In a First, U.S. Declares Shortage on Colorado River, Forcing Water Cuts
Source: New York Times
Lake Mead, top left, and Boulder City, Nev., in July. The last time the lake was anywhere near full was two decades ago.Credit...Patrick T. Fallon/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
With climate change and long-term drought continuing to take a toll on the Colorado River, the federal government on Monday for the first time declared a water shortage at Lake Mead, one of the river’s main reservoirs. The declaration triggers cuts in water supply that, for now, mostly will affect Arizona farmers. Beginning next year they will be cut off from much of the water they have relied on for decades. Much smaller reductions are mandated for Nevada and for Mexico across the southern border.
But larger cuts, affecting far more of the 40 million people in the West that rely on the river for at least part of their water supply, are likely in coming years as a warming climate continues to reduce how much water flows into the Colorado from rain and melting snow. “As this inexorable-seeming decline in the supply continues, the shortages that we’re beginning to see implemented are only going to increase,” said Jennifer Pitt, who directs the Colorado River program at the National Audubon Society. “Once we’re on that train, it’s not clear where it stops.”
The Bureau of Reclamation, an agency of the Interior Department, declared the shortage as it issued its latest outlook for the river for the next 24 months. That forecast showed that by the end of this year Lake Mead, the huge reservoir near Las Vegas, would reach a level of 1,066 feet above sea level. It hasn’t seen a level that low since it began to fill after the completion of Hoover Dam in the 1930s. The lake will be at 34 percent of capacity.“Today’s announcement highlights the challenges we face in the Colorado River basin and elsewhere in the West,” said Tanya Trujillo, assistant interior secretary for water and science.
Water levels at Lake Mead and the other large Colorado reservoir, Lake Powell, in Utah, have been falling for years, leaving a telltale white “bathtub ring” of mineral deposits along the shoreline as demand has outpaced supply. The mandatory cuts, referred to as Tier 1 reductions, are part of a contingency plan approved in 2019 after lengthy negotiations among the seven states that use Colorado River water: California, Nevada and Arizona in the lower basin, and New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming in the upper basin. American Indian tribes and Mexican officials have also been involved in the planning.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/16/climate/colorado-river-water-cuts.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
where the clowns in local government are approving development as fast as they can. They have big plans for even more massive subdivisions. The local aquifer is falling at a rapid rate and the area is warming fast. Trump is very popular here.
As I posted recently, since you can't deal with the developing crises of global warming and aridification by approving more development, praying, shooting, or building a wall--the standard coping mechanisms in the area--I remain doubtful that the "grow grow grow" dinosaurs running the place have any capacity whatsoever to deal with what's coming.
In a dry dusty desert in the SW corner of Utah, the manager of an existing development is planning to double it in size now.
The place is known/advertised for its 13 golf clubs, "and we're gonna have twice as many now".
Water question comes up, of course. The guy explains "they" are "entitled" to water from the Colorado river, haven't even used as much as they have been "owed", so now they are gonna use more for the new planned development.
Question about desert and the continuing, increasing drought and lower river flows....doesn't matter.
He has water rights, by god, and he's gonna use them, way out here in the middle of smack dab nowhere in the desert.
"the courts will back us up".
apparently you can litigate your way out of a climate disaster, who knew?
