So All May Drink Wisely From The Colorado

[RestoreGore]

So All May Drink Wisely From The Colorado

The Monitor's View Wed Feb 28, 3:00 AM ET

The seven thirsty states that drink from the Colorado River have learned a lot about conserving water, from desert landscaping to underground storage. But a credible new study shows that won't be enough to solve the region's water supply problem. Tough choices lie ahead.

The study by the National Research Council used tree-ring differences to track the history of water flow in the river basin. It revealed that the years prior to a 1922 compact that set multistate sharing were exceptionally wet. That pact is still in effect. Extended droughts, such as the one the region has been experiencing since 2000, have been common. The seven states - Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming - should be prepared for extended and possibly more severe droughts, according to the study. Right now, the basin's two big reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, are about half full.

Global warming also has to be taken into account. While scientists aren't sure how climate change will affect precipitation, rising temperatures are already having an impact on rain and snow once they hit the ground. The creeping thermometer has resulted in earlier snowmelt and higher human, plant, and animal demand - as well as higher rates of evaporation. The other big factor is surging population growth. Las Vegas may be using less water per capita these days, but total water consumption in Clark County, which includes the desert-sprawling city, doubled between 1985 and 2000. Since 1990, Arizona's population increased by roughly 40 percent, Colorado's by about 30 percent.

Conservation, while helpful, is not the "panacea," the report concludes. That poses some difficult choices. Should the basin cut back on water for lettuce fields and ranches and pipe more of it to homes and offices in spreading urban areas? Agriculture accounts for about 80 percent of the basin's water use. Less water for food raises the question of food security - or not, depending on how one views America's increasing food imports. Other tough issues: What about the price of water? Agricultural subsidies, for instance, mean farmers aren't paying for the real cost of water. And what of population growth? Should sunny Arizona pull the shades on folks who want to move there?

The challenge lies in figuring out a balance between the demands of unlimited population and a limited natural resource. That's certainly not unique to the basin, but it's exacerbated by the need to work collectively in a region that has always thrived on individualism.

more at the link

Wiki: About the Colorado River

Twenty dams currently are positioned along the expansive Colorado River, with 90% of the water being diverted for agriculture and municipal water usage. With climate change, population, and other factors causing reservoirs at Lake Mead and Lake Powell to only be at half capacity at this time, it is imperative that tough choices be made in order to keep water levels consistent enough to be able to sustain the arid Southwest which has been in a drought since 2000.

And while conservation may not be the panacea, it is now most certainly the easiest solution for the short and long term, because diversion which has also hurt habitats in this area and climate change which is contributing to drought have caused the river to not be able to even reach the Gulf of Calfornia. People simply have to be aware of how much our activities affect other species and our own. I believe this is a lesson we will now be learning the hard way in the years to come especially should these reservoirs go lower, when working together does take on a whole new meaning the scarcer water becomes.

Colorado River Basin: Lifeline Of The Southwest
Water Is Life

[RestoreGore]

1. Do people actually care about water issues here?

Just curious considering that it is the source of all life on Earth.

[nannah]

2. i care; i've been encouraging my children to secure their own water source

so they don't have to buy water, which will become very expensive and variable in quality. huge, multinational companies have been buying up community water systems all over the US.

my dad lives in a retirement community in az. the runaway growth of this arid, hostile desert environment defies all logic, yet no one seems to notice. what does that generation call themselves??? the greatest or some gradiose title? they became so puffed with their own wonderfulness that they forgot to pay attention to the world around them. they are not the first group to imagine that their reality is fixed by their own effort; other, more enduring groups recognize the smallness of their cog and the immencity of the wheel.

[RestoreGore]

3. Thank you.

The way some live in their perpetual state of being oblivious to the obvious boggles my mind. And yes, privitization is on the rise regarding this resource that governments know is becocming scarcer, so they and private companies want to make sure they control it. Perhaps people will then care when they don't get any water out of their faucets when they turn them on unless they can pay through the nose for it. Water wars have been predicted for years now, and I think with the climate crisis making itself known now that the global water crisis will become even more pronounced as well. I don't know what has to happen before people open their eyes... but it always seems as though they open them when it is too late. Let's hope that is not the case now.

[Shallah Kali]

4. then there is the state of the aquifers which are being drained faster than they can renew

owning one's own well won't save you if the local underground water supply has already been drained dry. Addditionally while rarer pollution still gets into well water. For a few years my family here in Maine had to have a special filtration system put on our water when we tested our water and found MTBE. They tried to tell us it was safe level even though by that point everyone could taste the crap and the sinks stunk of kerosene. Well I raised a fuss since the state was trucking in water to an elementary school until they could install a filter when that school had a fraction of MTBE that our well did. Ticked a few people off but we got the filters. All our neighbors have well water yet the state did not test them even thoug this crap can spread for miles. And none of our neighbors were willing to shell out the $75 for testing. It turns out that something like 1 in 100 people can taste and smell MTBE. well none of our neighbors invited me over for a taste test so I just hope they somehow avoided it considering mtbe is a probable carcinogen.

[NNadir]

5. I think a case is easily made that we are concerned here.

I recall discussing water here thousands of times, both in the context of climate change, the environment and energy, all of which are connected.

I am sure if you search "Lake Powell" for a long enough period goving over the years, hundreds of posts from "Hatrack" will show up.

I think most posters here understand the problem.

[Dogmudgeon]

7. Not me; I plan to drink ETHANOL!

:evilgrin:

Actually, I know it's a serious problem, but if I don't do some laughing soon, I'm going to open a vein.

--p!

[XemaSab]

6. We've got the same problem throughout California

I think golf should be banned, lawns should be regulated, and farmers should be prohibited from growing certain crops, such as cotton, lettuce, and alfalfa, in areas with below a certain amount of rainfall.

And that's just the start. :D

[amandabeech]

8. I'm in the loop.

There are parts of the earth not designed for a huge population. The western U.S. appears to be one of them.

There are also huge water problems in India, where wells keep getting deeper and deeper, and in China, which is facing desertification in the north and increasing problems with finding water that can be made clean enough to drink or use for irrigation.

Global warming will likely exacerbate all water-related problems.