Note To Great Lakes Governors: Las Vegas Doesn't Want Your Water
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 04. 1.08
Everyone can just knock off the paranoid ranting about drought starved states in the US West plotting to steal Great Lakes water. Attention starved professors, especially, can give it a rest.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority recently commissioned a 3/4 million-dollar study of a dozen river water augmentation alternatives; the final report is out, and a pipe to the Great Lakes didn't even make the list. Not that there weren't some screwy ideas considered.
When it comes to squeezing every drop from the shrinking sponge of the Colorado River, few options, it seems, are too complicated or expensive.A new report examines 12 ideas for augmenting the river's flow (pictured), and not even the most audacious of the plans -- importing icebergs, for example -- has been rejected out of hand.
Don't they do a lot of cloud seeding in China? Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Among the most cost-effective options is seeding clouds in an effort to increase snowfall at the headwaters of the Colorado River system. According to the report, cloud seeding could produce as much as 1.4 million acre-feet of additional water a year at a cost of $20 to $30 per acre-foot.
Eliminating an invasive species to save water works for us.
The report concludes that a significant amount of water, perhaps as much as 150,000 acre-feet, could be saved by removing salt cedar groves along the banks of the river and its tributaries..Left unchecked, the nonnative plant could spread from its current range of about 300,000 acres to 600,000 acres by 2020, siphoning as much as 1 million acre-feet more from the river in the process
It's a good idea to take a creative approach to water supply augmentation, as the threat climate change poses to the US West is very serious. See also "Western U.S. Heating Up Almost Twice as Fast as Rest of the World"
A tabular summary of the twelve augmentation alternatives is presented here.
Reiterating from previous posts, if water demand dramatically outgrows supply in the US West, events will unfold approximately in this manner.
Agricultural productivity will fall off (See California Farmers To Forgo Planting: Sell Water To Thirsty Cities Instead)
Mining and other water intensive industries will be squeezed, and possibly lose operating permits.
Water prices will rise strongly, driving water intensive manufacturing industries to relocate (possibly to the Great Lakes area, but definitely not to Atlanta).
Lawn watering,fishing, and golfing will curtailed.
Out-migration will exceed in-migration to the region.
The wealthy and those with family in the Mid-West may move to the Great Lakes area (but not to Georgia or Florida,where water resources are already stressed).
If there is a reason to be paranoid, excessive drought-induced migration from dislocated Westerners would be it.
Better start buying those leftover FEMA trailers and maybe some tents.
See also:
Las Vegas Strip Could Run Dry by 2021
Las Vegas Does The Geothermal Strip
Via::Las Vegas Review-Journal, VARIED OPTIONS: "Big ideas, slim hope for water, Report lists 12 alternatives to Colorado River water" Image credit::IBID
Works for me. My experience has been that the southwest is a much better place without all those people around anyways. It does pose an interesting question about what happens to the abandoned sub- divisions that would result from a mass exodus from the region.
Well, having looked at the graphic, they do suggest tapping water from the Mississippi, the oceans, process water from mining, and brackish ground water sources.
They don't seem to mention any sort of conservation or more appropriate metering of water for specific uses.
A little irrigation water from marginal farmland could support a lot of people, too.
Encouraging large scale migration to the desert without a sustainable water supply is, of course madness. I wonder if the study considers additional heat and desertification, and even less rainfall as a result of ongoing global warming?
Part of the root of this tragedy is that the opening of the American west happened in the late 1800's during and unprecedented cyclical period of abundant rainfall. This led to unrealistic expectations about the carrying capacity of the land and what uses it might be suitable for. We're till paying that price.
"Add to rainfall - cloud seeding" - this does not create moisture, it will rob more easterly states of rainfall.
"Add to inflow - divert water from snake, mississippi and other rivers" - where will the make up water come from to keep the mississippi at a navigable level in the summer? And if you are reaching to the mississippi then you are pretty much crossing the missouri river and just didn't want to name it because water rights from the missouri are too contentious.
The great lakes contain a huge amount of water, but the basin which replenishes them is not large. Draw a loop around the lakes, staying about a lake width away from the lakes themselves. That is all the area that feeds them. That isn't much rainfall to work with if you are interested in a sustainable solution.
You can see a map at http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/region/glbasin/
Lake Michigan has gone from near record highs to near record lows in about 10 years. It makes the lake users nervous. The level change is within the realm of plausible natural processes, but there are number of very vocal people saying it is the result of Corp of Engineers changes. Nobody along that shoreline or shipping through those waters wants to hear about more level drops right now.
I like the "import an iceberg" idea! It reminds me of the episode on the same topic from the TV Series "Salvage One."
Just go up to Alaska to the iceberg sales lot, located next door to some polar bear hugger and buy the one that is sized appropriate for all your needs!
So if you seed the clouds and all the moisture is dropped on the headwaters of the colorado river, what is left for the bread basket. Would that be a better location for a desert?