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Delaney Nelson2022-09-13 17:40:062022-09-13 17:44:01Dry: A Weekly Western Drought Digest — September 13, 2022Drought is upon the American West — with major implications for human health, biodiversity, agriculture, food security, supply chains, cities, land use, and the most very basic of human rights.
This is a story now only worsened by a climate emergency, which has brought higher temperatures, more extreme conditions, and heightened risks.
Fires, droughts, power outages, competition over water, and ecosystem collapse all result. Western droughts are becoming longer, more intense, and more frequent.
But as water scarcity sweeps the West, many see this as the imperative moment for rapid innovation in agriculture, technology, nature-based systems, and policy to manage dwindling supplies.
Drought Coverage
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Delaney Nelson2022-09-13 17:40:062022-09-13 17:44:01Dry: A Weekly Western Drought Digest — September 13, 2022
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Delaney Nelson2022-08-30 15:44:362022-08-30 15:45:29Dry: A Weekly Western Drought Digest — August 30, 2022
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Delaney Nelson2022-08-23 16:49:282022-08-23 16:49:28Dry: A Weekly Western Drought Digest — August 23, 2022
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Circle Blue2022-08-17 08:00:102022-08-16 16:15:16A Uranium Ghost Town in the Making
Dry: A Weekly Western Drought Digest — September 13, 2022
By Delaney Nelson, Circle of Blue – September 13, 2022
The American West is experiencing its most severe drought in 1,200 years. The consequences are far-reaching and long lasting. Forests become tinder boxes. Hydropower is weakened. Human health and wildlife are threatened.
Each week, Circle of Blue breaks down the biggest stories, the latest data, and the most promising solutions to the United States’ most urgent water crisis. Read Dry: A Weekly Western Drought Digest, your go-to news brief on the drying American West.
TOP NEWS
- As of September, nearly 37 percent of the U.S. and Puerto Rico are in drought, down five percentage points in the last month.
- Reclamation announces Utah’s Flaming Gorge Reservoir stores enough water for only two more emergency releases.
- Queen Creek, Arizona, will buy water from farmers on the Colorado River.
- Drought conditions slow agricultural production for the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.
THE NUMBERS
- More than 114 million people live in areas experiencing moderate drought or worse. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, dry conditions are present across 232 million acres of cropland.
- This year marked the third-warmest summer on record for the contiguous United States, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The average temperature last month was 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit above average, making it the eighth-warmest August on record.
August 2022 drew to a close the 3rd-warmest summer on record for the contiguous US.
🌡️August temps were 2.5°F above average, ranking 8th warmest in the 128-year record.
🌧️Precipitation ranked in the wettest 3rd, but was record wet in Mississippi.https://t.co/SZCsHsIqKg pic.twitter.com/Fm13uQhM9x— NOAA Climate.gov (@NOAAClimate) September 12, 2022
- The Houston area is experiencing considerable drought relief, at least in the short term. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 57 percent of Greater Houston was experiencing some form of drought at the end of August, a figure that dropped to five percent by Sept. 6 after a prolonged period of rainfall.
STATUS OF TOP RESERVOIRS/COLORADO RIVER
- The Bureau of Reclamation announced Utah’s Flaming Gorge Reservoir likely only has enough water left for two more emergency releases – a shortage that compounds the already-dwindling water supplies of the Colorado River and its reservoirs. The agency has used water from Flaming Gorge to support shrinking lakes Powell and Mead. The reservoir is supposed to act as a “critical savings account” for the river system, writes Jerd Smith of Fresh Water News.
- The Colorado River basin’s ecosystems and species are feeling the consequences of declining water levels. While no species has gone extinct yet, populations of aquatic amphibians, fish, and insects as well as trees and birds are declining, the Revelator reports.
QUEEN CREEK TO BUY COLORADO RIVER WATER
The Bureau of Reclamation cleared the way for Queen Creek, Arizona, to buy water from farmers along the Colorado River to support the suburb’s growing population. In its impact assessment, the federal agency concluded the water transfer project, which will operate through the Central Arizona Project, will not have a significant effect on the human environment. Meanwhile, Colorado River water allocation remains a subject of disagreement among basin states.
UTE MOUNTAIN UTE TRIBE FACES AGRICULTURAL LOSSES AMID DROUGHT
Throughout the Southwest, tribal communities are contending with aridification of their lands. Drought conditions have slowed alfalfa and corn production at the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Farm & Ranch Enterprise, resulting in a $4 million to $6 million loss for the farm over the last two years, according to reporting from NBC News. To make up for agricultural losses, the tribe has shifted to milling corn and packaging cornmeal, though the new operations do not offset drought losses. The Colorado and New Mexico counties in which the tribe resides are experiencing some level of severe drought or worse.
Delaney Nelson is an intern for Circle of Blue covering drought in the American West. She writes Circle of Blue’s weekly roundup of drought in the American West. She’s a rising senior at Northwestern University studying journalism, political science, Spanish and environmental policy. In her free time, she likes to hang out with her dogs, play soccer and swim in Lake Michigan.
Watch
Multimedia
Interactive Broadcast
Watch Drought in the American West, a special convening of journalists, experts, and others on the front lines in this interactive broadcast and Q&A.
Including Bidtah Becker, Navajo Tribal Utility Authority; Giulio Boccaletti, Author, Water: A Biography; Heather Cooley, Pacific Institute; Dr. Peter Gleick, Pacific Institute; Cody Pope, Vector Center; Susana De Anda, Community Water Center; Sammy Roth, Los Angeles Times; Hon. Dan Glickman, former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture; Andre Fourie, Anheuser-Busch InBev; J. Carl Ganter, Circle of Blue and Vector Center.
More Resources
The Elusive Concept of an Assured Water Supply
The unexpected popularity of a groundwater replenishment program has created serious challenges for water stewardship and sustainability in Arizona.
In this thought-provoking video series, Arizona Project WET unearths the secrets of how and where groundwater accumulates and the processes for bringing it to the surface.
Reporting Extreme Weather and Climate Change
The aim of this guide is to help journalists to accurately report extreme weather events in the context of a warming planet.
Current Conditions and Future Outlooks
The premier source of information regarding heat and health for the nation. This portal seeks to improve federal, state, and local information and capacity to reduce the health, economic, and infrastructural impacts of extreme heat.
Intermountain West Climate Dashboard
Situational awareness of climate, drought, and water resources for Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.
National Integrated Drought Information System
The National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) is a multi-agency partnership that coordinates drought monitoring, forecasting, planning, and information at national, tribal, state, and local levels.
Californiadrought.org is a project of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California, one of the world’s leading independent nonprofits researching and finding solutions to freshwater issues.
Interdisciplinary research intended to promote water reform, and address the West’s growing water scarcity problem
Colorado Basin River Forecast Center
A constantly updated map of precipitation and water levels of the Colorado river basin
A map released every Thursday, showing parts of the U.S. that are in drought.
Drought in the West | When Nature Doesn’t Have Enough Neither Do We
Western states may be facing a future without drought. This Nature Conservancy project includes state-specific resources, life-hacks for conserving water where you live, and more.
More Reporting
In America’s fastest-growing metro, a rising fear water will run out
St. George, Utah, faces an increasing demand, while its only water source is being drained by overuse and drought.
72 percent of hunters and anglers see a changing climate
Despite their historically conservative political stance, the majority of hunters and anglers blame human actions for climate change, and want to see change.
An Arizona copper miner tried to sell Saudi Arabia’s king “American desert farming expertise” in the 1940s. He succeeded, but now the state faces water-driven consequences.
The Colorado River drought is so bad you can see it from space
Satellite images reveal the rapid depletion of major reservoirs across the American West.
Tensions grow over lack of a water deal for the shrinking Colorado River
As environmental and political pressure builds over reducing water use in the Colorado River, basin states fail to reach an agreement. Deadlines have passed and federal action is coming.
Drought isn’t just a Western U.S. problem. A severe shortage has hit the Northeast, too
The effects of climate change have been felt throughout the northeastern U.S. with rising sea levels, heavy precipitation and storm surges causing flooding and coastal erosion. But this summer has brought another extreme: Severe drought.
How Wildfires Affect Snow in the American West
Data from 45 burned sites help researchers better understand climate change and wildfires’ impact on snowpack.
Dead Crops, Culled Herds: Texas Drought Approaches One Year With Little End in Sight
As nearly the entire state faces drought, farmers struggle to make ends meet.
As Drought Hits Farms, Investors Lay Claim to Colorado Water
The debate over how to treat water—as a public resource or an investment tool—is escalating as climate change accelerates the water crisis in the West.
How climate change spurs megadroughts
Rising temperatures are digging the American West and other arid regions into a deeper and deeper hole.
Nebraska and Colorado are sparring over water rights. It could be the new norm as rivers dry up
As drought ravages the west, friction between Colorado and Nebraska illustrates how century-old laws can create modern day conflicts between basin states.
Severe drought in northern Mexico is causing conflict in waterless communities. Their struggle could soon make its way across the border.
On the Colorado River the feds carry a big stick. Will the states get hit?
The seven Colorado River basin states have until mid-August to come up with a plan to drastically cut their water use. If state leaders fail to devise a plan, they could face a federal crackdown.
As Heat Rises, Who Will Protect Farmworkers?
Heat-related illness and death are a growing problem in US agriculture, but OSHA still hasn’t established national safety guidelines.
In California, Water Wars Threaten Local Food Systems
Over the past few years, water disputes have become more common in California. Conflicts can end up hurting small, community-based farming.
California Dairy Uses Lots of Water. Here’s Why It Matters.
Amid the climate crisis and unprecedented drought, Civil Eats examines the industrial dairy industry’s impact on groundwater in the state, as well as on low-income residents, communities of color, and small-scale farms.
Watersheds & Foodsheds: Climate Change’s Impact on the American West
More than 1 in 10 Americans get some, if not all, of their municipal water from the Colorado River Basin. It’s drying up, putting our food and economy at grave risk.
Water: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
John Oliver discusses the water shortage in the American west, how it’s already impacting the people who live there, and what God has to say about it.
Utah Officials Called It the “Year of Water.” Special Interests Still Resist Conservation
The nation’s fastest-growing and second-driest state had a banner year for water conservation as it plays catch-up to the rest of the West.
The Southwest’s Drought and Fires Are a Window to Our Climate Change Future
In a Q&A with ProPublica, experts describe how a new climate reality threatens the Southwest, the fastest growing region in the U.S.