Wesley Powell, the 19th century explorer, scientist and visionary who first tried to map and explain the West’s water resources, famously argued that government jurisdictions should be established based on watershed boundaries. He was ignored on this point (as he was on others). But I’ve been playing recently with an argument that elaborates on …
Continue reading ‘Powell and Watersheds in the 21st Century’ »
Investors need to take long term water supply risks into account as they think about municipal bonds, according to a new analysis by the environmental-investor group Ceres published this week: The report shows that some of the nation’s largest public utilities may face moderate to severe water supply shortfalls in the coming years, yet these …
Mom says I drew a picture of Hoover Dam when I was five and gave a “report” on it in kindergarten for “what I did on my Christmas vacation”. As mom tells the story, the teacher was impressed with the rigor and detail I offered. I was an exceptional child. At least that’s how mom …
While I’ve been away, my friends back in Albuquerque were kind enough to print a bunch of copies of my ruminations on La Niña and the Rio Grande and throw them on people’s driveways this morning (sub/ad req): [M]ore than La Niña is at work this year, according to Glen MacDonald, a climate researcher at …
Continue reading ‘Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: Meanwhile, Back on the Rio Grande’ »
One of the guys at the Las Vegas Marina yesterday was sounding optimistic. Sure, the lake level’s low, he said, but they expect it to start rising soon. Plus, he said he heard they expect it to eventually come up another 60 feet. He shrugged as if to say, “Dunno, but that’s what I heard,” …
Continue reading ‘River Beat: Another Place There Used To Be A Lake’ »
Down a long, dank corridor inside Hoover Dam that seems to be known as the “1211 tunnel” (things in the dam tend to be named after their elevation above sea level) and up a flight of stairs sits the top of the dam’s “stilling well”. It’s essentially a long tube that runs to the bottom …
If you blow this picture up enough, you can probably see pixels of rock that have not been exposed since the 1930s. Or maybe not. The surface elevation of Lake Mead hit 1083.18 feet above sea level today between 11 a.m. and noon Pacific time today, when this picture was taken. That is below the …