Tramway (Not So) Wetlands Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. January’s a time of quiet and anticipation. What water there is in our rivers is mostly what they call “base flow”, which is really just the surface manifestation of groundwater leaking into the river channel. Or they’re just dry. The runoff to come is frozen in the …
About five seconds with the google is enough to make one question the old alleged Twain chestnut: “Whiskey’s for drinking, water’s for fighting about.” Is that too much to ask, Mark Strassman? Especially given how not only factually wrong but conceptually misleading the reference is? Whiskey, yes, but water is frequently not for fighting about, …
Southwest Hydrology, the invaluable University of Arizona publication that is a frequent starting point when I’m researching an unfamiliar water topic, has lost its National Science Foundation funding and will be closed, Shaun McKinnon reports: The magazine’s demise was announced in notes written by founding editor, Betsy Woodhouse and Gary Woodard, associate director of the …
It has long been apparent that the water supply of the Colorado is inadequate for all the demands that will be made upon it, as is the case with many other streams in the West. That is G.E.P. Smith of the University of Arizona, writing in the Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers …
As an addendum to Emily Green’s year-end look at Lake Mead (High good, low bad) I’d like to extend the analysis back a bit farther in time. Emily points out that, while population has risen over the past decade in the region served by Mead (one of the two large storage reservoirs on the Colorado), …
David Zetland posted on the Salton Sea today, arguing that we should just give it up: Today’s Salton “Sea” is NOT natural. It’s replenished by irrigation runoff, of dubious quality. As water evaporates, it leaves behind higher concentrations of salts and other nasty stuff. Time to dry out the Salton Toilet, clean up the mess …
From this morning’s newspaper, an essay on what happens when yours truly tries to take on the duties of Middle Rio Grande Water Czar (sub/ad req). The column’s based on time I spent with Jesse Roach and Vince Tidwell at Sandia Labs, who have been developing a user-friendly water system model for decision makers to …
Continue reading ‘Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: Drying Up the Butte’ »
Pat Mulroy on how Las Vegas (Nevada) plans to meet its long term water needs – desal! I know, I know, you’re saying, “But don’t you have to be by, like, an ocean or something?” Here’s the scheme: build big desal plant down on the Gulf of California, give that water to Mexico to meet …
Continue reading ‘Pat Mulroy on How Vegas Plans to Do It: Desal, Baby!’ »
From Shaun McKinnon, a must-read story for water geeks on Arizona’s thinking about its water future – specifically where to get more (or use less?): Drop 2 is no Lake Mead, the huge reservoir outside Las Vegas that holds Colorado River water until cities and farms in Arizona, Nevada and California need it. The new …
It’s far too early in the season to draw any conclusions regarding 2010 runoff. The first serious forecasts don’t come out until January, and with months of snowmaking weather still to come, no one takes the January forecast terribly seriously. But this is a blog, so I won’t let that stop me. Currently, the NRCS …