RBM - Problems Controlling The Colorado

Question 1

Politics

Answer 1

Politicians want to attract votes from farmers by promoting new developments - Jobs and status improved
Problem of managing the resource continues
Problem of pollution

Question 2

Salinity

Answer 2

Capillary Action causes salts in the soils to be drawn to the surface - Farmers forced to grow crops that are salt resistant
Saline water - Causes corrosion of pipes
Municipal, commercial and industrial users are faced with the costs
Salt in the water - salts leached out of the soils and into the drainage water which returns higher concentrations of salt into the river

Question 3

Economic Problems - Farming

Answer 3

Farmers forced to give up irrigated land or it gets bought out by the Bureau of Reclamation
Cheaper for the bureau to buy out the land than to fix the problem - causes problems elsewhere downstream

Question 4

Waste of water

Answer 4

Farmers pay well below the going price for irrigation water - 90% used for farming
$3.50 per acre foot of water which is supplied by the bureau for $300
45% of irrigated land is growing crops in surplus
Farmers paid not to grow ‘thirsty’ crops
‘Use it or lose it’ - Farmers cannot store the water or sell it on
Farmers are now very wasteful of the water - cannot afford to pay for a more efficient irrigation system
Colorado drying up as a result

Question 5

Loss of water

Answer 5

About 25% of the surface water is lost through evaporation from reservoirs and canals
Considerable water lost through seepage
Water lost through permeable sandstone at lake Powell
Water table is falling as there is large scale extraction of groundwater despite most of the schemes water being used from the reservoir
Groundwater cannot recharge, extraction is more difficult and this causes the ground to sink
Water lost through seepage

Question 6

Environmental Damage

Answer 6

Dams and reservoirs are constructed in a natural landscape - this means that animals are relocated/drowned by reservoir flooding
Tuscan used to have beavers but this area is now dried up
Increased erosion on river banks below dam
Water in lake Powell must be kept at a certain level to maximise HEP production and this dissolves the worlds largest natural bridge - the rainbow bridge which is sacred to Navajo Indians

Question 7

Groundwater

Answer 7

Still extraction of groundwater
Groundwater not getting a chance to recharge - water table falling - Extraction becomes difficult and costly
Ground sinks