Post by abbey1227 on Aug 4, 2021 0:27:14 GMT
BuzzFeed News
People — Not Just The Megadrought — Are Driving The West’s Water Crisis
Caitlin Ochs Tue, August 3, 2021, 4:50 PM
Bob Martin’s floor-to-ceiling office windows overlooking Lake Powell have become a constant source of stress. For the past seven years, the Glen Canyon Dam field division manager has had a front-row seat watching the water levels of the nation’s second-largest reservoir rapidly shrink.
“People need to realize that this is not like the national deficit where we can just say well, we’re going to print more money,” Martin said. “You’re talking about a tangible, finite commodity. It is out of our control to make it rain, or make more water. We need to do something.”
For decades, the Lake Powell and Lake Mead reservoirs, which bracket the Grand Canyon, have been the major savings accounts for water in the western United States. Built on the Colorado River, the country’s two largest reservoirs have enabled western farms and cities from Los Angeles to Denver to have a stable water supply throughout a relentless 21-year megadrought. But today, Lake Powell and Lake Mead are hovering at close to 33% of their full capacity, historic lows not seen since the dams were first built. If water levels drop to 22% and 15%, respectively, the dams can no longer generate hydropower. If they fall to 8%, they will become "dead pools," meaning water cannot continue being delivered. This would trigger an urgent water crisis for the 40 million people who depend on the Colorado River.
“If, in your personal financial life, your outflow exceeds your inflow, your upkeep will be your downfall,” said Martin. “We're kind of getting to that point now in the system.”
But the current water crisis isn’t only being driven by the megadrought. A century of basing policies and development on an overestimate of how much water was actually in the Colorado River to begin with — and betting on more years with heavy snow and rainfall — started us on the path toward our current water shortages. And the last two decades of megadrought in the Southwest — amplified by a warming climate — have hit the fast forward button.
River managers and policymakers have until 2026 to replace temporary drought contingency plans with a long-term plan for the river that replenishes, rather than drains, the reservoirs. What they decide has implications for almost every major Western city, 30 Native American tribes, 5.5 million acres of farmland, and northern Mexico.
People — Not Just The Megadrought — Are Driving The West’s Water Crisis
Caitlin Ochs Tue, August 3, 2021, 4:50 PM
Bob Martin’s floor-to-ceiling office windows overlooking Lake Powell have become a constant source of stress. For the past seven years, the Glen Canyon Dam field division manager has had a front-row seat watching the water levels of the nation’s second-largest reservoir rapidly shrink.
“People need to realize that this is not like the national deficit where we can just say well, we’re going to print more money,” Martin said. “You’re talking about a tangible, finite commodity. It is out of our control to make it rain, or make more water. We need to do something.”
For decades, the Lake Powell and Lake Mead reservoirs, which bracket the Grand Canyon, have been the major savings accounts for water in the western United States. Built on the Colorado River, the country’s two largest reservoirs have enabled western farms and cities from Los Angeles to Denver to have a stable water supply throughout a relentless 21-year megadrought. But today, Lake Powell and Lake Mead are hovering at close to 33% of their full capacity, historic lows not seen since the dams were first built. If water levels drop to 22% and 15%, respectively, the dams can no longer generate hydropower. If they fall to 8%, they will become "dead pools," meaning water cannot continue being delivered. This would trigger an urgent water crisis for the 40 million people who depend on the Colorado River.
“If, in your personal financial life, your outflow exceeds your inflow, your upkeep will be your downfall,” said Martin. “We're kind of getting to that point now in the system.”
But the current water crisis isn’t only being driven by the megadrought. A century of basing policies and development on an overestimate of how much water was actually in the Colorado River to begin with — and betting on more years with heavy snow and rainfall — started us on the path toward our current water shortages. And the last two decades of megadrought in the Southwest — amplified by a warming climate — have hit the fast forward button.
River managers and policymakers have until 2026 to replace temporary drought contingency plans with a long-term plan for the river that replenishes, rather than drains, the reservoirs. What they decide has implications for almost every major Western city, 30 Native American tribes, 5.5 million acres of farmland, and northern Mexico.
For most people, the deepening white bathtub rings around western reservoirs have come to symbolize the drought. For Martin and a growing number of scientists, policymakers, and water managers working to solve the crisis, the rings are a reminder of how people are failing to acknowledge that we are collectively using water in a way that is causing the Colorado River to run dry.
![[cheers]](http://storage.proboards.com/7182076/images/engyBVslEdpmpmdnBwZQ.gif)
