Tag Archive for: Water Availability

Water (and its Absence) Looms Large in the California Mind. Here are 6 Ways to Make the Most of it

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Alyssa Bereznak

There are three go-to topics of conversation for Angelenos: weather, traffic and water. Our city is perpetually trying to rid itself of H20 or thirsting for it. Those opposing needs shaped L.A.’s topography and made a mythic king out of a self-taught engineer from Belfast. And recent drought has forced us to confront the reality of climate change, rethink our water sources and dig up our lawns.

Given how large water supply looms in the minds of Californians, our access to it in L.A. feels especially miraculous, and — during the relentless radiating heat of summer — uniquely enlivening.

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They Sounded Alarms About a Coming Colorado River Crisis. But Warnings Went Unheeded

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Ian James

The Colorado River is approaching a breaking point, its reservoirs depleted and western states under pressure to drastically cut water use.

It’s a crisis that scientists have long warned was coming. Years before the current shortage, scientists repeatedly alerted public officials who manage water supplies that the chronic overuse of the river combined with the effects of climate change would likely drain the Colorado’s reservoirs to dangerously low levels.

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Drought Is the U.S. West’s Next Big Climate Disaster

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Greenby Brian K Sullivan, Michael Hirtzer, Kim Chipman and Marvin G Perez

Normally at this time of year, Katy Kemp’s 80 head of cattle would be grazing on her family’s ranch in Staples, Texas. Instead, the herd is living off dwindling hay stores as drought dries up grassland and chokes off crops. Parts of Texas are so starved for water that ranchers are trucking feed 1,000 miles from Montana, driving up prices there and leaving hay producers completely sold out.

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‘We Need Water to Survive’: Hopi Tribe Pushes for Solutions in Long Struggle for Water

/in , /by /Arizona Centralby Ian James

Some Hopi families don’t have running water. Many others have water tainted with arsenic. Steps toward fixes are finally taking shape.

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Wealthy US Cities Struggle to Provide Running Water for All Residents

/in , , /by /New Scientistby Ian Morse

Widening wealth gaps in some of the richest cities in the US have produced a rise in the number of households without running water.

Public information suggests that about half a million households in the US – about 1.1 million people – live without piped water, which places them in “plumbing poverty”. Surveys also show that 73 per cent of these households are found in metropolitan areas.

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People of Color More Likely to Live Without Piped Water in Richest US Cities

/in , /by /The Guardianby Nina Lakhani

People of color in some of America’s wealthiest cities are significantly more likely to live in houses without indoor plumbing essential for running water, new research reveals.

Clean, safe, affordable water is essential for human health and economic survival. Yet access to running water is not universal in the United States, ostensibly the richest country in the world.

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Cal Am, Marina Open to Meeting on Desal Project ‘Solution’

/in , , /by /Monterey Heraldby Jim Johnson

California American Water and Marina city officials are in the process of setting up talks on the company’s desalination project after exchanging letters over the past several weeks. In a Sept. 25 letter, Cal Am president Rich Svindland reached out to Marina officials, proposing talks aimed at resolving differences over the company’s paused desalination project and suggested a series of “possible options that could be mutually beneficial for the city, Cal Am, and the region as a whole.”

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WIFIA Improvement Act Looks to Assist Public Water Projects

/in , , /by /AgNet West

The WIFIA Improvement Act of 2020 was recently introduced as a means for helping provide support for public water projects. The bipartisan legislation would make changes to the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 2014. The amendments would make water projects eligible for low-interest federal loans from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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Panel to Probe Toxic Wasteland in Calif. Lake

/in , , /by /E&E Newsby Jeremy P. Jacobs

A House committee will meet Thursday to discuss the deteriorating public health crisis at a Southern California lake. The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife will review federal and state efforts to address problems at the Salton Sea. The Salton Sea is California’s largest lake at about 350 square miles, fed by runoff from the crop fields of the Imperial Valley, an agricultural powerhouse.

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Arizona, Other States Challenge Proposed Utah Pipeline that Would Divert River Water

/in , , /by /Arizona Daily Starby Tony Davis

Arizona and five other Colorado River Basin states are challenging a proposed pipeline that would divert to a booming Utah community almost as much river water as Tucson uses every year. Six of the seven river basin states — all but Utah — wrote to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on Tuesday, seeking a delay in publishing a final environmental review, and in making a final decision, on the Lake Powell pipeline.

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