Water Resource

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Water Resource
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Total Withdrawal 134,000 Mgal/day Surface water
63 Groundwater 37 Irrigation Use 39 of all
freshwater withdrawal
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• Total withdrawal increased from 1950 to 1980 and
  has held steady since then although population
  has increased by 16
• Withdrawal for thermoelectric power generation
  190,000 Mgal/day largest of any other category
• Higher water price, more public awareness,
  conservation, better farming and industrial
  techniques will keep water demand in check

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• Hydroelectric water use 3,160,000 Mgals/day
• 2.6 times annual run-off
• Same water is used several times by a series of
  dam on the same river
• Instream use water is returned to the stream
• Almost all withdrawal is from fresh surface water

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The High Plains Aquifer

• The High Plains is a 174,000-square-mile area of
  flat to gently rolling terrain that includes
  parts of eight States from South Dakota to Texas.
  The area is characterized by moderate
  precipitation but in general has a low
  natural-recharge rate to the ground-water system.
  Unconsolidated alluvial deposits that form a
  water-table aquifer called the High Plains
  aquifer underlie the region. During the late
  1800s, settlers and speculators moved to the
  plains, and farming became the major land-use
  activity in the area. Since that time, irrigation
  water pumped from the aquifer has made the High
  Plains one of the Nations most important
  agricultural areas.
• Over the years, the intense use of ground water
  for irrigation in the High Plains has caused
  major water-level declines and decreased the
  saturated thickness of the aquifer significantly
  in some areas. For example, in parts of Kansas,
  New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, ground-water
  levels have declined more than 100 feet

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Changes in ground-water levels in the High Plains
aquifer from before ground-water development to
1997. (V.L. McGuire, U.S. Geological Survey,
written commun., 1998.)
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The Gulf Coastal Plain Aquifer System

• The Gulf Coastal Plain aquifer system consists of
  a large and complex system of aquifers and
  confining units that underlie about 290,000
  square miles extending from Texas to westernmost
  Florida, including offshore areas to the edge of
  the Continental Shelf.
• Water withdrawals from the aquifer system have
  caused
• lowering of hydraulic heads at and near pumping
  centers
• reduced discharges to streams, lakes, and
  wetlands
• induced movement of saltwater into parts of
  aquifers that previously contained freshwater
• and caused land subsidence in some areas as a
  result of the compaction of interbedded clays
  within aquifers.

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Land subsidence in Houston
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The Colorado River flows through Utah to Lake
Powell, thence through the northwest corner of
Arizona to Lake Mead. From Hoover Dam it flows
southward to Mexico forming the border between
Nevada, California and Arizona, and yielding
major diversions to central Arizona and southern
California. The river is the lifeblood of the
southwestern US and its development and
management have been the focus of attention by
the member states for more than a century. Waters
of the Colorado River System have been
apportioned by a treaty with Mexico, compacts,
and a Supreme Court decree to the seven basin
states.
Colorado River basin
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• The Colorado River flows through Utah to Lake
  Powell, thence through the northwest corner of
  Arizona to Lake Mead. From Hoover Dam it flows
  southward to Mexico forming the border between
  Nevada, California and Arizona, and yielding
  major diversions to central Arizona and southern
  California. The river is the lifeblood of the
  southwestern US and its development and
  management have been the focus of attention by
  the member states for more than a century. Waters
  of the Colorado River System have been
  apportioned by a treaty with Mexico, compacts,
  and a Supreme Court decree to the seven basin
  states.

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Colorado River Compact

• The Colorado River Compact of 1922 divided the
  use of waters of the Colorado River System
  between the Upper and Lower Colorado River Basin.
  
• It apportioned in perpetuity to the Upper and
  Lower Basin, respectively, the beneficial
  consumptive use of 7.5 million acre feet (maf) of
  water per annum.
• It also provided that the Upper Basin will not
  cause the flow of the river at Lee Ferry to be
  depleted below an aggregate of 75 maf for any
  period of ten consecutive years.
• The Mexican Treaty of 1944 allotted to Mexico a
  guaranteed annual quantity of 1.5 maf. These
  amounts, when combined, exceed the river's
  long-term average annual flow.

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Within Colorado water allocations are based on
the Doctrine of Prior Appropriation or the
First-in-Time, First-in-Right Doctrine. This
doctrine is found in most arid states because
when there is too little water to satisfy all
users, sharing of the remaining water would be of
little value to any user
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Water Rights

• Riparian Rights (Eastern USA)
• Every landowner can make reasonable use of lake
  or stream or water flowing through or bordering
  his property
• Municipalities have the right of eminent domain
  at times of scarcity, cities get their
  requirement first
• Sale of riparian rights allowed in some states
• Practical in regions of plentiful water

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Law of Prior Appropiation

• First come, first served
• Settlers can lay claim to certain amount of water
  which will be honored for perpetuity
• The oldest claim are honored first and any left
  over goes to the next claimant and so on..
• Los Angeles bought up water rights in 1900 from
  areas far and wide, some even from Arizona. Now
  people in those areas are very unhappy about the
  arrangement