The Uncertain Future of the Colorado

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.  

 

Photo courtesy of ecology110fra.files.wordpress.com

“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.