Lake Powell [photos], and thoughts on Salon piece about the arid American West

Sometimes you find an article about a subject that's near and dear to your heart. Of course you read it, not too convinced the writer will do it justice. But occasionally, you are treated to a wonderfully pleasant surprise, and you find they have said it as well, or perhaps even better, than you could have yourself. 

Lake Powell from the southern (Arizona) side, a ridiculous, artificial oasis,
 replete with its own desert marina. Photo: Kade BP Hutchinson.

Salon currently has such a piece about water resources in the West, "Say Goodbye to Phoenix -- and the American West" by William deBuys of TomDispatch.com. It is a must-read if you live in the American West. Having worked as a hydrogeologist at the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) with many folks dedicated to coping with the issues surrounding Colorado River water allotments, law, and "drought planning," I can tell you firsthand that that this piece is spot-on, and in no way sensationalist. I would just have retweeted the story with lots of kudos and exclamation marks, but I want to elaborate on a couple of Mr. duBuys points, and add a couple of my own.

The governments of the cities and states of the American West, like basically all their counterparts around the country, are in a desperate arms race for economic prosperity, working day and night to entice larger and larger tax bases -- more people, more industry, more tourists, more everything. They are not trying to be evil; they're trying to provide services, cope with one crisis after another, improve quality of life, help the homeless ... in short, doing their jobs, trying to be good people.

Lake Powell, Arizona. Photo: Kade BP Hutchinson.

But to make it all happen, they need more water. Problem is, there isn't any more. There's less -- a lot less. Even without global climate change, there would have been less. What I'm afraid most of the public doesn't realize is that all the predictions, then decisions, and then planning that these types of governments do are still in large part based on the "historic record" of our climate since regular climate record-keeping began in the US in the 1800s. Unfortunately, scientists have discovered in the last few years that this timeframe was a very, very wet anomaly. The ever-lengthening, ever-broadening droughts of the 20th Century have continued their advance into the 21st, and all our well-laid plans still consider the droughts to be the anomaly, and assume that precipitation will eventually return to "normal." 

The Salt River of Central Arizona, which supplies
much of metro Phoenix's water needs, hasn't flowed 
naturally in its riverbed through the city
 in decades.

We now know the drier climate is the norm, and that global climate change is going to make it much, much worse. But the cities and states of the West can't really face up to it. How could they? The only real solution would be to say "Uh, hey ... so we're out of water. No room for you. No more people, no new businesses. Sorry, we're closed." If that dirty little secret became general knowledge, it would be economically disastrous even in the short term, so it's kept locked up tight. Instead, they are digging in, fielding armies of lawyers, engineers, and water plunderers, and the natural balance or consequences be damned.

True, some locales are better than others. Arizona was the first to get a Groundwater Management Act on the books to create a legal framework for trying to "sustainably manage" "safe yields" of water resources. But the Act, through the Department of Water Resources, never had a whole lot in the way of teeth, and the state's current bumbling administration has done all it can to gut the Act and its regulatory agency. The powerful farming and industrial lobbies hold so much sway over states like California and Arizona that true "safe yield" "sustainable management" is entirely for show. And let's not even start on Las Vegas. The Southern Nevada Water Authority which manages that city's supplies has been aggressively trying to buy, beg, borrow, or steal (i.e., litigate) water from any aquifer they can get their claws into within hundreds of miles, including some in both Utah and Arizona.

Tempe Town Lake in Tempe, Arizona.
Photo: Kade BP Hutchinson.

Perhaps engineered solutions like desalination will be able to help some, but even if they do, the cost of water -- now artificially priced so cheaply as to be virtually free -- is going to rise very dramatically in the coming decades. Quirks like Tempe Town Lake are going to prove serious boondoggles. This picturesque lake in Tempe, Arizona (pictured right) is far more artificial than you imagine. Sure, it has a dam on the downstream end, but what's less apparent is its entire bottom is lined with concrete, and needs a dam at the top end also to hold enough water for the effect you see. Even that's insufficient; massive losses through seepage must be combatted by an encircling ring of water injection wells that artificially raise the water table to stop seepage. Over the course of a normal summer, "FakeLake," as local hydrologists call it, loses up to half its depth to evaporation.

Whether they like it or not, there is a terribly high probability that many Western cities will begin to wither as climate change sets in for real. Situations like California's current "drought" are going to become the norm, and water resource planning will have to move from "drought planning" to "climate change adaptation."

Please do head over to Salon for more from William deBuys.

Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Chinle, Arizona. Photo: Kade BP Hutchinson.