Colorado River Bowl Case Study

Creekview at River Run community is located one mile south of Arapahoe Road, at the intersection of Parker Road and Broncos Parkway. This is a two-story house build around 2003-2004 with a frame construction. Some of the house have basement and some don’t have it. This community is a single-family home where 1-4 people live in the house. The house attaches with two car garages, great patio and garden area. The community is managed by Home Owner Association (HOA) to make this community well organized; therefore, the selling price won’t go down. The HOA has responsibilities such as cleans the snow in major road, keeps the street clean, lawn the grass in public area, and monitor condition of the house. Therefore, houses in this community are well-maintained. Even though the house has a two-car garage, some of the owners still park the car in the driveway. Streetlights, sidewalks, bicycle lanes, speed limit signs, pediatricians crossing, trash can, and fire hydrants are visible around the neighborhood. There is one house is under contract with new owner. Overall, the community is clean and safe.

The Colorado River is shared by several states due to the large capacity of water that it holds and its proximity. These states include California, Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. The Colorado water compact is a 1922 agreement that was signed by seven states within the US to govern the sharing or water resources along the Colorado River. Since the development of the compact, California has been the most disadvantaged state since it uses water that has been already used up by other states. Before the compact, most of the states that use the water were in conflict due to the unfair allocation of the water resources. The allocation led to the development of the upper and the lower basin with the division point at the Lee Ferry. Some of the states got more allocation than the others while some did not get any fresh water (Sally, 2012). The Colorado water compact is ruled by many contracts and rulings that were signed by the states that use the water.

The Buffalo River area is a karst environment with attendant sinkhole and cave formation. Limestone, composed primarily of CaCO3 and dolomite composed primarily of CaMg(CO3)2, are the two soluble rock types in the area that host the karst features. Water in contact with air picks up carbon dioxide some of which transforms to carbonic acid, and this acid then dissolves the carbonate minerals, carrying the ions out in solution (e.g. Trudgill 1985). Limestone and dolomite layers vary in impurities and grain size so that different layers are more or less prone to dissolution, with dolomite generally being less soluble than limestone. To erode these rock formations with very low intergrain porosity and permeability, there has to be exposed surface area and so faults and joints within the rock greatly increase the rate in which the rock will dissolve, and partly control the location of

The upper basin states (including Colorado) were allocated a much greater percentage of the water than the lower basin states, while the upper basin states were developing at a much slower rate than those in the lower basin, notably California. Nevada (as of 1997) anticipated being unable to rely just on this water by 2015, while in 1997 California was already exceeding its originally allocated supply by diverting unused water from the upper basin states (Arizona.edu, 1997). It goes without saying that this legislation from the early twentieth century is not going to be sufficient in coming years as the development of these regions has progressed at a much faster rate than originally anticipated, and it is the responsibility of state and federal governments, water management companies, as well as appeals from farmers and non-farming residents alike to come to an agreement on how to apportion water and how to implement secondary hydration plans due to the rapidly declining resource that the once-magnificent Colorado River was able to supply us

Arizona has put 165,000 acre feet of water it has conserved into Lake Mead, a number that is expected to grow to 215,000 acre feet by the end of the year. The state wants to make sure that water is there for its use in the future and is not taken out and used by other states as is happening now. Lake Mead elevations are a concern because if the water in the lake drops below a certain level it triggers a shortage declaration that requires water usage restrictions. Arizona has contributing to that effort by placing conserved water in the lake. Arizona residents would like to see this water be put into the state's water banks and the Central Arizona Project, and used within the state rather than put into Lake Mead. I do believe “Drought plan” is required or needed to be re activate/re plan to face the drought issues in the west with more collaboration between the states in the Colorado River

The Colorado River Basin starts in the Rocky Mountains and cuts through 1500 miles of canyon lands and deserts of seven US states and two Mexican states to supply a collection of dams and reservoirs with water to help irrigate cropland, support 40 million people, and provide hydroelectric power for the inland western United States [1,2]. From early settlement, rights over the river have been debated and reassigned to different states in the upper and lower basin; however, all the distribution patterns lead to excessive consumption of the resource. In 1922, the seven US states signed into the Colorado River Compact, which outlined the policy for the distribution rights to the water [3], however, this compact was written during an exceptionally

The amount of money it would take to maintain the water distribution from the Colorado River will also be

Over a course of years, the Spokane River has been polluted by heavy metals such as zinc, arsenic, lead, and cadmium which affect the fish in the river which may lead to health complications in humans. Although the river has had many plans of management, such as beach clean ups, toxic cleanups and PCBs projects, a management recommendation would be aeration.

Texas, with its abundances of natural resources, is facing a new demon, one that doesn’t even seem possible, a shortage of water. Water, without it nothing can survive. Texas is the second largest state for landmass in the nation and ninth for water square miles. Within the borders of Texas are more than 100 lakes, 14 major rivers, and 23 aquifers, so why has water become such an important issue for the state? Politicians and conservationists all agree that without a new working water plan, the state could be facing one of the most damaging environmental disasters they have ever seen. The issues that shape the states positions are population growth, current drought conditions, and who actually owns the water.

The Red River Compact Commission was created and signed by 1978 by 4 states Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. The Red River, the northern boundary of a lot of the state, is a major water source for all four of these states and was being fought over until this commission was made to help solve many of the disputes that could come up. Similarly, Texas has more agreements with other states including the Sabine River Compact Commission and the Rio Grande Compact. These commission serves the same purpose as the other commission, to make sure that all states receive the correct amount of water and that neither state ruins the water for any other one. The United States has an agreement with Mexico regarding the Colorado River that helps decide what should be done with a river that gives water to more than 33 million people across the two nations. The agreement is made to help the Colorado River make it back to the Ocean which will in turn help refill Lake Mead, the main source of water for the city of Los Vegas. The major treaty between the US and Mexico that Texas has a large hand in is the Treaty of February 3, 1994. This treaty restricts the water that the other country can take from the Rio Grande river, and guarantees the US one-third of the water from 5 tributaries in Mexico, and guarantees Mexico all of the water from two other tributaries. This treaty also allows both nations to dam parts of this

I think only six states should have the water rights, because it would lessen the droughts, and maybe one day save the Colorado River.

Today I am arguing a case for the Boulder Dam. It will be located in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River on the border between Nevada and Arizona. The dam will provide hydroelectric power for places like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix and other urban center. Originally, farmers had made an attempt to redirect the Colorado through the use of canals, but these canals broke in 1905 and the dam is a viable replacement. Not only will it provide water and hydroelectric power to the developing southwest, it can control the seasonal flooding of the Colorado River and irrigate land in California’s Imperial Valley. Although the construction will be expensive, the power it produces will cover the costs. This would help farmers and other workers in the southwest and the construction can provide thousands of jobs for laborers. I was once concerned that the water will primarily go to California, but Herbert Hoover brokered a compact in 1922, the Colorado River Compact, to divide the water proportionally among the seven states. President Calvin Coolidge will hopefully authorize the Boudler Canyon Project to end the legal wrangling of the

The Colorado river provided the Southwestern states with the water source they needed to provide for the population, agriculture and energy. California has been seeing a population growth and that meant more water they needed from the Colorado River. The Colorado Basin states feared California would establish priority rights to Colorado River water (Gelt, 1997). Delph Carpenter, a Colorado attorney, suggested a compact to determine each state’s individual rights to the Colorado River, before the Federal government intervenes, therefore each state agreed of an interstate compact to share the water. The boulder project, or what is known the Hoover Dam, was a major advantage to California, which gave them more access to the water supply. Arizona, however was at a disadvantage, especially for the southern-central population. Arizona Central Arizona Project was to solved the water scarcity and the project was started, when Arizona asked the U.S. Supreme Court for a judicial apportionment (Gelt, 1997). After eleven year

Now Arizona is not the typical state that has a lot of precipitation and rain yearly, but it depends off other reservoirs, lakes, and rivers located in other states to for their water supply. After searching and conducting research, it was found that the main impact Arizona is suffering from the drought is decreasing water levels is from Lake Mead (located in Nevada), and the Colorado River, which flows North to South through several U.S. states. Research and data found shows that the Bureau of Reclamation releases water into the Colorado River below Lake Mead to meet water demands of downstream users in Arizona and California, and also to satisfy treaty obligations to the Republic of Mexico. Findings by the Bureau of Reclamation show that Lake Mead water level’s peaked at 1,214.26 in January of 2000. Almost a decade and a half later, recorded in January 2014, the water levels of Lake Mead are now 1,108.75 (Smith, 2014). This findings show that Arizona is continually getting a decline in water from Lake Mead every month that passes, affects thousands of residents living in Arizona, which already lacks water to begin with. If this continues, this can cause many civilians to both stand by and bare the drought as long as they can, or decide to move out of Arizona to states with a better water supply, so they won’t be burdened with the continual burden of having to ration and conserve water. The state has

One of the largest geographic physical structures in the United States is the Colorado River. Human activity and its interaction with this great river have an interesting history. The resources provided by the river have been used by humans, and caused conflict for human populations as well. One of these conflicts is water distribution, and the effects drought conditions have played in this distribution throughout the southwestern region. Major cities such as Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, and other communities in the southwest depend on the river. It provides water for over 20 million people, irrigation for 2 million acres of land, four thousand megawatts of hydroelectric energy, and over twenty million annual visitors for