Report: Climate change to have major impacts on Western water

Of all the current and future impacts of climate change, threats to water resources may be the most painful in the American West, according to a new report published Monday. “Protecting the lifeline of the West,” written by Western Resource Advocates, a Boulder-based environmental law and policy organization, brings together dozens of studies by climate and water experts, detailing the ways in which water, energy and climate are deeply entwined in states like Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Arizona. “Of all the implications of a hotter climate, the water implications are the most dramatic or long-term,” said Bart Miller, the organization's water-program director. “There's no way to adjust by making more water.” The report's release coincides with the U.S. Senate's return to Washington to take up energy and climate legislation this week. Scientists have already documented trends in declining snowpack and earlier spring runoff across the West. Even if precipitation levels hold steady in places like Colorado's north-central mountains, snow will continue to melt sooner and faster, winter will be shorter, and less water will be stored in the peaks, according to Miller. And those changes in the water cycle can have negative implications for reservoir storage, aquatic habitat, ski seasons, rafting seasons and water quality...more

You can view the report here.