Concrete is increasingly sounding old school. The idea makes sense: build a concrete channel through your city, to get the water as quickly as possible from the mountains to the sea, minimizing the mischief it can do in the interim. But such engineering efficiency comes with a cost, as the folks in Pasadena, Calif., (where …
Energy, Water in `Catch-22′
The water-energy interface is a problem area. Energy production requires water. Water production requires energy. We don’t have enough of either, which is the makings of a serious problem. There’s a nice summary of the issue in the March 20 Nature, by Mike Hightower and Suzanne Pierce from Sandia Labs. Nature makes you pay, but …
A story out of Jerusalem about drought in Israel reminds that the place labels change, but the themes remain: Israel’s water problem stems from population growth and an improvement in quality of life that brings a greater desire to water lawns and gardens, Schor said. This winter was the fourth that Israel got less than …
The U.S. Supreme Court’s “Winters” decision a century ago essentially says native Americans are entitled to the water they need. But “need” here is a pretty squishy thing, and we’re still sort out its implications. Matt Jenkins has a terrific piece in the latest High Country News about the Navajo piece of this puzzle – …
Charmed by yesterday’s trip north to see snow, I rode my bike up to the Alameda Bridge today to see the result. You can see from the picture that the Rio Grande at 2,000 cubic feet per second is sufficient to begin overtopping the sandbar island in the middle of the river. Lots more snow …
Continue reading ‘Water in the Desert: 2008 Runoff Edition’ »
As Scot points out, there’s a crapload of snow all over the western U.S. right now. That’s probably the most interesting bit from a climatological perspective. You typically see wet up north and dry down south, or vice versa. But we’ve also hit a warm spell down here, which means you’re starting to see things …
A good year for the minnows
We’ve got a standard joke around the office when it starts raining: “Drought’s over.” You’ve gotta love the picture on Arizona Republic water guy Shaun McKinnon’s blog today of water spilling over the dam in the middle of Tempe. To non-southwestern desert types: that’s a place where you don’t usually see water. But Shaun bids …
Angostura Dam Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. Lissa and I stopped at Angostura Dam on a recent drive up to Santa Fe. It’s the diversion for water used in the Albuquerque reach of the middle Rio Grande. It’s a modest affair, built in the 1930s, just building up enough head to divert water into a concrete …