I’ve been out of the loop for much of the last week, and at this point it’s likely that everyone who follows western water issues has already seen Emily Green’s post on the Cadiz groundwater project. If you haven’t, I recommend it. Cadiz is the proposal to do something that is a bit murky with …
It’s hard to resist the gunslinger metaphor when reading Henry Brean’s story about Pat Mulroy’s Las Vegas water pipe ultimatum: To shore up support for a controversial project, Southern Nevada Water Authority chief Pat Mulroy will ask her board for an “up-or-down vote” on plans to pipe groundwater to Las Vegas from across rural eastern …
Shaun McKinnon, the Arizona Republic’s water guy, has a must-read piece in the paper’s Sunday edition about his state’s groundwater situation: Thirty years after Arizona tried to stop cities and towns from using up their groundwater, the state still can’t shake its thirst for one of its most finite resources. The steady drain on underground …
The wonks call it “virtual water” – the water consumed elsewhere that is embodied in an imported product. When I grow a tomato in my yard, it’s a bit hard to sort out, molecule by molecule, where the water comes from. Right now, about three quarters of the molecules come from mined groundwater, and one …
New Mexico water law is a tangle in many ways, not least of which is our inability to adjudicate water rights and therefore implement priority calls to restrict usage when there is not enough water to go around. But in one area, we’re ahead of a number of other western states: the regulation of groundwater. …
From the LA Times: A member of the Los Angeles City Council called for changes to the city’s outdoor watering restrictions today, saying the drought rules are causing residents to kill their lawns and trees. (h/t LPAwater)
David O. Williams highlights what’s likely to be one of the central struggles in managing our twin energy and water problems – the water needed if oil shale is going to be tapped to head off peak oil. Peak water, in other words, collides with peak oil: But numerous studies have indicated full-scale commercial oil …
Friday bird blogging: in which I visit the sewage treatment plant and see nature. (Trying to lighten up the wonkery at the work blog.) Albuquerque’s water future: in which I invoke Zetland’s argument regarding the western approach to water planning, as it applies to Albuquerque’s mayoral politics.
Kelly Zito has an intriguing look at California water managemente in today’s San Francisco Chronicle, looking at the incredibly disjointed way urban-suburban Northern California’s system is managed as compared to the relatively centralized role of the Metropolitan Water District in Southern California: Ana Sarver jogs 5 miles along the Contra Costa Canal every day. But …
My friend Andrew told me the story of Hite, Utah, left high and dry as Lake Powell’s levels dropped. Lissa and I went through there on our recent vacation, and I was so struck by the place that I scraped together the details of Hite’s abandonement and turned it into a newspaper story: HITE, UTAH …
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