The old western axiom, water is for fighting and whisky is for drinking is coming true…
The federal government announced Tuesday the Colorado River will operate in a Tier 2 shortage condition for the first time starting in January as the West’s historic drought has taken a severe toll on Lake Mead.
Full article, HERE from CNN. And another article, HERE from the WAPO.
The biggest hit will be the Lower Colorado Basin, Region 8, which includes Arizona, a snip of Nevada, Southern California, and Mexico.
Figure 1. Reclamation Regional Boundaries
Reclamation regions within the Department of the Interior’s Unified Regional Boundaries 
Source: Bureau of Reclamation, https://www.usbr.gov/main/offices.html.
Of note, this apparently ONLY applies to Region 8, but Region 7 is also negotiating on getting more water upstream via various means.
There are supposedly ongoing negotiations in Region 8, but according to the above articles, there’s not been ANY progress as nobody wants to give up any more water. Of note, California hasn’t had to give up a drop yet, and the maximum they lose looks like less than 10%, while Arizona will lose over 20%, Nevada will lose about 8%, and Mexico right at 20% (Mexico has been taking it in the shorts since this started).
And if it gets worse, there just won’t BE any water, much less hydro power, etc. As a point of interest, NOAA ‘thinks’ 2023 may be another La Nina year, which would mean the drought will continue…
So even MORE of the ‘breadbasket’ of California will be fallow… Like that is going to end well…
I really don’t want to do interesting times again…
Per Heinlein, Interesting Times sure seems to be the norm.
Entirely unsurprising, California, and California state regulations have long prevented them from properly addressing these matters. I believe it was less than 4 months ago, Huntington Beach rejected Poseidon’s proposed desalination plant which they claimed was good for 50 Million filtered gallons a day.
Their refusal to fix their issues has become bad enough that it’s affecting other states. This needs to end, and probably by force. It’s one thing when California’s issues solely affect California. When they have become a net negative for the health, safety and well-being of surrounding states, they represent a potential threat to the overall well-being of the republic which should not be tolerated.
Exactly.
What would power that desalination plant? Solar would be best.
Agree. California’s water issues are known and leadership has had generations to get out in front of the problem. It’s intentional sabotage at this point.
How much water has been wasted or dumped dowstream to save a frog while the farmers can’t farm, or because of “the climate”, or to just arrogantly dump it because anyone that questions Sacramento will get a tax auditor knocking on the door.
Side question: How do you put Kentucky in Region 1 when the whole state drains towards the Mississippi or Ohio rivers, away from the Atlantic Ocean?
All- Thanks for the comments. Frank- Normally they use facility power because they run 24/7 and have to keep pressure on the systems. I’m not sure solar could do that. Grog- Especially in Kommiefornia! Gerry- No idea, ‘I’ didn’t draw that map, .gov did… LOL
While the California farms are shuttered; and while the Delta smelt (a non-native species) is pandered to; while the population of California has tripled since they built a new reservoir to store water; the rich people along the coast, a desert before water was piped in, haven’t had to change their lifestyles at all. Listen to Victor Davis Hanson, a third or fourth generation farmer in the Central Valley. He has interesting things to say about the situation there.
http://www.bytemuse.com/post/drought-historical-rainfall-california/
interesting graph with a 3 and 5 year rolling average built in. Looks to me like this drought it not unprecedented, but with population increasing, more water is needed and California politicians (starting with Gov Brown in the 70s) haven’t made necessary adjustments.
A good example why a Constitutional Republic is better than a “Democracy”. The 560,000 Colorado residents living West of the Continental Divide, under a “Democracy”, would be forced to give all their water to the population living downstream. Think I’m crazy? In the 1950’s California had officials coming to Colorado trying to force closure of irrigation canals and abrogating individual water rights. Although I was a young boy at the time, I have memories of the outrage of adults. Creditable threats of lethal violence convinced the Cali water Statsi to depart post haste. Seems the local Sheriffs made clear no help from them was available.
The heart of the issue is that when the Hoover (nee Black Canyon) dam was being proposed, water allocations were negotiated based on a historically high water year flow. At that time None of the agreement states, California, Arizona, and Nevada, were populous enough to utilize their full allocation. As Southern California grew in both agriculture and population, especially during the WWII, California needs more and more water. Arizona and Nevada were not using their full allocation and were happy to sell their surplus to California. As time goes on AZ and NV are using more and more water, and AZ builds the Central Arizona Project to fully utilize their allocation of Colorado River water.
Now the fallacy of the original allocations based on high water flows rears its ugly head. With everyone using their full allocation, the normal river flow can’t keep up with demand, and Lake Meade levels begins dropping, throw in a few drought years and there isn’t enough water to go around. Cali now has the population to demand a lion’s share of what water is available, and refuses to consider desalinization for reasons, despite having access to the Pacific Ocean via the longest coastline on the Pacific coast. Mexico was always an afterthought on Colorado River allocations.
I have to laugh when Cali politicos talk about seceding and being the fifth largest economy in the world. A country that can’t or won’t provide enough electricity and water to supply their population and industries is headed for third world status on the fast track.
Hereso- Excellent points! And you have to remember, Sacramento and SFO don’t ‘have’ to deal with water issues, they have all they can use!
WSF- I think they need to pull out those ‘contingency plans’ again. They’re going to need them!
NRW- Good points all. Let them secede… And good riddance. That would completely nullify their ‘access’ to the Colorado river, since it never touches California. 🙂
The location in Huntington Beach is served by a high-pressure gas pipeline. The site used to house 4 steam plants that used sea water for cooling and those pipes were going to be the supply and outfall for the proposed desalination plant. The steam plants are being retired by air-cooled Combined cycle (gas turbine plus steam turbine) plants that are more efficient.
I can see the complex when we walk our dogs, this is a local issue and frustration.
“…would completely nullify their ‘access’ to the Colorado river, since it never touches California.”
Well, not exactly. The border between Arizona and southern California *is* the Colorado River. That’s kind of like saying Ohio never touches the Ohio river.
Rick- Ouch…
Roy- You’re correct, I’m wrong. I’d say they could have what is ‘left’ if they want to go down that road! Grrr…
Since California opposes what is right, all they have is left.
TOS- Yep!
Yep. Droughts are cyclic. California refused to prepare. So now, Tough!
The only taxes I have ever voted for here in CA was for water system improvements. All of them. None passed that I can remember. But people sure have voted for a bunch of other taxes, and none of them did anything useful! Idiots!
A question that needs to be asked as well: what is California growing?
‘Cause it ain’t ‘low water needs’ crops.