Judge Throws Monkey Wrench Into California Water

AP is reporting this evening that a state judge in California has thrown out the 2003 deal by which California agreed to stop using so damn much Colorado River water: A California judge has tentatively invalidated a landmark pact to curtail the state’s overuse of water and allow other Western states to claim their fair …

Continue reading ‘Judge Throws Monkey Wrench Into California Water’ »

Dead Pool, the Colorado River and the Solution Space

In Dead Pool, James Powell sketches out an apocalyptic scenario facing the hydraulic society we’ve built in the West on Colorado River water. (It’s a great read. If you’re interested in western water, you daren’t miss it.) After building up the history, science, politics and policy that have developed over the last century, Powell lays …

Continue reading ‘Dead Pool, the Colorado River and the Solution Space’ »

My First Amazon Review

Cynthia Barnett reviews The Tree Rings’ Tale: Fleck has an eye for the detail that will grab a young person’s attention. My son was interested to learn that scientists in these different fields get to shoot down rapids, launch giant weather balloons and climb rocks. He also loved Fleck’s details about some of the makeshift …

Continue reading ‘My First Amazon Review’ »

Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: Engineering Marvels

From yesterday’s newspaper, a slightly sheepish ode to my fascination with really, really big water engineering projects (sub/ad req.): From the time I first toured Hoover Dam as a kid — “enough concrete to pave a strip 16 feet wide and 8 inches thick from San Francisco to New York,” as the Bureau of Reclamation …

Continue reading ‘Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: Engineering Marvels’ »