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Colorado River Basin Essay

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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 …show more content…

With the Colorado River supplying 43% of all agricultural water consumption and 41% of all Municipal and Industrial water supply in the basin, losing access to this resource entirely for one year would cost $1.434 trillion in combined state GDP [2]. Just a ten percent decline in water availability will reduce combined basin states GDP by $143.4 billion, reduce employment in the area by 1.6 million job-years, and reduce labor income by 87.1billion dollars per year [2]. In addition to the shrinking economic production, the cost of living in the area would also start to increase. The water in the Colorado River provides inexpensive energy for the parts of the lower basin states, the cost of the power has doubled from the initial contracts, and if water levels fall to 1000', the costs could quintuple for customers that are bound to purchase the hydroelectric power until 2067 [8]. While the internal economy of the basin would suffer, the effects would also ripple into the rest of the country. The agricultural Imperial Valley in California, for example, provides two-thirds of the country's vegetables in the winter [9]. Without proper irrigation and water supply, production rates …show more content…

As previously mentioned, the Colorado River compact was written and signed during abnormally wet climate cycles [4]. When the climate cycled back into the more traditional drier climate during the mid-twentieth century, the river no longer made it to the Gulf of California. While this was not an immediate concern as water levels remained well above the critical elevation, recent global warming trends have played a major role in the decline water supply in the Colorado River Basin. Over the past 15 years, the Colorado River Basin has experienced declining annual precipitation rates and higher temperatures throughout the year, which has cascade into higher evaporative loads from the soil and reservoirs, longer growing seasons that require more water, earlier melting times, all of which have reduced runoff and water supply [10]. In addition to the environmental factors, the differing conservation policies, water costs, and infrastructure planning across the basin state has contributed to water consumption that is above the basin’s renewable supply [14]. States like Nevada enforce strict that limit residents use via strict conservation policies, while states like California and Colorado use their senior water rights to maximum legal consumption and are planning to construct larger dams to

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