This is just one post in the Colorado River Basin Category

Looming water issues on both sides of our borders foreshadow big problems

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 10, 2008 at 1:10 pm

From Earthnews:

Adaptation, or the matter of adjusting to climate change, is sometimes called a cheaper, easier way to deal with some of the consequences of a warming world. But consider the battle between the United States, Mexico and Canada that was triggered here amid the vegetable farms near the California border.

For more than 60 years the family of Geronimo Hernandez has raised watermelons, peppers and other crops in the rich, irrigated soil of Mexicali Valley, but within the next five years it could begin to dry up.

That would leave Hernandez, 62, and 400 other farmers in a desert with no jobs, victims of new efforts by the United States to plug some of the leaks in the Colorado River system that provides water to much of the drought-stricken Southwest. That issue, in turn, has raised the hackles of Canada, where groups worry that the next U.S. move will be to come after Canada’s ample supplies of fresh water.

While politicians in the United States focus on what Congress might do to curb greenhouse gases in the future, many scientists worry how nations will respond to climate changes that are already under way.

In the recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, climate scientists concluded that conserving water will be essential and that North America may find it easier to adapt than other parts of the world because it has “responsive” governments and more robust economies.

“The literature provides high agreement and much evidence of many options for achieving reductions of global GHG (greenhouse gases) emissions at the international level through cooperation,” the panel found. But if the mess that involves Hernandez is any guide, adaptation will be slow, shrill, expensive and politically ugly.

The situation Hernandez is referencing in the above excerpt is the lining of the All-American canal. The reservoir mentioned in the article is the Drop 2 reservoir. This is causing some difficulties for Mexico as they are seeing water they have come to rely on dry up.

But our water woes are cause for concern in Canada, as well, and apparently, the idea of a large system to move water from Canada to the U.S. is at least being discussed in some circles (also see this related WaterWired post):

The White House asked the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a private Washington research group, to do a study. Last April Peschard-Sverdrup, a senior associate with the center, brought a team of Mexican and U.S. experts to Calgary, Canada, along with a position paper suggesting that the three countries might consider “water transfers and artificial diversions of fresh water” to head off future water disputes.

The Council of Canadians, a nationalist group, leaked the paper to the press calling it “damning evidence” of “secret talks” aimed at getting access to Canadian water. Maude Barlow, chairman of the group, sees a plot. “It [water] will be taken from the North. It will require a great engineering feat to build pipelines. There will be very big opposition to this when it happens.”

Peschard-Sverdrup said this is nonsense. “They do that for fund-raising purposes,” he asserts, referring to the council. But the Council of Canadians’ move rattled the Canadian government, which refused to participate in the study or to send federal officials to participate in the Calgary talks.

The Conference Board of Canada, a private Ottawa research group similar to the CSIS, refused to be a cosponsor of the study. Instead it released its own, noting that while Canada has about 20 percent of the world’s fresh water, much of it is locked up in glaciers in the far north. Gilles Rheaume, a vice president of the conference board, said: “We’re looking at the question, ‘Do we really have a lot of water to sell?’ The answer is no.”

One of his group’s concerns is that if, somehow, Canadian water was fed to the thirsty and rapidly growing cities of the U.S. Southwest, there will be no end to the demand. The U.S. Census Bureau, the Conference Board notes, expects the population of Nevada and Arizona to double by 2030. “Our question is whether there should be limitations on continuing this development. It’s a harsh reality, but it has to be considered,” Rheaume said.

Read the rest of this story from Earth News by clicking here.

March 10, 2008 · Filed Under All-American Canal, Colorado River Basin, National water news

Comments

One Response to “Looming water issues on both sides of our borders foreshadow big problems”

WaterSource on March 11th, 2008 3:15 am

Readers of Aguafornia know…

The Bureau of Reclamation, San Diego and Mexicali were offered a NEW Source solution to solve the inevitable drying-up of Mexicali !

US Courts may have rendered the correct legal finding, but a kinder gentler solution was totally ignored by all parties…particularly Mexicali !

A solution for Lake Mead and the restoration of the Colorado River Delta and Salton Sea were thrown in as added bonuses…

Sympathy has its limits.

Ray Walker (Retired Water Rights Analyst)
waterrdw@yahoo.com

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