All eyes are on Arizona and the six other Colorado River basin states that recently missed the federal government’s deadline to adopt a plan that substantially cuts water usage in just one year.
The 23rd consecutive year of drought, fueled by climate change, has accelerated the basin’s water crisis. Quite simply, demand for water within basin states exceeds what the river can sustainably provide.
At the September meeting of the California Water Commission, commissioners were given a briefing by the Department of Water Resources on their preparations for yet another dry year and the steps they are taking to prepare the State Water Project for climate extremes and the challenges of drought, flood, and wildfire.
Key takeaways from these presentations:
This week marks the 50th Anniversary of the 1972 Clean Water Act, which, among other things, made it a legal requirement to clean up sewage to certain standards before dumping it into rivers or the ocean.
The California Energy Commission on Oct. 12 adopted new load management standards requiring utilities to develop retail electricity rates that “change at least hourly” to reflect grid costs and greenhouse gas emissions.
The Gila River Indian Community is the first Arizona water rights holder to publicly pursue the federal government’s new offer of compensation to leave Colorado River water in Lake Mead.
Tribal Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis announced the plan on Monday at a gathering of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s water advisory council, which is reviewing ways to spend $4 billion of Inflation Reduction Act funds targeted at Colorado River drought relief, as well as funds approved in an infrastructure funding law.
While many environmentalists oppose the construction and expansion of dams, the Biden Administration believes in the value of above-ground water storage.
The Department of Interior on Monday announced $210 million in funding for water storage and conveyance projects in the western United States.
Congressional staffers who helped craft the landmark Clean Water Act 50 years ago acknowledge they left a big hole in the law — one that’s now blamed for the single largest pollution source in streams, rivers and lakes.
Nonpoint-source pollution — a technocratic term describing pesticides, oil, fertilizers, toxins, sediment and grime that storms wash into waterways from land — still befuddles federal regulators to this day.
In forests throughout the Golden State, trees are turning a dark shade of rust, succumbing to the impacts of the drought in a well-documented phenomenon known to forest scientists as tree mortality.
The problem first peaked in 2016 when the U.S. Forest Service released images from a statewide aerial survey, estimating 62 million trees died that year.
Colorado’s river-recreation community is asking for more recognition in the update to the state’s Water Plan.
In a Sept. 30 comment letter addressed to the Colorado Water Conservation Board Director Rebecca Mitchell and Gov. Jared Polis, a group of recreation, environmental-conservation organizations and local businesses ask for river recreation to play a more prominent role in the roadmap for Colorado’s water future.
Reports of low water levels at a few big hydropower plants in the West over the last few years have made it seem like hydropower is becoming less reliable. Last summer, officials in California were forced to shut down the Edward Hyatt Powerplant when water levels in Lake Oroville, the reservoir that feeds the plant, dropped below the intake pipes that send water into its turbines.
