 | | Shasta Lake is the largest reservoir in California, storing water for delivery to the southern regions of the state. Water levels on March 8, 2021, were far below normal for that time of year, signaling drought conditions. Photo © Brett Walton / Circle of Blue |
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Extremely Dry Conditions Spill Across the American West
Spring is generally a time of renewal for the watersheds of the western United States.
This year, though, the cycle is in disarray. Outside of the Olympic and Cascade ranges of Washington state, winter snows were subpar. The spring melt has been a dud. From the Klamath to the Colorado and Rio Grande, watersheds are under stress once again, and water managers face difficult tradeoffs between farms, fisheries, and at-home uses. The main thing being renewed is concern over the seeming inadequacy of the region’s water supply. |
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 | | The Great Lakes Ready or Not project is produced by the Great Lakes News Collaborative, a partnership between Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now at DPTV and Michigan Radio that explores an essential question: Are Great Lakes residents and leaders ready for the stirred and shaken conditions that climatologists say we can expect? A new piece will be published every Tuesday. |
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 | | Lake Michigan from the bluffs near Leland, Michigan. The lake holds around 1,180 cubic miles of water, or one quadrillion gallons of water. © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue |
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As the global climate warms and water scarcity mounts, Great Lakes water is more valuable than ever before.
That point was made clear on February 5 when the Village of Somers in Kenosha County, WI applied to the state Department of Natural Resources to divert water from Lake Michigan. The community wants 1.2 million gallons a day, and up to 2 million gallons of water daily in high stress events, in anticipation of future population growth. The application will only need state approval, according to the DNR, since the amount of water is below 5 million gallons per day. Anything more than that would need all states within the Great Lakes basin plus the Canadian provinces Ontario and Quebec to weigh in.
Lake Michigan holds 1.3 quadrillion gallons of water. So the village’s ask is a pittance. But the issue that rankles environmental activists is that, if approved, the Somers application is the fourth Great Lakes water diversion proposal in the past thirteen years.
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 | | The Tapped Out project is part of a collaboration that includes the Institute for Nonprofit News, California Health Report, Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism, Circle of Blue, Columbia Insight, Ensia, High Country News, New Mexico In Depth and SJV Water. It was made possible by a grant from The Water Desk, with support from Ensia and INN’s Amplify News Project. |
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Read More From The Series:
Navajo-Gallup Water Delay Spurs Problem Solving in Arid Southwest – Earlier this year, five of Gallup, New Mexico’s water wells stopped producing water. The shortage isn’t wholly surprising.
Innovative Partnerships and Exchanges are Securing the Gila Rive Indian Community’s Water Future – The Gila River Indian Community is restoring its “lifeblood back through innovative partnerships and water exchanges. |
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The border shared by Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan is a strip of hard-edged hills and scoured ridges. Apricot orchards occupy scarce flatlands and oxen graze on thinning fields of green.
Nearly half of the 600-mile border remains unofficial and non-delineated, a Soviet-era ambiguity with consequences that reverberate today. Drive for an hour through Kyrgyzstan’s southwestern Batken province and one might cross between the two countries a dozen times, depending on where your GPS was configured. Adding to the complexity, pockets of Tajik territory are nested within Kyrgyzstan. Distrust among the region’s ethnic groups is exacerbated by extreme water insecurity. |
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For the news you need to start the week, tune into “What’s Up With Water” fresh on Monday’s on iTunes, Spotify, iHeart Radio, and SoundCloud. Featured coverage from this week’s episode of What’s Up With Water looks at: - In Brazil, officials have privatized the water and sewage utility in the state of Rio de Janeiro.
- In the United States, environmental advocates in Florida filed a lawsuit on behalf of a county’s rivers and wetlands. It is the first test in court of Orange County’s legal right for rivers to exist.
This week, Circle of Blue reports on financing innovations that are changing the shape of water, sanitation, and hygiene access around the world. |
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 | | A reservoir on the lower Colorado River, Lake Havasu is the starting point for the Central Arizona Project, a 541-kilometer (336-mile) canal that moves Colorado River water to Phoenix and Tucson. Photo © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue |
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If the world continues to add carbon to the atmosphere at current rates, ‘megadroughts’ lasting more than two decades will be commonplace by the end of the century in the driest region of the United States — the triangle from Texas to South Dakota and California — according to the most comprehensive study to date of drought risk in the western United States.
Moreover, the end of the 21st century will likely be drier than any period in the last millennium as a result of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, the researchers found. |
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