For decades the Colorado River has been tapped for its water supply….and now that resource is running out thanks to the 20 year drought in the American West.
After 22 straight years of drought, the Colorado River’s flow is in increasingly bad shape—and two of the seven states that rely on its water are going to have to make more cuts. Last year, a Tier 1 shortage was declared on the river for the first time, causing mandatory cuts to the use of its water in Arizona, Nevada, and Mexico under a plan the seven states and Mexico signed in 2019, CNN reports. But with the water shortage getting worse, the Department of the Interior announced Tuesday that a Tier 2 shortage will be declared starting in 2023, causing more cuts for Arizona, Nevada, and Mexico. Arizona will lose more than a fifth of its yearly allotment.
The cuts are based on water levels at Lake Mead, which are now at historic lows and are expected to fall even further next year, the AP reports. The lake, America’s largest reservoir, is currently just a quarter full, and experts warn that it is getting dangerously close to the level where the Hoover Dam can no longer generate power. Bureau of Reclamation chief Camille Touton warned in June that states need to come up with a plan to cut water usage by next year. But negotiations between states are not going well, and the federal government might have to step in, reports CNN. The states missed the bureau’s August 15 deadline for announcing proposals to cut water use.
Authorities say any cuts made are likely to be in place for a long time as the West becomes hotter and drier. “In order to avoid a catastrophic collapse of the Colorado River System and a future of uncertainty and conflict, water use in the Basin must be reduced,” said Tanya Trujillo, the Interior Department’s assistant secretary for water and science, per the Los Angeles Times. Water managers say a long-term plan is needed, but their main priority is coming up with a plan to get through the next three years without the system falling apart.
The Colorado is so bad it can be seen from space……
The full scale of the drought, however, can only be seen from space. NASA satellites have been monitoring waterways in the West for years and documenting how the region is drying up. It’s part of a trend lasting almost two decades, making it the worst drought in 1,200 years. Part of the severity of this “megadrought” has been worsened by climate change.
Now there is a proposal to help the struggling Colorado River by sucking water out of the Mississippi River……
Two hundred miles north of New Orleans, in the heart of swampy Cajun Country, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1963 cut a rogue arm of the Mississippi River in half with giant levees to keep the main river intact and flowing to the Gulf of Mexico.
The Old River Control Structure, as it was dubbed, is also the linchpin of massive but delicate locks and pulsed flows that feed the largest bottomland hardwood forests and wetlands in the United States, outstripping Florida’s better known Okefenokee Swamp.
Clouds of birds – hundreds of species – live in or travel through Louisiana’s rich Atchafalaya forests each year, said National Audubon Society Delta Conservation Director Erik Johnson. They include gawky pink roseate spoonbills, tiny bright yellow warblers, known as swamp candles because of their bright glow in the humid, green woods, and more.
This summer, as seven states and Mexico push to meet a Tuesday deadline to agree on plans to shore up the Colorado River and its shriveling reservoirs, retired engineer Don Siefkes of San Leandro, California, wrote a letter to The Desert Sun of the USA TODAY Network with what he said was a solution to the West’s water woes: Build an aqueduct from the Old River Control Structure to Lake Powell, 1,489 miles west, to refill the Colorado River system with Mississippi River water.
Seriously?
These people are killing the mighty Colorado and now that it is dying they want to impose their need on a major watery artery to the middle of the country.
I have a problem with this plan.
You?
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
In Saner Thought 
I don’t know if I will still be around to see it, but ‘Water Wars’ are coming, I have no doubt about that. One day, fresh water will be more precious than oil or gold.
Best wishes, pete.
I again…I have written about it….and I think draining the Mississippi is a real bad idea. chuq
It foretells the future of sorts. From there we tap into the Great Lakes. Interesting regarding the Great Lakes… having been raised in Chicago. There is apparently a hundred year old treaty with Canada that prohibits both countries from sending Great Lakes water beyond 50 miles from the shore (as I recall?). This has become an issue over the years with the urban sprawl of metro Chicago as currently pumping stations out on the lake allow Chicago to sell water to the outlying suburbs.. but not into the hinter farmlands into Illinois or northern Indiana. Extending up north through Michigan the limit is also 50 miles hence the inner Michigan farmlands can’t snag any of it… although Michigan’s geographical advantage is that the Great Lakes make up three sides.
Maybe skip a few years of NASA projects and use the money to build mega-desalinization plants. Might be a good investment of all that anticipated 15% additional tax revenue from the corporations that can’t evade tax anymore. It’s this kind of thing to make life tougher domestically and get people more edgy… and internationally this will cause conflicts. CIA has been predicting this for decades.
De-sal was my idea as well…..California and Nevada have caused the problem with the Colorado and now they want to make us all suffer just for them. chuq
It foretells the future of sorts. From there we tap into the Great Lakes. Interesting regarding the Great Lakes… having been raised in Chicago. There is apparently a hundred year old treaty with Canada that prohibits both countries from sending Great Lakes water beyond 50 miles from the shore (as I recall?). This has become an issue over the years with the urban sprawl of metro Chicago as currently pumping stations out on the lake allow Chicago to sell water to the outlying suburbs.. but not into the hinter farmlands into Illinois or northern Indiana. Extending up north through Michigan the limit is also 50 miles hence the inner Michigan farmlands can’t snag any of it… although Michigan’s geographical advantage is that the Great Lakes make up three sides.
Maybe skip a few years of NASA projects and use the money to build mega-desalinization plants. Might be a good investment of all that anticipated 15% additional tax revenue from the corporations that can’t evade tax anymore. It’s this kind of thing to make life tougher domestically and get people more edgy… and internationally this will cause conflicts. CIA has been predicting this for decades.
Hold on to your bottles of water… that will be the new currency.
A dupe comment…..WP again? chuq
Damn this WordPress. Same crap as with Pete.
Always good to have comments even dupes….thanx chuq
Grr…
It foretells the future of sorts. From there we tap into the Great Lakes. Interesting regarding the Great Lakes… having been raised in Chicago. There is apparently a hundred year old treaty with Canada that prohibits both countries from sending Great Lakes water beyond 50 miles from the shore (as I recall?). This has become an issue over the years with the urban sprawl of metro Chicago as currently pumping stations out on the lake allow Chicago to sell water to the outlying suburbs.. but not into the hinter farmlands into Illinois or northern Indiana. Extending up north through Michigan the limit is also 50 miles hence the inner Michigan farmlands can’t snag any of it… although Michigan’s geographical advantage is that the Great Lakes make up three sides.
Maybe skip a few years of NASA projects and use the money to build mega-desalinization plants. Might be a good investment of all that anticipated 15% additional tax revenue from the corporations that can’t evade tax anymore. It’s this kind of thing to make life tougher domestically and get people more edgy… and internationally this will cause conflicts. CIA has been predicting this for decades.
Save your water bottles… will be the new currency.
That worked. All I had to do is same with Pete.. I posted a “Grr..” and it worked.
Thanx….chuq
It’s a serious situation inching toward catastrophic….as I have said many times over the past few years, “water is the new oil.” We have lots of water and it is a renewable resource – BUT it’s not falling where we need it, so why haven’t we worked on plans to transport water from available resources like the northwest, where rainfall is plentiful and consistent and capture it as it falls – and not just take it from an area where it will devastate wildlife…and you are absolutely right – if desalinization works why not spend the money and do it – don’t we have rising tides after all?
Good point. Polar caps melting raising the sea level.
I believe de-sal would be a better choice. chuq
agree
Can you even imagine Las Vegas completely shutting down and reverting to its original desert state? Can you visualize millions of “Water Refugees” fleeing into central United States in search of water? How about the tripling of water bills? How about rationing of this precious commodity?
Can you imagine what they will do to the local economy? Every place those Calif expats move on they destroy the economy of places like New Mexico….chuq
Mississippi will have to increase their border guard shortly if all this happens.
Louisiana more so than us……chuq