WaterThe American West running low on water
The American West has a drinking problem; on farms and in cities, people who live in that region are guzzling water at an alarming rate; scientists say that to live sustainably, they should use no more than 40 percent of the water from the Colorado River Basin; currently, however, they use 76 percent, nearly double the sustainable benchmark
The American West has a drinking problem. On farms and in cities, people who live in that region are guzzling water at an alarming rate.
Scientists say that to live sustainably, they should use no more than 40 percent of the water from the Colorado River Basin. Currently, however, they use 76 percent, nearly double the sustainable benchmark.
The water supports the populations of California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming, providing for agriculture and cities. With a changing climate and continued population growth, increasing demand for water may make this vital resource increasingly scarce.
An Arizona State University release reports that there are some safeguards in place against water scarcity. The reservoir Lakes Mead and Powell can provide approximately five years of average annual stream flow at full capacity for insurance against low rainfall years.
John Sabo, an associate professor in Arizona State University’s School of Life Sciences, believes, however, that fifty years in the future, rather than five, should be the planning mark for water usage.
“My take on that is we’re already beyond the point where we have enough insurance against the bad years, which is why a year and a half ago we started talking about water rationing before it started raining in December,” says Sabo, who is also director of research development in ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability.
After dipping to a record low in 2011, Lake Mead presently sits at below half capacity, and this is with favorable rainfall and snowpack accumulating in the Rocky Mountains, which feed the Colorado.
Also, to the region’s detriment, there is a culture dedicated to creating an oasis in the Southwest’s arid environment. Most of the West’s water falls in the mountains, where it slowly melts. The water is then collected and spread thin across the deserts. Moving water from wet areas to dry areas makes people feel safe, according to Sabo.
“We have lawns, palm trees and lush green parks because we store water from far away to offset the arid reality of the desert,” he says.
Regardless of how much lawns all over the West guzzle, the largest use of water is not in urban areas but in agriculture. Farming uses 77 percent of the water allocated for human use in Arizona, according to the Morrison Institute for Public Policy’s publication “Watering the Sun Corridor.”
For example, Southwestern farms produce approximately 75,000 acres of lettuce annually. As much
