Western States Megadrought intensifies - predictions for bad Fire Season and severe water shortages for Colorado (Denver: neighborhoods, landlord)

[mlulu23]

Cadillac Desert video series


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR2BSGQt2DU

[Mike from back east]

Here are excerpts from an article in today's WaPo (paywall site) plus some links I researched separately.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/clima...rvoir-drought/

It may be time to rethink golf courses in much or all of the Southwest (SW).

According to the United States Golf Association (USGA) the average 18 hole golf course located in the SW agronomic region uses 459 acre feet of water each year. That amount is nine times more than the average 18 hole golf course located in the Northeast agronomic region.

According to the link from this article, an acre foot of water can, on average, satisfy the needs of three households (four people per household) for a year in the SW agronomic region.

So on average, each 18 hole golf course in the SW agronomic region consumes the same amount of water as 5508 people use each year in the same region.

Based on a quick Google search it appears there are over 50 golf courses within twenty miles of Las Vegas. Assuming at least 50 of them are 18 hole courses, and they may or may not be, those courses consume the same amount of water as 68,850 households or 275,400 people or around 1/10th the population of Clark County, NV.

There are 26 golf courses in Phoenix, Arizona with 6 being municipal courses, and another 74 golf courses within 20 miles of Phoenix, including 57 public, 5 municipal, 3 PL and 9 private courses.

Also, while it is true that some golf courses (37% in the SW) use recycled water, or effluent, that water could be used more prudently, either by replenishing overtaxed aquifers or refilling shrinking reservoirs like Lake Mead.

There are 19 golf courses in COLO SPGS, 6 are municipal courses. There are also another 6 golf courses within 20 miles of COLO SPGS,, including 4 public, 0 municipal and 2 private courses. The oldest course in the COLO SPGS, area is the Patty Jewett Golf Course which was designed by Willie Campbell and opened in 1898.

Golf was invented in Scotland (Where it rains. A lot.) not in Egypt.

[McGowdog]

Originally Posted by jim9251

Monsoonal moisture forecast for this weekend here in western Colorado. Sure hope so the dust and dry crunchy ground is awful.

Looks like Ireland in my backyard as it rains now.

It rained yesterday, and is supposed to rain tomorrow and the day after.

Sorry to rain on y'alls drought parade, if only for a minute or two.

[Vision67]

Originally Posted by McGowdog

Looks like Ireland in my backyard as it rains now.

It rained yesterday, and is supposed to rain tomorrow and the day after.

Sorry to rain on y'alls drought parade, if only for a minute or two.

reminds me of the day the congressman brought in a snowball to deny climate change


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E0a...ab_channel=TED

[cvarcher]

I saw this coming 50 years ago. Nothing new . And the root of all these problems--Lets keep allowing more people to flow into this country. Remember the song Ball of Confusion fro the 60s. A line from it was ...and the only safe place to be is on an Indian reservation.

[popwar]

What is the estimated future of water in leadville,CO?

[atler8]

Originally Posted by cvarcher

I saw this coming 50 years ago. Nothing new . And the root of all these problems--Lets keep allowing more people to flow into this country. Remember the song Ball of Confusion fro the 60s. A line from it was ...and the only safe place to be is on an Indian reservation.

Rather than your line that puts the blame of the megadrought and associated water problems in the west as being rooted in "...allowing more people to flow into this country", I instead see it as being more the result of the massive movement of population into arid & semiarid areas of the U.S. that cannot sustain millions upon millions of new residents. Those arriving people are largely not migrants into the U.S. from elsewhere but rather migrants who have moved from one region into another.
But you are correct in noting that this particular type of population movement is indeed, "...nothing new." As the old line from Horace Greeley proclaimed in the 1800's, "Go West, young man, go West!"

[Melanzana92]

Originally Posted by popwar

What is the estimated future of water in leadville,CO?

Looks pretty good to me, but I'm no expert. On parkvillewater.org home page you can see a distribution map of where Leadville gets our water. There are 4 high alpine basins east of town which provide the water.

Winter across the mountains of Colorado has gotten shorter, and this is true of Leadville as well, but at this elevation I anticipate there will continue to be ample snowfall in winter to secure the water supply. As long as the typical summer doesn't get too hot and dry, I would apply the same line of thinking to most mountain towns as well. For example, Buena Vista also sources their water from high in the adjacent mountains.

And although we don't get water from it, there's a large reservoir just a couple of miles away which is filled directly by snowmelt. So it's hard to imagine a future where the Leadville area dries up.

[McGowdog]

Originally Posted by Vision67

reminds me of the day the congressman brought in a snowball to deny climate change


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E0a...ab_channel=TED

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cesSRfXqS1Q
https://youtu.be/cesSRfXqS1Q

Oh I know huh?

Guam is going to flip over.

Manbearpig Al Gore is going to save the planet, just the second he starts concerning himself with the likes of China and India pollution and get the whole of your wonderful Mainstream Media to follow suit.

[vicky3vicky]

We live in a tiny village in the mountains Southwest of Pueblo and have always had to restricct our potable water. We have had restrictions of under 1100 gallons a month for our family of 5. Normally, we are supposed to use beween 1600 and 1800 gallons a month per household. It seemed difficult to maintain the first year or 2. Now it's second nature.

This is how we do it.

We have a lush and beautiful lawn with tons of beautiful vegetables and flowers growing amidst intensly lush greenery. No grass.

There were already many varieties of wildflowers growing when we bought the place. During the first year we had a decent ammount of rain in the spring after broadcasting 5 pounds of clover over half of our property which filled in so nice.

In the years since, we have ussually been in a drought but it's always green when I look outside.

Colorado allows 2 rain barrels a household. We use 4. Colorado is ussually in drought, bbut we still always get a few good storms that keep our water barrels at least partially full.That is how we water our fruits, vegetables, chickens and flowers. [our goats have sensitive systems so that is where much of our tap water goes].When it's crazy hot I wash my body with cold rainwater in the backyard [luckily no neighbors close enough to see us]

When we use the shower, we have a button on our shower head that we can hit to stop and restart the water. So reminding ourselves that cold showers are healthy we wet down. Then we Shave, scrub, and apply conditioner to the hair but rub it in as if it were shampoo [we only use the actual shampoo once a month because it requires an extra step that uses water, this has also increased the shine and manageability of my hair] rinse everything off and promptly turn the shower off and dry my body with my one personal towel for the next week or 10 days.

Our toilet rules are "if it's yellow, let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down." We save so much water following this policy, especially when the guys [I'm the only female] have pissing contests on the far-end non-developed part of our property. We also use rainwater to rinse our dishes before putting them in the dishwasher [dishwashers, believe it or not use less water than hand washing]

We ALWAYS drink as much tap water as we want, which is a lot. I like my drinking water cold and I'm not about to let the water run to get it cold. I simply keep ice cubes on hand.

Like my bath towell, I have learned that not every article of clothing needs to be washed after every wearing. for a long time I NEEDED to wash my clothes EVERY time I wore them. because stinky.

I have since discovered LUME deoderant. It is definitely my least frugal regular purchase. Quite pricey in fact. I use the cream formula, the tiniest bit under the arms, my lower neck, "girly parts" and after I wipe my butt I tap on LUME. I love this stuff. And I never stink.

Those are the main things we do to save water usage without it inconveniencing us.

Apart from our familie's personal consumption I wish that big/ag would practice partial dry farming with government incentives for those practicing it.