Western States Megadrought intensifies - predictions for bad Fire Season and severe water shortages for Colorado (Denver: to live, water bill)

[Phil P]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

Finally some common sense. Here in AZ today, Governor Hobbs declined to renew 1 of 4 leases the Saudi firm, Fondomonte, uses to lease land at $25/acre -- which includes free water -- enough water for a city of 50,000 people. The other three leases will not be renewed when they expire in March 2024.

That's the gist of it! They like to frame it as "existential crisis of existence", but if it's really a crisis, you wouldn't lease an acre for the price of a cheeseburger. There's a lot of just stupid allocation - the resources are quite vast if used properly.

[Vision67]

The LA Times has run a series of articles wrt the Colorado River megadrought.

Here is a link: https://www.latimes.com/environment/...iver-in-crisis

"Colorado River in Crisis is a series of stories, videos and podcasts in which Los Angeles Times journalists travel throughout the river’s watershed, from the headwaters in the Rocky Mountains to the river’s dry delta in Mexico. These stories reveal the stark toll of the river’s decline, responses that have yet to match the scale of the crisis, and voices that are urging a fundamental rethinking of how water is managed and used to adapt to the reality of a river that is over-tapped and dwindling."

[COcheesehead]

Much of the water needs of Grand Junction are fulfilled from snow melt reservoirs high up on the Grand Mesa even though the Colorado (formerly the Grand River and the source of the city’s name) runs right through town.
Where I see water waste is in the agricultural use of the resource. Years old water rights of land owners who have their water delivered in hundred plus year old canals literally flood fields for pennies instead of using water saving sprayers or drip systems. Some of the better grape growers have adopted the technology, but some of the old fruit farmers still furrow irrigate. I watched water just run down the fields to evaporate at some point. To me it’s crazy.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by COcheesehead

Much of the water needs of Grand Junction are fulfilled from snow melt reservoirs high up on the Grand Mesa even though the Colorado (formerly the Grand River and the source of the city’s name) runs right through town.
Where I see water waste is in the agricultural use of the resource. Years old water rights of land owners who have their water delivered in hundred plus year old canals literally flood fields for pennies instead of using water saving sprayers or drip systems. Some of the better grape growers have adopted the technology, but some of the old fruit farmers still furrow irrigate. I watched water just run down the fields to evaporate at some point. To me it’s crazy.

It is crazy and it needs to stop. This is one of those situations that cries out for a public/private partnership where State or Federal governments provide some funds or tax incentives to improve water usage. When the dustbowl devastated parts of the country in the 1930s, FDR put some smart minds to work on the problem and in two years time largely solved the dustbowl problem. It's called leadership and it's in damned short supply these days.

[interloper1138]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

It is crazy and it needs to stop. This is one of those situations that cries out for a public/private partnership where State or Federal governments provide some funds or tax incentives to improve water usage. When the dustbowl devastated parts of the country in the 1930s, FDR put some smart minds to work on the problem and in two years time largely solved the dustbowl problem. It's called leadership and it's in damned short supply these days.

There is a program here in the San Luis Valley through the Rio Grande Water Conservation District to purchase and permanently retire wells previously used for large-scale crop irrigation in order to recharge the underground aquifer. It is funded through federal and state funds and has been very successful thus far. The Conservation District also provides training to area farmers to help make their water usage and planting techniques more efficient. The SLV is extremely focused on preserving its water.

Meanwhile, Douglas County continues to conspire with RWR to steal our water to continue endless construction of McMansions and golf courses in Castle Rock.

[Mike from back east]

Thank you for that info; at least there are some adults in the room.

Castle Rock will have a reckoning some day, their long term water situation is shaky.

[Mike from back east]

Here's a link that WILL get you past the paywall to a 1976 article in the NY Times that foretold the problems now seen with the water supplies in the west.

You may read the entire article with the link, but still, here are a few key excerpts from the 1976 article:

Recent controversies, which separately have hardly caused a ripple outside their own communities, together have made it clear that “there are going to be some very crucial direct confrontations between agriculture, municipalities and energy industries, and there's going to be fierce competition between the states,” as Harris Sherman, Colorado's director of the Department of Natural Resources, phrased it.

Congress enacted a “wilderness” bill that stalled the powerful Denver Water Department in its perpetual quest for expanded water supplies.

The president of the Denver Water Board, a former United States Secretary of Agriculture, has been accused of conflict of interest in his involvement in other water projects.

Colorado has threatened to sue the Federal Government's Bureau of Reclamation for allegedly holding up Colorado water projects in order to benefit a gigantic Arizona program.

There has been a flurry of opposition to the same Central Arizona Project from critics who say it is not needed, costs, too much and will flood an Indian reservation.

People call water “liquid gold” out here. Ever since 1922, . . . . .

But wait, there's more . . . .



Here'a another link that WILL get you past the paywall for an article in today's NY Times about how entrenched vested big money interests are getting their way with extravagant uses of water despite what the science is telling us.

You may read the entire article with the link, but still, here are a few key excerpts from today's article:

From a small brick building in Garden City, Kan., 13 men manage the use of groundwater across five million acres in the southwest corner of the state, some of the most productive farmland in America for corn, wheat and sorghum.

They serve on the board of Groundwater Management District 3, which since 1996 has overseen the pumping of 16.2 trillion gallons of groundwater — enough to fill Lake Mead, the country’s largest reservoir, twice over.

The board is elected, but not by everyone: The only people eligible to vote are large landowners, a group of less than 12,000 people in an area of roughly 130,000. And in some years, fewer than 100 people actually vote. Others — cashiers at Walmart, teachers at the community college, workers at the local St. Catherine Hospital — have no say in the management of the aquifer on which they, too, rely.

The aquifer is running out of water, fast. But the board hasn’t slowed down the pumping.

Great reading, the article highlights the use of water for corn farming in dryland KS, gold mining in NV, building tracts of homes in MT, etc. As usual, the photos are superb and names are named on both sides of the issue.


Here are my comments published by the NY Times. Comments on the NY Times are excellent, select the Reader's Picks.

My translation of this story is that big money will get its way until the water is gone, blame the other party, stick taxpayers with the bill, disappear, and then barn doors will be closed by empty suits harrumphing about their legislative bravery. The American Way.

If someone with the moxie to run against these interests manages to get elected they'd get nowhere, frustrated by state and federal elected bodies that are beholden to the buckets of money allowed by the Citizens United ruling.

In short, we're doomed.

Enjoy the ride. The party's almost over. The bills are coming due.

Here's yet another article, in the open source Kansas City Star, with amazing graphics about depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer.

Excerpt:

A blue binder in the Kansas State Library contains a warning from 1955.

The yellowing, type-written pages never mention the Ogallala by name, but they cautioned that, at least in southwest Kansas, the groundwater may not be renewable.

“If total discharge from a ground-water reservoir is so great that it is not balanced by the recharge even in wet years, the storage in the reservoir is inevitably reduced,” researchers wrote. “Ground-water mining is a serious problem.”

Two years later Kansas lawmakers loosened state water law, testing the prophecy. Before then, the law prevented farmers from draining the Aquifer, because depletion would intrude on older, established water rights.

But, with an eye on economics, lawmakers changed the definition of intruding on an older right; a newer water user could deplete the Aquifer as long as it didn’t cost an older water user money.

[Mike from back east]

This gift link WILL get you past the paywall and into The New York Times for today's installment in their series of water articles.

As always with the NY Times, the article has great graphics and photographs to support the narrative.

These gift links expire, and if it any of them do let me know by DM and I'll get it renewed for you. (One of my many free services...)

The article talks about how our appetite for chicken and cheese have fostered those agricultural segments to expand into dry areas of the west. Anyone following this thread will know much of the underlying story of wasteful irrigation methods, etc.

Part of the culprit in water usage are Federal agricultural subsidies, including those for producing ethanol.

A few excerpts:

Today alfalfa, a particularly water-intensive crop used largely for animal feed, covers 6 million acres of irrigated land, much of it in the driest parts of the American West. (We covered that in some prior postings.)

Since the early 1980s, America’s per-person cheese consumption has doubled, largely in the form of mozzarella-covered pizza pies. And last year, for the first time, the average American ate 100 pounds of chicken, twice the amount 40 years ago.

Exports of poultry and dairy have risen more than tenfold since 1980, thanks to America’s farming efficiency, combined with government subsidies and rising demand from countries like China. Exports of animal feed itself have soared, too, industry data show. (Data on farm subsidies is here.)

Regarding China, one of our largest pork producers, Smithfield Ham, was bought by China in 2013.

It's a mess. It doesn't help that our Congress is for sale to anyone with a briefcase full of Benjamins.

[Vision67]

The overuse of groundwater is another example of the tragedy of the commons:

The tragedy of the commons refers to a situation in which individuals with access to a public resource (also called a common) act in their own interest and, in doing so, ultimately deplete the resource.

https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/tra...ability-issues

"5. Groundwater Use

In the United States, groundwater is the source of drinking water for about half the population, and roughly 50 billion gallons are used each day for agriculture. Because of this, groundwater supply is decreasing faster than it can be replenished. In drought-prone areas, the risk for water shortage is high and restrictions are often put in place to mitigate it. Some individuals, however, ignore water restrictions and the supply ultimately becomes smaller for everyone."

[Indigo Cardinal]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

Thank you for that info; at least there are some adults in the room.

Castle Rock will have a reckoning some day, their long term water situation is shaky.

I'm always hearing Castle Rock (and by extension, all of Douglas County) is in trouble with their water situation, but I never hear this about the surrounding counties. Is there a situation unique to Castle Rock/Douglas County that I'm not grasping?