As Colorado River Water Vaporizes in the Desert, Arizona Faces a New Energy Reality - 2013

 

As Colorado River Water Vaporizes in the Desert, Arizona Faces a New Energy Reality

Recently, the Navajo and Hopi Nations signed a controversial lease with the Arizona public utility, Salt River Project (SRP). Under that agreement, and for the benefit of SRP, the Navajo Generating Station (NGS) near Page, Arizona will operate until 2044. The primary function of NGS is to provide electrical energy to SRP’s Central Arizona Project (CAP). Using that power, SRP lifts 1.5 million acre-feet of water per annum from Lake Havasu. After pumping it over the Buckskin Mountains, CAP alternately siphons, pumps and uses gravity to transport the water east, to Pima, Pinal and Maricopa Counties.

While crossing Arizona’s Tonopah Desert, the aqueduct consists of a large, evaporation-trench. From Tempe to Tucson, the water remaining after a scorching trip across the desert might become mist at an outdoor restaurant. Burning eight million tons of Black Mesa coal each year, NGS generates more than enough power to pump a continual flood of Colorado River water across the Arizona desert.

In the event of a power shortage or a shortage of Colorado River water, CAP could economize by curtailing deliveries to both agriculture and its groundwater recharge stations. If CAP water deliveries were to fall below current per capita consumption, either new water connections would halt or consumers would face rationing and shortages. With that, Arizona’s fifty-year construction and population boom would end. With its economy reliant on new residential development and construction, Arizona's ongoing boom could quickly turn to bust.

If CAP water deliveries were to diminish significantly, the Maricopa County might face its second Great Disappearance in less than a millennium. In 899 CE, the Hohokam Indians experienced and then recovered from a flood that devastated their extensive water storage and delivery systems. In the late fourteenth century, major flooding again occurred in the Valley of the Sun. This time, recovery flagged. By 1450 CE, between 24,000 and 50,000 Hohokam Indians had disappeared from the archeological record.

Currently, the Phoenix-Tucson metropolis is living on borrowed time and borrowed water. By “borrowed time”, I mean that California, Arizona and Nevada currently withdraw Colorado River water faster than the watershed upstream can replenish it. By “borrowed water”, I mean that as shortages loom, Arizona’s CAP water rights are subordinate to those of California. Arizona’s current tourism motto is “Discover the Arizona Less Traveled”. In the years ahead, the less traveled part of Arizona may well include Pima, Pinal and Maricopa Counties.

Over mountains and desert, CAP’s borrowed water travels to an artificial oasis with a population of five million. Arizona's twenty-year development plans are a pipe dream. They call for a future Southern Arizona population of up to ten million. Long before that, the big pipe that is CAP may be running near empty. One does not need to be a climate scientist to see that sustained pumping from a declining Colorado River is not a viable long-term solution. In fact, supplying sufficient water to current users may yet prove unsustainable.

In order to transport their allotment of Colorado River water across the desert, Arizona dumps its environmental responsibilities on the Navajo Nation. From mining, processing, transport and burning of Black Mesa coal, the Navajo and Hopi Nations subsidize profligate water use in Phoenix and Tucson. When it came to producing additional power closer to home, no one in Phoenix wanted a coal-fired power station upwind. Instead, at its Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station (PVNGS), SRP utilized a “clean power source”. Standing in the Tonopah Desert, fifty miles west of Phoenix, the massive complex comprises the largest nuclear power plant in the nation. Tonopah derives from the word Tú Nohwá, meaning "Hot Water under a Bush". In fact, PVNGS is the only major nuclear power plant in the world not situated adjacent to a major body of water.

Owned by a consortium of utilities stretching from El Paso to Los Angeles, PVNGS’s biggest advantage is that it does not burn coal. Since its initial construction in the 1970s, PVNGS has been a magnate for nearby natural-gas-fired “peaker plants”. Each of those natural gas plants consumes cooling water, emits hydrocarbons and heat into the atmosphere. Both the Black Mesa Complex (strip-mine) to the north and PVNGS have a public relations advantage. Located in remote locations, both complexes are out of sight and out of mind. Few in Arizona realize that their lifesaving air conditioning depends on a 3,900 megawatt power plant called "Hot Water under a Bush".

Other than the inherent fragility of 1970’s nuclear power plant design, the main weakness of PVNGS is its cooling loops. As the sole source for their cooling water, all of the Tonopah power plants rely on treated effluent water from Phoenix and other cities. Reduced future delivery of Colorado River water will force conservation on Phoenix. As residents curtail non-essential water usage, demand for CAP water will harden at a lower volume. Inevitably, as Phoenix consumes less fresh water, sewage plant effluent will decrease as well. I do not know how much treated water Phoenix currently has to spare, but that would be an interesting statistic.

Although currently recharged with excess CAP water, the Tonopah Aquifer is finite. If Phoenix metropolitan sewage plants currently supply most of their outflow to Tonopah, any decrease in effluent could set off an unpleasant chain reaction. If treated effluent flow decreased, the power plants at Tonopah would resort to pumping from their local aquifers. To see the negative ramifications of such an act, one needs to look no further than to the depleted aquifers of Black Mesa, to the north. Not if, but when the Tonopah aquifers run dry, power production would decrease to whatever diminished level the sewage plants upstream could support.

Pumping of groundwater at Tonopah will only delay the day of reckoning. Even today, sixty percent of Arizona's population relies on groundwater for its domestic water needs. Thus, if history is an indicator, Arizona will soon tap its desert aquifers. When the aquifers make their final retreat, CAP customers will discover a new reality. With insufficient cooling water available at Tonopah, both nuclear and gas-fired generating stations will curtail output. Unless some of CAP's then diminished supply of Colorado River water is diverted directly to the power plants, a downward spiral of SRP power production will ensue.

Any decrease in water or power deliveries would strain the economy and ultimately, the population of Southern Arizona. In subsequent years, the price of both water and power could exceed many Arizonian’s ability to pay. Unable to revert to its former ranching, mining and semi-rural economy, the outlying suburbs of Maricopa, Pinal and Pima Counties would be the first to go. Old copies of Arizona Highways Magazine might look new again. Ghost towns, like Casa Grande, Arizona could feature both Hohokam ruins and abandoned regional shopping centers, which have gone to seed. Once again, a complete way of life could vanish from the Valley of the Sun.

This is Chapter 2 of a four-part series about coal and water in the Southwest. Whether in power plants or homes, the burning of Navajo Reservation, Black-Mesa-Coal degrades lasting environmental and health effects created by the burning of Black Mesa coal in both power plants and homes on the Navajo Reservation, Read Chapter 3.

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By James McGillis at 04:31 PM | Colorado River | Comments (0) | Link

Phoenix, AZ - Laughlin, NV and the Mojave National Preserve - 2010

 

Phoenix, AZ - Laughlin, NV and the Mojave National Preserve

In mid May, I drove the 400-mile distance from Simi Valley, CA to Phoenix, AZ. Although Arizona was my former home, I now spend less time there. With so much time between my visits, changes to familiar landmarks are easy to spot. One positive change is the widening of many freeways throughout the Valley of the Sun. From Goodyear to Phoenix, motorists will find construction all along Interstate I-10. Additionally, the Interstate I-17 widening project, leading north from Phoenix, nears completion.

Sadly, the portion of I-17 between Anthem, AZ and the Sunset View Scenic Rest Point, near the Bumble Bee ghost town still rates as one of the most dangerous highways in Arizona. On I-17 North, toward Flagstaff, speed limits of sixty-five to seventy-five mile per hour are common. Interspersed on the road are sharp curves, steep hills and many motorists predisposed to speeding and traffic accidents.

During my recent visit, the Arizona Republic newspaper published the story regarding a motorist who lost control and drove unseen off the side of I-17. Despite tumbling with his SUV into a ravine, the injured motorist successfully completed a mobile telephone call to 911. The resulting ground search was insufficient to locate the motorist. An air search, initiated several days later, located the motorist and his son. Officers pronounced them both dead at the scene.

I love All that Is Arizona. Shortly before my recent visit, I was disheartened to learn that Governor Jan Brewer had signed legislation that places up to one-third of Arizona residents under suspicion. That new law requires Arizona police officers to check the federal immigration documents of those who they suspect to be undocumented immigrants. If unable to produce legal residency documents, the police officer will then arrest the undocumented person. We wonder if police will require middle-aged white people to produce Canadian immigration papers. The propensity for police racial profiling, conscious or not, tells me that few white people will have to justify their residency status.

One can imagine a routine traffic stop leading to the arrest of a person who has lived in Arizona since just after the federal immigration amnesty of 1987. Would that person, who has lived in Arizona for two decades be subject to deportation, right along with a 2010 border-crosser? If eleven to fourteen million undocumented immigrants now live in the U.S. , how busy might we expect Arizona’s police to be in confronting and arresting the undocumented?

Today, persons of Latino or Hispanic extraction comprise about one third of Arizona’s total population. The governor’s assurance that police officers will receive “anti-racial-profiling training” leaves me cold. As we know, whether we apply “positive” or “negative” energy to any subject, we will soon get more of whatever we focus upon. Thus, in attempting to avoid racial profiling, there will naturally be more profiling activity, whether intended it or not.

Similar to discrimination that Austrian and German Jews experienced before World War II, will Arizonans soon report their neighbors as suspected “illegal aliens”? Would the act of accusing one’s neighbor create “probable cause” for the police to verify the residency status of “the accused”? When the law goes into effect, I expect police “anonymous tip-lines” to ring more often. Those communications lines could soon allow one neighbor to accuse another of not being a "real" American.

That day, I stopped at Baja Fresh in Tempe for lunch. During my visit, a steady stream of people frequented the restaurant. As I sat and ate, I found myself wondering what comprised each individual’s ethnic or racial makeup. Soon, I realized that I was engaged in the silent racial profiling of Arizona residents.

In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the U.S. Mexican War. At the time, Mexico ceded large parts of current-day Arizona, California and New Mexico to the United States. At their inception, Mexican Americans outnumbered Anglo Americans in all three territories. Native Indians may have outnumbered both Latinos and Anglos, but their subsequent sequestration, subjugation and near annihilation makes their situation hard to compare. By treaty, all Mexican Americans, but none of the Indian Americans became citizens of the United States.

I hope that any “anti racial-profiling” training that local police and sheriff’s deputies receive is superlative. For years now, the sheriff of Maricopa County has conducted document-search sweeps in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods. For a police officer to discern which Hispanic has a 163-year citizenship legacy and which one is a recent arrival is going to take some great “anti-racial-profiling training”. What criteria will they use to decide when to ask someone for papers?

Let us now remember the motorist who disappeared off the side of I-17, subsequently dying of injuries or exposure. Will the Arizona police soon be so busy arresting undocumented persons that they will no longer have sufficient recourse to search thoroughly for accident victims? As a motorist, I prefer to see more “search and rescue” missions, rather than “confront and arrest” missions now sanctioned by Arizona law.

With our time, energy and money, each of us “votes” for what we like, or dislike. Arizona’s politicians and electorate recently used their resources to whip up bigotry and fear of Latino or Hispanic residents. Now, this fear has spread to Utah, where the legislature is considering similar anti-immigrant legislation of its own. When pettiness and bigotry take over the energies of a “body politic”, it is time for me to place my energies elsewhere. Until its anti-immigrant laws disappear from the books, I shall avoid doing business in Arizona. Until sanity and humanity return, my Arizona visits will be restricted to necessary medical appointments. When this is all over, I hope that the Grand Canyon will still there. I would love to see that place again.

After my overnight stay in Phoenix, I visited my doctor in Scottsdale, and then headed northwest toward Laughlin, Nevada. There, I spent the night at Harrah's Laughlin, Nevada Hotel and Casino. My elapsed time for the 270-mile trip from Phoenix to Laughlin was less than five hours.

Once I crossed the Colorado River Bridge and entered Laughlin, I breathed a sigh of relief. For less than $50, I had booked a River View, King Room at Harrah's. When I checked in, the guest services representative invited me into the Diamond Check-in Room. There, she promptly dropped the price of my room to less than $40, plus tax. The room was on the fourth floor, allowing a panoramic view of the Colorado River. Throughout my stay, all hotel services were impeccable. Additionally, I found the onsite McDonald's and Baskin Robbins convenient for quick meals and snacks.

During my stay, there were many Japanese tourists at Harrah’s. As I entered the hotel, there was a group of twenty receiving their individual tickets for an evening event. Many more enjoyed the swimming pool, which was just below my window. On my hotel TV, NHK Cosmomedia Japan provided their English-speaking TV Japan channel. Unlike many U.S. cable news sources, TV Japan featured unbiased news reporting. If I had a choice at home, I would gladly exchange NHK for my current Fox. I love to stay informed, but prefer my news without an obvious editorial slant.

As I exited the casino that evening, I spotted a senior couple eating ice cream together at Baskin Robbins. They were enjoying themselves so much that they reminded me of a young couple on their first date. After passing by, I stopped, turned back, smiled and then said to them, "You are the two most sensible people in this whole place". The woman jumped about six inches, but the man smiled, held his hand out and said, "Thank you".

As my friend, Leonard recently said, "I really like Laughlin; my wife does not. I figure it takes me about as long to drive from Los Angeles to Laughlin as it does to Las Vegas. However, there is an obvious difference between the two. Las Vegas has too much; Laughlin has absolutely nothing. For me, it is a great place to get away and do nothing. I think "nothing" is the primary attraction in Laughlin.

Next to Harrah’s, the Riverside Hotel & Casino has some things to see. There is an antique automobile museum there and a watch store that sells all sorts of ... uh ... watches. The town of Oatman, Arizona is close by. I think Tim McVeigh hung out there before he blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City. Today you can go to Oatman and feed carrots to wild burros. Descendents of pack animals brought by miners long ago, they still wander the streets.”

The next day, I departed Laughlin for Simi Valley, California. My trip west across the desert via I-40, then south on I-15 was beautiful. With temperatures in the 80's, clear air and minimal traffic; I made it home in record time. In recent years, the Mojave Desert has experienced extreme drought conditions. This winter, the rains swept in and the Mojave National Preserve now looks green by comparison. Later, as I approached the north side of the San Gabriel Mountains on I-15, heavy snowdrifts there attested to this year’s wet winter in Southern California.

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By James McGillis at 06:12 PM | Current Events | Comments (0) | Link

 

Flame-Out in Phoenix, Arizona 2007

Thursday was my day for both old and new energies. After a morning appointment in Phoenix, I returned to my coach in Black Canyon City, ready to move on... or so I thought.

The predicted high temperature in Phoenix that day was 109 degrees, so I had left the air-conditioning in my coach set at 80 degrees. Upon my return, I sat comfortably in my coach. As the day progressed, the temperatures outside were rising, thus putting greater strain on my A/C.

Around Noon, my A/C faltered briefly, but I was obliviously unconcerned. Ten minutes later, the machine seized, causing a flash fire in the controller box above my head. After flipping off the circuit breaker, I could still hear crackling sounds for another thirty seconds. Then smoke poured out of one of the A/C vents. “Not good”, I said to myself. Since it was time to get out of Phoenix anyway, I called ahead to the RV repair shop in Flagstaff and arranged for a diagnosis of my problem later that day.

When I arrived at Flagstaff, the elevation of 7000 feet made for a pleasant 82-degree air temperature. The friendly staff at the RV repair facility quickly diagnosed my problem. “Catastrophic meltdown of the controller box”, caused by an unknown failure in the A/C unit was the story. “We have a new one in stock and can install it this afternoon for $825”, the service manager said. “Let’s do it”, I said.

While waiting for the installation, I spent an hour with a pleasant British couple who were waiting for a toilet-repair on their rented Cruise America RV. They were plying their way across America on Old Route 66, wherever they could find it. Among other things I learned, gasoline in Great Britain is the equivalent of $20 per gallon and that in the south of England, you cannot water your yard with a garden hose.

By seven PM, I was ready to start out on the 177-mile trip east on I-40, to Gallup, New Mexico. Arriving at the USA RV Park here at 10:45 PM MDT, the owner had graciously waited for me in the office until I appeared.

If we represent Old Energy through fossil fuels, central air-conditioning, mobile telephones and plug-in electrical, Thursday was my Old Energy day. The only New Energy I could find was in the help that people provided me, good company as I waited for my coach and acceptance of that which I could not change.

At noon today, I will start out for Chaco Culture National Historical Park (www.nps.gov/chcu/), in Northwestern New Mexico. If Phoenix, Flagstaff and Gallup are Old Energy, “on the grid” cities, Chaco Canyon is a New Energy, “off the grid” place. For the next two days and nights, I will be where no mobile telephone or wireless internet connection dares to go. I will be visiting ruins of “pre-Puebloan”, “Anasazi” or “pre-Columbian” cultures, depending on which description you might like to use. From 600 AD through 1200 AD, Chaco Canyon was the premier human cultural center in Western North America.

Tonight, one hundred miles form the nearest large city, I will stargaze with the “local” telescopic community on a near-moonless night. After two nights in Chaco Canyon, I will “emerge” from the land of ancient cultures and make my way to Taos, New Mexico on Sunday, September 16. Until then, please accept my offering of Happy New Energy to you.

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