To the editor: Kudos to reporter Ian James and The Times for explaining the dithering between states that rely on the Colorado River for water.
One relatively new black swan hovering over this issue is the large amount of water consumed by the data centers being built for artificial intelligence systems. Google said it consumed 6.1 billion gallons of water to cool its data centers in 2023, 17% more than in 2022.
Please, let’s listen to the scientists who have been warning us for decades: Water Superman isn’t coming to save us. So we must plan ahead for the inevitable.
Knowing the dire sense of urgency, we should at least consider — in lieu of toilet to tap, paying farmers to fallow their fields, sucking more groundwater out of sinking land and starting more water wars — a 1,000-mile water pipeline from Lake Michigan to the Colorado River.
“Peak water” is here. So our children and grandchildren won’t have to suffer from more draconian measures that are simply stopgaps, we must shake free of the conventional thinking on supplying water for agriculture, residents and now data centers throughout the seven Western states that depend on the dwindling Colorado River.
For the next generation, we must think big and have the political will to build a 1,000-mile water pipeline.
John Boal, Burbank
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To the editor: There will be no equitable allocation of Colorado River water (or water from any other source) until the agencies and lawyers acknowledge that you cannot use water that does not exist.
Many agencies essentially say, “I have a contract for a certain amount of acre-feet of water, so I’m going to take that much water.”
I have not heard anyone propose scrapping all existing contracts and allocating the water that actually enters the Colorado River system each year on a percentage basis.
Parker G. Emerson, Claremont
