A short history lesson about water shortage, water wars, and drought in the United States.
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Colorado River
Floods While changing rainfall and climate patterns have been linked to increased flooding around the globe, new research suggests that erosion due to deforestation and development also plays a role by making rivers less able to mitigate large storms, AlertNet reported. Increased erosion and sedimentation rates in rivers are related to a region’s economic growth, [...]
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The Texas State Senate’s Natural Resources Committee passed a bill that would allocate $2 billion in state funds for water-related projects such as new reservoirs, desalination, and conservation. Broad consensus has accompanied the bill and its proposed investment of state resources, StateImpact Texas reported, with only fiscal conservative groups fighting back. One of the biggest [...]
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The most comprehensive study of water resources ever in the United States is proceeding slowly, according to a U.S. Geological Survey progress report. A substantial amount of new data are required for the project, which will be “an ongoing and continuous activity,” the report states. The most detailed studies, of streamflow ecology, will require most [...]
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Queens College professor John Waldman took to Yale Environment 360 to argue that fish ladders, designed to help fish follow migratory routes interrupted by dams, do not work as advertised. He reports on the results of a study of a group of species in three northeastern U.S. rivers. Turkey-Cyprus Water Sharing Construction is underway on [...]
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The numbers dribbled out in a weekly Bureau of Reclamation update. Then they were splashed on a regional map. The conclusion is the same: the Colorado River runoff forecast is dry and getting drier. In fact, that is the case for most of the states west of the Rocky Mountains. They rely on a deep [...]
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Heading into the last weeks of winter, the Colorado River Basin is dry yet again. Even worse, the river flow forecast gets drier every month.
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The Environmental Protection Agency’s science advisory board will hold a public teleconference March 29 to discuss a draft report on methods for establishing a national drinking water standard for perchlorate, a chemical used in explosives. To get details about the call, contact Angela Nugent at nugent.angela@epa.gov. EPA Science Advisory Panel The EPA wants experts in [...]
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Droughts and water scarcity in Texas, Colorado and Mississippi might be dominating the headlines, but some Northeast U.S. states are running into water-supply challenges of their own. The University of Connecticut, NPR reported, wanted to use water from a local river in its expansion plans, but some fear climate variability and distance from the river’s [...]
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A new study says that cross-border evaporation can be added to the list of supply and policy problems that water and land managers in the arid Southwest US. should ponder.
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U.S. Drought The Food Price Index for December 2012, released yesterday, hit its lowest point since prices began to rally in June 2012, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The Index is a measure of international food commodity prices, and, driven in part by the severe drought in the [...]
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Circle of Blue’s senior editor Keith Schneider reflects on — and celebrates — this year’s body of work from our top reporters.
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Temperatures nudged higher by climate change will increase evaporation levels from plants and soil in the American west, a new Columbia University study predicted. Higher evaporation rates, the Los Angeles Times reported, will dry out land and reduce water runoff into rivers and streams by about 10 percent in California, Nevada, Colorado River headwaters and [...]
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Climate change and population growth will force the basin to add new supplies, harness demand, and change operational agreements, officials say.
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A federal report said that demand for Colorado River water will far outpace supply by 2060. Drought, climate change, and population growth, the Los Angeles Times reported, will create a supply-demand gap greater than five times the amount of water Los Angeles consumes every year. Economics and Pricing Chicago nonprofits are one step closer to [...]
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Shortages in water, food, and energy comprise one of four “megatrends” that U.S. government intelligence analysts said would cause radical economic and political changes in the next 18 years. The other trends, Bloomberg reported, include the United States’ fade from dominance, the rising power of individuals over the state, and a booming middle class. U.S. [...]
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United States Representatives of the United States and Mexico Tuesday signed Minute 319, an agreement that forms new rules for sharing Colorado River water, the Associated Press reported. The agreement will allow Mexico to store water in Lake Mead, includes infrastructure investments to benefit both countries, and aims to revitalize the beleaguered Colorado River Delta. [...]
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Senator Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, introduced legislation that would set up a federal water infrastructure financing program modeled after a program that provides low-interest loans for transportation projects.The Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) would give priority to water and wastewater projects of national or regional significance, covering a gap in existing federal [...]
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The United States and Mexico are nearing an agreement on water-sharing rights for the Colorado River south of the U.S.-Mexico border. The talks remain delicate, the Associated Press reported, as final documents are reviewed by 15 water agencies and state officials. Paying for Runoff A regional water board in Los Angeles, California approved storm-water regulations [...]
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