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Can you imagine what would happen if each tap that delivered water from the Colorado River suddenly went dry for one year? Well that’s exactly what a team of researchers from Arizona State University wanted to find out – and the results were astonishing!
Here are a few of the impacts on the West if the Colorado River went dry for just ONE year
• The region would see a 1.4 TRILLION dollar drop in economic activity.
• Of all the water used in the basin, 43% of agricultural supply and 41% of municipal and Industrial supplies come from the Colorado River.
• It would also lose 16 million jobs.
o Around 7 million in California and 2.1 million in Colorado and Arizona.
• Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming (Along with 7 Southern California counties) would see losses to their gross state product (GSP) of half or more.
o Nevada would drop by 87%
• Colorado would lose around 189 billion dollars in economic activity that is dependent on the rivers water.
• Arizona, Nevada, and Southern California get their Colorado water from Lake Mead which has dropped more than 100 feet since 2000.
o Researchers say that without aggressive conservation efforts, there’s a 50% chance Lake Mead could reach “dead pool” (which makes it unusable) by 2036.
• Utah is proposing to spend up to $15 billion on new water supple projects.
• Switching from flood to drip irrigation on farms can increase “crop per drop” allowing yields to be maintained or even increased with less water.
• The opening of markers that allow users to buy and sell water more freely can also greatly increase water productivity and reduce the economic impacts of declining water availability.
• Incentives for greater conservation, efficiency, reuse, and trading can play a big part in maximizing benefits from the water available while ensuring enough flow to protect the health of the Colorado and its tributaries.
o The Colorado River System Conservation Program is a useful start. So is the ambitious goal set by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti last October to cut LA’s water imports by half within a decade.
Source: http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2015/01/20/a-year-without-the-colorado-river-as-seen-by-economists/