Climate change threatens to upset water supplies in the United States, says a report issued by the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies.
That climate change will cause water shortages is old news, but -- at least from a comfortable East Coast perspective, with faucets never having failed to provide except when being repaired -- it's easy to think of such privations as the province of faceless, faraway people.
However, ongoing water shortages in the West and Southeast have given Americans an uncomfortable preview of a dry, unpredictable climate future. The report from AMWA, a nonprofit run by the nation's largest public water utilities, paints a bleak picture across the land.
In all regions, rains will fall less frequently and more intensely.
Reservoirs will stagnate and evaporate between storms; then, when it rains, floods will produce sewage overflows that overwhelm treatment centers and lead to widespread water contamination by disease-causing bacteria.
Overall rainfall will increase in the East and Midwest, but drop in the already-parched West and Southwest -- and, critically, in the agricultural heartland of the Great Plains. Warmer, shorter winters will shrink mountain snowpacks that hydrate low-lying areas by melting during the spring and summer. Rising sea levels -- which according to a new Nature Geoscience study could be twice as high as predicted -- will push salt water into coastal aquifers.
The report calls for immediate research into regional effects and alternative fresh sources: reuse, recycling, conservation and desalination. It also notes that providing water is energy-intensive:
utilities need new technologies that solve the problems caused by greenhouse gases without emitting more greenhouse gas.
So very logical. If only we'd sent AMWA executive director Diane VanDe Hei to represent the United States in Bali.
Implications of Climate Change for Urban Water Utilities [Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies]
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Image: AntyDiluvian*____
See Also:
- Feds Propose Truce in Southeast US Water Wars
- How to Avoid the Next Drought
- Rain Dancing in the 21st Century
- La Niña, not Climate Change, Responsible for Southeast Drought
- One Billion Climate Change Refugees by 2050
- Genomics Could Help Wine Grapes Survive Global Warming
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