Daniel Rothberg
@danielrothberg.bsky.social
Writing about (ground)water in the West on Substack and elsewhere • Master's student @ UC Davis • invisiblewaters.substack.com 🏔🏜
Reposted by Daniel Rothberg
Given the latest NOAA CBRFC inflow forecast for Lake Powell, I dusted off this plot from my Twitter days and updated it.
The Feb 1st outlook for Colorado River flows hasn't been this poor in >35 years. Even if wetter weather ahead, bottom-10 outcome likely.
h/t @glenwoodrek.bsky.social
The Feb 1st outlook for Colorado River flows hasn't been this poor in >35 years. Even if wetter weather ahead, bottom-10 outcome likely.
h/t @glenwoodrek.bsky.social
February 5, 2026 at 5:08 PM
Given the latest NOAA CBRFC inflow forecast for Lake Powell, I dusted off this plot from my Twitter days and updated it.
The Feb 1st outlook for Colorado River flows hasn't been this poor in >35 years. Even if wetter weather ahead, bottom-10 outcome likely.
h/t @glenwoodrek.bsky.social
The Feb 1st outlook for Colorado River flows hasn't been this poor in >35 years. Even if wetter weather ahead, bottom-10 outcome likely.
h/t @glenwoodrek.bsky.social
Reposted by Daniel Rothberg
I wrote about my childhood friend Alexi Pretti. Please read it and share it and remember him as a human being. @theverge.com
I grew up with Alex Pretti
The kind-hearted ICU nurse shot by ICE agents was my childhood best friend.
www.theverge.com
January 27, 2026 at 4:45 PM
I wrote about my childhood friend Alexi Pretti. Please read it and share it and remember him as a human being. @theverge.com
Reposted by Daniel Rothberg
Arizona takes action on groundwater overuse
And ‘nonfunctional turf’ is taken to court
A fascinating read by @danielrothberg.bsky.social — and thanks for flagging the story, Daniel!
open.substack.com/pub/invisibl...
And ‘nonfunctional turf’ is taken to court
A fascinating read by @danielrothberg.bsky.social — and thanks for flagging the story, Daniel!
open.substack.com/pub/invisibl...
Arizona takes action on groundwater overuse
And "nonfunctional turf" taken to court.
open.substack.com
January 24, 2026 at 5:12 AM
Arizona takes action on groundwater overuse
And ‘nonfunctional turf’ is taken to court
A fascinating read by @danielrothberg.bsky.social — and thanks for flagging the story, Daniel!
open.substack.com/pub/invisibl...
And ‘nonfunctional turf’ is taken to court
A fascinating read by @danielrothberg.bsky.social — and thanks for flagging the story, Daniel!
open.substack.com/pub/invisibl...
"Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said Monday that her administration is acting to 'crack down on the out-of-state special interests that are pumping our state dry while Arizona families and farmers suffer.'" From @ianjames.bsky.social www.latimes.com/environment/...
Arizona draws a line on groundwater use after letting Saudi-owned company pump freely for years
Arizona's governor says the state will start limiting groundwater pumping in an area where a Saudi farm grows hay and aquifer levels are dropping.
www.latimes.com
January 15, 2026 at 5:47 PM
"Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said Monday that her administration is acting to 'crack down on the out-of-state special interests that are pumping our state dry while Arizona families and farmers suffer.'" From @ianjames.bsky.social www.latimes.com/environment/...
The U.S. government released its draft environmental review of options for new Colorado River rules to replace current operating guidelines that expire this year. Sounds dry but very important for a watershed that supports 40 million people in the Southwest. coloradosun.com/2026/01/09/c...
Feds release draft report outlining management plans for Colorado River’s future
The Bureau of Reclamation on Friday released a draft of options for how to manage the Colorado River water supply for years to come.
coloradosun.com
January 9, 2026 at 10:43 PM
The U.S. government released its draft environmental review of options for new Colorado River rules to replace current operating guidelines that expire this year. Sounds dry but very important for a watershed that supports 40 million people in the Southwest. coloradosun.com/2026/01/09/c...
Reposted by Daniel Rothberg
National assessment of river protection in the U.S.
Article: doi.org/10.1038/s418...
Policy Brief: doi.org/10.1038/s418...
Rivers Explorer: map.myriver.americanrivers.org
Collaboration b/t American Rivers, Conservation Science Partners, Univ WA @americanrivers.bsky.social
Thread 👇 | DM for PDF
Article: doi.org/10.1038/s418...
Policy Brief: doi.org/10.1038/s418...
Rivers Explorer: map.myriver.americanrivers.org
Collaboration b/t American Rivers, Conservation Science Partners, Univ WA @americanrivers.bsky.social
Thread 👇 | DM for PDF
January 9, 2026 at 6:18 PM
National assessment of river protection in the U.S.
Article: doi.org/10.1038/s418...
Policy Brief: doi.org/10.1038/s418...
Rivers Explorer: map.myriver.americanrivers.org
Collaboration b/t American Rivers, Conservation Science Partners, Univ WA @americanrivers.bsky.social
Thread 👇 | DM for PDF
Article: doi.org/10.1038/s418...
Policy Brief: doi.org/10.1038/s418...
Rivers Explorer: map.myriver.americanrivers.org
Collaboration b/t American Rivers, Conservation Science Partners, Univ WA @americanrivers.bsky.social
Thread 👇 | DM for PDF
"...the ghost of Tulare Lake has much more to teach us than its existence alone. Tulare Lake wasn’t drained because it failed. It was drained because it worked, precisely as nature intended." @andrewrypel.bsky.social writes on America's Ghost Lake tnature.substack.com/p/americas-g...
America's Ghost Lake
“Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too.
tnature.substack.com
January 8, 2026 at 3:46 PM
"...the ghost of Tulare Lake has much more to teach us than its existence alone. Tulare Lake wasn’t drained because it failed. It was drained because it worked, precisely as nature intended." @andrewrypel.bsky.social writes on America's Ghost Lake tnature.substack.com/p/americas-g...
"The drop (in Lake Powell) is compressing the margin between routine operations and hard infrastructure limits at Glen Canyon Dam as negotiations over post-2026 Colorado River operating rules remain unresolved." www.enr.com/articles/622...
At Lake Powell, Engineering Is Outpacing Colorado River Policy
As Lake Powell drops toward critical thresholds, engineers are making long-term infrastructure decisions even as post-2026 Colorado River rules remain unresolved.
www.enr.com
January 6, 2026 at 5:52 PM
"The drop (in Lake Powell) is compressing the margin between routine operations and hard infrastructure limits at Glen Canyon Dam as negotiations over post-2026 Colorado River operating rules remain unresolved." www.enr.com/articles/622...
This is so sad on so many levels.
Academics and technologists are sounding the alarm about a growing crisis in scholarship as we know it: AI-generated citations of nonexistent papers that have infested real journals. Despite being fake, the sources are widely assumed to be authentic the more they appear in published literature.
AI Is Inventing Academic Papers That Don't Exist -- And They're Being Cited in Real Journals
Academic articles from authors using large language model are creating an ecosystem of fake research that threatens human knowledge itself.
www.rollingstone.com
December 18, 2025 at 12:42 AM
This is so sad on so many levels.
"One of the West’s most valuable resources has no consistent valuation – and sometimes costs nothing at all." | California cities pay a lot for water; some agricultural districts get it for free calmatters.org/environment/...
California cities pay a lot for water; some agricultural districts get it for free
Water costs are confusing — even for the experts. A new study shows huge differences in what cities and farm water districts pay for supplies from rivers and reservoirs in California, Arizona, and Nev...
calmatters.org
December 11, 2025 at 10:58 PM
"One of the West’s most valuable resources has no consistent valuation – and sometimes costs nothing at all." | California cities pay a lot for water; some agricultural districts get it for free calmatters.org/environment/...
New report from the Colorado River Research Group: Dancing with Deadpool. It begins: "Conditions on the Colorado River are, to put it bluntly, dire." www.colorado.edu/center/gwc/C...
December 10, 2025 at 12:40 AM
New report from the Colorado River Research Group: Dancing with Deadpool. It begins: "Conditions on the Colorado River are, to put it bluntly, dire." www.colorado.edu/center/gwc/C...
"Nevada is completely over-allocated on its groundwater resources. It’s the driest state in the union. Our tribe’s number one goal is protecting our resources." | The AI boom is heralding a new gold rush in the American west www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
The AI boom is heralding a new gold rush in the American west
Once home to gold and prospectors, the Nevada desert is now the site of a new kind of expansion: tech datacenters
www.theguardian.com
December 4, 2025 at 11:53 PM
"Nevada is completely over-allocated on its groundwater resources. It’s the driest state in the union. Our tribe’s number one goal is protecting our resources." | The AI boom is heralding a new gold rush in the American west www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
A new report looks at approaches for updating local ordinances in California to consider the connection between groundwater use and streamflow within the context of SGMA and a 2018 ruling that applied public trust considerations to well permits. www.groundwaterresourcehub.org/content/dam/...
December 3, 2025 at 5:56 PM
A new report looks at approaches for updating local ordinances in California to consider the connection between groundwater use and streamflow within the context of SGMA and a 2018 ruling that applied public trust considerations to well permits. www.groundwaterresourcehub.org/content/dam/...
Reposted by Daniel Rothberg
I joined @danielrothberg.bsky.social for the first video edition of his newsletter, Invisible Waters—imo the best resource for staying up to date about what’s going on with water in the West—to talk about my forthcoming book, Salt Lakes:
substack.com/@cetracey/no...
substack.com/@cetracey/no...
November 25, 2025 at 11:15 PM
I joined @danielrothberg.bsky.social for the first video edition of his newsletter, Invisible Waters—imo the best resource for staying up to date about what’s going on with water in the West—to talk about my forthcoming book, Salt Lakes:
substack.com/@cetracey/no...
substack.com/@cetracey/no...
‘The precedent is Flint’: How Oregon’s data center boom is supercharging a water crisis thefern.org/2025/11/the-...
‘The precedent is Flint’: How Oregon’s data center boom is supercharging a water crisis | Food and Environment Reporting Network
In the spring of 2022, Jim Doherty kept having the same conversation with folks at the only grocery store in Boardman, his eastern Oregon hometown, or at the grain depot where he picked up food for…
thefern.org
November 25, 2025 at 6:45 PM
‘The precedent is Flint’: How Oregon’s data center boom is supercharging a water crisis thefern.org/2025/11/the-...
Reposted by Daniel Rothberg
Have you been wanting to learn more about Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom's ideas for collaborative governance?
Now is your chance to get that copy of The Uncommon Knowledge of Elinor Ostrom for half price!
islandpress.org/books/uncomm...
Now is your chance to get that copy of The Uncommon Knowledge of Elinor Ostrom for half price!
islandpress.org/books/uncomm...
November 13, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Have you been wanting to learn more about Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom's ideas for collaborative governance?
Now is your chance to get that copy of The Uncommon Knowledge of Elinor Ostrom for half price!
islandpress.org/books/uncomm...
Now is your chance to get that copy of The Uncommon Knowledge of Elinor Ostrom for half price!
islandpress.org/books/uncomm...
Reposted by Daniel Rothberg
“Litigation could take years, if not decades, to resolve. The effects of aridification are unfolding at a faster rate.” @danielrothberg.bsky.social invisiblewaters.substack.com/p/what-happe...
What happened on the Colorado River?
Negotiating around legal uncertainties as climate change takes its toll.
invisiblewaters.substack.com
November 13, 2025 at 1:59 AM
“Litigation could take years, if not decades, to resolve. The effects of aridification are unfolding at a faster rate.” @danielrothberg.bsky.social invisiblewaters.substack.com/p/what-happe...
“Previous negotiations did not address core issues. They either delayed them or worked around them, making do based on the circumstances of the time.” Good piece from Caitlin Ochs on the legal questions behind the Colorado River talks: www.hcn.org/articles/why...
Why Colorado River negotiations are so difficult - High Country News
Basin states have had 2 years to figure out how to share the shrinking river. Will they get there before the feds step in?
www.hcn.org
November 11, 2025 at 6:44 PM
“Previous negotiations did not address core issues. They either delayed them or worked around them, making do based on the circumstances of the time.” Good piece from Caitlin Ochs on the legal questions behind the Colorado River talks: www.hcn.org/articles/why...
Reposted by Daniel Rothberg
New York Times investigation finds home insurance companies have exploited loopholes in California wildfire regulations to avoid high-risk areas while still charging higher rates: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/01/u...
California Promised Insurance Relief, But Delivered Loopholes
www.nytimes.com
November 11, 2025 at 5:36 PM
New York Times investigation finds home insurance companies have exploited loopholes in California wildfire regulations to avoid high-risk areas while still charging higher rates: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/01/u...
Reposted by Daniel Rothberg
my latest: CRIT grants personhood status to #coloradoriver - 3rd in North America by Indigenous peoples. www.azcentral.com/story/news/l...
Colorado River wins personhood status from Arizona tribal council
Personhood status creates a powerful new mechanism for protecting the eponymous river that makes life possible in their arid homelands.
www.azcentral.com
November 10, 2025 at 11:43 PM
my latest: CRIT grants personhood status to #coloradoriver - 3rd in North America by Indigenous peoples. www.azcentral.com/story/news/l...
Colorado River talks hit crunch time as deadline from Trump administration looms calmatters.org/environment/...
Colorado River talks hit crunch time. What's at stake for California water?
Western states in the Colorado River basin are racing a federal deadline to hash out how to share the overtapped river. As the clock ticks down, two questions looms large: Just how real is this deadli...
calmatters.org
November 10, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Colorado River talks hit crunch time as deadline from Trump administration looms calmatters.org/environment/...
Do groundwater rights retirement programs work? There is certainly demand for them in Nevada. For KNPR and the Daily Yonder, I talked to irrigators about their experiences with a pilot program in areas where aquifers are being depleted faster than they are replenished. knpr.org/desert-compa...
Well Into the Future
A Nevada program addressed overallocation of groundwater by paying farmers to use less. Is it working?
knpr.org
November 7, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Do groundwater rights retirement programs work? There is certainly demand for them in Nevada. For KNPR and the Daily Yonder, I talked to irrigators about their experiences with a pilot program in areas where aquifers are being depleted faster than they are replenished. knpr.org/desert-compa...
Reposted by Daniel Rothberg
Exactly a year ago, Ellen Wohl, @parriblue.bsky.social and I spent two days in Providence thinking about #rivers and how we conceptualize them & live with them. Here’s the result of history and fluvial geomorphology teaming up. #envhist
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
Rivers are messy: Beyond the water bias in research and management
This article reviews current trends in interdisciplinary river research to argue that a “water bias” or tendency consider rivers as synonymous with water can hinder our understanding of rivers and con...
doi.org
November 6, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Exactly a year ago, Ellen Wohl, @parriblue.bsky.social and I spent two days in Providence thinking about #rivers and how we conceptualize them & live with them. Here’s the result of history and fluvial geomorphology teaming up. #envhist
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
“Regardless of what sort of offsetting or replenishment you do, it doesn’t necessarily nullify the water footprints of your own operations." Amazon strategised about keeping its datacentres’ full water use secret, leaked document shows www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Amazon strategised about keeping its datacentres’ full water use secret, leaked document shows
Executives at world’s biggest datacentre owner grappled with disclosing information about water used to help power facilities
www.theguardian.com
October 28, 2025 at 12:34 AM
“Regardless of what sort of offsetting or replenishment you do, it doesn’t necessarily nullify the water footprints of your own operations." Amazon strategised about keeping its datacentres’ full water use secret, leaked document shows www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Wrote a bit about the mining and (ground)water nexus in the Western U.S., with the rush for critical minerals and gold surpassing $4,000/ounce. invisiblewaters.substack.com/p/where-ther...
Where there's mining there's water
Gold hit a record-high this week. Behind the commodity price is a water story, too.
invisiblewaters.substack.com
October 24, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Wrote a bit about the mining and (ground)water nexus in the Western U.S., with the rush for critical minerals and gold surpassing $4,000/ounce. invisiblewaters.substack.com/p/where-ther...