Drought

Colorado peak questions, condition requests and other info.
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disentangled
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Re: Drought

Post by disentangled »

osprey wrote: Sat Jun 19, 2021 11:43 am In the meantime:
Mesa, Arizona has approved a new data center ( they already have about 7 data centers ) which will use 1.25 million gallons of water/day for cooling the computers inside the data center.
This is in addition to a previously approved Google facility already under construction which will use up to 4 million gallons of water/day.
This nothing but short-sighted in face of this drought.
corporate capitalism. cheap labor and profits. when google is done screwing this place, they'll go screw someplace else. nothing new here.
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Bale
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Re: Drought

Post by Bale »

John Wesley Powell predicted like 130 years ago that the Colorado River basin states, (Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) are incapable of supporting large numbers of people due to a limited amount of water. We dammed, (damned?) all the rivers, multiplied like rabbits, and made a go of it, but now his words are ringing true.
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Re: Drought

Post by Jorts »

Urban Snowshoer wrote: Sat Jun 19, 2021 8:25 am As much some people like to blame the water issues on too many people moving here, the truth is the majority of water is used for agriculture. At the same time, food obviously has to come from somewhere.
There has been a pivot, albeit slow going, to less water intensive, more sustainable crops. Some that come to mind are legumes and quinoa. I'll probably be called a troll or otherwise called out by the paleos, but nonetheless - a reduction in meat production would help reduce agriculture's water consumption too.
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Re: Drought

Post by Jorts »

This book is from the 80s but was prescient then and more relevant now than ever. It addresses the history of water rights in the west and the mistakes that were made, then ties that into the future of water usage in the west.

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Re: Drought

Post by Iguru »

https://foodtank.com/news/2013/12/why-m ... resources/
This article says it better than I can.
My comment is why do we force the desert to raise cattle when grass grows for free in much of the rest of the country?
Grass fed beef is better anyway.
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Re: Drought

Post by DaveLanders »

A fantastic dystopian novel about a future West where all the states are at war with each other over water is "The Water Knife" by Paolo Bacigalupi. He lives somewhere on the Western Slope of Colorado.
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Re: Drought

Post by Bale »

I found the solution today. All I had to do was take my motorcycle apart in the driveway and it started raining! You’re welcome :-D
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Re: Dought

Post by EatinHardtack »

Wish I lived in CO wrote: Sat Jun 19, 2021 7:44 am

Back to point, I like golf but the pushback from the local golf courses here I believe is short sighted.
FYI…almost all golf courses in the state of AZ are on Effluent/Reclaimed Waste Water delivery systems. Not many are on ground water or potable lines. Effluent is treated waste water that cannot be put back into the watershed. High in ecoli, salts and bicarbonates. Useful for golf and commercial real estate properties, but homeowners do not have the chance to use as it’s considered hazardous.
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Wish I lived in CO
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Re: Dought

Post by Wish I lived in CO »

EatinHardtack wrote: Sat Jun 19, 2021 8:49 pm
Wish I lived in CO wrote: Sat Jun 19, 2021 7:44 am

Back to point, I like golf but the pushback from the local golf courses here I believe is short sighted.
FYI…almost all golf courses in the state of AZ are on Effluent/Reclaimed Waste Water delivery systems. Not many are on ground water or potable lines. Effluent is treated waste water that cannot be put back into the watershed. High in ecoli, salts and bicarbonates. Useful for golf and commercial real estate properties, but homeowners do not have the chance to use as it’s considered hazardous.
That helps, but waste water effluent can be discharged into underground reservoirs rather than evaporating away at the surface. Then it can be reclaimed for potable water at a future time.
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Re: Drought

Post by Carl_Healy »

Discussions on drought always remind me of my work trip to Qatar.
With all their money from oil (actually mostly natural gas) they just use desalination for everything.

Given how resource intensive this is they lot signs up everywhere (particularly bathrooms) warning of massive fines for wasting water.

Hmm.
That's interesting they irrigate the medians of all their streets and highways to be lush with trees and flowers. There's grass around the sidewalks!
I don't seem to see any signage indicating this is reclaimed water either...
Wow this is a really big, beautiful, lush, and green park by our hotel! And look there's a massive artificial lake and a bunch of really big and impressive water fountains!
And you know, I don't seem to remember seeing any signs about "wasting water" in the luxury hotel they happened to put us up in...


OK maybe even if desalination was an option for us I don't think Qatar is setting the best example here.
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Re: Dought

Post by EatinHardtack »

Wish I lived in CO wrote: Sun Jun 20, 2021 7:26 am
EatinHardtack wrote: Sat Jun 19, 2021 8:49 pm
Wish I lived in CO wrote: Sat Jun 19, 2021 7:44 am

Back to point, I like golf but the pushback from the local golf courses here I believe is short sighted.
FYI…almost all golf courses in the state of AZ are on Effluent/Reclaimed Waste Water delivery systems. Not many are on ground water or potable lines. Effluent is treated waste water that cannot be put back into the watershed. High in ecoli, salts and bicarbonates. Useful for golf and commercial real estate properties, but homeowners do not have the chance to use as it’s considered hazardous.
That helps, but waste water effluent can be discharged into underground reservoirs rather than evaporating away at the surface. Then it can be reclaimed for potable water at a future time.
Yes and no. You can’t discharge it directly to aquifers, and you would need to discharge into rivers to effectively have the filtration needed to enter ground water. This practice is hard to accomplish with regards to the human health and the environment. It’s a good practice to use this water on turfgrass as it acts as a good filtration system but there’s not enough to make it to ground water during this practice.
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Re: Drought

Post by EatinHardtack »

I personally believe that the desert southwest is unsustainable with regards to population density, agriculture, recreation and volatility of weather now. I don’t agree with having fountains or aesthetic water features across the SW, but honestly that is minuscule compared to 30-50m people using 100 gals/day on average. In my opinion we should never have changed the environment to fit our needs in places like Las Vegas or Palm Springs. At least the Sonoran desert is somewhat “wet” and “lush” compared to LV and PS.

People have been migrating in and out of the SW for 1000s of years based on climate. It’ll happen again, this time with higher economic and human repercussions.
"In our youths our hearts were touched with fire" - Oliver Wendell Holmes
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