[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]Not long ago, my fiancee and I were watching a movie about a small, waterless ...

1. All dried up: foreclosures and forecasts in the American
Southwest.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Not long ago, my fiancee and I were watching a movie about a small, waterless southern California
town. The film led to a conversation about housing policies and the mortgage crisis. "It's these dry
western towns that are driving this mortgage crisis," I declared, no evidence to back it up, waving a
glass of wine in one hand while standing in front of the fire, "and this is just the beginning of the
problems we'll see from all this sprawling urbanism!"
The following morning, dropping the red envelope with the DVD to be returned into the mailbox, I
reconsidered this point and was surprised that it held up under the sober first rays of the sun on the
morning dog walk. It didn't take much research to confirm that this foreclosure crisis is hitting us
harder in the Southwest than in the rest of the country. Even so, foreclosure is just the tip of the
iceberg when it comes to the problem of growth in the West xylem flygt repair kit and like any
iceberg, the bulk of the thing--including its most dangerous parts--lies underwater. Like all icebergs,
also, the 'berg of western urban growth will have its existence and stability challenged by global
climate change.
As I write this, the five cities with the highest foreclosure rates are: Stockton, Bakersfield, and
Riverside/San Bernadino in California, Las Vegas/Paradise, NV, and Phoenix, AZ. There are a few
things these towns have in common. First, show any one of these cities to a person who hadn't seen
it in 50 years and that person wouldn't believe the growth. Second, in each case growth has required
Rube Goldberg-ian water projects, four of them relying on the Colorado River and Stockton
benefitting from similarly complex plumbing in California's Central Valley. Take note of some
straightforward refinements which can be added to a standard
centrifugal or positive displacement pump. Regarding pumps with overhung impellers, moving to a.
The majority of installed pumps were not originally sourced for their current use. Very frequently, a
line in a plant changes and the pump that started out providing cooling water to an injection molding
machine is now needed to move oil from a rail car to a tank. Sadly, this causes a substantial number
of problems for the pump and the facility. Pumps operate where the pump curve crosses the system
curve. If you relocate a pump from one system to another, this means that the system curve is
different. This new system may cause the pump to operate away from its best efficiency point,
leading to vibration and other component problems that are simply symptoms of a mis-matched
pump and system.solid shaft is a easy refinement in relation to more common sleeved shafts.
Mechanical seals can be upgraded with the addition of tungsten carbide faces, and elastomers can
be changed to Viton. In conclusion, magnetic bearing protectors are certainly a great improvement
in relationship to the lip seals that the vast majority of water pumps use to maintain clean bearing
sump oil.
Finally, the growth of these cities has been funded and encouraged through construction on the
urban periphery. These similarities are related, but there has never been an overarching plan for
Western urban development. The piecemeal policymaking style that has led to this crisis is
particularly evident to me--a water planner--in the Colorado River Watershed.

2. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
The management of the Colorado River is accomplished through an interlaced system of treaties,
compacts, dams and tunnels. Interstate compacts define delivery and management roles between
adjoining states that share in this body of water. These states, then, are divided into upper- and
lower-basin states with additional compacts defining water-sharing agreements within and between
these conglomerates. Next, a compact along the entire river system details sharing beyond the
basin, and finally, a treaty between the U.S. and Mexico ensures minimum quantity and quality
measures at the border.
Over time, these arrangements have altered the shape of the Colorado River and its watershed.
Dams, pumping stations, desalination facilities and hundreds of miles of aqueducts store, carry,
clean and move water throughout the basin. New Mexico takes its negotiated share of the river
through 30 miles of tunnels in order to carry water from three Colorado River tributaries under the
continental divide and into the Heron reservoir near Abiqiu, NM--the once pristine home of Georgia
O'Keefe--where it joins the Rio Grande and flows to the Atlantic. For years the focal point of
Southern Utah's tourist economy has been Lake Powell, where tourists can explore ancient
pictographs and sandstone arches as God intended--by boat. Passing through Glen Canyon Dam, the
River turns massive electrical turbines before flowing through the Grand Canyon and into Lake
Mead where it again powers and waters a rural desert community--Las Vegas, NV, America's fastest
growing city.
After leaving Hoover Dam, millions of acre-feet are funneled off into the Colorado Canal for delivery
to thirsty residents, pools, fields, and golf courses in Southern California, the residue being hung out
to dry in the Salton Sea--saltier than the ocean, more polluted than a can of soda. The Central
Arizona Project brings another share of this water all the way from the state's western boundary to
Phoenix through series of siphons (to carry water uphill), tunnels (to carry water under mountains),
and pumps (gigantic wells) that allow America's fifth most populous city to stay hydrated, to swim
and to golf year-round. When a few persistent gallons reach the U.S./Mexico border, the River is run
through a plant to remove just enough of the salt that accumulates through irrigation and
evaporation to meet the terms of our agreement with Mexico, but not so much that a fish could live
in it or a farmer could spread it on her field.
Perhaps this is just an economic downturn and not the moment when the chickens of past crimes
against the environment come home to roost, but it should at least give us pause. Moving forward
we will face additional challenges to our limited natural resources including impeller water pump
climate change and continued population growth. As we begin to address these issues, it is
important that we learn from our past actions and consider the relationships between our housing
policies, our environmental policies and our natural resources in order to better envision our future
from a broad perspective and to shape policies to help us move towards societal goals of
environmental and economic sustainability.
ANDREW ERDMANN holds Master's degrees in Natural Resources Planning and Water Resources
and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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