Oak Flat watering hole Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. Lissa made a great discovery yesterday morning while we were walking in the woods at Oak Flat, in the Manzano Mountains east of town. The big thing in the background of the picture that looks like a UFO is a big cistern, with a flared top to …
Not doubt the economists* in the audience can explain this in terms of pricing and efficiency: Colorado’s largest water utility will raise rates 7.5 percent next year as it seeks to offset rising operating costs and soft water sales among its drought-conscious customers. * I’m not being sarcastic here. I genuinely believe economists have some …
If it happens every year, is it a drought? Severe drought and prolonged water shortages have hit the hamlet and the surrounding area with such a regularity that the villagers, like Sarikuma, have almost lost hope of finding an effective solution to the problem. “The dry season always brings a drought, which in turn leads …
David Foster argues that free water for the poor in India comes with a significant cost: Although water supply in virtually all Indian cities is heavily subsidized, very few BPL (Below Poverty Line) families have household connections. While upper income families benefit from those subsidies, the BPL families are often forced to buy water from …
Michael Campana has the remarkable story of Ron Rivera, who died earlier this month: Rivera, a former Peace Corps volunteer (Panama) born in the Bronx of Puerto Rican parents, spent the last 25 years traveling to Asia, Latin America, and Africa, teaching locals how to throw ceramic pots that would transform dirty water into its potable …
Continue reading ‘Saving One Life at a Time with Clean Water’ »
Staci Matlock’s tale in yesterday’s Santa Fe New Mexican of trying to figure out who it really is that wants to pump water from the Plains of San Agustin makes fascinating reading: Who owns Augustine Plains Ranch remains a mystery, even to the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, hired to represent several of the protestants. …
on the unsurprising fact that we use less water when it rains (unsurprising but nevertheless a demonstration that we’re paying attention, and not just blindly watering our bermuda grass) T. Boone is bringing his wind-powered carnival to Albuquerque next week
On the Colorado Compact Kerfuffle
From today’s Albuquerque Journal*, a thoughtful discussion of the risks posed by the current lack of regulation of desalination of deep brackish groundwater in New Mexico. The backstory is significant interest in drilling into deep aquifers around Albuquerque, bringing up brackish fossil groundwater, cleaning it up and using it to support continued growth that might …
Joel Gay gives Albuquerque water rates a good, hard look: “You hit ’em where it hurts — in the wallet,” said Armando Ortega, customer service manager in Alamogordo, which has among the highest water rates in the state. Since adopting a conservation-oriented rate structure in 2003, Alamogordo’s water use has dropped by 40 percent, he …