I might be wrong; but I think @bobot was being sarcastic.
It is. There’s less snowpack every year, which is less water in reserve for everyone that relies on it.
Remember that agriculture uses the lion’s share of water out west. “People”, meaning cities, used far less, even the golf courses in Scottsdale use less than ag. A modest reduction in agriculture in some of the thirstiest crops would go a long way to easing the water crunch. Some orchards have already been removed to make way for more water-friendly crops.
It would be infinitely less costly to simply buy-out some acreage of tree nuts and cotton which is grown where it should not be and return it to nature - just pay the owners enuf to retire - than to invest in massive amounts of public infrastructure to supply the water they need to be privately profitable. The Almond Board WILL oppose that approach.
I don’t believe there is any technological impediment that makes renegotiating an agreement impossible.
You mean to say it is inevitable?
People flocked to the area, and the plumbing to get water to them was doubled. So, more people flocked.
Is drinking water taken from the reservoir, or the river below, after it has been used to generate electricity?
I think we’d better begin building a lot of sma;; molten salt reactors. Molten Salt Reactors - World Nuclear Association
LOL, I meant the literal pumping of water from the Great Lakes via pipeline to the American desert/SW. And I suppose it isn’t impossible impossible technologically, just utterly loony and impractical and as someone else mentioned, also a waste of expenditure and energy for no net benefit vis a vis relocation.
I guess it depends on how much sheer reckless stupidity one is willing to ascribe to Republicans. I realize the bar is pretty low in this respect, but – call me an optimist – they’ve had control of the nuclear button and haven’t blown up the world yet, so maybe there’s hope.
This is the end of all theoretically possible worlds, even when expanding search space to the Rayo’s Number factorial most plausible worldlines.
As evidenced by the previous post, when Lake Mead drops below a certain level, the drugs will start to kick in.
In the vicinity where I live, there are more almond orchards than people, it seems. Almond orchards as far as the eye can see, from horizon to horizon. And more getting planted all the time. This is “one tree, one vote” territory.
After the water has been stripped of all its electrons to make electricity, it has very little residual nutritional value. Around here, we have to buy these little packets of dehydrated electrons to add back to the water just to make it drinkable.
The Almond Board is probably a force to be reckoned with in California and a big “Who now?” in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana (to name the most likely spots for a pipeline to originate).
Re the Lake Mead water level, couldnt they just add some fill to the lake to raise the water level?
Even though I’ve toured the dam twice, I dont know where the water enters to generate the electricity. Do the intakes need 1050 ft of water above them to create needed pressure, or is it only necessary that the water level on the downstream side of the dam be 1050 lower than the top?
The key difference is, there’s no way to make money by nuking the world. There’s lots of ways to make money using ridiculous schemes to prop up unsustainable agricultural practices and lifestyles.
If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that there’s a lot of people in the US who are willing to accept death and destruction rather than curtail their moneymaking activities even a little bit. I can’t imagine that will get better any time soon.
The first option: if the water level drops below 1050 feet there is insufficient water pressure to move the turbines.
Resumption of the California Arizona war.
THis is why each state gets exactly two votes in the senate.
Everybody upstream is facing the same issue. There’s just no extra water right now. Lake Powell, which is upstream of Lake Mead (on the Arizona/Utah border) is also at risk of losing power generation–reservoirs upstream of that were forced to release water just to protect the Lake Powell generators.
True. There’s more states adjacent to the Great Lakes than there are states growing almonds. And certainly enough states to throw up lawsuits and generally refuse to cooperate with building a pipeline to effectively scuttle it without their cooperation.
Here’s what I think will happen, in a nutshell: all hell will break loose.
People won’t have power. People and crops and livestock won’t have water. And very, very few will be prepared for it happening.
Longer term, I expect food prices to climb considerably in the coming years and some real estate will lose significant value.
We aren’t going to import water to the Western US because there isn’t any water.
Yes, but you may recall that Trump wondered why. Saner heads (well, somewhat saner) prevailed.