by kevin, on October 9th, 2009
Until this week, I had never been to Joshua Tree CA. I had seen photos of the national park and been told about it by friends who love the place, but never had a reason to visit. But this past Sunday, Aleida and I drove out into the desert to attend the first annual Water Woman Festival. The event was scheduled for four days of activity, but we were only able to make the last day due to other travel commitments. We were told that Ed Begley Jr. had spent the entire previous day giving a presentation, participating in art installations, and filming for his television show on Planet Green, Living with Ed. I spoke with Ed at the Wise Water Use Expo several months ago and was disappointed that we weren’t at the festival on the same day. Given our limited exposure it’s hard to tell the total festival attendance. According to event organizers, it was a smashing success and turned out much better than they had anticipated. Hopefully that means a return next year.
I was there to attend a panel discussion and present an educational session titled Water & Energy: Rising Demand vs. Diminishing Supply. Much of the show covered topics I’ve touched on here with past blog posts. An issue I’ve discussed before but is worth hitting again is per capita water usage. The United States uses more than any other country at 151 gallons per person per day. Much of that is due to lower population combined with higher agricultural production. In this country, more water is used for agriculture than personal consumption. As the world’s largest food producer, it’s understandable that our consumption is significant. And since we only represent five percent of total global population, the 151 gallons makes sense. It’s easy to look at the figures for other developed countries like those in Europe for comparison and be shocked by how they use less than half per person. But European countries don’t produce as much food. Shocking, however, is how much water is used in U.S. urban areas that have little or no agriculture. And even more shocking is how some of the worst offenders are cities in regions with serious water supply issues. Los Angeles County consumes 168 gallons per person per day, San Diego 180 gallons, Phoenix 200 gallons, and Las Vegas 255 gallons. How can a city such as Las Vegas with no agriculture to speak of consume 100 gallons more per person per day than the national average? Whatever the answer, they are seriously taxing already diminishing water supplies.
The Colorado River is one of the most controlled and manipulated bodies of water in the world. Three major dams – Glen Canyon, Hoover, and Parker – hold back what was one of the mightiest rivers to create Lake Powell, Lake Mead, and Lake Havasu. There are several other dams along the entire river route, but these are the largest. By the way, the river was known as the Grand River prior to 1921 when an act of congress officially changed the name to Colorado. Several of the dams are also used to generate power. The Hoover Dam is one of the nation’s largest hydroelectric facilities and produces 2,080 megawatts of electricity each year. When completed, the Three Gorges Dam in China will produce 22,500 megawatts. That’s incredible.
The All-American Canal pulls water from the lower basin region of the Colorado and is the largest irrigation system in the world. More water moves through the canal each day than the Hudson River. It provides agricultural and drinking water to most of southern California. The Central Arizona Project also takes water from the lower basin and diverts it to Arizona agriculture and southern cities such as Phoenix and Tucson. It is the largest and most expensive aqueduct system ever constructed in the US. These two projects remove so much water from the river that it only reaches the Gulf of California when Mexico complains about not receiving their agreed upon allotment. Access to the river water by seven southwest states is governed by the Colorado River Compact. Since it’s creation, California has routinely taken more than its permitted allotment. In the past, this was overlooked as long as the other states didn’t take their full allotment. But continually increasing demand in the region and recent drought, along with complaints registered by the other states, has forced California to behave and meet the compact limitations.
One troubling fact about hydroelectric power production in the US is that we’ve already tapped sixty-nine percent of available hydro production potential. In other words, most of the best locations have already been built. Yet only four percent of U.S. energy is supplied by hydroelectric. Unless there are significant increases in efficiency, it’s unlikely that we’ll be able to increase that percentage. There are some energy companies looking at reactivating hydroelectric facilities that have been abandoned, adding hydroelectric capabilities to dams where it was less feasible in the past and not built, and building new facilities on rivers at locations formerly considered nonviable.
There is a relationship between water and energy that is often overlooked – where it’s most plentiful is remote from where it’s most needed. Nowhere is this more true than in southern CA, Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico. Moving water to where it’s needed consumes energy. And it’s only likely that as demand continues to outstrip supply the distance traveled or the methods needed to acquire water will only consume more energy. Many people talk about desalinization as the silver bullet solution to the region, but it’s far from a perfect option. First, the two current methods of production (distillation and reverse osmosis) are both inefficient and terribly energy demanding. The solution to the water problem should not exacerbate the energy problem. Secondly, the water would have to be moved vast distances from the Pacific to places like Las Vegas and Phoenix. It’s viable in parts of the world where these is no other option and energy is plentiful, like the Arabian Peninsula. Current estimates suggest that desalinated water would cost twice what urban consumer pay today. Farmers pay far less as their supply is government subsidized. Urban water can cost up to $1,000 per acre-foot, California Central Valley farmers pay $10 – $20 per acre-foot. Desalinated water, in it’s most efficient and cost effective form, would cost $2,400 per acre-foot. Going that route has many hurdles to clear before it’s realistic option.
There’s an old expression – water flows towards money. The major cities of the southwest – Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, and Las Vegas – have more money than agriculture of the region. There has been a long standing animosity between urban and rural water access, but that will be less of an under current and become a full fledged battle in the near future. Some of what’s happening in the California Central Valley is a good indication of how heated this issue is likely to become. What do you think about this issue?