Water and energy are interdependent – water is used to produce nearly every major energy source, and energy is critical to transporting and treating water. A research consortium will continue to lead a DOE desalination hub to drive innovation for sustainable water security.

There are three main forces driving the conflict on the Colorado River. The first is an outdated legal system that guarantees more water to seven Western states than is actually available in the river during most years. The second is the exclusion of Native American tribes from this legal system. The third is climate change, which is heating up the western United States and diminishing the winter snowfall and rainwater that feed the river. Landmark agreements would cut big states’ water usage for decades and deliver water to the Navajo Nation.

Critical minerals for the clean energy transition are abundant in the Southwest, but the dozens of mines proposed to access them will require vast sums of water, something in short supply in the desert.

The world’s groundwater aquifers are taking a beating. Decades of unrestrained pumping by thirsty farms and fast-growing cities have drained these underground rock beds, which hold more than 95 percent of the planet’s drinkable water. New research shows how to protect the aquifers that hold most of the world’s fresh water.

Houston’s water and wastewater system could be more resilient with the development of hybrid urban water supply systems that combine conventional, centralized water sources with reclaimed wastewater. Reclaimed wastewater could make supply systems more resilient.

Engineers have refined a model that not only cultivates green energy, but also desalinates ocean water for large, drought-stricken coastal populations.By pumping seawater to a mountaintop reservoir and then employing gravity to send the salty water down to a co-located hydropower plant and a reverse osmosis desalination facility, science can satisfy the energy and hydration needs of coastal cities with one system.

Global water resources are stretched by climate change and human population growth, and farms and cities are increasingly turning to groundwater to fill their needs. Unfortunately, the pumping of groundwater can cause the ground surface above to sink. A new study maps, for the first time, the permanent loss of aquifer storage capacity occurring globally.

A looming depletion of groundwater across the U.S. has drawn nationwide attention in recent years, as local officials in states from Kansas to Arizona struggle to manage dwindling water resources even as homes and farms get thirstier. With little fanfare, the administration is using infrastructure funding to revive dormant plans for pipelines and reservoirs in rural areas across the U.S. West.

Political leaders in the Mississippi River area are looking to form a multistate compact to manage threats from climate change, water pollution and drought-affected regions elsewhere. Twenty million people drink from the Mississippi River and its tributaries every day, and the river has led to more than 350,000 jobs and generates more than $21 billion in annual tourism, fishing and recreation spending.