NG: Why is America running out of water?

[China]

On 5/4/2022 at 6:40 PM, China said:

Interesting side effect of the drought/low water levels:

 

Body in barrel in Lake Mead was man who had been shot decades ago, Las Vegas police say

 

Las Vegas police believe a body found inside a barrel in the newly exposed bottom of Lake Mead was that of a man who had been shot.

 

Homicide Lt. Ray Spencer also said Tuesday that shoes worn by the man were manufactured in the middle and late 1970s, indicating that the killing likely occurred between the middle 1970s and early 1980s, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

 

Police previously said they thought the remains probably dated from the 1980s.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Sounds like somebody ran afoul of the gangsters that used to run Las Vegas.

 

More human skeletal remains found at Lake Mead one week after a body was found in a barrel

 

The National Park Service reported human skeletal remains discovered in Lake Mead National Recreational Area Saturday afternoon.

 

The National Park Service said rangers received a witness report of human skeletal remains at Callville Bay around 2 p.m. Saturday.

 

Park rangers responded to the call and set a perimeter to recover the remains.

 

The Clark County Medical Examiner has been contacted to determine the cause of death.

 

The discovery of these remains comes almost exactly one week from when a body was found in a barrel at Lake Mead on Sunday afternoon.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Water use in drought-ravaged California went up dramatically in March

 

California’s water use jumped dramatically in March, state officials said Tuesday, as one of the driest stretches on record prompted a wave of homeowners to start watering their lawns earlier than usual in defiance of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s pleas for conservation amid a severe drought.

 

Newsom last summer asked residents to voluntarily cut water use by 15% compared to 2020 as climate change intensified a drought that threatened to drain the state’s reservoirs to dangerously low levels. Water conservation increased gradually through December, aided by some intense fall and early winter storms that reduced water demand.

 

But the first three months of 2022 have been the driest on record. Californians averaged 77 gallons (291.48 liters) per person per day in March, an 18.9% increase from March 2020. It’s the most water Californians have used in March since the middle of the previous drought in 2015. Statewide, water consumption is up just 3.7% since July compared to 2020, woefully short of Newsom’s 15% goal

 

Newsom responded on Tuesday by pledging to spend $100 million on a statewide advertising campaign to encourage water conservation. The campaign will include traditional radio and television spots while also paying people with large followings on social media to urge others to save water. He also promised to spend an $211 million to conserve more water in state government buildings by replacing plumbing fixtures and irrigation controls.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

The numbers show just how devastatingly dry the Western US is right now

 

Across the West, state leaders are bracing against the long-term impacts of aridification. In late April, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown added four additional counties to the ‘drought emergency’ tally — now, half the state is in a state of emergency. Further south, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which gets water to millions of city dwellers, restricted outdoor water use for the first time ever. In Colorado, the U.S. Department of Agriculture designated the entire state a “primary natural disaster area” due to the threat of drought — also considered an ‘unprecedented’ move. The Southwest, as a whole, has been hit hard with dry conditions: Utah and New Mexico both issued separate emergency declarations, one for water scarcity and the other for wildfire. 

 

The political designations unlock resources and expand powers for states and counties to navigate the extreme water scarcity, making available, among other things, relief aid for the agriculture industry. Westerners will undoubtedly need it this summer, and — as the drought likely continues — future summers.

 

Shrinking snowpacks, parched topsoil and depleted reservoirs are symptoms of the West’s longest continuous streak of dry years since 800 A.D. There is also a significant likelihood the streak continues. A study published in Nature Climate Change in February predicted a 94% chance the drought stretches through 2023; the chances of it persisting through 2030 are 75%, when factoring in continued impacts of a warming climate.

 

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, most of the West is in “moderate” to “severe drought.” Certain regions, like eastern and southwestern Oregon, California’s Central Valley, southern Nevada and eastern New Mexico are in “extreme” to “exceptional” drought.  

 

Shrinking snowpacks, parched topsoil and depleted reservoirs are symptoms of the West’s longest continuous streak of dry years since 800 A.D. 

Here are a few numbers and notable coverage to understand how the drought is impacting the West: 

 

THE SOUTHWEST

• Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoirs, are at record lows — 24% full and 31% full, respectively. Powell’s stored supplies have dropped to just about 5 million acre-feet, triggering emergency releases to stymie dropping levels. The lake has a capacity of 26 million acre-feet.
• Cities, from San Diego to Las Vegas, are adapting with programs like “cash-for-grass” and water recycling, according to reporting from Yale Environment 360.
• 98% of the Southwest is in drought this week, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
• According to NASA Earth Observatory, researchers are seeing widespread and severe low-snow and low-runoff conditions across the region. Their modeling indicates snowpack has peaked roughly a month earlier than normal in the Upper Colorado Basin.
•  

THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST

• According to Oregon’s Fifth Climate Assessment, the state’s annual average temperature has warmed by about 2.2˚F per century since 1895. More than a third of the state, on average, has been in drought since the year 2000.
• 58% of Idaho is experiencing moderate to exceptional drought conditions. The state’s water resource department issued an emergency drought declaration in 34 out of its 44 counties in April.
• Glaciers in Washington’s Olympic National Park could be gone by 2070, with permanent impacts on an important source of summer water, according to a new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface. 

CALIFORNIA

• Urban water use in the state rose by nearly 19% in March. 6 million people in Southern California will face outdoor water restrictions for the first time ever this summer, as Metropolitan Water District of Southern California orders outdoor watering once a week in a few densely populated cities.
• Water sold for $2,000 per acre foot for the first time ever.
• In 2021 alone, the ongoing drought cost thousands of jobs and over $1 billion in the San Joaquin Valley; hundreds of wells have gone dry and more are accepted to dry up this year.
• California’s largest reservoirs, Lake Shasta and Lake Oroville, are at ‘critically’ low levels.

 

Edited May 17, 2022 by China

[China]

Solar-powered desalination device wins MIT $100K competition

 

The winner of this year’s MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition is commercializing a new water desalination technology.

 

Nona Desalination says it has developed a device capable of producing enough drinking water for 10 people at half the cost and with 1/10th the power of other water desalination devices. The device is roughly the size and weight of a case of bottled water and is powered by a small solar panel.

 

“Our mission is to make portable desalination sustainable and easy,” said Nona CEO and MIT MBA candidate Bruce Crawford in the winning pitch, delivered to an audience in the Kresge Auditorium and online.

 

The traditional approach for water desalination relies on a power-intensive process called reverse osmosis. In contrast, Nona uses a technology developed in MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics that removes salt and bacteria from seawater using an electrical current.

 

“Because we can do all this at super low pressure, we don’t need the high-pressure pump [used in reverse osmosis], so we don’t need a lot of electricity,” says Crawford, who co-founded the company with MIT Research Scientist Junghyo Yoon. “Our device runs on less power than a cell phone charger.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

 

[China]

 

[China]

Lake Mead nears dead pool status as water levels hit another historic low

 

Lake Mead's water levels this week dropped to historic lows, bringing the nation's largest reservoir less than 150 feet away from "dead pool" — when the reservoir is so low that water cannot flow downstream from the dam.

 

Lake Mead's water level on Wednesday was measured at 1,044.03 feet, its lowest elevation since the lake was filled in the 1930s. If the reservoir dips below 895 feet — a possibility still years away — Lake Mead would reach dead pool, carrying enormous consequences for millions of people across Arizona, California, Nevada and parts of Mexico.

 

"This is deadly serious stuff," said Robert Glennon, an emeritus professor at the University of Arizona who specializes in water law and policy.

 

Persistent drought conditions over the past two decades, exacerbated by climate change and increased water demands across the southwestern United States, have contributed to Lake Mead's depletion. Though the reservoir is at risk of becoming a dead pool, it would most likely take several more years to reach that level, Glennon said.

 

In the meantime, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and water managers across the southwestern United States are making efforts to manage the flow of water into the Colorado River and regulate water use among states in the region. These measures are designed to help replenish Lake Mead, which was created on the Colorado River on the Arizona-Nevada border when the Hoover Dam was built in the early 1930s, and another severely depleted reservoir, Lake Powell, which was created along the border of Utah and Arizona.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

 

[CousinsCowgirl84]

5 minutes ago, China said:

 

Watching this right now on HBO now 👍 

[tshile]

Npr planet money has some good episodes on the subject of farming and wells out west

 

i believe almonds and pistachios are the least effective crop in terms of water used to product produced. They’re also expensive to buy. Yet we love them. So they’d rather dump money into drilling even deeper wells, to use up the water where there is none, to grow them for us. 
 

🤷‍♂️ 

 

We make incredibly dumb decisions on lots of things. 

[China]

4 minutes ago, tshile said:

Npr planet money has some good episodes on the subject of farming and wells out west

 

i believe almonds and pistachios are the least effective crop in terms of water used to product produced. They’re also expensive to buy. Yet we love them. So they’d rather dump money into drilling even deeper wells, to use up the water where there is none, to grow them for us. 
 

🤷‍♂️ 

 

We make incredibly dumb decisions on lots of things. 

 

Well some farmers are being forced to cut back on the number of acres they farm (e.g, as per NPR you mentioned - pulling out many of the almond trees).  And not just with almonds, but with other crops as well.  This will of course reduce supply and drive up prices.

[tshile]

Just now, China said:

 

Well some farmers are being forced to cut back on the number of acres they farm (e.g, as per NPR you mentioned - pulling out many of the almond trees).  And not just with almonds, but with other crops as well.  This will of course reduce supply and drive up prices.

that’s fine. I don’t give a **** what almonds cost. No one needs almonds. Or pistachios. Or anything else really. Almost everything can be substituted

 

except water. 

[China]

Just now, tshile said:

that’s fine. I don’t give a **** what almonds cost. No one needs almonds. Or pistachios. Or anything else really. Almost everything can be substituted

 

except water. 

 

But how am I going to get my almond milk latte?  

[China]

The Water Wars Come to the Suburbs

 

The best gossip you’re likely to hear in Rio Verde Foothills, Arizona, is about water. Last month, when a few residents stopped by Karen Nabity’s sprawling, high-ceilinged home, the talk quickly turned to wells.

 

“My neighbor two lots to the east of me just got done putting in a nine-hundred-and-sixty-foot dry hole,” John Hornewer said.

 

Two women exchanged a horrified look. “How much did they put up, cost-wise?” Leigh Harris asked.

 

“I felt so bad I didn’t even ask,” Hornewer said. “I would venture to say it’s forty thousand dollars on a craps table that just crapped out.”

 

“Same thing with the lot across the street from me,” Cindy Goetz said. “Nine hundred feet, no water. And now the guy starts building.”

 

As the Southwest enters its second decade of megadrought, and the Colorado River sinks to alarmingly low levels, Rio Verde, a largely upscale community that real-estate agents bill as North Scottsdale, though it is a thirty-mile drive from Scottsdale proper, is finding itself on the front lines of the water wars. Some homeowners’ wells are drying up, while others who get water delivered have recently been told that their source will be cut off on January 1st. “It’s going to turn into the Hunger Games,” Harris said grimly. “Like, a scrambling-for-your-toilet-water-every-month kind of thing.” The fight over how best to address the issue is pitting neighbors against one another. “Water politics are bad politics,” Thomas Loquvam, the general counsel and vice-president of epcor, the largest private water utility in the Southwest, told me. “You know that saying, ‘Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting’? That’s very true in Arizona.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Destino]

My wife and I discussed this water situation and here’s what I came up with (fair warning: these aren’t solutions, and I am entirely unqualified to speak on this subject.)

 

1- they will sell us all on the idea that raising the price of water is the only way to make people “value” it properly.  Less waste if it costs money, they’ll say.  Environmentalists will agree as this  is in line with classist modern environmentalists approach to saving the planet.  Which is to say make it so expensive people do it less.  Well off people do not need to change at all, but everyone else does.  Planet saved!  (Only it’s not, they’ve just made life much harder on the people that already had it hard)

 

2- they will avoid the first obvious stumbling block by including, in their plan, sparing the poor and the middle class this sudden new expense by granting them a generous allotment of water for cheap.  It’s only people that use too much that will pay, they will promise us.  What they won’t tell you is that agreeing here ends “water as a human right” and makes water a commodity.

 

3- private business will send their lobbyists to advance their interests and privatize it to a greater extent.  Republicans will agree.  The allotment will shrink, and shrink again, over time.  They’ll blame worsening environment or just go with the ol welfare queen argument “Why should those lazy slobs get their water subsidized… yada yada”. Or both.  We’ve seen it before.  Prices will rise and more will pay them.  Water will become the new gas, with massive unpredictable spikes blamed on random things while water companies make windfall profits.

 

The end
 

 

 

[tshile]

4 hours ago, China said:

My neighbor two lots to the east of me just got done putting in a nine-hundred-and-sixty-foot dry hole,” John Hornewer said.

 

Two women exchanged a horrified look. “How much did they put up, cost-wise?” Leigh Harris asked.

 

“I felt so bad I didn’t even ask,” Hornewer said. “I would venture to say it’s forty thousand dollars on a craps table that just crapped out.”

Based on what I paid 5 years ago to do a well about that deep, I bed it was about 30-35k

[China]

A North Texas community woke up to no water Wednesday morning after supply issues

 

Residents in a Rockwall County city were without water on Wednesday morning.

 

RCH Water Supply, which provides water to residents in McClendon-Chisholm, sent an alert about a water outage.

 

"RCH is experiencing an issue with its water supply," the alert said. "Every effort is being made to resolve the problem as soon as possible."

 

McClendon-Chisholm is a city of about 4,200 residents south of Rockwall. Officials were aware of the outage and working with RCH to resolve the issue, though it remained unclear how many homes were affected.

 

RCH officials said the company purchases a set amount from Rockwall, which sends the water at a set rate per minute. On Wednesday, the amount of water coming from Rockwall was not enough to keep RCH's storage tanks full. When the tanks went dry, RCH shut down the water supply. The tanks were being re-filled at their normal rate Wednesday afternoon.

Several residents in the Austin Corners neighborhood confirmed their water was cut off around 8 a.m.

 

RCH earlier this week had alerted residents about moving to an alternate watering schedule. On Tuesday around 5 p.m., RCH told residents to stop all outside watering "until further notice."

 

On Wednesday morning, the water supply was cut off in the Austin Corners neighborhood, which sits off FM Road 549. It was unclear how widespread the issue was.

Sherry London, a member of the Austin Corners homeowners association, was among the homeowners without water Wednesday. She said she contacted RCH and was told that water was turned off because residents did not conserve enough. 

 

RCH did not give London an estimated time on when water service would be restored, she said.

 

Rockwall officials released a statement to RCH customers saying the city was still pumping 2.1 million gallons of water to RCH on Wednesday "and has NOT cut off supply and its customers."

 

The Rockwall statement said the city has been pumping 2.1 million gallons daily to RCH, "which is well over normal usage levels for a single day."

 

"However, due to excessive outdoor watering, residents' usage levels have exceeded this amount by about 1 million gallons extra per day for the last several weeks," the city said. "RCH Water Supply issued an order yesterday for their residents to end outdoor watering altogether to attempt to stay within contracted levels." 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[The Sisko]

On 7/5/2022 at 11:37 PM, Destino said:

My wife and I discussed this water situation and here’s what I came up with (fair warning: these aren’t solutions, and I am entirely unqualified to speak on this subject.)

 

1- they will sell us all on the idea that raising the price of water is the only way to make people “value” it properly.  Less waste if it costs money, they’ll say.  Environmentalists will agree as this  is in line with classist modern environmentalists approach to saving the planet.  Which is to say make it so expensive people do it less.  Well off people do not need to change at all, but everyone else does.  Planet saved!  (Only it’s not, they’ve just made life much harder on the people that already had it hard)

 

2- they will avoid the first obvious stumbling block by including, in their plan, sparing the poor and the middle class this sudden new expense by granting them a generous allotment of water for cheap.  It’s only people that use too much that will pay, they will promise us.  What they won’t tell you is that agreeing here ends “water as a human right” and makes water a commodity.

 

3- private business will send their lobbyists to advance their interests and privatize it to a greater extent.  Republicans will agree.  The allotment will shrink, and shrink again, over time.  They’ll blame worsening environment or just go with the ol welfare queen argument “Why should those lazy slobs get their water subsidized… yada yada”. Or both.  We’ve seen it before.  Prices will rise and more will pay them.  Water will become the new gas, with massive unpredictable spikes blamed on random things while water companies make windfall profits.

 

The end

 

I can definitely see it playing out this way. However, at some point the downward spiral becomes untenable for everyone. Farmers find they can't make the numbers work to make a profit, and the poor and middle class find they can't afford water and they all move elsewhere. That temporarily eases things by leaving more supply for the people left...until such time that they turn on their taps and instead of water, get Cedric the Entertainer. At that point, money may not matter a whole lot because most of those left in these areas will all have money and it'll just be a matter of whoever gets in line first to beg someone to take their money for trucked in water which still has to come from somewhere relatively local. Between the emptying out of the working class and the water shortages, eventually, some, maybe all of those left end up owning property in ghost towns. The end.

 

 

 

 

[China]

Lawns across Central Texas may not survive this summer’s heat, experts warn

 

Lawns! Popularized by the founding fathers and a symbol of American prosperity and success may be in danger due to what could be the hottest summer on record in Austin. Between the intense heat and tight water restrictions, experts with ABC Home & Commercial Services said many lawns might not make it.

 

“St. Augustine lawns, one of the first grasses really that people started using here. If that dies, it’s probably dead [and not just in hibernation],” said Hank Rutkowski, landscape manager with ABC. “Bermuda grass will go dormant and come back.”

 

Rutkowski said tight water restrictions are making it difficult to care for lawns as temperatures linger in the 100s for weeks on end.

Currently in Austin, the city is in Stage 1 water restrictions. Here’s what that means:

• Watering with a sprinkler is limited to one day a week.
• Watering with a hose end sprinkler is limited to two days a week.
• Watering must be done in off hours (midnight – 8 a.m.; 7 p.m. – midnight)
• Drip irrigation has no restrictions.

Rutkowski said these restrictions are bad news for lawns. “The one time a week will keep it alive; they won’t keep it green.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[The Sisko]

 

[China]

NASA releases new Lake Mead satellite images, shows dramatic water loss since 2000

 

New satellite images released by NASA Wednesday reveal the dramatic loss of water at Lake Mead due to the ongoing mega-drought.

 

"The largest reservoir in the United States supplies water to millions of people across seven states, tribal lands, and northern Mexico," NASA wrote about the image. "It now also provides a stark illustration of climate change and a long-term drought that may be the worst in the US West in 12 centuries."

When you compare these two natural-color images -- one acquired on July 6, 2000, and the other on July 3, 2022 -- you can see the lake full and, in the most recent imagery, you can see the mineralized lakeshore which used to be underwater.

Move the slider to the left to reveal the minimal water remaining in Lake Mead. Move it back to the right to see where the level once stood.

 

Click on the link for the images

[China]

WHAT HAPPENS IF LAKE MEAD DRIES UP FOREVER?

 

In 2021, the lake's surface elevation plunged to around 1,067 feet, prompting the Bureau of Reclamation to declare a water shortage for the first time in history (per CNN). Just one year later, in July 2022, Lake Mead's water level fell to around 1,040 feet (per CNN). According to the outlet, it is now at just 27% of its capacity — its lowest volume since it was filled in the 1930s. NASA's satellite imagery shows the once fathomless lake reduced to a fraction of its former glory. With the American West now 22 years into a megadrought, many people are wondering what would happen if Lake Mead dried up completely. Well, it wouldn't be good.

 

According to CNN, the Colorado River system, which includes Lake Mead, supplies water to 40 million people in seven western states. Lake Mead alone brings water to 25 million people living in Nevada, Arizona, California, and parts of Mexico. California has the oldest rights to the lake and therefore gets first dibs (per USA Today). Each year, the Golden State receives the biggest portion of nearly 4.5 million acre-feet, while Arizona gets 2.8 million acre-feet (per the Los Angeles Times), and Nevada gets a mere 300,000 acre-feet (per the National Park Service). To give you an idea of how much water we're talking about, one acre-foot is around 326,000 gallons.

 

In times of water shortage, the federal government activates a plan in which water use is dialed back in tiers depending on Lake Mead's water levels. In January 2022, with water levels at 1,066 feet, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation issued its first water shortage declaration, and Tier 1 water cutbacks were put into effect (per CNN). According to Courthouse News Service, Arizona had to reduce its water use by 18%, Nevada by 7%, and Mexico by 5%. Since then, the lake has already fallen below the 1,050-foot cutoff, meaning Tier 2 cuts will be initiated soon, further reducing Arizona and Nevada's allotments.

 

A Tier 3 shortage, in which lake levels drop to 1,038 feet, is expected to happen by July 2023. At that point, California would begin losing water, too. There is no Tier 4. According to John Entsminger, the general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority (via USA Today), "We're 150 feet from 25 million Americans losing access to Colorado River water."

 

Still, if Lake Mead were to dry up — or just drop to a surface elevation of 895 feet (per 8 News Now) — Las Vegas would be screwed. The city knows this and has taken action. Despite its population growing by 750,000 since 2002 (per CBS News), the city has managed to use 26% less water by eliminating lawns, adhering to watering schedules, and harvesting greywater, which is processed and returned to Lake Mead.

 

With Tier 2 and Tier 3 water cutbacks looming on the horizon, interruptions to the nation's food supply will only get worse. Soon, California — which produces two-thirds of the United States' fruits and nuts and one-third of its vegetables (per Gizmodo) — will be impacted. California has already started removing almond trees, which require a lot of water to grow. If Lake Mead's water supply is exhausted, such shortages and high prices will become the norm for everyone in the U.S.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

More human remains found at Lake Mead

 

Human remains were found Monday at a beach at Lake Mead in Nevada, the National Park Service said.

 

The suspected age of the remains, which were found at Swim Beach at Lake Mead National Recreation Area around 4:30 p.m., was not released in a statement.

 

The Clark County Medical Examiner’s Office, which will determine the cause of death, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

It was not clear if low water levels at Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir, played any role in the discovery.

 

Water levels at the lake, which straddles the Nevada and Arizona state line, have hit historic lows this year.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[TheGreatBuzz]

We finally going to find Hoffa?

[China]