The root of the problem must be that water is too cheap, especially for
agricultural uses. Price it properly and there will be no shortage.
Nathan Wajsman
Alicante, Spain
http://www.frozenlight.eu
http://www.greatpix.eu
PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/
YNWA
On Feb 2, 2014, at 5:55 PM, Chris Trask wrote:
>>
>> Californians ain't seen nothin' yet. So, far, this is a very minor
>> drought compared to what has happened in long ago history.
>> <http://news.msn.com/in-depth/scientists-past-california-droughts-have-lasted-200-years>
>>
>> Some more serious water planning and storage is needed.
>>
>
> Yes, I'm aware of the historical record of precipitation here in the
> southwest going back almost 2,000 years. Even though we have those records
> available, we have not seen anything lke this in "modern" times. The Bureau
> of Reclamation (aka Bureau of Wrecked Creation) has now stated openly that we
> are very likely to see the Cantral Arizona Project (CAP) turned off this year
> if and when (emphasis on WHEN) Lake Mead drops another 20 feet. California
> is first for allocation, Las Vegas is second, and CAP is dead last. And then
> there's the treaty with Mexico for delivering a specific amount of water with
> a capped salinity down the Colorado for their agricultural usage.
>
> The majority of people living in the arid southwest do not realise how
> precarious their situation is. We've been managing water closely here in
> Arizona for over a century now, but the population growth has all been
> sustained up to now by way of a wetter than average century, and the Colorado
> River allocations are based on a short period of abundant rainfall in the
> early 20th century before Hoover Dam was being built, and virtually nothing
> was known about the historical record even for a century earlier.
>
> Same is true for California's Central Valley, which was a desert prior to
> reclamation and water management. No amount of management and storage is
> going to make up for a lack of snowpack, which right now is only 12-15% of
> normal while reservoirs are drying up. Some areas are now down to less than
> 100 days of potable municipal water, even if agriculture was to be turned
> off. They at least have the opportunity to construct desalinisation plants,
> but we here do now have that opportunity.
>
> Back in the 1950's we had a serious drought that deeply affected Arizona.
> The response was to shut off all agricultural allotments and conserve what
> was left for municipal purposes. Lake Roosevelt was all but empty, and we've
> had one recent period where the level was insufficient for the turbine
> inlets. Back in the 1950's drought there were fewer than 1 million people
> here, and now we're pressing 6 million. I know from an analysis done by CAP
> that if the canal was shut off and all other resources were NOT impacted the
> most we can support is 4.3 million. But, if the CAP is shut off you can be
> certain that all other water resources are similarly impacted. You can't
> shut off water to subdivisions, and there is only just so much ground water
> available.
>
> I don't like the scenarios that come to mind when you have 6 million
> people all running around looking for a glass of water.
>
>
> Chris
>
> When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro
> - Hunter S. Thompson
> --
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