WATER Colorado

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WATERColorado
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OVERVIEW

• Introduction and Right to Water
• Quantity and Quality Issues
• Water Law
• Dams /-
• Case Studies General to Local
• Policy Recommendations

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HOMER-DIXON MODEL

• Finite Resource
• Environmental Scarcity or Degradation
• Social Changes
• Insecurity

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COCOPAH - PEOPLE OF THE RIVER

• Indigenous peoples of MX, CA, AZ
• Colorado River is water, fish, food (grain),
  clothes (cotton), habitat for game, means of
  travel, boundary, culture, calendar
• Water is more than just water

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LOSS

• Colorado River Delta is dry and salty
• Lost economy, ecology, education, species
• Harbinger - Early Warning S. Postel

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OTHERS

• Worldwide by 2025 3.5 B water shortage
• Dead Sea down 10 M
• Sahara expanding
• China water table down 1M/yr
• Salt intrusion in most coastal bodies

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OTHERS 2

• Aral Sea geology.sdsu.edu/facilities/carre/carre_s
  tudy.html
• Baikal (deepest in world) shrinking
• Drought in England
• www.worldwatch.org/alerts/990923.html

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UNITED STATES

• 8 endangered watersheds, half wetlands lost
• 20 endangered rivers
• 8 fish advisories or warnings
• 5 Pfisteria outbreaks
• 1 disappearing river
• 49 pesticides in river near farms

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SETTING AND STAGE

• Whiskeys for drinkin, waters for fightin
• Water flows uphill to money
• 150 freshwater bodies are shared by 2 or more
  nations, 50 are shared by 4 or more
• As water prices increase to reflect true value,
  will the worlds poorest still receive fair
  share? E. Robbins

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I P A T

• P, A, and T relate to water
• Water and Energy
• Water and Biodiversity
• Water and Air Pollution

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WATER

• Life Itself
• Human Body 80 water, lose 10 mortal
• Must drink 3 body weight daily (2L)
• Blood same salinity as the seas (36ppt)
• Rivers are Cradles of Civilizations
• Water Planet

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WHY WATER IS LIFE

• Transparent, Incompressible, Soluble and Solute,
  Neutral pH, Expands at Low Temperatures, High
  Heat Capacity, Exists in All Three States,
  Conductive, Polar

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UN RIGHT TO WATER

• 14,000 to 30,000 die daily
• Minimum need 50 l/p/d
• 60 nations fail to meet
• Haiti 3 l/p/d
• Especially in arid regions

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HOW MUCH IS THERE?

• Oceanic or salty 97.4
• Ice caps and glaciers 2
• Groundwater 0.45
• Soils and Biota 0.07
• Lakes and rivers 0.06
• Atmosphere 0.01

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RENEWABLE OR NOT?

• Rain, rivers and reservoirs may make us think
  water is infinite or ever replenishing
• Dams, wastewater treatment plants, and other
  human systems treat it that way
• It is Finite and Fixed
• We need to begin to treat it as if it were not
  renewable!

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HYDROLOGICAL CYCLE

• Atmospheric, Oceanic, Surface, Ground
• Evaporation and Transpiration
• Precipitation
• Renewable?
• P E T R I

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WATER AND POPULATION

• Quantity Vs Need
• Take withdraw and consume
• Quality Vs Need
• Pollute deposit or degrade

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DISPARITY

• Availability (population doesnt match runoff)
• Map of People Vs Rain
• www.igc.org/wri/wr2000/page_sample_maps/sld009_lar
  ge.htm
• Use (affluent peoples use most)

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GROWING POPULATION

• More users especially in dryer places
• Greater per capita use
• More waste and degradation
• Greatest demand is for food

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CARRYING CAPACITY

• If 20 of all freshwater were taken for food and
  everyone was a vegetarian, 20-30 B
• If meat-eating, 1.7-2.5B

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UNSUSTAINABLE USE

• Inefficiencies
• Subsidies
• Responses to shortages
• Search, Take and Pollute Vs Reuse

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WATER USE

• Varies by nation
• Worldwide gt75 for food (India 92)
• In U.S. Agriculture and Industry each use 45
• Competition among Agriculture, Industry,
  Residences, Consumption, Ecosystems and Instream
  Uses

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AGRICULTURE 1

• Half of all waters removed from system
• Half worlds arable land irrigated
• Irrigated land tripled since 1950 (Most in Asia)
• Wasteful practices (Rice cost 830 m3 per person)

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AGRICULTURE 2

• 73 - 93 of all water applied to 17 of all
  cropland for more than a third of all food
• Marginal lands are also artificially fertilized
  and rid of pests
• Irrigation waters also carry salt, pathogens and
  silt reducing the soils productivity and
  polluting ground water

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AGRICULTURE 3

• One of every three acres eventually abandoned.
• Nitrates (health risk) and phosphorus
  (eutrophication trigger) are principles nutrient
  loads
• Waterlogging, Eutrophication, Biomagnification,
  Subsidence

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EUTROPHICATION

• Nutrient loading
• N and P
• BOD
• Weedy Species

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INDUSTRY 1

• Poverty Pollutes but Affluence Pollutes
  Absolutely
• Stuck in Second Stage
• Unable to Afford Fourth Stage
• Able to Create New Pollutants

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INDUSTRY 2

• Power plants use the most but consume the least
  (heat pollution)
• Other consumers are metals, chemicals, petroleum,
  pulp/paper, and food production

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HAZARDOUS WASTES

• More (5-10) Hazardous Waste Annually, Doubling
  each Decade
• Nutrients, Poisons, Chlorine, Metals, Chemicals,
  Combustibles, Toxins, Explosives, Reactants,
  Acids/Alkalis, Radioactive
• Biomagnification
• Intangible (Noise, Heat, Light, Radioactive)

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DEFORESTATION

• Runoff and Erosion Increased
• Absorption and Recharge Decreased
• Soil Productivity Gone
• Sedimentation (13 B Tons annually) Raises Flood
  Plains or Block Flows
• Rains Flood Homes

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WATER AND ENERGY

• Takes Energy to Get Water
• Takes Water to Get Energy
• Oil Spills, Acid Rain, GCC
• Wet and Dry Deposition
• Aquatic Contribution to Air Polluition

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URBANIZATION

• Mega-Cities (1975 7, 2000 26 Predicted)
• Half of Worlds Population
• Heat Islands upset the Runoff/Absorption/Evapora
  tion Balance
• Non-Point Pollution gtgt Point Pollution

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DOMESTIC USE

• U.S 2000 gal/day over 70 times the use in LDC
• Toilets (40), washing machines (20),
  shower/bath (20), sink (15) accounts for 95 of
  household use.
• Efficient flow toilets save!

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INSTREAM USE

• Fishing
• Navigation
• Hydropower
• Recreation (growing fastest)

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ECOLOGICAL USE

• Biological assimilation No water No life!
• Groundwater recharge
• Temperature modification

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VALUE OF WILDS

• Wetlands are Filters, Homes, Sponges, Nurseries,
  Sources of Essential Nutrients
• Half a million acres lost annually to agriculture

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WATER LIMITS

• Water doesnt limit population, but rather
  economic growth and quality of life
• China has same water as Canada but lower standard
  of living
• Hundreds of cities already lack
• Water mining (more out than in) is standard
• Salt water intrusion and Subsidence are
  irreversible

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GENERAL INEFFICIENCIES

• Temperate Mentality
• Value vs Cost of Water
• Timing of Need
• Geography of Availability
• Theory of Germs

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WATER QUALITY

• Point (sewage outfall) Vs Non-point (farm and
  residential) pollution
• Discharge Vs Receiving body (TMDLs)
• Pollutions
• Sedimentation
• Toxins
• Heavy metals
• Contaminants

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WATERBORNE DISEASES

• 25,000 people died today from polluted waters,
  80 of all childhood deaths
• Human excreta contains some of the most vicious
  contaminants known

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DISEASES 2

• Waterborne Cholera, Typhus, Dysentery,
  Salmonella, Shigella (dysentery), Escherichia
  coli, Hepatitis A and B, Giardia,
  Cryptosporidium, etc.
• Related Schistosomiasis, Malaria, Yellow Fever,
  Sleeping Sickness

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WATER AND SECURITY

• Back to the model
• Doctrine of riparian rights
• Doctrine of appropriation
• Stealing (seeding clouds Vs buying)

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SITUATION

• Water Flows past/through Nations
• Lake Shared by Nations
• Each Takes and Treats as Sink

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ORIGINS OF WATER LAW

• Oldest law - Take all you can get and never let
  go
• Talmud - May sell water from cistern to people
  first , then to their animals, and finally to
  foreigners
• Koran - Fields and cisterns closest to the rivers
  get water proportionate to proximity
• Bible - Dont soil or loosen the land close
  to the water

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CURRENT WATER LAW

• International Law Association/Commission and UN
  FAO
• First in time, first in use use it or lose it
• 1961 Salzburg Non-maritime water use (take)
• 1979 Athens Right of use (pollution)
• Helsinki Reasonable and equitable
• Use (take and pollute) so others not harmed

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US WATER LAW

• East Riparian Rights - Use (take and pollute) but
  leave the same for downstream
• West Prior Appropriation - First come, first
  served
• Ground water is common law of land - Suck before
  your neighbor does
• California Surface and adjoining subsurface
  flowing vs ground water

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DAMN OR FAUSTIAN DAMS

• Positive Effects Flood Control, Electricity,
  Irrigation, Urbanization,
• Negative EffectsSiltation and Lost Fertility,
  Salination, Deforestation, Displaced Peoples,
  Temperature Change, Depleted Wetlands and Fish
  Stocks, Disrupted Quality and Flood Cycles

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DAMS 2

• No stability if inequity due to transboundary
  influence
• 40,000 dams on 300 international basins
• Reluctance to name dams as outright cause of
  conflict

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DAMS 3

• Nile Why has Egypt been able to build dams yet
  prevent them in Ethiopia and Sudan
• 1997 UN Policy on equity, no harm and prior
  notification still not adopted
• Agreements on monitoring, quality or hydro power
  but none on basin-length management

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COLORADO RIVER

• 30 M people
• Draining 242,000 but Influencing 600,000 Sq.
  Miles
• 1400 miles long ending in the continents largest
  delta (Palm Springs to LCRD), most important
  desert wetland, a once huge and very productive
  estuary, and the Gulf of California/Sea of Cortez
  once navigable to Yuma

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FLOWS

• Acre-foot, Maf, and cusecs
• 12- 18 Maf
• 2 Maf evaporate

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APPROPRIATIONS

• CA 4.4 Maf down from over 5 Maf at surplus
  (flood)
• CO 3.8 Maf
• AZ 2.8 Maf
• UT 1.7 Maf
• MX 1.5 Maf
• WY 1.0 Maf
• NM .84 Maf

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AS IT FLOWS

• More dams
• Less water and silt left
• Saltier and negative estuary
• Less for nature

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COLORADO AND MEXICO

• 1894 International Boundary Commission
• 1922 Split up among states, none to MX
• 1933 Depression and Public Works Administration
• California growing fastest threatens other states
  right of prior appropriation
• 1936-1940 No flow after Hoover Dam

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HISTORY 2

• 1942 All American Canal by Imperial Irrigation
  District
• 1944 Treaty guaranteeing quantity (1.5 Maf) and
  quality (desalinated) and IBC becomes IBWC
• Salty agricultural residue sent back by AZ
• 1961 Mexico protested
• 1964 -1970 No flow after Glen Canyon Dam

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HISTORY 3

• 1965 US embarrassed
• 1972 International Court suit threatened
• 1974 Permanent Solution IBWC
• 1983 Flood waters reached the gulf
• 1993 UN Biosphere reserve
• 2000 California 4.4 Maf by 2015

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SOLUTION?

• 1.5 Maf (10) granted (not rights)
• Desalination plant (300/ac-ft so agriculture can
  use for 3/ac-ft upstream)
• Canal to LCRD
• Salt mountains contribute to air pollution
• No set aside for environment

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WATER FOR NATURE

• Environmental Surplus Criteria
• 32,000 ac-ft annually
• 260,000 ac-ft every four years
• Surplus for river not California

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RIO GRANDE/BRAVO

• International treaty
• MX owes US 1 Maf
• Drought
• Low on no user fees
• NAFTA
• 400M loss on US side

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CALIFORNIA

• Farmers own 80 by prior appropriation
• Water districts own the infrastructure
• Aquifers depleted and subsiding

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SAN DIEGO

• IID has rights
• Sold to SD for 245/ac-ft
• Use MWD pipes
• Seepage to Mexico denied
• www.sdcwa.org

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WATER SCENARIOS

• Long and holistic view of sustainable use
  security
• Scenario is a story not a prediction
• Current situation, Driving forces (demographic,
  economic, technological, social, governance,
  environmental), Plot, Future

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CRITICAL UNCERTAINTIES

• Water productivity
• Irrigation and Food production
• Dematerialization
• Technology
• Acceptance of GMO
• Dams
• Lifestyle

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SCENARIOS

• BAU Business as Usual No Change
• TEP Technology, Economic, and Private Sector
• VAL Values and Lifestyle

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BAU LOOKS GLOOMY

• Inequity increases
• Water issues unresolved
• Problems critical by 2025
• Diminished resilience and resistance
• Triggered regional conflicts
• Crisis worldwide

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TEP LOOKS BETTER

• Growth but lags in South
• Food production increases
• Major private sector involvement in water
• Reduced water intensity
• Lost social sustainability
• Polarization up vs down-stream
• Degraded aquatic ecosystems in South

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VAL PRECURSORS

• Evolving awareness
• Confrontation
• Plague
• New Understanding

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VAL ONLY VIABLE FUTURE

• Few high visibility water catastrophes
• Crops less water dependent
• Water hygiene education reduces disease
• Aquatic ecosystem degraded but stable
• Private-public-advocate partnerships proliferate
• Water withdrawal stabilized

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APPROACHES

• Changing Water Paradigm Gleick
• Germs Theory and Toilets (20 Gal/Cap/day)
• Efficient Toilets already saved 20 of total
  household use
• Another 20 Possible
• Sequestering can save 75
• Dry Composting would save 90

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OJINAGA

• Wastewater
• Salinated soils
• Nutrient loading
• Biomass as
• Jobs
• Save habitat
• Economic Development
• Carbon capture

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DPSEEA

• Driving force (Pop, Econ Dev)
• Pressure (Consume, Pollute)
• State (Available resource)
• Exposure (Absorbed and target organ dose)
• Effects (Morbidity, Mortality)
• Actions (At all levels above i.e., policy,
  management, clean-up, education, treatment)

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POSTEL PRESCRIPTION

• 1. Third-party involvement is key
• 2. Agreements easier of resources other than
  water
• 3. Water sharing when water rights become water
  needs
• 4. Monetizing lessens emotional charge and
  polarization
• 5. Institutions and procedures that cross
  political boundaries

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RECOMMENDATIONS

• Water Literacy
• Appropriate Policies
• Conservation
• Agricultural Reform
• Industrial Recycling
• Urban Naturalizing
• Supply Locally
• Control Pollution