How many realize how bad the drought is in the South West?
 

I've traveled around Texas a little over a month while on my extended vacation from normal life. I've now finally moved on to New Mexico but one thing that has been a real eye opener is how bad the drought in the south west actually is.

If you look on Google maps or if you are lucky enough to find a river on Apple maps it's a pretty good chance that the river is not there anymore, but only a dried up rocky or even grass filled basin.

I like to kayak so I make it a point to go check out various rivers and lakes and many are simply not there. Only dried up places that used to contain water. Yesterday I drove through Big Spring, Tx and stopped at the town's name sake, "big spring" it was just a pool of old stagnate water. As I drove toward New Mexico on 87 then finally 180 there were miles and miles of farm land but every river and lake along the way was completely dry.

A few random pics from my cell phone, to show what it's like..

http://i.imgur.com/9ZdVJDF.jpg
This was Buchanan Lake just north west of Austin from 2 days ago as I left Austin for the last time. I'm driving in the lake bed and that is a public boat ramp, obviously built to lauch boats but it hasn't in quite some time..

http://i.imgur.com/RXRySQ1.jpg
Another view this time a bit of lake side property, don't leave the boats un-attended folks.

http://i.imgur.com/B0uy9E7.jpg
Excuse my finger, but this is a dam on a section of the Colorado River at Marble Falls.. Not much water moving over it..

http://i.imgur.com/C9KngT5.jpg
Near the Max Starcke Dam on the Colorado River, a little section of Flatrock creek, again near Marble Falls, TX. I'm standing at the top of the waterfall.

http://i.imgur.com/9o3j2vw.jpg
water should at the very least be trickling over these rocks. Not much of a waterfall to be found now, just stagnate water.

http://i.imgur.com/Dbdm0yl.jpg
Up river view of Flatrock creek

http://i.imgur.com/6gx7YLK.jpg
A section of bull creek in Austin, While it has water it's not much and this was one of the deeper sections. a bit more drought and this will be gone as well.

http://i.imgur.com/USq6rmk.jpg
Canyon Lake, not far from San Marcos, but every single boat ramp on the lake is dried up. When I say dried up I mean the water line is usually hundreds of feet away from the boat ramps. Looking at the picture to give you an idea, normal water level would be near the treeline. It was about a 10ft drop to the water from where I stood and the water should of been almost if not at my level.

Keep in mind, that most of these lakes are actually dammed up parts of the Colorado river meaning they have water flowing through them but not enough to keep the lakes at their usual heights.

I just wanted to post this, because as someone from the East Coast where the water is plentiful, we don't see much of this. I personally do not see how farming operations in the south west will survive if this continues. There will be some serious issues if this drought continues on.

One other thing I'd like to mention, is the lakes and rivers that do have water often are filled with allege. The allege often kills fish and other natural habitats for wild life which create further problems.

The allege is largely due to fertilizers from both farming and that used on home lawns. On the east coast this is also a serious problem. People if you like your drinking water, stop wasting water and stop fertilizing your lawns. This isn't why I posted these pictures, but it's just something that should be said.

wow. not sure how regular this happens..

i'm living in one just as bad

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/data/p..._usdm_home.png

i think this is a man made drought. :2 cents: what do you expect when the gov. drains the ground water? sinkholes! low level lakes dry rivers! population increase more water being drank, lawns, pools, etc...

Well this is the worst drought in 500 years is what they claim, but 500 years ago there were not so many people nor so much farm land. I just do not see where the water is going to come from to service the population. If this goes on say another 10 years if it's a long one, they won't have water. It's obvious by the plant growth in the lake beds that many of these places have been like this for several years already.

It's all part of a natural cycle and it's nothing that hasn't been seen before.

http://wwwpaztcn.wr.usgs.gov/rsch_hi...es/200404.html

http://wwwpaztcn.wr.usgs.gov/rsch_hi...ought_freq.jpg

We are currently in the bottom right configuration: -PDO +AMO

I live in Northern California, and this is becoming a huge problem for us. Too many people sucking down too much water. It's getting hotter every year; This will be a huge problem for us.

Simple solution though.... The oceans are going to rise, so build massive desalination plants on the coast, suck out as much water as we can, and enjoy.

and almost seems like it's just getting started?

It's raining like hell at my house right now.

Lot of stories about farmers giving up on the news.


.

Maybe. But there are some forecasts of an El Nino later this year which will bring moisture back to the Southwest for a little while at least.

man made drought? You are fucking hilarious...

Yeah, it's just cost TOO MUCH money to produce drinking water out of seawater... Otherwise its been done long time ago.

About parts of California ??? http://naturalresources.house.gov/is.../?IssueID=5921


.

how will they know where the coastline will be and stay with oceans rising?

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

:Oh crap:Oh crap:Oh crap:Oh crap

In May 2007, a Federal District Court Judge ruled that increased amounts of water had to be re-allocated towards protecting the Delta smelt ? a three-inch fish on the Endangered Species List.

Because of this ruling, in 2009 and 2010 more than 300 billion gallons (or 1 million acre-feet) of water were diverted away from farmers in the Central Valley and into the San Francisco Bay ? eventually going out into the Pacific Ocean.

Mother nature fucking over whitey! :mad: :1orglaugh:1orglaugh

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/us...-era.html?_r=0

I'm looking at 1,000 acres for sale in Yuma, Arizona. I'm betting it will be waterfront someday soon.

The Pelosi-led Congress did nothing to reverse the plight of the San Joaquin Valley and even obstructed repeated Republican actions to reverse the situation. The Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Water Reliability Act reflects Republican promises to avoid another man-made drought.

That's the only reason we aren't doing it now.... But we will in the future. We'll have to.

As others have implied, the drought is "man made" - regardless of one's opinions on global warming - because we have unsustainably large populations in arid areas of the SW and SoCal that have to drain water from other sources to meet their needs. And these places are just getting bigger. Phoenix, LA, keep just guzzling water until the fucking Colorado River no longer reaches the sea. The list goes on. We simply turn a blind eye to the ways we pillage our surroundings and mortgage the future for immediate convenience, it's pretty fucked up.

There's simply no reason Phoenix should have 4 million plus inhabitants, to say nothing of the fucking green golf courses and lawns. People are dumb.

Hopefully, because they certainly need it. There were storms a few days ago with flash flood warnings near Austin but I think that was wishful thinking.

Have you been swimming at Barton Springs recently? I lifeguarded there a long time ago, I wonder what the water level is there these days.

:thumbsup

Just wait until the Colorado river dries up, which is already happening. It doesn't even reach the ocean anymore. Over 30 million people depend on that water.

Yea, I went to Barton Springs a few times and and spent many idle days in Zilker park due to the free wifi. I would also go to Red Bud Island and sneek a swim with the dogs.. (yea it was against the rules for people to swim there but ok for dogs... I decided fuck what the signs say..The rangers tried to run me off one day though but I just played dumb tourist lol)

I also went to Roy G Guerrero park quite often if I wanted a bit of nature in the middle of the city.


That part of the Colorado doesn't seem to be affected much. To me Barton springs seems to be at what I'd assume was normal levels as was town lake areas, but that is all of course controlled by the dams. Travis lake however was down quite a lot and many of boat ramps were closed.

What kind of dogs are you traveling with?

Yea, while I do understand there is lack of rain I see this as more of a man made issue. Example, all these lakes around Austin didn't exist 500 years ago. The Army Core of Engineers dammed off parts of the rivers and make them lakes then control the flow of water.

This has allowed millions of people the ability to live in what would normally be inhospitable areas. We changed the way the rivers flowed and take too much water. It's fine when there is enough snow, rain & ice pack to keep in all going, but in times of drought like right now, it's going to cause serious problems.

QFT! :thumbsup

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hl1ag65qgr...terDrought.jpg

I'm prepared... :winkwink:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Jc3nUEEbQ0...s_drought.jpeg

:stoned

ADG

None, I just meant I as a human swam with the dogs.. :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

Not literately of course, but most of the River areas around Austin it's against the law to actually swim in the river. Places like Red Bud island there are signs all over that say no swimming but dogs are aloud to swim.

It's not due to pollution or anything like that, my guess is the fact that there is 3 million people living in the area if you could just swim anywhere it would destroy the river. People still do it of course as did I, but I suspect if everyone did the river would take a toll.

You can still kayak, canoe, paddle board and so on, but they try to limit the areas you can actually swim.

The problem is, it's not "fine" even when there are normal levels of snowpack & rain. Nobody starting saying when Phoenix was at 500k population or whatever, "Alright guys, that's all we can sustainably support here water-wise, the city's off limits for new residents". Now it's 9 times that give or take, and still growing. Ditto for other arid parts of the SW and Socal. People just keep filling the places up beyond capacity to support them and there's going to be a huge water crisis in that region in coming generations, one that makes this drought look like a pleasant spring rain.

Haha that's awesome, I'd love to sell those to preppers. :1orglaugh:1orglaugh

Groundwater depletion read that.where do you think the lake water is going? to the moon?? :helpme

got dammit you always have funny pics!

Yea you are probably right.. It's just far too many people with far too little natural water sources. When I see all the farm land out here that requires irrigation (meaning ALL of it), it's pretty fucking clear that these people do not think about where the water comes from, but only how much can I grow. :2 cents::2 cents:

I was watching the news documentary show Vice last week and they had a great piece about the drought in California and Texas in particular. The state of California is investing in Green energy and other ways to reduce pollution. Over in Texas 60% of people don't believe in global warming and they are actually praying to god for rain and truly believe he will bring them rain if they repent.

Now I know how both Bushes got elected. God fearing folk have a lot more to worry about then god. They are going to be running out of holy water soon.

phx is a nightmare that is coming true. don't forget all the fires that obliterated the phoenix forest, which was fundamental to the ecosystem there.

it's a natural weather shitstorm of a location with zero local resources and a huge sucker of resources from elsewhere, like the colorado.

all for phoenix? one of the shittiest places to live in the US.

:thumbsup:thumbsup

wtf?? are you american?? forest in Phoenix,Az? you high??? :helpme up north maybe flagstaff sedona

apache forest

tonto forest

prescott forest

forests are within ~25 miles of phx.


when I stated phoenix forests, I mean forests that border phx and contribute to the ecosystem there.

yes, I'm American.

no, I am not high.