Western States Megadrought intensifies - predictions for bad Fire Season and severe water shortages for Colorado (Pueblo: live in, price)

[pikabike]

Late last night over the blustering roar of high wind, I heard a loud plane flying low, close by. It went by twice in a short time, or it was two planes in series. Today I woke up to the smell of forest fire smoke. The Flagstaff fire—the new one, not the one that closed the highway in late April—sent up plenty of ash for the SW winds to blast here.

We might get rain on the weekend. I hope it douses the entire SW US.

[Vision67]

Ute Mountain farm in southwest Colorado takes a 75% cut in water supply

Water cuts in southwest Colorado lead to job cuts and lost revenue for the Ute Mountain Ute tribe.

https://www.9news.com/article/weathe...2-8ab588de1d6b

"TOWAOC, Colo. — The water is flowing, and the crops are growing at the Ute-Mountain Ute Indian Reservation in Towaoc, Colorado. But this year, only a fraction of this tribal farm is green.

After two straight winters with well below average mountain snowpack, 75% of their water supply has been cut.

“So, this year, out of the 7,600 acres we’re dealing with 6,000 acres of weed-infested ground,” Simon Martinez said."

[Shuffler]

Just started a new (fiction) novel called "The Water Knife" ... it's pretty dystopian but not hard to envision happening inside of the next 10-20yrs.

Meanwhile here in NW MT we've gotten 4.5" of rain the past 7 days ...

[Melanzana92]

Originally Posted by Shuffler

Just started a new (fiction) novel called "The Water Knife" ... it's pretty dystopian but not hard to envision happening inside of the next 10-20yrs.

Meanwhile here in NW MT we've gotten 4.5" of rain the past 7 days ...

Funny, I'm about to go read the last chapter before bed. Paolo - the author - he really nailed it. It's honestly a bit scary how the whole situation described in detail throughout the book doesn't seem all that far-fetched, given the current trend of water-related stuff in the river basin.

The book "Cadillac Desert" is referenced many times, and I'm going to pick up a copy of that one as well.

[moguldreamer]

MODERATOR EDIT: I've copied this posting from the Las Vegas forum to this thread as it adds well to the discussion.
s/Mike fbe

This morning I attended a talk by Pat Mulroy, whose bio includes:

Between 1989 and early 2014, Pat Mulroy served as General Manager of both the Las Vegas Valley Water District, a municipal purveyor serving more than 350,000 accounts, and the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA), the regional agency responsible for acquiring, treating and delivering water to two million Southern Nevadans and 40 million annual visitors. Mulroy was a principal architect of the SNWA, helping to guide Southern Nevada through an unprecedented period of growth and one of the worst droughts in the history of the Colorado River.

As general manager of one of the country’s most progressive water agencies, Mulroy was exceptionally active in regional and national water issues, a passion she brings to her current role. During her long tenure, she lead Nevada’s delegation in the negotiation of numerous agreements with neighboring Colorado River Basin States and the country of Mexico. Her reach in the water community extends far beyond the desert Southwest. She currently serves as a member emeritus of the Water Research Foundation Board of Trustees. She previously was on the board of the National Water Resources Association and was a member of the American Water Works Association. Additionally, she was the original chairperson of the Western Urban Water Coalition, is immediate past president of the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, and has served on the Colorado River Water Users Association’s board of directors.

At UNLV’s Boyd School of Law and DRI, Mulroy’s focus is on helping communities in water-stressed areas throughout both the American Southwest and the world develop strategies to address increased water resource volatility and identify solutions that balance the needs of all stakeholders. In her faculty role at DRI, Mulroy also will explore the role of technology in optimizing the use of water resources.

A leader in the international water community for more than 25 years, Pat Mulroy serves as a Senior Fellow for Climate Adaptation and Environmental Policy and also as a Practitioner in Residence for the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution at the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law. She also holds a faculty position at the Desert Research Institute, where she serves as the Maki Distinguished Faculty Associate. Mulroy also serves on the Wynn Resorts Ltd Board of Directors.

A couple things from her talk stand out. Her view the arid Southwest's water problem is worse than most people think it is.

• Currently in Southern Nevada, we collectively use on average about 110 gallons per person day, and the goal is to get it down to 86 gallons per person per day.
  
• There is likely to be a ban on future evaporative cooling. I was surprised this was even an issue. From her talk, I infer some commercial buildings use water on the condenser coils to absorb energy instead of just using a fan and blowing air over the coils to absorb energy. But this is my interpretation, and I might be wrong.
  
• There will likely be a ban on all ornamental grass in public places (somehow I thought there already was)
  
• There will likely be a restriction on swimming pool size for residential homes - if you want a big one, it will need to be an indoor pool to cut down on evaporation waste. A small one could still be outside.
  
• There will likely be a further restrictions on golf course use of water.
  
• Lake Mead would be 60 feet lower than it currently is but for buying water back from agriculture and keeping it in the lake
  
• 93% of Southern Nevada's waste water is recycled.
  
• There was a time back in the 1990s when there was a moratorium on water meters - no new hookups.
• Lithium-ion battery production uses a lot of water. About 1300 gallons of water to manufacture one typical cellular telephone battery. The Tesla batter plant in northern Nevada consumes as much water as all of Carson City.
  
• California has an allocation of 4.4 million acre feet of water from the Colorado River, of which 3.3 million goes to the Imperial Valley for agricultural use.
  
• 100% of Israel uses desalination, as do many other desert countries.
  
• It took 10 years to permit the Carlsbad desalination plant.
  
• The California Coastal Commission has said it will OPPOSE any new desalination plants, period.

One interesting proposal is to run a pipeline from the Gulf of California up to the Salton Sea (once a resort, but now disgusting and smelly), to replenish it with sea water. Then, use the existing geothermal energy sources there to power desalination and provide irrigation water to the Imperial Valley so that the Imperial Valley could then leave its share of the Colorado River behind Lake Mead. Berkshire Hathaway has already secured the rights to geothermal energy in that area.

Environmental groups have a business model of pissing people off about development to generate donations to oppose that development, and use the contributions mostly to pay their own salaries with litigation being funded by the remainder. The employees livelihoods depend on pissing people off to generate donations. One of the most recent lawsuits is on behalf of Southern California surfers.

Any solution must be for the entire region that draws from the river, including residential, commercial and agricultural uses.

[moguldreamer]

The LA Times article today:

https://archive.ph/Bz8SS

Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday that water cuts between 2 million acre-feet and 4 million acre-feet are on the table to protect “critical levels” at Lake Powell and Lake Mead. For comparison, California is entitled to 4.4 million acre-feet of Colorado River water per year, while Arizona’s allotment is 2.8 million.

Lake Mead near Las Vegas has dropped to 28% of its full capacity, while Lake Powell on the Utah-Arizona border is now just 27% full.

Touton said it’s critical to achieve the additional cutbacks and her agency is in talks with the seven states that depend on the river to develop a plan for the reductions in the next 60 days. She warned that the Bureau of Reclamation has the authority to “act unilaterally to protect the system, and we will protect the system.”

[Mike from back east]

More updated charts today in the WaPo on the intensity of the drought.

Excerpt: "The historic drought in the western United States is about to get worse. Much of the West is already experiencing severe to exceptional drought, but scorching summer temperatures will dry out the parched landscape even more. “In the last 1,200 years, we haven’t seen a period as dry as right now,” said Ann Willis, a researcher at the Center for Watershed Sciences at the University of California at Davis. We’re really hitting new lows in terms of how extreme the conditions are.”

[Techy02]

Originally Posted by Shuffler

Just started a new (fiction) novel called "The Water Knife" ... it's pretty dystopian but not hard to envision happening inside of the next 10-20yrs.

Meanwhile here in NW MT we've gotten 4.5" of rain the past 7 days ...

I have heard a lot of good things about this book, even from those in the education community. It's on my list for sure

[jim9251]

Monsoonal moisture forecast for this weekend here in western Colorado. Sure hope so the dust and dry crunchy ground is awful.

[Techy02]

Here is a pretty good video on the current status of lake Mead. Really shows the extent of the drought situation in the SW.

https://youtu.be/NCBG_aVkv4s