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)
Lake will likely be the next governor of AZ.
Maybe you should take a look at google earth along the Colorado river?
BTW, a lot of that land is Indian reservations. They hold the water rights to the Colorado in those areas.
Saudis are buying farmland, putting in huge deep wells, planting alfalfa and then shipping the alfalfa to Saudi Arabia. Or so I have been told by a number of reputable sources.
Camels gots to eat too, I guess.
And if all illegals were deported, how much water would be saved and available for citizens?
The biggest consumer of water in Arizona is agriculture, NOT golf courses and residential lawns. It has always been this way.
If California is comparable, not much. 80% of water usage goes to agricultural irrigation. 12% goes to landscape watering, much of that to golf courses in the desert. Household use is the remaining 8%, and if you go with 10% of California residents being illegal (the usual stat), and that those residents use the average amount of water, that leaves less than 1% of water being used by illegals.
That problem isn't illegals, it's that they're growing cotton in the desert during a decades-long drought.
Stealing the water for the citizens of Bill Gates new Smart City.
A PROBLEM that will be SOLVED quickly by Arixona's NEXT Governor KARI LAKE.
Instead of crying and wringing their hands decade after decade, they ought to set an example to all. In Phoenix for example where the monsoons flow down local mountains, build about 5 stadium sized deep reservoirs to catch it. Capture billions of gallons every time it rains/monsoons.
Those walls of water coming down the mountains and into the deep washes during monsoon season are intense. And most of it just gets sucked up by the ground like a sponge. They could do the same thing in Palm Springs etc...
I’m with you on conserving the water.
Yes, Lake is the one for me at this point.
That’s my solution, too. Under the Colorado River water laws it gets 7.5 maf water from the overall basin states comprising the Colorado river basin and another 4.5 maf from the lower basin states. [millions-of-acre-feet]
One of those circles is a turf farm. They irrigate to grow grass to bring to the cities so people can have green irrigated lawns in the desert while they eat their food grown in irrigated desert. Doesn't make a lot of sense.
Palm Springs area has many more golf courses in the middle of the desert.
“Over 130” in the valley according to one web site.
I’ve visited Tucson and Phoenix many times for vacations, beautiful country, love it.
But, since I come from the water planet and live 70 feet from 40 quadrillion gallons of fresh water, there is no way I would ever live there.
I’ve actually looked at the fresh water delivery system and its underlying assumptions - and I don’t think it’s safe, long term.
The water issues are fixable long term—but it requires public officials who actually want to do long term planning and execution of public works projects instead of finding new ways to line their own pockets and place blame on everyone else.
“It’s a logical conclusion that eventually there won’t be enough water. This gentleman makes sense. What am I missing?”
What you are missing is human ingenuity that creates new technologies.
Affirmative action won’t get it done.
It will be the talented and creative one tenth of one percent who can figure out solutions to “impossible” problems, same as it always has been.
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