Sounds like this could be a post about Las Vegas.
I was anticipating a nice, peaceful conclusion to the 2012 water year when I saw this Tweet from the normally mild-mannered John Fleck:
Hey,Lower Basin,what the fuck did you do with all that extra water we sent you? Hookers and blow? http://bit.ly/SrAtZA
I followed the link and was led to Fleck's blog where I saw this post:
TIME FOR A LOWER BASIN NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION?
He started off with this:
Hey Lower Colorado River Basin. Can we talk?
I know, I know. It’s New Water Year’s Eve and it’s like a hundred something degrees and sunny and you wanna go water skiing on Lake Mead, all fat and happy with its 1,115.18 feet of surface elevation, glistening in that warm Nevada sunshine. Or you wanna grow some lettuce or something. I get that you have stuff to do. But really, we need to talk.
I just wanna point out that Lake Mead has less water in it today than it did when the last water year ended. I know, I know, it’s only a tiny bit less. But the thing is, we Upper Basin folks gave you a bunch of extra water again this year. How could Lake Mead be down?
Lest you be confused, New Mexico is in the Upper Colorado River Basin along with Colorado, Utah and Wyoming; California, Nevada, and Arizona are in the Lower Basin.
Fleck is rightfully upset because the UCRB states provided their LCRB brethren with an extra 1.2 MAF (million acre-feet) to help through the lean times. He correctly points out that an extra 6.3 MAF has found its way to the LCRB states since 2000, courtesy of the UCRB states.
And, to add insult to injury, the Upper Basin's Lake Powell is down 3.6 MAF this year.
But accusing CA, AZ, and NV of wasting that precious water on hookers and blow? C'mon, John! Probably just golf courses and alfalfa with a little bit of Bay-Delta added for good measure.
They don't call it the LoCo Basin for nothing!
Nice post, John!
Historical note: on this day in 1936, Hoover Dam was dedicated.
"What the fuck did you do with all that water? Did you just waste it on hookers and blow?" - John Fleck
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.