“ Whiskey ’ s for Drinking. Water ’ s for Fighting Over. ” - Mark Twain Franklin W. Schwartz:

1. “Whiskey’s for Drinking. Water’s for Fighting Over.”-Mark Twain Franklin W. Schwartz: The Ohio State University May, 2005

2. Canadian Water and Wastewater Association

3. From Development Alternatives Newsletter

4. Rivers provide water for crop production, i.e., irrigation • Transportation routes to move commodities between farms and cities • Problems develop due to strong variability in river flows - before 1900 mostly climate related - after 1900 human diversions of water compounded by climate variability

5. Water is Also Special Because: • Commonly, supply comes and goes with weather • Resource so essential has little value - not worth transporting long distances - we take advantage of natural conveyance systems (i.e., rivers)

6. In arid areas, rivers are lifelines for civilizations

7. Water as the Source of Conflict • Given the importance of water supplies they are source of potential conflict • Pick a place, often some local water supply issue • Columbus, Ohio example

8. Environmental Groups – convincing argument that Darby Creek should not be developed • Residents nearby Columbus don’t want dams, or even storage basins • Conflicts developing - Columbus should be sustainable ecosystem! - don’t need people, traffic and pollution that new water would foster

9. Colliding National Interests • Inability of countries to share common water resource – politics of power • Long rivers traversing several countries - Nile River 4130 mi - drains 10 countries - five among poorest - e.g., Burundi, Rwanda

10. Nile River Disputes 1929 Treaty between Britain and Egypt – territories under British Control could not lower flow 1959 Treaty between Egypt and Sudan divided flow 2/3 – 1/3 – no share for others Can’t use water Lake Victoria Some countries not former territories of Britain - Ethiopia

11. Egyptians have a “Nile-mania”- Chege Mbitiru • “Sabre rattling every time a project is proposed” - lean on countries to avoid helping Ethiopia with water projects - exporting water from Lake Victoria considered near declaration of war • Egypt carries”the big stick” to maintain water rights

12. Tigris and Euphrates Disputes • 98.5% water in Euphrates from Turkey • Syria totally dependent • Iraq heavily dependent • As long as there has been civilization, water available to southern Iraq

13. Upsetting the Status Quo • 1977 Turkey launched Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) • 22 dams 19 hydroelectric power plants – Tigris and Euphrates systems • Irrigation will use 27% of total flow (25 km3) • Tensions raised by unilateral development of basins

14. Story Continues to Unfold • Currently about 40% of project complete • Turkey sees itself as a good neighbor - no mistaking that GAP important - water is Turkish resource, like oil Iraq • Project effectively controls both rivers - political leash on Syria • Turkey now has military and economic strength to be the “power broker”

15. Mesopotamian Marshes • Human and environmental disaster in southern Iraq • Marshes formerly covered 20,000 km2 • Home of Marsh Arab society with roots to Sumeria and Babylonia – 500,000 • Key site for migratory birds

17. Aral Sea Problem

18. Volume of inflow to lake reduced from 50 km3 of fresh water to zero • In 30 years the lake has lost 60% of its water volume Source: State of Environment of the Aral Sea Basin, 2000

20. Root of Water Problem • Part of former USSR • Moscow ordained plan for cotton - cotton today is ¼ of Uzbekistan’s GDP • Political bosses from Uzbekistan channel money towards upstream reaches • USSR breakup - no planning

21. Exposure of large areas of lake bed - winds blowing over this area causes huge dust storms and moves salt crystals onto farmland - respiratory problems due to dust

22. By 1977, fish harvest reduced by 75% as freshwater fish died off - evaporation caused salinity to increase substantially - by 1980’s commercial fishing industry was dead • Main port Muynak 150 km from Aral Sea

23. Unintended Consequences • Collapse of fishing threw local economies into chaos • Major health impact to region - combination of poverty, poor nutrition - contamination from agricultural chemicals • 20 million people increased rates of throat and lung cancers, kidney disease, hepatitis, asthma, birth defects, TB - TB rates 250 to 370 out of every 100,000 people

24. Sad Observations • System not sustainable • Aral Sea ecosystem remains in decline • Cotton farming impacted by climate changes - too cold to grow cotton • Burden of human misery, which is also not sustainable • Weak downstream water users virtually powerless

25. What about the U.S.? Q: Where does LA get some of its water?A: Surface water, groundwater, and snow melt, Owens Valley http://ca.water.usgs.gov/owens/overview.html

26. Owens Valley Geography What about these two “lakes” http://ca.water.usgs.gov/owens/overview.html

27. Owens Lake Then & Now During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s the lake fluctuated between about 7-15 m deep and had an area of about 280 km2, depending on drought conditions and irrigation diversions; the irrigation withdrawals were large enough to desiccate the lake eventually (St. Amand et al., 1986). Steamboats hauled ore across the lake from mines in the Inyo Range. Water was first diverted from the Owens River to the City of Los Angeles in 1913, and by 1926 Owens Lake was dry. As reported in the Los Angeles Times (12/17/96): "One day last year in Keeler, particles surged to a nationwide record that was 23 times greater than a federal health standard allows. Keeler residents are exposed to unhealthful levels 25 days a year. In Ridgecrest, 60 miles south of the lake, that situation occurs 10 days a year, according to the Great Basin air agency. ‘When we see the white cloud headed down through the pass, the ER and doctors' offices fill up with people who suddenly got worse. It's a pretty straightforward cause and effect,’ said Dr. Bruce Parker, an emergency physician at Ridgecrest Community Hospital." An additional health concern is inhalation of trace metals in the dust. The lake bed has a mean arsenic concentration of 50 ppm, and has as much as 150 ppm in the north and east (reported in Reid et al., 1994). Aerosols sampled from Owens dust storms commonly contains significant amounts of arsenic concentrated in the <10 micron fraction. Arsenic levels can be as high as 400 ng/m3 in air samples (Reid et al., 1994) and 10-50 ppm in samples from dust traps in Owens Valley. http://geochange.er.usgs.gov/sw/impacts/geology/owens/ http://www.owensvalleyhistory.com/

28. Source of Conflict Just completed aqueduct with full Owens Lake in background. The water wars began when Frederick Eaton was elected mayor of Los Angeles in 1898, and appointed his friend, William Mulholland, the superintendent of the newly-created Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). Eaton and Mulholland had a vision of a Los Angeles that would become far bigger than the Los Angeles of the turn of the century. The limiting factor of Los Angeles' growth was water supply. Eaton and Mulholland realized that the Owens Valley had a large amount of runoff from the Sierra Nevada, and a gravity-fed aqueduct could deliver the Owens water to Los Angeles. So much water was taken from the valley that the farmers and ranchers rebelled. In 1924, a group of armed ranchers seized the Alabama Gates and dynamited part of the system. This armed rebellion was for naught, and by 1928, Los Angeles owned 90% of the water in Owens Valley. Agriculture in the Valley was effectively dead. State, Federal and Local Projects http://www.water.ca.gov/maps/state.cfm http://www.owensvalleyhistory.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Water_Wars

29. U.S. Water Usage Water use is usually defined and measured in terms of withdrawal and consumption—that which is taken and that which is used up. Withdrawal refers to water extracted from surface or ground water sources. Consumption is that part of a withdrawal that is ultimately used and removed from the immediate water environment by evaporation, transpiration, incorporation into crops or a product, or other consumption. Conversely, return flow is the portion of a withdrawal that is not consumed, but is instead returned to a surface or ground water source from a point of use and becomes again available for use. Returned water may be of impaired quality. For example, most of the water withdrawn for once-through cooling of thermoelectric power generation is returned as heated water to the surface water body. Current figures on water use in the United States are based on a mixture of measurements and estimates. Total water use is a combination of (1) in-stream use for hydropower generation, (2) withdrawals from surface and ground water sources for off-stream use, (3) in-stream use to support ecological needs, and (4) use of rainwater before it reaches a river or aquifer. We have estimates for (1) and (2). In 1995 in-stream use for hydropower was about 3,160,000 million gallons per day. This is about 2.6 times the average runoff of the United States, and reflects the fact that the same water is used to power multiple turbines as it flows through a series of dams. For total off-stream water withdrawals (2), our best guess for 2000 is that these averaged 408,000 million gallons per day (Hutson and others, 2004). This is three times the average flow over Niagara Falls, or enough water to fill the Houston Astrodome every two minutes. Eighty-five percent of the water we withdraw is fresh; the rest is brackish or salty. Surface water provides 79 percent and ground water accounts for 21 percent. Since 1980, reductions in thermoelectric-power, irrigation, and industrial water use have helped to stabilize overall water withdrawals despite continued population growth. On the basis of estimates from 1995, the last year for which consumptive use was systematically estimated nationwide, about 30 percent of the fresh water withdrawals were used consumptively, and the remaining 70 percent were returned to surface-water bodies (Solly and others, 1998). Sum these or 500M m3 or 5800 m3/s Sum these 1M gal = 3800 m3 1M gal/day = 12 gal/s = 0.044 m3/s For reference: Ohio River at Cincinnati = 2800 m3/s NSTC Cmtee on Environ. & Nat. Res., Sep. 2007, “A strategy for Federal Sci...”

30. U.S. Water Usage:Total water withdrawals in 2000 Hutson et al., 2004 Changes in which of these 8 categories will most greatly affect water availability? Where should we expect the greatest impact on water resources from future changes in water usage practices? http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/2004/circ1268/pdf/circular1268.pdf

31. Irrigation Water Usage California and Idaho account for 40% of surface water withdrawals! http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/2004/circ1268/pdf/circular1268.pdf

32. Thermo-Electric Water Usage Thermo-electric power is not hydro-electric. TE creates steam from water to turn turbines whereas HE uses dams and water drops to turn turbines. http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/2004/circ1268/pdf/circular1268.pdf

33. World Water Usage • River discharge varies across the globe and with the seasons. • Large basins can have a small variability, e.g., Amazon Q only doubles between low and high flow seasons. • Small basins have larger variability, e.g., the Muskingum Q varies by a factor of 10. • This variability leads to problems when water needs are high but availability is low • Scarcity is a measure of needed water compared to available water. • Areas with values >0.4 are considered stressed • Scarcity is high in Northern China, in the area on the border between India and Pakistan, in the Middle East, and in the middle and western areas of the United States. • Based on this assessment, approximately 2.4 billion people are currently living in highly water-stressed areas Oki & Kanae, Science 2006

34. Future Water Usage • Decision-makers need three things to support sound management decisions: • knowledge of current conditions • However, simply stated, quantitative knowledge of U.S. water supply is currently inadequate • socially and technically feasible options that expand our water resources through efficiencies in use or treatments • New cooling technologies will sharply reduce water requirements for existing and state-of-the-art power plants. • New agricultural technologies will yield more water-efficient and drought-resistant crops, generating more food for each volume of water. • the means to evaluate the likely short- and long-term outcomes of their decisions. • The focus of these models is a better understanding of the errors and hence the quality of the predicted outcome. NSTC Cmtee on Environ. & Nat. Res., Sep. 2007, “A strategy for Federal Sci...”