Mission
According to the Utah Rivers Council, they have been, for nearly 30 years, fighting to save the rivers that feed the Great Salt Lake through conservation efforts. They have been proposing legislation, working with cities to conserve water, and activating the grassroots to hold our elected officials accountable for their failures to protect Utah’s aquatic ecosystems for future generations.
Failure
The Utah Rivers Council has failed to save the Great Salt Lake. The problem is they are focused on conservation, not the root cause. They are correct in thinking that that lake levels have declined dramatically after decades of upstream water diversions and climate change-driven aridification in the headwater systems feeding the Great Salt Lake. Where they are wrong is thinking that conservation can reverse the problem.
Find The Cause.
To solve the problem, the root cause of the problems with the Great Salt Lake and the Colorado River, as well as all the Colorado fed rivers, must be identified, and addressed. The problem with upstream water diversions is not as bad as they postulate. Water diversions within a water shed just slow the flow of the water. The water will still end up in the basin, it will just take longer to get there. The local problem is that there is less water flowing from the source. Looking closely, we can see that the root cause is the mismanagement of the Colorado River water. Yes. This affects the Great Salt Lake.
A Different Climate Change.
This root cause begins with the stakeholders in the western USA who have taken the Colorado River water and moved it out of its watershed. Whenever large quantities of freshwater are moved out of its watershed there are unintended consequences. The stakeholders in the western USA have drained the Colorado River dry 60-miles ahead of its natural outlet. This action has caused a local climate change within the Colorado River delta. It has changed the 3,000 sq-mi delta wetlands into 3,000 sq-mi of desert.
Unintended Consequences.
Looking at the lessons from the permaculture studies, this change creates a change in the water cycle by imposing a heat barrier along the ocean which inhibits moisture from flowing inland; which created a local drought; which was the first domino in multiple droughts; which evolved into the mega-drought; which is creating a permanently changed climate in the western USA; which is resulting in diminishing moisture and surface levels of the Laguna Salada, Baja, MX, the Salton Sea, CA, USA, the Great Salt Lake, UT, USA; which, with those bodies of water providing less evaporated moisture, delivers less snow into the Colorado Mountains; which diminishes the flow of several rivers, including the Colorado River; which has contributed to the decreasing surface levels of the Colorado River reservoirs. So, the root cause is a broken water cycle caused by the misuse of Colorado River water.
No Going Back Now.
Unfortunately, we cannot return to a time when the Colorado River was running wild. There are 40-million people depending on that water for life and livelihood. We should conserve until a solution can be found and implemented, but a solution must be found.
Going Forward.
I believe that the solution has been identified, is fundable, and can be implemented. The solution is to replicate the natural water cycle, the one which has been broken, by bringing moisture into the Great Basin. This moisture cannot be from a freshwater source because we do not wish for more unintended consequences. The moisture cannot be brought in as vapor because of the rain shadow effect prevalent with the Great Basin. This leaves seawater import.
Keep It Simple.
Seawater importation into the Great Salt Lake has been looked at, but transporting seawater that distance is unnecessary. All that is necessary is to bring the seawater into the Great Basin at any entrance point. Once the seawater is within the Great Basin it will evaporate and self-transport via the local water cycle to the Great Salt Lake. Multiple routes are available.
Less Cost, More Benefits.
We suggest the southern route because this route emulates the original water cycle route and because it will bring ancillary benefits to the environment and to people along the route. The route we suggest begins at the Colorado River delta desert. Reimmigining the coyote Canal so that its flow is reversed and so that it maximizes the water path within the delta desert will return some moisture to that decertified delta. The outlet of the Coyte canal is Laguna Salada. By refilling Laguna Salada there will be climate justice delivered to the local indigenous peoples who previously lost their fishing grounds because of the local climate change imposed on them by the draining of the Colorado River.
Economic Benefits for CA.
The route continues by extending the Coyote Canal from Laguna Salada toward the Salton Sea. By accomplishing this we can refill the Salton Sea to its 1950s optimum level and thus restore the local environment. This will restore the local communities and increase the tax revenue of California.
Pipes And Pumps.
But we cannot stop there. The water path then changes from gravity flow into pump and pipe technology, moving water over the mountain and into the Great Basin, likely into Death Valley. The flowthrough of seawater through the Salton Sea will remove the hyper-salinity and pollution from the Salton Sea, eventually maintaining an ocean-level of saline.
Natural Processes Rule.
The water moved into Death Valley will quickly evaporate, leaving behind the waterborne chemicals, and pumping fresh water into the atmosphere of the Great Basin. This freshwater within the Great Basin atmosphere will circulate within the Great Basin and eventually arrive at the Great Salt Lake. Ultimately, the higher moisture content within the Great Basin and the increased surface level of the Great Salt Lake will bolster the Colorado Mountains snowpack, which will benefit all who rely on Colorado River water for life and livelihood.
Low Cost For Utah.
Utah struggles with the cost of plans devised to save the Great Salt Lake, but in this plan, it is funded by users of Colorado River water. These water users caused the problem in the first place, so it is only equitable that they should carry the cost of repairing the environmentally damaged water cycle, and this is the only way they can continue to use the Colorado River water in the coming decades. Without this solution, they are doomed to the mega-drought as the new normal and the Colorado River will diminish into minor significance as a source of water and power.
Avoid This.
As a side note, if Utah did import water into the Great Salt Lake, this would also fix the Colorado River problems, but the cost would be solely on the backs of the Utah taxpayers. The better option is to shift the solution’s cost to the larger population by focusing on the Colorado River repair as the goal.
These Guys Can Do This.
The solution should be undertaken by the US Bureau of Restoration. This existing agency is well suited to collecting fees on Colorado River water, building the infrastructure, maintaining the infrastructure, and operating the water transfer. In past years the Colorado River was “free”, other than costs of transportation, but it was not free because it extracted its cost on the environment. By imposing a fee, the cost of the water will increase and maybe from that increase other water sources will become more feasible, which would help the environment by leaving more water in the Colorado River.
Proponent.
Move the Water! is the proposed initiative of Active Climate Rescue Initiative. Active Climate Rescue Initiative is founded to actively rescue our climate by encouraging positive climate change through water relocation into earth’s water deficit areas. Anyplace in the world where there is a dry depression is a place where there is a moisture deficit. These places are the key to reversing climate change. By infusing these places with water from an open flow inlet, moisture can be reintroduced into the local environment through hydrologic processes. Active Climate Rescue Initiative is a Michigan Non-Profit Corporation approved by the USA IRS as a 501.c.3 Public Charity.
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