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Topic: Growth

Overview April 24, 2014

Growth

Despite droughts, the recession and natural disasters, California’s urban population continues to grow.

This population growth means increasing demand for water by urban areas—home to most of California’s population [see also Agricultural Conservation].  As of 2012, seven of the most populated urbanized areas in the United States are in California.

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Aquafornia news February 3, 2023 NPR

Climate change and a population boom could dry up the Great Salt Lake in 5 years

Trekking along the shoreline of the Great Salt Lake — the largest remaining saltwater lake in the western hemisphere — can feel eerie and lonely. … [Carly Biedul, a biologist with the Great Salt Lake Institute], is bundled up in an orange puffy jacket, gloves and hat. Most important she’s wearing, thick, sturdy, rubber boots. The mud with a frozen, slick layer of ice on top gets treacherous. One thing that’s hard to prepare for though, is the stench: A pungent odor like sulfur and dead fish. But it’s actually a good thing, a sign of a biologically healthy saline lake. “People have been saying that they miss the lake stink because it just makes them feel like home,” Biedul says. “It’s just not here [much] anymore, so you’re lucky that it gets to smell so bad.” Lucky? Maybe one small bright spot in an otherwise grim story of a looming ecological disaster. The lake doesn’t really stink anymore because it’s drying … and dying.

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Aquafornia news February 3, 2023 High Country News

What happens when an affluent Arizona suburb’s main water supply is cut off?

The Rio Verde Foothills look like any other slice of desert suburbia, a smattering of roughly 2,000 stucco homes in a cactus-studded neighborhood just outside of Scottsdale, Arizona, one of Phoenix’s booming satellite cities. An affluent community with a median home price of $825,000, it offered homebuyers cheap land, good schools and mountain views — but not, as many residents recently discovered, a stable water supply. No municipal water pipes reach the Rio Verde Foothills, so about 25% to 35% of the residents rely on a longstanding arrangement in which private water trucks deliver water supplied by Scottsdale. When the city began threatening to cut off the community’s access to Scottsdale water in 2015, saying it had to conserve for its own residents, many Rio Verde Foothills residents did not believe it would actually happen.

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Aquafornia news February 2, 2023 Food and Environment Reporting Network

Report: Ag corporations boom despite California’s historic drought

California is suffering from its worst drought in 1,200 years, but that hasn’t prevented some of the state’s most powerful corporate agricultural interests from flourishing. In a report released Wednesday, Food & Water Watch found that agricultural corporations have used an outdated water rights system to their advantage and expanded their most water-intensive operations, even as some rural communities have run out of water completely. … The report urged Gov. Gavin Newsom to overhaul the system before it’s too late. California is becoming hotter and drier, and while a recent string of atmospheric rivers has bolstered the state’s water supply, residents are still bracing for a third year of drought; over 1 million Californians already lack access to clean water, and that number is expected to increase.

Related articles: 

  • Agri-Pulse: California records double-digit decline in statewide pesticide use
  • The Sun-Gazette Newspaper: High heat, low demand hurt walnut crop
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Aquafornia news February 2, 2023 Comstock's magazine

Editorial: Who will save (not stop) the rain?

Our beloved Capital Region has been literally awash with rain, snow, flooding and downed trees, and I’m sure many of us think that California’s persistent drought has at last been rinsed away. After all, we’ve received huge amounts of snow in the Sierra, which will thaw and flow westward to fill our reservoirs, basins and valleys as it makes its way to sea. Add to that the atmospheric rivers of rain that have been pouring into our towns, overflowing our riverbanks, curbs, basements and canals, we’re tempted to assume that our state is no longer destined to be a desert. But that’s probably not going to be the case.

Related article: 

  • Ag Alert: Farm Bureau president’s message - California must capture water in wet years and expedite projects
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Aquafornia news February 2, 2023 Fresh Water News

Calls grow for statewide water conservation standards in Colorado; some cities skeptical

With the Colorado River crisis deepening and the warming climate continuing to rob streams and rivers of their flows, talk in Colorado has resumed about how to limit growing water demand statewide for residential use. A new report commissioned by the Common Sense Institute and written by Colorado water veterans Jennifer Gimbel and Eric Kuhn, cites the need for broader conservation measures such as removing non-functional turf in new development, among other things. … “We have to do more with less,” said Kuhn. He cited projected statewide population growth of 1.6 to 1.8 million new residents by 2050, most along the Front Range, but also the probability that the warming climate will make less water available, particularly from the Colorado River.

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Aquafornia news February 2, 2023 Associated Press

Pumping Mississippi River water west: solution or dream?

Waves of torrential rainfall drenched California into the new year. Snowpacks in the Sierra Nevada Mountains have swelled to more than 200% their normal size, and snowfall across the rest of the Colorado River Basin is trending above average, too. While the much-needed water has improved conditions in the parched West, experts warn against claiming victory. About 60% of the region remains in some form of drought, continuing a decades-long spiral into water scarcity. … Over the years, a proposed solution has come up again and again: large-scale river diversions, including pumping Mississippi River water to the parched west.

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Aquafornia news February 1, 2023 The New York Times

EPA waste ban blocks Pebble Mine project in Alaska

The Biden administration on Tuesday moved to protect one of the world’s most valuable wild salmon fisheries, at Bristol Bay in Alaska, by effectively blocking the development of a gold and copper mine there. The Environmental Protection Agency issued a final determination under the Clean Water Act that bans the disposal of mine waste in part of the bay’s watershed, about 200 miles southwest of Anchorage. Streams in the watershed are crucial breeding grounds for salmon, but the area also contains deposits of precious-metal ores thought to be worth several hundred billion dollars. A two-decades old proposal to mine those ores, called the Pebble project, has been supported by some Alaskan lawmakers and Native groups for the economic benefits it would bring, but opposed by others, including tribes around the bay and environmentalists who say it would do irreparable harm to the salmon population.

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Aquafornia news February 1, 2023 Common Dreams

Blog: ‘Drought profiteers’ under fire as wall street targets Colorado River water

Financial speculators are buying and selling rights to the Colorado River’s dwindling water resources in a bid to profit as historic drought conditions intensified by the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis lead to worsening scarcity. Wall Street investment firms “have identified the drought as an opportunity to make money,” Andy Mueller, general manager of the Colorado River Water Conservation District, toldCBS News on Tuesday. “I view these drought profiteers as vultures. They’re looking to make a lot of money off this public resource.” Matthew Diserio, the co-founder and president of a Manhattan-based hedge fund called Water Asset Management (WAM), makes no secret of his intentions, having described water in the United States as “the biggest emerging market on Earth” and “a trillion-dollar market opportunity.” 

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Aquafornia news February 1, 2023 CalMatters

Wednesday Top of the Scroll: California, other states reach impasse over Colorado River

California and other Western states that import water from the parched Colorado River failed to reach an agreement today on how to cut their use despite a deadline from federal officials. Six states presented the federal government with a proposal to slash the lower basin’s use by 2.9 million acre-feet from their historic allotments— including more than 1 million acre-feet from California, or 25% of its entitlements. But California, the largest user of Colorado River water, refused to sign onto the proposal and, instead, hours later issued its own — which mirrors its offer last fall to cut imports by 9%, or 400,000 acre feet.  The impasse is over water delivered to Imperial Valley farmers and cities in six Southern California counties.

Related articles: 

  • Colorado River Board: California Water Agencies Submit Colorado River Modeling Framework to Bureau of Reclamation
  • Desert Sun: California fires back at other Western states with its own Colorado River plan
  • Los Angeles Times: California offers proposal on Colorado River crisis, disagreeing with six states
  • NPR: California opposes the water use plan between the states that share Colorado River
  • Washington Post: As the Colorado River dries up, states can’t agree on saving water
  • Colorado Newsline: Colorado leaders hail drought ‘consensus’ among 6 of 7 Colorado River Basin states 
  • jfleck@inkstain: Deadpool Diaries - The numbers in the states’ two proposals
  • The Spectrum: Utah signs on to Colorado River proposal as lawmakers pump out new bills
  • Time: Opinion – How to Save the Colorado River and the American West 
  • Mercury News: Editorial: California has major stake in Colorado River water use fight 
  • Southern Nevada Water Authority: News release: Southern Nevada achieves major water conservation measures 
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Aquafornia news January 31, 2023 Bloomberg

Opinion: Arizona can’t keep growing without finding more water

The 23-year drought that’s parching the Southwest is forcing Arizona to make a bitter choice. Unless developers can find new sources of water, the state’s largest master-planned housing development is going to remain a desert. It’s not just an Arizona problem. Across the American West, demand for housing is increasingly running into water shortages. Surface waters like the Colorado River are drying up, forcing cities and farmers to turn to groundwater. Unfortunately, most groundwater is finite, and once depleted it’s difficult or impossible to replenish.
Written by Bloomberg opinion writer Adam Minter. 

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Aquafornia news January 31, 2023 CBS News

New York investors snapping up Colorado River water rights, betting big on an increasingly scarce resource

With the federal government poised to force Western states to change how they manage the alarming shortfall in Colorado River water, there is one constituency with a growing interest in the river’s fate that’s little known to some: Wall Street investors. Private investment firms are showing a growing interest in an increasingly scarce natural resource in the American West: water in the Colorado River, a joint investigation by CBS News and The Weather Channel has found. For some of the farmers and cities that depend on the river as a lifeline, that interest is concerning. … Bernal’s family came to the Grand Valley nearly 100 years ago, and he has lived there his whole life.  But now, he has a new neighbor: a New York-based investment firm called Water Asset Management, which he says bought a farm in the valley around 2017 that Bernal now rents and helps operate.

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Aquafornia news January 31, 2023 Daily Californian

Berkeley Lab investigating potential domestic lithium source in Imperial Valley

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Lithium Resource Research and Innovation Center and Energy Storage Center are currently studying the Salton Sea Known Geothermal Resource Area, or SS KGRA, in Southern California’s Imperial Valley as a potential domestic source of lithium for the United States. The lithium is located in hot, salty water thousands of feet below the Salton Sea, according to Meg Slattery, a PhD student at UC Davis. It is expected to offer the most sustainable source of lithium on Earth, said Will Stringfellow, research engineer at Berkeley Lab, in an email.

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Aquafornia news January 30, 2023 Los Angeles Times

Why desert golf courses and artificial lakes remain untouched by the Colorado River crisis

Golf courses. Ponds. Acres of grass. Cascading waterfalls. Displays of water extravagance zip past each day when Sendy Hernández Orellana Barrows drives to work. She said these views seem like landscapes that have undergone “plastic surgery,” transforming large parts of the Coachella Valley’s desert into scenes of unnatural lushness. From La Quinta to Palm Springs, the area’s gated communities, resorts and golf courses have long been promoted with palm-studded images of green grass, swimming pools and artificial lakes. The entrepreneurs and boosters who decades ago built the Coachella Valley’s reputation as a playground destination saw the appeal of developments awash in water, made possible by wells drawing on the aquifer and a steady stream of Colorado River water.

Related articles: 

  • Los Angeles Times: How Las Vegas declared war on thirsty grass and set an example for the desert Southwest
  • Western Water Rewind: As Climate Change Turns Up The Heat in Las Vegas, Water Managers Try to Wring New Savings to Stretch Supply
  • Desert Sun: Opinion: The Cotino water project is using outdated water analysis: We are in a drought
  • Desert Sun – Commentary: Coachella Valley’s golf community has done the math on the water it needs
  • Desert Sun: Opinion - Coachella Valley Water district costs continue to increase in my taxes
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Aquafornia news January 27, 2023 The Guardian

Their Arizona community was ideal. Then their neighbor cut off the water

In the warmth of Arizona’s winter sun, 50 residents gathered in front of neighborhood activist Cody Reim’s house last weekend, eager to discuss a solution to their problem. Despite living a few miles from a river, their community has no water supply services. … In Rio Verde Foothills, an unincorporated community with no municipal government, near Scottsdale, the fashionable, wealthy desert city adjoining the state capital of Phoenix, none of the homes are connected to a local water district. There is only one paved road, no street lights, storm gutters, or pipes in the ground. Instead residents have wells – or water tanks outside their homes, which they used to fill at a local pipe serviced by Scottsdale.

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Aquafornia news January 25, 2023 PBS News Hour

Salton Sea lithium deposits could help EV transition, support economically devastated area

The demand for electric vehicles is surging in the U.S., sparked in part by the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act and the subsidies it offers. But a looming supply shortage of lithium threatens to stall the EV transition. Stephanie Sy traveled to California’s Salton Sea where lithium deposits could help meet the country’s energy needs and support an economically devastated region. … In the most southeastern stretch of the Southern California desert sits a most unusual piece of the planet. It’s like a Dr. Seuss book with sound effects.

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Aquafornia news January 25, 2023 Deseret News

Arizona water shortage clashes with housing needs

Arizona needs tens of thousands of new housing units to meet demand, but first, developers will need to find enough water. The state’s water woes have been on full display this month as it lost 21% of its Colorado River supply to cuts, homes outside Scottsdale, Arizona, had their water cut off by the city, and a recently released model found planned housing units for more than 800,000 people west of Phoenix will have to find new water sources. Arizona is one of the fastest-growing states and short 100,000 housing units, a state Department of Housing report released last year found, but depending on where they’re located, some homes will be more easily built than others.

Related articles: 

  • Deseret News: Judge to Arizona community: Water not required to flow from Scottsdale
  • Arizona Republic: Opinion - Arizona is not out of water, despite all those headlines you might read
  • Deseret News: A southern Utah mayor’s water warning: ‘We are running out’
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Aquafornia news January 24, 2023 The Atlantic

The fight over California’s ancient water

In an early-December morning in California’s Mojave Desert, the Geoscience Support Services geohydrologist Logan Wicks squats in the sand and fiddles with a broken white pipe. Here on a sandy road off Route 66, past miles of scrubby creosote and spiny mesquite, Wicks monitors the pumps and pipes of a promising desert extraction project. But he’s not looking for oil or gas. Crouching under the shade of a 10-foot lemon tree, at the edge of a citrus orchard that spans hundreds of acres, Wicks is here for water. A fine stream bursts from the plastic pipe, forming a rainbow-crested arc before hitting the hot sand. Wicks pushes his Oakley sunglasses on top of his head, rubs the short dark bristles on his upper lip, and smiles. “There’s a hell of a lot more where that came from,” he says, nodding at the spray.

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Aquafornia news January 24, 2023 Forbes

Car tire dust is killing salmon every time it rains

The atmospheric river that fueled a string of heavy downpours in California this month brought much-needed water to the parched Golden State. But those billions of gallons of rain also swept a form of pollution off roads into streams, rivers and the Pacific Ocean that’s of rising concern to scientists, environmentalists and regulators: particle dust created by car tires. A growing body of research indicates that in addition to being a major source of microplastic pollution, the chemical 6PPD, an additive that’s used to keep tires from wearing out, reacts with ozone in the atmosphere to form a toxic new substance scientists call 6PPD-Quinone. It’s killing coho salmon and likely harms other types of fish, which exhibit symptoms resembling suffocation.

Related article: 

  • California Trout: Introducing CalTrout’s Lost Coast Project Manager & Update on Eel River Dams 
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Aquafornia news January 24, 2023 Deseret News

Utah drought: Is the St. George area running out of water?

Utah’s Washington County is one of the fastest growing areas in the country, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, made possible by the Virgin River which supplies the region and its multiplying suburbs with water. But drought and population growth have long plagued the river, and the mayor of Ivins, a small, bedroom community of nearby St. George, did not mince words when addressing constituents this month. … Hart’s message came in the wake of an upscale community near Scottsdale, Arizona, having its water shut off on New Year’s Day. Similar to the St. George area, the fast-growing Scottsdale community received its drinking water from Arizona’s allotment of the Colorado River, and the shutoffs were in part due to shortages in the river’s basin, according to a memo sent to residents of the Rio Verde Foothills neighborhood.

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Aquafornia news January 23, 2023 Sierra Club

Blog: More cars on the road, clean or not, means more microplastics

When Governor Gavin Newsom announced that all new car sales in California would be zero-emission vehicles by 2035, many activists celebrated the move. … But there was a word few people mentioned in response to the news: microplastics. One of the potential unintended consequences of the transition to electric vehicles could be more microplastics. When rubber meets road, tires shed small synthetic polymers less than five millimeters in diameter. … “​​We ended up estimating that stormwater was discharging about seven trillion [microplastics] into the [San Francisco] Bay annually,” said Rebecca Sutton, a senior researcher at the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI). Half of those particles come from tires. … These tire particles are already in the air we breathe as well as the San Francisco Bay and the groundwater that empties into it. 

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Aquafornia news January 23, 2023 The Hill

How Arizona, California and other states are trying to generate a whole new water supply

Underground storage may be a key for Western states navigating water shortages and extreme weather. Aquifers under the ground have served as a reliable source of water for years. During rainy years, the aquifers would fill up naturally, helping areas get by in the dry years. … But growing demand for water coupled with climate change has resulted in shortages as states pump out water from aquifers faster than they can be replenished…. Municipalities and researchers across the country are working on ways to more efficiently replenish emptied-out aquifers… In California — where 85 percent of the population relies on groundwater for some portion of their supply — more than 340 recharge projects have already been proposed.    

Related article: 

  • Sonoma Index-Tribune: The drought remaining beneath the surface in Sonoma Valley soil 
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Aquafornia news January 18, 2023 CNBC

Developers lack enough groundwater to build in desert west of Phoenix

Developers planning to build homes in the desert west of Phoenix don’t have enough groundwater supplies to move forward with their plans, a state modeling report found.  Plans to construct homes west of the White Tank Mountains will require alternative sources of water to proceed as the state grapples with a historic megadrought and water shortages, according to the report. Water sources are dwindling across the Western United States and mounting restrictions on the Colorado River are affecting all sectors of the economy, including homebuilding. But amid a nationwide housing shortage, developers are bombarding Arizona with plans to build homes even as water shortages worsen.

Related articles: 

  • Deseret News: Scottsdale area community’s water cut off due to Colorado River drought
  • Axios: Phoenix’s above-average winter rainfall a good sign, but more needed to reverse drought
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Aquafornia news January 17, 2023 The Washington Post

Scottsdale cuts off Rio Verde Foothills water supply amid drought

The survival — or at least the basic sustenance — of hundreds in a desert community amid the horse ranches and golf courses outside Phoenix now rests on a 54-year-old man with a plastic bucket of quarters. John Hornewer picked up a quarter and put it in the slot. The lone water hose at a remote public filling station sputtered to life and splashed 73 gallons into the steel tank of  … Some living here amid the cactus and creosote bushes see themselves as the first domino to fall as the Colorado River tips further into crisis. On Jan. 1, the city of Scottsdale, which gets the majority of its water from the Colorado River, cut off Rio Verde Foothills from the municipal water supply that it has relied on for decades. … [T]he federal government is now pressing seven states to cut 2 to 4 million acre-feet more, up to 30 percent of the river’s annual average flow.

Related articles: 

  • Here and Now: ‘It’s coming for everybody’ - Central Arizona farmers’ access to Colorado River dries up completely
  • Inside Climate News: Arizona’s New Governor Takes on Water Conservation and Promises to Revise the State’s Groundwater Management Act
  • NPR: A course correction in managing drying rivers
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Aquafornia news January 12, 2023 Courthouse News Service

In a water deficit, Arizona contemplates a future without Colorado River access

Water from the Colorado River covers more than a third of Arizona’s total water usage, but the state is increasingly losing access to that supply. The state is no longer in what Terry Goddard, the president of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District Board of Directors, called “a fool’s paradise.” Arizona had maintained a surplus of water since the mid-1980s, but that’s not the case today. Now, it’s losing water, and it’s losing it fast. That loss, and potential future loss, was the focal point of Arizona’s state legislature Tuesday, starting with a presentation from the Central Arizona Project on the status of the state’s water supply in which legislators heard about the tensions between Arizona and other Colorado River Basin states over access to groundwater.

Related articles: 

  • Arizona Mirror: Water leaders to lawmakers: No ‘silver bullet’ in Arizona’s water crisis
  • Arizona Republic: Developers must find new water for homes planned west of Phoenix
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Aquafornia news January 11, 2023 The Land Desk

Blog: Decoupling consumption from population on the Colorado River

When we think about the Colorado River water shortage, it’s natural to blame it on the burgeoning population in desert cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas and Los Angeles. … And as more people move to these cities, their overall water consumption increases proportionally …  This pattern held true for eight decades after the 1922 signing of the Colorado River Compact: The number of people relying on the river’s waters shot up from less than 1 million to nearly 40 million, and overall water consumption climbed consistently as well, peaking at just under 20 billion cubic meters in 2000. But then, according to a new study in the Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management by Brian Richter, the pattern was broken. Even as the population of the region continued to shoot up, consumption of Colorado River water actually dropped and then plateaued. 

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Aquafornia news January 10, 2023 Colorado Public Radio

Three things about Colorado Springs’ growth that we’re watching this week

Colorado Springs will be making decisions this week that will impact its growth and development for decades to come. The following issues will be discussed by local leaders this week. Check back here for updates on how they voted. Water supply The city is considering an ordinance that would impact how and where Colorado Springs extends its water service. The city wants to make sure there’s enough water as it continues to grow. Currently, Colorado Springs Utilities is required to maintain a surplus water supply. But there’s no definition of how much extra that actually is. So what they want to do is define it as a 30 percent buffer between supply and demand, calculated on a five-year rolling average. … Half the city’s water comes from the Colorado River Basin, which is threatened by drought and overuse.

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Aquafornia news January 4, 2023 San Francisco Chronicle

Opinion: Bay Area’s vanishing natural habitats microcosm of a global die-off

When my son was younger, we often visited San Francisco’s Baylands Preserve to bike, hike and pull up invasive weed species that were crowding out native plants and animals — our small way of helping to restore a massive wetland system in California that only 150 years ago rivaled the splendor of Africa’s world-famous Okavango Delta. Not anymore. More than 90% of California’s coastal and inland wetlands have vanished, replaced by cropland, airports, housing, highways and industrial parks. Our state has reaped a great many short-term economic benefits from this activity, but we’ve also undermined long-term growth and security through the concomitant destruction of nature. The loss of our wetlands … mirrors the broader loss of nature happening around the world.
-Written by Rebecca Shaw, chief scientist at World Wildlife Fund.

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Aquafornia news January 4, 2023 The New York Times

Has the Amazon reached its ‘tipping point’?

The Amazon is a labyrinth of a thousand rivers. They are born at 21,000 feet, with seasonal melts from the Sajama ice cap in Bolivia, and they are born in the dark rock of Peru’s Apacheta cliff, as glacial seepage spraying white from its pores. … Where these tributaries empty, just south of the Equator, they form the aorta of the Amazon proper, more than 10 miles wide at its widest point. … By creating the conditions for a continental swath of evergreens, this process is crucial to the Amazon’s role as a global “sink” for carbon. Many scientists now fear, however, that this virtuous cycle is breaking down. Just in the past half-century, 17 percent of the Amazon — an area larger than Texas — has been converted to croplands or cattle pasture.

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Aquafornia news January 3, 2023 Los Angeles Times

In Arizona, Colorado River crisis stokes worry over growth and groundwater depletion

Water supplies are shrinking throughout the Southwest, from the Rocky Mountains to California, with the flow of the Colorado River declining and groundwater levels dropping in many areas. The mounting strains on the region’s water supplies are bringing new questions about the unrestrained growth of sprawling suburbs.[Kathleen] Ferris, a researcher at Arizona State University’s Kyl Center for Water Policy, is convinced that growth is surpassing the water limits in parts of Arizona, and she worries that the development boom is on a collision course with the aridification of the Southwest and the finite supply of groundwater that can be pumped from desert aquifers.

Related articles:

  • The New York Times: Thousands will live here one day (as long as they can find water) 
  • Arizona Republic: Opinion: No more Band-Aids: How to make the Colorado River sustainable for the long term 
  • Arizona Department of Water Resources: Blog – Water Year in Review: Sure, It Was Mostly About The Colorado River, But It Wasn’t All About The River​ 
  • The New York Times: Opinion: Arizona Is in a Race to the Bottom of Its Water Wells, With Saudi Arabia’s Help 
  • Arizona Big Media: Arizona water cuts for the new year may be just the beginning, experts say
  • The Arizona Republic: Hobbs retains Arizona water director, appoints new leaders for other natural resources agencies
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Western Water November 7, 2019 Douglas E. Beeman Layperson's Guide to Climate Change and Water Resources Gary PitzerDouglas E. Beeman

As Wildfires Grow More Intense, California Water Managers Are Learning To Rewrite Their Emergency Playbook
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: Agencies share lessons learned as they recover from fires that destroyed facilities, contaminated supplies and devastated their customers

Debris from the Camp Fire that swept through the Sierra foothills town of Paradise  in November 2018.

By Gary Pitzer and Douglas E. Beeman

It’s been a year since two devastating wildfires on opposite ends of California underscored the harsh new realities facing water districts and cities serving communities in or adjacent to the state’s fire-prone wildlands. Fire doesn’t just level homes, it can contaminate water, scorch watersheds, damage delivery systems and upend an agency’s finances.

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Western Water May 23, 2019 Colorado River Bundle Gary Pitzer

150 Years After John Wesley Powell Ventured Down the Colorado River, How Should We Assess His Legacy in the West?
WESTERN WATER Q&A: University of Colorado’s Charles Wilkinson on Powell, Water and the American West

We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls ride over the river, we know not. Ah, well! We may conjecture many things.

~John Wesley Powell

Explorer John Wesley Powell and Paiute Chief Tau-Gu looking over the Virgin River in 1873.Powell scrawled those words in his journal as he and his expedition paddled their way into the deep walls of the Grand Canyon on a stretch of the Colorado River in August 1869. Three months earlier, the 10-man group had set out on their exploration of the iconic Southwest river by hauling their wooden boats into a major tributary of the Colorado, the Green River in Wyoming, for their trip into the “great unknown,” as Powell described it.

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Western Water November 16, 2018 California Water Map Layperson's Guide to the State Water Project Gary Pitzer

As He Steps Aside, Tim Quinn Talks About ‘Adversarialists,’ Collaboration and Hope For Solving the State’s Tough Water Issues
WESTERN WATER Q&A: Tim Quinn, retiring executive director of Association of California Water Agencies

ACWA Executive Director Tim Quinn  with a report produced by Association of California Water Agencies on  sustainable groundwater management.  (Source:  Association of California Water Agencies)In the universe of California water, Tim Quinn is a professor emeritus. Quinn has seen — and been a key player in — a lot of major California water issues since he began his water career 40 years ago as a young economist with the Rand Corporation, then later as deputy general manager with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and finally as executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. In December, the 66-year-old will retire from ACWA.

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Aquapedia background September 12, 2016

Runoff

Snowmelt and runoff near the California Department of Water Resources snow survey site in the Sierra Nevada east of Sacramento.Runoff is the water that is pulled by gravity across land’s surface, replenishing groundwater and surface water as it percolates into an aquifer or moves into a river, stream or watershed.

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Aquapedia background August 30, 2016

Owens Lake

Owens Lake is a dry lake at the terminus of the Owens River just west of Death Valley and on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. For at least 800,000 years, the lake had a continuous flow of water, until 1913 when the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) completed the 233-mile Los Angeles Aqueduct to supplement the budding metropolis’ increasing water demands.

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Publication August 18, 2014

Water & the Shaping of California
Published 2000 - Paperback

The story of water is the story of California. And no book tells that story better than Water & the Shaping of California.

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Publication August 18, 2014

Water & the Shaping of California
Published 2000 - hardbound

The story of California is the story of water. And no book tells that story better than Water & the Shaping of California.

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Video May 27, 2014

A Climate of Change: Water Adaptation Strategies

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.

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Video May 27, 2014

Drinking Water: Quenching the Public Thirst (60-minute DVD)

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. 

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Video May 27, 2014

Drinking Water: Quenching the Public Thirst (30-minute DVD)

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.

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Maps & Posters May 20, 2014

Carson River Basin Map
Published 2006

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.

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Publication May 20, 2014

Layperson’s Guide to Water Recycling
Updated 2013

As the state’s population continues to grow and traditional water supplies grow tighter, there is increased interest in reusing treated wastewater for a variety of activities, including irrigation of crops, parks and golf courses, groundwater recharge and industrial uses.

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Publication May 20, 2014

Layperson’s Guide to Water Marketing
Updated 2005

The 20-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Marketing provides background information on water rights, types of transfers and critical policy issues surrounding this topic. First published in 1996, the 2005 version offers expanded information on groundwater banking and conjunctive use, Colorado River transfers and the role of private companies in California’s developing water market. 

Order in bulk (25 or more copies of the same guide) for a reduced fee. Contact the Foundation, 916-444-6240, for details.

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Publication May 20, 2014

Layperson’s Guide to the State Water Project
Updated 2013

The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the State Water Project provides an overview of the California-funded and constructed State Water Project.

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Publication May 20, 2014

Layperson’s Guide to Integrated Regional Water Management
Published 2013

The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Integrated Regional Water Management (IRWM) is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication that provides background information on the principles of IRWM, its funding history and how it differs from the traditional water management approach.

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Aquapedia background February 11, 2014

Urban Conservation

Despite droughts, recession and natural disasters, California’s urban population continues to grow.

This population growth means increasing demand for water by urban areas—home to most of California’s population [see also Agricultural Conservation]. As of 2021, three of the nation’s 10 most populated cities are in California.

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Western Water Magazine January 1, 2013

Viewing Water with a Wide Angle Lens: A Roundtable Discussion
January/February 2013

This printed issue of Western Water features a roundtable discussion with Anthony Saracino, a water resources consultant; Martha Davis, executive manager of policy development with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and senior policy advisor to the Delta Stewardship Council; Stuart Leavenworth, editorial page editor of The Sacramento Bee and Ellen Hanak, co-director of research and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California.

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Western Water Magazine September 1, 2011

Mimicking the Natural Landscape: Low Impact Development and Stormwater Capture
September/October 2011

This printed issue of Western Water discusses low impact development and stormwater capture – two areas of emerging interest that are viewed as important components of California’s future water supply and management scenario.

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Western Water Magazine May 1, 2010

A ‘New Direction’ for Water Decisions? The California Water Plan
May/June 2010

This printed issue of Western Water examines the changed nature of the California Water Plan, some aspects of the 2009 update (including the recommendation for a water finance plan) and the reaction by certain stakeholders.

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Western Water Magazine November 1, 2009

The Colorado River: Building a Sustainable Future
November/December 2009

This printed issue of Western Water explores some of the major challenges facing Colorado River stakeholders: preparing for climate change, forging U.S.-Mexico water supply solutions and dealing with continued growth in the basins states. Much of the content for this issue of Western Water came from the in-depth panel discussions at the September 2009 Colorado River Symposium.

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Western Water Magazine May 1, 2007

The Struggle to Secure Water in the Southwest
May/June 2007

This issue of Western Water asks whether a groundwater compact is needed to manage this shared resource today. In the water-stressed West, there will need to be a recognition of sharing water resources or a line will need to be drawn in the sand against future growth.

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Western Water Magazine May 1, 2005

Smart Water Use: Stretching the Urban Supply
May/June 2005

This issue of Western Water examines the continuing practice of smart water use in the urban sector and its many facets, from improved consumer appliances to improved agency planning to the improvements in water recycling and desalination. Many in the water community say conserving water is not merely a response to drought conditions, but a permanent ethic in an era in which every drop of water is a valuable commodity not to be wasted.

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Western Water Excerpt March 1, 2000 Sue McClurgRita Schmidt Sudman

Water and Growth: A Roundtable Discussion
Mar/Apr 2000

When water and growth was featured in the May/June 1995 Western Water, the debate in the California Legislature was about whether a local water district should have any say when it came to providing water to new developments. Of the four bills before state lawmakers, it was Sen. Jim Costa’s SB 901 that cleared the Legislature and was signed into law. The bill established a voluntary link between water and land-use planning by requiring planning departments to consult with local water purveyors about the availability of new supplies.

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