To the editor: Kudos to reporter Ian James and the Times for explaining the hesitations among states that rely on the Colorado River for water.
A relatively new black swan looming over this issue is the large amount of water consumed by data centers being built for artificial intelligence systems. Google said it consumed 6.1 billion gallons of water to cool its data centers in 2023, up 17% from 2022.
Please, let's listen to the scientists who have been warning us for decades: the Water Superman is not coming to save us. That's why we must plan ahead for the inevitable.
Knowing the terrible sense of urgency, we should at least consider (instead of using the toilet to use the tap, paying farmers to leave their fields fallow, extracting more groundwater from sinking lands, and starting more wars over water) a 1,000-mile water pipeline from Lake Michigan to the Colorado River.
The “water peak” is here. So that our children and grandchildren do not have to suffer more draconian measures that are simply stopgap remedies, we must free ourselves from conventional thinking about the water supply for agriculture, residents and now data centers in the seven Western states that depend on the dwindling Colorado. River.
For the next generation, we must think big and have the political will to build a 1,000-mile aqueduct.
John Boal, Burbank
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To the editor: There will be no equitable allocation of Colorado River water (or water from any other source) until agencies and lawyers recognize that water that does not exist cannot be used.
A lot of agencies basically say, “I have a contract for a certain amount of acre-foot of water, so I'm going to take that amount of water.”
I have not heard anyone propose eliminating all existing contracts and allocating the water that actually enters the Colorado River system each year on a percentage basis.
Parker G. Emerson, Claremont
