"A river reaching the sea is the assumption built into the word river, and across the American West it is increasingly not true. The Colorado has not made the Gulf of California under natural conditions since 1998. The Gila, once one of the great tributaries of the Southwest, runs dry through metropolitan Phoenix for most of the year. Sixty miles of the San Joaquin simply vanished from the map for six decades. In every case the water did not evaporate or get stolen by drought alone, it was allocated, and in most cases allocated to more users than the river physically contains. Here are the American rivers that stop short, and what happens at the end of each one."
www.worldatlas.com
While the West has been in drought for several years, the primary reason Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the two largest reservoirs in the U.S., have declined to record low levels is because of historic over-allocation of the water of the Colorado River.
The Colorado River Compact of 1922 allocated 17.5 million acre feet ("maf") of water annually among seven states . . . in perpetuity. This allocation, unfortunately, was based on an anomalous "Wet Period." The negotiators looked at hydrologic data from the previous 20 years (roughly 1902–1921). Unbeknownst to them, this was one of the wettest periods in the Colorado River's 1,200-year recorded history. They assumed the river's average annual flow was well over 16 to 17 maf. In reality, the long-term historical average is closer to 13–14 maf, and drought has recently shrunk that to about 12 maf. Meanwhile, the population served by the water allocation has grown from 1-2 million people in 1922 to over 40 million today.
Methinks this water problem is mathematically insoluble for the Southwest USA.
Go East, young man, go East!
The American Rivers That No Longer Reach The Ocean
The Colorado has not reached the sea naturally since 1998. The Gila, Santa Cruz, San Joaquin and Owens all stop short too. The American rivers that no longer finish.
www.worldatlas.com
While the West has been in drought for several years, the primary reason Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the two largest reservoirs in the U.S., have declined to record low levels is because of historic over-allocation of the water of the Colorado River.
The Colorado River Compact of 1922 allocated 17.5 million acre feet ("maf") of water annually among seven states . . . in perpetuity. This allocation, unfortunately, was based on an anomalous "Wet Period." The negotiators looked at hydrologic data from the previous 20 years (roughly 1902–1921). Unbeknownst to them, this was one of the wettest periods in the Colorado River's 1,200-year recorded history. They assumed the river's average annual flow was well over 16 to 17 maf. In reality, the long-term historical average is closer to 13–14 maf, and drought has recently shrunk that to about 12 maf. Meanwhile, the population served by the water allocation has grown from 1-2 million people in 1922 to over 40 million today.
Methinks this water problem is mathematically insoluble for the Southwest USA.
Go East, young man, go East!
