"Deadline looms for western states to cut Colorado River use"

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Water wars.
Banks along parts of the Colorado River where water once streamed are now just caked mud and rock as climate change makes the Western U.S. hotter and drier. More than two decades of drought have done little to deter the region from diverting more water than flows through it, depleting key reservoirs to levels that now jeopardize water delivery and hydropower production. Cities and farms in seven U.S. states are bracing for cuts this week as officials stare down a deadline to propose unprecedented reductions to their use of the water, setting up what’s expected to be the most consequential week for Colorado River policy in years. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in June told the states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — to determine how to use at least 15% less water next year, or have restrictions imposed on them. The bureau is also expected to publish hydrology projections that will trigger additional cuts already agreed to.
Representatives from the seven states convened in Denver last week for last minute negotiations behind closed doors. Those discussions have yet to produce concrete proposals, but officials party to them say the most likely targets for cuts are Arizona and California farmers. Agricultural districts in those states are asking to be paid generously to bear that burden. The proposals under discussion, however, fall short of what the Bureau of Reclamation has demanded and, with negotiations stalling, state officials say they hope for more time to negotiate details. “Despite the obvious urgency of the situation, the last sixty-two days produced exactly nothing in terms of meaningful collective action to help forestall the looming crisis,” John Entsminger, the General Manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority wrote in a letter on Monday. He called the agricultural district demands “drought profiteering.”
Last year, federal officials for the first time declared a water shortage, triggering cuts to Nevada, Arizona and Mexico’s share of the river to help prevent the two largest reservoirs — Lake Powell and Lake Mead — from dropping low enough to threaten hydropower production and stop water from flowing through their dams. The proposals for supplemental cuts due this week have inflamed disagreement between upper basin states — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — and lower basin states — Arizona, California and Nevada — over how to spread the pain. The lower basin states use most of the water and have thus far shouldered most of the cuts. The upper basin states have historically not used their full allocations but want to maintain water rights to plan for population growth.
Arizona will probably be hit hard with reductions. The state over the past few years shouldered many of the cuts. With its growing population and robust agricultural industry, it has less wiggle room than its neighbors to take on more, said Arizona Department of Water Resources Director Tom Buschatzke. Some Native American tribes in Arizona have also contributed to propping up Lake Mead in the past, and could play an outsized role in any new proposal. Irrigators around Yuma, Arizona, have proposed taking 925,000 acre-feet less of Colorado River water in 2023 and leaving it in Lake Mead if they’re paid $1.4 billion, or $1,500 per acre-foot. The cost is far above the going rate, but irrigators defended their proposal as fair considering the cost to grow crops and get them to market. Some of the compensation-for-conservation funds could come from a $4 billion in drought funding included in the Inflation Reduction Act under consideration in Washington, U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona told the AP. Sinema acknowledged that paying farmers to conserve is not a long-term solution: “In the short-term, however, in order to meet our day-to-day needs and year-to-year needs, ensuring that we’re creating financial incentives for non-use will help us get through,” she said.
https://apnews.com/article/science-ariz ... a892a8b690

Looks like So Cal cities will be coughing up money to farmers to get them to fallow their land, so the wealthy can fill their swimming pools. There go our taxes. My water is from the Colorado River and my monthly bill is mostly paying off the debt on the pipeline.

The West needs to come up with plans especially inland states and it will probably involve desalination on a major scale.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: "Deadline looms for western states to cut Colorado River use"

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Desalination requires lots of energy. So they will require more power plants or solar farms. That could be the next new crop for farmers. Few years ago wife and I took a cruise up the Danube River. It was amazing to us how many farms had Solar Panels setup for production. Also food production needs to be for foods that require less water. Some crops should be banned, such as Almond Trees. I love almonds but the amount of water they require is outrageous.

Also the state needs to reduce or stop the use of the public water supply to private pools and other recreational facilities. Also require lawns and non food producing gardens be landscaped for desert conditions.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: "Deadline looms for western states to cut Colorado River use"

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TrueTexan wrote: Mon Aug 15, 2022 8:53 pm Desalination requires lots of energy. So they will require more power plants or solar farms. That could be the next new crop for farmers. Few years ago wife and I took a cruise up the Danube River. It was amazing to us how many farms had Solar Panels setup for production. Also food production needs to be for foods that require less water. Some crops should be banned, such as Almond Trees. I love almonds but the amount of water they require is outrageous.

Also the state needs to reduce or stop the use of the public water supply to private pools and other recreational facilities. Also require lawns and non food producing gardens be landscaped for desert conditions.
I agree with you. The environmental activists are great for pushing governments to stop using fossil fuels, but they should be pushing more for the tech to get us to that point. China has been pushing potatoes on their population over rice and noodles to prevent becoming a desert. Last I saw they're the world's largest consumer of potatoes.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: "Deadline looms for western states to cut Colorado River use"

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tonguengroover wrote: Mon Aug 15, 2022 9:01 pm Lawns take more water than pools.
Fly over LA and San Diego you will see lawns everwhere. And they flood them with water couple times a week.
As I wrote
Also require lawns and non food producing gardens be landscaped for desert conditions.
Meaning using what's grows in deserts and rock landscaping. No Grass. If they want the Green there is Artificial Turf and it can be mad with recycled plastic and rubber materials.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: "Deadline looms for western states to cut Colorado River use"

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sikacz wrote: Tue Aug 16, 2022 7:20 am We don’t have the backbone to analyze how to best use resources, how to design livable environments and how to best cohabitate within this world.
I agree, one side is pushing full steam ahead without a firm plan while the other side is trying every blocking technique they know. We need livable environments that use the minimum of resources, that could have a big impact on urban areas, they have a high concentration of population and are a major user of resources. The pandemic changed a lot of things related to work, shopping, communication...
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: "Deadline looms for western states to cut Colorado River use"

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We aren't the only country with heat and water problems.
Tibetan Plateau water stores under threat: study

The Tibetan Plateau will experience significant water loss this century due to global warming, according to research published Monday that warns of severe supply stress in a climate change "hotspot".

The reservoirs of the Tibetan Plateau, which covers much of southern China and northern India, are fed by monsoons and currently supply most of the water demand for nearly two billion people.

But the plateau's complex terrain has made it difficult for scientists to predict how warming temperatures and altered weather patterns linked to climate change will affect the region's water stores.
More information here:https://www.rawstory.com/tibetan-platea ... eat-study/

Then we have this little tidbit.
Earth had its 6th-hottest July and year to date on record

July 2022 was the world’s sixth-hottest July on record, according to NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.

Last month also saw Earth’s sixth-hottest year to date on record as Antarctic sea ice coverage plunged to a record low for a second consecutive month.
Full information and report here: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/global-climate-202207

We are literally cooking ourselves in a global greenhouse and if we don't do something soon it will be too late and our "goose" will be cooked.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: "Deadline looms for western states to cut Colorado River use"

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Up here along the 40th parallel in northern California, we're all glad that we're too far away from soCal to worry about them coming north for water--because we don't have any up here, either. I would prefer that our future presidential candidate now trapped in the governorship would spend some of our damned surplus on four or five solar powered desalination plants. I do not want to have to shoot people so I can water my bonsai. I would. [\s]

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: "Deadline looms for western states to cut Colorado River use"

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Sucks when they plant an orange grove in a desert then plow it under to build a subdivision and an almond grove and and a few freeways, the complain that...
The Air Is Unbreathable.
The water's drying up.

Dear Californians,
Please stay where you are. We'll send help.
Maybe.
Just don't move up here.
Subliterate Buffooery of the right...
Literate Ignorance of the left...
We Are So Screwed

Re: "Deadline looms for western states to cut Colorado River use"

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The federal government announced Tuesday the Colorado River will operate in a Tier 2 shortage condition for the first time starting in January as the West's historic drought has taken a severe toll on Lake Mead.

According to a new projection from the Department of the Interior, Lake Mead's water level will be below 1,050 feet above sea level come January -- the threshold required to declare a Tier 2 shortage starting in 2023.

The Tier 2 shortage means Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will have to further reduce their Colorado River use beginning in January. California will not yet have cuts made to the water they receive from the Colorado River.

Of the impacted states, Arizona will face the largest cuts -- 592,000 acre-feet -- or approximately 21% of the state's yearly allotment of river water.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/16/us/color ... index.html
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: "Deadline looms for western states to cut Colorado River use"

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rolandson wrote: Tue Aug 16, 2022 6:45 pm Sucks when they plant an orange grove in a desert then plow it under to build a subdivision and an almond grove and and a few freeways, the complain that...
The Air Is Unbreathable.
The water's drying up.

Dear Californians,
Please stay where you are. We'll send help.
Maybe.
Just don't move up here.
Don't Californicate Oregon ! :)
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: "Deadline looms for western states to cut Colorado River use"

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They are already Californicate Texas. The housing market prices have shot through the roof. Developers are building faster and faster to try and supply housing. Local News last night had an item that the Texas Median income is below what is needed to by a house. Meaning most texans can't afford to buy a house. Also apartment rents have shot up in the past year to where many can't afford to live in one.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: "Deadline looms for western states to cut Colorado River use"

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Tucson isn't reliant on the CAP water as we have oodles of groundwater luckily. The farming in and around the valley has been effectively pushed out by housing. Thats not good.
But as history tells us they over build housing and apartments, the market crashes and thats what I'm waiting for. The land in NM is still to high. When housing crashes dirt crashes.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,”

Re: "Deadline looms for western states to cut Colorado River use"

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We read about the water crisis out in the western states in the national news. But we are having the same in South Texas and Northern Mexico. You think Lake Meade is dry, check out the picture of Lake Falcon. That use to be a large lake on the Rio Grande. The Rio Grande is now becoming the Rio Pequeño.
But there are those that deny and Climate Change is happening.


https://www.texastribune.org/2022/08/16 ... r-drought/
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,
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Re: "Deadline looms for western states to cut Colorado River use"

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sikacz wrote: Wed Aug 17, 2022 9:52 pm Buying the traditional home is not an ecology friendly choice. There should be affordable small condominiums for city dwellers and a good mass transit system.
Theres one thing europe has we dont. A more densified dwelling for people goes hand in hand with mass transit.
Urban sprawl makes people use cars to get to work. And most prople dont car pool either.
One of my kids is working on the high speed mass transit center in SF. Its huge!
You might like the architecture.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,”
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Re: "Deadline looms for western states to cut Colorado River use"

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tonguengroover wrote: Wed Aug 17, 2022 10:06 pm
sikacz wrote: Wed Aug 17, 2022 9:52 pm Buying the traditional home is not an ecology friendly choice. There should be affordable small condominiums for city dwellers and a good mass transit system.
Theres one thing europe has we dont. A more densified dwelling for people goes hand in hand with mass transit.
Urban sprawl makes people use cars to get to work. And most prople dont car pool either.
One of my kids is working on the high speed mass transit center in SF. Its huge!
You might like the architecture.
Nothing against the architecture. I do think we are wasting resources mostly because people have been fed a bullshit idea that everyone should live in their own château. Great for one of your kids, that is the future for our metro areas and even beyond. Urban sprawl is the result of indoctrination and conditioning. We should have long time ago reframed what the “American dream “ really should be. It certainly should not be urban sprawl. My in-laws, past on now, lived in the nearest city, lived in housing part of one of their employment positions, and retained their rural land for summer recreational purposes, the land had been in the family for hundreds of years. In short, it became a summer home, nothing more than a two room cabin by a lake, with a sauna and a non electrified outbuilding for sleeping in. We expect too much space. For ten years after graduation from a university in Houston, I went to work in Helsinki. I liven in a two room flat, owned by us that was 49 square meters, about 527 square feet. It was perfectly adequate. Point is we waste space and resources.
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