Las Vegas is apportioned a tiny 1.8% of water from Lake Mead. However, any water it recycles and pumps back into the lake doesn’t count against the apportionment. So, Vegas recycles all indoor water, including that from toilets, and meticulously…
Water years in California go from Oct 1 – Sep 30. The drought has broken, and spectacularly so. It’s already been one of the wettest years ever. If rainfall in the remaining months is normal, it will be the wettest year…
Water levels are rising so fast at Oroville Dam in California due to storm runoff and snow melt that the spillway, which was badly damaged by recent rains may need to be used again. Water levels are now just 5…
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The major amounts of rain and snow this winter will boost water levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell, and this is good news indeed. However more is definitely…
Journalist and blogger John Fleck, author of Water is for Fighting Over: and Other Myths about Water in the West points out in his newsletter that Obama now favors the Sacramento Delta tunnels project (and Trump almost certainly will too.)…
Lake Mead will end 2016 only two inches lower than in 2015, despite the drought. This is because, among other things, Nevada and Arizona continue to use less water than their allotment. Las Vegas also recycles all inside water. It…
A common misconception is southern Nevada and Las Vegas are huge water pigs. The opposite is true. Per capita water use has dropped since 2001, thanks to a smart region-wide water authority that encourages conservation and a world-class system that…
Hydroelectric is the quiet workhorse of electricity generation. The nine biggest power plants in the world are hydroelectric. Three Gorges in China is the biggest by far, with a capacity of 22.5 GW. (One gigawatt can roughly power 725,000 homes…
Subsidence occurs when land drops and doesn’t come back. For example, one side of a house drops an inch or so and the rest stays where it is. This will cause drywall cracks, malfunctioning doors and windows, and cracked cement…
The Salton Sea, a huge salt water lake in southern California has been fed in modern times primarily by polluted agricultural run off. This causes fish kills. The Sea is also a major migratory stop for birds. Decreased water usage…
