Southwest Could Lose Major Water and Energy Sources by 2021

[one...two...tree 2,762]

By Peter N. Spotts, Christian Science Monitor

Lake Mead and Lake Powell, which supply water and power to millions in the American Southwest, stand a 50 percent chance of running dry by 2021 unless dramatic changes take place in how the region uses water, according to a new study.

Causes include growing population, rising demand for Colorado River water, which feeds both lakes, and global warming, according to scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif., who conducted the study.

The results underscore the importance of water-conservation measures that many communities throughout the region are putting into place. Other studies, some dating back nearly 20 years, have projected that Lake Mead could fall to virtually useless levels as climate warmed, but they lacked a sense of the timing. The new results, the Scripps scientists say, represent a first attempt to answer when lakes Mead and Powell would run dry, squeezing water supplies in Arizona, California, Nevada, and New Mexico.

"We were stunned at the magnitude of the problem and how fast it is coming at us," notes Tim Barnett, a research physicist at Scripps who led the effort. By "dry," the team means that water levels fall so low behind the Hoover and Glenn Canyon Dams that the water fails to reach the gravity-fed intakes that guide it through turbines or out through spillways. In addition, the report estimates that the lakes stand a 50 percent chance of falling to the lowest levels required to generate electricity by 2017.

Last week, Dr. Barnett published additional work in the journal Science attributing 60 percent of the reduction in snowpack, rising temperatures, and reduced river flows over the past 50 years to global warming.

The latest work "not only shows that climate change is a real problem. It also shows it has direct implications for humans -- and not just in the third world," says Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, Calif. The institute focuses on links between sustainable development and global security issues. "Even without climate change, we're taking too much water from the Colorado. So it's no surprise that if we continue to take too much, the reservoirs will go dry."

The message is not lost on water planners, adds Sharon Megdal, director of the Water Resources Research Center at the University of Arizona in Tucson. After years when discussions of climate change and water sat on the back burner, regional water managers are "beginning to get on the same page" regarding adaptation to global warming, she says. "At least they're asking the questions that need to be asked."

To Barnett, whose results have been accepted for publication in the journal Water Resources Research, time is of the essence. It takes so long for the planning process -- and what some see as the inevitable legal challenges -- to play out that he dubs the water-supply issue an "immediate" problem.

Given the effects of projected population growth on water resources, it might seem that the best solution would be to post "Keep Out" signs at state borders. But Dr. Gleick points out that changes in water use could go a long way toward easing the crunch. Such changes could include boosting the price of water to more closely reflect its value, requiring xeriscaping for homes and commercial centers, and on the farm, growing less water-intensive crops and using more miserly irrigation techniques. "Grow alfalfa in Minnesota or Iowa, not here," he says. "These are all plausible; they are not difficult decisions."

Peter N. Spotts is a Staff Writer for the Christian Science Monitor.

http://alternet.org/module/printversion/76938

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

With the whole damn world moving from the coasts into the desert, is this really a surprise?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

With the whole damn world moving from the coasts into the desert, is this really a surprise?

Housing and development rarely, if ever take such issues into account. Developers don't care about 10 or 20 years from now, they're focus is on their own immediate benefit.

Edited February 14, 2008 by Mister Fancypants

[Ban Hammer 13,346]

Causes include growing population,

i've said that here in vj and gotten booed for it.....

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

With the whole damn world moving from the coasts into the desert, is this really a surprise?

Housing and development rarely, if ever take such issues into account. Developers don't care about 10 or 20 years from now, they're focus is on their own immediate benefit.

And that's why towns are supposed to have master plans... they're supposed to take this stuff into account. They're supposed to be the ones who make sure all projects jive with the master.

But of course today, the mayors and town officials are in bed with developers... all over this nation.

Causes include growing population,

i've said that here in vj and gotten booed for it.....

its my party and i'll procreate if i want to....

[one...two...tree 2,762]

With the whole damn world moving from the coasts into the desert, is this really a surprise?

Housing and development rarely, if ever take such issues into account. Developers don't care about 10 or 20 years from now, they're focus is on their own immediate benefit.

And that's why towns are supposed to have master plans... they're supposed to take this stuff into account. They're supposed to be the ones who make sure all projects jive with the master.

But of course today, the mayors and town officials are in bed with developers... all over this nation.

Several years ago, I lived in Santa Clarita, CA, and got involved with a coalition of groups that were trying to stop the largest home development in LA County's history. The area was not incorporated and therefore the city had no say, only the county's Board of Supervisors, many of whom had their campaign's heavily funded by the developers. The rhetoric that we need money out of Washington rings true all the way down to the local level.

Edited February 14, 2008 by Mister Fancypants

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

If the money's gonna flow anyway, I just wish some of it flew my way.

[almaty 19]

If the money's gonna flow anyway, I just wish some of it flew my way.

need to go into politics brother arijit..the way has been apved for you..see louisana gov.

new joisey needs a change of leadership!!!!

arijit for gov!!

[one...two...tree 2,762]

If the money's gonna flow anyway, I just wish some of it flew my way.

need to go into politics brother arijit..the way has been apved for you..see louisana gov.

new joisey needs a change of leadership!!!!

arijit for gov!!

You have my endorsement too...for what it's worth.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

hahaha... nj knows indians too well, we are hated here. Jindal won in LA because no one knows what indians are really all about

[almaty 19]

aw shucks..stop orders on :arijit for the gov posters

and

lov the gov posters...

[Ban Hammer 13,346]

If the money's gonna flow anyway, I just wish some of it flew my way.

*flushes a dollar bill*

there ya go!