News, Articles and Interviews

News briefs and articles about water footprints, water use and availability, as well as interviews with key people in the fields of water footprints and water use.

State Water Plan Monographs From 17 States

November 19, 2018

The American Water Resources Association held its third National Leadership Institute (NLI) Workshop for State Officials. The workshop resulted in the production of a report that presents state water plans. Seventeen states participated. Contributors followed a common format, providing an elevator pitch that succinctly described each plan. They provided the statutory underpinnings, the planning horizons, […]

Basra’s Poisonous Water Demands International Action

November 16, 2018

Violent protests erupted in Basra this summer in response to the deterioration of public services. At the center is a water supply crisis brought about by mismanagement and overuse of water resources for energy and water, as well as a lack of investments in water treatment systems that left water undrinkable. Basra city was famous […]

Your Water Footprint? It’s as Important as Your Carbon Footprint

November 14, 2018

As important as your carbon footprint is, you must not forget your water footprint. What often happens is that people focus on the water they use directly from the faucet, and don’t realize their large use of “virtual water,” or all water that goes into the food, consumer goods and energy they consume every day. […]

Rivers in the Sky: How Deforestation Is Affecting Global Water Cycles

November 13, 2018

Trees are an active part of the water cycle – they suck water out of the ground through their roots and release water vapor into the atmosphere through pores in their foliage. En masse, they create giant rivers of water in the air that form clouds and create rainfall hundreds or even thousands of miles […]

New Indirect Potable Reuse Project Comes To Southwest

November 9, 2018

Arizona has been reusing wastewater since the 1920’s, but new rules permitting direct potable reuse make it possible for utilities to plan new drinking water projects.  Treated wastewater would have to go through “a multistage, multi-barrier treatment process with controls, real-time monitoring, a whole lot of microbial monitoring and chemical monitoring,” according to hydrogeologist Chuck Graf. […]

In Water-Stressed West, an Old Water Efficiency Metric Needs a Reboot

November 7, 2018

Residential water management has long been measured by houses served per acre-foot, or the amount of water it takes to cover one acre a foot deep in water. This has been especially important in the West because water isn’t always in great supply in western portions of the United States. The standard has been changing […]

Reducing Your Carbon — and Water — Footprint Still Matters

November 5, 2018

In recent weeks, a number of environmentally minded political pundits have stated that voting for enlightened politicians is the sole way to change direction and policy towards a more sustainable society, particularly when it comes to climate action. In a Slate article, two social psychology researchers review the science and show that norm changes — […]

The Precarious Plan for the Lake Powell Pipeline

October 31, 2018

Gabriel Lozada, a theoretical mathematician at the University of Utah and a pro bono consultant for the Utah Rivers Council, suspected that government officials were overstating the benefits and ignoring potential costs of a water supply pipeline that would take water Colorado River out of Lake Powell to southern Utah. So Lozada built a mathematical […]