{"id":13679,"date":"2011-06-23T17:39:19","date_gmt":"2011-06-24T00:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?p=13679"},"modified":"2018-02-02T00:27:35","modified_gmt":"2018-02-02T00:27:35","slug":"water-efficiency-may-ease-colorado-river-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/06\/23\/water-efficiency-may-ease-colorado-river-woes\/","title":{"rendered":"Water Efficiency May Ease Colorado River Woes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Study shows most western cities aren&#8217;t wasting as much water<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure  id=\"attachment_13689\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13689 size-medium\" title=\"lakepowell\" src=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2011\/06\/lakepowell-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.kqed.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2011\/06\/lakepowell.jpg 800w, https:\/\/cdn.kqed.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2011\/06\/lakepowell-160x160.jpg 160w, https:\/\/cdn.kqed.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2011\/06\/lakepowell-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.kqed.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2011\/06\/lakepowell-240x240.jpg 240w, https:\/\/cdn.kqed.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2011\/06\/lakepowell-375x375.jpg 375w, https:\/\/cdn.kqed.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2011\/06\/lakepowell-520x520.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lake Powell, the Colorado River&#8217;s second-largest reservoir, in April 2010 (Photo: Gretchen Weber)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There&#8217;s some good news for the 35 million people in the Western United States who rely on the Colorado River for their water, says a new study from the Oakland-based <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pacinst.org\/\">Pacific Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>No, the supply isn&#8217;t increasing.\u00a0 And yes, the population is still growing.<\/p>\n<p>But according to the paper, entitled <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pacinst.org\/reports\/co_river_municipal_deliveries\/\"><em>Municipal Deliveries of Colorado River Basin Water<\/em><\/a>, more efficient water use by water agencies across the West is making the supply\/demand gap a lot less painful than it could be.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Although population growth has increased very quickly, the amount of water delivered has not kept pace,&#8221; said study author Michael Cohen. &#8220;That shows that people have been getting much more efficient with their use of water.&#8221;<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>According to the report:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Since 1990, the number of people who rely on water from the Colorado River basin has grown by 10 million. But during that time, <em>per-capita<\/em> water use has declined an average of one percent per year.<\/li>\n<li>Water agencies in Southern California delivered four percent less water from the Colorado in 2008 than they did in 1990, despite delivering water to almost 3.6 million more people<em>.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Cohen said he was surprised and encouraged by the study results, and while he credited some of the efficiency to short-term policies (such as temporary drought restrictions) and new standards (like more efficient toilets and fixtures), he said that a lot of the change is likely due to changing attitudes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;People are becoming much more aware of the value of water in the West, becoming sensitive that it is, in fact, a limited resource, and a resource that should be used wisely,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Not everyone in California is embracing efficiency, however.\u00a0 Of the 100 water agencies studied, those with the three highest per-capita water deliveries are in California; the City of San Marino and two districts in Coachella Valley.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They think it&#8217;s appropriate to have lawns in the middle of the desert even though they have to water them two or three times a day,&#8221; he said.\u00a0 By comparison, he said, there are other, less affluent parts of Coachella Valley where water usage is about average for the state.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Lots of agencies say [water usage] is driven by climate, but here&#8217;s a pretty stark example of cities or agencies with the exact same climate, but very different water use patterns,&#8221; Cohen observed.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, what this study does not look at, is the 500-pound gorilla that is agricultural water use, which uses 70% of the water from the Colorado.\u00a0 Municipal deliveries comprise just 15%, although it is the fastest growing segment of water use.<\/p>\n<p>It seems that whatever efficiencies can be implemented now in any sector will only serve to ease what&#8217;s likely to become an even starker gap between supply and demand.\u00a0 According to the Bureau of Reclamation, <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2010\/11\/10\/running-dry-california-water-supply-at-risk\/\">demand has recently outstripped supply<\/a> along the Colorado, and a <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/06\/06\/running-drier-the-colorado-50-years-out\/\">new federal study released earlier this month <\/a>finds that the river&#8217;s flow could decrease 9% in the next 50 years due to impacts of climate change.\u00a0 Meanwhile populations are expected to continue to grow rapidly in many regions dependent on the river.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The question is, how are they going to balance supply and demand in the future,&#8221; said Cohen. &#8220;I think this report shows that at least part of that answer lies in more efficient use within the cities themselves.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some (relatively) good news for a change: Most western cities aren&#8217;t wasting as much water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11413,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[133,135,183,412,661],"coauthors":[],"series":[],"affiliates":[],"programs":[],"collections":[],"interests":[],"class_list":["post-13679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-business","category-water","tag-colorado-river","tag-conservation","tag-efficiency","tag-pacific-institute","tag-water-supply"],"acf":{"template_type":"standard","featured_image_type":"standard","is_audio_post":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.13 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Water Efficiency May Ease Colorado River Woes | Climate Watch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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