Be the Land Desk assignment editor!
Plus: A couple news briefs
Since it’s springtime and all I figured I’d give you the chance to help the Land Desk bloom with your suggestions of what I should be covering (or not covering), your news tips, and your ideas for where the Land Desk should go next. Put your thoughts in the suggestion box, i.e. the comment section, which will be open on this post to paid and unpaid subscribers. Bonus points for pointing me towards good news, progress, solutions, and relief from all the doom and gloom and outrage.
And by the way: Thank you to all of you who have tipped me off to interesting stories and happenings around the West. If I haven’t written about your idea yet, it’s not because I didn’t appreciate it, but because I’m only one person — at least for now — and only have time to crank out so many words.
Now for a couple of quick notes:
The Bureau of Reclamation on Friday released its April “24 Month Study” on the Colorado River and its reservoirs, along with its plan to keep Lake Powell’s surface level from shrinking below 3,500 feet (giving a 10-foot buffer zone above minimum power pool), or what I call “de facto dead pool.” The plan is nearly identical to what I reported in “Abysmal math on the Colorado River,” with one exception: While the Bureau will release an extra 660,000 to 1 million acre-feet from Flaming Gorge reservoir, it plans to leave Navajo and Blue Mesa reservoirs alone, at least for now. Will this be adequate? Will the releases from Flaming Gorge really make a difference? I’m not sure. The math is still tough and getting tougher as the Colorado River Basin Forecast Center downgrades its predicted Lake Powell inflows for the April-July period.
A Colorado River glossary and primer
After last week’s somewhat wonky dispatch on the Colorado River, a couple of readers asked about some of the terminology used. That, along with the fact that the deadline for an agreement on how to operate the river’s plumbing is fast approaching, prompted me to put together a bit of a glossary/primer…
Diné CARE is alerting folks to the U.S. EPA’s public hearings on the Navajo Transitional Energy Company’s application for a New Source Review permit for its proposed 742-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant. The permit would clear the way for the tribe-owned company to build and operate the facility, which would be located
nortsoutheast of the Four Corners coal power plant on reclaimed portions of the Navajo Mine. Sorry for the late notice, but the hearings are today (April 21) and tomorrow (April 22). More info.
Okay, now it’s your turn. Go for it!
Surprising agreements between various parties to get more water to Great Salt Lake. Scientists and environmentalists, of course. Now including Governor Cox, Republican legislators, the Mormon Church, people with deep pockets (Gayle Miller family auto group, the family that owns Maverik gas stations, and the Marriotts have each pledged $10 million), Josh Romney … and now Donald Trump listed a billion $ in his budget proposal after his former producer of The Apprentice got him and the governor together (story on a recent Radio West). The state recently bought MagCorp, with its water rights. My son Ben is the executive director of the Grow the Flow advocacy group. There is a cooperative newspaper organization sharing stories about the lake. No saline lake in this state of decline has ever been saved.
This is an innovative water conservation story out of Norwood involving algae blooms and evaporation. I'm a proud aunt; the main source in it is my niece :-).
https://koto.org/news/norwood-floating-solar-water-conservation/