Posted on 04/21/2022 3:45:13 PM PDT by blam
Following the U.S. Department of the Interior’s call to limit water deliveries from Lake Powell, Arizona’s top water official warned of an impending water crisis that could affect the drinking water for millions of people.
“This is really getting to (be) a health and safety issue… the health and safety of those who want to turn on the tap and have water,” Tom Buschatzke, Arizona’s director of water resources, told Phoenix’s 12 News on Sunday.
He said Arizona and other Western states have until the end of the week to respond to an emergency request by the federal government to delay water deliveries from the Colorado River, a move that would hopefully allow more water to flow into Lake Powell.
“I never thought this day would come this quickly … But I think we always knew that this day was potentially out there,” he said.
Lake Powell recently declined to 3,525 feet (1,075 meters), the lowest level since the federal government dammed the Colorado River at Glen Canyon (located in northern Arizona) more than five decades ago. If Lake Powell drops below 3,490 feet (1,063 meters), it could begin to inhibit the production of hydropower and the movement of water from the dam.
Buschatzke said the water outlook is bleak, adding, “we not in danger of shutting off the taps at home today — but the levels of the lakes [Lake Powell & Lake Mead] would become difficult to move water past the dams because of the infrastructure design — so even if there is water in the reservoir, it’s limited to how much can come out.”
He said the goal is to keep water levels at Lake Powell high enough to continue operations at Glen Canyon Dam and supply water to Lake Mead.
With no end in sight, emergency action could be taken in the next few years to dramatically change how farms and households use water, all for preservation purposes. He said the Colorado River doesn’t have enough water for the seven states and Mexico that rely on it.
He warned: “We’re going to have to learn to live with less water.”
Listen to the full interview here.
(please go to the site to see the video)
Arizona needs less people, not less water. Damn shame what’s happened to that beautiful state the last forty years.
-PJ
I think it’s more than 19 golf courses, or do they just mean in the city of Phoenix and not counting Glendale, Peoria etc?
Nature Always Wins.
New tree ring study pinpoints ancient mega-droughts
The new, 1,238-year-long tree-ring chronology is the longest and most accurate of its kind for Mesoamerica, and the first to reconstruct the climate of pre-colonial Mexico on an annual basis for more than a millennium, pinning down four ancient mega-droughts to their exact years.One large ancient drought previously confirmed for the Southwest of the United States is shown to have extended into central Mexico between 1149 and 1167 AD. It may have devastated the local maize crops, potentially giving a fatal blow to the declining Toltec culture, says David Stahle, a paleoclimatologist at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and lead author of the new study.
Arizona is in the desert. There is very little rain. More people are moving there. It’s a logical conclusion that eventually there won’t be enough water. This gentleman makes sense. What am I missing?
Why are you growing Avocados and Almonds in a Desert?
The alternative is importing them, which raises our trade deficit.
The solution is fewer new immigrants.
Or deslinization.
"Arizona has an average annual rainfall of 12.7 in (323 mm), which comes during two rainy seasons, with cold fronts coming from the Pacific Ocean during the winter and a monsoon in the summer. The monsoon season occurs toward the end of summer. In July or August, the dewpoint rises dramatically for a brief period. During this time, the air contains large amounts of water vapor. Dewpoints as high as 81 °F (27 °C) have been recorded during the Phoenix monsoon season. This hot moisture brings lightning, thunderstorms, wind, and torrential, if usually brief, downpours. These downpours often cause flash floods, which can turn deadly."
It was only a matter of time before nature asserted herself.
Reasons why I would never move to a desert
I was just counting Phoenix proper. I am sure Scottsdale is loaded with them.
Here in Southern Connecticut, we get about 50 inches of rain a year. Will never have to worry about going thirsty. Though it is snow and ice about six months a year. That's the tradeoff. Was 34 degrees this morning on April 21!
Really! I ask the same question.
Yet, they continue to build multi-billion dollar chipmaking factories there.
Especially in the desert, near flood routes, there should be built enormous flood caverns, to catch much of the flood water, then hold it while slowly cleaning it for when it is needed in the next inevitable drought.
First of all, floods contain large, medium and small matter that can be sieved out before the water flows into the cavern. Then pipes going from the bottom to the surface can be used to pump up silt that has precipitated to the bottom, and surface vessels can scoop up any flotsam on the surface. This can be a slow process, taking place in the interim before the next drought.
Several of these could double the amount of water held by Lake Mead or Lake Powell.
As a proud res of AZ I can say with authority that with just a little effort much water could be saved.
I’ve been here over 50 years and have always been amazed at how no one here acts like they live in a desert.
Hello. It’s Arizona.
What do you expect?
“And if all illegals were deported, how much water would be saved and available for citizens?”
You beat me to it.
Pesky questions.....
This is the government we're talking about. Your solution makes too much sense.
San Diego gets less than 10".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf8usAesJvo
They built swales in the dry washes during the great depression to hold back water.
A swale is nothing more than a berm to hold back water for it to soak into the ground.
Each drywash should have a water retention berm/swales to retain that water and then, planted with native trees to help retain that water. Need not STOP the water, just retain it long enough to let it leech into the ground.
Instead, they let it run and it evaporates at about 90% of that water back into the air.
My Aunt moved out here in the early 40s and she would talk about all the farming done in the valley and they very seldom were short of water...and that was BEFORE they built all those canals from the lower Colorado river to Phoenix.
Whats happening is with the city, it creates a heat dome.
BTW, they are pumping water INTO the round to recharge the aquifer. The salt content has doubled in the last years in that aquifer water.
The only one talking about this is Lake. She is the ONLY one. As much as I do not trust her, I will vote for her expressly because she has shown concern over the water and water rights issue in this state.
Aside from all that. One of the largest users of electricity is the pumping systems to get that canal water up over the mountains so it can flow down to the valley, and the ones injection water back into the aquifer.
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