The Colorado River won’t be able to support the growing population of Western states including California, says a federal study released Wednesday.
The study—conducted by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation over the course of three years—says the river will be an estimated 3.2 million acre-feet short of meeting demand by 2060.
The shortage amount would support roughly 3 million households.
The study—which examines how Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming will be affected—projects that 76.5 million people will rely on the Colorado River Basin by 2060.
Currently, 40 million people benefit from the river.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said stakeholders will need to plan and collaborate to prepare for the change.
“There’s no silver bullet to solve the imbalance between the demand for water and the supply in the Colorado River Basin over the next 50 years—rather, it’s going to take diligent planning and collaboration from all stakeholders to identify and move forward with practical solutions,” he said in a statement.
“Water is the lifeblood of our communities, and this study provides a solid platform to explore actions we can take toward a sustainable water future. While not all of the proposals included in the study are feasible, they underscore the broad interest in finding a comprehensive set of solutions.”
The study—authorized by Congress and jointly funded by the seven basin states—includes more than 150 proposals to solve the supply and demand imbalances. Proposals include increasing water supply through reuse or desalinization methods, and reducing demand through increased conservation and efficiency efforts.
The Colorado River Basin is described as one of the “most critical” sources of water in the western United States.
The river supplies water to irrigate nearly 4 million acres of land, and is also the lifeblood for at least 22 Native American tribes, seven national wildlife refuges, four national recreation areas and 11 national parks, according to the study.
The full report is available at Usbr.gov/lc/region/programs/crbstudy.html
But the latest sustainable water source has taken ten years now and still havent produced a drop of drinkable water, It is a proven source in fact we used to have a small one here, But the military took it to Diego Garcia. With the obstructionist law suite's and delaying tactics by the enviormentalists the project has been delayed ten thats 10 YEARS. We need to start building now or there will soon come a time we all are on water rationing. We have chosen to live in the desert where fresh water is almost non existant and we are going to loose part of our old allotment of the ColoradoRiver water we have been getting. It is imperiative that we start the process of building more De-salinization Plant's so we don't wake up some morning and the shower don't work.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/nov/20/under-new-agreement-mexico-store-water-lake-mead/
So what's your problem ?
we do not need another $100,000 study done on pedestrian lighting...a 6th grader could explain to them that the lights don't shine of the ground because they are 24' in the air... we need the original contract for 'pedestrian lighting' honored...simple as that...not one more penny should come from the people's pocket... the people should be provided pedestrian lighting and reimbursed for the wasted money for the added 10' per pole, plus the costs of the added wiring per 33 poles - 330' of wiring wasted ..
when i was a kid it used to rain 3 times during the summer...the basement at our ranch in northern cali would flood in the winter...but it stopped flooding in the 70's... ...in the 80's the kingfish had to dig a deeper well because the water table had dropped so low... there's thousands of acres of farmland that are left untouched because the farmers can't afford the water...or it's more profitable for them to sell their water to l.a. and get government subsidies for unused farmland ...
the water treatement plant in fountain valley puts out water so pure that minerals have to be added to give it enough specific gravity to travel through pipes.. it's then pumped into the orange county aquifer and blended with aquifer water..then from there into the regular water system..they use the same purification systrem that's planned for the carlsbad desalination plant.. there's NO connection with the ICLEI..except in the fevered brfains of you people who ought to wearing lead foil hats and looking for unmarked black helicopters carrying danish troops..or is it norwegian?..can't keep that quite straight.. doug