Peak Water?

Peak oil is a problem we may have a chance to do something about. But what happens when the West surpasses "peak water?"

Maybe it already has.

As a Western Coloradoan, I've had the west's looming water problems on my radar for a long time. I hope this excellent article in the New York Times Magazine puts it on the nation's.

A few excerpts:

Chu noted that even the most optimistic climate models for the second half of this century suggest that 30 to 70 percent of the snowpack will disappear. “There’s a two-thirds chance there will be a disaster,” Chu said, “and that’s in the best scenario.”

[...]

When I asked if the drought in his models would be permanent, he pondered the question for a moment, then replied: “You can’t call it a drought anymore, because it’s going over to a drier climate. No one says the Sahara is in drought."

[...]

In addition, a lesser Colorado River would almost certainly lead to a considerable amount of economic havoc, as the future water supplies for the West’s industries, agriculture and growing municipalities are threatened. As one prominent Western water official described the possible future to me, if some of the Southwest’s largest reservoirs empty out, the region would experience an apocalypse, “an Armageddon.”

[...]

A report by the National Academies on the Colorado River basin had recently concluded that the combination of limited Colorado River water supplies, increasing demands, warmer temperatures and the prospect of recurrent droughts “point to a future in which the potential for conflict” among those who use the river will be ever-present. Over the past few decades, the driest states in the United States have become some of our fastest-growing; meanwhile, an ongoing drought has brought the flow of the Colorado to its lowest levels since measurements at Lee’s Ferry began 85 years ago. At the Senate hearing, Udall stated that the Colorado River basin is already two degrees warmer than it was in 1976 and that it is foolhardy to imagine that the next 50 years will resemble the last 50. Lake Mead, the enormous reservoir in Arizona and Nevada that supplies nearly all the water for Las Vegas, is half-empty, and statistical models indicate that it will never be full again.

*****

If you don't want to read a long article that'll depress you, Frank Rich writes a short one, about Iraq procurement corruption. [via Norwegianity and Eric Black Ink]

Comments

[tom]

Bill Richardson caught a lot of heat in Michigan for suggesting that water rich states like Wisconsin and Michigan can export water to ensure the Southwests golf courses can stay green.

More appalling is Nestle's for profit use of Michigan's water, paying only for land access but not for the water its removing, packaging, and selling.

Building huge cities in the desert lacks the kind of foresight that we need to be employing now in order to protect a dwindling resource.

[Charlie Quimby]

I see Atlanta is also having some water problems.
http://thecuckingstool.blogspot.com/2007/10/wither-water.html

Guess I'll hang onto the Minnesota homestead. A few more years, and we could become the new Vegas!