Lithium Mining Becomes a Race for Water — SkimNews

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- Inside Climate News and Columbia Journalism Investigations co-reported an investigation that opens in Calipatria, California, a border town ringed by alfalfa and grain fields.
- William Cooper stopped before a dusty, vacant lot in Calipatria and identified its owner as one of many investors drawn to the area, signaling a land rush tied to the story's lithium-and-water thesis.
Why it matters: The headline frames the investigation as showing how lithium extraction is becoming a race for water; the opening scene — a California border town where alfalfa and grain fields sit beside investor-purchased vacant lots — anchors that tension in a specific community already shaped by agriculture.
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