INTRODUCTION
According to tree ring scientists from the University of Arizona in Tuscon, the Colorado River went through a six decade long drought during the mid-1100s. This drought was longer than any other drought know to the region. The Colorado River is essential to the American Southwest, draining into about 242,000 square miles of land to include seven U.S. states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. “The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted in a recent report that the Southwestern U.S. Will become hotter and drier as the climate warms.” With human caused climate change and run off reduction, it has been predicted that the Colorado River could become dry by 2012. Discussions in this paper will include a general history and how the American Southwest relies on the Colorado River for survival, how climate change is effecting it, and management efforts to curtail conflicts between vying interests over a shared water source.
Figure 1. Map of the Colorado River
THE COLORADO RIVER
The Colorado River is located in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It is 1,450 miles long with its headwaters in the Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, Colorado. Geologically, the Colorado River begins near Moab, Utah, at the junction of the Green River,which is the primary tributary for the Colorado. (Until 1921, the Colorado River did not “technically” begin until the Grand and Green Rivers joined together in Utah. In that year the Grand River was renamed as the Colorado River, at the request of the State of Colorado.) It then flows south out of Wyoming, and the Grand River, and southwest out of Colorado. Below this point, the river takes on a redd...
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...do River. Bob Ribokas - On-Line Photography Portfolio (BobsPixels.com). Retrieved July 2, 2010, from http://www.bobspixels.com/kaibab.org/misc/gc_coriv.htm
Barnett, T., & Pierce, D. (2009). Sustainable water deliveries from the Colorado River in a changing climate. PNAS, 106(18). Retrieved June 23, 2010, from http://www.pnas.org/content/106/18/7334.full?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&andorexacttitle=and&andorexacttitleabs=and&fulltext=colorado+river+depletion&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT
Clow, D. (2009). American Geophysical Union journal, Water Resources Research. Journal of Climate, 23. Retrieved June 24, 2010, from http://co.water.usgs.gov/publications/non-usgs/Clow2010_SnowmeltTiming.pdf
University of Arizona (2008, August 23). Drier, Warmer Springs In US Southwest Stem From Human-caused Changes In Winds.
The negative aspects of Glen Canyon Dam greatly exceed the positive aspects. The dam’s hydroelectric power supply is only three percent of the total power used by the six states that are served by the facility. There is a surplus of power on the Colorado Plateau and with more and more power-plants being created in the western hemisphere, Glen Canyon Dam’s power is not needed (Living Rivers: What about the hydroelectric loss). Although the ‘lake’ contains twenty seven million acre feet of water, one and a half million acre feet of water are lost yearly due to evaporation and seepage into the sandstone banks surrounding the ‘lake’ (Living Rivers: What about the water supply?). The loss of that much “water represents millions, even billions of dollars” (Farmer 183). If the government were to employ more water efficient irrigation practices, as much as five million acre feet of water per year could be saved.
The one feature common to the Hoover Dam, The Mississippi river and the three gorges dam is that they all tried to control nature’s swings, specifically in the form of flooding. Before the Hoover dam was built, the Colorado river “used to flood spectacularly…but after 1900 the Colorado provoked a vehement response” (Pg 177). The response was simple, but large. The U.S. built several large dams, including the Hoover dam, on the Colorado to decrease its flooding and increase power and irrigation. Unfortunately, just as human control of the Colorado’s flooding increased, its organisms and habitats were detrimentally influenced, and the water became more and more salinated.
...ric Science (2010). A summary of the hydrologic cycle. Retrieved from http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/hyd/smry.rxml. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Droughts in Wyoming’s future are unpredictable and uncertain; however, Richard Guldin of the Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station in Fort Collins, Colorado, has made some predictions for the water situati...
In August 1926, heavy rainstorms began to swell the streams in eastern Kansas, northwestern Iowa, and part of Illinois, which fed into the Mississippi River. In December of 1926, heavy rains filled the Arkansas and Red rivers. During that fall, record breaking amounts of rain continued to fall throughout the Mississippi River valley. By the end of January, the major feeding river, the Ohio River, was overflowing its banks. The Mississippi River swelled to 80 miles
The prospect of Lake Mead’s water level returning to the fullness of the past would be a desirable outlook. As stated, “Snowpack in southern and eastern Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada is still far below normal” (Berwyn, B., 2014, para. 3). The very dry conditions in New Mexico, Arizona, and Southern Nevada muc...
Conflict between residents in northern Nevada and SNWA has risen (Brean, 2015). In 2012 the U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced its support of SNWA wanting to build a pipeline from rural Nevada to Las Vegas, rural Nevada being primarily in the northern portion of the state (Larsen et al., 2015). Residents including farmers who depend on water for their crops argue that redirecting water supplies would harm the environment and wildlife that inhabit northern Nevada (Brean, 2015). There is also an issue of oversubscription, this is due to the Colorado River not only supplying water to Nevada but neighboring states which include “Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah” (Wockner, 2014). Both Arizona and California are expecting water shortages in the future as they too depend on the Colorado River (Wockner, 2014).
Water has long been a controversy in countless places worldwide and Colorado is no exception. The water rights in Colorado involve different stages within the Prior Appropriation Law; the senior and junior water rights. Senior water rights are privileges that were the first to be issued on unappropriated streams in Colorado and are to be filled before the junior water right holders. Junior water rights are similar to senior water rights, but are filled after the senior water holders take their allotted amount (Wolfe Prior Appropriation Law). The water in Colorado is just that; Colorado’s water, owned by the people and restricted by the state. However, Colorado is required by law to send over 30 million acre – feet of water to seven western states (“Missouri River”). An acre – foot is “The quantity of water required to fill one acre with one foot of water and is equivalent to 43,560 cubic feet or 325,850 gallons” (“Missouri River”). The State enforces all water laws in Colorado even though they are not straightforward and are riddled with loopholes. These water laws came into effect “As early as 1879” (Hundley, Jr. 53). In the laws, there are even more constraints and idiosyncrasies including; owning ground water, owning surface water, senior rights and junior rights, and the use and reuse of rainwater or graywater. Water users in Colorado need to familiarize themselves with the laws and regulations involving water in order to receive the allotted water and the reasoning behind that number.
With the changes coming from global warming and increased greenhouse gasses, there will be many impacts to Texas over the coming decades. One of these impacts is the effect on our water resources. Texas’ main source of fresh water is precipitation, coming almost completely from rainfall. With temperatures rising and with an expectation that precipitation levels will most likely drop in coming years, this combination will put great stress on our water reservoirs. If we continue our current usage rates of water and if recent climate changes continue to persist then we will see a huge decrease in our water reservoirs. Also, given that we are in a drought, it appears that conditions are getting worse every year, posing a serious problem for the future if this issue is not addressed now.
The Colorado River is formed by small streams created by a huge amount of snowmelt from the Rocky Mountains. The ecology and flow of the river varies highly by region. The river is divided into two different regions, the Upper Basin and the Lower Basin. Beginning in the early 1900s, western states began to build dams in the Colorado river, diverting the water flow to fast growing cities like Los Angeles, San Diego, and Phoenix. The river now services over 30 million in the southwestern parts of the United States and Mexico (Patrick 1). Diverting the water of the nation’s seventh-longest river may be seen has a great accomplishment, however to others this is a great crime against nature. Over the past couple years the river has been running significantly low, since a drought has come up the southwest. At the lakes edge, “bathtub rings”, lines in the rock walls, can be seen showing the decrease in water level. It is recorded in some areas of the river that the water has lowered 130 feet since 2000. Some water resource officials say those areas will never be filled back to normal. The surrounding states must adjust to living with less water or further actions need to be taken to save the river’s water. There has been some talk about adding water to the river to replenish the river but nothing has hap...
Endangered Plants and Animals of Oregon, by the Agriculture Experiment Station at Oregon State University.
One of the largest geographic physical structures in the United States is the Colorado River. Human activity and its interaction with this great river have an interesting history. The resources provided by the river have been used by humans, and caused conflict for human populations as well. One of these conflicts is water distribution, and the effects drought conditions have played in this distribution throughout the southwestern region. Major cities such as Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, and other communities in the southwest depend on the river. It provides water for over 20 million people, irrigation for 2 million acres of land, four thousand megawatts of hydroelectric energy, and over twenty million annual visitors for recreation purposes. Also, once in Mexico, the river provides water to irrigate half a million acres of farmland, and municipal and industrial water for 2 million people living in this delta region. The river distributes its flow from lakes and canals along its journey as well. Due to climate change, human demand, natural forces like evaporation and human-induced climate change this water supply is in conflict. Also, a recent change that began in March of 2014 will bring a temporary water surge to the delta of the Colorado River for the first time in many years to help restore this region, and it’s possible it could reach the Sea of Cortez once again.
Americans today tend to believe that the Colorado River drought has been a recent occurrence, although drought relief strategies have been implemented since early 1997. To summarize, in the book The Colorado River Basin Drought Planning and Organizations, Colorado is named as the original state to acquire a drought relief plan. For instance, various assume water levels are diminutive in the Colorado and blame is due to the previous ten years of drought throughout the United States. Although it is true that water levels are at a record low, initial plans in the early 1920’s to introduce manufactured structures into the water basin is the original reason Colorado’s water system began to be compromised. It follows, then the supplementary natural
I had the pleasure of kayaking about fifteen miles of the Arkansas river, in Colorado, this summer. Flowing from its headwaters near Buena Vista, the Arkansas is a virgin river. Only a trickle during the winter, "The Ark," is reborn every spring with the life bearing waters of fresh mountain snow melt. The greening of river valleys throughout Colorado occurs during the month of June, and traveling from the east I realized how vital the snowmelt waters are to life in the western United States. Without water, something which we take for granted even in brutal summers, life in the west is a struggle.
Water is essential for humanity’s survival, and even though the world is largely covered by water, only a small percentage is only usable for human consumption. Approximately, on average, 120,000 gallons of water are used annually for a single-family household (Galbraith). This alarming number could be reduced dramatically for the efforts of water conserving and lower water bill prices for families and subsequently saving money that could be used for other expenses. Thus, conserving water would prove beneficial and advantageous to not just Texas, but for everyone else as well. Although environmental policies have been not as popular with Congress and the state legislature, it is still an important problem to consider since there are only a limited amount of resources for public use, such as water.