Colorado River
The Future of the Colorado
There’s not enough water to go around, but there’s no agreement about what to do.
The Colorado River provides water to 40 million people and about 5.5 million acres of irrigated farmland. There’s only so much water to go around, so how to divide up the water has been hotly disputed for over a century. The previous agreement has come unstuck, but finding a replacement has proved devilishly difficult. I suspect that the Feds would rather avoid this political hot-potato through a state agreement. So far, however, state negotiations haven’t been successful. Maybe the impending threat of a federal mandate will light a fire under the negotiations. Otherwise, we are probably guaranteed years of litigation while the river runs dry.
CONTINUE READINGClimate Issues in the 2026 Governor’s Race: Water
Third in a series of posts outlining key challenges and opportunities facing California’s next governor
California’s next Governor will need to grapple with a complex array of local, state, and regional water issues. Climate change, shifting population dynamics, and a changing economy are stressing California’s water systems and intensifying conflict over water resources. Floods and droughts are becoming more frequent and more severe. And there are no major new sources …
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CONTINUE READINGWhy Can’t We All Get Along On The Colorado River?
Maybe It Is Time For the Interior Secretary To Settle The Issue — And For Newspapers To Get Rid Of Op-Eds
Well, this was intriguing. An op-ed from ran with this evocative title: California and its neighbors are at an impasse over the Colorado River. Here’s a way forward. Its author was Eric Kuhn, a former general manager of the Colorado River Water Conservation District and a co-author of “Science Be Dammed: How Ignoring Inconvenient Science …
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CONTINUE READINGWhat Is Water Use, Anyway?
We Have Met The Enemy, And He Is Us
We all know the story, and the percentages: of water used by human beings in California (i.e. not going to environmental uses), agriculture uses a whopping 80%. So it makes little sense to call on urban users to conserve, so the story goes, until ag goes first. Certainly nonprofits like Food and Water Watch think …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Rides the Omnibus
The year-end law gives a boost to climate-related spending
The omnibus spending bill is by no means a “climate law.” Because it spans the entire government, though, it has many provisions relating to climate change. They aren’t dramatic step forward. But the fact that they can pass as part of a bipartisan spending law is a sign of how climate change is slowly becoming …
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CONTINUE READINGHot Spots
Climate change isn’t uniform. Some parts of the U.S. are seeing conditions that won’t hit elsewhere for decades.
Friday’s Washington Post had a fascinating article about climate change hotspots within the United States. The largest one was on the Western Slope of the Rockies, which has already seen 2 °C of warming. The story is a reminder that the impacts of climate change will be global and yet also very much local. Before …
CONTINUE READINGNorris C. Hundley, Jr., 1935-2013
Environmental scholarship has lost a real giant: Norris Cecil Hundley Jr., a former resident of Pacific Palisades, passed away peacefully on April 28. He was 77. Born to Norris and Helen Hundley on October 26, 1935 in Houston, Texas, Norris is survived by six younger siblings… Norris graduated from Whittier College in 1958. After receiving his Ph.D. …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Future of the Colorado
The Bureau of Reclamation has issued an important new report on the future of the Colorado River. The Colorado supplies drinking water to 40 million people and irrigation water to nearly 5.5 million acres of land. The report projects decreases in supply over the next fifty years, including a 9% decrease in average flow and a …
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CONTINUE READINGWhat are the Top 10 Natural Resources Stories?
Lots of folks in legal academia are familiar with Foundation Press’ popular Law Stories series; around here on Legal Planet, we are particularly familiar with Environmental Law Stories (pictured right), edited by Richard Lazarus and Oliver Houck, to which Dan and Holly contributed a chapter. It’s a very useful book, and I’m a fan. But …
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CONTINUE READINGMore accusations of politics trumping science and law at Interior
The Washington Post reports that officials at the Department of Interior ignored “key scientific findings” and the views of National Park Service officials “when they limited water flows in the Grand Canyon to optimize generation of electric power there, risking damage to the ecology of the spectacular national landmark.” The Post story, written by Juliet …
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