Policymakers, politicians and the media have been talking about the need for better water policy in the desert southwest of the United States for decades. As the Colorado River, a major source of water for much of that area, continues to shrink, policymakers are having a hard time keeping up with nature. A new 10-year plan contemplates cutting water supplies for Arizona, Nevada and California by up to 40 percent depending on availability. Not surprisingly, these states don't like the plan that the Trump Administration said it will impose on the states since they have been unable to come up with an agreement.
The century-old Colorado River Compact governed water allocations to the upper and lower basins of the river. But the compact overestimated water flows and the states along the Colorado have been dealing with that error ever since. Now, a drought that has spanned more than two decades has made matters worse.
I can remember flying into Las Vegas in 2009, looking out my window and seeing the so-called "bathtub ring" around Lake Mead, the lake created by Hoover Dam. The top of the ring indicated where the water level had previously been before the ongoing multi-year drought noticeably lowered the lake level. Las Vegas was at the time involved in what was essentially an emergency project to build a water intake at a deeper level for fear that the surface of Lake Mead would fall below the current intake and deprive the city of 40 percent of its water. The water authority succeeded in building the intake, but, of course, that didn't do anything to increase water supplies from the Colorado River.
In fact, the same problems that plagued Las Vegas and its Colorado River neighbors are only worse now as continued growth and poor planning have finally hit the brick wall of water shortages. Not surprisingly, when serious problems arise the solution to which requires serious sacrifice, fantasy solutions arise with them. A group focused on recreational access to public lands has proposed legislation that would fund eight large desalination plants for southern California to dramatically reduce that state's need for Colorado water and thereby return most of California's current allocation to the river. The energy for such energy-intensive facilities, the group says, would likely have to come from new nuclear power plants. The group can't be faulted for thinking small!
Elsewhere, the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, located on the Gulf of Mexico coast faces the unwelcome prospect that its water reservoirs could come close to running out sometime next year. Heavy rain in April has delayed the crisis, but much more rain would be necessary to end the extreme drought which has gripped the city and its environs. This set of rain maps gives you an idea what has been happening month-to-month. While one of the city's three reservoirs rose from 55 percent capacity to 76 percent due to recent rain, its other two slumped to historic lows of 10 percent and 7 percent of capacity. (It should be noted that one good hurricane could substantially replenish these reservoirs.)
Your humble author takes a special interest in the situation because I was a reporter for the Corpus Christi Caller, the city's morning daily newspaper, in 1980 when I wrote a five-part series on water supplies in Corpus Christi and the areas served by its water system. I suggested that the city's then under construction water project, Choke Canyon, might not turn out to be as reliable as anticipated. That's the reservoir that is currently at 7 percent of capacity.
The Corpus Christi water system serves 500,000 residents in and around the city and a host of industrial facilities including oil refineries, chemical plants and others. Water system officials are planning for cuts of 25 percent probably starting in June after the city council considers the issue.
If the rains don't return to Corpus Christi anytime soon, more draconian cuts may be necessary. But, no city can store enough water to endure an extreme drought that goes on year after year. Corpus Christi and its surrounding area normally get about 30 inches of rain a year—or at least they used to. Compare that to Portland, Oregon, a place I've also lived that has a reputation for being quite rainy, with average annual rainfall of around 39 inches. But Portland, too, is having issues this year because of the record low snowpack in the mountains that supply it with water.
For Americans, water crises that threaten a dramatic reduction of available water are something that happen far away in countries that are poor and desperate. But climate change, the catalyst behind the broadening shortages, is no respecter of wealth or privilege. Even if you live in the United States or another relatively wealthy country, a water shortage could be coming to a town near you—or even to your town.
Kurt Cobb is a freelance writer and communications consultant who writes frequently about energy and environment. His work has appeared in The Christian Science Monitor, Resilience, Common Dreams, Naked Capitalism, Le Monde Diplomatique, Oilprice.com, OilVoice, TalkMarkets, Investing.com, Business Insider and many other places. He is the author of an oil-themed novel entitled Prelude and has a widely followed blog called Resource Insights. He can be contacted at kurtcobb2001@yahoo.com.
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