Some people in California and across the West struggle to access
safe, reliable and affordable water to meet their everyday needs
for drinking, cooking and sanitation.
Join the Water Education Foundation, an impartial
nonprofit, in its mission to create a better understanding
of water issues and help resolve water problems through
educational programs.
We’re looking for a special kind of
writer to join our team who is eager to produce the kinds of
insightful and challenging stories we pursue, such as
our latest Western Water article on how
drought and climate change are threatening to upend collaboration
in the Colorado River Basin.
Are you a journalist enthralled by the history, policy and
science behind Western water issues? Then you might be just the
right person to join our team. We’re looking for a full-time
writer who is deeply knowledgeable about the West’s most precious
natural resource in California and the Colorado River Basin,
enjoys a fast-paced environment and possesses strong multimedia
skills. Learn more about the job here.
In the centennial year of the 1922 Colorado River
Compact that established a framework for management of the
river, the tour will take participants from Hoover Dam downstream
to the Mexican border and through the Imperial and Coachella
valleys to learn firsthand about the challenges and opportunities
now facing the “Lifeline of the Southwest” a hundred years later.
Acknowledging that the U.S. Forest Service has fallen short
when it comes to preventing wildfires, the Biden administration
this week said it would spend nearly $3 billion to reduce risk
across the most fire-prone areas of the United States, largely
in the American West. The impact could be significant in
California, where the federal government is the largest
landowner, responsible for nearly half of all land area in the
state, including 20 million acres of federal forests vexed by
an enduring wildfire crisis.
The State Water Resources Control Board on Wednesday withdrew
an emergency drought regulation for the Sacramento–San Joaquin
Delta. Despite a dry January, board staff said the regulation,
known as a temporary urgency change petition (TUCP), would not
improve conditions if implemented as planned in February. They
found no potential benefits to Shasta and Trinity reservoirs,
which have the greatest need for water.
High in the San Bernardino Mountains, water seeps from the
ground … Near this dribbling spring, water gushes
through a system of tunnels and boreholes, and flows into a
network of stainless steel pipes that join together in a single
line… to a tank, where some is hauled away in trucks to be
bottled and sold as Arrowhead 100% Mountain Spring Water. Local
environmentalists say the bottled water pipeline doesn’t belong
in the national forest … The latest round in the fight
over bottled water in the San Bernardino Mountains is playing
out in a series of virtual hearings focusing on [Arrowhead
owner] BlueTriton Brands’ water rights claims.
We’re looking for a special kind of writer to join our team who
is eager to produce the kinds of insightful and challenging
stories we pursue, such as our latest Western Water article on
how drought and climate change are threatening to upend
collaboration in the Colorado River Basin. Are you a journalist
enthralled by the history, policy and science behind Western
water issues? Then you might be just the right person to join
our team.
As part of the historic Colorado River Delta, the Salton Sea
regularly filled and dried for thousands of years due to its
elevation of 237 feet below sea level.
The most recent version of the Salton Sea was formed in 1905 when
the Colorado River broke
through a series of dikes and flooded the seabed for two years,
creating California’s largest inland body of water. The
Salton Sea, which is saltier than the Pacific Ocean, includes 130
miles of shoreline and is larger than Lake Tahoe.
Drought—an extended period of
limited or no precipitation—is a fact of life in California and
the West, with water resources following boom-and-bust patterns.
During California’s 2012–2016 drought, much of the state
experienced severe drought conditions: significantly less
precipitation and snowpack, reduced streamflow and higher
temperatures. Those same conditions reappeared early in 2021
prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom in May to declare drought emergencies
in watersheds across 41 counties in California.
