Talking Points: Tapped out in the West

EPA’s water site

Water use trends

Largest demand for water withdrawals is for thermoelectric generation, followed by irrigation, public supply, industrial, mining, livestock, domestic and commercial uses.

Per capita public water use is about 50 percent higher in the West than the East, mostly due to the amount of landscape irrigation in the West.

Over irrigating crops causes pollution due to runoff from agricultural nutrients and pesticides. Algal bloom can smother aquatic life from too much nutrient runoff.

Overusing water to maintain urban landscapes contributes to Non-Point Source Pollution of water bodies. Go to this website for more information.

Depletion of aquifers causes salinity intrusion and causes water to be undrinkable, without significant expenditures to treat the water.

Drought and water diversion cause serious reductions of instream flows in water bodies.

See EPA's site

Global warming, population growth, urban sprawl and intensive agricultural use, as well as water scarcity all make water security and quality a serious issue.

See American Rivers

Bottled water is often not better or cleaner than tap water, and its shipment and packaging contribute to pollution.

Check out this article at Buzzle

Plastic bottles often end up in the landfill, or if put in recycling, are not necessarily recycled.

Find out more here

How can we change our habits now to be sure there will be enough water for generations to come? We are lucky to have freshwater resources in the American West. How can we protect the vital ecosystems that keep our waters potable and clean?

Rivers and Dams

Dams, levees and other manmade structures disrupt the natural flow of rivers and impede fish spawning

Salmon, once plentiful in the Pacific Northwest, have been driven to the brink of extinction. Many salmon species already are gone forever.

In 2002, dams in Northern California on the Klamath and Trinity river, combined with an unusually hot summer and large Chinook salmon run, caused over 10,000 Chinook salmon to perish. See the Hoopa's Information on Fish Kill

Wetlands and floodplains are destroyed by over-engineering of water bodies. Wetlands and floodplains are vital natural flood protection.

Hydropower dams need reform and many are currently up for re-licensing.

Hydropower dam owners can change their practices to ease the effects of dams on rivers in a few simple ways

Change the timing of power generation to more closely mimic a river’s natural ebb and flow

Stabilizelake levels and dam releases to protect lake shoreline and riverbanks from erosion

Provide safe passage so that fish can get around dams

Replace antique turbines and generators with more efficient modern equipment to make more electricity with less water

Restore habitat for fish and wildlife

Tweak dam operations and install measures that help to maintain appropriate temperature and oxygen levels in rivers

Provide access and release water back into rivers so that people can fish, boat and swim

How can we be sure that hydropower reform includes consideration of the health and viability of rivers? How do dams and levees affect flooding? How do dams affect the natural flow of a river, and what does this mean to fish and other wildlife?

Mining and Agricultural affects on Water

Mountaintop mining pollutes streams and deposits sediment into nearby water bodies, while eroding the mountain side.

Black Mesa in Arizona is home to the Navajo and Hopi nations. The Peabody Coal pumps more than 4,500 acre-feet of pristine drinking water from the Navajo Aquifer each year, solely for the purpose of transporting coal 275 miles through pipes.

Visit the Black Mesa Water Coalition

Agricultural runoff from use of commercial fertilizers, manures and irrigations water can add too many nutrients and chemicals to groundwater and rivers, adding to the pollution from what is called, “Nonpoint Source Pollution.”

Visit the EPA's site

States report that the leading cause of water quality issues is Nonpoint Source Pollution, effecting drinking water, fisheries and wildlife, as well as recreation.

Water that flows over or through abandoned coal mines causes water pollution through Acid Mine Drainage, which contaminates the drinking water, disrupts growth and reproduction of aquatic plants and animals and corrodes parts of infrastructure such as bridges.

Visit EPA's site, Acid Mine Drainage

Contained or Confined Animal Feeding Operations are a main source point for water pollution.

How can mining practices be changed to ensure our water is protected? Will our current energy paradigm provide clean water, or is it time to switch to alternative energy infrastructure? How can farming and grazing practices be changed to yield cleaner groundwater and river water?

Ocean

In 2005, researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory found clear evidence that the ocean’s temperature is rising quickly. The top half-mile of ocean has warmed dramatically over the past forty years, attributable to accelerated global warming from greenhouse gases

Increasing acidity from rising levels of CO2 that the ocean has been absorbing since the industrial revolution is causing the ocean’s PH balance to change, threatening marine life. (The ocean has absorbed an estimated 118 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide since the beginning of the industrial revolution).

Rivers are delivering nitrogen (often from fertilizers) into the oceans, causing plant and bacterial growth in the ocean water that consume oxygen, creating a condition called Hypoxia, or “dead zones”. Of the nearly 150 dead zones worldwide, most are at the mouths of rivers. Nearly 50 are located just off U.S. coasts.

NASA's map of all Dead Zones worldwide

Project Censored's site, story number 3

Industrial fishing has regularly bulldozed the ocean floor, clearing an area 150 times larger than all forest clearcuts each year and destroying seafloor ecosystems.

Natural Resource Defense Council's site

Polar ice in Greenland is melting more than twice as fast as ten years ago. Polar bears may soon be listed on the endangered species list as “threatened”, largely due to their habitat melting.

Biological Diversity . org

How will accelerated global warming affect the ocean? What can be done to stop dangerous fishing practices? Can fish swim between ocean dead zones and rivers to spawn? What other types of pollutants are changing the ocean's marine life? How will accelerated ice melt change our climates and ecosystems?