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The Water Desk
How well-managed dams and smart forecasting can limit flooding as extreme storms become more common in a warming world
The arduous task of cleaning up from catastrophic flooding is underway across the Northeast after storms stretched the region’s flood control systems nearly to the breaking point. As rising global temperatures make extreme storms more common, the nation’s dams and reservoirs – crucial to keeping communities dry – are...
Once ‘paradise,’ parched Colorado valley grapples with arsenic in water
This story was originally republished by NPR on May 22, 2023 and by KFF Health News on May 24, 2023. When John Mestas’ ancestors moved to Colorado over 100 years ago to raise sheep in the San Luis Valley, they “hit paradise,” he says. “There was so...
How Hudbay’s Santa Rita mining will impact Southern Arizona’s waterways
Austin Nunez, Chairman of the San Xavier district of the Tohono O’odham Nation, walks through the desert grass, nimbly weaving between ocotillo and barrel cactus, climbing up a pathless foothill of the Santa Rita Mountains just south of Tucson. Water Desk Grantee Publication. This story was supported by the...
Federal, state officials promise more tribal inclusion in Colorado River negotiations
Federal and state officials have promised more tribal inclusion on the next round of negotiating the operating guidelines for the Colorado River, but what exactly that will look like is still unclear. On June 16, the Bureau of Reclamation released a notice of intent (NOI), which formally advanced the process...
New study shows Durango’s water supplies declining dramatically as climate change, drought hit home
Climate change has come home to Durango, with a new study indicating that the once water-rich mining and railroad mecca is much drier than it once was, so dry in fact that the city can no longer depend solely on direct flow from the Florida and Animas rivers for a reliable supply of water.
Supreme Court rules the US is not required to ensure access to water for the Navajo Nation
The Navajo Nation, the largest Native American reservation in the U.S., covers 27,000 square miles (70,000 square kilometers) in the Southwest – an area larger than 10 states. Today it is home to more than 250,000 people – roughly comparable to the population of St. Petersburg, Florida, or Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
El Niño is back – that’s good news or bad news, depending on where you live
El Niño is officially here, and while it’s still weak right now, federal forecasters expect this global disrupter of worldwide weather patterns to gradually strengthen. That may sound ominous, but El Niño – Spanish for “the little boy” – is not malevolent, or even automatically bad.
An Arizona water story where ranchers, environmentalists and developers are collaborating
This story was supported by the Water Desk’s grants program. The sandy bed of Sopori Creek stretches east across Southern Arizona toward Amado, ambling through windblown ranchland until it eventually crosses Interstate 19 and empties into the Santa Cruz River on the other side. On a mostly-cool morning in...
Water Desk supports journalism in New Mexico and Rio Grande Basin
The Water Desk is excited to announce the recipients of new grants to support water journalism connected to New Mexico and the Rio Grande Basin. From the Rocky Mountains to the U.S.-Mexico border, the grantees will be reporting on a range of critical water issues facing the region, including climate change, public health, pollution, equity, funding, wildfires, infrastructure and more.
Upper Colorado River states add muscle as decisions loom on the shrinking river’s future
The states of the Lower Colorado River Basin have traditionally played an oversized role in tapping the lifeline that supplies 40 million people in the West. California, Nevada and Arizona were quicker to build major canals and dams and negotiated a landmark deal that requires the Upper Basin to send predictable flows through the Grand Canyon, even during dry years.
The Supreme Court just shriveled federal protection for wetlands, leaving many of these valuable ecosystems at risk
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in Sackett v. EPA that federal protection of wetlands encompasses only those wetlands that directly adjoin rivers, lakes and other bodies of water. This is an extremely narrow interpretation of the Clean Water Act that could expose many wetlands across the U.S. to filling and development.
Farmers weigh tough choices as uncertain water future looms
Sitting at his booth at the Bosque Farms Growers Market, George Torres greeted customers all morning one Saturday last year. Many he knew by name and asked about their harvest, the weather, the water. All around him, vendors sold vegetables, milk, eggs, cookies, cut flowers, and seedlings. One farmer dropped off a bundle of radishes, saying, “That’s all I have yet.”
Diverting the Rio Grande into a grown-over, decades-old canal could cut New Mexico’s water debt
Decades ago, Norm Gaume, a water advocate, paddler, and former director of the Interstate Stream Commission, hauled a canoe to central New Mexico, thinking he’d float down the Rio Grande through the Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. But when he arrived, he found no water in the river.
Colorado River states bought time with a 3-year water conservation deal – now they need to think bigger
Arizona, California and Nevada have narrowly averted a regional water crisis by agreeing to reduce their use of Colorado River water over the next three years. This deal represents a temporary solution to a long-term crisis. Nonetheless, as a close observer of western water policy, I see it as an important win for the region.
Utah’s Suicide Pact With the Fossil Fuel Industry
The GPS coordinates weren’t especially helpful last May as we drove across the remote Tavaputs Plateau in Utah’s Uinta Basin. Cell service was spotty in the vast expanse of land crosshatched with unpaved roads identified on the map only as “Well Road 4304735551” or “Chevron Pipeline Road.” Photographer Russel Albert Daniels and I had set off that morning from Vernal (population 10,241), in search of a 15-square-mile plot of undeveloped land purchased in 2011 by the Estonian-government-owned energy company Enefit.
Stream restoration bill watered down
Colorado lawmakers may pass a stream-restoration bill this session, but it won’t be the one proponents and environmental groups were hoping for. A bill aimed at making it easier for stream-restoration projects that mimic beaver activity to take place has been gutted after stakeholders couldn’t reach an agreement, underscoring how difficult it is for environmental interests to gain a toehold under Colorado’s system of water law.
Amid a withering drought, New Mexico leaders struggle to plan for life with less water
This story was supported by the Water Desk’s grants program. This story was originally published by New Mexico In Depth on April 11, 2023. Though the Rio Grande runs through the heart of New Mexico’s biggest city, you can easily miss it. Even from places where you’d expect to see water — designated parking areas near the river or paths along which you carry a boat to cast off from the nearest bank — it’s often invisible behind a screen of cottonwoods. Through much of the city, it hides behind businesses, warehouses, and strip malls.
It’s all white: Colorado statewide snowpack tops 140%, though reservoirs still low
Colorado is awash in white this spring, with statewide snowpack topping 140% of average this week, well above the reading a year ago, when it stood at just 97% of normal. “Conditions in the American West are way better than they were last year at this time,” said state climatologist Russ Schumacher at a joint meeting Tuesday of the state’s Water Availability Task Force and the Governor’s Flood Task Force. “In Colorado we went from drought covering most of the state to most of the state being out of drought.”
The Colorado River drought crisis: 5 essential reads
A 23-year western drought has drastically shrunk the Colorado River, which provides water for drinking and irrigation for Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California and two states in Mexico. Under a 1922 compact, these jurisdictions receive fixed allocations of water from the river – but now there’s not enough water to provide them.
Epic snow from all those atmospheric rivers in the West is starting to melt, and the flood danger is rising
To get a sense of the enormous amount of water atmospheric rivers dumped on the Western U.S. this year and the magnitude of the flood risk ahead, take a look at California’s Central Valley, where about a quarter of the nation’s food is grown. This region was once...
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