One of the centerpieces of the argument I make in my book, Water is for Fighting Over: and Other Myths about Water in the West, is that changing patterns in water demand (specifically, that we’re using a lot less of it than we used to, across all sectors of the economy) create significant new flexibility in …
Continue reading ‘New Pacific Institute report on water demand forecasting’ »
The Colorado River District has a great agenda again this year for its annual Water Seminar: “Colorado River Waves of the Future: Fitting the West to the River’s New Normal“. ProPublica’s Abrahm Lustgarten is the lunch speaker, talking about his excelent “Killing the Colorado” series/documentary, which won special recognition award in this year’s Stanford Knight-Risser Prize …
Continue reading ‘River District Annual Water Seminar, Sept. 16 in Grand Junction’ »
I’ll be talking about my new book Water is for Fighting Over: and Other Myths about Water in the West next Wednesday (Sept. 7) at Bookworks in Albuquerque. I have a fistful of nice new Sharpies if anybody wants me to sign a copy or three. I’ll talk about that time this guy’s pickup truck got …
Continue reading ‘Hey Albuquerque, I wanna sign your book’ »
We all know about the problems of Flint’s water supply, and the relationship between poor communities and infrastructure problems. We also know about the more general decay of our water infrastructure. Robert Glennon has knitted those two problems together with an interesting argument: Episodes such as Flint undermine the public’s confidence in the safety of …
Continue reading ‘A socioeconomic stratification in US water infrastructure?’ »
My friends in the University of New Mexico water community, faculty and students, threw a party for me last night to welcome me as the new director of UNM’s Water Resources Program and celebrate Book Day Eve. A bunch of Albuquerque water people came too. It was a blast, nobody got drunk and trashed the …
Continue reading ‘Book Day: Water is For Fighting Over, and Other Myths….’ »
The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority is looking to hire a new Water Conservation Program Manager. Pass the word, we’re already pretty good at conservation here (I brag about this a lot!) but we’re not letting up. More info can be found at the water authority’s hiring web site. Click on “open positions” in …
Continue reading ‘Good at helping communities conserve water? Albuquerque would like to chat….’ »
With my book Water is for Fighting Over: and Other Myths about Water in the West officially releasing Thursday, this week I’m visiting here some of the issues, themes, and back stories. Mostly I’m doing this for fun, but I would also be delighted if you would click here and buy a copy or two for …
Apparently in celebration of this week’s official release date for my book Water is for Fighting Over: and Other Myths about Water in the West, Lake Mead overnight crept above the magic elevation level of 1,075 feet above sea level. That’s number attached in policy and, more importantly, the public mind to the notion of shortage on …
Sandra Dibble’s latest on the proposed Rosarito Beach desalination plant highlights a point that’s central to the introductory water policy and management class I help teach (/me waves to WR571 students!). Getting the technical stuff right in water management only gets you part way down the road. Getting the institutions right can be a bigger …
Continue reading ‘It’s not just about the technology. It’s about the institutions.’ »
One hears a great deal in the current climate of U.S. environmental politics about the charge of federal overreach. My University of New Mexico colleague Reed Benson has a different take: My concern, in fact, has been the opposite: agencies often don’t fully use the authority they have to address environmental concerns or protect other …