Colorado River at Moab Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. There’s a moment when you’re driving across the deserts of the southwest as the road tops a rise and you get your first view of the ribbon of green along a river. That’s where the towns are, and that’s where the cool is, a break in both …
Some scientists predict that climatic changes could alter historic precipitation patterns, and reduce available water supplies. Carbon dioxide loading of the atmosphere caused by fossil-fuel combustion, mostly in coal-burning power plants, threatens a significant climate change…. A National Academy of Sciences report estimates that the resulting temperature increase and reduction in precipitation could diminish water …
In light of yesterday’s mediapalooza about the new federal climate report (see my contributions here and here), there’s an interesting on-the-ground reality check today in the Denver Post: Colorado’s peak flow from snowmelt hit a few weeks earlier than normal, causing problems for some recreational users of the state’s rivers and complicating downstream irrigation strategies. …
“The Saudi Arabia of X” is a common new energy meme that has been applied, among many things, to the oil shales of the western United States. But its invocation requires some significant arm-waving over the question of water, as this report by Jeremy Miller points out: But it is water – or more specifically, …
Continue reading ‘“insufficient water to meet needs”, energy edition’ »
Henry Brean has a story in this morning’s Las Vegas Review-Journal on the mess at the upper end of Lake Mead where the Colorado River used to empty out into a lake, dumping its sediment. Now that the lake level’s dropped, the river’s cutting back down through all that deposited glop, creating a new rapids: …
Some of my favorite water people like to point out that we don’t have a problem of water shortage here in the arid West, but rather a problem of water allocation. In the comments, the mysterious DG seems to be in that camp, offering this on what will happen when the Colorado comes up short: …
Continue reading ‘How Much Water Does the Colorado Really Have, Part II’ »
Pat Mulroy, head of the water authority that serves Las Vegas, Nev., lays out the problem: Today the Colorado River represents 90 percent of our water supply. Due to the severe drought, we are within three years of losing our upper intake in Lake Mead, which represents 40 percent of our water supply; if the …
I’m still new to the strange and wonderful ways of lower Colorado River management, so I was struck by the hilarity of this situation, as explained by Chris Brooks. Farmers order water, which takes several days’ river time to reach them. But then it rains, so they don’t need the water, so it flows down …
Compare and contrast. Tim Barnett, in this morning’s Albuquerque Journal: The Colorado River won’t have enough water to meet the West’s needs at least three out of every five years by mid-century if we do not move now to reduce our usage, according to a new study being published this week. “Current conditions are unsustainable,” …
Continue reading ‘How much water does the Colorado really have?’ »
More when I have time, but for now, since this is a blog and we’re supposed to be on top of things, some stuff I wrote elsewhere: The Colorado River will be too small to meet the needs of its users three years out of five, or more, by mid-century, according to new research. Some …