THE COLORADO RIVER IS IN CRISIS, AND IT'S GETTING WORSE EVERY DAY

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The Colorado River is in crisis — one deepening by the day.

It is a powerhouse: a 1,450-mile waterway that stretches from the Rocky Mountains to the Sea of Cortez, serving 40 million people in seven U.S. states, 30 federally recognized tribes and Mexico. It hydrates 5 million acres of agricultural land and provides critical habitat for rare fish, birds and plants.

But the Colorado’s water was overpromised when it was first allocated a century ago. Demand in the fast-growing Southwest exceeds supply, and it is growing even as supply drops amid a climate change-driven megadrought and rising temperatures.

States and cities are now scrambling to forestall the gravest impacts to growth, farming, drinking water and electricity, while also aiming to protect their own interests.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2022/colorado-river-crisis/

[VMA131Marine]

1. Tragedy of the commons writ large

Basically all the competing interests insist that it’s the others who need to conserve.

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

10. That's the "American Way" we glorify.

Selfishness and greed that leads to short-sightedness and waste.

[jimfields33]

11. Some was too much building in a desert.

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

13. That is very true.

And even with Hoover and Glen Canyon dams, the desert is fragile and can only support so many people. The scales are being tipped in the Southwest due to population and water use.

[elleng]

2. Has been, for many years.

[Anon-C]

3. Sure.

[hunter]

17. They say water flows uphill towards money, which is true...

... but you have to actually build stuff to make it happen.

It doesn't happen by magic.

Arizona cities won't dry up and blow away any time soon but agriculture will. The "Pray for Rain" mentality of some Arizona and California farmers won't save their farms. Praying for drought relief welfare might work. Politicians can control that.

I'd rather pay farmers to restore their land to a somewhat natural state, removing it from production permanently.

For some irrational reason U.S. Americans think subsidizing unsustainable farming practices is a good thing. That only kicks the can down the road.

Assuming you are serious and not sarcastic...

[Anon-C]

19. Unpopular but I think the US should partner with Mexico to...

...pipe in pacific water to the Sonoran, Imperial deserts and the Colorado River using renewable energy and desalination upstream where the need for water and absence of coastal NIMBYISM may permit it.

[hunter]

20. Mexico is not going to regard the U.S.A., especially Arizona, as a trustworthy business partner.

It's more likely Arizona will pay for desalinization plants on the California coast in exchange for a greater share of California's Colorado River water.

Desalinization plants in California will be a hard sell, but desalinization plants in Mexico will be harder.

California is entitled to about 59% of the Colorado River's flow in its lower basin, Arizona about 37%, and Nevada about 4%. Mexico is supposed to get about 10%, which all adds up to 110%... and that's the root of the political problem. Mexico's small share comes in last, and all this was negotiated when the U.S.A. regarded Mexico as an inferior political power, which many in the U.S.A. still do, especially in places like Arizona and Texas where major politicians regularly scapegoat Mexico and Mexican immigrants.

I suspect an Arizona desperate for water could probably build and supply power to a desalinization plant serving the Tijuana and San Diego metropolitan areas in exchange for some of California's share of Colorado River water. That would probably be an easier sell than Arizona Governor Doug Ducey's proposal to build desalinization plants entirely in Mexico in exchange for Mexico's share of the Colorado River.

Before any of this happens Arizona cities are going to buy out, or take by eminent domain, the water rights of Arizona farmers. A more underhanded way to do this is to lower water tables to such an extent that farmers can't afford deeper wells or the groundwater basin collapses entirely.

The most rational approach to this problem, of course, would be to limit growth and establish fully cooperative water supply ventures with Mexico as water flows in the Colorado River decrease.

[Anon-C]

21. You are right I'm sure.

So much for bioregional approaches.

[mahina]

4. Communities are going to need to go to Greywater reclamation

It’s not a particularly palatable sell to the people but w won’t have a choice pretty soon

California too, Hawaii too. That can be done more efficiently then desalination and it doesn’t taste really bad at all no I will miss our clean Hawaiian wai.

[mopinko]

5. send that grey water to the farmers.

and let people divert their own grey water for gardens.

[hunter]

18. Our county turns sewage into near-potable water it sells to farmers.

It's also turning sewage back into potable water.

I don't have to feel bad about water that goes down the drain.

California allows some greywater systems without a permit.

https://greywateraction.org/requirements-for-no-permit-systems-in-california/

As so-called toilet-to-tapwater systems become more common in the arid West it's likely farmers will be cut out of the loop. I'm not sure how I feel about that, especially when it comes to new suburban development. I hate seeing open space being turned into McMansions, chain restaurants, and Big Box stores.

[PortTack]

6. gov Newsom had backed a new desalination plant, but a state agency nixed it

Not sure where they think the water is going to come from.

[drmeow]

7. As much as I adore the dessert

and as much as I miss it, between the water and the Trump insanity, I'm glad I got out of Arizona a few years ago!

[LaMouffette]

9. But the golf courses in AZ will remain emerald green. I guess some of them do use reclaimed water,

so that's a good thing, but even so, it seems like such a waste.

I wonder, when they start restricting water use for ordinary citizens in AZ, if they will also restrict water usage on the hundreds of golf courses in the state.

[mountain grammy]

12. a 1000 year drought.. that's pretty impressive

and 1000 years ago the indigenous peoples packed up and moved. Drought. And there weren't nearly as many of them as there are of us and they didn't have water coming out of every spigot. The growth in the Southwest is unsustainable, and it's growing by leaps and bounds.

We went into April with a normal snowpack but the unrelenting wind ate that right up.

[Permanut]

14. Well, the Washington Post must be lying then,..

The Virginia GQP has announced that since CO2 is not a pollutant, then there is no climate crisis.

I guess that settles it.

[Warpy]

15. It's getting to be on a par with the ecological disaster of the Aral Sea

and AZ has been one of the most profligate abusers of both that river and its own groundwater. Most people in that state are stoked up on a mishmash of libertarian horseshit and rugged individualism and have prevented any common sense regulation of development or agriculture. Subsidence is starting to cost them a lot for that.

[Mountain Mule]

16. And the band played on...

I grew up in the Southwest and the skyrocketing population growth out here never ceases to amaze me. I would never move to Arizona or Nevada or Colorado if I was in the market for a home right now. The costs of housing have gone up by something like a jillion percent and there is simply no way that there will be enough water to sustain all this new growth. Don 't people check out what's happening in a place they are thinking of moving to anymore?

I used to think that I was old enough that it was unlikely that I would be impacted by any sudden big time water crisis. Now I'm not so sure. I can see being forced to move out of the Southwest in as little as ten years from now. Spooky stuff.