Report paints dire picture of state's future water supply

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Shaun McKinnon The Arizona Republic Nov. 22, 2002 12:00 AM

If you think it's dry out there now, wait 30 years.

Higher temperatures caused by global warming will produce more rain than snow in the Colorado River Basin, says a study released Thursday by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. That means less winter runoff to reservoirs for 25 million people in Arizona and six other states.

Special report • A long, dry streak Arizona would suffer first if the Colorado couldn't meet demand. Water for Phoenix through the Central Arizona Project Canal falls last on the priority list; Nevada and California get to take their shares first.

"The Colorado is fully utilized now," researcher Tim Barnett said. "If it gets even a little bit drier, we've got a problem."

Shortages were also predicted in California's Central Valley and along the Northwest's Columbia River.

Global-warming theories lack universal support, but evidence exists that winter snowmelt is beginning earlier, said Gregg Garfin, a University of Arizona climate researcher. "The implications of that for reservoir levels are pretty dire."

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2002


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