Lake Powell - Water Wars - Cool and Refreshing tastes just like Air

Lake Powell Blogger ^ | 10-30-05 | Kent E. Jorgensen

[kentj]

For four short years I have been watching the developing and in most cases already existing problems with water management boil.

It seemed that during the height of the drought that maybe the Federal Government would step in and demand action or it would take action, that does not look likely now with a good water year under our belts.

This was in fact the case last year as Sec Norton promised intervention if the States did not resolve the current conflict, that of usage allocation. Most would agree that the pie was cut into to many slices originally, which as we all know is impossible to do except on paper.

I would suggest that this is not the primary issue (over allocation) and while they (the state water users) cannot seem to solve even this issue at hand, they have turned a blind eye to the greater message being sent.

There is a water shortage because the need and use for water has grown. Odds are that need will continue to grow, the fact is it will accelerate. Like an unattended infection it continues to grow at even great rates at the passage of time. This is obvious especially as large cities and the entire expanding population of the Southwest deals with the reality that they have limits on the water they use and no control over the supply.

It amazes me they are grappling over the invisible slice of the water pie, when what is needed today are more water, more electrical power and more management resources (money).

The current argument described in this article gives you a picture of grid lock, hopeless looping, with no solution to the real issue even if they find a way to divide up water that is not there. (Have a drink cool and refreshing - tastes just like AIR)

http://www.gjsentinel.com/hp/content/news/stories/2005/10/29/10_30_1A_Col_River_Update.html

The solution is simply more dams, more water storage in times of plenty banking that drought will indeed come. More meaningful conservation, which does not have to be an excuse to over tax the general population. Nor should we continue to put out money on worthless projects like the completely stupid Grand Canyon "Adaptive" Management Plan currently in place on the Colorado. While we are at it let's repeal the Endangered Species Act (ESA)- how about a little will of the people for a change.

This collection of the self-serving, self-interests will never come to meaningful conclusion because they refuse to accept the truth. The obvious evidence that even the simplest mind can see just by looking at the Grand Canyon that the river is getting smaller.

The Colorado River is in a state of decline and has been since it's formation millions of years ago, it's not getting bigger it's getting smaller. The Canyon is eroding cutting ever deeper.

It kills me that we have to pay for beach rebuilding, beaches for commercial river runners - a fool knows that river beaches come and they go as the river dictates. Don't tell me Glen Canyon is destroying the canyon that is junk science stable river flows do more to protect beaches than a wild seasonal flooding plan. The truth of the matter is that the best thing that ever happened to protect the Grand Canyon was and is today the Glen Canyon Dam.

The responsibility of those who govern does not just stop at today’s generation but also they are charged with the provisioning for future generations to come.

Unless more dams are built NOW there will not be water banked for future generations. Lake Powell will in fact be drained not by the green goofys or other self interest groups but by demand and nature itself.

Glen Canyon is proof that this method works, without it Lake Mead would not be producing Power and the Green Goofys would be using recycled urine to make espresso.

The solution that nobody wants to accept is two more dams - and the best place for them is in the bottom lower 500 feet of the Grand Canyon. By the way you would hardly see them from the North rim.

These new dams would generate the revenue needed to deal with the other management issues of this complex problem, recreation, silt control, local economy, oil dependency and on and on and on.

The water resource is not growing, not increasing, the trend is downward. Just as the Grand Canyon is cut deeper by the Colorado River, so is the hole we are digging unless we take action. We will have to dig our way out, the question remaining is at what price?

Unless you know of one hell of a water maker, rain dancer, or rain god sort the only choice is New DAMS. They and they alone will collect and bank the water for the future, generate the needed funds to make the system work. Every other solution falls short, all the current discussions are pointless. What would they have us do all move to the big cities, store the water underground and hire armies of chipmunks to spin little generators to power our espresso machines. No thanks

Twin Dam Project - Hite to Hoover and back.