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 …
Our national discussion about what to do with prisoners currently held in Guantanamo has focused a lot of attention of late on Yemen, the Arab world’s oil-poor sibling. It is increasingly seen as a haven for the sort of bad guys we, as a nation, worry about. Is the story of Yemen’s problems really a …
In Governing the Commons, Elinor Ostrom tells the story of the way some Southern Californians solved the problem of competitive groundwater overpumping. Cities and private water companies realized that if everyone kept pumping like nutso, their aquifer would go dry and they’d all be screwed. So they got together in a sometimes painful, expensive and …
John Wesley Powell famously argued in the 19th century that the West’s political jurisdictions should be shaped around watersheds, rather than the often arbitrary rectangles that had been used to establish our governmental geometry as the nation moved across the great plains. In an odd sort of way, we seem to be carrying out Powell’s …
Rio Grande from Alameda Bridge, Albuquerque Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. One of my favorite spots in Albuquerque is the old Alameda Bridge at the north end of town. When they built a new multi-lane bridge across the river, they kept the old one, turning it into a foot-bike-horse bridge. It’s about 10 miles from my …
Continue reading ‘Water in the Desert: Ring-Billed Gull Edition’ »
Emily Green had some kind words for my book in the LA Times: Many texts about climate change begin with rapidly melting polar ice, but Fleck’s opens instead with the 19th century explorer John Wesley Powell and his navigation of the Colorado River. Ferociously wild in Powell’s time, the Colorado is tamed by dams and …
Continue reading ‘Chance of Rain Reviews “Tree Rings’ Tale”’ »
Michael Gardner has a nice summary of what’s at stake in the litigation blocking the complex deal under which California agrees to throttle back its use of Colorado River water: Southern California’s water managers insist it should be easy to overcome the latest challenge to a landmark, seven-state pact to share the Colorado River that …