The largest wetland restoration project on the West Coast shifts into gear
Water
Posted inWotr
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 […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2007: L.A. Bets on the Farm
L.A. Bets on the Farm
Faced with unprecedented drought, the West’s most powerful water agency is mixing Wall Street tactics and rice farm supplies to hedge against Southern California’s risk of going dry.
Posted inArticles
A watershed proposal
Colorado’s Cache la Poudre River tumbles 80 miles from its high-alpine headwaters in Rocky Mountain National Park down to the South Platte River on the plains below. The upper Poudre is the only designated wild and scenic river in the state – but after it exits Poudre Canyon, 90 percent of its flow is siphoned […]
Posted inSeptember 17, 2007: Facing the yuck factor
Facing the Yuck Factor
How has the West embraced water recycling? Very (gulp) cautiously
Posted inSeptember 17, 2007: Facing the yuck factor
He loves nature. And dams.
NAME Paul Ostapuk AGE 50 HOME BASE Page, Arizona VOCATION Engineer and meteorologist at the Navajo Generating Station, part of the Salt River Project NOTED FOR what he does when not paying the bills. Ostapuk is the Arizona director of the Old Spanish Trail Association, a member of the Glen Canyon Natural History Association and – […]
Posted inSeptember 17, 2007: Facing the yuck factor
Take back these drugs – please
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Facing the Yuck Factor.” Americans love their medications. Pharmacists fill more than 3 billion prescriptions a year in the United States, and consumers also buy huge quantities of over-the-counter drugs. Many of those pharmaceuticals enter wastewater when people urinate. Others end up there when […]
Posted inSeptember 17, 2007: Facing the yuck factor
Making an effluent market
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Facing the Yuck Factor.” A sprawling town whose population has grown by more than 50 percent since 2000, Prescott Valley, Ariz., is thirsty and lacks a reliable surface water supply. In most of Arizona, such a combination is no barrier to growth. But Prescott […]
Posted inArticles
Pipe dreams
By the time endangered spring chinook reach the mouth of the Methow River, a tributary of the Columbia, in late summer, they have traveled 500 miles and passed nine dams in order to spawn. Upstream, the Chief Joseph Dam, which lacks fish passage, blocks further progress up the Columbia. The Methow’s forested watershed offers one […]
Posted inAugust 6, 2007: Guns R Us
Of politics and the river
An Arizona congressman and a military base threaten the last free-flowing river in the desert Southwest
Posted inArticles
Getting fresh with the West’s groundwater
That shot of hot air coming from the bottom of the refrigerator may soon serve a greater purpose than just warming your feet. A new saltwater distillation technique that uses solar energy and waste heat from appliances could provide remote Southwestern communities with clean drinking water. Researchers Nirmala Khandan and Veera Gude of New Mexico […]
Posted inArticles
Utah plans to join the Wild and Scenic Rivers System
For almost 40 years, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act has been protecting beautiful rivers in states across the West – except two. Utah and Nevada have yet to place any rivers on the Wild and Scenic list, which was started in 1968 to protect outstanding rivers from development. For Utah, however, that could change […]
Posted inWotr
Water does move uphill toward money
Now that I’m out of college, I thought it was time to ask my elders for advice about investing in the stock market. They must have seen how confused I looked, because a week later, an investment letter arrived that promised to answer all my questions, and, incidentally, make me rich, fast. The letter featured […]
Posted inJune 25, 2007: Predator hunters for the environment
Big dams, big deal
With a title like Big Dams of the New Deal Era: A Confluence of Engineering and Politics, it’s no surprise that this tome is deep on history and long on details. That said, the book is also remarkably hard to put down. It’s well worth the read for those who have ever wondered how structures […]
Posted inArticles
A struggling sea
The Salton Sea, one of California’s largest lakes and a safe haven for thousands of migratory birds, is suffering a case of severe dehydration. Water loss and rising salinity and nutrient concentrations have endangered this saltwater lake in southeastern California. Left untreated, the sea’s ecosystem could collapse within the next few decades, according to the […]
Posted inMay 14, 2007: Two Views of the Verde
The Battle for the Verde
Will a new pipeline dry up one of the West’s last free-flowing streams?
Posted inApril 30, 2007: Rural Education 2.0
Into thin air?
Global warming has spawned a call for new dams — but there may not be any water to fill them.
Posted inArticles
Getting the salt out
For 14 years, a huge desalination plant has sat quietly, out of operation, on the banks of the Colorado River just north of the Arizona border. And just south of the border, the Cienega de Santa Clara, a manmade wetland of over 14,000 acres, has provided critical habitat for migrating birds. The wetland and the […]
Posted inWotr
Water is definitely for fighting in Montana
One constant in the fierce debate over the public’s access to Mitchell Slough in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley has been the complaint that generous landowners are being vilified despite their considerable efforts to restore the waterway. It’s instructive that one of the arguments used by supporters of the landowners is this “heroic restoration” tack. It’s instructive […]
Posted inApril 16, 2007: Phoenix Falling?
Montana puts limits on national Trout Unlimited
One of the great things about living in Montana is state law allowing public access to any stream, no matter whose monster home lies alongside it. But just a few weeks ago, I received an e-mail from Montana Trout Unlimited saying the national group wanted to back away from involvement in any dispute — and […]