To the editor: Kudos to reporter Ian James and The Occasions for explaining the dithering between states that rely on the Colorado River for water.
One comparatively new black swan hovering over this problem is the massive quantity of water consumed by the info facilities being constructed for synthetic intelligence programs. Google mentioned it consumed 6.1 billion gallons of water to chill its information facilities in 2023, 17% greater than in 2022.
Please, let’s take heed to the scientists who’ve been warning us for many years: Water Superman isn’t coming to avoid wasting us. So we should plan forward for the inevitable.
Figuring out the dire sense of urgency, we should always at the least take into account — in lieu of bathroom to faucet, paying farmers to fallow their fields, sucking extra groundwater out of sinking land and beginning extra water wars — a 1,000-mile water pipeline from Lake Michigan to the Colorado River.
“Peak water” is right here. So our kids and grandchildren gained’t need to undergo from extra draconian measures which are merely stopgaps, we should shake freed from the standard pondering on supplying water for agriculture, residents and now information facilities all through the seven Western states that depend upon the dwindling Colorado River.
For the subsequent era, we should suppose massive and have the political will to construct a 1,000-mile water pipeline.
John Boal, Burbank
..
To the editor: There will likely be no equitable allocation of Colorado River water (or water from some other supply) till the businesses and legal professionals acknowledge that you just can not use water that doesn’t exist.
Many businesses basically say, “I’ve a contract for a specific amount of acre-feet of water, so I’m going to take that a lot water.”
I’ve not heard anybody suggest scrapping all current contracts and allocating the water that truly enters the Colorado River system every year on a share foundation.
Parker G. Emerson, Claremont
