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- 🌵Desert News, 5/20/24
🌵Desert News, 5/20/24
Groundwater, saguaros, and harming National Parks.
May 9
Beatty board backs Ash Meadows conservancy plans
Activists with the Amargosa Conservancy and partner groups are pushing for a mineral withdrawal to protect Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge from mining, and an important local municipality has just signed on in support. The usually mining-friendly town of Beatty, NV has endorsed the proposal to remove public lands surrounding Ash Meadows from consideration for new mining claims for the next 20 years. This is in response to Rover Critical Minerals’ attempt to mine for lithium near the refuge, which activists and local residents fear will change the groundwater flow patterns in and near Ash Meadows, threatening both Ash Meadows’ pantheon of endangered and endemic species, while simultaneously threatening local residents’ wells.
Full disclosure: Chris Clarke, Executive Director of the Desert Advocacy Media Network, serves on the Board of Directors of the Amargosa Conservancy. An interview with the Conservancy’s Mason Voehl will be featured in an upcoming episode of 90 Miles from Needles to air on May 21.
May 10
Learning more about a Sonoran Desert Icon
In this short episode of the podcast Arizona Science, the host talks with biologist Don Swann of Saguaro National Park about the outlook for the iconic Sonoran Desert denizen, the saguaro. Spoiler: there’s mixed news.
May 12
Nevada may expand cash-for-water rights programs for imperiled regions
Half of Nevada’s groundwater basins are oversubscribed, at least on paper. In those basins, the amount of water people can legally pump each year exceeds the amount of water that returns to the aquifer from rain and snow. The Nevada Legislature is holding hearings to discuss enlarging a state program that buys out groundwater rights holders in oversubscribed basins, thus leaving that water in the ground.
May 13
A major deposit of rare earth elements sits just outside El Paso. Will anyone mine it?
Round Top Mountain, 85 miles east of El Paso near Sierra Blanca, Texas, has been eyed as a potential source of rare earth elements and lithium since at least the 1980s. The site has significant amounts of 16 of the 17 rare earth elements, and is especially rich in dysprosium and lutetium. As federal agencies promote the production of critical minerals such as rare earth elements, mining companies USA Rare Earth and Texas Mineral Resources Corp. are collaborating to develop a mine, on Round Top which would actually generate more income from selling lithium and other minerals than from the rare earths on the site. But are there other ways to find rare earth metals that don’t require new mines?
National Park Service seeking info after historic salt tram tower pulled down
Visitors to Saline Valley in Death Valley National Park toppled a historic salt tram tower when they attempted to use it as an anchor to winch their truck out of a mudpit. The news attracted lots of attention in social and conventional media, prompting the visitors in question to turn themselves in a few days later.
When the Salton Sea shrank, it took Bombay Beach with it. Can Utah heed the warning?
A human interest profile of the Imperial County hamlet of Bombay Beach, and how its residents are contending with the rapidly shrinking Salton Sea and the toxic playa dust the Sea is leaving behind, contextualized for neighbors of the Great Salt Lake who will likely be facing a similar situation by the end of the decade unless measures are taken to save the lake.
May 14
Nevada senators want Yucca Mountain licensing law repealed
Senators Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez-Masto introduced a bill May 14 that would repeal the federal designation of Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the nation’s nuclear waste dump. The bill comes in response to attempts by House Republicans to revive the Yucca Mountain licensing process, stalled now for decades in the face of local opposition to the dump.
Humboldt County Public Works implements watering schedule in hopes of lowering nitrate levels
During periods of high demand for water, Grass Valley NV, a community south of Winnemucca, fires up a secondary well to meet demand. Problem is, that well’s water is high in nitrates, which pose an environmental and public health risk. Humboldt County’s Public Works department has issued a voluntary watering schedule, discouraging watering on certain days, to even out demand and reduce reliance on the secondary well. But the schedule doesn’t apply to all groundwater users, and skeptics doubt the move by Public Works will help much.
Wolves sighted in Northern Nevada not actually wolves
A pack of wolves reported in Elko County were actually coyotes, according to the NV Department of Wildlife. This determination came after fecal and hair samples were collected and subjected to genetic testing. A bonafide wolf sighting in Nevada in 2017 was the first since 1922.
Pelicans nesting on Hat Island for first time since 1943
After the Great Salt Lake’s breeding population of white pelicans abruptly abandoned their nesting colony on Gunnison Island last year, biologists are cautiously optimistic to report that many of the large birds have nested on nearby Hat Island this year, which hasn’t happened for nearly a century. A few pelicans have also returned to Gunnison Island. But the crisis isn’t over.
Restoring the Salton Sea Part Two: Communities, Quakes and Preservation
This 22 minute documentary video (with Part One linked on the page as well) covers the looming health risks from a drying Salton Sea, along with the campaigns to protect neighbors and wildlife from the dying sea’s ill effects.
May 15
Turning the tap in To’hajiilee: Long-awaited water pipeline construction underway to bring clean water
The people of To’hajiilee, a Navajo Nation community about 25 miles west of Albuquerque, have long relied on six wells for their drinking water. But five of those wells are out of commission, and the sixth is insufficient to serve the tribal enclave in the best of times, with sketchy water quality. The tribe, working with state and local agencies, has long advocated for a pipeline to connect the community with the Albuquerque and Bernalillo County’s water system, but reluctance by local landowners to grant an easement for the pipeline has blocked progress on the project. Until now.
Colorado River: Bill would allow 'taking' of rare pupfish, desert birds to get deal done
A bill in the California Assembly, AB 2610 authored by Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, D-Coachella, would allow the Imperial Irrigation District to “take" the desert pupfish, California black rails, and Yuma Ridgeway's rails, all of which are protected under the state’s Endangered Species Act. The bill is an attempt to streamline approval of a plan to conserve 800,000 acre-feet of water from the Colorado River by fallowing alfalfa fields in the IID’s service area. That fallowing increases the likelihood that drainage ditches and wetlands might dry up, and that’s where the problem is: all three species mentioned in the bill have made homes in those artificial ditches and wetlands. The bill would clarify existing “take” authorizations granted in the 2003 Quantification settlement Agreement that allowed IID to sell water to San Diego, and endangered species activists quoted in the article are more or less okay with the language in the bill. Federal protections of the three species would not be affected by the bill.
Airborne technology brings new hope to map shallow aquifers in deserts
USC researchers report that their attempts to map desert groundwater using ground-penetrating radar are showing distinct promise. If the technology pans out, it would mean a significant advance in our understanding of desert aquifers. At present scientists must rely on wells to gauge groundwater depth, which becomes less accurate with increasing distance from the well.
Senators propose renaming Joshua Tree Visitor Center after late Sen. Dianne Feinstein
Legislation introduced by California’s Senators Alex Padilla and Laphonza Butler is would bestow the late Senator Dianne Feinstein’s name onto a planned upgraded visitor’s center at Joshua Tree National Park. The Cottonwood Visitors Center near Interstate 10, in a temporary building for the last several decades, is the subject of a long-planned upgrade that has been delayed several times due to funding conflicts. Feinstein was instrumental in upgrading Joshua Tree from a National Monument to a National Park in 1994, as well as the establishment that same year of Mojave National Preserve and the creation of two national monuments in 2016 that adjoin Joshua Tree.
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May 16
Watchdogs: BLM quietly rerouted transmission line, favoring mining over national monument
For the last few years the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service have been butting heads behind the scenes over the BLM’s proposed routing of the planned Greenlink West transmission line through Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, a move that would seriously compromise the monument’s irreplaceable fossil resources. BLM has steadfastly refused to reroute the line away from the Monument. Now, NV Independent’s Amy Alonzo reveals that BLM quietly rerouted the line away from mining claims owned by a large offshore corporation, a favor it refused to extend to its fellow Interior Department agency at Tule Springs.
‘Without water, you can’t live here’: Mining claims like redeclaration of war for some
Last year, rover Metals — Now Rover Critical Minerals — incurred the wrath of Nevadans by proposing to drill core samples to explore for lithium deposits near Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. Rover was halted by a lawsuit and a BLM decision to require environmental analysis of the proposed mine. IN what some are calling retaliation, Rover has filed almost 400 mining claims within the nearby town of Amargosa Valley, some of them just feet from residents’ homes.
NPS needs help solving archeological theft incident at Canyonlands National Park
Trail cameras caught two visitors to Canyonlands National Park damaging and stealing archaeological objects at Cave Spring Cowboy Camp in the Needles district of the park. The National Park Services’s Karen Garthwait told press “Law enforcement park rangers are asking the public for help. If you were in the area of Cave Spring Cowboy Camp at approximately 5:30 p.m. on March 23, or if you have information that could help identify the suspects, please contact investigators. Tips can be anonymous.”
May 17
Lessons from rattlesnake class in the American Southwest
A public class in Phoenix trains interested locals to cautiously handle rattlers and other snakes in a way that poses harm to neither snake nor handler. Along the way, the class demystifies rattlesnake life, and spurs an appreciation for these often-maligned critters.
"I just want you to look at this for what it is. This is not an aggressive animal. I see a shy, scared animal," — Cale Morris of the Phoenix Herpetological Society
May 19
Saguaros are blooming! 8 facts about saguaro blossoms
A fun listicle including at least one fact we didn’t know: what do saguaro blossoms smell like?
May 20
Refuge at risk: Arizona's Sky Islands grow more vulnerable to climate change, wildfires, mining
Rising above the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts of southern Arizona, “sky islands” — relatively cool and moist mountain habitats separated by an “ocean” of desert — are crucial reservoirs of biological diversity. They offer respite for birds and other flying creatures migrating across the desert. They are often held as extremely sacred by nearby Native peoples. And they’re just wonderful places to relax during a desert summer. How will these vital islands of montane habitat fare in a changing climate, as attempts to develop the landscape for mining and other industrial uses gain steam?
Older items we missed
The long path of plutonium: A new map charts contamination miles from Los Alamos National Laboratory
Decades of unregulated dumping from the 1940s through the 1970s, along with continued sketchy management of the Lab’s radioactive and chemical wastes since then, may pose a significant risk to drinking water sources in Santa Fe and down the Rio Grande.