An article in my news feed described the possibility of a first-time official water shortage declaration for the western US. That’s because “man-made lakes that store water supplying millions of people in the U.S. West and Mexico are projected to shrink to historic lows in the coming months.”
Main point: This risk comes as “less snowpack flows into the river and its tributaries, and hotter temperatures parch soil and cause more river water to evaporate as it streams through the drought-plagued American West.”
More about it:
- Part of an ongoing process: “Federal officials regularly issue long-term projections but use those released each August to make decisions about how to allocate river water.”
- Watching for trigger events: “If projections don’t improve by then, the Bureau of Reclamation will declare a Level 1 shortage condition. The cuts would be implemented in January.”
- The study that led to the possibility of a water-shortage declaration “reflects the impacts of the dry and warm conditions across the Colorado River Basin this year, as well as the effects of a prolonged drought that has impacted the Colorado River water supply.”
- This can affect the power grid as well because the “Bureau of Reclamation also projected that Lake Mead will drop to the point they worried in the past could threaten electricity generation at Hoover Dam. The hydropower serves millions of customers in Arizona, California and Nevada.”
Takeaways:
- This has been long expected and monitored.
- The implications go beyond being able to drink a glass of water.
- This issue will not go away anytime soon.