Warming temperatures will sap more water out of the Colorado River — and many other waterways fed by mountain streams — as groundwater is depleted over the long term, new research shows…
The high mountains in central Colorado were mostly dry in December 2017 in this file photo, taken from the Crested Butte Mountain Resort looking up the Slate and East river valleys around the time snowpack in the Gunnison River Basin was 35 percent of normal. The smaller rivers are tributaries of the Gunnison River.
Few previous studies have attempted to quantify how climate change will affect mountain groundwater’s contributions to streamflow in the long term. Scientists who conducted the study found that depleted groundwater stores, coupled with warming, could reduce stream flows by up to 34%. Without accounting for groundwater loss, models predict stream flow loss of up to only 13%.
“It smooths out the wet and dry years,” Carroll said. “But if you deplete your savings, you have nothing to draw from.”Colorado’s demand for water is slated to surpass supplies by 2050. Did lawmakers do enough to address the crisis?Letters: Xcel’s high wind power shutdown — prevented wildfires and saved lives or inconvenienced thousands to avoid lawsuits?
Already, aridification and warming are sapping groundwater storage — and the water “savings account” will be even less full by the end of the century. Data shows that after a particularly dry year on the East River in 2018, which occurred during four years of low-to-no monsoon activity, the groundwater systems never fully rebounded.
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