Water Issues in Utah

As reservoir storage in Lake Mead and Lake Powell continue to plummet toward levels of concern, ecosystems are last in line for leftover water. Projected water levels are expected to force water shortages in Arizona, Nevada and Mexico as early as 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. If water levels in Lake Mead, a reservoir that supplies water to more than 25 million people, reach a critical threshold, contingency plans will require upstream cutbacks.   The implementation of cutbacks is contentious as different states and counties compete for water shares while those without a voice are hanging out to dry.   Drought is not uncommon for ecosystems in Utah and many plant and wildlife species are adapted to tolerate and withstand annual water deficits.   However, as reported in the Nature article titled “Global Patterns of Drought Recovery,” climate change and increasing demand for water are not giving ecosystems the crucial recovery time they need t

On Tuesday, students at Utah State University organized the first “Community Conversation on Climate Change” to facilitate a discussion about some of the key points from The Fourth National Climate Assessment – and what those impacts mean for Utah. Graduate students at USU specializing in Climate Adaptation Sciences, an interdisciplinary program designed to tackle climate adaptation with a diverse curriculum, held this event to improve circulation of the report to the public. Like climate change, the sheer magnitude and complexity of the full report can be daunting, but chapters and regions of the assessment are made available in a more succinct web format to promote readership for a more diverse audience. “It [the assessment] is clear and the topical structure lets people get quick info on subject areas they care about,” said Lisa Green, the project coordinator of the Climate Adaptation Sciences program. The assessment is broken up into regions and key me