Earlier in the week, I made fun of those wimpy North Carolinians for going into drought tizzy after a few weeks without rain. But there is no similar fun to be had in Texas, where the red blotches on the weekly drought monitor maps keep growing:
Drought’s a funny thing. Take North Carolina (hi Dave!), which in general averages about 50 inches (125 cm) of rain per year. To a hardened desert dweller like me, it’s inconceivable that a 40 inch year (the great drought of ’07) could be anything other than a mild inconvenience. But drought is really all about …
Doug MacEachern has a fascinataing discussion in today’s Arizona Republic about the canals of Phoenix. I remember being struck the first time I visited Phoenix by these strange concrete waterways. I’d driven up to the north end of town to make a pilgrimage to the (sorta) Frank Lloyd Wright Biltmore, an oasis of a thing …
Continue reading ‘Water in the Desert: Benefits Left Untapped’ »
Does solar energy have a water problem? That’s the question I tried to address in this story (sub. req. sorta) over at the day job: Look at any map of U.S. solar energy resources, and you will see a band stretching from southern New Mexico across Arizona and into California that shows promise. Solar energy …
Continue reading ‘Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: Solar Water Edition’ »
The irony here is just too rich: Fearing the main canal carrying drinking water to millions of Southern Californians is sinking again, water officials are monitoring the effects of incessant agricultural pumping from the aquifer that runs under the aqueduct. Their concern is that the canal, which has sunk six feet in places during California …
Continue reading ‘Groundwater Pumping Undermining Surface Canal?’ »
Who knew California had a source of free water, right under its very nose! The cheapest source of water is fresh groundwater, which costs only 4 cents per gallon, but it is not always present in local aquifers. Groundwater tastes just like imported water, uses less electricity to distribute because it is pumped closer to …
Colorado River at Moab Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. There’s a moment when you’re driving across the deserts of the southwest as the road tops a rise and you get your first view of the ribbon of green along a river. That’s where the towns are, and that’s where the cool is, a break in both …
I’ve got this energy-water hammer, and they all look like nails right now. Today’s nail is jatropha, one of the next-gen bio-energy darlings. Or not: Jatropha, a biofuel crop favoured for its ability to grow in areas not suitable for food, may be about to become less popular. A new Dutch study shows it uses …
This one was enough to lure me away from the all-MJ/Farrah news feed this morning: In some valley towns the crime rates have soared. The link, officials suggest, are the water shortages to farming communities. The drought is said to have lead to higher crime rates in some Valley towns. In the farming community of …
I recently finished up a piece at the day job on the connection between water and energy, and perhaps as a result, everywhere I turn these days I’m seeing stories on the linkage. Today’s example comes from Cynthia Barnett: Matthew Cohen, a professor in UF’s School of Forest Resources and Conservation, and post-doctoral researcher Jason …