Whale-ista
Super Nomad
Posts: 2009
Registered: 2-18-2013
Location: San Diego
Member Is Offline
Mood: Sunny with chance of whales
|
|
More on Baja lack of water (article)
MEXICALI — Blocks from the U.S. border on a recent afternoon, inside a packed auditorium, the farmers’ voices rose with their anxious questions.
Water from the Colorado River has long been the lifeline for their fields of cotton, wheat and alfalfa, and they were learning about the probabilities
of shortages.
What about their water rights? What about cities and industries in the state? “The question is, will more water go to Tijuana and the coast?” asked
Octavio Fierro Márquez. “We’re not against that, but we want certainty as to our rights. If they reduce (our deliveries), they’re taking away a
right.”
www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/jul/04/mexicali-droug...
\"Probably the airplanes will bring week-enders from Los Angeles before long, and the beautiful poor bedraggled old town will bloom with a
Floridian ugliness.\" (John Steinbeck, 1940, discussing the future of La Paz, BCS, Mexico)
|
|
|
bajabuddha
Banned
Posts: 4024
Registered: 4-12-2013
Location: Baja New Mexico
Member Is Offline
Mood: Always cranky unless medicated
|
|
Can the people of northwestern Mexico say, "S. O. L." ? Or, is that "Solo caca Suerte" ?.
I became aware of the severe over-rationing of the Colorado River watershed on my first river trip in 1977. BTW, my teacher, mentor, and first 'boss'
Dee Holladay, of Holiday River Expeditions passed on a little over a week ago. He told me on that trip about how the water was so over-rationed that
even in the highest-known historical flows of the river, it was already over 200% allocated between all the States claiming water rights to the river,
including Mexico, and out of all the States California gets a HUGE share, even though they have no natural boundaries or claim to any of its'
bounties. Along comes Mulholland, all the newer irrigation dams and canals to enrich Californian soils (NOT Baja Californian...) and with a 'woopsie'
due to a natural flood and breach in man-made earthworks, voila, the Salton Sea, and on and on.......
I guess my point is, regardless of how hard Mexico hollers, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and the California fields WILL win out first, especially with the
economic disaster happening now due to the current drought ..... er, sorry....... ALLEGED DROUGHT (guess who that was for). There will be little
'spits' of water flushed down in conciliatory gestures, as was done recently, and the valves will be shut off again right after. Just like
'rebuilding the beaches of the Grand Canyon'. All that did was wash a little sand a little farther downstream. Lasted a year or two, then rocky
beaches again and for the future.
There's only one true solution to the situation; litigation. That in my eyes has two chances; slim and none. My only hope is that George Washington
Hayduke has a job down inside one of the dams (read "The Monkeywrench Gang" by Edward Abbey, or "Glen Canyon" by Steve Hannon).
All facts and current status dictates, as my grandmother always used to say, "Cheer up, because things WILL get worse". So I did, and they did.
RIP, Dee. Another BTW; I was on the river with Dee in June of 1980 when Lake Powell finally filled to the top, after over 15 years since Glen Canyon
Dam was finished and plugged. "Pool level". Water backed up and was stilled to just above the old "Imperial Rapids" of Cataract Canyon. We had 33
miles from our last day on a living river to the take-out on a dead lake, at Hite Marina. Dee told me that in my lifetime I'd see a silted-in,
currented channel all the way to Hite (where the lake was probably close to 100' deep then). The mud filled in to Hite over 10 years ago, the marina
rendered useless, and now with Lake Bowell down over 100', the natural silt-mud-dam is now several miles (at least 15) below Hite, unnavigable by most
craft, and at Hite the canyon widens by several hundred percent, so that's a Lot OF MUD that has nowhere to go but downstream. Compound that with
the fact the San Juan River Arm of Bowell is filling in even faster, much faster.... your grandchildren may see the eventual failure of Glen Canyon
Dam. Ain't if, but when, and totally unfixable.
I don't have a BUCKET LIST, but I do have a F***- IT LIST a mile long!
86 - 45*
|
|
|
BajaNomad
|
Thread Moved
7-4-2015 at 11:18 PM |
chuckie
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6082
Registered: 2-20-2012
Location: Kansas Prairies
Member Is Offline
Mood: Weary
|
|
We are cutting wheat here and go to the fields about 10 after the sun burns off some moisture. A lot of coffee gets drunk between get up and go to
work time and the subject of most discussions between farmers and harvesters is.............WATER.....moisture.....Every one is
concerned...."Adequate" rain will grow crops but not replenish aquifers. Our next big crisis? You bet....
|
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xmbforum/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
