"The consequences of the snow drought go beyond hydrologic droughts to water rights as well. The Colorado River basin is already over-allocated (to put it mildly), and this winter’s snowpack will likely only exacerbate the ongoing water rights tensions" re: #WaterintheWest
"The Colorado River basin’s snowpack is at 53% of normal, making it the lowest coverage on record for this date...There’s a low probability that reservoirs will fill up this year, he said." www.denverpost.com/2026/03/25/d... via @denverpost.com #climateurbanism #WaterintheWest
"If the forecast comes true, it would be the fifth-lowest inflow to Lake Powell since the reservoir’s establishment in 1963, according to the National Weather Service’s Colorado Basin River Forecast Center" www.denverpost.com/2026/03/09/c... via @denverpost.com #WaterintheWest
"Denver had been in a lower-level drought since mid-December. And with temperatures in the mid-60s this week, forecasters expect the drought to continue for the near future." denverite.com/2026/02/05/d... via @denverite.bsky.social #climateurbanism #WaterintheWest
re: #WaterintheWest et al.
re: #WaterintheWest
Water & wildfire management are incredibly complex issues. Water in the west has a sordid history (& there’s plenty of drama in the present) & deserves its own Yellowstone-esque drama series. But water supply, water & conservation policy has nothing to do with the #LAFires. #waterinthewest
Many Wyoming towns awarded federal #ARPA dollars for sewer and municipal water upgrades struggled to meet federal timelines, so the money was redistributed to "shovel-ready" projects. - @WyoFile @waterdesk.bsky.social #waterinthewest wyofile.com/wyoming-claw...
"...Cole Thompson, the director of green section research for the United States Golf Association. “The desert golf courses are actually the most efficient users of water out of necessity.”"
#WaterintheWest
www.nytimes.com/2024/11/13/s...
re: #WaterintheWest et al.
re: #WaterintheWest et al.
“It takes so much more water to supply a city than it takes gasoline,” said John Fleck... “So the size of the pipe or the canal has to be a lot bigger, has to be much wider, has to cover a lot more ground.”
#WaterInTheWest
sentinelcolorado.com/state-and-re...
"These investments have been essential in reducing water demand through voluntary water conservation incentives, while also investing in infrastructure upgrades and long-term strategies to maximize our water resources."
#WaterIntheWest
www.azcentral.com/story/opinio...
“I would argue that there aren't many entities with the authority across the country to do this,” said Beaux Jones, president and CEO of The Water Institute in New Orleans. “I don't know that the regulatory framework currently exists.”
#WaterInTheWest
www.aspenpublicradio.org/environment/...
"As much as 21 million acre-feet of water — or one and a half times the entire annual volume of the Colorado River — fell on the 36,000-square-mile greater LA metro area." - @landdesk.bsky.social
#WaterintheWest
www.hcn.org/issues/56-9/...
“Bothwell said the goal in Sonoma and elsewhere should be to balance the demands of those diverting surface water and those pumping groundwater with the needs of fish and ecosystems, particularly during severe droughts..."- @ianjames.bsky.social
#WaterintheWest
www.latimes.com/environment/...
+ “Due largely to water diversions by farmers and Utah’s booming population growth, the Great Salt Lake has shrunk by almost half in recent years.” #WaterintheWest
+ "Scientists say the West is believed to be as dry as it's been in 1200 years...megadrought made worse by climate change...But agriculture...bears the bulk of the blame...expanding alfalfa farms and dairies has meant less and less flows into the lake...population is also booming." #WaterintheWest
re: #WaterintheWest et al.
