I read a lot of opinions in the Review-Journal explaining arguing ways desalination plants in Mexico and California can solve the Southwest water problem. Nobody ever explains why the reservoirs are going dry in the first place.
The farms in the Imperial Valley were developed in the Mojave Desert, the driest desert in North America. For decades, these crops consumed vast amounts of water. Southern Arizona also farms in the Sonoran Desert, with tens of thousands of acres of water-intensive agriculture. Around 80 percent of Colorado river water was directed to these misplaced human endeavors.
Farmers in these arid climates will continue to suck the reservoirs dry. The Mojave will take back what was its own. Farms will turn to dust, and the farm economy will bust. It was a good run for man’s arrogance thinking he could engineer his way past Mother Nature.
Desalination will not provide the sheer volume of water needed for crops and lithium processing in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts. The 20 percent of the Colorado River that agriculture did not suck up would probably be enough for the cities, allowing a massively inefficient Lake Powell to be removed. It’s time man faced the fact that he cannot continue this arrogant path.
