El Paso is in a drought. I heard it first when the Archeology Museum announced they wouldn’t be holding a Poppy Festival this year. The poppies won’t bloom without water.
So I googled it up.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, El Paso is experiencing an Extreme Drought.
At least we’ll have our splash pads and water parks.
Saw a report a few days ago that Elephant Butte is at about 10% of capacity, so where will they get the water for irrigation this year?
Meantime UTEP is researching that “toilet to tap” water….but I would have hoped that the research was done BEFORE they decided it was safe.. https://www.utep.edu/newsfeed/campus/UTEP-Receives-400K-to-Study-Converting-Wastewater-to-Potable-Water.html
I thought the Eddie Money reference was really clever!
An interdisciplinary team at UTEP has been developing a climate model financed by an NSF grant to predict the effects of various climate scenarios on the Middle Rio Grande region including flows, impact on water deliveries, aquifer discharge and recharge. etc. Even on agricultural production, broadly defined. Very interesting stuff and a way to make sense of a classic “wicked problem” in which everything is connected to everything.
If only there were any solutions to what is coming that did not involve those who benefit from the current structure giving up some of those benefits to build a better future….
Helen: There is a tradeoff in everything. Fill the reservoir and lose 20 feet of water every acre to evaporation (it gets really hot here). Release the water and it’s easier on the aquifers (Mesilla & Hueco) and the high-value high-water use pecan crop. Then there are the urban users. The Middle Rio Grande from San Macias to Ft Quitman is the classic “wicked problem” in which everything is connected to everything. I have argued in the past that Israel and how water is done there could be a model for the MRG (I’ve been there – same climate and geography and latitude as El Paso) as it is the garden spot of the Middle East.
Sometimes I try to put myself into the river as if it had a mind and I wonder, “If I were the Rio what would I think about all this?” Probably something like, “Gimme some water…”
Your friend, Jerry
Maybe they cover their irrigation ditches? And grow pistachios, not pecan trees (high value, yeah, to the growers, who sell them to Chinese buyers, etc…while the rest of us will be learning “if it’s yellow, let it mellow…if it’s brown…) We had a visitors group years ago from Israel, Jordan and Palestine, they were horrified by our water “management” practices…
Gee, it gets really hot here? Nah, you must be joking.
My Latino friends tell me that they come alive in the summer. This Yankee from Wisconsin goes indoors and turns up the HVAC until October:)