Big water cutbacks ordered amid Colorado River shortage

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At least this article notes that the vast majority of water usage is agriculture. This isn&#x27;t something cities could or should solve by switching to (expensive) desalination to effectively subsidize agriculture. Most notably, alfalfa is mentioned here as farmers are going to have to switch to less water-intensive crops.<p>Decreasing alfalfa production may well impact the ability to feed cattle. In the short term, that&#x27;s actually fine. It may just force more beef production, which will be good for costs (again, in the short term).<p>But this article makes the same mistake so many make: blaming this on climate change. It&#x27;s not. It&#x27;s simply usage. See Figure 2 on page 10 [1]. Additionally, water projections were made at a high point of water inflows that simply haven&#x27;t been realistic since.<p>In short, we&#x27;re using too much water and farming is going to have to take the hit.<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.usbr.gov&#x2F;watersmart&#x2F;bsp&#x2F;docs&#x2F;finalreport&#x2F;ColoradoRiver&#x2F;CRBS_Executive_Summary_FINAL.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.usbr.gov&#x2F;watersmart&#x2F;bsp&#x2F;docs&#x2F;finalreport&#x2F;Colorad...</a>

The answer to this problem lies here: “Entsminger pointed out that roughly 80% of the river’s flow is used for agriculture, and most of that for thirsty crops like alfalfa, which is mainly grown for cattle, both in the U.S. and overseas.”<p>The simple solution would be to raise prices on water such that it disincentivizes growing water hungry crops than alfalfa for example. The west’s water crisis is less about cities than agricultural choices made during the last century, which was wetter than it will be going forward. The obvious answer is to either regulate or incentivize using less water hungry crops more strongly. It would be better if this had started slowly a while ago, allowing the market to adjust and reallocate. Alas, looks like it will have to be an abrupt shift in the near future.

Too bad the California Coastal Commission just denied the permit for a desalinization plant in Huntington Beach at the site of a decommissioned steam plant and reusing some of its infrastructure. It would have provided water to several Southern California cities.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;californiaglobe.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;california-coastal-commission-rejects-huntington-beach-desalination-plant-proposal&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;californiaglobe.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;california-coastal-comm...</a>

&gt; The Colorado River supplies water to nearly 40 million people in cities from Denver to Los Angeles<p>&gt; “We are 150 feet from 25 million Americans losing access to the Colorado River&quot;<p>&gt; roughly 80% of the river’s flow is used for agriculture, and most of that for thirsty crops like alfalfa, which is mainly grown for cattle<p>Somebody needs to wake the people in those cities up. If they don&#x27;t start screaming at their representatives, they won&#x27;t be able to use their faucets, because some cattle farmers don&#x27;t want to import feed. This is ridiculous.<p>But then again, this is America. If 25 million people need to go without water so my burgers will be cheaper, so be it, right?

This is as foretold in Reisner’s classic book on water in the American West - Cadillac Desert.<p>It’s a great place to start if you’re interested in learning more.

As long as we&#x27;re still turning the Arizona desert into an alfalfa field for the Suadis, I won&#x27;t believe that we&#x27;re in a water crisis and certainly won&#x27;t be doing anything that effects my life in any negative way to &quot;remedy&quot; this: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.npr.org&#x2F;sections&#x2F;thesalt&#x2F;2015&#x2F;11&#x2F;02&#x2F;453885642&#x2F;saudi-hay-farm-in-arizona-tests-states-supply-of-groundwater" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.npr.org&#x2F;sections&#x2F;thesalt&#x2F;2015&#x2F;11&#x2F;02&#x2F;453885642&#x2F;sa...</a>

Went kayaking in Lake Powell last year. Locals were saying the lake was down 30 feet (!!) from the past couple of years. I have no idea if that sort of fluctuation is common but that was enough to make me feel very concerned about the water situation in the southwest

How the West was Lost: In America’s first climate war, John Wesley Powell tried to prevent the overdevelopment that led to environmental devastation.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theatlantic.com&#x2F;ideas&#x2F;archive&#x2F;2018&#x2F;09&#x2F;how-the-west-was-lost&#x2F;569365&#x2F;?single_page=true" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theatlantic.com&#x2F;ideas&#x2F;archive&#x2F;2018&#x2F;09&#x2F;how-the-we...</a>

Could we feasibly just run desalination stations from the coasts and pipe the water - like oil - to fill up these reservoirs? Setting cost aside for a second, is there any reason not to do something like this?

It&#x27;s weird how people don&#x27;t want to pay more money for water when we literally can&#x27;t go for more than a few days without drinking it and can&#x27;t grow the food we need without it.

I&#x27;ll be curious to see if this reverses the westward migration in the United States that we&#x27;ve seen over the past 100+ years. Large rust belt and east coast saw stagnant, if not declining, populations as new families moved west for better weather, mountains, cheap land, access to the west coast, ... the Great Lakes, Ohio, Upper Mississippi, and New England (and the Upper Colorado) watersheds are least likely to be impacted by severe droughts. Throw the Mid Atlantic in there, too, despite the increasing risk of severe tropical events.

South Park called it [0]<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;South_Park:_The_Streaming_Wars" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;South_Park:_The_Streaming_Wars</a>

I don’t see anyone mentioning the latest South Park “movie”, but they presented this in a very humorous, yet grim, way.