Status of Colorado River water (and Lake Powell)

Casey

If you haven't been to Lake Powell, you might want to put it on your to-do
list.

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-20140620-column.html#page=1

WATER has been a behind-the-scenes subject in the Southwest for decades, and the Colorado River drainage supplies a large part of that water (and electricity). Everybody wants their share ... and More.

I find it interesting that there was no mention of Mexico's water rights to Colorado River water.

Best,
C&M

potter water · Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 10:20 am Post subject:

It is time to clamp down on the growth, and therefore consumption of water in Nevada (las vegas) and all of Southern California with the exception of the agricultural users. Having served on a planning commission in my community, I came up against land developers and speculators for three years and battled mightily with them. They, as most land developers and speculators cared not a bit about issues like water availability. They were only interested in getting the houses built, pocketing the profits and getting back to their Hawaiian or Caribbean or Hampton's homes.

The planning commission lost in every case because of the number and lawyers and political powers brought to the table by the developers. I quit the planning commission because of the futility of fighting the powerful real estate laws in federal law, state law, and local law. None of which favored environmental, agricultural and future generation issues over property rights. And I am big on property rights being a mean old right wing republican, but there is a breaking point where nature and greed collide.

Sea Wolf · Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 12:33 pm Post subject:

I can't tell you how much we Northern Californians hate the Southern California developers and their San Joaquin Valley agri-business cohorts!

They'll suck us dry with their continued development and unrelenting thirst for the water that doesn't naturally exist by God's Will on the parched earth they continue to build upon.

Right now they're building the reincarnation of the Hood Canal disguised as an underground side by side set of tubes to suck the California Delta waters over to the Tracy pumping plants and south via the California Aqueduct.

Not that we up here want it, or to loose much of the Delta ecology to their insatiable needs, but their dominance in the state legislature makes it unstoppable short of armed intervention at the job site!

Watch out, Oregon and Washington, the mighty Columbia is next on their list!

Joe. Sad

ghone · Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 1:16 pm Post subject:

We saw the low water first hand at Lake Powell and then on downstream in Mead and Mojave and then above Yuma in the river. Very alarming. Then we got to Coronado and stayed a while and were perplexed by the yacht detailing business engaging in twice a week washing already clean yachts!! Big ones home ported in Vegas, Dallas, Houston etc. not to mention all the golf courses and lawns. clamp down on frivolous use immediately. You're gonna want some water to drink. Chris on Rana Verde had our attention when he shared some of his concerns with water in San Diego. We are amazed when we see how many people everywhere we go have no clue about how precious water is. We hope smart folks get in charge.
George

Sunbeam · Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 2:30 pm Post subject:

AstoriaDave · Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 3:33 pm Post subject:

Spent an hour over lunch one day attempting to explain to S. California buddies of my father that, no, we really could not divert all of the Columbia River's "excess" water to California for human consumption, etc. Their attitude is that water entering the ocean is wasted. They have no concern for anadromous fisheries or the economic impact of healthy salmon and steelhead runs. Maybe some of you have seen photos from the 1920s or so of fishermen with huge stringers of steelhead caught on the Ventura River ... maybe the farthest south runs of steelhead on the West Coast.

In Astoria, it is simple economics to keep those runs healthy. Lots of dollars are spent here by sportsfishers, and some as well are reaped from commercial harvest, though a lot of what is landed here commercially is troll caught, nowadays.

thataway · Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 4:19 pm Post subject:

Currently Lake Powell is coming up very nicely.. This does not give much indication of what the rest of the year will be. The current level is within a few tenths of a food with the historical mean.

It appears the The Castle Rock Cut off is open, as is Antelope point. The lake is currently 7 feet higher than it was this time last year.

We discussed this situation earlier--and there is a point--which was close at the end of last season, where some of the water intakes to Vegas were going to have to be closed.

Here is the scoop on Mexican obligations: