Xszit t1_j98y32x wrote on February 20, 2023 at 3:55 AM

And now they're talking about pumping seawater into the great Salt Lake because the water level is too low.

SoBeefy OP t1_j98z5td wrote on February 20, 2023 at 4:04 AM

I don't want to contribute somehow to disinformation related to water conservation and management in the Western United States.

Fwiw, we can and should do better with how much water we take out of the Colorado basin and who gets it. In particular, it is becoming increasingly difficult to honor the legal claim made by those engaging in high water use agriculture in California.

Beyond-Time t1_j9ag2cv wrote on February 20, 2023 at 2:18 PM

California, due to their climate, is the perfect place to grow many crops. The amount of food produced there is unbelievable, and the water is important in that respect. I'm sure there's much waste but most people who want to divert water away from California simply don't understand the vast amount of the country's food that is produced there. 75% of Arizona shouldn't exist if you want to talk about water use.

Desblade101 t1_j9aka1c wrote on February 20, 2023 at 2:51 PM

There was a geographer named John Wesley Powell who proposed making all western states based off of their watersheds to avoid water conflicts in the future. Obviously he was overruled because of politicians who wanted to make sure the right people were making money like taking Nevada away from the Mormons when they found silver there.

But that kind of system would lead to much better natural resource management than our current system.

https://www.hcn.org/blogs/goat/defining-the-west-boundaries-john-wesley-powell

ILikeNeurons t1_j991xty wrote on February 20, 2023 at 4:30 AM

Just gonna leave this here.

Here-for-dad-jokes t1_j99ip0y wrote on February 20, 2023 at 7:38 AM

Hey, who forgot to turn off the pumps?

Dakens2021 t1_j9aactt wrote on February 20, 2023 at 1:30 PM

One reason why it's important the lake didn't get too high is the transcontinental railroad causeway goes right through the middle of the lake. It's still a very important railway and the causeway is not in great shape so flooding would be very bad for it beyond the obvious reasons. It's kind of interesting the water on the north side is a different color than the south side due to differences in chemistry caused by being separated by the causeway.

wow-how-original t1_j9fl5r9 wrote on February 21, 2023 at 3:53 PM

Yeah, there were a couple years in the 80s with extreme snowfall and flooding.

TIL that, as recently as 34 years ago, water from the Great Salt Lake was pumped into the desert so that the lake water level would not get too high.

Comments