Environment Climate Change Science Water

Shocking Study Results for Colorado River’s Viability

July 25, 2014

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July 25, 2014 – This is not the first time I have written about the future of the Colorado River Basin and it probably won’t be the last. But by then I may be describing the Colorado wadi, a former river.

In the latest study researchers report the Colorado has lost 65 cubic kilometers (2.3 trillion cubic feet) of water since 2004. Much of it has been lost because of groundwater depletion from aquifers in the Basin. A 14-year drought in the American Southwest is to blame.

The groundwater decline is equal to six times the water lost in the Colorado’s two human-made reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell. This puts the freshwater security of the western United States in jeopardy.

If you have visited Lake Mead recently you would note the bathtub ring of calcium that lines the shoreline as the lake level continues to drop by a much as 0.3 meters per week in recent months. As of July 2014 the water level is at its lowest since the Hoover Dam was completed in the 1930s. The picture below was taken in June. The Lake itself is only 39% full and the bathtub ring evident in the picture is almost 40 meters (130 feet) thick. Lake Powell to the north, the smaller of the two reservoirs is at 52% capacity.

This is impacting power generation and in addition has forced the United States to construct an $800 million U.S. tunnel under the Lake to maintain water flow below the dam site. The 2 million people of city of Las Vegas and the 40 million who annually visit are completely dependent on Colorado water. And seven southwestern states and Mexico are equally dependent. The only thing left to do with this depleting resource is to reduce usage and that spells a coming environmental crisis never seen in modern times.

But this region of the planet has seen similar prolonged droughts. Historians point to the Anasazi culture which experienced a similar prolonged drought eventually leading to the collapse of their cliff-based villages and cities by the year 1200 A.D. Although the native Americans of the southwest claim heritage from the Anasazi, know one knows with certainty what happened to this civilization when the water ran out.

And what happens when the Colorado runs out of water? No one has an answer for that either.