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.
On a 107 degree morning in the mountains east of Phoenix, a
miner in a hard hat plunges down the nearly 7,000-foot shaft of
what may soon be the biggest underground copper mine in the
United States. But for now, the Resolution Copper mine isn’t
taking out copper. It’s taking out groundwater, at a rate of
around 600 gallons per minute. Because this copper is so deep
underground, in geologic formations dating back more than a
billion years, the mining takes place far below the water
table. The mine is removing that aquifer water so the
operations don’t flood. And the mine is giving away this water
for free to nearby farmers, about 6 billion gallons so far.
[T[o strike oil in America, you need water. Plenty of
it. Today, the insatiable search for oil and gas has
become the latest threat to the country’s endangered aquifers,
a critical national resource that is already being drained
at alarming rates by industrial farming and cities in
search of drinking water. The amount of water consumed by
the oil industry, revealed in a New York Times investigation,
has soared to record levels. … And now, fracking companies
are the ones scrambling for water. A 2016 Ceres
report found that nearly 60 percent of the 110,000 wells
fracked between 2011 and 2016 were in regions with high or
extremely high water stress, including basins in Texas,
Colorado, Oklahoma, and California.
Reservoir hydropower offers a compelling combination of
stability and flexibility services for modern water and power
grids. However, its operating flexibility is poorly
characterized in energy system planning, missing opportunities
to cost-effectively uptake variable renewable energy (VRE) for
a clean energy transition. In this study, we have developed a
fully coupled reservoir operation and energy expansion model to
quantify the economic and environmental benefits attained from
adaptive hydropower operation in a high VRE future. Our case
study of the China Southern Power Grid reveals that, in a 2050
net-zero grid, simply adapting hydropower operations to balance
VRE can reduce 2018–2050 total system costs by 7% (that is,
US$28.2 billion) and simultaneously save 123.8 km3 of water
each year …
The Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah is one of the richest oil
shale deposits in the country. It is estimated to hold more
proven reserves than all of Saudi Arabia. Enefit, an Estonian
company, was the latest in a long line of firms that hoped to
tap it. It’s also the latest to see such plans collapse — but
perhaps not yet for good. The company has lost access to the
water it would need to unearth the petroleum and relinquished a
federal lease that allowed research and exploration on the
land. The two moves, made late last month, appear to signal the
end of Enefit’s plans to mine shale oil in the Uinta
Basin.
There’s a new hotspot in the world of geothermal energy: a
seemingly sleepy valley in Beaver County. Its secret? The
valley sits on top of bedrock that reaches temperatures up to
465 degrees Fahrenheit. Joseph Moore, who manages the Utah
FORGE research project, pointed across a dirt parking lot to a
well being drilled at the University of Utah’s subterranean
lab. … The mission of the FORGE project — which stands
for Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy —
isn’t to produce its own electricity. It’s to test tools and
techniques through trial and error and, in the process, answer
a big question: Can you pipe cool water through cracks in hot
underground rock and create a geothermal plant almost anywhere?
The state of California filed a lawsuit against some of the
world’s largest oil and gas companies, claiming they deceived
the public about the risks of fossil fuels now faulted for
climate change-related storms and wildfires that caused
billions of dollars in damage, officials said
Saturday. The civil lawsuit filed in state Superior Court
in San Francisco also seeks creation of a fund — financed by
the companies — to pay for recovery efforts following
devastating storms and fires. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said
in a statement the companies named in the lawsuit — Exxon
Mobil, Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and BP — should be held
accountable.
A wide-ranging bill at the State Capitol aimed at boosting
renewable energy sources includes a provision that could help
develop a proposed pumped hydroelectric facility at the San
Vicente Reservoir near Lakeside. Assembly Bill 1373 aims to
make the state a centralized buyer for renewable energy sources
such as offshore wind power and geothermal facilities. And in a
late addition to the bill, it allows the state’s Department of
Water Resources to procure funding for a pumped hydro project
that “does not exceed 500 megawatts and has been directly
appropriated funding by the state before January 1, 2023.” The
Union-Tribune received confirmation from legislative sources
that the provision specifically refers to the San Vicente
project.
The lithium bonanza continues at the largest saline system
in the West, but a new company says it can harvest the mineral
in a way that doesn’t contribute to ecological
collapse. Waterleaf Resources, a subsidiary of
California-based Lilac Solutions, wants to siphon an
astounding 225,000 acre-feet from Utah’s Great Salt Lake,
asserting it will pump all the water back after removing its
lithium. The company uses an ion exchange technology that
washes brine through bead structures which absorb the lithium
minerals and flush out the rest of the water and its remaining
minerals.
On Thursday, August 10, Butte Creek turned orange. The culprit:
a failed PG&E canal that caused orange sediment to flood
the creek potentially creating deadly conditions for native
fish currently inhabiting the watershed including threatened
spring-run Chinook salmon. Salmon are a keystone species, and
their health is intricately connected with the rest of the
ecosystem. Native fish across California are consistently
vulnerable to safe and responsible operation of hydroelectric
infrastructure such as dams and canals. In some cases, basins
like Butte Creek are managed by water-moving infrastructure,
guiding flows from the nearby Feather River watershed to Butte
Creek.
Climate solutions like solar panels and electric cars require
lots of minerals – copper, lithium, manganese. The U.S. plans
new mines for these metals across the West. But as NPR’s Julia
Simon reports, the country’s need for these metals can
sometimes collide with the region’s lack of water. … You
do have a miner in there. JULIA SIMON, BYLINE: On a
107-degree morning in the mountains east of Phoenix, a miner in
a hard hat peeps out of the top of an 11-foot-tall bucket.
Tyson Nansel, spokesperson for the Resolution Copper mine, says
the miner’s about to plunge… SIMON: …Where the copper
lies. To process it, the mine will use water – a lot, says
geologist James Wells, much of it from an area east of
Phoenix. JAMES WELLS: The equivalent of a brand-new city
of something like 140,000 people – that’s how much water we’re
talking about.
Marin Municipal Water District staff are recommending delaying
a proposed expansion of “smart” water meters to all customers
in order to address more urgent risks to the agency’s main
software system. On Tuesday, staff and consultants told the
district Board of Directors that attempting to simultaneously
complete two of the district’s largest technological upgrades
in decades may result in potential system failures. … For the
past 23 years, the water district has used the same software
system from the multinational company SAP to manage nearly all
of the agency’s functions, including billing, water-use
tracking, human resources, maintenance planning and customer
relations.
Innovative water treatment and desalination technologies hold
promise for building climate resilience, realizing a circular
water economy, and bolstering water security. However, more
research and development is critical not only to radically
lower the cost and energy of such technologies, but to
effectively treat unconventional water sources. Conventional
water supplies, such as fresh water and groundwater, are
typically used once and thrown away, rendering this valuable
and finite resource inaccessible for further use. Since its
launch in 2019, the National Alliance for Water Innovation
(NAWI) has made strides in developing new technologies to
economically treat, use, and recycle unconventional waters
(such as brackish groundwater, municipal and industrial
wastewater, and agricultural run-off), which could point to a
future where water equity and security is accessible to all.
Power system manufacturer FuelCell Energy and carmaker Toyota
have deployed the world’s first “tri-gen” system that turns
methane-rich waste gas into electricity, clean hydrogen and
water that the auto giant will use at its Southern California
port facility for the next 20 years. … The companies
said Thursday the energy platform at Toyota’s main U.S.
logistics facility at the Port of Long Beach, proposed in
2017 and built in stages, is fully complete and operating.
It’s designed to convert a stream of biogas, sourced from
agricultural waste and sludge, into 2.3 megawatts of
electricity, 1,200 kilograms of hydrogen and 1,400 gallons of
water per day, FuelCell Energy CEO Jason Few told Forbes.
It cost about $35 million to build and only takes up as much
space as three basketball courts.
America’s hydropower industry is hoping to reestablish some of
its former glory by making itself central to the nation’s
transition to clean energy—and it’s turning to Congress for
help. … Today, hydropower provides just a small fraction of
the nation’s electricity and is quickly being outpaced globally
by its clean energy rivals in new development. Now the
industry, with help from a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers,
hopes to change that trend. … The bill has gained early
support from industry, environmental groups, Native tribes and
even the Biden administration. But it’s also getting pushback
from some advocates who say that expanding or extending the use
of hydropower could actually worsen climate change and hasten
ecological degradation.
At an age when most schoolkids are still learning to tie their
shoelaces, Nathaniel Prebalick — AKA Gold Plate Nate — was
teaching budding treasure hunters how to pan for gold. As a
third-generation prospector, he was raised amid the sparkling
streams of California’s Gold Country, in the foothills of the
Sierra Nevada, getting to know its watery veins as well as the
life lines of his own hands. While this may sound like a
sepia-tinged snapshot from another century, it’s anything but —
as I discover when I meet Nate on a grassy riverbank one spring
morning. He’s a thoroughly modern gold digger — a smiling
twentysomething who uploads his gilded finds to Instagram — and
he has a ready explanation for why Tuolumne County in eastern
California is, once again, in the grip of a gold rush.
The coast is for many the epitome of Sonoma County’s natural
beauty beloved for its seaside towns and rugged, wide open
spaces. But seeing the future of the Sonoma coast means
embracing its constant movement. Big proposals like the Bodega
Bay nuclear power plant in the 1960’s, or the Fort Ross pumped
hydro electric facility today easily capture public attention
and spur opposition, but there’s one powerful force that
changes the Sonoma Coast every minute of every day: the ocean.
A federal appeals court panel Friday halted an exploratory gold
drilling project in the eastern Sierra Nevada that was set to
begin this week. Kore Mining Ltd. planned to drill for gold
near Mammoth Lakes. The project involved 12, 600-foot deep
holes on some 1,900 acres. It would have required vegetation
clearing and less than a mile of temporary access roads. Four
groups — Friends of the Inyo, the Center for Biological
Diversity, the Western Watersheds Project and the Sierra Club —
sued Kore Mining and the U.S. Forest Service in October 2021,
arguing the drilling would impact area groundwater that feeds
into the Owens River and cause the bi-state sage grouse to
abandon its habitat. A federal judge in March sided with the
defendants.
Coal mining depleted areas of a critical aquifer in the Black
Mesa region of the Navajo Nation, but a federal agency didn’t
consider the losses environmentally damaging, researchers
concluded in a new study of the aquifer in northern Arizona.
The researchers detailed what they said were failures by the
federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement to
hold the Peabody mining company responsible for the
environmental effects of coal mining in the Black Mesa area.
The findings of the study, conducted by the Institutes for
Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, didn’t surprise Nicole
Horseherder, executive director of Tó Nizhóní Ání, a group
working to protect Black Mesa water, among other things.
… Rising salinity, exacerbated by a shrinking freshwater
supply from the chronically drought-plagued Colorado River, has
made the Salton Sea uninhabitable for many aquatic species.
… But recently, the Salton Sea has become a hotbed of
industrial activity filled with promise for the future. Beneath
its shores lie untouched lithium deposits that experts believe
could play a role in the world’s clean energy future. With
the rising demand for lithium during the clean energy
transition, the area—also known as “Lithium Valley”—has become
an attractive location for major energy companies to explore
advanced mining techniques like direct lithium extraction
(DLE).
Six years after unveiling plans to build a 320-foot high dam
and reservoir at Pacheco Pass in southern Santa Clara County,
the largest water district in Silicon Valley still hasn’t found
any other water agencies willing to help fund the project. But
this week, an unusual potential partner came to light: China.
The revelation of interest from one of the United States’ most
contentious rivals is the latest twist in the project’s shaky
history: The price tag has tripled to $2.8 billion since 2018
due to unstable geology found in the area. The Santa Clara
Valley Water District, which is pursuing the plan, has delayed
groundbreaking by at least three years, to 2027, instead of
2024 as announced five years ago. And environmentalists won a
lawsuit this summer that will require more study of how ongoing
geological work will affect endangered plants and
animals.
The Grand Junction Planning Commission voted 7-0 on Tuesday to
approve a conditional use permit for a sand and gravel pit
located near the Colorado River. The proposed gravel pit would
sit on about 28 acres on C 1/2 Road, in an area zoned for
community services and recreation. The area that is within 100
feet of the river will not be mined, according to a city staff
report. Some of the vegetation on the site has already been
cleared in anticipation of construction, Grand Junction
Principal Planner Kristen Ashbeck said. The site will be mined
over 10 years, Ashbeck said, with operations focusing on a
small area at a time.
Fears, concerns and legal challenges over a proposed oil train
route along the Colorado River were finally addressed in
federal court last week. Until then, plans for the Uinta Basin
Railway project, which would ferry vast amounts of crude oil
from northeast Utah eastward alongside the Colorado River,
sailed through federal agencies tasked with approving large
transportation projects. But then the U.S. Court of Appeals in
Washington, D.C., successfully challenged the project’s
environmental impact assessments, siding with the railway’s
opponents and striking a blow against what would have been the
largest petroleum corridor in the United States.
In 2021, hydropower contributed 16% to total global electricity
production, whereas in the United States it accounted for only
about 6% of the total (although it was responsible for 31.5% of
electricity generated domestically from renewable sources),
according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That
small share of U.S. production could be higher: The 2016
Hydropower Vision Report, published by the U.S. Department of
Energy’s (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), stated
that “U.S. hydropower could grow from 101 gigawatts (GW) of
capacity to nearly 150 GW by 2050.”
OceanWell and Las Virgenes Municipal Water District (LVMWD)
announced today their partnership to pilot California’s
first-ever Blue Water farm. LVMWD Board of Directors
unanimously approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that
paves the way for the public/private partnership to research an
environment-first approach that addresses the increasing
concern of water scarcity and reliability. Blue Water is fresh
water harvested from the deep ocean or other raw water sources.
This, first-of-its-kind project, will test OceanWell’s
proprietary water purification technology to produce safe,
clean drinking water without the environmental impacts of
traditional coastal desalination methods.
Agricultural irrigation induces greenhouse gas emissions
directly from soils or indirectly through the use of energy or
construction of dams and irrigation infrastructure, while
climate change affects irrigation demand, water availability
and the greenhouse gas intensity of irrigation energy. Here, we
present a scoping review to elaborate on these
irrigation–climate linkages by synthesizing knowledge across
different fields, emphasizing the growing role climate change
may have in driving future irrigation expansion and reinforcing
some of the positive feedbacks. This Review underscores the
urgent need to promote and adopt sustainable irrigation,
especially in regions dominated by strong, positive feedbacks.
Climate change — and changing political winds — are prompting
shifts in strategy at California’s largest agricultural water
district. Westlands Water District, which occupies some 1,100
square miles of the arid San Joaquin Valley, is in the midst of
an internal power struggle that will determine how water fights
unfold across the state. After years of aggressively
fighting for more water, Westlands is making plans to live with
less. In 2016, Donald Trump campaigned in the valley, promising
to “open up the water” for farmers in the then-drought stricken
state. Its leaders are now sounding a more Biden-esque note:
They are planning to cover a sixth of the district with solar
panels to start “farming the sun” instead of thirsty crops like
almonds and pistachios.
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 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.
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.
