NORTHWEST If you thought renewing your driver’s license was a pain, try being a dam owner. Every 30 to 50 years, privately owned dams must apply for a new operating license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and the process is neither fast nor cheap. On average, the process drags on for about five […]
Water
Posted inMarch 12, 2001: Divided Waters
Priests preach to the choir: Protect the Columbia
The Roman Catholic Church isn’t traditionally considered the home of radical greens. But 12 bishops from the Pacific Northwest and Canada have jumped into the environmental fray, and in late February, they released a long-awaited and controversial pastoral letter about the Columbia River (HCN, 9/11/00: Holy water). The letter, nourished by three years of discussion […]
Posted inMarch 12, 2001: Divided Waters
Water Watch
Boulder, Colo., residents can now check on the health of their watershed by surfing the Web. The Boulder Area Sustainability Information Network (BASIN) Web site publishes water quality indicators and trends in the Boulder Creek watershed, which provides water for the city of Boulder. The site also includes snowpack information, an air-quality index, and information […]
Posted inMarch 12, 2001: Divided Waters
Divided Waters
A water crisis lurks beneath a sprawling border metropolis
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Anglers fish for solutions
IDAHO The South Fork of the Snake River is running at a trickle. In order to save water for next summer’s irrigation season and to flush salmon smolts this spring, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is holding back water behind dams that leaves the river flowing at a rate well below the Idaho Department of […]
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Silence of the clams
ARIZONA Environmentalists have long charged that dams and water diversions are killing the Colorado River and its delta (HCN, 7/3/00: A river resurrected: The Colorado River Delta gets a second chance). Now, scientists have quantified those accusations by counting clams. Their conclusion: The delta has lost 95 percent of its biological richness since Hoover Dam […]
Posted inDecember 18, 2000: Still here: Can humans help other species defy extinction?
EPA reins in ranchers
OREGON For years, a bureaucratic gap in Oregon law has allowed some ranchers to violate the Clean Water Act by allowing their cows’ manure to seep into rivers. Now, the Environmental Protection Agency is cracking down. So far, the EPA has fined 10 Oregon ranchers – some as much as $50,000 – while also requiring […]
Posted inDecember 4, 2000: Road Block
Animas-La Plata staggers on
COLORADO Thirty-two years after Congress first authorized it, Colorado’s controversial Animas-La Plata water project still awaits federal funding. But recent events indicate its latest incarnation is alive and kicking (HCN, 11/11/96: Cease-fire called on the Animas-La Plata front). In late October, the Animas- La Plata bill, sponsored by Sen. Ben Campbell, R-Colo., passed the Senate; […]
Posted inDecember 4, 2000: Road Block
Rivers without water
Rain pelts cities in western Oregon at up to 10 inches a month in the winter wet season. Yet each summer, 10 major rivers and streams, including the often-visited Deschutes, dwindle to trickles or dry out completely. “The average person isn’t even aware this problem exists,” says Reed Benson, executive director of Portland-based WaterWatch, a […]
Posted inNovember 20, 2000: Water pressure
‘The world would be different if not for the veto’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Hamlet “Chips” Barry has been head of the Denver Water Department since 1991. Despite his name, he has acted forcefully to change the behavior of the once-autocratic Denver Water Department. Chips Barry: “One of the problems with the approach the Two Forks proponents took […]
Posted inNovember 20, 2000: Water pressure
‘Where is the metro area going to get its water?’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Dick Lamm, governor of Colorado from 1974 to 1986, became well-known nationally for his gloomy forecasts of the future. Dick Lamm: “Ultimately, the metro area is an integral whole when it comes to water. Where is the metro area going to get its water […]
Posted inNovember 20, 2000: Water pressure
‘The suburbs have some bad choices’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Eric Kuhn is head of the Colorado River Water Conservation District, in charge of protecting western Colorado’s water interests in the Colorado River Basin. Eric Kuhn: “I think Reilly did Denver a favor. They can focus on their needs. They have a well-thought-out approach […]
Posted inNovember 20, 2000: Water pressure
Water pressure
A valiant veto defeated Two Forks Dam; will Denver’s sprawl bring it back?
Posted inNovember 20, 2000: Water pressure
A desert state axes water planning
The Nevada Division of Water Planning meets an untimely demise
Posted inNovember 6, 2000: 'Re-inhabitation' revisited
Is a dredging project drowning?
NORTHWEST After 10 years and millions of dollars in studies, plans to deepen more than 100 miles of the Columbia River shipping channel have hit troubled waters (HCN, 1/17/00: A dredging dilemma). Last August, the National Marine Fisheries Service responded to a lawsuit threat by rescinding its earlier approval. The agency cited new worries about […]
Posted inNovember 6, 2000: 'Re-inhabitation' revisited
Idaho resorts near ‘wild’ river must go
Judge says the Forest Servicemisinterpreted thelaw
Posted inOctober 23, 2000: Stalking Slade
A tricky tale of the past and the future
Salt Dreams, text by William deBuys and photographs by Joan Myers, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1999. Hardcover: $35. 307 pages. There is only one Western story. It is the story of a mad rush to “settle” and exploit. This single story consisted always of the destruction and displacement of native people, followed by […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Something is polluting the water
The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe says it has always farmed oysters on western Washington’s Dungeness Bay. But not any more. The state health department banned the harvest of shellfish in certain areas of the bay last May, because water-quality tests showed excess levels of fecal coliform bacteria. While fecal coliform isn’t a health hazard by itself, […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
A highway hits a speed bump
Only one highway moves commuters south to Salt Lake City, squeezing cars between the Wasatch Mountains and the Great Salt Lake. The Utah Department of Transportation wants to change that with its proposed $370 million Legacy Highway, a controversial 125-mile freeway that just hit a speed bump. On Sept. 5, the Environmental Protection Agency announced […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
A call to heed the wild
Environmentalists have long depended on photos of endangered landscapes to spur us into protecting wild places. The photographers hope that if they show us the wonder of these places, we will fight like mad to save them. Tupper Ansel Blake and Madeleine Graham Blake, the photographers of Balancing Water: Restoring the Klamath Basin, want their […]