Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
nineteenth-century water law, and cheap water in the American
Southwest are huge long-term issues. “This is a typical, highly com-
plex problem in the twenty-fi rst century,” says Udall. “It's not one
problem. People want simplistic answers, yet these knotty problems
defy simple solutions.”
It's not just lower river water levels that are an issue with climate
change. Hydrologist Waldrop points to the warming planet and rain-
fall and runoff patterns associated with it. Flood protection now is
based on 100-year rainfall and runoff patterns. “If you change the
rainfall patterns, those records are no longer accurate,” he says. To
some extent the problems of severe fl ooding in Pakistan in 2010 were
exacerbated by the additional glacial melt coming down (and already
maximizing) the rivers as a result of changing weather patterns.”
We should think of our aquifers as a savings account, not a checking
account. You can live off the interest, but you can't live off the
principal.
—Daniel E. Williams,
Sustainable
Design: Ecology, Architecture, and Planning
Dried up.
One frightening ramifi cation of lower levels on the
Colorado River is a “dead pool” Lake Mead. That's when the lake's
water level falls below the intake for Hoover Dam. Power generation
subsequently halts, and no additional water is released downstream.
It's not science fi ction. There's a 10 percent chance Lake Mead could
be dry by 2014, and a 50 percent chance the reservoir levels will drop
too low for hydroelectric power generation by 2017, according to
a report from researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography
at the University of California-San Diego. The paper “When Will
Lake Mead Go Dry?” by Tim Barnett, a research marine physicist,
and David Pierce, a climate scientist, was released in February 2008.
Among the culprits, according to the duo, are human demand, natu-
ral forces like evaporation, and human-induced climate change.
“We were stunned at the magnitude of the problem and how
fast it was coming at us,” said Barnett in releasing the report. “Make
