My on-again, off-again infatuation with 1083.57, the elevation Lake Mead reached in March 1956, is back on. As Shaun McKinnon reports in this morning’s Arizona Republic, Mead’s at the lowest it’s been since then. The latest “24-month study” from the Bureau of Reclamation (pdf), out this week, is back to forecasting that we’ll drop below …
Continue reading ‘River Beat: “We know that it’s being drained.”’ »
Professional Car Washing and Detailing magazine recently excitedly reported the results of an investigation by News 8 in Austin, Texas, into water consumption associated with various ways of washing your car: A self-serve carwash uses about 17 gallons of water (depending on the nozzle; an IBA wash, found at a gas station can use between …
Continue reading ‘The Most Water Efficient Way to Wash Your Car’ »
Between the USGS, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Library of Congress, Calisphere and others, there are so many great old Colorado River photos around that it’s easy to think the early history of the river’s development happened in black and white. I get lost in them. Today’s treasure is a photo from the 1923 Birdseye …
Continue reading ‘River Beat: LaRue and the Question of How Much Water There Really Was’ »
A letter to the editor in this morning’s Albuquerque Journal has removed the scales from my eyes: The City Council recently turned down a proposal to restrict the rights of homeowners’ associations to require grass in residential landscapes. Grass has been made to seem like a culprit because of the amount of water it uses …
When I was in Vegas in April, I heard several talks on the way folks on Lake Mead engage in a practice they call “chasing water”. As the water storage reservoir recedes, the Park Service extends boat ramps farther and farther. The owners of the Las Vegas Marina, which used to sit up in Las …
You would think that on the over-appropriated Lower Colorado River, downstream from dwindling Lake Mead, getting by on less water would be a good thing. But this little news blurb from KXO radio in El Centro, in California’s Imperial Valley, suggests otherwise. The problem, apparently, is that the Imperial Irrigation District, the largest water rights …
Continue reading ‘The Imperial Irrigation District’s Problem – LA Might Get the Water!’ »
A spambot recently left the following comment on one of my water posts: water conservation should be done because we are already having some water shortage these days It was accompanied by a link to a web site apparently selling products intended to alleviate gastrointestinal distress. Less flushing, I guess?
Michael Campana prodded me a bit this morning on Waterwired regarding a discussion happening here and elsewhere about the possibility of abandoning Phoenix as the place runs out of water. It’s a strong meme, and it comes up frequently among those who recognize the fragile nature of cities of the desert southwest as growth-fueled water …
Continue reading ‘Why I Don’t Think We’ll Abandon Phoenix’ »
update: An eagle-eyed friend points out that when I grabbed this from the original PowerPoint slide, I clipped off the X and Y axis legends. That’s time on the X axis – 1920ish to 2006, and millions of acre feet on the Y axis. xxxxx ‘Cause I love the old pictures, and since it came …
I report without comment reports of alligators in the Colorado River (Palisade is in western Colorado, just upstream from Grand Junction): Wednesday, a group of kids playing near the water at Riverbend Park raised the alarm when they say they spotted an alligator on the bank. They say their parents didn’t believe them, but a …