article image

Supreme Court rules the US is not required to ensure access to water for the Navajo Nation

The Conversation
June 23, 2023

The Navajo Nation, the largest Native American reservation in the U.S., covers 27,000 square miles (70,000 square kilometers) in the Southwest – an area larger than 10 states. Today it is home to more than 250,000 people – roughly comparable to the population of St. Petersburg, Florida, or Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Unlike those cities, however, 30% of… Read more »

Read more

Featured articles from Robert Glennon

Evaporated Water

Smart Water Magazine

“This is a case about evaporated water.” Thus began U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s opinion for the Court in Texas v. New Mexico, decided on December 14, 2020. Wait a minute!  The Supreme Court is a very busy Court with complicated, serious legal problems to resolve, yet they heard one about something that no longer exists?

Read More

John Wesley Powell, Great Explorer of the American West

Scientific American
June 26, 2019

Just over 150 years ago, on May 24, 1869, John Wesley Powell set off from Green River in the Wyoming Territory, into the “great unknown,” the first known descent of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.

Read More

Three Authors See Water, Water Everywhere, for Better and Worse

NY Times
March 30, 2018

The most pernicious consequence of global warming is the rise of sea levels, which threatens cities around the world and has already triggered what may become the largest mass migration in human history.

Read More

Colorado River states bought time with a 3-year water conservation deal – now they need to think bigger – Robert Glennon

The Conversation
May 26, 2023
What the Colorado River water use agreement will mean for western statesArizona, California and Nevada have narrowly averted a regional water crisis by agreeing to reduce their use of Colorado River water over the next three years. This deal represents a temporary solution to a long-term crisis. Nonetheless, as a close observer of western water policy, I see... Read more »  Read more

Human actions created the Salton Sea, California’s largest lake – here’s how to save it from collapse, protecting wild birds and human health – Robert Glennon and Brent M. Haddad

The Conversation
January 10, 2023
The Salton Sea spreads across a remote valley in California’s lower Colorado Desert, 40 miles (65 kilometers) from the Mexican border. For birds migrating along the Pacific coast, it’s an avian Grand Central Station. In midwinter tens of thousands of snow geese, ducks, pelicans, gulls and other species forage on and around the lake. Hundreds of other species nest... Read more »  Read more

Restore the Salton Sea not to its former size but to its role in the ecosystem – Brent M. Haddad and Robert Glennon

LA Times
October 6, 2022
  California’s largest inland body of water is in trouble. Inflows to the Salton Sea have decreased, salinity is growing, the ecosystem is collapsing, and neighboring communities are suffering high rates of respiratory illnesses caused, many believe, by contaminants in dust blowing off the exposed former seabed. It’s not possible to import enough water quickly enough to... Read more »  Read more

Rethinking a finite resource

FMJ
July 1, 2022
National Hockey League teams in the United States and Canada annually use 300 million gallons of water to operate their arenas. Most facilities use a surprising amount of water. Yet facility managers, much like everyone else, might take water for granted.  Read more