Currently — August 15, 2022

August 14, 2022

What you need to know, currently.

Our founder, Eric Holthaus, has a new piece up today on the coming water restrictions in the drought-stricken Western states:

Time has run out for drought-stricken states along the Colorado River in the US southwest, as talks aimed at coming to terms on a water-sharing plan have broken down.

“Negotiations among the Colorado River’s Lower Basin states of Arizona, California, and Nevada have stalled,” according to Luke Runyon, a journalist for a Colorado public radio station focused on the Colorado River. According to Runyon, that makes “a seven-state commitment to conserve 2-4 million acre-feet unlikely ahead of a federal deadline.”

That much water — 2-4 million acre-feet — is about one-third of the river’s historic flow, roughly equivalent to all the water Arizona’s farmers use each year to grow alfalfa, a specialized type of hay, or about as much as Las Vegas uses in five years.