The architect of the Grand Canyon — the Colorado River — is the lifeblood of the West. The river and its tributaries supply water to more than 40 million people in several major cities, including Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego and Phoenix. New research has found that more than half of the mighty river’s […]
By Tara Lohan In the last few weeks of 2018, the Trump administration set the stage for a big battle over water in the new year. At stake is an important rule that defines which waters are protected under the Clean Water Act. The Trump administration seeks to roll back important protections for wetlands and […]
After years of unrelenting drought, federal forecasters reported there are better-than-even odds that the nation’s largest reservoir will decline into shortage conditions by 2020, forcing Arizona, Nevada and Mexico to reduce their Colorado River water use. Millions of U.S. residents and farmers are served by the Lake Mead reservoir that’s supplied by the Colorado. However, […]
Conservation groups on Thursday sued Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and the Bureau of Land Management for approving new leases to allow fracking on more than 45,000 acres in western Colorado, including within communities and within a half-mile of a K-12 public school, without analyzing or disclosing environmental and public health threats as required by federal […]
A lawsuit filed Monday is seeking to establish personhood rights for the Colorado River–a unique move that could have larger implications for environmental law. The suit, brought by Denver lawyer Jason Flores-Williams against Colorado and Gov. John Hickenlooper, names the river itself as a plaintiff and environmental group Deep Green Resistance as an ally of […]
A draft letter backed by officials in Arizona and Utah is urging the Trump administration to review the uranium mining ban near the Grand Canyon. The letter, which is expected to be sent to Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke on Monday, asks the department to completely overturn the Obama-era environmental protections. The 20-year ban was issued […]
By Tim Radford The Colorado River is dwindling, and climate change is officially to blame. In the first 14 years of this century, the flow declined to only four-fifths of the 20th century average, according to new research. The water lost would have been enough to supply two million people for a whole year. [facebook […]
A study released in Science Advances Wednesday finds strong evidence for severe, long-term droughts afflicting the American Southwest, driven by climate change. A megadrought lasting decades is 99 percent certain to hit the region this century, said scientists from Cornell University, the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space […]
President Obama made a historic announcement Wednesday, saying that the federal government is considering investing in the geothermal power in the rock formations under the Salton Sea in Southern California. Considered to be “the most powerful geothermal reservoirs in the world,” the Salton Sea announcement could play a critical role in the future management of […]
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