Reports urge West to make changes to advert water crisis

[flashl]

2 reports urge big changes in water usage in West

The West is big, growing and thirsty.

But the water that sustains it is in shorter supply these days - thanks in part to human influence on the earth's climate - and it's time for a profound shift in how it's managed across the West, according to two papers published Thursday in the professional journal Science.

One says 60 percent of the changes to the West's river flows, snowpacks and warmer winter temperatures over the past 50 years or so are due to human-caused climate change.

Those changes, some of which are already being seen in parts of Montana, are making the West drier and warmer, setting the stage for "a coming crisis in water supply for the western United States," according to the study.

"It paints a pretty bleak picture," said the study's lead author, Tim Barnett of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California-San Diego.

In response, it's time for a fundamental shift in how water is managed, according to a separate policy paper in the journal.

For years, engineers, water managers and others have used data from previous years to estimate future conditions in building reservoirs, planning for droughts and floods and divvying up water for homes, businesses and agricultural operations.

Unchanging patterns of wet and dry cycles can no longer be taken for granted, said the authors, who include Robert Hirsch, the top-ranking hydrologist at the U.S. Geological Survey.

"We're saying that's not going to work anymore," said Dennis Lettenmaier, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Washington and one of the paper's authors.

BillingsGazette

[Auggie]

1. More on California:

San Francisco Chronicle, 2-1-08:

California and Bay Area cities must start planning now for new and costly systems to control increasing runoff from urban storms, springtime floods from swollen rivers and rising sea levels as they invade lowlands, all as a result of global warming, climate scientists and water experts warn.

Climate change, they say, will result in thinner winter snowpacks in the Sierra and other Western mountains. As snowpacks melt earlier each spring, the meltwater will increase river flows and raise new threats of floods. Even a small rise in sea levels could threaten cities and farmland in low-lying areas, like the Delta and Silicon Valley.

New urban systems to handle winter storm runoff, new designs for dams and flood control structures, and higher dikes and levees around lands that even now lie below sea level will be needed, the scientists argue.

link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/01/MNC9UOA3M.DTL&hw=snowpack&sn=002&sc=635

Interesting to point out that even though we have surpassed our yearly rainfall and snowpack averages in Northern California, those are old averages based on serving a population of 20 million people, not 35 million as we have now. The growth in agriculture demands, particulary for fisheries restoration, have placed additional strain on the system.

[flashl]

2. Now that 'we' know there will be a crisis, there appear to be little concern.

Regarding agriculture demands, a recent article where farmers are seeking means to sell their water, will probably bring scrutiny to farmer's allocations.

[Auggie]

3. I saw that article. If local farmers can make more profit

by selling drinking water where's the incentive to grow food? And does that lead to an increase in imported food from places like -- dare I say -- China?

But back to early spring run-off and rising sea water levels. There's a huge disaster waiting to happen in California's Central Valley. Historically, a large part of it is wetlands. Over the years a make-shift series of levees have been built to channel water and open up land to farming, but much has also been opened up to private development, including housing. If those levees fail -- and many are dangerously close to collapsing -- there will be a disaster in California worse than New Orleans.

[NutmegYankee]

4. Check out the 3rd and 4th image.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2008-02/drying-west/laforet-photography.html

[Toots]

5. If we would invest the money being thrown away on Iraq into desalinization projects

Atlanta would not be short of water nor would California..America is getting dumber by the day IMO.

[Auggie]

6. I would suggest not dumber -- greedier

There's more profit to be had in Iraq because there's little to no oversight on things like expenditures and cost overruns. That's what contractors like Halliburton paid for in their support of the BushCo election.