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Not Looking Good for the Southwestern US: “Mega” Drought Predicted |
7 Comments |
| By Steve Balogh in Conservation, Population | April 7, 2007 | ||
UPDATE: I located a chart of Lake Mead historical water levels, and put it below the fold (click on “more…”)
MSNBC has an article out today sounding an alarm on the Southwestern United States’ fresh water situation. Not only is the wage gap between rich and poor workers reaching pre-depression levels, we are also threatened by a “dust bowl” similar to the same period of time.
While traveling in Nevada two weeks ago, I was able to travel to see the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead. A thick layer of bleached rock formed a ring around the reservoir, showing the loss of billions of gallons of fresh drinking water. The level of the lake fell a hundred or more feet below a run-off/overflow culvert.
[bleached rock in Lake Mead]
[drainage culvert - upper right rounded concrete section]
After seeing this first hand it is easy to believe the article:
“If these models are correct, the levels of aridity of the recent multiyear drought, or the Dust Bowl and 1950s droughts, will, within the coming years to decades, become the new climatology of the American Southwest,” the researchers wrote.
In a telephone interview, Seager said that doesn’t mean there would be dust storms like those of the 1930s Dust Bowl, because conditions at that time were also complicated by poor agricultural practices. But he said the reduction in rainfall could be equivalent to those times when thousands of farmers abandoned their parched land and moved away in search of jobs.
Currently, the majority of water in the Southwest is used in agriculture, but the urban population of the region is growing and so the water needs of people are growing as well, he explained.
Combine these conditions with the booming population of Las Vegas (12 cranes in the skies over the city) and other Southwestern US cities, and one can see that questions regarding water supply will have to be answered sooner rather than later.
Via Arachnoid:
So you can see that we are not at “historic low levels” for Lake Mead, but certainly flirting with dropping below the “drought” level of 1125 feet. I hope as one of the commenters noted that there will be a spring melt soon and that this will raise the levels in the lake. However as a trend over the past 7 years, it is looking less hopeful.
Todd Hadden said,
It’s spring. Durring the wither the mountain store snow which melts in the spring, fills Lake Mead, which Las Vegas uses durring the summer and fall lowering the water level and then in spring it fills back up.
Tah
Ka-Bar said,
There are plenty of similar stories out there concerning the Colorado River basin…
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/04/us/04drought.html?hp
http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=6333445&nav=HMO6HMaW
http://www.elynews.com/articles/2007/04/06/news/news06.txt
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003653980_drought06.html
So, is it just a seasonal thing, or the precursor to something larger? Personally, I agree with Kunstler that in time the Southwest isn’t going to be a very pleasant place to live anymore and that population levels will revert to much lower levels.
Raoul said,
Might solve the border issue.
michael said,
Makes you happy to live in a place that gets so much rain…
…no doubt, as we grow and grow (and grow) the good times will continue to get that much harder to find. Electricity from renewable sources won’t do you any good if all the water is sucked dry long before…
…I found an interesting article that stated, “Withdrawals for domestic water use, which included self-supplied domestic and public supply (all deliveries to residential, commercial, and some industrial users), increased 410 percent from 1950 to 2000. During that same period the total population in these five Southwestern
States increased 250 percent.” You can read the rest of the report here: http://cals.arizona.edu/AZWATER/awr/julyaugust04/USGS.Supplement2.web.pdf
If we think the drought period during ’65 was bad, an increased population will be parched if things continue to get worse.
Tom B said,
We have a similar problem in North Texas where if I use a gray water system I will be charged twice by the City.Hello,Hello time to wake up!!
Head-On Radio Network » Blog Archive » Tuesday Fox’d Up!: Replay of Southern U.S. Mega Drought Prediction said,
[...] Looks like the southern U.S. could end up in mega drought. Time to act. Don’t end up like Australia. [...]
JohnDelphia said,
idea: retrofit B-52′s for fire fighting city firestorms.
Please.
I’ve had a very bad sense of what could happen if drought-electric shortage-heatwave hits us this summer. There are too many infrastructure-burdened young cities with old people in places one step away from sub-Saharan Africa’s climate that are right now as vulnerable as New Orleans. PLEASE think of some way to use military-strength help to these cities when they may need it.