Water and energy are interconnected. A frequent term to describe
this relationship is the “water-energy nexus.”
Energy for Water: Energy is needed to store water, get it where
it is needed and also treat it to be used:
* Extracting water from rivers and streams or pumping it
from aquifers, and then conveying it over hills and into storage
facilities is a highly energy intensive process. The State Water
Project (SWP) pumps water 700 miles, including up nearly 2,000
feet over the Tehachapi Mountains. The SWP is the largest single
user of energy in California. It consumes an average of 5 billion
kWh per year. That’s about 2 to 3 percent of all electricity
consumed in California
* Water treatment facilities use energy to pump and process
water for use in homes, businesses and industry
* Consumers use energy to treat water with softeners or
filters, to circulate and pressurize water and to heat and cool
water
* Wastewater plants use energy to pump wastewater to
treatment plants, and also to aerate and filter it at the plant.
Different end uses require more electricity for delivery than
others. Water for residential, commercial and industrial end-use
needs the most energy (11 percent), followed by agricultural
end-use (3 percent), residential, commercial and industrial
supply and treatment (3 percent), agricultural water supply and
treatment (1 percent) and wastewater treatment (1 percent),
according to the California Energy Commission.
Water for Energy: Water is used to generate electricity
* Water is needed either to process raw materials used in a
facility or maintaining a plant,or to just generate electricity
itself.
Overall, the electricity industry is second only to agriculture
as the largest user of water in the United States. Electricity
production from fossil fuels and nuclear energy requires 190,000
million gallons of water per day, accounting for 39 percent of
all freshwater withdrawals in the nation. Coal, the most abundant
fossil fuel, currently accounts for 52 percent of U.S.
electricity generation, and each kWh generated from coal requires
withdrawal of 25 gallons of water.
This half-hour special dives into the troubles and triumphs at
the Salton Sea. The sea is the largest body of water in
California. It formed after a levee at the Colorado River burst
in the early 1900s, and after the levee was fixed, it cut off
the flow of fresh water. Since then, the sea has become
polluted with chemical runoff from nearby farms. It’s also
slowly evaporating. The chemical-filled water releases gases
that trigger asthma in nearby communities, and toxic dust from
around the shoreline acts as an irritant as well. Despite
all of the negatives, there are a few positives. New wetlands
are forming as the sea slowly pulls away from the shoreline,
playing host to thousands of migrating birds. Developing
wetlands make the sea an important stop along the Pacific
Flyway.
Environmental groups on Thursday sued officials who signed off
on a lithium project in the Salton Sea that a top Biden
official has helped advance. Comité Civico del Valle and
Earthworks filed the legal complaint in Imperial County
Superior Court against county officials who approved
conditional permits for Controlled Thermal Resources’ Hell’s
Kitchen lithium and geothermal project. The groups argue that
the country’s approval of the direct lithium extraction and
geothermal brine project near the southeastern shore of the
Salton Sea violates county and state laws, such as the
California Environmental Quality Act.
The rain and snow that have drenched California and much of the
American West over the last few months — at least relative to
some of the hellishly dry years we’ve gotten recently — are a
blessing not just for water supplies, but for energy. Or maybe
they’re a curse (for energy, not for water). It depends on whom
you ask. Much of the electricity powering our lights and
refrigerators and cellphones comes from rivers, their once
free-flowing waters backing up behind dams and trickling
through hydropower turbines.
The oil and gas industry could be on the hook for billions of
dollars as a growing number of states consider making the
sector pay for climate impacts such as floods and sea-level
rise. At least four states are debating legislation, modeled on
the federal Superfund program for contaminated land, that would
hold major fossil fuel companies liable for damage caused by
the historical emissions of their products. In Vermont, which
saw record flooding last year, a majority of the House and a
supermajority of the Senate have signed onto the proposal, all
but ensuring it will pass. Similar bills have been introduced
in New York — where it already has passed the Senate — as well
as Massachusetts and Maryland.
… [Denise] Moreno Ramírez wasn’t surprised when she heard an
Australian mining company, South32, planned to open a
manganese, zinc, lead and silver operation in the same area
where her family had worked. … The grasslands, woodlands,
swamps and prairies of south-east Arizona’s Sky Islands are
home to more than 100 species of large mammals: the greatest
number north of Mexico. Residents from the borderlands area
have long dealt with the health impacts of pollution linked
with earlier industrial activity, including mining – from lupus
to cancer. And in spite of it all, they have managed to
preserve a patch of one of the most biodiverse, and imperiled,
ecosystems in the world. … The lithium
boom has received the bulk of attention amid calls to
electrify everything – but another mineral, manganese, has
been earmarked by the US as a critical element to ramp up
the production of electric vehicle batteries.
In the past 10 days, nearly 2,000 people have signed an online
petition opposing a proposal that asks President Joe Biden to
designate a national monument around western Colorado’s Dolores
River. “I think it absolutely, positively could be a threat,”
petition organizer Sean Pond told The Colorado Sun.
… Pond once had a career in the nuclear industry in the
West End of Montrose County, home of the Uravan Mineral Belt,
which is one of the country’s richest caches of uranium and
vanadium. Now he rents paddleboards and off-road vehicles to
tourists. He says a monument designation would bring crowds
that could lead to future bans on motorized travel, which would
hinder grazing and hunting. He worries a monument would ban
mining in an area where residents have spent almost half a
century waiting for a nuclear revival that would resuscitate
uranium mining and milling.
There is a solar-powered revolution going on in the fields of
India. By 2026, more than 3 million farmers will be raising
irrigation water from beneath their fields using solar-powered
pumps. With effectively free water available in almost
unlimited quantities to grow their crops, their lives could be
transformed. Until the water runs out. The desert state of
Rajasthan is the Indian pioneer and has more solar pumps than
any other. Over the past decade, the government has given
subsidized solar pumps to almost 100,000 farmers. Those pumps
now water more than a million acres and have enabled
agricultural water use to increase by more than a quarter. But
as a result, water tables are falling rapidly. There is little
rain to replace the water being pumped to the surface. In
places, the underground rocks are now dry down to 400 feet
below ground.
The legacies of California’s 1849 Gold Rush and the relentless
search for gold that continued decades later are well known:
the rise of San Francisco; statehood; Wells Fargo; Levi’s
jeans; a Bay Area football team named after the fortune-seeking
miners. But along the shores of Clear Lake, just north of Napa
Valley’s famed wineries, is another gold-rush legacy: toxic
pollution. From the 1860s until it closed in 1957, the Sulphur
Bank Mine was one of the largest mercury mines in the United
States. Gold miners in the Sierra Nevada used the mercury dug
from its deep tunnels and craggy cavities to separate gold from
the ore that held it. … Now a major effort has begun to
clean up the historic mess and reduce health threats to people
who have called the area home for thousands of years.
A local community health organization and a national
environmental group said they are negotiating with the
developer of the Hell’s Kitchen lithium and geothermal power
projects and have won an extension of at least 15 days to
appeal Imperial County approvals of Controlled Thermal
Resources’ first phase construction near the Salton
Sea. ”Comite Civico del Valle and Earthworks have reached
an agreement with CTR to extend the filing deadline for
litigation and we are currently in negotiations,” Luis Olmedo,
executive director of Comite Civico del Valle based in Brawley,
said in a statement Thursday. Earthworks, headquartered in
Washington, D.C., focuses on helping communities end fossil
fuel use while ensuring a safe and equitable transition to
clean energy.
After years of controversy, the Nevada County Board of
Supervisors unanimously struck down a Grass Valley gold mining
project. … Rise Gold first submitted an application to resume
gold mining operations at the Idaho Maryland Mine, which is in
Grass Valley, in 2019. The site had been inactive since its
closure in the 1950s, but Rise Gold said it had untapped
potential. But the company was quickly met with mass
opposition. Christy Hubbard, a Grass Valley resident and
volunteer for a couple local groups opposing the project …
said she was particularly concerned with the potential for
mining operations to contaminate or otherwise negatively impact
local groundwater supply. As a member of the Wells Coalition, a
local group of well owners, and an owner of a well herself, she
worried mining could reduce water flows or contaminate
them.
In the quest to bolster domestic lithium production, a county
in Southern California is emerging as a crucial player. The
Salton Sea, a salty lake located in Imperial County three hours
east of Los Angeles, contains some of the world’s largest
lithium deposits. According to a Department of Energy report
published last November, there are approximately 18 million
tons of lithium here—enough to meet the demand for 375 million
EV batteries, significantly more than all EVs currently on
American roads. But there’s a catch. Extracting lithium
from the Salton Sea involves a special extraction method that
hasn’t been proven yet, leaving uncertainty about its
commercial viability.
For the first time in the United States, a tribe in Arizona is
building a solar farm over an irrigation canal to produce clean
energy and save water at a time of unrelenting drought. The
Gila River Indian Community has broken ground on a project to
put solar panels over nearly 3,000 feet of the Casa Blanca
canal south of Phoenix. It’s one phase of a pilot project
designed to eventually help the tribe reach its goal of using
100% renewable power. The idea is modeled after a similar
project in India, says David DeJong, director of the
Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project. … The Turlock
Irrigation District in California’s Central Valley is
expected to start a project of its own soon. DeJong
says money from the Inflation Reduction Act funded
the solar farm, and it will eventually produce enough
electricity to power several thousand homes.
The U.S. Forest Service withdrew its record of decision and
amendment that would have allowed the Utah Seven County
Infrastructure Coalition to build and operate a railway on 12
miles of National Forest System lands on Jan. 17. The activity
required a project-specific Forest Plan amendment to reflect
the railway’s visual impact on the landscape in order to move
forward. The Uinta Basin Railway project has faced significant
backlash from Colorado communities and organizations, including
Grand County’s chapter of Trout Unlimited. The withdrawal of
the permit is a victory for opponents of the railway who say
the approval process “did not properly account for the
project’s full risks.”
The plastics industry has worked for decades to convince people
and policymakers that recycling would keep waste out of
landfills and the environment. Consumers sort their trash so
plastic packaging can be repurposed, and local governments use
taxpayer money to gather and process the material. Yet from the
early days of recycling, plastic makers, including oil and gas
companies, knew that it wasn’t a viable solution to deal with
increasing amounts of waste, according to documents uncovered
by the Center for Climate Integrity. … But the industry
appears to have championed recycling mainly for its public
relations value, rather than as a tool for avoiding
environmental damage, the documents suggest.
Another company has given up on trying to develop oil shale in
the Uinta Basin, faced with legal battles, environmental
concerns and money going down the drain. Estonia’s national
energy company announced that it was wrapping up its fruitless
oil shale venture in Utah at the end of last month. Estonia
Finance Minister Mart Võrklaev said that the company’s project
in Utah was “neither profitable nor promising” in a news
release. … Oil shale is a hard sedimentary rock that can
be heated to release synthetic crude oil. It’s a thirsty and
expensive process that threatens air quality, water quality and
endangered species, and exacerbates global warming, according
to nonprofit Grand Canyon Trust staff attorney
Michael Toll.
California oil and gas regulators have formally released their
plan to phase out fracking three years after essentially
halting new permits for the practice. The California Geologic
Energy Management Division (CalGEM) wrote that they would not
approve (PDF) applications for permits for well stimulation
treatments like fracking to “prevent damage to life, health,
property, and natural resources (PDF)” in addition to
protecting public health and mitigating greenhouse gas
emissions. … Hydraulic fracturing injects liquids,
mostly water, underground at high pressure to extract oil or
gas. Oil companies say fracking has been done safely for years
under state regulation and that a ban should come from the
Legislature, not a state agency.
A Union Pacific train carrying 118 tons of coal derailed Sunday
due to a track defect and dumped its contents into and around
Plumas County’s Feather River, according to railroad officials
and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Fifteen
rail cars chugging west on tracks parallel to the Middle Fork
Feather River in Blairsden derailed, spilling the coal into the
river. At least 14 rail cars tipped over or sustained damage,
Fish and Wildlife officials said. At least one rail car fell
into the water. … The cost estimate to clean up the river is
more than $150,000, according to the CalOES spill
report. There could be potential “smothering effects” on
organisms in the river, but its short-term impacts are not
expected to affect the water, the Department of Fish and
Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response said in a
Facebook post.
A pair of atmospheric rivers that drenched California in recent
weeks will bolster the state’s hydropower systems by filling
reservoirs and building up snowpack levels after a prolong
drought cut supply, the state’s Department of Water Resources
(DWR) data showed. As of Saturday, the state’s reservoir
storage was at 118% of its historical average, according to the
DWR. In Northern California, Lake Oroville, its largest
reservoir, was at 78% capacity. Statewide, snowpack, which
melts and fills up water reservoirs during the spring, climbed
to 76% of historical average … Reservoir and snowpack and
levels are good indicators of future hydroelectricity supplies,
however, other water uses such as agriculture, wildlife and
industrial operations are usually prioritized over electricity
generation.
America’s biggest saltwater lake may hold a key to the
country’s energy future. This summer, a California startup
plans to start construction on a project to suck up water from
the Great Salt Lake to extract one of its many valuable
minerals: lithium, a critical ingredient in the rechargeable
batteries used in electric vehicles. The water will then be
reinjected back into the lake, which Lilac Solutions says
addresses concerns about the damaging effects of mineral
extraction.
Last May, a Bay Area company curiously named Montezuma Wetlands
submitted an application to the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency to build a “CarbonHub” in Solano County’s Montezuma
Wetlands. According to the proposal, the project would involve
drilling a well for carbon injection and establishing an
extensive expansion of submerged pipelines across San Francisco
Bay. Almost immediately the project rightfully came under fire
from our organization and many others due to the reality that
such a venture would threaten public health, degrade the local
environment and stall legitimate climate action. Indeed, carbon
capture and sequestration (CCS) — the process of trapping and
storing climate pollution before it enters the atmosphere — has
never worked in the real world and, in an ironic twist, has
mostly been embraced by major polluters who see it as a way to
claim they are cleaning up their act without changing
anything. -Written by Chirag Bhakta, California director of Food
& Water Watch.
The moment Daniel Swain wakes up, he gets whipped about by
hurricane-force winds. “A Category 5, literally overnight, hits
Acapulco,” says the 34-year-old climate scientist and
self-described weather geek, who gets battered daily by the
onslaught of catastrophic weather headlines: wildfires,
megafloods, haboobs (an intense dust storm), atmospheric
rivers, bomb cyclones. Everyone’s asking: Did climate change
cause these disasters? And, more and more, they want Swain to
answer. … His ability to explain science to the masses—think
the Carl Sagan of weather—has made him one of the media’s go-to
climate experts. He’s a staff research scientist at UCLA’s
Institute of the Environment and Sustainability who spends more
than 1,100 hours each year on public-facing climate and weather
communication, explaining whether (often, yes) and how climate
change is raising the number and exacerbating the viciousness
of weather disasters.
Two months after its release in November 2022, OpenAI’s ChatGPT
had 100 million active users, and suddenly tech corporations
were racing to offer the public more “generative A.I.” Pundits
compared the new technology’s impact to the Internet, or
electrification, or the Industrial Revolution — or the
discovery of fire. Time will sort hype from reality, but one
consequence of the explosion of artificial intelligence is
clear: this technology’s environmental footprint is large and
growing. A.I. use is directly responsible for carbon emissions
from non-renewable electricity and for the consumption of
millions of gallons of fresh water, and it indirectly boosts
impacts from building and maintaining the power-hungry
equipment on which A.I. runs. As tech companies seek to embed
high-intensity A.I. into everything from resume-writing to
kidney transplant medicine and from choosing dog food to
climate modeling, they cite many ways A.I. could help reduce
humanity’s environmental footprint.
Trillions of dollars worth of lithium could be bubbling up from
the ground in the Imperial Valley, which is one of the hottest
and poorest areas of California. Lithium ion batteries power
everything from cell phones to electric cars, and they store
power generated from solar and wind farms when it’s not sunny
or windy. Tapping the so-called “white gold” officially began a
little over a week ago. Charles Zukoski, a professor of
chemical engineering and materials science at USC and host of
the podcast series Electric Futures, tells KCRW that the
advantage of a lithium ion battery, as opposed to a sodium ion
battery, is that it has higher energy density. It’s the best
technology currently available for electric cars, he
emphasizes.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hilton Garden Inn Las Vegas Strip South
7830 S Las Vegas Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89123
This special Foundation water tour journeyed along the Eastern Sierra from the Truckee River to Mono Lake, through the Owens Valley and into the Mojave Desert to explore a major source of water for Southern California, this year’s snowpack and challenges for towns, farms and the environment.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
The lower Colorado River has virtually every drop allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
This event explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
The majestic beauty of the Sierra
Nevada forest is awe-inspiring, but beneath the dazzling blue
sky, there is a problem: A century of fire suppression and
logging practices have left trees too close together. Millions of
trees have died, stricken by drought and beetle infestation.
Combined with a forest floor cluttered with dry brush and debris,
it’s a wildfire waiting to happen.
Fires devastate the Sierra watersheds upon which millions of
Californians depend — scorching the ground, unleashing a
battering ram of debris and turning hillsides into gelatinous,
stream-choking mudflows.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs is the focus of this tour.
Silverton Hotel
3333 Blue Diamond Road
Las Vegas, NV 89139
We explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop
of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad
sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and
climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs was the focus of this tour.
Hampton Inn Tropicana
4975 Dean Martin Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89118
This three-day, two-night tour explored the lower Colorado River
where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand
is growing from myriad sources — increasing population,
declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs is the focus of this tour.
Best Western McCarran Inn
4970 Paradise Road
Las Vegas, NV 89119
This 30-minute documentary-style DVD on the history and current
state of the San Joaquin River Restoration Program includes an
overview of the geography and history of the river, historical
and current water delivery and uses, the genesis and timeline of
the 1988 lawsuit, how the settlement was reached and what was
agreed to.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
20-minute DVD that explains the problem with polluted stormwater,
and steps that can be taken to help prevent such pollution and
turn what is often viewed as a “nuisance” into a water resource
through various activities.
Many Californians don’t realize that when they turn on the
faucet, the water that flows out could come from a source close
to home or one hundreds of miles away. Most people take their
water for granted; not thinking about the elaborate systems and
testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state. Where drinking water comes from,
how it’s treated, and what people can do to protect its quality
are highlighted in this 2007 PBS documentary narrated by actress
Wendie Malick.
A 30-minute version of the 2007 PBS documentary Drinking Water:
Quenching the Public Thirst. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues surrounding the elaborate systems
and testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state.
Water truly has shaped California into the great state it is
today. And if it is water that made California great, it’s the
fight over – and with – water that also makes it so critically
important. In efforts to remap California’s circulatory system,
there have been some critical events that had a profound impact
on California’s water history. These turning points not only
forced a re-evaluation of water, but continue to impact the lives
of every Californian. This 2005 PBS documentary offers a
historical and current look at the major water issues that shaped
the state we know today. Includes a 12-page viewer’s guide with
background information, historic timeline and a teacher’s lesson.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Klamath River Watershed. The
map text explains the many issues facing this vast,
15,000-square-mile watershed, including fish restoration;
agricultural water use; and wetlands. Also included are
descriptions of the separate, but linked, Klamath Basin
Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric Agreement,
and the next steps associated with those agreements. Development
of the map was funded by a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
A companion to the Truckee River Basin Map poster, this 24×36
inch poster, suitable for framing, explores the Carson River, and
its link to the Truckee River. The map includes Lahontan Dam and
Reservoir, the Carson Sink, and the farming areas in the basin.
Map text discusses the region’s hydrology and geography, the
Newlands Project, land and water use within the basin and
wetlands. Development of the map was funded by a grant from the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region, Lahontan Basin
Area Office.
Redesigned in 2017, this beautiful map depicts the seven
Western states that share the Colorado River with Mexico. The
Colorado River supplies water to nearly 40 million people in
Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming
and the country of Mexico. Text on this beautiful, 24×36-inch
map, which is suitable for framing, explains the river’s
apportionment, history and the need to adapt its management for
urban growth and expected climate change impacts.
The Water Education Foundation’s second edition of
the Layperson’s Guide to The Klamath River Basin is
hot off the press and available for purchase.
Updated and redesigned, the easy-to-read overview covers the
history of the region’s tribal, agricultural and environmental
relationships with one of the West’s largest rivers — and a
vast watershed that hosts one of the nation’s oldest and
largest reclamation projects.
The Colorado River provides water to 40 million people and 4
million acres of farmland in a region encompassing some 246,000
square miles in the southwestern United States. The 32-page
Layperson’s Guide to the Colorado River covers the history of the
river’s development; negotiations over division of its water; the
items that comprise the Law of the River; and a chronology of
significant Colorado River events.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to California Water provides an
excellent overview of the history of water development and use in
California. It includes sections on flood management; the state,
federal and Colorado River delivery systems; Delta issues; water
rights; environmental issues; water quality; and options for
stretching the water supply such as water marketing and
conjunctive use. New in this 10th edition of the guide is a
section on the human need for water.
The construction of Glen Canyon Dam
in 1964 created Lake Powell. Both are located in north-central
Arizona near the Utah border. Lake Powell acts as a holding tank
for outflow from the Colorado River Upper Basin States: Colorado,
New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
The water stored in Lake Powell is used for recreation, power
generation and delivering water to the Lower Basin states of
California, Arizona, and Nevada.
Every five years the California Department of Water Resources
updates its strategic plan for managing the state’s water
resources, as required by state law.
The California Water Plan, or Bulletin 160, projects the
status and trends of the state’s water supplies and demands
under a range of future scenarios.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at hydraulic
fracturing, or “fracking,” in California. Much of the information
in the article was presented at a conference hosted by the
Groundwater Resources Association of California.
The connection between water and energy is more relevant than
ever. After existing in separate realms for years, the maxim that
it takes water to produce energy and energy to produce water has
prompted a re-thinking of management strategies, including an
emphasis on renewable energy use by water agencies.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at the energy
requirements associated with water use and the means by which
state and local agencies are working to increase their knowledge
and improve the management of both resources.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
desalination – an issue that is marked by great optimism and
controversy – and the expected role it might play as an
alternative water supply strategy.
This printed copy of Western Water examines climate change –
what’s known about it, the remaining uncertainty and what steps
water agencies are talking to prepare for its impact. Much of the
information comes from the October 2007 California Climate Change
and Water Adaptation Summit sponsored by the Water Education
Foundation and DWR and the November 2007 California Water Policy
Conference sponsored by Public Officials for Water and
Environmental Reform.
Hydropower generation is prevalent in the West, where rapidly
flowing river systems have been tapped for generations to produce
electricity. Hydropower is a clean, steady and reliable energy
source, but the damming of rivers has exacted a toll on the
environment, affecting, among other things, the migration of fish
to vestigial spawning grounds. Many of those projects are due to
be relicensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The California power crisis has made international headlines. But
what is the link between water and power in California? How is
the state’s dry spell affecting its hydropower generation? How
has the electric crisis affected water users in the state? These
questions and others are addressed in this issue of Western
Water.