News Roundup: Dwindling snowpack and water levels, big box solar, vandalism
What's going on around the West
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The Western U.S. 2022 winter has been a bit manic so far, swinging from a snow-sad October and November to jubilant late December storms that cranked snowpack levels from about 30 percent of normal to 150 percent of normal over a few weeks’ time. And then it just stopped. A relentless blue sky has hovered over most of the region for weeks. The high altitude sun has baked south-facing slopes daily and plummeting nighttime temperatures freeze it solid, setting the stage for a nasty avalanche cycle when—or if—big February snows arrive.
This has left the snowpack levels across the Upper Colorado River Basin close to average for this time of year. Levels are healthier to the north—the North Fork of the Gunnison is sitting at 125 percent of median—and thinner in southern zones such as the Rio Grande Headwaters, which are only at 86 percent of normal. While ski slopes are icy, the snow generally is holding up for skiing and nordic (and kick-sledding) conditions are super fast. Folks in the snow-removal business, however, are hating it, and water managers are on edge once again.
To prepare for what thus-far promises to be a mediocre spring runoff, federal Bureau of Reclamation officials are getting ready to implement a drought response plan which will kick in when (not if) Lake Powell’s surface level drops below 3,525 feet above sea level. It is currently sitting at 3,531 feet, 45 feet lower than a year ago. Officials have already nearly drained upstream reservoirs and then decreased release flows from Glen Canyon Dam in hopes of keeping levels above the minimum needed to produce hydropower. Yet the decline continues nevertheless: The Reservoir has lost 371,840 acre feet (12 billion gallons) of water in the last month.
Maybe if a bunch of upstream farmers got together and stopped irrigating for a few weeks this summer they could solve Powell’s Problem? That seems to be what this advertisement I stumbled across in the High Country Shopper out of Delta County, Colorado, is proposing:
If you know about Western water and the feelings it inspires, then you’ll realize how magnanimous this offer really is. No one in the arid West wants to give up their water. Ever. Which is why it’s highly unlikely that this person can convince enough farmers to shut off their ditches for long enough to make a difference. And you also have to wonder what they’re trying to save. Do they hope to bolster lake levels enough to get the boat ramps back open? Or do they simply want to preserve hydropower generating capacity for as long as possible?
Whatever the case, I’d encourage them to go forward with the plan. It may not mean much to Lake Powell, but a bit of extra water in the rivers sure would be nice for downstream boaters and fish.
Now for some sad news from the vandalism files. Earlier this month Bureau of Land Management officials found that someone had defaced the La Cieneguilla Petroglyphs, some of which may be 8,000 years old, located west of Santa Fe. The vandal spray-painted swastikas and other symbols on the Puebloan petroglyphs as well as etching over them.
And near Moab, Utah, it appears a Bureau of Land Management contractor or employee damaged a significant set of dinosaur tracks while rebuilding the trail and boardwalk used to view the same dinosaur tracks.
Brian Engh @BrianEngh_Art
That feeling when @BLMUtah drives a back hoe over a fragile fossil site that you and a bunch of amazing paleontologists, paleoartists & local citizens poured their heart and soul into excavating, studying & interpreting for all to enjoy. The board walk was a "tripping hazard"🤬 https://t.co/Zh3CLqT1ri
Oy.
And in the better news department: A recent study finds blanketing U.S.’s big box stores with photovoltaic solar panels could generate enough electricity to power 8 million homes, which would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by some 52 million metric tons.
Some of the numbers in the Environment America report are stunning, and not just because of the clean energy potential. According to their figures, big box stores across 11 Western states take up 1.3 billion square feet, or 30,000 acres. Ahhh, the things we do for our consumer culture. Well, anyway, if all of that roof-space were blanketed with solar panels they could provide a good chunk of the electricity consumed by those same stores. But not all of it which, again, is a rather alarming thought.
How do you get businesses to invest in those panels? According to the report: extend and expand the federal solar investment tax credit, create or preserve robust rooftop solar compensation programs, streamline land-use permitting processes for rooftop solar, and supporting community solar. You could also push the businesses themselves to do what’s right, economical, and to make an investment—if batteries are added—that could keep the lights on when the power grid goes down.
RECOMMENDED READING: a collection of essays titled “Ecologies of War” published by the Society for Cultural Anthropology. I found Teresa Montoya’s “Stockpile: From Nuclear Colonialism to ‘Clean’ Energy Futures” especially interesting. It includes these lines:
While nuclear energy might produce less carbon, it is not a clean energy source if the safety risks of radioactive waste disposal and potential meltdown are also considered. As inhabitants of the Colorado Plateau can attest, uranium extraction required for nuclear energy production is anything but benign. For many Indigenous peoples whose ancestral homelands have been targeted by the industrial extraction of uranium in the past century, these activities are synonymous with environmental destruction, toxic exposure, and settler colonial hegemony.
Land Desk out and about:
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I’ve got a couple of pieces in the latest issue of Telluride Magazine, including one on the BLM’s return to Washington, D.C., and another on efforts to create a Dolores River national conservation area.
PARTING SHOT:
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