Water Wars - Mexico

The Bureau of Reclamation, a federal agency, takes a stand on the whole water issue with Lake Powell and Lake Mead, by refusing to do their job.

Apparently, the plan to save a tanking Lake Mead and Lake Powell is 'stay tuned'

Now, mind you, the Bureau only has one job here with regard to these two lakes. So it takes a lot of leadership to refuse to do that job. That's how you know that it's the federal government at work.

 

Afraid of causing water riots by letting the source go dry and causing water riots.
Imagine, mass population and agriculture in desert areas causing problems. Who would have thunk it . Pray for snow.

 

I am calculating 9.95 feet (119 inches) of rain, without evaporation or water soaking into the soil. I'm sure the real answer is many multiples higher than that. Mobile, Alabama is usually near the top of continental U.S. rainfall lists, and they have about 66 inches a year.

Lake Mead watershed = 2200 sq mi.
640 acres / sq mi.
Lake Mead capacity = 28.23 MM acre-feet
Lake Mead current volume = 14.21 MM acre-feet
Lake Mead available volume = 14.02 MM acre-feet

The primary contributor of water to Lake Mead is not rainfall, it is snow-melt from higher elevations. The recent flooding only added a few inches to the lake. Compare that to the 27 feet that the level of the lake has dropped in the last 12 months. The most rain that was measured in the Vegas flooding was only an inch or so--to most of the U.S., that would be a moderate and fairly routine rainstorm. It caused flooding because the dirt is so dry it quickly turned to mud (and there weren't enough plants and trees to soak up the water).

EarthSky | Shrinking Lake Mead reveals bodies and boats

There is just too many people and too much agriculture relying on that water source.

 

Good post. I actually wish that Biden would use this opportunity (after the price of gas came down) to ratchet up the federal taxes on gas to bring the price of gas up to $3.75-4.25 a gallon. Even the most dimwitted republican would have to admit that he was a freeloader driving on highways that require $0.40-0.50/gallon gas taxes while paying $0.18/gal in federal gas taxes to maintain the highways. Our economy survived a brief brush with $5.00/gallon gas--we could survive with $4.00/gal gas. It might make sense to increase minimum wage to help poor people afford gas (and inflation), but that could be done gradually with the gas tax hikes. If the gas tax hikes were $0.02-0.03 per quarter, and the minimum wage hikes were $0.25/yr, it would have almost no impact on the economy, and the working poor would more than make up for the additional cost of gas with the additional income.

 

I would also say that Las Vegas needs to tax the hell out of water. So much so that people start abandoning the city. The city should never have been allowed to grow to its current size without the natural resources to support it. People in both southern California and Nevada pay about $70-80 a month for water, and it probably needs to be much higher than that in both places. Especially if California ever gets their act together and decides to invest in desalinization.

 

There’s an article in todays Tampa Bay Times about drought in China. Farmer losing most of his crop.


Will water become the new gold?

 

There are probably some crops in the southeast U.S. lost to excessive flooding this year. You can also lose crops when water arrives at the wrong time. The value of water goes down exponentially when you have way too much of it.

In northwest Florida, I tell people who are looking at houses not to ask about irrigation--ask about drainage. Especially people who are new to the area. Keeping water on the lawns is not a problem; handling the 5"+ rainstorms is a much bigger issue. The record for rainfall in this area is 26" in 24 hours, set eight years ago.

 

Vegas is not sustainable for the long haul. Eventually the desert will win.

 

Without Lake Mead, Vegas probably would have been abandoned long ago, like the resorts at the edge of California's Salton Sea.

Salton Sea, California – Ghost Town Lake in the Desert – Legends of America

 

How would you like to live in the other Las Vegas--the one in New Mexico? It's a small town of 10,000 on the edge of a forest, which was recently devastated by wildfires, which were apparently started by the government. The residents have less than 30 days of drinking water left. Muddy, ash-laden runoff from the mountainside is threatening to contaminate their drinking water supply.

NM city, victim of government burn, now faces water shortage

 

Flooding is now occurring throughout the Southwest, and people there are not happy. I wish these people would make up their minds: do they want water or not?

Evacuations ordered, emergency declared in eastern Arizona floods

 

The flood waters might not be of much use to them, might even contaminate their reservoirs. I’ve heard of this happening before. You get a quick storm after a period of extended drought and because the soil is basically hardpan, the flash flood is exacerbated because the water doesn’t permeate into the soil as it normally would.

 

‎Fresh Air: The Water Crisis In The American West on Apple Podcasts


Great podcast on western water issues

 

The west got a gift with the heavy precip this year. Politicians will frame it as the new normal and squander this gift.