Lake Powell is gaining more than a foot of elevation per day, with remaining snowpack almost 300% of normal.
A new interim report released this week by the federal government, Colorado and six other states along the river suggests that “by mid-century the average yield of the Colorado River could be reduced by 10-20 percent due to climate change. Meanwhile, the Basin States include some of the fastest growing urban and industrial areas in the United States. Increasing demands coupled with decreasing supplies will exacerbate imbalances throughout the Basin in the future.”
Sobering stats from non-hysterical sources like the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the major stakeholders along the river. The full report will be released in digestible chunks over the next year or so and is aimed at coming up with some collaborative approaches to solving inevitable conflicts among the various user groups. For instance, energy production versus agriculture versus residential development versus outdoor recreation versus wildlife and riparian habitat.
Some will no doubt say such a report is a waste of federal and state funding and that scenarios suggesting global climate change will be a factor are politically motivated. But the climate change model is one of just four possible scenarios contemplated in the report, and an ongoing drought that has depleted Lake Powell and other major reservoirs along the Colorado is factually impossible to deny.
“..by mid-century the average yield of the Colorado River could be reduced by 10-20 percent due to climate change” [bold mine]
“..factually impossible to deny”
Only alarmists claim projections as “fact”.
Looks like the 2011 recharge of the lake will be factually impossible to deny.
It looks like someone forgot to read the weather history of the South West! History covers a bit more than 30 years.
Classic straw man.