Bureau of Reclamation
Return of the Teton Dam?
Updated April 7, 2008 Almost 32 years ago, the Teton Dam in southeastern Idaho failed against the force of a 17-mile long, 270-foot deep reservoir. Eight months of stored stream flow and snowmelt crashed down the valley in less than six hours, swallowing the communities of Rexburg, Teton, Newdale and Sugar City. Eleven people died […]
When dams were young and gardenias a nickel apiece
My mother at 90 prefers the distant past to the present. When she sees the Tournament of Roses parade on television, she recalls coming of age during the Great Depression. When she hears that the nation might be sliding into recession, she tells me what hard times were really like. Her job during the 1930s […]
Dam removal considered for Klamath
As salmon suffer, truce settles on river
The Latest Bounce
A week after U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton announced her resignation, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner John Keys announced that he will resign on April 15. The 34-year veteran of the Bureau says he’s ready to spend more time with his family in Moab, Utah. Both resignations come at a critical time, as the […]
Glen Canyon Dam will stand
Glen Canyon Dam isn’t coming down. That’s the final word from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on calls to dismantle the dam, drain Lake Powell and release the waters of the Colorado (HCN, 12/22/03: Being green in the land of the saints). Under orders from Interior Secretary Gale Norton, the agency must develop a drought-management […]
‘Water bank’ drags river basin deeper into debt
‘Win-win’ water solution only worsens tension over scarce resource
Super-sized dam could be a cash register for California farmers
New federal contracts give water districts more than they need
Follow-up
U.S. District Court Judge James A. Redden announced he plans to order the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to release water from its dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers to help endangered salmon and steelhead (HCN, 6/13/05: “For salmon, a crucial moment of decision”). Although NOAA Fisheries, the agency charged with protecting the fish, […]
So-called ‘peace treaty’ won’t save the Rio Grande
HCN’s story, “Peace breaks out on the Rio Grande,” suggests that the agreement between environmentalists and Albuquerque marked an end to wrangling over water in the Middle Rio Grande (HCN, 3/21/05: Peace breaks out on the Rio Grande). Don’t we wish. For reasons best understood by the city of Albuquerque, two separate legal proceedings are […]
The public pays to keep water in a river
A new wave of ‘takings’ lawsuits could bust the environmental protection budget
Who owns Klamath water — farmers or the public?
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “The public pays to keep water in a river.” For four years, farmers on the California-Oregon border have battled the U.S. government in the courts for $100 million in damages, after the Bureau of Reclamation withheld irrigation […]
Arizona returns to the desert
The worst drought in a century could bring home the true costs of growth
What’s worse than the worst-case scenario? Real life
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Arizona returns to the desert.” In the early 1990s, the U.S. Geological Survey and several other government agencies funded a little-noticed study of the effect of a major drought on the Colorado River. Researchers were particularly interested in its impacts on Lakes Powell and […]
A crisis brews on the Colorado
With water supplies dwindling, states getan order to share the pain
Fisheries agency rewards a loyal bureaucrat
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Conscientious Objectors.” People who worry about the Pacific Coast’s endangered salmon runs are likely to recognize James Lecky’s name. In 2002, Lecky, an assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Region in Long Beach, Calif., reworked his agency’s flow recommendations for the Klamath River. The […]
Water ‘holy war’ rages in central Utah
Will taxpayers foot the bill on a federally subsidized fossil?
Dam’s price tag skyrockets
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “Water ‘holy war’ rages in central Utah.” After decades of rancorous debate, construction is under way on the Animas-La Plata dam project in dusty southwestern Colorado (HCN, 8/27/01: A-LP gets federal A-OK). But anyone who thought the […]
Fish gotta spawn
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Fish gotta spawn.
Charles Wilkinson crows over the corpse of the West’s traditional approach to water
A eulogy of an old scourge and warning against a new one.