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 ... tml#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]

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]

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 :thdown

 

[ghone]

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]

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.

Although speaking of agricultural users, the article Casey linked to mentions that a number of the crops being grown (and irrigated) by this water are very "thirsty" ones (I believe afalfa was mentioned, for example) as opposed to other crops that are more efficient in what you get for X amount of water put in. So maybe the key would be to look for the "gross wastage" of any type and try to cut back on that.

When I was in Sequim last summer (dry climate) I thought it was neat that (at least in the neighborhood I was in) it was very common for "lawns" to be made up of decorative rock or obviously water-frugal shrubs and etc. There was a nearby park with a nice, big green lawn that anyone could use. (And actually, for those who use their lawns, that's one thing; but so many seem to just be big green display pieces in dry climates!).

'course then few people want to be told how to live. But water shortages may do the "telling" at some point.

 

[AstoriaDave]

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]

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:

The water treaty between the United States and Mexico involving waters of the Colorado River (and the Rio Grande and Tijuana Rivers) became effective November 8, 1945. The Treaty allocated to Mexico 1.5 million acre-feet of Colorado Morelos Dam River system waters annually. The allocation was to be increased in years of surplus to 1.7 million acre-feet and reduced proportionately during years of extraordinary drought. The Treaty dealt with quantity and was silent on the quality of water to be delivered.
In 1962, the Mexican Government formally protested to the United States Government regarding the quality of Colorado River water that was being delivered to the Mexicali Valley. Upon the request of the State Department, the governors of the seven Colorado River Basin States reconstituted the Committee of Fourteen (two water experts from each of the seven Basin States appointed by their respective governors) to advise the State Department and the International Boundary and Water Commission about Mexican water salinity issues and potential solutions.
Numerous meetings and negotiations led to the adoption of Minute 242, executed in 1973, which obligates the United States to implement measures that will maintain the salinity of the Colorado River waters delivered to Mexico at nearly the same quality as that diverted at Imperial Dam for use within the United States.

So. Calif. Metropolitan Water District allocation is at:

http://www.mwdh2o.com/mwdh2o/pages/your ... ado04.html