(With expanded coverage of all the Western States)
by Patrick Ruckert
www.californiadroughtupdate.org/20230518-California-Water-and-Infrastructure-Report.pdf
A Note to Readers
Following the obligatory U.S. Drought Monitor map, the focus this week is on the California floods and the Colorado River.
Included in the first section is an interesting historical article on the emergence of Tulare Lake as flood waters at least partially restore the formerly largest U.S. lake west of the Mississippi. Beginning more than one hundred years ago, as water was diverted from the Central Valley rivers to an expanding agriculture industry and dams were built to hold back the water that filled the lake, the lake disappeared and all of the former lake bed since grew crops worth billions of dollars. This year’s flooding is refilling the lake once again and drowning crops and entire towns in the area.
The map, visible on the link, show the lake as it was more than 100 years ago.
This map of California’s waterways as they existed before significant human intervention was based on historical maps made between 1843 and 1878, when most parts of the state were relatively untouched by settlers. California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, courtesy David Rumsey Map Center. Tulare Lake is near the south end of the Central Valley.
The Colorado River
The end of May was to be showdown time on the Colorado River. Seven States and the federal Interior Department were to come to an agreement on how two to four million acre feet per year were to be reduced from what the states withdraw from the river.
The breaking news this week is that an agreement between California and Arizona has been reached to end the stand-off on how the reductions in withdraws from the river will be divided.
The abundant snowpack in the Rocky Mountains, and the already generous run-off from the melting snow has raised the levels of both Lake Mead and Lake Powell, giving time over the next year to carefully plan how to reduce the amount of water withdrawn from the river.
Before these winter storms, both reservoirs were at record low levels at about 25% of capacity. They are the largest man-made reservoirs in the U.S. and hold about 50 million acre feet of water when at capacity. Even with the lakes rising as much as 50 feet in elevation, as one water manager put it, that gives a few months relief, but not much more.
With 40 million people relying on the water from the river, and 800% of that going to agriculture, preventing the reservoirs from going to “dead pools” is a national emergency.
The Feature this week is a report by my colleague Kesha Rogers on recent and exciting developments in the drive to achieve net energy production from fusion: “The Power of Fusion: Making America Energy Independent!”
A second item is a one hour video by Benjamin Deniston, “America Needs More Than Energy Independence — It Needs Energy Advancement!”
