Water

(Snap photo.)

This month’s National Geogrpahic magazine includes a wall chart that shows, among other things, the gallons of water needed to produce a pound of various types of foods.  They include (from lowest to highest):

• Eggplant: 25
• Strawberries: 33
• Beans: 43
• Corn: 103
• Yogurt: 138
• Plums: 193
  
• Fresh cheese: 371
• Eggs: 400
• Chicken: 469
• Pork: 756
• Beef: 1,857

Their estimate of meat is based on “an industrial production system,” or CAFO, which is where most meat comes from. 

I wondered, because our chickens produced about two pounds of eggs per day, but used nowhere near the suggested 800 gallons of water– I figure about 250 gallons when we were feeding commercial feed, closer to 20 gallons when we were using discarded food destined for the landfill.  As usual, sustainably produced products use far less resources than the industrially-produced variety.

Still, potable water can no longer be considered an infinite resource.  It can be conserved, recycled, and recaptured.  But we must become aware of its limitations.

(FJExpeditions photo: Panicum turgidum, found here in the Libyan desert.)

Researchers at BYU have discovered a plant native to the Great Salt Lake area (among other places) that absorbs salt from the soil.  In experiments, they’ve used the plant to grow certain types of grazing grass irrigated with salt water.

“After the yearlong study, the levels of salt in the soil were virtually unchanged. That plant, similar to those found around the Great Salt Lake, can then be removed and destroyed or burned and eventually turned into soap.”

Or maybe made into cellulosic ethanol? 

(It also offers hope for those of us who live in naturally-salty areas.)

(Irrigation lines in the Parowan Valley flowing despite below-freezing temperatures.)

The Salt Lake Tribune reports on a study showing that wetlands near the Great Salt Lake continue to dry out, no longer supporting migratory birds as they used to.

“State researchers say flow from a set of natural springs near the north end of the lake has dropped 80 percent since the late 1960s… The decline corresponds with a significant increase in groundwater pumping for agriculture upstream from the wildlife area and below-average precipitation, according to a study by the Utah Geological Survey and the Utah Division of Water Rights.”

Utah has a system of water rights in which water is considered a punlicly-owned resource, and you must own “shares” of water in order to use groundwater.  Under state law, a home requires .45 acre feet of water rights, .028 acre feet per horse or cow, and 4 acre feet to irrigate an acre of land regardless of the actual requirement of the crop planted.  A home with 1/8 acre of landscaping would require 1 acre-foot of water rights.  (An acre-foot is the amount of water it would take to cover an acre, one foot deep.  That’s 43,560 cubic feet, or approximately 325,851 gallons.)

Ironically, the water right system was implemented to limit water use.  Unfortunately, the way it’s implemented, it encourages waste rather than conservation.

(KUED photo.)

“How can you come to one of the driest valleys in the driest region of the whole United States and expect to take a surplus water without destroying the surface water that exists there, without destroying the community, the ability to farm, the ability to people who live there? And that’s essentially what you’re going to do. I wish, Ms. Mulroy and people of Southern Nevada, that we had an abundance of water that we could let you have. We don’t. I’m sorry–we do not.” –Cecil Garland, Snake Valley rancher, quoted in the documentary.

In September, PBS will air a documentary created produced by University of Utah’s KUED, titled “Desert Wars: Water and the West.”  Check your local PBS station for date and time.  (Unfortunately we don’t get TV, so I’ll miss this timely documentary… unless I can get someone to tape it for me.)

(Wolfgang Staudt photo.)

Las Vegas needs water, and the State of Nevada plans to siphon it from the aquifer under the desert on the northern Nevada-Utah border.  Utah says it needs that water– among other reasons, to prevent desert vegetation from dying and dust storms from inundating the Salt Lake City area.

A similar battle has begun over water in Southern Utah, and another over water in Arizona.  And as Las Vegas grows, they’ll seek water from father afield.  Meanwhile, municipalities and farmers within Utah are squaring off over an already inadequate suypply of groundwater, while fast-growing St. George, Utah eyes a pipeline from Lake Powell…
 
Welcome to a world in which water is in short supply.  Even here in the U.S., shortages of fresh water (and lack of planning) threaten to create a water crisis.  Without water, agriculture is impossible.  In the future, who controls the water may well determine who lives and who dies– much as it was in the Old West.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation predicts that above-average snowfalls will result in the water level of Lake Powell rising 50 feet!  The reservoir currently stands half-empty.

Meanwhile, most of Utah also has above-average snowfall, with the Green River basin boasting an average of 22% above normal.  This makes two wet years out of the last three.