Tag Archive for: water crisis

Opinion: In Southern Nevada’s Endless Water Crisis, We’re Well Past the Time to be Lawn Gone

/in , /by /The Nevada Independentby John L. Smith

The front lawn came with the house we moved into a couple years ago.

The patch of Bermudagrass was smaller than an average putting green and easy to mow. The splash of deep green was cute as far as that goes, but it was out of place on a street that had largely made the transition to colored rock and water-smart landscaping.

Beyond the postcard aesthetics, it made zero sense to continue to water a lawn in the desert. Setting aside the politics of climate change and our arid land with its endless water crisis — a basic definition of “desert” — there were no children at home to play on it. And I could live with the dogs’ disappointment. In short, there was nothing to debate.

Full Story

Lake Powell Level About to Hit a Historic Low as West’s Water Crisis Deepens

/in , , /by /The Salt Lake Tribuneby Brian Maffly

Lake Powell will soon hit its lowest level since Glen Canyon Dam started trapping the Colorado River’s water in 1963 — even with emergency releases of water from reservoirs upstream. The Bureau of Reclamation announced Thursday that the lake elevation will soon drop below 3,555.1 feet above sea level, the record set in 2005, back near the start of a 20-year dry cycle plaguing the Colorado River Basin.

Full Story

Bills Addressing California Water Crisis Advance in Sacramento

/in , , /by /Fox 26 Newsby Liz Gonzalez

A pair of bills addressing the state’s water crisis have now cleared another hurdle in Sacramento.

Senate bill 559 from Senator Melissa Hurtado (14th District- Sanger) would allocate $785 million dollars to repair three canals that move water across the state.

Full Story

5 Things To Know About The Klamath Water Crisis

/in , /by /JPRby Erik Neumann

Tensions have been building in Klamath Falls in recent weeks over a drought that is devastating farmland, fish deemed sacred to native tribes, and wildlife. The Klamath Basin, along the Oregon-California border, has a complex history. Drought and fights over water aren’t new.

Full Story

Mega-Dairies, Disappearing Wells, and Arizona’s Deepening Water Crisis

/in , /by /The Guardianby Tony Davis

The Sunizona community, in the south-western US state of Arizona, is just a speck on the map. A few hundred homes dot the landscape along dirt roads and for a few miles along a state highway that leads to the foot of the Chiricahua mountains near the New Mexico border.

Cynthia Beltran moved to Sunizona with her seven-year-old son last autumn even though the area lacks functional drinking water wells, because it was all she could afford. She cannot afford the $15,000 (£10,000) cost of deepening her well, which dried up last year, and had been paying for a local firm to deliver water in a tanker. But at $100 a week it became too expensive, so now she will be relying on a friend to help her fetch water from her mother’s well.

Full Story

Silent No More: Klamath Tribes Gather to Protect Fish, Homelands

/in , , /by /Herald Newsby Alex Schwartz

A group of protesters gathered at Sugarman’s Corner in downtown Klamath Falls on Saturday, preparing to welcome a 25-car caravan of mostly Klamath Tribal members calling for solutions to the Klamath Basin’s water crisis.

A man walked by the demonstrators, eyeing their signs with statements like “Peace and Healing in the Klamath Basin,” “Water Justice is Social Justice” and “Undam the Klamath.”

Full Story

Water Crisis “Couldn’t be Worse” on Oregon-California Border

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Gillian Flaccus

The water crisis along the California-Oregon border went from dire to catastrophic this week as federal regulators shut off irrigation water to farmers from a critical reservoir and said they would not send extra water to dying salmon downstream or to a half-dozen wildlife refuges that harbor millions of migrating birds each year.

In what is shaping up to be the worst water crisis in generations, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said it will not release water this season into the main canal that feeds the bulk of the massive Klamath Reclamation Project, marking a first for the 114-year-old irrigation system.

Full Story

Biden Urged to Back Water Bill Amid Worst US Crisis in Decades

/in , , /by /The Guardianby Nina Lakhani

Democratic lawmakers and advocates are urging Joe Biden to back legislation proposing unprecedented investment in America’s ailing water infrastructure amid the country’s worst crisis in decades that has left millions of people without access to clean, safe, affordable water.

Full Story

Nearly 12 Million Texans Now Face Water Disruptions. The State Needs Residents to Stop Dripping Taps

/in , /by /The Texas Tribuneby Alex Samuels

After enduring multiple days of freezing temperatures and Texans dripping faucets to prevent frozen pipes from bursting, cities across the state warned Wednesday that water levels are dangerously low, and it may be unsafe to drink.

Full Story

Erin Brockovich says US is Now in a Water Crisis Far Worse Than People Realize

/in , , /by /The Hillby Anagha Srikanth

Amid a global pandemic and protests against police brutality, Erin Brockovich is trying to get America to pay attention to yet another issue: water.

“We are in a water crisis beyond anything you can imagine. Pollution and toxins are everywhere, stemming from the hazardous wastes of industry and agriculture. We’ve got more than 40,000 chemicals on the market today with only a few hundred regulated. We’ve had industrial byproducts discarded into the ground and into our water supply for years. This crisis affects everyone – rich or poor, black or white, Republican or Democrat. Communities everywhere think they are safe when they are not,” she wrote in an opinion story for the Guardian.

Full Story