Flexibility and reform may prove key to dealing with the ongoing drought
By John Upton and Climate Central | April 14, 2015
Unlike its golden-brown neighbor further south, Washington state was blessed with relatively generous storms over winter. But, as was the case in drought-stricken California,...
Climate officials are warning that this winter’s El Niño weather pattern is likely to be one of the strongest on record, bringing huge storms and a cold, wet winter for many – but nowhere near enough rainfall to reverse the disastrous long-term drought in the western US.
Any heavy rainfall will be ...
Hey, Seattle. Remember last winter? How pleasantly warm and dry it was, almost like you live somewhere reasonable and not in a pool of tepid water near Canada? Well, you’re paying for it now.
In a new article on Investigate West, reporter Robert McClure looks at the future of the city’s dwindling s...
by Elias Garcia
California looms at the precipice of a water crisis unseen in the history of the region. While many commentators and politicians are quick to blame markets for over-consumption, the current management system represents anything but open markets. For years, the government ...
About 38 million people in California, Nevada, Arizona, four other states and Mexico depend on the Colorado River for their water supply. As increased usage and years of drought diminish the river's flow, states are forming strategies to deal with what some experts call peak water--the point at whic...
Hugh Beggs of Santa Rosa, Calif., searched for coins in the middle of the Russian River in Healdsburg, taking advantage of the below-normal water flow.
By Adam Nagourney and Ian Lovett NEW YORK TIMES FEBRUARY 02, 2014
LOS ANGELES — The punishing drought that has swept California and much of ...
By Joby Warrick August 17, 2014
WILLOWS, Calif. — When the winter rains failed to arrive in this Sacramento Valley town for the third straight year, farmers tightened their belts and looked to the reservoirs in the nearby hills to keep them in water through the growing season.
When those faltered,...
Drought, and the resulting shortage of melting snow, is driving the historic water shortages across much of the American West.
By Dennis Dimick, National Geographic
PUBLISHED APRIL 06, 2015
Last week, California Governor Jerry Brown announced his state’s first-ever mandatory water restricti...
The bold headline of a recent Los Angeles Times editorial by the hydrologist Jay Famiglietti starkly warned: “California has about one year of water left. Will you ration now?” The write-up quickly made the social media rounds, prompting both panic and the usual blame game: It’s because of the meat ...
Americans tend to take it for granted that when we open a tap, water will come out.
Western states have been dealing with water problems for a while, but they won't be alone for long.
As drought, flooding, and climate change restrict America's water supply, demands from population growth and energ...
Nearly three-quarters of new Oregon residents come from western states, many of which are suffering from severe water shortages.
PORTLAND, Ore. – It’s no surprise that Oregon, especially Portland, is a hot destination for transplants from around the country. Anyone who sits in Portland’s increasing...
In 1922, seven Western states — Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming and California — drew up an agreement on how to divide the waters of the Colorado River. But there was one big problem with the plan: They overestimated how much water the river could provide.
As a result, each sta...
Maria Venegas, 61, holds 20-month-old grandson Julian after giving him a bath outside. They live in Seville, California, a community in the San Joaquin Valley whose water system failed this summer but will soon be fixed. Maria rarely has running water in the house.
Farmers are guzzling ground...
As California endures its fourth year of drought, water restrictions are taking effect across the state. On April 1, Governor Jerry Brown signed an executive order implementing a mandatory 25 percent water cutback in cities and towns across the state from 2013 usage levels. It took effect June 1.
B...
About one third of Earth's largest groundwater basins are being rapidly depleted by human consumption, despite having little accurate data about how much water remains in them, according to two new studies led by the University of California, Irvine (UCI), using data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and...
In the wake of California Gov. Jerry Brown's decision to enact mandatory restrictions on the use of water given the state's ongoing, historic drought, people nationwide have become obsessed with almonds. Not in the sense that people are buying and eating lots of almonds, mind you. In the sense that ...
If you live in Portland, your lights may now be partly powered by your drinking water. An ingenious new system captures energy as water flows through the city’s pipes, creating hydropower without the negative environmental effects of something like a dam.
Small turbines in the pipes spin in the flo...
In recent years China has accelerated its efforts in water conservation and water efficiency as the country's freshwater resources have become increasingly stressed as a result of regional droughts and years of booming growth, rapid development, and heavy industrialization. According to a recent sta...
Colorado is looking for 163 billion gallons of water, and a long-awaited state plan for finding it calls for increased conservation, reusing treated wastewater and diverting more water from the Western Slope.
The plan, ordered by Gov. John Hickenlooper to deal with a massive projected water shortfa...
