Daniel Rothberg
Writing about (ground)water in the West on Substack and elsewhere • Master's student @ UC Davis • invisiblewaters.substack.com 🏔🏜
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergGiven 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
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergI 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 RothbergArizona 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...
- "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...
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergNational 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
- "...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...
- 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/...
- 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...
- 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 RothbergI 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...
- ‘The precedent is Flint’: How Oregon’s data center boom is supercharging a water crisis thefern.org/2025/11/the-...
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergHave 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...
- Discover solutions that inspire change with our #SimplyEverything sale. Every book is 50% off for a limited time! Use code HALF at checkout! Islandpress.org/half
- 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...
- “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 RothbergNew 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 Rothbergmy 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/...
- 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 RothbergExactly 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...
- “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...
- Highly recommend these eye-opening Water Talk podcast episodes about how local governments and communities are struggling to assess the impacts of data center proposals because of NDAs, etc... - www.watertalkpodcast.com/episodes/epi... - www.watertalkpodcast.com/episodes/epi...
- 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...
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergMelanie Winter, who dedicated much of her life to reimagining the Los Angeles River as a natural asset, has died. I feel fortunate to have known Melanie and learned about her vision for a living river. She inspired many others, who will carry her vision with them. www.latimes.com/environment/...
- Check out (and subscribe!) to @sammyroth.bsky.social's new Substack focused on climate solutions in entertainment and pop culture. "...what I’ve realized — what drove me to start this newsletter — is that the climate crisis is in large part a cultural problem."
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergIts official! Today, the US Corps Of Engineers is announcing that it signed into effect a Water Control Manual update for Lake Mendocino on the Russian River that implements FIRO* there! 1/7 www.sfchronicle.com/california/a... * Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations
- Reposted by Daniel Rothberg“The Monday filing outlines where 2,050 positions would be eliminated; the U.S. Geological Survey, the Bureau of Land Management, and the main Interior office would be especially hard hit. Regional offices with the National Park Service are also targeted for significant cuts.”
- Salmon reach headwaters for first time in a century after California dam removal www.sfchronicle.com/california/a...
- “We’ve seen so many impacts from groundwater pumping. There’s a lot of areas that are dewatered, that are dried up.” Indigenous leaders raise concerns about groundwater pumping in Owens Valley and call for negotiations with L.A. @ianjames.bsky.social has more. www.latimes.com/environment/...
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergYou'd think the Colorado River Basin dispute amounts to conflict between the upper and lower basin states based on most coverage, but Tribes and Mexico also have a big role here. We talked with Cora Tso and Sam Sandoval about these issues on Water Talk www.watertalkpodcast.com/episodes/epi...
- Important report out from the Initiative on Universal Access to Clean Water for Tribal Communities (UACW): The FY 2026 federal budget includes a 70% reduction in funding for Tribal Access to Clean, Reliable and Accessible Drinking Water. tribalcleanwater.org/wp-content/u...
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergNOAA has just issued a La Niña Watch for late 2025/early 2026. So far this century, we've had 12 La Niña winters versus just 8 El Niño winters. What does this portend for Southwest US drought? There's some unsettling new science out on that. yaleclimateconnections.org/2025/08/why-...
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergPhotographs from Mono Lake and the Mono Basin, a landscape of deep silence and immense space. (And overdue for implementation of the full protections guaranteed by decades-old legal decisions.) #monolake #monobasin #lake #nature #landscape #california #basinandrange #photography
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergIn today’s @latimes.com: ‘It needs more water’: Calls grow for boosting Mono Lake www.latimes.com/environment/... @myungchun.bsky.social
- We do not talk enough about groundwater, the quiet water crisis playing out across the globe. “Groundwater is the most precious natural resource in the dry parts of the world," said ASU's Jay Famiglietti. “And it is probably the least protected.” www.westernwaternotes.com/p/q-and-a-gr...
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergAs housing costs soar, running water has become a luxury in Portland, Phoenix and other wealthy US cities. Latest for @bloomberg.com with Klara Auerbach, gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
- What makes heat so hard to cover? Thoughtful reporting from my friends and colleagues, Meg Bernhard and Bridget Bennett, on the invisibility and difficulties of telling stories about extreme heat, a crisis that so often "turns us inward." www.cjr.org/feature-2/wh...
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergAs a public service, people will find the original pdf files of all the U.S. National Climate Assessments, 2001-2023, publicly available at: www.patrickgonzalez.net#us_national_...
- Reposted by Daniel Rothberg“Many people still expect the Colorado River to bounce back,” Shanahan said. “But our findings suggest it may not. Water managers need to start planning for the possibility that this drought isn’t just a rough patch — it could be the new reality.”
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergThis downward spiral of the number of working journalists in communities across the country has been happening for years. At my former shop for example, the newsroom was systematically reduced from nine reporters and three editors to just a single reporter over the course of four years. 1/
- Reposted by Daniel Rothberg"In the United States, which prefers to measure its losses in dollars [rather than lives], the damage from major storms was more than $180 billion last year, nearly 10 times the average annual toll during the 1980s, after accounting for inflation" #climate www.propublica.org/article/texa...
- ‘Water brings life’: Plans to revive Tulare Lake take shape in the San Joaquin Valley www.latimes.com/environment/...
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergWhile majority of Americans see climate change as risk almost nobody talks about it with others. This is a major reason for lack of action. climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications...
- Smart piece on the future of publishing in a world after Google Zero. Written about the journalism industry, but it applies to science communication and many forms of publishing. mattdpearce.substack.com/p/ai-could-c...
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergFrom @internetarchive.eu: "Internet Archive Europe proudly announces the launch of Our Future Memory, a global campaign dedicated to safeguarding the digital rights of libraries, archives, and museums worldwide." www.internetarchive.eu/protecting-t...
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergMy first #artwork in months - I wanted to try a geological "field" sketch - submarine fan deposits in the Cretaceous Point Loma Formation at Point Loma, San Diego, and overlying Pleistocene deposits. Locally, the PLF consists of repetitive sandstone/mudstone couplets. #watercolor #geology
- 💯 “These resources are more interconnected than our laws lead us to think, and as a result of that, we need to be finding ways to more explicitly consider them in seven-state negotiations,” Koebele said.
- Chatted with @wyattmyskow.bsky.social for @insideclimatenews.org about some policy implications of major groundwater depletion in the #ColoradoRiver basin, as identified in a new study out of @arizonastateuni.bsky.social ⬇️ insideclimatenews.org/news/0206202...
- A data center boom is happening in the nation’s driest state. AI is accelerating it. An excellent and well-reported piece by @jtemple.bsky.social on a topic that deserves way more scrutiny. www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1...
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergHey look it's @kbdobbin.bsky.social, Justin McBride's and my work on Water System Consolidation in California on the cover of the June 2025 edition of Journal American Water Works Association. Another @luskininnovation.bsky.social @ucanrwater.bsky.social @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social collab.
- "All water discharged by wells is balanced by a loss of water somewhere." - Hydrogeologist C.V. Theis writing in 1940, nearly a century ago. From "The Source of Water Derived From Wells." water.usgs.gov/ogw/pubs/The...
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergAnd just to reiterate, a lot of that subsidence is also being outsourced to rural areas via groundwater extraction and transfer
- New research finds that nearly all of the 28 largest population centers in the U.S. are sinking — and a major cause is groundwater depletion. Another indicator of how important groundwater is, even if it is often invisible to us. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
- New research finds that nearly all of the 28 largest population centers in the U.S. are sinking — and a major cause is groundwater depletion. Another indicator of how important groundwater is, even if it is often invisible to us. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
- "...the so-called war over California’s water is a dangerous, flawed trope that reduces certain water uses to right or wrong, and turns the Delta into a place with no local stakes." www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/o...
- From the National Integrated Drought Information System: "Abysmal" snowpack in Arizona and New Mexico www.drought.gov/drought-stat...
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergA grim but vital inversion of the federal birth of modern oral history under the FWP. Federal and historian friends, please participate!
- Histories wanted! Are you a recently terminated federal employee? Historians want to record your story! There's so much you know; let's get it on the record. You may record anonymously if you wish. www.oah.org/2025/03/04/f...
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergNASA: FARMing with data: OpenET launches new tool for farmers and ranchers #cawater #OpenET mavensnotebook.com/2025/03/05/n...
- New bill would give Utah’s ‘water agent’ more ‘behind-the-scenes’ power to negotiate outside the state www.sltrib.com/news/environ...
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergThis table details the state-by-state impact a 65% cut at EPA would have on state safe drinking water and clean water grants, as well as EPA Regional staff, including enforcement staff, emergency response staff, and clean water staff. docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
- "It's going to significantly impact our operations." Trump administration dramatically cuts staff at water agency in California. From @ianjames.bsky.social www.latimes.com/environment/...
- What Josh says x 100. Some of the most impressive marvels of the modern world are not physical constructions but the system-level infrastructure that makes everyday life work, infrastructure that works so well it is often invisible.
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergAre urban water systems able to put out wildfires? A question @gregspierce.bsky.social and I got A LOT during the recent LA fires. This set of FAQs is our attempt to answer that and many other questions related to water supply infrastructure and wildfire innovation.luskin.ucla.edu/wp-content/u...
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergI have written a short statement responding to mass firings today of #NOAA / National Weather Service (#NWS) staff (which were concentrated among recent hires as well as highly experienced staff who had recently been promoted). Please see below screenshot & below for full text.
- Reposted by Daniel Rothberg≈Sixty Seconds of Streamside Serenity for Self-Care
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergVery nice. Thank you. From the first Cadiz EIR fight onwards Simeon's understanding of groundwater systems of the Mojave and Great Basin commanded respect from politically unlikely bedfellows, from ranchers to environmentalists. I never saw him chose a legal ploy that wasn't supported by the science
- Wrote about the passing of Simeon Herskovits, who pushed Nevada courts to consider communities and the environment in water law, playing pivotal roles in the Walker Lake Public Trust Doctrine case, opposing the Las Vegas pipeline and more. www.westernwaternotes.com/p/rememberin...
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergCalifornia water allocations announced: _State Water Project to deliver 35% of requested supplies, up from 20%; _Central Valley Project projected to deliver 35% to agricultural districts south of the Delta, more than double last year's initial allocation. www.latimes.com/environment/... #CAwater
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergI’ve spent the last 8 years working on a book about forever chemicals, or #PFAS, and the chemical industry’s decades-long campaign to cover up their dangers. What I discovered along the way is deeply disturbing, and yet the journey has left me hopeful. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/554198...
- Reposted by Daniel Rothberg[This post could not be retrieved]
- Historic pact reached on future Eel River water flows into Russian River www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news...
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergAmidst all the talk of rebuilding, what about...regrowing? 🌱 my latest for @gristnews.bsky.social: grist.org/wildfires/wh...
- Reposted by Daniel Rothberg"The film delves into the complex relationship between humans and nature, promoting a message of harmonious coexistence." Marine biologists ❤️ Miyazaki: A new fish to science has been named after the warrior princess from the animated film Princess Mononoke, due to its striking facial markings
- New on my Substack: I talked with UNM's @jfleck.bsky.social about why Colorado River negotiations are at an impasse and what happens when the federal government becomes an unreliable partner. www.westernwaternotes.com/p/q-and-a-th...
- Lots of water in the Yolo Bypass between Davis and Sacramento.
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergFebruary 1 snow-water equivalent (SWE) is near to below normal for the majority of the region (CO, UT, WY), with much below normal conditions in southern Utah and southwestern Colorado. How do you predict this will change by March 1? wwa.colorado.edu/resources/in... #snowpack
- A new Substack post on how the growing demand for nuclear energy and Project 2025 are on a collision course with storing waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. www.westernwaternotes.com/p/is-yucca-m...
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergLegislative session in Nevada has officially begun. Here's a helpful rundown of key #water related bills up for debate, thanks to the folks @greatbasinwater.bsky.social: greatbasinwater.org/let-the-bill...
- Arizona ranchers are asking the 9th Circuit to reopen wells shuttered for pumping Gila River water in yet another case involving the (legal) division between hydrologically-connected groundwater and surface water. www.courthousenews.com/arizona-ranc...
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergThe U.S. #NationalWeatherService, housed within #NOAA, is a truly world-class meteorological predictive service, perhaps singularly so. It costs only ~$3/yr per taxpayer, & yields ~10:1 return on investment--saving economy 10s-100s of billions, not to mention thousands of lives.
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergLast Friday, before recent storms, I posted 3 sets of graphics I use to track drought evolutn in Sierra Nv. I was hoping the storms wd finally reduce some deficits significantly. 1. Reservoirs-wise, storms brought a little progress... cw3e.ucsd.edu/water_storag... cnap.ucsd.edu/water-storag...
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergOnly 21% of Altadena properties in the Eaton fire were in Cal Fire's highest fire hazard zone, but other fire modelers found 94% had severe or extreme fire risk. Cal Fire is now reconsidering how it models fire. Story w/ @bposton.bsky.social @sean-greene.bsky.social: www.latimes.com/environment/...
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergCreeks and rivers flood to different rhythms, creeks vulnerable more to peak downpours, rivers to cumulative effects. In Sonoma, my favorite creek has likely seen its drama and was half the elevation of a true flood stage. #cawater #sonoma
- Reposted by Daniel RothbergThis (and this is just the tip of the iceberg) is what happens when you try to run government like a business. 25-50% of staff will be laid off at NSF, and with it, no doubt, an end of US supremacy in science. Absolutely catastrophic. 🧪⚒️❄️ www.politico.com/news/2025/02...
- Wyoming Tribes push to control reservation water as the state proposes sending it to outside irrigators, @jakebolster.bsky.social reports. insideclimatenews.org/news/0202202...
- Good on @sammyroth.bsky.social for writing this excellent, important and sobering column about how Trump's propaganda on California water — and the amplification of it — symbolizes the break down of so much more. www.latimes.com/environment/...
- Reposted by Daniel Rothberg“It’s making an already hard situation very, very difficult. We don’t have a lot of wiggle room in the state of California to be messing around with our water supply like this.” @figlatin.bsky.social
