In the western U.S., seven different states share the Colorado River, whose “main reservoirs,” according to Politico’s Annie Snider, are seeing their “water levels” reach “historic lows” thanks to climate change. Snider, in an article published on November 2, reports that the states are “locked in battle over who must make sharp cuts in their water use to avoid a catastrophe that could hit as soon as next summer.”In that scenario, Snider notes, “federal dam managers would have to decide between cutting water deliveries to Arizona, California and Nevada or losing hydropower production that is critical to the stability of the region’s electrical grid and potentially damaging one of the nation’s largest dams.”The big question at this point, according to Snider, is how President Donald Trump and his allies will handle the looming crisis.Snider reports, “President Donald Trump loves a good water war — and the biggest one yet is about to land in his lap…. The problem has all the trappings of temptation for Trump: The region is home to two political swing states and one of Trump’s favorite Democratic foes, California Gov. Gavin Newsom. There are flailing state and local officials, irate farmers and ranchers, dilapidated dams that were once the pride of American engineering, and an international treaty with Mexico. But so far, the administration’s approach to the crisis has been anything but MAGA….. Trump hasn’t wrested control of the system of dams and canals that deliver water, as he did in California’s Central Valley just days after taking office, in the name of sending water to combat already-extinguished fires in Los Angeles.”The Politico reporter adds, “He hasn’t sent in the National Guard, as the state of Arizona did in 1934 to protect its water rights. Trump hasn’t even posted on social media about the topic. Perhaps most notably, the man his administration has tapped to run point on the Colorado River is not a Trump loyalist or a political ideologue, but a George W. Bush-era budget wonk known for his sweet tooth and pet Siamese cats, who is a self-described neophyte to the arcane and fraught world of western water.” The Colorado River’s “problems,” according to Snider, “have been building for decades.””Warming temperatures and reduced precipitation have caused its flows to shrink by 20 percent over the past quarter century,” Snider explains. “Prior droughts have been weathered thanks to the nation’s two biggest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell. But demand has outstripped supply for so long now (that) water levels at the lakes are plunging towards precarious lows.”Read Annie Snider’s full Politico article at this link.
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