- How did we end up in a region with the lowest precipitation and the highest per capita water use?
- What now? The policy questions. Do you move the water to where the people are?
- Do we have a willing consensus, legal authority to modify political and material infrastructure?
Areas with the least amount of precipitation and most evapotranspirition, have the highest percapita water use in the US. Why? The climate demands more water use. The definition of "normal" applied to a landscape (we are applying eastern and midwestern perceptions of normal to the western landscape). Shouldn't the "green" movement be the "tan" or "olive green" movement in the west? The idea of green is actually a disturbance model.
Do we say "oops" and install mechanisms to route water for agriculture? How do we adapt to 150 years of existing, failing, public policy?
Leaders of the exploring parties in the west (Zebulon Pike and Stephen Long) predicted that the lack of water in the west would limit growth in the area, that the western climate would be a barrier to prevent too great an extension for our population. Pike even wrote "nature has solved the problem for us."
Engineering profession has bought us nearly 200 years in facing the problem between water shortage and development.
Hydraulic mining further exacerbates the problem.
Damns as a means of conservation? Has our definition of conservation changed? Can revenue from hydroelectric power be used for water issues?
Over-allocation and huge uncertainty in flow amounts present large barriers to re-writing water law.
Where do we draw the line? When do we FORCE policy makers to re-examine policies that are potentially worsening an already critical environmental problem?
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