Save and Conserve

What happens to the Southwestern part of the US if Lake Mead continues to water out?

First, the Hoover Dam (pictured at right) would not be producing power. That would mean 1.3 million people living in California, Arizona & Nevada would be without their electricity.

Second, roughly 8 million people would no longer have access to water.

The Lake Mead/Lake Powell/Colorado River system is currently at about 50% capacity. Based on current water use & projected future demand, the system is on an unsustainable death spiral. Things are so bad that there is a 10% chance Lake Mead could be dry by 2014. That should be alarming for residents of the southwest, to say the least.

This is one of many problems that require quick action by state & local government & lifestyle changes by people. Without that action & those changes, the southwest is heading for a "major societal disruption".

Posted by tom c. at 9:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On the heels of the fairly alarming news about the severe Atlanta drought and Atlanta's dwindling reservoirs, comes this long NY Times Magazine article about water in the Western US that is very interesting and very sobering.

While it seems that Atlantans have been taken surprise by the extent of the drought (only calling for strict water conservation in the past few weeks) and the general lack of preparedness about how to deal with it, the Western states better understand what a precious commodity water is and are trying to figure out how to manage water during a time of explosive population growth, drought and global warming.

The article profiles a couple of water managers - the people tasked with making sure their municipalities don't end up looking at an empty water pipe. I don't envy Pat Mulroy (Las Vegas) and Peter Binney (Aurora, CO), though they should be commended for tackling such an insidious problem. And they clearly recognize what is going on:

We have an exploding human population, and we have a shrinking clean-water supply. Those are on colliding paths. This is not just a Las Vegas issue. This is a microcosm of a much larger issue.

Binney is working on a new pipeline project that will, in essence, collect treated waste water from Aurora and pump it back to Aurora for treatment. Recycled water. A closed-loop water source. Apparently, this is pretty innovative water management. It makes sense on the surface, though I can't help but wonder about how much energy will be required to pipe water back from the river to the treatment facility. The article touches on this link between wawter and energy:

The two problems -- water and energy -- are so intimately linked as to make it exceedingly difficult to tackle one without the other. The less water in our rivers, for instance, the less hydropower our dams produce. The further the water tables sink, the more power it takes to pump water up. The more we depend on coal and nuclear power plants, which require huge amounts of water for cooling, the larger the burden we place on supplies.

This is very troubling. It seems that communities suffering from declining water will turn to systems like Aurora's closed loop in order to recycle waste water (Australia, also suffering extreme drought, is turning to waste water as well). In order to build systems that recycle water, you need massive energy inputs. With energy becoming scarcer and more expensive, this just doesn't add up.

I have seen people refer to "peak everything" ... and I think I'm starting to understand what they mean. These systems are all so linked and connected that a peak in any component sends ripples through the entire complex. The bottom line in this case, however, is that the real source of the problem - over-population - is not being addressed. Instead, the focus is on the drought conditions.

No, the focus should be on reducing the amount of demand for water, via conservation and via reduced head count. Until those two items are pushed higher on the priority list, the long term prospects for resource-constrained areas look ominous.

Posted by tom c. at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Earlier this year in February, I blogged about Australia's severe drought, but now drought is hitting closer to home (Atlanta) ... and the situtation is looking pretty dismal.

The article at the end of that link is well worth a read, but here's the synopsis:

• Atlanta metro area has a population of about 5.3 million
• Atlanta is experiencing a never before witnessed level of drought
• Lake Lanier (the main reservoir) is down to around 3 months worth of water left in storage
• The drought is hitting the local economy (landscapers not doing any business, layoffs, etc.)
• There is not a whole lot of rain in the forecast
• There don't seem to be any reasonable workarounds if Lanier continues to deplete

I'm interested to see how this thing progresses. We are still in hurricane season, so there is a decent chance that the Atlanta area could see some significant rain. On the other hand, October is typically the driest month of the year, so if rain comes, Atlanta would be extremely lucky.

What will Atlantans do? Will the drought cause people to change? What's the right amount of change? How can you measure your water usage against other residents? If there is a water shortage, what will the government do? What can they do? Is the drought related to global warming? Is this the beginning of persistent water problems in the deep south of the US?

Update December 14, 2007:
Atlanta's water problem hasn't gotten any better. This USGS page is the best place to go for status on Lake Lanier water data.

Posted by tom c. at 5:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lifehacker is a cool site ... and they have published a couple of posts today related to conservation.

Top 10 Computing Energy Savers
Conserve Water with Navy Showers

Both worth a look.

Posted by tom c. at 2:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The EPA has a new (to me) program - WaterSense - for consumers interested in purchasing water efficient products, like toilets, faucets and showerheads. Akin to the EnergyStar program, which helps consumers identify energy-efficient electrical appliances like washers, dryers and regrigerators, WaterSense strives to do the following:

Americans use large quantities of water inside and outside of their homes. The average family of four uses 400 gallons of water every day. This amount can increase depending on location; for example, the arid West has some of the highest per capita residential water use because of landscape irrigation.

WaterSense helps conserve water for future generations by providing information on products and programs that save water without sacrificing performance. In fact, every average household that fully adopts water efficient products and practices saves 30,000 gallons per year—enough to supply a year of drinking water for 150 thirsty neighbors.

WaterSense rated products "will save you 20 percent of water over average counterparts." Pretty neat - I had never heard of this program before listening earlier today to the home improvement radio show The Money Pit, which also looks like a pretty decent resource.

Posted by tom c. at 5:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Although the vast majority of Save and Conserve visitors come from North America and Europe, every now and again, someone from Australia drops in and visits this site. Makes sense - Australia is literally on the other side of the Earth from Albany, NY where I live and so I don't often write about Australian conservation.

But maybe I should be focusing more on Australia, home country of my all-time favorite golfer, "the Shark", and one of the driest continents in the world. Australia is dealing with a "100 year drought" - which is not nearly as rad as the "50 year storm". Anyway, the drought raises a host of interesting questions about resource scarcity in industrialized society. Chief among them is: "How can we best conserve, share and distribute dwindling supplies of water?"

Australian fresh water, typically not very plentiful in good times, is now in extraordinarily short supply. Australia is so parched that poisonous snakes are slithering into cities searching for some drink.

From the Independent Online:

Thanks to the drought, dams are drying up. One dam alone in New South Wales has lost a volume of water equivalent to Sydney Harbour, because of evaporation. River beds in bone-dry rural areas are empty and cracked. One newspaper yesterday carried a front-page photograph of a little girl jumping over a muddy trickle on her parents' property - all that remains of the once powerful Darling, Australia's longest river. The river is part of the Murray-Darling system, which feeds the country's food basket. The National Climate Centre warned that without rain, the rivers will soon run dry.

Yep - sounds like a drought to me.

Now some Australians, recognizing that they are in dire straits, are pushing the public to adopt water recycling programs. The idea would be to recycle and purify water from sewage. Sure, nobody wants to drink sewer water. That goes without saying. But again, this is a country in the midst of a crippling drought. Sacrifice is reasonable given the circumstances, isn't it?

Remember, this is a country running out of water:

The Queensland Water Commission forecasts that dedicated-use drinking water could run out by 2009.

Clearly, something has to give in Australia. They need to figure out a way to get more water, without going bankrupt in the process. Recycling and purifying water from sewage makes common sense. It happens to be much cheaper than desalinizing water, as a comparison. (I'm not sure, but my guess is that it would take less energy to purify and treat sewer water than it would be to desalinate water.)

It should be interesting to see what they decide to do about the water shortage. Will they allocate their resources and money wisely in order to meet demand? Or will they squabble and hedge and obfuscate? Given the recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it looks like Australia will be a case study for other societies. Let's hope they can manage a tough problem the right way. Maybe we'll learn a thing or two and be more prepared to meet our own resource and energy challenges.

Posted by tom c. at 1:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In June of 2006, my GF and I caught An Inconvenient Truth in the theater and walked away very moved and impressed by the film's message of warning and wake-up. While Christmas shopping in late December, I spied the DVD copy of An Inconvenient Truth and ended up throwing it in the cart (I rarely buy DVDs, preferring to rent). The DVD contains an update from Gore on the global warming situation in the year since the film was completed.

To sum, in the year since the movie wrapped, more evidence of rising global temperatures has come to light, as have additional studies linking weather events to global warming. In the 30 minute update, which is well worth anyone's time, Gore touches on the following:

Hurricanes
Also known as cyclones (Australia) and typhoons (Asia), studies have been released linking the growing intensity of hurricanes to rising sea surface temperatures. Although the 2006 hurricane season in the Atlantic was a big zero, Australia had a very active season and China had Saomai - the strongest "super typhoon" it has seen in the past 50 years. The takeaway: expect to see more highly amped hurricanes in the near future.

Global Temperatures
The 12 month period from July 2005 to June 2006 was the warmest period in US history. In July, 2006, South Dakota hit 120 degrees. In July, 2005, the temperature reached a mind-boggling 125.6 degrees in Pakistan - which may or may not be an all-time record. Honey, cancel the Pakistan trip next summer, will ya?

Ocean Acidification
An enormous amount of CO2 is dumped into the atmosphere each day - Gore tells us it is 70 million tons per day. Of that, 25 million tons per day is absorbed by the ocean. All of that CO2 reduces the pH level of the ocean and makes it more acidic. More acidic water makes it difficult for organisms like coral and shell fish to calcify. You may have seen alarming reports about bleached-out coral reefs, which are considered to be the rain forests of the ocean. Ocean acidification is caused by CO2 emissions and it has the potential to negatively impact the entire ocean food chain. Nice.

Glacial Earthquakes
Greenland has the second most ice on the planet, after Antarctica. For now. Ice melt on Greenland is accelerating; last year Greenland lost about 50 cubic miles of ice to melt. As the ice has begun to melt faster, the incidence of glacial earthquakes has picked up. From 1993 to 1999, the number of glacial quakes exceeding 4.5 on the Richter scale increased from 7 to 15. From 1999 to 2005, the number increased from 15 to 32. This is evidence of destabilized ice and, as Gore says, is another clear warning sign that global warming is real.

Major Wildfires
A study was released that linked warming temperatures with more frequent and more intense fires in the western US. Higher temps, incidentally, also dry out the Earth's soil (soil moisture evaporation), creating a breeding ground for lightning induced wildfires. Unfortunately, more wildfires means more CO2 released into the Earth's atmosphere. This appears to be one of those positive feedback loops.

Permafrost
Frozen in soil in places like Siberia and Alaska is a lot of CO2 and methane. The permafrost in Siberia, for example, contains something like 70 billion metric tons of methane. For those of you who haven't made the jump to the metric system that is 1.54323584 × 10^14 pounds. Lot of LBs there. A Russian scientist has bad news: a Siberian peat bog the size of Germany and France has begun to thaw. Not good.

All in all, a sobering update from the former VP Gore.

Update: Calendar year 2006 was the warmest year on record in US history.

Posted by tom c. at 8:02 AM | Permalink

Save and Conserve tends to focus on the hydrocarbon landscape more than other natural resources, but water has been more and more on my mind lately. This is due largely to the ongoing and growing drought situation in the western US.

Seems the Mississippi is running low - not at the alltime low, but with no rains forecast, the river won't be rising anytime soon. The trickle down effect of drought has major impacts to the transportation system in the region which relies on the river to ship grains & crops down river to ports. Since the river is lower, barges must carry less cargo (so they don't run aground), which means it costs more to ship and lowers supply. Subsequently, food prices will rise.

China has been dealing with their own major drought, too. Droughts mean lower river levels ... but they also mean less drinking water. Expect to see more in the news about conflicts over water in the western US over the next couple of months.

Check out the drought monitor to get a sense for the trend in the US. I recommend the 12-week animation loop. Yikes.

Let's hope the west isn't heading for another Dust Bowl. Nothing good looking on that page.

Posted by tom c. at 10:56 AM | Permalink