Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter
Fire, Water and Political Leadership in the West
By Joan McCarter, 10-24-07
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It’s hard not to fall into the land of cliche when contemplating the scope of the disaster engulfing southern California, with more than 600 square miles ablaze, half a million residents forced to flee, and hundreds of homes and businesses destroyed. The Santa Ana winds and the havoc they’ve carried with them provide the starkest reminder since Katrina that nature in its fury is (in the actual meaning of the world) awesome.
But there’s a slower, more insidious and even more inevitable threat than fire Westerners are facing; a challenge inextricably tied to those fires, the conditions that created them, and the destruction wrought. Water, or actually our ever diminishing supply of it. A terrifying article in Sunday’s NY Time’s Magazine lays it out.
Scientists sometimes refer to the effect a hotter world will have on this country’s fresh water as the other water problem, because global warming more commonly evokes the specter of rising oceans submerging our great coastal cities. By comparison, the steady decrease in mountain snowpack — the loss of the deep accumulation of high-altitude winter snow that melts each spring to provide the American West with most of its water — seems to be a more modest worry. But not all researchers agree with this ranking of dangers. Last May, for instance, Steven Chu, a Nobel laureate and the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, one of the United States government’s pre-eminent research facilities, remarked that diminished supplies of fresh water might prove a far more serious problem than slowly rising seas. When I met with Chu last summer in Berkeley, the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, which provides most of the water for Northern California, was at its lowest level in 20 years. Chu noted that even the most optimistic climate models for the second half of this century suggest that 30 to 70 percent of the snowpack will disappear. “There’s a two-thirds chance there will be a disaster,” Chu said, “and that’s in the best scenario.”
In the Southwest this past summer, the outlook was equally sobering. A catastrophic reduction in the flow of the Colorado River — which mostly consists of snowmelt from the Rocky Mountains — has always served as a kind of thought experiment for water engineers, a risk situation from the outer edge of their practical imaginations. Some 30 million people depend on that water. A greatly reduced river would wreak chaos in seven states: Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California. An almost unfathomable legal morass might well result, with farmers suing the federal government; cities suing cities; states suing states; Indian nations suing state officials; and foreign nations (by treaty, Mexico has a small claim on the river) bringing international law to bear on the United States government. In addition, a lesser Colorado River would almost certainly lead to a considerable amount of economic havoc, as the future water supplies for the West’s industries, agriculture and growing municipalities are threatened. As one prominent Western water official described the possible future to me, if some of the Southwest’s largest reservoirs empty out, the region would experience an apocalypse, “an Armageddon.”
It’s a sobering assessment, as is the realization that the complex water agreements governing the Colorado basin region were developed nearly a century ago, based on river flows during a period of particularly high water years. Then there’s the frustrating part, from a public policy perspective:
In the 20th century, for example, all of our great dams and reservoirs were built — “heroic man-over-nature” achievements, in Binney’s words, that control floods, store water for droughts, generate vast amounts of hydroelectric power and enable agriculture to flourish in a region where the low annual rainfall otherwise makes it difficult. And in constructing projects like the Glen Canyon Dam — which backs up water to create Lake Powell, the vast reservoir in Arizona and Utah that feeds Lake Mead — the builders went beyond the needs of the moment. “They gave us about 40 to 50 years of excess capacity,” Binney says. “Now we’ve gotten to the end of that era.” At this point, every available gallon of the Colorado River has been appropriated by farmers, industries and municipalities.
The region was built on that excess capacity, on the assumption that there were no bounds on the carrying capacity of the land; more people, more farms, more industry, and more development. The realities of climate change and the need to develop fossil-fuel alternatives, both in response to climate change and international politics, add to the complexity of the problem. It takes water to produce many alternative forms of energy (ethanol, coal, nuclear).
We’re not completely doomed, as the article points out. It features and ingenious (and expensive) program being developed by the city of Aurora, CO to create a closed-loop recirculation system from the South Platte. It also details some, again very expensive, efforts by the city of Las Vegas (a city that probably wouldn’t exist in a rational world) that even include transport of desalinized water from the Pacific. It also included some strict conservation. Pat Mulroy, southern Nevada’s water maven puts it succinctly: “The people who move to the West today need to realize they’re moving into a desert,” Mulroy said. “If they want to live in a desert, they have to adapt to a desert lifestyle.”
That hard-headed view has to extend beyond the people moving into the region and sink in for those of us who’ve called it home for years, decades, and generations. And it has to sink in for our political leaders, who are notoriously averse to delivering bad news to constituents. Unfortunately, this isn’t a problem that can just be passed off to the next guy.
The history of water use in the West, like so much else of its natural resources, is a prime example of the short-sighted but big thinking American ingenuity that at once made us the greatest power in the post-war world all the while setting us up for a hard fall. Let’s hope that our current and future political leaders, public officials, and even plain old citizens (water users all, to the tune of about 140 gallons per day) have enough ingenuity, not to mention the ability to think beyond a generation or two, to lead on the issue. A good start would be us demanding they do so.
Editor’s note: Joan McCarter’s weekly blogs are part of a new feature on NewWest.Net/Politics called “Diary of a Mad Voter,” a group blog, published in partnership with the Denver Post’s Politics West intended give a glimpse into the hearts and minds of several independent-minded voters and thinkers in the Rocky Mountain West in the ‘08 election cycle. Check back this week at www.newwest.net/madvoter.
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it seems to me that the water use priorities are out of whack. a lot of western water is spent on agricultural use that is woefully innefficient. consider the widespread water consumption associated with livestock production to capture that next cut ~ especially given the increasing cost of feed. them of course, you've got places like phoenix with their race-to-the-bottom approach to water use including the innappropriate ag outside of the city and peppering of golf coarses throughout the sprawl...
If these terrifying scenarios are true, is there any hope that there will be a political concensus to start dealing with these issues? In a world where millions are so detached from reality that they believe all environmental issues are part of a great liberal plot aganist the free market system, what hope is there? What hope is there, when millions believe that 9/11 was a "government" plot. What hope is there when millions continue to increase their use of gasoline in such pointless forms of recreation as ORV's, snowmobiles, car & drag racing & such. And the list is endless.
No one is willing to sacrifice: it is Un-American. It is Un-American to believe that there are limits to the "perpetual growth machine".
Yes, as we became the "breadbasket to the world" by swamping other countries with cheap grain and corn, we've depleted our soil and our water. Good going. It's time for us to stop all this bowing down to the gospel of greed. It's time for us to take a good hard look at the failed economic policies of Uncle Miltie Friedman and his Chicago Boys. Ruining economies of other nations has now come back to haunt us. Congress is about to pass all kinds of lousy trade agreements. We are about to put millions of Peruvian farmers out of business.
Take a long hard look at the people running for president. Which one gets the big picture? John Edwards won the endorsement of the Friends of the Earth Action and today released his Hunter's and Fishing Bills of Rights and Responsibilities. Notice that he added "responsibilities". That's what freedom meant to our founders. Not I've got mine, you get yours. Not rugged individualism. Not self-interest trumps everything. No, it meant that with the radical concept of liberalism which divided up power amongst the people rather than the old divide and conquer, gave rights to its citizens and not privileges handed down from a feudal lord or a king.
"It's time to become patriotic about something other than war, " he said. That should be a rallying cry for here in the West.
And water is a good place to start. But we need to look at why our lack of water is not bigger news. Could it be money in politics? Could it be Archer Daniels Midland, Monsanto, Tyson and the rest? Who gets money from these folks?
Right on, Monty. Since King George I declared "the American way of life is not negotiable," we have grown even more defensive of that illusion. Ironically, conservation is now an utterly un-"conservative" concept. It will take more natural events like wildfires, floods, heat waves, droughts, etc. for us to realize that our "disasters" are merely us getting in the way of normal Earthly occurances. Sacrifice is crucial to survival. Unlimited "growth," as determined in current economic terms, is an unsustainable practice that will lead to a Day of Reckoning. It's a matter of when- not if. Perhaps, this is it.
Comment By Milton, 10-24-07While agriculture and power generation are big problems compost toilets and waterless urinals could save 3 billion gallons a day nationally with little or no noticeable sacrifice.
Comment By schreinervideo, 10-24-07Our environmental crisis is due to a lack of imagination and politics. Why would any so-called "conservative" advocate monopolized, centralized, and potentially terrorized power systems i.e. coal, hydro instead of distributive, safe, clean and secure power systems like solar, geothermal and other renewables/sustainables? I do see more waterless urinals these days but here in Salt Lake City, it may take an ordinance to allow compost toilets.
Comment By Milton, 10-24-07Some interesting laws to think about. In Colorado it is against the law to put in a cistern as it is deemed to reduce the water runoff into rivers thereby stealing from water rights to the river. In New Mexico you are allowed to put in a cistern. Where i live in Montana the water running off from my roof would never make it to the river anyway. I put up several water barrels just in case it comes to a fight some day I want to be grandfathered in.
Comment By Inky, 10-24-07If you want to see the logical consequences of current water and growth policies, read Ed Abbey's "Good News" for a vision of what a post-great drought, post-Peak Oil society looks like.
Very scary.
If you'd like to understand western water politics, read "Cadillac Desert" by the late Marc Reisner. The limits and potential curse of irrigation can best be understood via "Pillar of Sand" by Sandra Postel, who notes that with the exception of the River Nile civilizations, all irrigation-based societies have poisoned themselves with salt.
"Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy" and edited by George Wuerthner, taps 25 leading thinkers in the field of fire ecology to help the reader understand how we might live with fire.
Factor in Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" and it become obvious that the status quo just isn't going to work any more -- contrary to the wishes of conservatives.
We need to move away from a cowboy/cornucopia economy typified by Reagan/Watt/Norton/Bush to a Spaceship Earth economy that works with and not against nature and a for sustainable use of natural resources.
Building homes in the "stupid zone" of flood plains, forests, avalanche paths, unstable slopes and woody brush because it is "pretty" is just plain foolish. One of these days the insurance companies will get tired (or broke) of paying out for huge disasters like Katrina or the California Santa Ana fires, and homeowners will have to build smarter or not at all.
Great book list, Inky. Here in Salt Lake, the development of the Oquirrhs west of town and south toward American Fork is in full swing. After last summer's fires, you'd think people would think twice about the wisdom of building right next to a national forest. As I learned living in Colorado in the 1980s, people actually EXPECT the Forest Service to protect these homes from fire. And sure enough, that's where nearly all of the USFS's budget is going now: to fight fires to protect the homes of people who built in the "stupid zone." I'd rather have my tax dollars going toward saving the parks, not saving the homes that are ruining the parks.
Comment By Greg Cohn, 10-24-07i just read this in the nytimes online, was suitably horrified, and thought, I wonder if New West is covering this. Glad to see you are!
Comment By Milton, 10-24-07Even the Nile since the Aswan dam is starting to salt up. It worked when they were flooded with enough water every year to wash the salt out to sea. Now many irrigation projects are poisoned by pesticides and fertilizers as much as salt. Near me the local folks are poisoning their own wells with the water that soaks down from their irrigation. The biggest reservoirs are the glaciers and snowfields and we know what is happening to them. Also great reading list.
Comment By Marion, 10-24-07I think folks are missing the obvious, first of all, those are not your little development 1000 sf houses, they are huge monuments of wood. Anyone want to make a guess as to the percentage of those homes that have manicured lawns and swimming pools full of water? Great use of water in the desert, filling pools to evaporate into the air!
Somebody better start conserving water, I have felt for some years that was the big problem. There are more people all of the time, all using huge amounts of water every day, building ever bigger houses and big pools.
Then for some reason they seem to think all of the dried weeds around are beautiful to look at.
And in the midst of this, Utah is now planning 2 nuclear plants on the Colorado and a tributary. A minor mishap and kiss the west's water goodbye. Local politicians stand to profit enormously from this deal.
http://origin.sltrib.com/ci_7275094
The proposed site (Emery County) is also seismologically unstable and the same region where the Crandall Canyon mine disaster took place this summer. I'm not totally anti-nuclear. But the current proposal stinks.
Comment By sweed7, 10-25-07I read carefully every word. They all address the symptoms not the cause. China tried to address the cause with their one child per mother laws. Our laws promote mothers having many babies to increase their government payments. We must rely on foreign labor because we cannot raise our own labor supply. It takes 20 to 25 years to raise an educated worker and our crop failure rate is huge. Too many won't or don't know how to work. We import legal and illegal aliens all ready to work. There are many more examples. Our economy and way of life is ever more dependent on ever growing populations. We must have imported workers to support the retiring baby boomers. Guess why our borders are porous? Even the Congess gets it. (that may be assuming too much)Those who can afford it flee to the West to postpone the inevitable. Water, oil, decreasing wild areas, name it! It's people! People will continue to try to better themselves. Some do it by work. Some by voting to redistribute wealth. Nothing will change until the law of supply and demand changes it! The solutions are ALL Un-American.
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