We are on a collision course with our own morals. At what cost progress? Our demand is growing as our population grows as the very resource we need to sustain us begins to dwindle. And this is not something that is news. The looming global water crisis (that does include the U.S.) due to mismanagement, corruption, governmental indifference, privitization, outdated infrastructure, waste, and now climate change has been warned about for at least twenty years. And yet, not only until now when it is beginning to be felt economically by the energy companies who waste it will it be considered to be a crisis.
And it is ironic that the very fossil fuels that exacerbate climate change which contributes to the soil evaporation, erratic rainfall patterns, glacial melt and droughts that are depleting our water are still the preferred energy choices. I wonder if we will EVER learn. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Either we conserve and get SERIOUS about alternate energy sources like solar and other water management incentives especially regarding agricultural irrigation, or we are heading for a very dry future for which we will have no one to blame but ourselves.
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Trade Off Looms for Arid U.S. Regions: Water Or Power?Trade-off looms for arid US regions: water or power?
By Peter N. Spotts,
Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Albuquerque, N.M. - The drive to build more power plants for a growing nation – as well as the push to use biofuels – is running smack into the limits of a fundamental resource:
water. Already, a power plant uses three times as much water to provide electricity to the average household than the household itself uses through showers, toilets, and the tap. The total water consumed by electric utilities accounts for 20 percent of all the nonfarm water consumed in the United States. By 2030, utilities could account for up to 60 percent of the nonfarm water, because they use water for cooling and to scrub pollutants.
This water-versus-energy challenge is likely to be most acute in fast-growing regions of the US, such as the Southeast and the arid Southwest. Assuming current climate conditions, continued growth in these regions could eventually require tighter restrictions on water use, on electricity use, or both during the hottest months, when demand for both skyrockets, researchers say. Factor in climate change and the projections look worse. This is prompting utilities to find ways to alleviate the squeeze.
Here in New Mexico, scientists and water managers are already wrestling with the issue. One of the state's main sources of electricity is the San Juan generating station. Its main source of cooling water is the Navajo Reservoir, which straddles the state's border with Colorado. Under today's climate conditions, a three-year drought might require users of the reservoir to cut their water consumption by 18 percent, according to preliminary research at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. But a three-year drought with an average temperature rise of 1 degree C (1.8 degrees F.) could mean a 65 percent reduction by the end of the third year.
"This isn't just the San Juan River basin we're talking about," says Andrew Wolfsberg, a hydrologist at the lab. If the US decides to develop oil shale deposits in southern Colorado, which is likely to be water-intensive, it will be difficult to keep oil shale development going, he adds. A large-scale move to biofuels would be even more water-intensive, says Ronald Pate, a researcher at Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque.
snip
The potential collision of water, energy, and climate is not limited to the US. "This is a big issue in other arid and semi-arid parts of the world," says Christopher Flavin, president of the Worldwatch Institute, a nonprofit environmental think tank in Washington. The challenge is especially acute in China and India. India already faces serious water shortages around the country, he says. And in China, he says, the central government is losing control over energy planning as local governments drive the push for more power plants. In the future, if climate forecasts are correct, the demand for thermoelectric power could continue to grow as mountain glaciers melt, reducing the amount of electricity hydroelectric dams downstream can generate.
end of excerpt.
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