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Showing posts tagged with ASU. Economic Impact of Water 01.28.15

Can you imagine what would happen if each tap that delivered water from the Colorado River suddenly went dry for one year? Well that’s exactly what a team of researchers from Arizona State University wanted to find out – and the results were astonishing!

Here are a few of the impacts on the West if the Colorado River went dry for just ONE year

• The region would see a 1.4 TRILLION dollar drop in economic activity.

• Of all the water used in the basin, 43% of agricultural supply and 41% of municipal and Industrial supplies come from the Colorado River.

• It would also lose 16 million jobs.

o Around 7 million in California and 2.1 million in Colorado and Arizona.

• Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming (Along with 7 Southern California counties) would see losses to their gross state product (GSP) of half or more.      

o Nevada would drop by 87%

• Colorado would lose around 189 billion dollars in economic activity that is dependent on the rivers water.

• Arizona, Nevada, and Southern California get their Colorado water from Lake Mead which has dropped more than 100 feet since 2000.

o Researchers say that without aggressive conservation efforts, there’s a 50% chance Lake Mead could reach “dead pool” (which makes it unusable) by 2036.

• Utah is proposing to spend up to $15 billion on new water supple projects.

• Switching from flood to drip irrigation on farms can increase “crop per drop” allowing yields to be maintained or even increased with less water.

• The opening of markers that allow users to buy and sell water more freely can also greatly increase water productivity and reduce the economic impacts of declining water availability.

• Incentives for greater conservation, efficiency, reuse, and trading can play a big part in maximizing benefits from the water available while ensuring enough flow to protect the health of the Colorado and its tributaries.

o The Colorado River System Conservation Program is a useful start. So is the ambitious goal set by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti last October to cut LA’s water imports by half within a decade.

 

 

Source: http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2015/01/20/a-year-without-the-colorado-river-as-seen-by-economists/

 

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