Western waters

I won’t even pretend to be particularly well versed in all angles of current events, aside from various trivial political happenings. News tends to bombard us quickly and in vast, seemingly endless quantities. While I realize that, as the future leaders of the free world, busy college students are most likely somewhat preoccupied and tend to draw the line at glancing over the big important headlines, issues such as “Who is the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby?” or “Snoop Dogg facing up to four years of time in a state prison.” Every once in a while though, some little thing on the front page of the New York Times deserves our attention. \nLike, “No longer waiting for rain, an arid west takes action,” which appeared on the front page last Wednesday with a large picture of the current predicament of Nevada’s Lake Mead, 80 feet below normal with a pier hanging suspended over dry ground. The article goes on to explain similar grim projections for the capacity of the Colorado River. By some estimations it could be within the next five years that this trademark of the American West may no longer be able to meet the demand from the seven states that depend on it, without even factoring in the expansion and extreme growth of such Western cities like Las Vegas. \nHaving recently spent some time camping along side and periodically jumping in the frigid waters of the Colorado, this struck me as particularly disturbing. Rising global temperatures have increased evaporation and encouraged early melting, meaning that the future of the river, which is comprised of mountain snowmelt, is uncertain. Not to mention the fate of the expanding number of people who are dependant on it as a primary water source. \nThe real tragedy here not only lies in the environmental burden of excess population growth or in the toll of rising temperatures that are driving the need for water, but in the sad historical context. The flooding of Glen Canyon to create Lake Powell which feeds into Lake Mead was one of the most compromising moments for conservationists, right up there with the damming of Hetch Hetchy. \nThe two lakes, whose water supplies are now being fought over by Nevada and Utah are travesties themselves, having been built over sandstone. What water doesn’t evaporate or seep into the sandstone layers in Lake Powell travels to Lake Mead. The lake’s Hoover Dam is so often a symbol of American triumph over the West. The problem is that these reservoirs and man-made lakes are no where near a permanent solution, which leads me to believe that the West was never really won. The sandstone cannot hold the water and the Colorado will soon cease to deliver and adequate supply of it. It seems the current water systems are nothing more than a temporary solution, laden with painful environmental degradation. Perhaps people will never accept the limits of man’s control over nature, especially at the cost of abandoning western areas that were never meant to sustain human populations, but when the issue is water, can we continue to ignore it?