Other State Water News

In the vast, high desert of southeastern New Mexico, underground aquifers are a vital source of water for drinking and agriculture. Groundwater has also become essential to a booming oil business, which is sprawling across the border from Texas and needs the water for hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) operations.

The Colorado State Patrol says 58-year-old Wesley Smith of Durango lost control of the truck Monday while hauling treated waste from a plant cleaning up water draining from the Gold King mine.

Afternoon storms have started spreading across New Mexico, dropping rain, and even causing flooding in some places. … As of late last week, the state’s largest river, the Rio Grande, was dry for about 22 miles in the San Acacia reach south of Socorro and for about 4 miles in the Isleta reach above Peralta. To prevent more drying, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has been pumping water from what’s called the Low Flow Conveyance Channel (LFCC) into the channel of the Rio Grande.

In late June, the U.S. House of Representatives passed House Resolution 2083, which would amend the 46-year-old Marine Mammal Protection Act to allow for state fisheries managers and tribal officials to kill as many as 930 sea lions a year on the Columbia and its tributaries to protect beleaguered fish populations.

From the Associated Press:

The ever-changing thermal geology of Yellowstone National Park has created a hot spot that melted an asphalt road and closed access to popular geysers and other attractions at the height of tourist season, officials said Thursday.

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From the Los Angeles Times, in a commentary by Jeff Burrell:

Today, working as a wildlife conservation scientist in the Northern Rockies, I see grizzly bears regularly. … Every sighting is gratifying, especially since the grizzly bear has been listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act for most of my life.”

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From the Los Angeles Times:

This is the same river route Lewis and Clark took 200 years ago, a 1,000-mile journey along the Columbia and Snake rivers and right up the musket of the American West. … For eight days we make shore visits to waterfalls, wineries, dams, fish ladders, museums and forts along the way.

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From The New York Times:

Arizona could be forced to cut water deliveries to its two largest cities unless states that tap the dwindling Colorado River find ways to reduce water consumption and deal with a crippling drought, officials of the state’s canal network said Tuesday.

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