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Severe drought and mandatory water cuts are pitting communities against each other in Arizona:
As the climate crisis intensifies, battle lines are beginning to form over water. In Arizona -- amid a decades-long megadrought -- some communities are facing the very real possibility of losing access to the precious water that remains.
Outside the city limits of Scottsdale, where the asphalt ends and the dirt road begins, is the Rio Verde Foothills community. Hundreds of homes here get water trucked in from Scottsdale, but those deliveries will end on January 1, 2023.
That's because last summer, for the first time ever, drought conditions forced the federal government to declare a tier 1 water shortage in the Colorado River, reducing how much Arizona can use.
[...] "We are what I call the 'sacrificial lamb' for the bigger areas," Irwin told CNN. "In my opinion, look somewhere else -- we need to be able to sustain ourselves."
The scarcity of water in the state is pitting small towns against fast-growing metropolitan communities.
[...] Arizona's population growth and extreme drought have increased demand for water in limited supply. Kathleen Ferris, a senior research fellow with the Kyl Center for Water Policy in Arizona, says water scarcity in the state has resulted in the "haves" and the "have nots," and likened the coming water battles to the days of the Wild West. "Once you have your water rights, you defend it," Ferris said. "That's the way it works."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Friday April 01 2022, @02:34AM (14 children)
Water rights in the west are totally fokked. If a landowner can't put a water barrel on his own property to catch a few gallons of rain falling on his own property, that is fokked.
But, the bigger issue is - Arizona is a desert. You can't expect zillions of people to survive on the water available in a desert. Especially when they all want to plant lush jungle yards of non-native grasses, non-native trees, non-native shrubs, put in a swimming pool, wash three cars, and bathe multiple times per day. I can empathize and sympathize with people who keep their property natural, and limit bathing and showering, but statewide, there has always been a lot of water wasted in Arizona.
Maybe it's time to set up a huge desalination plant down across the border, and share the output with Mexico? Stop sucking the Colorado river dry, and take water directly from the sea. How 'bout two plants - California's Imperial Valley can fund the second one, and share water with Baja California.
I don't think very many people have noticed that the climate is changing yet. You can't maintain large populations in a desert. The sooner they figure that out, the better.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 01 2022, @02:39AM (7 children)
Showers don't have to use a lot of water. Worst case, you can turn on the shower to wet your body, turn it off, soap up, and then turn it back on to rinse yourself clean. Or you could just take a short shower.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Friday April 01 2022, @02:46AM (6 children)
Yeah, I spent 8 years in the Navy. Being a water hog could get your ass whipped - literally. Since you mention it, there's no health reason for bathing daily. Troops often go a week without a shower. But, how many civilians shower that way? Most people want to luxuriate in a deep tub or a steaming shower for a half hour. If water gets as expensive as gasoline, they may start conserving water.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 01 2022, @04:43AM
https://www.vice.com/en/article/pga7xk/the-chemist-who-hasnt-showered-in-12-years-explain-why-he-doesnt-stink [vice.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday April 01 2022, @01:20PM (3 children)
But why would that happen? As AC noted [soylentnews.org], desalination is around a penny a gallon plus IMHO a similar cost of getting it to Arizona. That's not going to be gasoline prices, unless gasoline gets insanely cheap.
Even trucking water from British Columbia would cost on the order or $0.10 to $0.40 per gallon (~10k gallons water over 650 or so miles plus possible return trip, figuring around $2 per mile transport costs).
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday April 01 2022, @01:48PM (2 children)
The word "sustainable" does not enter the equation when you're trucking water around. Burning diesel fuel to move ~4200 gallons of water per truck load. Said truck load of water will supply ~2000 people per day with drinking and cooking water, nothing more. How many people in Arizona, again? How many truckloads of water to supply 7.6 million people? That's a lot of carbon pumped into the air while moving water around.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 01 2022, @02:31PM (1 child)
You'd use a pipeline in a case like that. Water demand rarely drops, so it's easy to avoid overbuilding capacity.
You won't pipe water from California to much of Arizona (or to Nevada, or even much of California), because it's too far uphill. Flagstaff is almost 7000 feet. The high deserts will always be deserts.
But Phoenix is at an altitude of 1000 feet - low enough to run a pipeline if you need to (there's an oil pipeline already, to bring gasoline in from California refineries). Phoenix and Tucson are where most people in Arizona live, which are low enough.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday April 01 2022, @03:18PM
All true. I'll note though, that piping water from, Mexico to Phoenix would relieve some of the pressure at higher elevations. With all the silly water rights issues, a steady supply of desalinated water into Phoenix would mean that Phoenix isn't laying claim to water in the mountains.
Likewise, putting a plant close to Los Angeles could supply a huge portion of California's population, ending that city's claim to water in surrounding areas.
Get Musk's boring company involved to drill tunnels from the California coast into the inland regions, and much of Arizona could be turned into a garden.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Saturday April 02 2022, @02:05AM
There are pluses and minuses. Cleanliness improves your chances of escaping a serious infection if you're cut, and also reduces some cases of acne. On the other hand, making vitamin D from sunshine requires skin oils, and frequent washing removes those oils.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 01 2022, @03:43AM (2 children)
Yes we can, you said it yourself, desalination, we can deliver all the water they need. A major issue is finance, and redirecting the Wall Street bailouts will resolve that overnight. The only real issue is human corruption that prevents this resolution
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 01 2022, @08:34AM (1 child)
Conveniently, the Economist just published an article on desalination [economist.com]. Although there is not really anything new in it.
The Economist article prices desalination at $2100 per acre-foot, which works out to less than a penny per gallon. This is not free, but it's a fraction of the retail price of water for urban consumption. In terms of price, we could, in principle, have everyone drink desalinated water and save all the river water for farming, and not really notice it.
But desalination isn't just expensive, it consumes a lot of energy. When everything runs on fusion or solar power, that won't matter, but right now it does. Conservation is still better than desalination. But desalination is better than draining aquifers.
Environmentalists, of course, object to taking salt out of the ocean, then dumping the exact same salt back into the ocean. It's contaminated, after all. Not with any chemical or toxin, but with the cursed bad juju of having contributed to civilization and quality of life, instead of the self-flagellation we should all be doing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 03 2022, @02:25AM
So what? You're supposed to built a small nuke right next door. Instead of making excuses, let's just build the damn things. Voluntary conservation is fine, rationing is totally bogus, like telling the poor to eat bugs so the rich can enjoy their steaks
And urban consumption isn't even close to what big agriculture consumes, the farmers need desalination more than anybody
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 01 2022, @08:12PM (2 children)
That's because that water belongs to California. The way the Colorado River Compact is written California gets first dibs and any shortfall hits users in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming first. It's only when Lake Mead gets too low that the lower basin must reduce usage.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday April 01 2022, @09:03PM (1 child)
Yes, I understand in a general way how water rights work in the west - but I insist that it's fokked. I get first dibs on rain that falls on my land. However much, or however little I might collect, it's mine, and the neighbors have no say over it. I have less claim on the little ephemeral that crosses my land, but I can freely use any water out of it, and if anyone ever objects, then we'll go to court over it. But, the city of Dallas has no jurisdiction, and they won't be claiming water from my land, like western cities do.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 02 2022, @02:06AM
Data added to the database. Satellite images being updated.