On Thu, 08 Nov 2012 20:11:21 -0500, wrote:

On Thu, 08 Nov 2012 13:22:14 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Thu, 08 Nov 2012 11:23:36 -0500, wrote:

The same is true now in the central valley of California right now.
We were there a few years ago and there were miles of brown fields
next to some green ones, simply because of water rationing.

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Stop me if I'm wrong but I believe the central valley depends on snow
melt for their irrigation water, which in turn is influenced by
cyclical ocean temperature patterns in the Pacific.

This is the same issue which is causing low water in the Colorado
River reservoirs which in the case of Lake Powell and Lake Mead, are
down about 60 feet from their maximum levels.

Yes but the open question is how fast are they using that water. It is
still a finite resource and consumption goes up every year.

Actually I think the dams are lower than that unless they are up from
when we were there. I am not sure if I have any pictures of the "ring
around the tub" but it was striking and more than 60 feet high when we
were there. It was certainly a long walk from the marina buildings
down to the docks.

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The marina buildings are now on floating docks which can be moved in
and out (mostly out at this time). The launch ramps are incredibly
long, probably close to 1/4 mile. 60 feet is my estimate, might be
more. According to this web site lake Powell is almost 81 feet below
full pool.

http://lakepowell.water-data.com/

All it takes is 3 to 5 years of above average snow fall to bring it
all back. One of the issues is that we guarantee Mexico a certain
minimum amount of water every year, something like 1.5 million acre
feet if my memory is correct.