Colorado Water
This is a surprise, experts warn that the drought may not be over, according to the Rocky Mountain News [November 8, 2004, "West warned of longer drought"]. From the article, "McCabe said drought in the West often is linked to periods when the northern Atlantic Ocean is warmer than normal. Tree-ring studies indicate that those warm- Atlantic periods tend to last nine to 23 years. During that time, drought is more likely in the West, McCabe said. The northern Atlantic switched into a warm phase nine years ago, and it shows no signs of fading, McCabe said Monday at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America. The current drought has eased in eastern Colorado but retains a stranglehold on much of the West. It began in 1999. Colorado River flows at Lee's Ferry were lower between 2000 and 2004 than in any other five-year period since record keeping began in 1931, McCabe said. Lee's Ferry is near the Arizona-Utah border, about 15 miles downstream from Glen Canyon Dam, which created Lake Powell. At the end of September, Lake Powell was at 38 percent capacity and still falling. It hasn't been this low since 1970, when the lake was first filling."
Here's the link to the U.S. Drought Monitor website.
Update: Here's an article from Wired dealing with the intersection of engineering and conservation. It deals with the Yuma (AZ) Desalting Plant, the largest desal facility of its kind in the world.
If you're in Denver, or north, look out your window and find Long's Peak. Just the other side is the headwaters of the Colorado River. Yuma is nearly it's last stop before the Pacific Ocean. I could be wrong there. It may no longer flow to the ocean.
6:43:29 AM 
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