In this final post, the uncertain future of the Colorado
River will be addressed. I will begin by looking at a national level attempt to
prioritize water, followed by why the future is so uncertain for the Colorado
River.
“The Colorado River is at a critical crossroads,
depleted by an ongoing dry cycle not recorded since more than a century ago and
entangled with the future of a growing Western region.” As discussed in
previous posts, there are many challenges in managing the Colorado River Basin
and solutions will only be found through cooperation of all parties involved.
American Clean Energy Agenda
This past July, it was revealed to members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources that the findings of the
Bureau of Reclamation Supply and Demand study of the Colorado River projects a
shortfall of 3.2 million acre-feet of water by 2060.
Photo courtesy of www.americancleanenergyagenda.org |
In order to help alleviate some of the water stress in
the basin, the American Clean Energy Agenda, an executive order, was presented
to the President. This order aims to,
- Make water a national priority
- Create a national water census
- Formation of a water budget commission
- Reduction or elimination by 2030 of water-dependent power generation sources such as coal-fired or nuclear power plants.
Uncertain Future
One of the biggest issues
surrounding the uncertain future of the Colorado River is the effect of climate
change. It is no secret that the effects are already being seen along the
river. Out of the last 13 years, 10 have been the lowest flow years in more
than a century of record keeping. Increasing temperatures in the basin have led to greater evaporation within
many of the reservoirs as well as reducing the amount of snowpack received in
the headwater regions of the basin.
Colorado River supply versus demand Photo courtesy of www.nature.org |
The next major uncertainty affecting
the future of the basin is in regards to the growing populations in the
Southwest. Today, Southwestern United States is one of the fastest growing regions in the U.S. With more people moving to the Colorado River Basin region, there will be an
increased demand for Colorado River water on all fronts.
Finally, structurally
speaking, reservoir levels along the Colorado River have been at record lows
over the last decade placing many of the hydropower turbines at risk of damage. Lake Mead, which sits on the border between Nevada and
Arizona behind Hoover Dam, is expected to drop 2.4 meters in 2014, as less and
less water flows downstream from Lake Powell. This drop is in part due to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's need to cut Lake Powell’s water release by nearly 1 billion cubic meters to 9.2 billion cubic meters for the 2014 water season, the smallest release
since the lake was filled in the 1960s.
To give an idea of how much water that is, imagine an Olympic sized swimming pool 2,500,000 liters of water so 1 billion cubic meters of water would be about 400,000 Olympic sized swimming pools.
Photos courtesy of slideshare.net/cheatles/where-is-all-the-water |
Worst case scenario, when the water level drops below 1063 meters
in Lake Powell, just about 30 meters lower than its average August levels,
vortex action would draw air into the turbines and damage them. What is actually occurring though is a decline in power output as water levels within the reservoirs fall. This becomes problematic because “if electricity has to come from somewhere else, delivering drinking water to some of the largest cities in
the western United States could be challenging. Nearly 30 percent of the energy from Hoover Dam goes to the Metropolitan Water District
of Southern California, which provides drinking water to nearly 19 million
people across 26 cities and water districts. Less power also means less money
for various water quality and environmental studies that inform how the water
from the Colorado River should be allocated.”
Glen Canyon Dam in front of Lake Powell Photo courtesy of cache2.artprintimages.com |
Due to the complexity of the situation and the many
issues and stakeholders involved, in order to secure a viable future for the
Colorado River will be through multiple solutions and cooperation between all
seven basin states. Unfortunately, these collaborative efforts are not easy
when discussing this vital natural resource that so many people depend on and
thus, tensions will increase, leading to greater problems. Nevertheless,
because the Colorado River is listed as the most endangered river in the world,
efforts are being made to ensure its revival.