The American Southwest will seriously be hurting soon from water rationing and shortages if they don't get significant rainfall. " “There is no planning for a continuation of the drought we’ve had,” said one expert on the Colorado’s woes, who asked not to be identified to preserve his relationship with state officials. “There’s always been within the current planning an embedded hope that somehow, things would return to something more like normal.” "
What I find amazing is that the dams, viaducts and canals holding and diverting the Colorado's water constructed in the 1900s were actually during one of the three wettest centuries of the last 13 centuries for the Colorado Basin, meaning we are unlikely to see that much water in the area again, which does not bode well for the massive population growth and agriculture in the area. Its flow is predicted to decline, even with the same amount of precipitation, if temperatures increase from climate change. Two tunnels on Lake Mead (where the Hoover Dam is) are in danger of going dry if the lake levels drop another 50 and 100 feet, so new tunnels are being constructed at a lower elevation in case they are needed in a water emergency.
Some areas and states have already enacted conservation measures, or are looking for alternative water sources (like the city of San Diego, which is building a desalinization plant), but even if every area adopted these measures, there is still the chance that there won't be enough water to supply to everyone.
I still wonder if we could just ban fountains, pools, water features and irrigated lawns and landscaping in the Las Vegas strip . . . it may just be a drop in the bucket, but I bet the amount of water it uses could go to several thousand h
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/06/us/colorado-river-drought-forces-a-painful-reckoning-for-states.html
What I find amazing is that the dams, viaducts and canals holding and diverting the Colorado's water constructed in the 1900s were actually during one of the three wettest centuries of the last 13 centuries for the Colorado Basin, meaning we are unlikely to see that much water in the area again, which does not bode well for the massive population growth and agriculture in the area. Its flow is predicted to decline, even with the same amount of precipitation, if temperatures increase from climate change. Two tunnels on Lake Mead (where the Hoover Dam is) are in danger of going dry if the lake levels drop another 50 and 100 feet, so new tunnels are being constructed at a lower elevation in case they are needed in a water emergency.
Some areas and states have already enacted conservation measures, or are looking for alternative water sources (like the city of San Diego, which is building a desalinization plant), but even if every area adopted these measures, there is still the chance that there won't be enough water to supply to everyone.
I still wonder if we could just ban fountains, pools, water features and irrigated lawns and landscaping in the Las Vegas strip . . . it may just be a drop in the bucket, but I bet the amount of water it uses could go to several thousand h
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/06/us/colorado-river-drought-forces-a-painful-reckoning-for-states.html