The Rundown
- NOAA’s three-month outlook shows a higher likelihood of monsoon moisture for the Southwest, though it will not relieve long-term water supply problems.
- Nuclear regulators find no significant environmental impact from a proposed in-situ uranium mine in South Dakota.
- U.S. Geological Survey releases report on the state of water science in the contested Upper Klamath River.
And lastly, Democratic senators criticize the EPA’s reversal on coal ash regulations.
“EPA has failed to identify new evidence or changed circumstances that justify abandoning or weakening these protections just two years later.” – Letter from Senate Democrats to Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator, criticizing the agency’s proposals to weak federal oversight of the toxic wastes from burning coal.
By the Numbers
1,046 Feet: Water-level elevation in Lake Mead. The biggest reservoir on the Colorado River is less than 6 feet from its record low, and 11 feet from the elevation at which hydropower generation will be substantially cut. Mead is dropping a foot every five or six days right now.
News Briefs
Uranium Mining in South Dakota
Federal nuclear regulators concluded that a uranium mining project in western South Dakota will not significantly harm the environment.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing to extend the license by 20 years for the Dewey Burdock project, which will use in-situ mining to extract uranium to fuel nuclear reactors. It is designated a FAST-41 project, which expedites federal permitting.
For in-situ mining, a solution is pumped underground to dissolve the ore, which is then brought to the surface.
The project will dispose of liquid wastes either by injecting them deep underground or by spreading them on land.
Studies and Reports
All Eyes on the Monsoon
NOAA’s three-month outlook shows a higher likelihood that short-term drought conditions in the Southwest will improve due to El Niño weather patterns.
The warming of the eastern Pacific opens the door to more moisture during the summer monsoon in Arizona and New Mexico. It is not, however, a guaranteed outcome. Moreover, monsoon rains will not refill the big Colorado River reservoirs or eliminate the region’s long-term, structural problems with water supply.
Elsewhere, drought conditions are expected to worsen in northern California and the Pacific Northwest, where warmer temperatures are melting an already thin snowpack. This corresponds to above-average wildfire risk in those areas through September.
Upper Klamath Basin Water Knowledge
Manage what you measure, the saying goes. And measurement could be improved in the contentious Upper Klamath River of southern Oregon where there are competing demands between fish and farmland.
The U.S. Geological Survey published an assessment of the current data and tools to understand water supplies in the Upper Klamath.
More data could be collected on agricultural water use, groundwater flows, tributary streams, and snow levels, the report found.
On the Radar
Colorado River Final EIS
The end of June approaches, which is when the Bureau of Reclamation has said it will release the final environmental impact statement for managing the Colorado River’s big reservoirs.
Without a seven-state consensus, Reclamation has soft launched the idea of a 10-year framework with reconsultations every two years. State representatives have balked at the idea of essentially perpetual negotiations.
Meanwhile, the lower division states – Arizona, California, and Nevada – offered a two-year proposal that they hope to see incorporated in the final document.
Federal Water Tap is a weekly digest spotting trends in U.S. government water policy. To get more water news, follow Circle of Blue on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter.
