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Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Estevan López has released the Los Angeles Basin Study that looks at the changing demographics, climate change and competing interests for available water supplies and identifies options to meet the water needs of the Los Angeles area into the future. The study found that there is a potential water supply deficit for the region of approximately 160,000 acre-feet-per year by 2035 and 440,000 acre-feet-per-year or 25-percent less water than the region is projected to need in 2095.

The U.S. Drought Monitor shows roughly 11 percent of the contiguous United States is under what it calls “severe, extreme, or exceptional” drought. The areas where the drought continues to be in control include three different areas of the country. Rebecca Lindsey is the Managing Editor of Climate dot Gov, and she said one of the more prominent drought areas includes the southeast United States. That area has been in the news as wildfires have recently burned over 80,000 acres of land. Southern California has been suffering from a drought for the past five years and it continues today.

A decade ago, environmentalists and the federal government agreed to revive a 150-mile stretch of California’s second-longest river, an ambitious effort aimed at allowing salmon again to swim up to the Sierra Nevada foothills to spawn. A major milestone is expected by the end of the month, when the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation says the stretch of the San Joaquin River will be flowing year-round for the first time in more than 60 years. But the goal of restoring native salmon remains far out of reach. The original plan was to complete the task in 2012.

Les Grober, deputy director of the State Water Resources Control Board, said his agency had done “more than was required” in studying the impacts of the state’s water grab on our rivers. But what became clear during a daylong public session in Modesto was that his agency hasn’t done as much as it should have.Rod Smith, who earned his doctorate in economics at the University of Chicago, had some pointed questions for the bevy of state officials who attended Friday. He started by asking about the state’s assumptions on volatility and reliability.

Even from 38,000 feet in a jet, Hoover Dam is a remarkable achievement. The giant plug in the Colorado River about 30 miles outside Las Vegas, the cause of the swathes of blue in the tan desert landscape, stands as a testament to 20^th century American ingenuity, stubbornness, and political will. From the crest of the dam, the achievement looks more flawed. Lake Mead has dropped 130 feet since 2000, when it was full. It’s now at 37 percent of capacity and declining rapidly enough to capture the full attention of water managers from Los Angeles to Denver.