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These Four Metrics Are Used to Track Drought, and They Paint a Bleak Picture

/in , , /by /KUNC Coloradoby Alex Hager

Drought has tightened its grip on the Western U.S., as dry conditions tick on into their second decade and strain a river that supplies 40 million people. Experts agree that things are bad and getting worse. But how exactly do you measure a drought, and how can you tell where it’s going?

Brad Udall is an expert on the subject, studying water and climate at Colorado State University’s Colorado Water Center. Lately, his forecasts for the basin haven’t been particularly uplifting.

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Infrastructure Bill Passage to Boost California Projects

/in , , /by /AgAlertby Christine Souza

In actions that carry out President Biden’s economic agenda, the U.S. House of Representatives last week passed two pieces of significant legislation, including a $1.2 trillion bipartisan package that includes $8.3 billion for critical water projects in drought-parched California and the West.

On Friday, the House also passed the president’s social safety-net bill, the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Act, on a party-line vote. That bill, which funds universal pre-K, expansion of Medicare, renewable energy credits and affordable housing, now moves to the Senate.

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Opinion: Arizona Farmers Must Use Less Water to Survive. Here Are 5 things to Do Differently

/in , , /by /Arizona Centralby Gary Nabhan

A profound reduction in the Colorado River water earmarked for Arizona’s crops has at last triggered the rationing that irrigation farmers have dreaded. The Tier 1 shortage will prompt a 512,000-acre-foot reduction in Arizona’s Colorado River deliveries.

That amounts to about 30% of Central Arizona Project’s normal supply. Extrapolating from University of Arizona studies, it will result in a decrease of about $100 million in farmgate sales, and much more if the indirect effects are fully factored in.

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California Utilities Leaving Millions in Debt Relief on the Table

/in , , /by /Capital and Mainby Dan Ross

As the application window for a near billion-dollar state program designed to help cash-strapped Californians with pandemic-related drinking water debt nears its close date, almost 50% of eligible water systems have fully completed the application, but nearly one quarter haven’t yet started the process — a scenario that could see many struggling households lose the chance to have their financial burdens alleviated.

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State Attorneys Want Biden to Further Undo Trump’s NEPA Rule

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Law by Jennifer Hijazi and Stephen Lee

The Biden administration’s proposal to bolster environmental permitting review is a good first step but doesn’t go far enough towards scrapping Trump-era rules, according to a coalition of Democratic attorneys general.

The changes included in President Joe Biden’s National Environmental Policy Act proposed rule fall short of undoing Trump-era regulations that undermined the environmental review process, the attorneys general said in their comment letter submitted Tuesday.

 

 

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California Drought Unlikely to End This Winter

/in , , /by /The Orange County Registerby Martin Wisckol

Don’t hold your breath for California’s drought ending with this winter’s rains. Instead, you’d do well to hold your shower time to a minimum.

There’s less than a 40% chance of water supplies getting back to normal after this winter, with a slightly better than 50% chance that the state’s drought will worsen, according to forecasters at a Monday, Nov. 22, drought webinar hosted by the National Integrated Drought Information Center. The center is led by NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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Cloud Seeding Gains Steam as West Faces Worsening Droughts

/in , , /by /The Seattle Timesby Maddie Stone

As the first winter storms rolled through this month, a King Air C90 turboprop aircraft contracted by the hydropower company Idaho Power took to the skies over southern Idaho to make it snow.

Flying across the cloud tops, the aircraft dropped flares that burned as they descended, releasing plumes of silver iodide that caused ice crystals to form and snow to fall over the mountains.

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Calif.’s Central Valley Groundwater May Not Recover From Droughts

/in , , /by /Water World

Groundwater in Calif.’s Central Valley is at risk of being depleted by pumping too much water during and after droughts, according to a new study in the American Geophysical Union journal Water Resources Research.

The study finds that groundwater storage recovery has been dismal after the state’s last two droughts, with less than a third of groundwater recovered from the drought that spanned 2012 to 2016.

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Supreme Court Hands Win to Tennessee in Water Resource Fight

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Lawby Bobby Magill

The U.S. Supreme Court found that Tennessee didn’t steal groundwater from Mississippi, in a dispute with wide-ranging implications for how states manage natural resources.

The justices in Mississippi v. Tennessee said in a unanimous decision that interstate groundwater is covered by equitable apportionment, which is the standard process by which water resources are shared.

It’s the high court’s first use of the equitable apportionment doctrine related to interstate groundwater.

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Denver Officially Breaks Snow Record That Has Stood Since 1934

/in , , /by /AccuWeatherby Brian Lada

Denver officially broke its all-time record for the latest first measurable snow when the Mile High City reported no snowfall on Sunday, surpassing a record that had stood since Nov. 21, 1934. AccuWeather meteorologists say that it could be weeks before the next chance for significant accumulation in the city.

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