Posted on 10/09/2026 11:05:00 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
About 40 million people rely on the Colorado River. But an extended drought and a century-old legal framework have pushed the system to a breaking point. Now, a federal plan threatening deep cuts has ignited a political and legal war across the Southwest.
Watch Arizona State University water law professor Rhett Larson break down where the government’s framework falls short, why easy fixes won’t solve the issue, and what structural overhauls are needed to protect a crucial regional economy.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
As El Nino and Rachel pummel the SW with water that quickly flows back in to the ocean, we wonder why the SW has forgotten the Judeo-Christian lesson of Joseph in Egypt.... Use what you have today to prepare for what you won’t have tomorrow.
How much water is sent into the Pacific Ocean?
How many dams removed that could be accumulating water in reservoirs?
This map shows that parts of Oregon and Washington state get between 80 and 120 inches of rain a year. Why can’t this water be piped down to California?
John Wesley Powell knew it. in 1983. He was derided for telling the truth.
“I tell you, gentlemen, you are piling up a heritage of conflict and litigation over water rights, for there is not enough water to supply the land.”
- John Wesley Powell, October 1893”
Let’s steal water and send it into the desert so people can build homes and live there...
It seems simpler to me to build on the California coast and send the water from there.
The major problem is political. A multi-billion dollar nuke and desalination plant in Mexico...
As I said, a political problem.
It seemed like a good idea at the time. 🤡
Ask the Israelis they do it for 54 Cents per cubic meter wholesale.
With modern tech, water is very cheap in the USA.
0.002 cents per gallon...
Let the Californians thirst. They could have built a series of desalination plants up and down the coast for what they’ve wasted on their high-speed rail.
Screw’em.
264 gallons per cubic meter. 54 cents per cubic meter.
54 cents/264 gallons = .2045 cents per gallon.
.002 cents per gallon would be less than the quoted cost of $100/acre-foot in post 24.
“How many millions of illegal immigrants are using up water in the dry area of the Colorado River basin? That’s clearly part of the math.”
We should be counting each and every one of them as water delivered to Mexico.
A lot of rain is coming into the colorado basin in the next two weeks with two hurricane weather systems passing through and a northwest weather system pushing south.
The predictions are the snowpacks from the super el nino are going to be record breaking across the rockies (and the sierra nevadas.)
agree conventional wisdom is that it will take many seasons of big precip to fill meade and powell. But the salton sea was filled by colorado flooding. that’s what originally inspired the Hoover dam. So big precip is possible and we do have the largest el nino on record before us.
California democrats have refused to build reservoirs that the voters passed. All the rain and snow melt is wasted and goes to the ocean.
Too bad you cannot take the flood waters of the Snake and Missouri and Mississippi and other rivers and channel somehow to the Colorado river. Maybe the sea level is too much and the mountains are in the way.
https://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/rivers/
The projections are historic for the winter snowpack in the sierra nevadas this super el nino this year
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