The cost of building an artificial intelligence product like ChatGPT can be hard to measure.
But one thing Microsoft-backed OpenAI needed for its technology was plenty of water, pulled from the watershed of the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers in central Iowa to cool a powerful supercomputer as it helped teach its AI systems how to mimic human writing.
Setting the course for a Colorado River with less water is an enormous challenge that’s not likely to satisfy everyone. And climate change has created a collision course with wildlife.
The river isn’t just managed to accommodate people. Governments are also responsible for the ecosystems that sustain fish, birds and other animals. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is an important player in the battle that’s ahead. A letter submitted by USFWS to the Bureau of Reclamation has as many questions as answers.
Returning middle and high school students in Walnut are adding an extra item to their agendas – helping members of their community monitor their home’s water usage.
Dubbed Project Bright, the students earn community service hours by engaging with the public over the environmental and fiscal benefits of more efficient water usage.
Napa County civic leaders want to keep exploring whether the dozens of local agencies that deliver water to tens of thousands of residents and businesses should be working together more closely.
County agencies involved with water range from the city of Napa serving 80,000 residents to rural districts serving a few hundred customers. They have various water sources and make their own water decisions.
The fossil fuel industry once boomed here.
Oil pump jacks dot the landscape around the community and serve as a reminder of the town’s origins. Prairie dogs race across the two-lane highway outside of town that is filled with thousands of Mormon crickets during the summer.
On Sept. 7, the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) announced the launch of the Large-Scale Water Recycling Projects Competitive Grants Program, which Congress created in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021.
Dirt roads neatly bisect acres and acres of vibrant green plants here: short, dense alfalfa plants fed by the waters of the Colorado River, flowing by as a light brown stream through miles of narrow concrete ditches.
But on a nearby field, farmer Ronnie Leimgruber is abandoning those ditches, part of a system that has served farmers well for decades.
The boldest strategies to save the Colorado River are coming from environmental groups, including a rising chorus of voices to give Lake Mead priority over Lake Powell.
A new but little-known change in California law designating aquifers as “natural infrastructure” promises to unleash a flood of public funding for projects that increase the state’s supply of groundwater.
The change is buried in a sweeping state budget-related law, enacted in July, that also makes it easier for property owners and water managers to divert floodwater for storage underground.
As the final days of summer near, California’s reservoirs are in a position they have not been in for some time, they still have a significant amount of water in them.
As of Thursday, all but Trinity Reservoir near Redding and Casitas near Ventura, are at or above their historic average levels, according to the California Department of Water data exchange.
