Citations reference first appearance, without repeating for subsequent usage:

The Guardian: Forever chemicals at former Nasa lab are leaking into LA River, say watchdogs (2023)

CNN: 250,000 gallons of sewage spill into Los Angeles River, prompting beach closures (2023)

Los Angeles Daily News: California says weed-killer used in LA River is carcinogenic, Rep. Adam Schiff calls for ban (2018)

PBS SoCal: Supreme Court Agrees to Hear L.A. River Polluted Runoff Case (2012)

The Guardian: Megadrought in the American south-west: a climate disaster unseen in 1,200 years (2022)

Smithsonian Magazine: The Western U.S. Is Experiencing the Worst Drought in More Than 1,200 Years (2022)

The Colorado Sun: 40 million people share the shrinking Colorado River. Here’s how that water gets divvied up. (2023)

ProPublica: 40 Million People Rely on the Colorado River. It’s Drying Up Fast. (2021)

The New York Times: The Colorado River Is Shrinking. See What’s Using All the Water. (2023)

Nature Sustainability: Water scarcity and fish imperilment driven by beef production (2020)

USDA: United States cattle inventory down 2% (2024)

Urban Dictionary: dibs (accessed 2024)

ProPublica: The 20 Farming Families Who Use More Water From the Colorado River Than Some Western States (2023)

NPR: Meet the California farmers awash in Colorado River water, even in a drought (2022)

NOAA/NIDIS: Research Spotlight: Climate-Driven Megadrought (accessed 2024)

Smithsonian Magazine: The Visionary John Wesley Powell Had a Plan for Developing the West, But Nobody Listened (2018)

How Stuff Works: Free Land: How the Homestead Act Helped America Expand Westward (accessed 2024)

Common Lit: The Homestead Act: A Chance for Free Land (2023)

World Atlas: Imperial Valley (2021)

Grist: The very bad math behind the Colorado River crisis (2023)

US Bureau of Reclamation: Colorado River Compact (1922)

Urban Dictionary: yeet (accessed 2024)

UC Davis: Profitable Alfalfa Production Sustains the Environment (2022)

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Water (2022)

US Bureau of Reclamation: Lower Colorado Basin Region Forecast (2024)

Los Angeles Times: Colorado River losing vast amounts of water due to warming climate, study finds (2023)

PNAS: Climate change and the aridification of North America (2020)

UNESCO: Imminent risk of a global water crisis, warns the UN World Water Development Report (2023)

Politico: Europe’s next crisis: Water (2023)

State-Level Policies Concerning Private Wells in the United States (2019)

The Atlantic: The Fight Over California’s Ancient Water (2023)

Missouri Department of Natural Resources: Major Water Users (accessed on Wayback Machine, 2024)

The New York Times: America Is Using Up Its Groundwater Like There’s No Tomorrow (2023)

CNN: Wells are running dry in drought-weary Southwest as foreign-owned farms guzzle water to feed cattle overseas (2022)

The New York Times: Water-Stressed Arizona Says State Will End Leases to Saudi-Owned Farm (2023)

National Geographic: Saudi Arabia's Great Thirst (accessed 2024)

NPR: Saudi Hay Farm In Arizona Tests State's Supply Of Groundwater (2015)

Reveal: The Great Arizona Water Grab (2023)

The New York Times: The Sinking Arizona Town Where Water and Politics Collide (2024)

KJZZ Phoenix: Arizona's groundwater supplies are essentially unregulated. That means rural wells are drying up (2023)

Arizona State Land Department (via The Washington Post): Recommendation to meter Fondomonte Butler Valley wells (2015)

Alfalfa & Forage News: Long-Term Hay Exports have Increased Dramatically, but are Dampened by Recent Trade Disputes (2019)

Los Angeles Times: U.S. farmers making hay with alfalfa exports to China (2014)

Nikkei Asia: Japan is hungry for meat but domestic producers aren't feasting (2019)

BBC: Why China developed a fresh taste for milk (2020)

High Country News: How we export our water to Asia (2014)

BBC: California drought: Why farmers are 'exporting water' to China (2014)

ABC 15 Arizona: Governor Hobbs terminates water lease with Fondomonte Arizona (2023)

Reveal: State Pension Fund is Helping a Middle Eastern Firm Export Arizona’s Precious Groundwater (2023)

Eastern Arizona Courier: Pension fund to divest interest in Middle Eastern alfalfa exporter (2023)

Vox: Let’s talk about the biggest cause of the West’s water crisis (2023)

Department of the Interior: Inflation Reduction Act (accessed 2024)

Grist: Lawns are the No. 1 irrigated ‘crop’ in America. They need to die. (2019)

Los Angeles Times: Hay grown for cattle consumes nearly half the water drawn from Colorado River, study finds (2024)

The New York Times: How America’s Diet Is Feeding the Groundwater Crisis (2023)

Los Angeles Times: To make a burger, first you need 660 gallons of water (2014)

The Washington Post: A vegan cheese beat dairy in a big competition. Then the plot curdled. (2024)

Wired: Inside the Beef Industry’s Campaign to Influence Kids (2024)

Green Queen: Meat Misinformation: How Big Beef is Funding Education Schemes to Influence Kids (2024)

Vox: How public universities hooked America on meat (2024)

Got Milk (via YouTube): Who Shot Alexander Hamilton? (1993)