Colorado River
By Graham Koval
Do you know where your water comes from? We normally hear about water quality and water scarcity in impoverished countries but what about the United States? Do we have the mindset of an infinite clean water supply?
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| 2013 #1 Most Endangered River |
Water is the basis for life, especially in the western United States where 35 million people depend on the Colorado River for drinking water. Drinking water is just one of the issues with agriculture consuming massive amounts of water and the recreational industry heavily influencing local economies. These social justice issues are becoming more of a concern with increasing drought in the Western United States along with increasing demand agriculturally. Also there are two major issues impacting the quality of water very high up stream in Nevada and Utah. First, a rocket fuel plant has been leaking ammonium perchlorate into the Colorado River, which brings concerns about the safety of drinking water and food. Second, a abandoned uranium mill site with twelve million tons of radioactive waste sitting on the banks in Moab, Utah also has potentially devastating effects towards public health.
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| Lettuce an issue across the United States |
The ammonium perchlorate has been a concern for the past decade since the spill in the late 90’s. Clean up efforts happened but the rocket fuel still exists in crops in the lower Colorado river basin. Toxicologists from the University of California-Riverside research shows that findings in citrus, lettuce and vegetables show harmless doses but research is being conducted to see how cumulative exposure over a longer time period and multiple crops being consumed effects human health. The chemical is linked to cancer and thyroid problems but doses for risk are unclear.
The uranium mill site in 2005 was issued to be removed and cleared away from the banks of the Colorado river but this process takes more then ten years and until then radioactive waste will be seeping into the Colorado river. This water provides drinking water for 1/12 Americans and supplies 15% of nations crops. The radioactive wastes from the uranium mill and ammonium perchlorate from the rocket fuel are just a few of the past pollutants in the Colorado River and along with drought is why studies call the Colorado River the nations most endangered waterway.
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| 70-80% of water for agricultural use |
Jeffrey Kightlingerm General Manager of the Metropolitan Water district said, “We have other sources of energy.. We don’t have other sources of water”.
Kighlingerm makes a valid point about the multiple uses of the Colorado River and how we are coming to a point in which there needs to be conservation and limits on what the water is used for. The current supply from the Colorado River is going to reduce due to climate change by 10 to 30 percent by 2050. This is going to take a huge hit on agriculture. In Colorado alone it is anticipated that up to 70% of Colorado agriculture will be dried up by 2050. Agricultural with providing 15% of the nations crops from irrigation that came from the Colorado river has huge dependency with possibly extreme negatives outcomes. In an NPR article, Kate Greenberg who is with the Nation young farmers coalition states that new irrigation techniques have become more efficient but agriculture still takes up 70-80% of the river and that needs to change.
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| CO economic gains |
Agriculture is not the only one who is dependent on the water. A major social justice issue is that a healthy Colorado river drives a quarter of a million sustainable American jobs. Nazz Kurth, president of Petzl America (makes outdoor products) states that these ¼ of a million jobs are in a 26 billion dollar outdoor recreation economy. 20-30 million people depend on the Colorado River for drinking water and the availability and transportation of that water across the West is controversial. To get more water for drinking demand diversions of other rivers have been used and effect the ecology of the rivers not being able to support fish, wildlife, agriculture and a multi-billion dollar tourism industry.
A combination of Agriculture, drinking water and recreational industry are all fighting for the water. This is a major social justice issue affecting jobs along with basic necessities of food and agricultural production and drinking water.
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