In adopting zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) regulations, questions remain regarding how quickly electric vehicle costs are declining and the magnitude of consumer benefits compared to conventional vehicles. This paper analyzes these two questions in the context of Colorado’s potential adoption of a ZEV regulation. The paper analyzes electric vehicle prices and …
In adopting zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) regulations, questions remain regarding how quickly electric vehicle costs are declining and the magnitude of consumer benefits compared to conventional vehicles. This paper analyzes these two questions in the context of Colorado’s potential adoption of a ZEV regulation. The paper analyzes electric vehicle prices and …
Competition over limited water resources is one of the main concerns for the coming decades. Although water issues alone have not been the sole trigger for warfare in the past, tensions over freshwater management and use represent one of the main concerns in political relations between riparian states and may …
Wildfires have forced the evacuation of hundreds of homes near the famous Breckenridge Ski Resort. The fire was first reported by a cyclist late on Wednesday morning and was fuelled by beetle-killed trees in the White River National Forest, Colorado, about four miles from the popular resort. So far the …
The south-western United States is almost certain to experience a “megadrought” lasting decades if global warming continues unchecked, researchers have warned. The once-mighty Colorado river, which has regularly failed to reach the ocean since the 1960s, is already in the grip of the worst 15-year drought on record with the …
The frequency of large wildfires in western North America has been increasing in recent decades, yet the geochemical impacts of these events are poorly understood. The multidecadal timescales of both disturbance-regime variability and ecosystem responses make it challenging to study the effects of fire on terrestrial nutrient cycling. Nonetheless, disturbance-mediated …
The Colorado River has been identified as the most overallocated river in the world. Considering predicted future imbalances between water supply and demand and the growing recognition that base flow (a proxy for groundwater discharge to streams) is critical for sustaining flow in streams and rivers, there is a need …
Dams impound the majority of rivers and provide important societal benefits, especially daily water releases that enable on-peak hydroelectricity generation. Such “hydropeaking” is common worldwide, but its downstream impacts remain unclear. We evaluated the response of aquatic insects, a cornerstone of river food webs, to hydropeaking using a life history–hydrodynamic …
Runoff from snowmelt is regarded as a vital water source for people and ecosystems throughout the Northern Hemisphere (NH). Numerous studies point to the threat global warming poses to the timing and magnitude of snow accumulation and melt. But analyses focused on snow supply do not show where changes to …
The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday it will set up a temporary treatment plant for wastewater flowing from the Gold King Mine in southwestern Colorado after 3 million gallons surged out of the mine in August, tainting rivers in three states. Colorado's two U.S. senators urged the agency to build …
An internal government investigation has found that federal and state regulators underestimated the potential for a blowout from a Colorado mine, documents released Wednesday show. Investigators concluded the federal Environmental Protection Agency and state regulators underestimated how much water pressure had built up inside the inactive mine before a government …
Although the Grand Canyon segment of the Colorado River features one of the most remote ecosystems in the United States, it is not immune to exposure from toxic chemicals such as mercury according to newly published research in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. The study, led by the U.S. Geological Survey, …
A stretch of river fouled by toxic waste from an abandoned gold mine in southwestern Colorado last week was reopened to kayaking and rafting on Friday while water from river-fed irrigation canals was deemed safe for crops and livestock. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also said it was safe for …
The water quality of a southwestern Colorado river rendered bright orange by toxic waste spewed from an abandoned gold mine one week ago has returned to pre-existing levels, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief said on Wednesday. The statement from EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, whose agency's inspectors inadvertently triggered the …
Chronic diseases, including coronary heart disease, have been associated with ingestion of drinking water with high levels of inorganic arsenic (over 1000 μg/L). However, associations have been inconclusive in populations with lower levels (<100 μg/L) of inorganic arsenic exposure.
Streamflow of the Colorado River Basin is the most over-allocated in the world. Recent assessment indicates that demand for this renewable resource will soon outstrip supply, suggesting that limited groundwater reserves will play an increasingly important role in meeting future water needs. Here we analyze nine years (December 2004 to …
Property losses from flooding in Colorado will total nearly $2 billion, about half from housing and half in the commercial and government sectors, catastrophe modeling firm Eqecat said on Wednesday in the first comprehensive estimate of the disaster's economic toll. The projected residential property losses alone would be equivalent to …
Search-and-rescue teams bolstered by National Guard troops fanned out across Colorado's flood-stricken landscape on Monday, as a week of torrential rains blamed for eight deaths and the destruction of at least 1,600 homes finally gave way to sunny skies. Much of the evacuation effort was focused on remote foothill and …
Warmer weather and a growing population may in a few decades cause a water shortage for 40 million people who depend on the Colorado river in the US, researchers say. Climate modellers at the Columbia university's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory predict a 10 percent drop in the Colorado river's flow over …
The impact of projected 21st century climate conditions on streamflow in the Upper Colorado River Basin was estimated using a multi-model ensemble approach wherein the downscaled outputs of 112 future climate projections from 16 global climate models (GCMs) were used to drive a macroscale hydrology model. By the middle of …
Climate strongly affects the production of sediment from mountain catchments as well as its transport and deposition within adjacent sedimentary basins. However, identifying climatic influences on basin stratigraphy is complicated by nonlinearities, feedback loops, lag times, buffering and convergence among processes within the sediment routeing system. The Palaeocene/Eocene thermal maximum …
