Another Milagro Beanfield War: It was only a matter of time.

I'm afraid conflicts over water are only going to get worse in the west in upcoming years.

I was doing a bit of research on the Owen's valley lately, more for the geography and geology, as part of some world building for a writing project. But I ran across a description of the water wars (detailed in the movie Chinatown) that transformed it from a place with lots of agriculture to a the dry, mostly barren place it is today. Most of their water goes to slake LA's thirst.

There is no way the Western US, nor parts of Mexico, can support their current population densities, or agriculture, without vast amounts of water. I don't see how all this is going to end well in the long run.

It was well over a decade ago that I read that the wars of the future will be fought over water.

It was several years back, IIRC, that the CEO of Nestle insisted that nobody had a basic right to water.

And way back when I was in high school in the 90's I remember hearing that the water from the Colorado River was already technically oversold by the time it reached California, and that we were overexploiting the natural aquafier under the Great Plains.

Add that to climate change changing how snowpack/precipitation distributes water, and we're heading for Mad Max territory sooner rather than later, I'm afraid...

Roxxsmom said:

There is no way the Western US, nor parts of Mexico, can support their current population densities, or agriculture, without vast amounts of water.

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Yes!! It’s stunning to me how many people argue that population growth is fine and we have plenty of resources. Constant growth is not a sustainable model. And crossing the line to where we truly do not have enough resources for the world population will make the pandemic look like a walk in the park.

MaeZe said:

Water dystopias, this is awakening my brain cells. One of my favorite books: Goodreads: The Water Knife

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One of mine: Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis.

Step one in water conservation: eliminate all private swimming pools, and golf courses. Watch the rich howl.

One of the biggest water savers is to change the way they irrigate and which crops are grown. We've seen some of this already. I remember a couple of decades ago we used to see lots of cotton grown in the central valley, but I haven't noticed any cotton fields in recent years. Cotton is a very "thirsty" crop. You also don't see those "sprinkler" type irrigators much anymore. Drip irrigation is much more common.

In CA, residential use is only about 10% of the water agriculture and environmental uses consume most of the water. I imagine this is true throughout the west. People need to eat, and ecosystems need water too, but there probably need to be changes in how we grow our foods and in which foods we grow where for biggest impact. This does not mean we shouldn't conserve in our daily lives, of course.