[NOTE: It was my hope to devote this post to the Chinese spy balloons being shot down across North America, but as I write this there is much speculation and many questions about these incidents and very few provable answers. I intend to post on this development in the future when solid facts become available.]
No doubt many readers noticed that heavy rains fell in California recently, and some may have wondered if the rains were enough to end the drought in the American Southwest. The answer is a clear “no,” as these media links document. It will likely surprise many to learn that almost all the water that fell on California has washed out into the Pacific Ocean. Indeed, the first link reports that “in the heart of the state’s vast water system–nearly 95% of incoming water has flowed into the Pacific Ocean, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (emphasis added).” In a state which has dire water shortages, it seems incomprehensible that the state of California allowed so much water to escape the state in a continuing severe water shortage. The reason for this bizarre outcome is that California’s extreme environmental regulations allow (indeed, require) the state to not save the desperately needed water provided by the recent major storms. The link notes that a “group of bipartisan lawmakers” is trying to reverse the state and federal environmental rules which are pushing California into a truly disastrous water shortage in the near future.
How bad could the water crisis get in the future? The water crisis affects far more than just the state of California. There are seven states in a water compact which regulates each state’s share of the Colorado River basin. This works fine when water supplies are adequate, but huge legal problems occur over water rights when water shortages occur. In the “mega-drought” that climatologists declare the American Southwest is now in, the problems become exceedingly severe for these seven states.
The second link warns that the American Southwest is nearing a “dead pool” crisis where the major water reservoirs for the Colorado River Basin, Lake Powell and Lake Mead, are in danger of losing so much water that there will be an insufficient flow of water to run the huge hydroelectric generators or supply potable water to the circa 40,000,000 people in the Colorado River basin region. Water managers are warning this “catastrophic” situation could occur “within two years.” That language means that this hyper-crisis could occur in less than two years. A “dead pool” situation in these major southwestern reservoirs would mean that millions of people would lose drinking water and millions would lose electric power. Just a thought: if the megadrought means that millions of Southwesterners lose their electricity, every reserve coal and fossil-fuel power plant in America will likely need to operate at full capacity to provide at least a minimal electric supply to the entire American Southwest. We may face a situation where electricity is only available in many American cities for a few hours a day as roving blackouts are imposed to keep the entire grid form collapse. If this happens sooner rather than later, these issues will dominate the 2024 presidential election.
The second link states that “about 80%” of the water in the basin is allocated to agriculture. If huge cuts to water allocations come to the Southwestern states, it means there will be a lot fewer vegetables, fruits and nuts produced to feed the rest of the USA and the world. Food shortages for many types of food could become severe. The second link also observes that the original water-use assumptions for available water in the Colorado River basin forgot to include the critical role played by the evaporation of water in the Colorado River, the big reservoirs, canals and other above-ground water sources in the region. That huge oversight was not a factor in water-surplus years, but in a very severe drought like the one occurring now, this omission means that millions of acre feet supposedly in the Basin don’t actually exist at all. The federal Bureau of Reclamation has asked the seven states in the compact (California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming) to come up with a voluntary water-reduction agreement, but so far local politics has prevented any sensible solutions. If the Bureau of Reclamation has to step in and impose a federal solution on all seven states, it will surely cause a plethora of lawsuits about water-rights which will result in the federal courts likely having to impose new water use solutions on all seven states–whether they like it or not. Many long-standing water-rights could be voided if the federal government must intervene and impose a new system of water rights. We could be headed toward a situation where golf courses, lawns and backyard swimming pools will receive zero allocations for water for the duration of the megadrought. Can you imagine what will happen to property values throughout the American Southwest if major water restrictions are imposed? Many businesses require a large volume of water to make their products, and they may suddenly lose their water supplies if a new water compact is imposed from Washington, D.C.
The megadrought has created a “slow motion disaster” within the seven states that are slowly running out of water (third link). The latest deadline for the seven states to reach an agreement was January 31, 2023 and that date has passed. Unless a new agreement is reached soon, the federal government may have no choice but to forcibly impose water cuts on all seven states. I think it is likely that no agreement will be reached as the political leaders in those seven states would rather have the federal government impose a solution so the governors and legislators can conveniently blame the federal government for the major water-use cuts that are inevitable. The fourth link warns that the water-use cuts may be “on a scale without parallel in American history.”
In an opinion piece by Ron Way in the February 13, 2023 issue of the Minneapolis Star Tribune entitled “Watering the West is not the Midwest’s Problem,” he described a truly bizarre proposal floated by some Southwestern states to solve their water problems by transporting massive amounts of water at astronomical cost to the Southwest from the Great Lakes or the Mississippi River. I would have included it as a link, but one has to be a subscriber to read the piece. It is worth your time to go to a library and read it in “hard copy” if a library near you has it available. Since the Mississippi River has also been running so low recently that barges cannot transport full loads of bulk goods from upstream ports to New Orleans, any proposal to seize water from the Mississippi River basin is politically “dead on arrival” in the US Congress. All states in the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio River basins would vigorously oppose any such water grab by the Southwestern states.
What is amazing in this entire debate is the blindness of the California state government to an obvious solution to the entire region’s problem. California has a long coastline next to the Pacific Ocean, and California could build a series of huge water desalinization plants all along that coastline. The project could be funded by revenue bonds as California would then be able to export an immense amount of purified water to the other “dry” Southwestern states. The demand for desalinated water would be endless and on-going so the bonds would be paid off easily. California could become a water exporter, but it lacks the will or sense to implement such an obviously-available solution. If they do this logical step, they need to be sure they are building the desalinization plants away from fault lines.
What the drought-stricken states are almost assuredly not going to do any time soon is to repent to the Creator God who gives rain to people who honor and obey him and denies rain to those who rebel against him. The modern world is so duped by evolutionary fables that it has forgotten God and his limitless power and sovereignty. In Leviticus 26:3-4, God promises to give “rain in due season” to those who obey and reverence him. Leviticus 26:18-19 and Deuteronomy 28:22-23 warn that God can also deny the rains to those who reject and disobey him. Has modern America and mankind rejected and disobeyed God for a very long period of time? The answer is obviously “yes.” Given what the Bible promises and warns, it should not surprise us that a “megadrought” is now afflicting a nation that once revered God but now increasingly rejects and denies him. If God is sending this megadrought at this time because of national sins, we can expect the drought to get worse until people start to repent and return to God.
I wonder which state will be the first one to have a governor who humbly asks people to pray “for rain in due season?”
- https://www.latimes.com/
california/story/2023-01-20/ anger-flares-as-california- stormwater-washes-out-to-sea - https://news.yahoo.com/dead-
pool-approaches-western-water- 224428527.html - https://www.usatoday.com/
story/news/2023/02/02/ colorado-river-compact-water- crisis-california-plan- explained/11170739002/ - https://www.sej.org/headlines/
colorado-river-shrinks- washington-prepares-spread- pain
