unlimited it's the water, stupid

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PART I: COLORADO SQUEEZES WATER FROM URBAN LANDSCAPES, AN OVERVIEW

This is the first of a five-part series by Allen Best, documenting the changing attitudes about water and urban landscapes in the state of Colorado. The series began this week as a collaboration between Big Pivots and Aspen Journalism and as a collaborating news media we have permission to reproduce the series here. Best writes a column that appears periodically in Ark Valley Voice.

Pace of transition has accelerated, deepened, and broadened

Like weekly haircuts for men, a regularly mowed lawn of Kentucky bluegrass was long a prerequisite for civic respectability in Colorado's towns and cities. That expectation has begun shifting.

A growing cultural norm blesses a broader range of respectable landscapes, which require not much more water than what occurs naturally across most of Colorado. Denver, for example, averages 15.6 inches annually.

Native grasses, most prominently buffalo and blue grama, need half to one-third as much of the supplemental water a year required to keep Kentucky bluegrass — a species native to Europe — bright green. In metro Denver, for example,  Westminster and Broomfield estimate that these cool-season grasses require 24 to 29 inches of supplemental water annually in addition to the 15 to 16 inches of average precipitation.  Other water-wise landscape choices can also ratchet down water requirements by at least half.

Many homeowners have the additional goal of installing shrubs, flowers and other plants that attract pollinators.

https://arkvalleyvoice.com/part-i-colorado-squeezes-water-from-urban-landscapes-an-overview/


PART II: AT COLORADO RIVER'S HEADWATERS, QUESTIONS ABOUT WHETHER THERE'S ENOUGH WATER FOR LAWNS

If you've ever slipped and spun your way across Vail Pass through a wet, heavy snowstorm, you can be excused for wondering how Eagle River Valley communities could ever have too little water.

Vail and its neighbors do have that problem, though. It has become evident in the growing frequency of drought years in the 21st century.

First came 2002. Water officials, verging on panic, restricted outdoor water use. The drought was believed to be the most severe in 500 years. Fine, thought water officials as rain and snow resumed, we're off the hook for at least our lifetimes.

In 2012 came another drought, one nearly identical in severity. More bad years followed in 2018 and 2021. The Eagle River normally chatters its way down the valley through Avon and to a confluence with the Colorado River near Glenwood Canyon. In those bad drought years, it sulked. The shallow water was hot enough to endanger fish.

Colorado River flows have declined 20 percent since 2000. Having water rights is not enough. And the future looks even hotter and, because of that heat, drier. Brad Udall, a senior scientist and scholar at Colorado State University, warns of up to 20 percent additional flow loss by midcentury.

Average temperatures in the Colorado River Basin are projected by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to rise 5 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit during the 21st century. The agency projects slightly greater increases in Colorado and other upper basin states.

https://arkvalleyvoice.com/part-ii-at-colorado-rivers-headwaters-questions-about-whether-theres-enough-water-for-lawns/

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Drought Touches a Quarter of Humanity, U.N. Says, Disrupting Lives Globally


The crisis, worsened partly by climate change, has been accompanied by soaring food prices and could have consequences for hunger, elections and migration worldwide.

Pandemic. War. Now drought.

Olive groves have shriveled in Tunisia. The Brazilian Amazon faces its driest season in a century. Wheat fields have been decimated in Syria and Iraq, pushing millions more into hunger after years of conflict. The Panama Canal, a vital trade artery, doesn't have enough water, which means fewer ships can pass through. And the fear of drought has prompted India, the world's biggest rice exporter, to restrict the export of most rice varieties.

The United Nations estimates that 1.84 billion people worldwide, or nearly a quarter of humanity, were living under drought in 2022 and 2023, the vast majority in low- and middle-income countries. "Droughts operate in silence, often going unnoticed and failing to provoke an immediate public and political response," wrote Ibrahim Thiaw, head of the United Nations agency that issued the estimates late last year, in his foreword to the report.

 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/11/climate/global-drought-food-hunger.html?unlocked_article_code=1.NE0.VYnv.u8P0BRACQ1nu&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

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America's $232 billion lithium industry could drain billions of gallons of water from Colorado River and residential wells because Civil War-era law doesn't limit how much mines can use

A team of students at Arizona State University conducted a 'groundbreaking' investigation that found a majority of the operators plan to pull water from already stressed sources like the Colorado River.

Most of the mines, located in the western region, will need billions of gallons of water to operate at a time when the region is experiencing the worst mega-drought in 1,200 years.

The only mine in operation, Silver Peak, has drained four billion gallons of water a year in Nevada since 2020 and scientists determined 'underground water sources are dwindling and even disappearing altogether.'

Over on the east coast in North Carolina is another proposed lithium mine that the students found could cause residential wells to run dry.

https://www.msn.com/en-ae/news/other/america-s-232-billion-lithium-industry-could-drain-billions-of-gallons-of-water-from-colorado-river-and-residential-wells-because-civil-war-era-law-doesn-t-limit-how-much-mines-can-use/ar-BB1hCmgN

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Where does Colorado River water go? Scientists have finally found out

Hay meant to feed farm animals accounts for an overwhelming share of Colorado River water use in the Southwest, scientists have found.

Many Southern Nevadans are all too familiar with the West's water woes. Las Vegas is almost entirely dependent on water from the river-fed Lake Mead, the country's largest reservoir, which has hovered near historic lows as of late.

A new study released Thursday pins down a more definitive assessment of how water from the river is used, confirming suspicions that water scientists have held for decades. Only a fraction of the river's water makes it to what's known as the Colorado River Delta, where it would flow naturally without human intervention.

"We were able to build a much more holistic and complete picture of where all the water goes," said Brian Richter, the study's lead author and president of global water education organization Sustainable Waters. "Irrigated agriculture consumes about three times the volume of all of the cities and industries combined."

https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/local-nevada/where-does-colorado-river-water-go-scientists-have-finally-found-out-3025845/

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