The Negative Effects Of The Colorado River Basin

Water scarcity is increasing worldwide and dramatically affecting first world nations such as Spain, Australia, and the United States. All nations are now starting to recognize that the world's water is a finite resource, and that resource is being drastically altered in both availability and quality by development, climate change and population growth. In the United States, the Colorado River is experiencing rapid declines in volume. Recent studies and data suggest that the changes in frequency, intensity, and timing of the availability of water will have substantial impact on the way we live our lives in the 21st century and beyond. As Letmathe Brakeck said, “I am confident that, under present

One of the largest geographic physical structures in the United States is the Colorado River. Human activity and its interaction with this great river have an interesting history. The resources provided by the river have been used by humans, and caused conflict for human populations as well. One of these conflicts is water distribution, and the effects drought conditions have played in this distribution throughout the southwestern region. Major cities such as Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, and other communities in the southwest depend on the river. It provides water for over 20 million people, irrigation for 2 million acres of land, four thousand megawatts of hydroelectric energy, and over twenty million annual visitors for

The Colorado River Basin starts in the Rocky Mountains and cuts through 1500 miles of canyon lands and deserts of seven US states and two Mexican states to supply a collection of dams and reservoirs with water to help irrigate cropland, support 40 million people, and provide hydroelectric power for the inland western United States [1,2]. From early settlement, rights over the river have been debated and reassigned to different states in the upper and lower basin; however, all the distribution patterns lead to excessive consumption of the resource. In 1922, the seven US states signed into the Colorado River Compact, which outlined the policy for the distribution rights to the water [3], however, this compact was written during an exceptionally

“One, it’s tied to putting salmon back in the river. Two, there is no funding for dams or river recirculation technology that would maximize Sierra water runoff and lessen the economic devastation to some San Joaquin Valley farmers.” (McEwen 1)

Yet, humans have limited control on natural events, so this only reinforces the importance of managing water wisely. Recently California’s government has begun to focus more on sustaining and restoring the water supply. Dale Kasler (2016) articulates in his article some of the steps they have decided to make to solve this serious issue. The government has made the following investments: “$415 million for watershed restoration and other environmental aid for Lake Tahoe; up to $335 million for two proposed reservoirs in California, including the Sites reservoir north of Sacramento; $880 million for flood-control projects on the American and Sacramento rivers in Sacramento; and $780 million for flood-control projects in West Sacramento” (para. 10). This could be the first step to restoring the water to California. But these

The Colorado River compact has been the most beneficial project for the seven states that share it. The river has 29 dams that serve different purposes together with hundreds of miles of canals. Many farmers have been known to divert the river into their own farms to be used for irrigation. Irrigated land accounts for four million acres of the total land use. This relates to a large percentage of water used for agriculture. The products got from constant irrigation are a major economic boost to both the farmers and the United States. This also enhances living standards due to income earned by such farmers (Michael, 2010). This has enabled them to feed not only their states, but also the other neighboring countries through

Another challenge for people is when you have to transport water from one place to other places for them not to dry up like the Colorado River in El Mayor Mexico. For example the Colorado River some of its water is transported ported through, eastward across the Rocky Mountains to Denver and other cities in Colorado. The Colorado River Aqueduct carries water to metropolitan Los Angeles, and the Central Arizona Project supplies the Phoenix and Tucson areas.” The American canal provides water for the Imperial Valley of southern California, the imperial valley is very active for

Texas, with its abundances of natural resources, is facing a new demon, one that doesn’t even seem possible, a shortage of water. Water, without it nothing can survive. Texas is the second largest state for landmass in the nation and ninth for water square miles. Within the borders of Texas are more than 100 lakes, 14 major rivers, and 23 aquifers, so why has water become such an important issue for the state? Politicians and conservationists all agree that without a new working water plan, the state could be facing one of the most damaging environmental disasters they have ever seen. The issues that shape the states positions are population growth, current drought conditions, and who actually owns the water.

Now Arizona is not the typical state that has a lot of precipitation and rain yearly, but it depends off other reservoirs, lakes, and rivers located in other states to for their water supply. After searching and conducting research, it was found that the main impact Arizona is suffering from the drought is decreasing water levels is from Lake Mead (located in Nevada), and the Colorado River, which flows North to South through several U.S. states. Research and data found shows that the Bureau of Reclamation releases water into the Colorado River below Lake Mead to meet water demands of downstream users in Arizona and California, and also to satisfy treaty obligations to the Republic of Mexico. Findings by the Bureau of Reclamation show that Lake Mead water level’s peaked at 1,214.26 in January of 2000. Almost a decade and a half later, recorded in January 2014, the water levels of Lake Mead are now 1,108.75 (Smith, 2014). This findings show that Arizona is continually getting a decline in water from Lake Mead every month that passes, affects thousands of residents living in Arizona, which already lacks water to begin with. If this continues, this can cause many civilians to both stand by and bare the drought as long as they can, or decide to move out of Arizona to states with a better water supply, so they won’t be burdened with the continual burden of having to ration and conserve water. The state has

The Colorado River is drying up and people are in desperate need for water. However, farmers and cities are fighting to see who should have the rights to the water.

One major example of water shortage in the United States can be seen in the Arizona vs California supreme court case. The Colorado River basin supplies water to Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. More than thirty-three million people depend on the Colorado river for water supply. The Colorado river supplies quarter of a million jobs. In recreational activities alone the river brings in twenty-six billion dollars. In 1922 the Colorado River compact was made allowing the seven states to use the river for their supply and demand of water. However this compact was made when it was considered “wetter” times, because the compact divvied up to each state 's more than

An Average of 1.6 trillion gallons of water are extracted from the Delta for the Central Valley Project and State Water Project on an annual basis (Holyoke). With so much demand, the Delta’s ecological balance has been deeply affected. Furthermore, water supplies and local uses are considered to be in crisis due to crashing number of fish species and old weak levees (Lund, et al.) It is feared that during a strong regional earthquake, many of the levees would fail. Due to the increasing demand on water supplies, conservation efforts, and hundreds of interests, the Delta is also the jugular of California’s water

Due to the lack of rain in the past few years, and particularly in the last few months, California faces severe drought. This is the worst drought in more than one hundred years. The impact of California drought affects community, agriculture, organic ranchers, and dairy farmers. Because of these facts, the United States must rethink the way it uses water. Californians alone are asked to reduce their water usage by twenty percent to prevent water waste.

The Colorado River is one of the U.S physical features, and it has the most interesting facts that may change overtime, such as where it begins, how many states and people does the water reach, and the difficulty of others from it’s drought.

I believe that this is also going to be a problem in the future. The greenhouse gasses are raising the temperatures of our atmosphere. The Colorado river is 19 percent below averages century. I agree that the rainfall will affect the rivers droughts. Scientist our continuing to make predictions on what the river will be like years from now. We are the ones who controls this problem. This river supplies water for 40 million people if it dries up that is more water we have to find to supply for 40 million people. I agree that if we don't fix this drought there will be a huge problem. There has been a lot of rainfall recently and I think that could potentially help the river with its drought. These states are some of the hottest states in the