• WATER SECURITYIn $100 Million Colorado River Deal, Water and Power Collide

    By Alex Hager

    The Colorado River District plans to buy the water rights that flow through Colorado’s Shoshone hydropower plant. The acquisition is seen as pivotal for a wide swath of the state, and has been co-signed by farmers, environmental groups, and local governments.

  • WATR SECURITYGlobal Groundwater Depletion Is Accelerating, but Is Not Inevitable

    By Harrison Tasoff

    Groundwater is rapidly declining across the globe, often at accelerating rates. Researchers raise the alarm over declining water resources, but offer instructive examples of where things are going well, and how groundwater depletion can be solved.

  • WATER SECURITYGroundwater Levels Are Falling Worldwide — but There Are Solutions

    By Jake Bittle

    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.

  • WATER SECURITYUnlocking Energy-Efficient Solution to Global Water Crisis

    Researchers achieved a major breakthrough in Redox Flow Desalination (RFD), an emerging electrochemical technique that can turn seawater into potable drinking water and also store affordable renewable energy. Researchers achieved a major breakthrough in Redox Flow Desalination (RFD), an emerging electrochemical technique that can turn seawater into potable drinking water and also store affordable renewable energy.

  • WATER SECURITYHybrid Urban Water Sourcing Model

    By Patrick Kurp

    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.

  • WATER SECURITYHow Can California Solve Its Water Woes? By Flooding Its Best Farmland.

    By Jake Bittle

    Restored floodplains in the state’s agricultural heartland are fighting both flooding and drought. But their fate rests with California’s powerful farmers.

  • WATER SECURITYSeaworthy Solution Yields Green Energy, Fresh Water

    By Blaine Friedlander

    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.

  • WATER SECURITYThe Historic Claims That Put a Few California Farming Families First in Line for Colorado River Water

    By Janet Wilson

    Twenty families in the Imperial Valley received a whopping 386.5 billion gallons of the river’s water last year — more than three Western states. Century-old water rights guarantee that supply.

  • WATER SECURITYScientists Map Loss of Groundwater Storage Around the World

    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.

  • WATER SECURITYInnovative Way to Predict Saltwater Intrusion into Groundwater

    Working closely with local conservation group, researchers develop new model to predict climate-change driven saltwater intrusion that is transferable to other vulnerable coastal communities.

  • WATER SECURITYBiden’s $8 Billion Quest to Solve America’s Groundwater Crisis

    By Jake Bittle

    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.

  • WATER SECURITYEPA Cancels Certain Cyber Regulations for Water Utilities

    Following growing concerns about the cybersecurity of the U.S. water infrastructure, the EPA announced this week it will no longer require cybersecurity audits of water utility facilities through sanitary surveys.

  • WATER SECURITYStates Working to Safeguard America’s Most Important River

    By Matt Haines

    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.

  • WATER SECURITYEthiopia's Dam Dispute Could Escalate

    By Isaac Kaledzi

    The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam conflict has lasted for more than a decade without a resolution. Some experts warn that any further delays in settling the outstanding issues could have dire consequences.

  • WATER SECURITYAre We Running Out of Water? Water Security Threatened by Droughts and Heatwaves Worldwide

    Increased demand for water due to global population growth, coupled with the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, endangers our water security. Nonetheless, little is known about the relationship of water use by sectors and the occurrence of drought-heatwave events, particularly at the large scale.