DROUGHT

  Many water resource organizations feel that by the year
  2005, the western, and in particular, the southwestern
  states will be suffering from times of severe drought.
  Arizona currently gets most of its water from an
  'underground lake', better known as groundwater.  That
  groundwater is recharged from rain and snowmelt.  With
  the state's tremendous growth, however, the water removed
  from the ground exceeds what is recharged back into the
  system by about 3.5 times.  Arizona also pumps water from
  the Colorado River.  Unless the state can secure more water
  rights, agriculture will suffer.  How? First, agriculture
  uses about 75 to 85 percent of the state's water. If the
  cities continue to grow at the current rate, the general
  population will demand more of the available water; thus,
  leaving the farmers with less and less.  The state is
  currently well known for its tomatoes, corn, carrots,
  and many other valuable foods we all eat.

  Much of what applies to Arizona also goes for California.
  Southern and central California get their water from
  groundwater, the aqueduct from the mountains in the north
  half of the state, and from the Colorado River.  Again,
  most of the water is used by agriculture, not by Los
  Angeles, San Diego or other major cities.

  What about taking sea water and making it useable?  The
  military and some Saudi Arabian countries do it.  In many
  cases, the military MUST do it because of the unknown and
  adverse conditions they find themselves in.  The middle
  eastern countries are, in many cases, true deserts that
  stretch for hundreds and hundreds of miles straight.
  Being that the  closest fresh water may be in a neighboring
  country, desalination is many times a MUST.  The cost of
  taking the salt out of sea water is tremendous.  It takes a
  lot of energy, and at this point, water desalination for
  the United States is far away from being a reality.

  What about seeding the clouds to create more rain?  Cloud
  seeding is and has been done for many decades.  It is
  accomplished in many ways; one such way is to disperse a
  variation of salt (often sodium iodide) from an airplane
  flying through the clouds.  In some cases, cloud seeding
  has appeared to work, and in other cases, it has shown
  little value.  In addition, there are potential legal
  problems.  Consider that southern California does a
  massive cloud seeding and it worked.  The remaining clouds
  continue on their way to Arizona but those clouds now have
  less water in them than if California hadn't done any
  seeding.  Does California owe anything to Arizona for
  taking the water? If drought occurs in Arizona, is
  California responsible?  Who owns clouds--the state, the
  person who owns the land the cloud is passing over, the
  federal government?

  Have you noticed that all these water related problems
  have one thing in common?  If your area does not have
  enough water, you have to get it from somewhere else.
  When you add up all the water that an area receives,
  it's called a 'Water Budget'.  It is very simple to
  understand -- if a city, farmer, or a home with a well
  exceeds their budget, someone suffers because there is not
  enough water to go around. An area can not continue to take
  more water out of an area than goes into that area for very
  long.

  The growth of the population in areas of the western
  United States is a prime example of the problem. The
  usage of water that has been occuring simply cannot be
  sustained forever.  There is a limit, and we're starting
  to see it.

                          FLOODING

-f

  Flooding comes in several different forms.  River banks
  and natural washes have a water level that is called
  'Bank Full'.  Once that amount is exceeded, water spills
  out of the waterway causing damage to houses, farmland and
  whatever else is in the way. The water level that a
  particular river can safely handle without exceeding
  'bank full' is determined by the U.S. Geological Survey.
  Excessive snowmelt or long rainy seasons can cause seasonal
  flooding where streams and rivers go over 'bank  full',
  sometimes causing millions of dollars in damage.

  Flash Floods happen where flooding occurs quickly.  Flash
  flooding tends to occur in desert areas such as those
  found in the southwestern section of the USA.  These areas
  go for long periods of time with little or no rainfall.
  Little vegetation grows to slow the water. When a heavy
  rain comes, the soil cannot absorb the water quickly
  enough and it runs quickly downhill into the nearest
  water path.  Many times people will camp in a dry
  riverbed and not think about the flood potential.  If
  fortunate, they may hike away from their campsite  for a
  little while, then get a heavy rain and their belongings
  are washed away.  If the rains occur at night as they
  sleep, they could be in serious danger.  Flash floods
  usually last for a short period of time and are rather
  localized to one area; yet of all the types of floods,
  they kill the most people.

  Occasionally, the National Weather Service issues a 'Flash
  Flood Watch' which means there is the potential for
  flooding--but the situation is not too extreme at that time.
  They also issue a 'Flash Flood Warning' which is to be
  taken  seriously.  This means other floods have been
  reported in the area, and it is definitely time to prepare.
  If a true flood occurs, you may have less than 5 minutes
  to get out of the area before disaster happens.

  There are also flooding 'flukes' such as what happened
  along the Mississippi, Missouri and other rivers in July
  of 1993.  These are true disasters; they cover massive
  areas of land, devastate livelihoods, cause huge
  transportation set-backs, pollute drinking water supplies
  for hundreds-of-thousands (or millions) of people, and
  destroy everything in their path.  In these rare flood
  types, dams and levees suddenly break from the constant
  pressure, and flash flooding is a hazard in addition to
  the wide, slow-moving flooding.  The United States
  averages about 2 billion dollars in damage from flooding
  each year. At this writing (July 1993), the damage from
  the 1992 Mississippi Basin flood is totaled at over 10
  billion ($10,000,000,000) dollars!  That dollar figure
  may go higher.

  While these types of large-scale floods surprise many
  people, researchers are very aware of them and know
  approximately how often they will occur.  When a city
  such as Des Moines, Iowa builds a levee to contain water,
  it is built with a certain flood level in mind.  There
  are certain federal minimum standards that must be met,
  but the city may choose to build a larger and better
  quality levee which will last longer.  Since scientists
  and levee designers have predicted how often massive
  floods occur in a given area, they have an indication
  of how long that levee will last.  No matter how big or
  strong a man-made levee is made, eventually the strength
  of the water will win--the wall will collapse and the
  river will regain the easiest course to the ocean. Levees
  are not permanent, nor are dams, or even river banks.
  Over the millions of years the earth has existed, the
  rivers have continued to change course on a regular
  basis and they will do the same in the future.

                      -=-