Close the swimming pools
Water cuts in the southwest states:
Water cuts are expected to be announced Tuesday to western states in the grip of a severe “megadrought” that has dropped levels in the country’s largest two reservoirs to record lows.
The flow of the Colorado river, which provides water to more than 40 million people across seven states and Mexico, will be stemmed to reduce supply to Arizona and Nevada initially, if the federal government confirms the proposal.
The crisis, which has dropped levels in Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the US to an 80-year low of barely one-quarter its 28.9m acre-feet capacity, is threatening the future of the crucial river basin.
It turns out to have been stupid and shortsighted to think the Colorado was simply an infinite permanent water supply to an enormous desert.
The crisis also means power cuts. Less water, less power. Deal with it.
They are dealing with it, aren’t they? Aren’t they?
Since you ask – no.
Officials warned the seven states – Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming – last year to prepare for emergency cuts. In June, officials said the states must figure out how to use 15% less water next year or have cuts imposed on them.
The predicament has prompted tensions between states with different priorities for the water they receive, and talks have failed to yield any agreement.
Brilliant.
Turn off the water fountains in Las Vegas and in Phoenix; that would be a start! Water parks? Some people may struggle for water for their basic needs.
But agriculture is the biggest user, and the one least likely to be cut. Yes, we need food. But there are other ways to irrigate that are less wasteful, and besides, growing crops in a desert climate is the height of folly.
@1 Golf courses too, one of my (and George Carlin’s) pet peeves.
The Department of the Interior announced cuts to Colorado River water today, with Arizona getting a 21% reduction while California’s share is not being reduced yet. This could be pretty explosive politically in Arizona, IMO.
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/drought-ravaged-states-face-deep-water-cuts-interior-announces
But if we turn off the fountains, the
terroristsdrought wins!How long before they propose cutting into California’s quota? How long before it leads to gunplay and bloodshed? I can’t see Ammon Bundy and others of his ilk not acting to “secure” water for themselves.
One way the engineers could explore: a glance at https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/2021/geo/population-distribution-2020.html shows that a substantial part of the US (and I assume North American) population lives not too far from the sea coast. Sea water could be supplied to them via corrosion-resistant polythene pipe of whatever suitable diameter, to be converted at the point of consumption by solar stills, which could be mounted on rooftops and provide the added benefit of helping to cool the building in summer.
The mining community of Las Salinas in Chile where conditions are permanently dry (hence the highly soluble nitrate deposits) was supplied with its fresh water by a large solar still.
Such stills can be set up to extract fresh water with a by-product of concentrated brine, which latter can be returned to the sea via a/the sewerage system, thus helping keep it free of intruding plant roots, rodents, etc.
.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_desalination
https://solaqua.stores.yahoo.net/solstilbas.html
Omar, one problem with that is it increases the salinity of the ocean. It might seem like it’s not enough to change the ocean significantly, but over time… After all, we once thought there was no way we could extinct the passenger pigeon, that the atmosphere was big enough to dilute everything we put in it, and that the trash we dumped in the ocean wouldn’t have much impact because the ocean was so huge.
There was a bumper sticker that was popular in Michigan, back around the late 70s/early 80s:
“Thirsty? Drink your oil.”
I’m tempted to start a betting pool on when the southern states turn their eyes to the Great Lakes and make noise about “relocating” their water. The fact the U.S. shares them with Canada — who put a stop to water from the Great Lakes being sold back in the 90s — will be ignored.
@Omar: In theory, that would work.
I’ve always wanted to live in Theory. Everything works there.
Old joke:
“In theory, there’s no difference between theory and practice. In practice, however, …”
I’m slightly surprised by that, because after all the extracted water will eventually return to the ocean after a detour through some humans/lawns/crops/runoff/sewers/evaporation/precipitation/etc. – right? Maybe?
I should defer to the ecologist of course! What am I missing?