Desert Local News - Index

Desert Local News - dlnews - Index

california wire
Colorado olorado River
crisis looming
By Mike Lee and Michael Gardner
Gardne
Gardner “Based on the assumptions Atmospheric Administration in percent. he said.
Colorado River reservoirs that that (Barnett and Pierce) made, I Boulder, Colo., said the Scripps re-
“The public isn’t believing that
Bobker suggests that the large
serve 20 million people in the certainly don’t disagree with this port offered the most specific pro- we have as much of a constraint as water sellers, such as the San Di-
Southwest could essentially run out conclusion,” said Terry Fulp, operjection that he has seen about the we really do. ... They turn on the ego County Water Authority, es-
of water in 13 years based on curations manager of the Lower Colo- river’s looming crisis. He also em- tap and there is plenty there,” said tablish mandatory reduction tarrent
climate and water-use trends, rado River for the U.S. Bureau of phasized the inherent uncertainties Bud Irvin, board president of the gets and then allow their customers
researchers at Scripps Institution Reclamation.
in predicting precipitation, but said Santa Fe Irrigation District in north to decide how to best achieve those
of Oceanography said Tuesday.
Fulp added a caveat: Long-term “the science is unanimous” that San Diego County.
savings.
Several million people across the changes in river flows can’t be pre- Colorado River flows will shrink
The county water authority
“We need to start preparing
Southwest also get hydroelectric dicted precisely, so the Scripps in coming decades.
mainly has relied on stories in lo- now,” he said. “We have some
power from the reservoir’s dams, calculation could be off by several
The Scripps report “should cal media and word of mouth to time, but we’re going to run out of
which the scientists said may suf- years.
catch attention because climate spread the conservation message. time.”
fer an “abrupt drop” in production
The Lake Mead-Lake Powell change is real and it needs to be But it’s working on a plan that’s
Ronnie Cohen, senior policy
in about 10 years if reservoir levels system includes the stretch of the part of the dialogue about how we likely to include a big increase in analyst with the Natural Resources
continue to fall.
Colorado River in northern Ari- manage the water resources,” Ho- paid advertising. No budget has Defense Council, said “it’s time
Major industries - from tourism zona. Aqueducts carry the water erling said.
been proposed.
for a new approach” - including
to biotech - would be affected by from the river to cities such as Las
Barnett and Pierce touched on
Jim Barrett, director of public pushing the Department of Water
such a shortage, which already is Vegas, Los Angeles and San Di- possible solutions, many of which utilities for the city of San Diego, Resources to set statewide savings
starting to force changes. A large ego. The system is at about half- already are being tried across the is among the many local water goals.
marina on Lake Mead recently was capacity because of a recent string region. Those include increased managers convinced that manda-
“As a state, we need to figure
forced to move its floating docks to of dry years.
calls for conservation, new guidetory rationing is unnecessary.
out what level of water use is sus-
deeper water.
“It’s pretty dramatic. ... From lines for managing river water and
“We don’t want to excite peotainable and then develop a plan to
This latest warning could es- month to month, there is a notice- numerous attempts to tap potential ple needlessly in anticipation there get there,” she said.
calate pressure for more conservaably bigger white band (of rock and supplies such as the Pacific Ocean might be a problem later,” Barrett
In another attempt to manage
tion, either voluntary or mandatory, sand) and you can see more islands and aquifers.
said.
potential shortages, the Metro-
several water experts suggest.
popping out of the water,” said
“We are all planning to deal
Rationing would be difficult to politan Water District yesterday
The report is the first in a peer- Krystyna Stave, an environmental with less water from the Colorado fairly impose, he said, because an approved a controversial rationing
reviewed journal to pin a date on studies professor at the University River,” said Ken Weinberg, a top across-the-board reduction would plan for most of Southern Califor-
when the river’s water level would of Nevada Las Vegas.
official at the San Diego County punish households and businesses nia during dry years.
drop so low that reservoir water
On a positive note, snowfall Water Authority.
that have already started to save.
However, Metropolitan may be
could no longer be drawn by grav- along the river system has been
Concerns on the Colorado Riv-
“There are folks who aren’t able to avoid using it this year beity,
said authors Tim Barnett and recorded at 128 percent of normal er have been heightened by legal paying attention to water conservacause of healthy winter storms. A
David Pierce, scientists at Scripps, this year, which will add 3.5 mil- complications to moving water tion,” Barrett said. “They’re trying decision on whether to impose ra-
which is part of the University of lion acre-feet to Lake Powell and from Southern California’s other to replicate an Amazon rain forest tioning won’t be made until May.
California San Diego. The paper Lake Mead if the rest of the season major water source, the Sacramen- in their backyard.”
The strategy calls for an across-
was accepted for publication by stays bountiful, said Roger Patto-San Joaquin River Delta. This
But with snowfall unreliable, the-board cut for all of Metropoli-
the American Geophysical Union, terson, who tracks Colorado River year, the region’s farmers have had reservoir levels dropping and entan’s member-agencies, depending
an international society of Earth issues for the Metropolitan Water supplies cut by 30 percent.
vironmental problems tightening on water conditions.
and space scientists.
District.
Despite problems, numbers re- deliveries through the Sacramento
The San Diego County Water
“We were stunned at the mag-
Pierce and Barnett approached leased Tuesday by the San Diego Delta, water managers are under Authority would lose anywhere
nitude of the problem and how fast future river flows based on prob- County Water Authority show that increasing pressure to conserve from 65,000 acre-feet to nearly
it was coming at us,” Barnett said. ability of certain events. They gave the county set a record high for wa- more even as California continues 190,000 acre-feet, based on a com-
“Make no mistake, this water prob- a 10 percent chance that functional ter use in 2007.
to grow.
plex set of factors. An acre-foot
lem is not a scientific abstraction, storage in Mead and Powell reser-
While per-capita use has re-
Gary Bobker, program director is 326,000 gallons, or enough to
but rather one that will impact each voirs will be gone by 2013 and a mained relatively flat over the past for the Bay Institute of San Fran- serve two average households for
and every one of us that live in the 50 percent chance that it will dis- two decades, the growing populacisco, an environmental advocacy a year.
Southwest.”
appear by 2021. They said there’s tion keeps nudging the total de- group, said the state must explore
“We’re trying to work the best
Several other reports in recent a 50 percent chance that the minimand up.
rationing as climate change threat- possible solution for the region,”
years agree that the Colorado Rivmum power-production levels in
Several water managers in San ens to reduce snowpack.
said Barrett, San Diego’s water dier
is heading for a crisis, in part both lakes will be reached in 2017, Diego County said the region’s
“All over the state, we should be rector.
because climate change appears to based on current trends.
conservation push in recent months moving toward mandatory conser-
Desert Local News source
mean less precipitation in the river
Martin Hoerling, a meteorolo- doesn’t appear to be saving the tarvation because it’s the right thing
Copley News Service
basin.
gist for the National Oceanic and geted amount of water - about 10 to do. Water is a finite resource,”
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