DROUGHT

  Many water resource organizations feel that by the year 2005, the western,
  and in particular, the south western states will be suffering from times
  of severe drought.  Arizona currently gets most of its water from
  the 'underground lake', or 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 by
  about 3.5 times.  They also pump water from the Colorado river.  Unless
  the state can secure more water rites, agriculture will suffer.  How?
  First off, agriculture uses about 75 to 85 percent of the state's water.
  If the cities continue to grow as they are, 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 north half of the state, and from the Colorado river.  Again,
  most of the water is used by agriculture, not by Los Angeles or San Diego.

  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.  They are
  deserts 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 also.  The costs of doing this 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 a long time...many decades.  It is accomplished in many
  ways; one such way is to disperse a variation of salt from an airplane
  flying through the clouds.  In some cases, cloud seeding has appeared to
  work, and in other cases, it had little value.  Plus, there's potential
  legal problems too.  Say that southern California does massive cloud
  seeding, and it worked.  The remaining clouds continue on their way to
  Arizona.  Those clouds now have less water in them than if California
  hadn't done any seeding.

  In addition to all that, many times cloud seeding just does not have
  very favorable results.

  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, they suffer.
  Obtaining water was easy a few decades ago, but with the population
  growth that the western United States has had, it simply cannot be
  sustained forever.  There is a limit, and we're starting to see it.

                             FLOODING

  Flooding comes in many different forms.  River banks and natural washes
  have a water level that is called 'Bank Full'.  That level is what that
  particular river can safely handle, and is determined by the U.S.
  Geological Survey.  Excessive snowmelt causes seasonal flooding, and some-
  times it is over bank full.

  There are Flash Floods where flooding comes on quickly.  Flash flooding
  tends to occur mostly in desert areas such as the southwestern section of
  the USA.  These areas go for long periods of time with little or no rain-
  fall, then when they get a heavy rain the soil cannot absorb the water
  quickly enough.  Many times people will camp in a dry river-bed and not
  think about the flood potential.  They may hike away from their campsite
  for a little while, then they get a heavy rain and their belongings are
  all washed away.  Or 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 they kill the most people.

  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.

  There are also your 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, they devastate livelihoods,
  they cause huge transportation set-backs, they pollute drinking water
  supplies for hundreds-of-thousands or millions of people, and much, much
  more.  Dams and levees suddenly break from the constant pressure, then
  you have flash flooding in addition to the wide, slow-moving flooding.
  The United States averages about 2 billion dollars in flooding each year.
  At this writing (July 1993), just the Mississippi Basin flooding damages
  are at least 10 billion dollars!  That dollar figure will certainly go
  way up.
  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 quality in mind.  Meaning there are certain federal
  standards that must be met, but if the city chooses to build a better
  quality levee, it will naturally last longer.  Since scientists and levee
  designers already know about how often massive floods occur in a given area,
  they also have an indication of how long that levee will last.  They are
  not permanent, nor are dams, or river banks.

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