Why are Texans raising hell about a water deal that could raise money for their schools?
Water
Posted inWotr
River advocates take a seat at the table
There is a quiet, behind-the-scenes effort underway to restore natural stream flows to many of the nation’s waterways. The poster child for this groundbreaking work is California’s Mokelumne River, which flows from high up in the Sierras through the gold country. Dams and diversions have reduced the river to a relative trickle, but that is […]
Posted inNovember 10, 2003: San Diego's Habitat Triage
State picks up federal slack on perchlorate
In late September, outgoing California Gov. Gray Davis signed two bills into law to protect drinking water supplies from perchlorate, a toxic chemical used in rocket fuel and explosives (HCN, 4/28/03: Cold War toxin seeps into Western water). It could be 2008 before the federal Environmental Protection Agency sets a maximum contaminant level for perchlorate, […]
Posted inNovember 10, 2003: San Diego's Habitat Triage
‘Restoration Cowboy’ goes against the flow
Dave Rosgen is popularizing the complex field of river restoration
Posted inOctober 27, 2003: The Gear Biz
California strikes a water truce
A landmark water deal could bring peace on the Colorado River — and money for the Salton Sea
Posted inWotr
Colorado’s thirsty suburbs get the state into trouble
Denver’s southern suburbs have a rich, new-car smell. Emboldened by information-technology employers, Douglas County during the ‘90s was the nation’s fastest-growing county. It also ranked among the nation’s elite in per capita income, education and other measures of affluence. In short, this region of sleek and slinky subdivisions looks and feels an awful lot like […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 2003: Harvesting Poison
Water law for dummies
There’s nothing worse than being stumped during a dinner conversation while attorneys and professors quarrel over the intricacies of water law. Now, Coloradoans can dive right into those debates, thanks to a new booklet that translates state water law into plain English. The Citizen’s Guide to Colorado Water Law, by the nonprofit Colorado Foundation for […]
Posted inSeptember 15, 2003: The West's Biggest Bully
Delta beast rears its head
The U.S. Department of Interior may be ready to resurrect the Yuma Desalting Plant
Posted inAugust 4, 2003: Pipe Dreams
Pipe Dreams
LINCOLN COUNTY, NEVADA — Out here in a rock-strewn, desolate sweep of creosote bush and blackbrush called the Tule Desert, there’s a patch of land bulldozed clear of vegetation. Standing in the middle of it is a well called PW-1. It doesn’t look like much; just a 32-inch-diameter steel pipe, painted black and sticking out […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Gulf of California Dreamin’
No river in the United States has been as aggressively seized for human use as the Colorado — and shelves of books have been written to tell the story. But what becomes of the river once it flows out of the U.S. and into Mexico has received considerably less print. Now, Defenders of Wildlife has […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Glen Canyon Voices
Glen Canyon is such a compelling intellectual topic because it is full of contradictions: It has been destroyed, and yet a movement is afoot to bring it back … it was a place perhaps equal in grandeur to Grand Canyon, and yet it was dammed and inundated with only the faintest puff of dissent; it […]
Posted inMay 26, 2003: A losing battle
Once more unto the breach: Dams could fall in the Northwest
Many in the Northwest thought they’d killed the idea of breaching four dams on the Snake River in Washington when they convinced the Clinton administration to pass on it, and then George W. Bush became president. They celebrated too soon. On May 7, U.S. District Judge James Redden in Portland threw out the salmon-protection plan […]
Posted inWotr
Once more into the breach: Dams could fall in the Northwest
Many in the Northwest thought they’d killed the idea of breaching four dams on the Snake River in Washington when they convinced the Clinton administration to pass on it, and then elected George Bush president. They celebrated too soon. On May 7, U.S. District Judge James Redden in Portland threw out the salmon protection plan […]
Posted inMay 12, 2003: Planting time
In Iraq, there’s hope of restoring the Garden of Eden
Watching the chaotic aftermath of repression and war in Iraq hurts my heart. As an antidote, I conjure a vision of hope: a shimmering expanse of water and life that may once again grace the Iraqi desert. Until a decade ago, southern Iraq boasted one of the world’s largest wetlands, the Mesopotamia Marshes, almost 7,800 […]
Posted inWotr
With its back to the wall, California turns to the sea
It’s going to be a hot, feverish summer, even more so because water supplies are pinched unusually tight. Nowhere is that as true as in California. On New Year’s day, Interior Secretary Gale Norton rudely weaned the state off its long-running overuse of Colorado River water, slashing access to the river by 15 percent. Now, […]
Posted inApril 28, 2003: Indian Power
Indian Power
New Mexico tribes catapult into politics and join the state’s water tug-of-war
Posted inApril 28, 2003: Indian Power
Cold War toxin seeps into Western water
Rocket-fuel ingredient could pose widespread health threats
Posted inApril 28, 2003: Indian Power
Water principles of the West begin with blaming California
Like the rest of the West, Colorado is suffering from a multi-year drought. Drought, in case you’re curious, is one of those technical terms for what happens when you have enough water for 1 million residents, but not enough for 4 million, let alone the 10 million that the developers would like to see. What […]
Posted inApril 28, 2003: Indian Power
The Colorado River’s sleeping giant stirs
Navajo Nation wants its long-overdue cut of the river
Posted inMarch 31, 2003: Tinkering with Nature
On the WaterWatch
Oregon’s rivers may run dry again this summer, but you can still saturate yourself with information about your favorite Beaver State stream. That’s because WaterWatch of Oregon has restructured its Web site to serve as a clearinghouse on state rivers. WaterWatch of Oregon, a nonprofit conservation group founded in 1985, is dedicated to restoring and […]