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TechnoratiClimate Changes Already Affecting the West, Experts Tell Senate
WASHINGTON - With snowfall diminishing at "statistically significant" rates, spring runoff coming earlier and a dead zone the size of Rhode Island in the ocean off the Oregon coast, senators were told Wednesday that global climate change is already being felt in the West.
Dam operators, water district managers, farmers, conservationists and scientists all predicted mounting problems as scarce water supplies dwindle further in an area stretching from the Pacific Northwest to the desert Southwest.
"The warming in the West can now confidently be attributed to rising greenhouse gases and are not explained by any combination of natural factors," said Philip Mote, head of the Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington.
Mote said some models show temperatures in the West could rise by 6 degrees Fahrenheit in the coming years. Signs of climate change, such as lilacs blooming earlier in the spring, are just a "harbinger of changes to come," he said.
Among other things, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources water and power subcommittee learned:
-Spring snow pack already has declined at nearly 75 percent of all weather recording stations in Washington, Oregon and California, and the spring runoff is coming two weeks earlier than in the past.
-Southern California is experiencing its driest year on record, and Lake Mead, which supplies water to large parts of the fast-growing Southwest, could be empty in 10 years.
-By some estimates, populations of Pacific salmon in the Northwest could drop between 20 percent and 40 percent by 2050, with even greater losses in California and Idaho. Western trout populations eventually could fall by more than 60 percent.
-A dead zone of "very low dissolved oxygen" has appeared every year in the Pacific Ocean off the Oregon coast since 2001, and unlike other ocean dead zones, pollution or other human activity isn't believed to be the cause. Instead, some scientists say there may be a "fundamental change" occurring in the ocean off the West Coast, changes that may involve wind patterns "modified" by climate change.
- Tens of thousands of irrigated acres will fall out of production as water supplies tighten, and tensions over water supplies will only be exacerbated as the effects of climate change deepen.
"These changes will force us to adapt how we manage irrigation and agriculture, our hydropower system, salmon recovery, municipal water supplies and flood control," said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who chaired the hearing. "We need a real strategy to keep our region strong and to respond to any impacts we observe."
While all of the witnesses said more scientific modeling was needed to provide a more focused picture of climate change effects on specific regions in the West, Cantwell seemed impatient that federal, state and local agencies might not be doing sufficient planning.
Terry Fulp, who manages operations at Hoover Dam and Lake Mead for the Bureau of Reclamation, said he has the flexibility he needs to manage water supplies. But under questioning from Cantwell, Fulp said the bureau probably needs to be developing longer-range plans to deal with the effects of climate change on its operations.
In Washington state, Tim Culbertson, general manager of the Grant County Public Utility District, said interim storage reservoirs are being considered at Black Rock in the Yakima Valley and at Crab Creek in the Columbia Basin Project.
Cantwell said Congress and the federal government may have to rethink its skepticism over building more reservoirs, which can be filled when flows are high and drained during summer months.
"We have turned away from reservoirs, right or wrong," Cantwell said. "Maybe we should rethink that."
Culbertson also testified that the Grant County PUD, which operates two major dams on the Columbia River, is considering adding turbines at water storage facilities and has been tracking the development of "microturbines," which could be placed in irrigation canals to generate electricity
© 2007 McClatchy Washington Bureau and wire service sources.
7 Comments so far
Show AllOnce a river flowed from a canyon to a lake where a village got its water. The river supported trout and riparian areas along its banks.
Then the village thought they could get more water by drilling wells at the source.
The river now only runs during the wet season; does not support fish and the lake dried up. The village now has to pay to maintain the wells and pump water out of the ground.
What was once easy became expensive at the expense of a river and the life it supported.
-- True Story--
Water is the issue in the SW! As far as water rites you use it or loose it by law. There is so much waste and as the water table sinks natural seeps cease.
People come here because of open and wild spaces and they ruin that by the way they build. Massive houses and fenced land changes the landscape in a hurry and everybody complains but is clueless to how to stop it.
Stop it, build homes that are part of the land and are self-sufficient! Only fence off your living area and garden. It is so ironic and moronic to kill what you pursue, but that's what we do well isn't it?
pangolin -
I live in Michigan, and I see so much wasted space going to lawns, which require a lot of water. Sure, my state is surrounded by fresh water, but as the water supply dwindles out west, where do you think people are going to start looking?
Any way, check out www.foodnotlawns.com. This may be the way we acquire foods in the future.
I know several grass-fed beef producers who finish their beef without a single gallon of water that didn't originate on their land. The land they ranch is so poor that the only possible food crops are beef, lamb, game and acorns. There's not a lot of Californians clamoring for a yummy bowl of acorn mash.
A single backyard avocado tree produces all the avacados you and your closest eight neighbors coud want. Likewise lemons, grapefruit and mulberries. Most yards in the west have nothing intentionally edible in them.
The problem is ignorance, not lack of resources.
Having lived in the PNW for almost 50 years it is beyond tragedy to see the loss of our awesome resources. I now feel most threatened not by the cattle industry or logging, but the rapid development that is every where we look. Gone are the open spaces of my childhood, replaced by lego land subdivisions and shopping malls. This is the true threat to the west. It will be tough enough to get through the inevitable climate change here with our existing population. As our ag land continues to be chewed up and spit out, as more consumers move in the landscape will inevitably decline and water resources become more stressed.
With these consumers come their need for recreation. They build golf courses, and shopping malls. All essential for their new life in the american west. Using up our stressed water supply and Ag land.
I hope our government can come up with some ideas to save us from shriveling up here, my faith in their abilities is pretty dried up too. I moved to my rural area twenty plus years ago thinking I would need to take care of myself with my own piece of ground and in cooperation with other local people. My thinking has come full circle.
We could give a no bid contract to Halliburton to replace the diminishing snow pack using snow machines like they use at ski resorts. This would create many jobs in the west to replace those which have been lost to reduced timber cutting from the national forests. See...all it takes is a little careful thought along with technology and the problems are solved.
Scottdw, Scottdw,Scottdw... that's just way too rational and intelligent. No, the solution they will propose is a long range genetic study devoted to creating cattle that will require only 2250 gallons of water per pound of beef.
Of course, by the time they get their act together the problem will have been solved. What humans remain by then will be eating what little grass remains. Voila! No cattle.
Since ranching and raising of beef cattle are one of the biggest wasters of water out west, when can we start expecting cattle ranchers to start helping alleviate the problem by becoming vegetable farmers ... growing food for humans, rather than for livestock?
It takes roughly 2500 gallons of water to grow one pound of beef.