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On the Colorado we’re not even taking the easy wins like “store all the water in one big reservoir during drought to prevent evaporation”.
by labster 7y ago
On the Colorado we’re not even taking the easy wins like “store all the water in one big reservoir during drought to prevent evaporation”.
- floatrock 7y agoWhat do you mean? It seems like you described Lake Meade -- the reservoir created by the hoover dam.
- coryrc 7y agoI think they mean Lake Meade is so low different turbines have been added to the Hoover Dam to generate electricity even at low water levels.
- labster 7y agoNo, I meant that we shouldn’t be storing water at the Glen Canyon Dam, since two large shallow lakes have more surface area. And on this scale, evaporation actually matters—consider the shade balls used in California reservoirs. But for some reason, upstream folk think that if the let the water go they will never see it again. This is not the way legal allotments work. But it’s the same reason people prefer dams to underground storage, because seeing things feels reassuring, despite it being less efficient.