Community | October 17, 2010 | 29 comments

The Colorado River runs dry

source: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/The-Colorado-River-Runs-Dry.html

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JanforGore
From its source high in the Rocky Mountains, the Colorado River channels water south nearly 1,500 miles, over falls, through deserts and canyons, to the lush wetlands of a vast delta in Mexico and into the Gulf of California.

That is, it did so for six million years.

Then, beginning in the 1920s, Western states began divvying up the Colorado’s water, building dams and diverting the flow hundreds of miles, to Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix and other fast-growing cities. The river now serves 30 million people in seven U.S. states and Mexico, with 70 percent or more of its water siphoned off to irrigate 3.5 million acres of cropland.

The damming and diverting of the Colorado, the nation’s seventh-longest river, may be seen by some as a triumph of engineering and by others as a crime against nature, but there are ominous new twists. The river has been running especially low for the past decade, as drought has gripped the Southwest. It still tumbles through the Grand Canyon, much to the delight of rafters and other visitors. And boaters still roar across Nevada and Arizona’s Lake Mead, 110 miles long and formed by the Hoover Dam. But at the lake’s edge they can see lines in the rock walls, distinct as bathtub rings, showing the water level far lower than it once was—some 130 feet lower, as it happens, since 2000. Water resource officials say some of the reservoirs fed by the river will never be full again.

Climate change will likely decrease the river’s flow by 5 to 20 percent in the next 40 years, says geoscientist Brad Udall, director of the University of Colorado Western Water Assessment. Less precipitation in the Rocky Mountains will yield less water to begin with. Droughts will last longer. Higher overall air temperatures will mean more water lost to evaporation. “You’re going to see earlier runoff and lower flows later in the year,” so water will be more scarce during the growing season, says Udall.

Other regions—the Mediterranean, southern Africa, parts of South America and Asia—also face fresh-water shortages, perhaps outright crises. In the Andes Mountains of South America, glaciers are melting so quickly that millions of people in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador are expected to lose a major source of fresh water by 2020. In southwestern Australia, which is in the midst of its worst drought in 750 years, fresh water is so scarce the city of Perth is building plants to remove the salt from seawater. More than one billion people around the world now live in water-stressed regions, according to the World Health Organization, a number that is expected to double by 2050, when an estimated nine billion people will inhabit the planet.

“There’s not enough fresh water to handle nine billion people at current consumption levels,” says Patricia Mulroy, a board member of the Colorado-based Water Research Foundation, which promotes the development of safe, affordable drinking water worldwide. People need a “fundamental, cultural attitude change about water supply in the Southwest,” she adds. “It’s not abundant, it’s not reliable, it’s not going to always be there.”

Mulroy is also general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which serves two million people in greater Las Vegas. The city is one of the largest in the Colorado River basin, but its share of the river is relatively small; when officials allocated the Colorado’s water to different states in 1922, no one expected so many people to be living in the Nevada desert. So Nevadans have gotten used to coping with limitations. They can’t water their yards or wash their cars whenever they like; communities follow strict watering schedules. The water authority pays homeowners to replace water-gulping lawns with rocks and drought-tolerant plants. Golf courses adhere to water restrictions. Almost all wastewater is reused or returned to the Colorado River.
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29 comments // The Colorado River runs dry

  • Wetdog
    • 0
      Wetdog  

    • The Colorado River is fed by melting snow in the Rocky Mountains. It starts in Rocky Mountain National Park. You can see the start of the Colorado River in the Powder valley from run off from the snow packs and glaciers along the Trail Ridge.

      As the run off from snow packs and glaciers high in the Rocky Mountains decreases----so does the flow to the Colorado River. The high country snow packs and glaciers have been shrinking for years because of global warming.

      Scientists have told you. No one listened.

      I have told you because I have been there, and I have seen it. No one listened.

      All I have ever gotten is deniers who tell me that the scientists are full of $hit. And I am full of $hit. Global warming is a hoax. We are not seeing what we are seeing(and they aren't). We are not measuring what we are measuring(and they aren't).

      So, maybe I should just keep quiet. Let the lights in Las Vegas go out. Let the water in Phoenix, Denver, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, San Diego and everywhere else that depends on high country snowfall run out.

      Let the price of food triple or quadruple.

      Maybe if that happens, renewable energy will not seem so expensive to them. Maybe they won't be so pi$$ed off that Al Gore is making some money because he listened to the people who saw it coming and decided to do something about it.

      I'm tired of arguing with idiots.

    • 1 year ago
  • Robert_Walcott
  • Robert_Walcott
  • DogBoy
  • rhetoricallyineffective
    • +2
      rhetoricallyineffective  

    • "Those crazy people are going to say it's 'global warming' but this seems normal. Next thing you know they'll be bringing up Greenland again, hahaha.."

      Soon-to-be quote by Rush Limbaugh/everyone on Fox news.

    • 1 year ago
  • grandavi
  • CalPal
    • +1
      CalPal  
    • grandavi:

      Yeah, lol, as if there's a profession of people who could study rocks and determine how old the rocks were, and what the conditions were like back then...

      Wait...

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • thedirtman
    • +1
      thedirtman  

    • Water is constantly being sold from agriculture for residential use. Cotton farmers in southern Arizona and the Imperial Valley make the bulk of their income through the investment in their water claim. They can also make more money selling the land if they are close to a rapidly growing city such as Phoenix. Their third lot of income is from government subsidies. In fourth place is the actual cotton itself.

    • 1 year ago
  • EmperorThan
    • 0
      EmperorThan  

    • The most 'endangered river in America' though last I heard was the Santa Fe river. But I remember seeing a PBS special about how all these endemic fish species went extinct when they dammed the Colorado.

      Also the Rio Grande has dried up before reaching the Gulf of Mexico a few times since 2002 because of so many cities along it's banks using the water.

      Are we really doomed to repeat the mistakes of the Aral Sea for the rest of time before we learn how to solve our problems?

    • 1 year ago
  • thedirtman
  • Proud_Progressive
  • artemis6
  • Sparky2U
    • -1
      Sparky2U  

    • The story is incorrect in that the Colorado River does not supply Los Angeles.
      I personally have worked on the pumps along the aqua duct leading up to the mountains in the San Juaquin Valley that supply LA. The Sacramento and Kern Rivers might but not the Colorado. The Colorado runs though Austin and I assure you it is far from running dry. This story is hype.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • csmonut
    • +1
      csmonut  
    • Sparky2U:

      The laws written to govern the water allotment along the Colorado were written near the beginning of the 20th century. The only reason you see water where you are, is because those laws have not changed.
      Las Vegas/Clark County has grown by leaps and bounds, its water allotment from the Colorado remains the same.
      The whole Phoenix area basin has grown by leaps and bounds, but it's water allotment from the Colorado remains the same.
      And...here it is again. The Colorado supplied/supplies the San Bernadino Valley. Many farms are now dry because there just isn't enough water to supply the urban and suburban areas, AND supply the farms. Hmmmm....look who loses on this one. Guess people are going to have to learn to eat grass and drink their swimming pool water.
      These areas are in desperate straights because of climate change. Rain isn't falling, snow isn't falling in the Rockies as it used to and.....wait for it.....the Colorado now runs millions of cubic feet less each year because of it.
      I am sure you'll begin to notice a drop in water before too long.

    • 1 year ago
  • mik661
    • 0
      mik661  
    • Sparky2U:

      But there is a world outside of texas. Should have guessed thats where you were located. Treaties with Mexico require a certain amount of flow to be allowed through. Very little of that water reaches the gulf of mexico. But you are always going to see water flowing where you are at until we are ready renege on our treaty.

    • 1 year ago
  • thedirtman
    • +1
      thedirtman  
    • Sparky2U:

      Southern California is the thirstiest place in the nation. The California aqueduct moves water from the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys just as you mention. Two other aqueducts move water from the Colorado River - one from the Parker Dam to Riverside, and the other along the border to San Diego. If that isn't enough Mexico has recently built a third aqueduct to serve Mexicali, Tijuana and Ensenada.

      The Colorado River also serves Las Vegas, Phoenix and Tucson. It's a pipeline that often runs dry before it reaches the Sea of Cortez.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  
    • csmonut:

      In Peru there have recently been protests against one dam which is to divert water from a drought stricken poor area to a richer area. This is also happening in Africa and in Asia ( Three Gorges Dam is one example.) Diversion of water when smaller and not excessive may well bring relief to some areas needing the water, but what we are seeing today in interrupting the flow of rivers worldwide is taking an excessive toll not only on agriculture but on marine ecosystems and cultural keepsakes while displacing millions of people. This is now only being perpetuated by climate change. So, living in this area, what do you think the impact of the dams built here is truly having in this area?

    • 1 year ago
  • Mark701
  • csmonut
  • csmonut
    • 0
      csmonut  
    • JanforGore:

      I read that in England, before the Americas were discovered, lawns were considered a show of wealth. When Europeans arrived in a new land, they created lawns because it was a show of wealth for them, to be free of tyranny, etc.
      Water was everywhere. You just had to divert it to your land so you could irrigate your crops and take a bath.
      In the early 70s, at least that is as far as I can remember, there were loud whispers coming from people who were considered "fringe" about water conservation, ozone layer, greenhouse effect, etc. Nutcases...
      Today, seeing the extreme growth in the southwest and lack of water (BTW. Water wars were quite violent during the 19th-early 20th century in the west) I can see where the "fringe" people were correct.
      If the Colorado was let go to do its thing, there would be a great marshland at the gulf that would feed millions of migratory birds, which would feed millions of fish, which would feed......
      I don't think that damming our rivers is the answer. It is just because we, as humans are very shortsighted, and I think that has to do with our short life span.
      A rather arcane fact here. The Amazon, the Yanghtze, the Mississippi, and one other, can't think of it now, all help to keep the planet spinning at it's current velocity. When the Yanghtze is stopped, the Earth will slow in its rotation. But not so you'll notice. Minute, to be exact.
      Science says it's really no big deal. I for one don't think they even know what the long term effect will be. Maybe we're already seeing some of those long term effects.

      I really have no idea how not building those dams would have made a difference where I live. Southern Nevada recieves no power from dam, CA gets it all. Southern Nevada gets no irrigation water from Colorado...it just flows on past.
      Perhaps without the dam holding back Lake Mead, this area would not have grown as it has. But water is in endless supply? Is it not?

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  

    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v5jWvOx7aU

      This is a bit long but contains good information on the water crisis in the Southwest and what can be expected. The key word is Conservation. Lack of new flow into water sources due to climate change combined with human activities will only leave this area more vulnerable to shortages, droughts and agricultural losses much like what has been seen in Australia for the last decade.

      The slides are available at a pdf link in the description for this video .

      More information here:

      http://www.livingrivers.org/index.cfm

    • 1 year ago
  • thetrimsmith
  • toyotabedzrock
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  

    • "People need a “fundamental, cultural attitude change about water supply in the Southwest,” she adds"

      True, and that includes both agriculture and dirty energy which both use up the most water. People also need to realize that this doesn't only happen in Africa and Asia. We here are just as vulnerable to the effects of climate change combined with our wasteful habits. We will be learning a hard lesson.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • csmonut
  • JanforGore
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