News Roundup #4: Movement
News Roundup #4: Movement
Where the water goes.
Welcome to Western Water Notes.
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1/ Utah reverses course on water rights for Green River lithium project: Earlier this week, a top water official in Utah suspended the rights for a lithium project near the Green River as state officials reconsider a previous order, E&E News’ Jennifer Yachnin reported. A coalition of local residents and conservation groups, including the Great Basin Water Network and Living Rivers, has raised concerns about the “direct lithium extraction” project near the Colorado River tributary and petitioned Utah officials to reconsider whether to grant the permit. The company developing the project plans to recover lithium by pumping deep groundwater and separating it from brine — then returning the water back to the aquifer. The coalition raised several concerns about how the deep aquifer functions, its connectivity to surface water sources, the impact of the proposal on existing water rights and the presence of a Department of Energy legacy management site. “Our family’s farming operations and future in Green River depend on clean waters and lands free of industrial hazards,” one local resident said.
DIG DEEPER
The bigger picture: As more companies search the West for lithium (and there are a lot of proposals out there), some are looking at recovering the key battery component from groundwater. This involves the acquisition of water rights to pump and use brines stored underground. But there are many legal questions about the degree to which water law (and mining law) are equipped to handle such proposals. Writing about Utah’s statutes, a lawyer for the coalition noted that “there is a vacuum for rules governing lithium extraction in deep brines.”
The request for reconsideration filed by local residents and conservation groups.
The company’s initial application (link) and Utah’s initial approval (link).
2/ The U.S. Drought Monitor in the era of persistent warming. We’ve all seen it, and we’ve all referred to it. The U.S. Drought Monitor is embedded in how we talk about and communicate arid conditions. Politicians, scientists, journalists all cite it. And it helps offers important guidance to answer two critical questions: Are we in drought? How severe is that drought? Authors of the drought monitor achieve this by pulling from numerous data points as well as on-the-ground information. But a critical study published in AGU Advances looks at whether the Drought Monitor is calibrated for our times, according to an excellent piece in the Los Angeles Times by Hayley Smith: “One problem, researchers say, is that the monitor was launched just as one of the driest periods in the history of the Southwest began, and it has never been adjusted for the region’s growing aridity.” The Drought Monitor was launched in 1999, and since then the West has seen the driest two-decade stretch in the last 1,200 years.
AGU Advances Study: Emergent Trends Complicate the Interpretation of the United States Drought Monitor (USDM)
HOW DO YOU DEFINE DROUGHT?
Although the U.S. Drought Monitor provides a good snapshot in time, assessing drought is always going to be a challenge because there are many different types of drought. There’s meteorological drought. Hydrological drought. Agricultural drought. Socioeconomic drought. Ecological drought. More on that from NOAA.
In the West, some scientists, policymakers and water managers have dropped the drought term altogether, opting instead for “aridification,” acknowledging new baseline conditions created by a changing climate and steadier arid conditions.
3/ “One of the things that is so bad for us is the environmental agencies.” That’s a recent quote from former President Donald Trump, who vowed to cut the Interior Department if re-elected in November. Trump made those comments on “Fox & Friends” and they were reported on by E&E News’ Timothy Cama. This would have major cascading effects in the West, where the federal government is significantly involved in conserving and permitting development on federal public land — mines, grazing and energy projects — as well as in managing wildlife and water projects.
4/ Already, some states (California) are rushing to finish agreements with the federal government before the end of the year. Politico’s Camille von Kaenel wrote this week about how that is playing out in California with pumping operations and protection of Chinook salmon and delta smelt. At the same time, the U.S. Supreme Court could soon issue a ruling that would radically shift the way environmental agencies (and other federal agencies) are able to interpret law through the “Chevron deference doctrine.” The Guardian’s Gabrielle Cannon on the consequences of overturning it.
5/ The Nye County Commission this week approved a letter supporting a petition requesting a mineral withdrawal in the Amargosa Valley. The mineral withdrawal — proposed by the Amargosa Conservancy and backed by the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe and local governments — aims to protect groundwater for communities and sensitive ecosystems dependent on a complex and interconnected aquifer system. In recent months, the Amargosa Conservancy has pushed back to oppose exploratory drilling for lithium and other metals near Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge (habitat for more then two dozen endemic species) and mining claims in Amargosa Valley. The Review-Journal’s Alan Halaly has more on the county commission’s move.
The agenda packet that the Nye County Commission looked at. The documents include hydrologic modeling as well as support letters from other entities.
6/ A California judge cleared the way for the state’s first new large reservoir in 50 years after dismissing claims brought by environmental groups. “In the ruling last week, a Yolo County Superior Court judge sided against environmental advocates who had argued Sites Reservoir would harm the Sacramento River’s ecosystem and threaten imperiled fish species,” the Los Angeles Times’ Ian James reports. Newsom, who supports the project, said that the state needs it now and has “no time to waste.”
7/ Why are metal concentrations increasing in Colorado’s mountain streams? A new study, reported on by Aspen Journalism’s Heather Sackett, points to a warming climate and the exposure of rock once underneath ice. “Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Colorado Boulder analyzed water chemistry data over the past 40 years for 22 stream sites throughout Colorado’s mountains. They found that concentrations of zinc and copper have doubled over the past 30 years, with melting of previously frozen ground being a likely major cause.” Missed this from a few weeks ago but it is an important one. More on the study from the University of Colorado.
Also, on this topic, from the National Park Service: “Large amounts of organic carbon, nutrients, mercury, and other metals are stored in Arctic permafrost—perennially frozen ground. But as the Arctic warms, permafrost is thawing, and these compounds are being released into waterways.”
8/ “The water is probably, at this point in time, as valuable or more valuable than the natural gas.” That’s about a proposed project to move Wyoming groundwater from methane wells to the Colorado River or potentially use it for exchanges in Wyoming. WyoFile’s Mike Koshmrl writes about efforts to move the water and the history about moving byproduct water from methane wells in the Atlantic Rim field in Wyoming.
MORE NEWS, REPORTS, ETC…
Two Colorado River papers:
“Unfinished Business: 21st Century Questions Posed by Ambiguities in the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact and the Law of the River” (SSRN) and
A Horse Named “Stream Depletion Theory”: The History and Negotiation of the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact” (SSRN) — with blog posts from University of New Mexico’s John Fleck, a co-author of the two papers.
“Replenishing Groundwater in the San Joaquin Valley: 2024 Update,” Public Policy Institute of California
The Colorado River, visualized as a plumbing system, (High Country News)
That’s all for this week. Stay safe and cool out there.
Until next time,
Daniel