Curtis Louk's Colorado River ESPeN by Curtis Louk https://padlet.com/22333201/10h00ef45tex7hdm Economic, Social, Political, and Environmental Impacts on the "hardest working river in the West," the Colorado River en-us 2022-04-27 14:58:27 UTC 2025-10-24 22:43:52 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.net/icons/png/1f3de.png Salton Sea, California, USA 22333201 https://padlet.com/22333201/10h00ef45tex7hdm/wish/2160543245 Summary: The Salton Sea was created by accident in 1905 when the Colorado River flooded a desert area and created a lake, and the lake continued to be filled by runoff from farms. This became a large tourist destination with towns and businesses popping up around the Sea. As the sea has begun to dry up, it has become more and more toxic and is now saltier than the Pacific Ocean. People have left the area and the people that remain are experiencing health issues. 

Explanation: The Salton Sea was a tourist destination but as the sea has begun to dry up people and businesses have left, and the towns around the Slaton Sea are dying. People are losing jobs as a result of this. The cost of healthcare has increased for people in this area as they have experienced more health issues such asthma due to toxic dust being exposed in the lake bed.]]> 2022-04-27 14:58:27 UTC https://padlet.com/22333201/10h00ef45tex7hdm/wish/2160543245 Navajo Nation, AZ, USA 22333201 https://padlet.com/22333201/10h00ef45tex7hdm/wish/2164408163 People who live in the Navajo nation are still considered citizens of the United States.  About 40% of people that live there don't have access to running water.  Sometimes to get a bucket of water it is a 100 mile trip to get a bucket of water for some people.  Some people have to get water by a water truck.  Nina Garcia hasn't been a day without running water, and she also brings water to people and then when the people get the water, it is like a celebration.  People in Navajo Nation can only use 7 gallons a day.  People in Colorado use about 700 gallons per house a day.  About 70% of people are unemployed and they can't drive so they rely on the truck.  People wonder how in this day in age these people don't have running water.  

They gotta figure out how to use their resources and they use paper and plastic to eat so they don't have to wash dishes.  So they can save water, they have to use a bucket of water to shower and they have to share it with 3 other people.  ]]> 2022-04-29 14:34:41 UTC https://padlet.com/22333201/10h00ef45tex7hdm/wish/2164408163 Gunnison, CO, USA 22333201 https://padlet.com/22333201/10h00ef45tex7hdm/wish/2164423321 The Colorado Water Quality Control Commission deemed the Gunnison River in compliance with aquatic life standards for dissolved selenium – a naturally occurring element and micro-nutrient that can be unhealthy for aquatic ecosystems in high doses, and this causes the water to be unsafe and it is dangerous to drink becuse the filters can't take the dirt and all the chemicals out.  The Gunnison river is on the border of Utah and Colorado and Grand Junction uses a lot of the water from the Gunnison river.  
This impacts a lot of people because it gives some people pneumonia and they get really sick.  This means that Grand Junction might be low on water now because they might be able to no longer take water from the Gunnison river. ]]> 2022-04-29 14:43:33 UTC https://padlet.com/22333201/10h00ef45tex7hdm/wish/2164423321 Los Angeles, California, USA 22333201 https://padlet.com/22333201/10h00ef45tex7hdm/wish/2164437872 In California, the water from Colorado is mixed with water coming from Northern California.  In Los Angeles there are serious efforts to conserve water. Squads from the city enforce new city ordinances against washing sidewalks, serving unsolicited water in restaurants and watering lawns during the day. They also give out hoses that use less water and help to install low-flow shower heads and toilets.  
 
This is going to be a way of life. We have got 300,000 people coming to southern California every year. They are going to need water, too. We have to conserve in every way that we can if we want to continue our way of life.

]]> 2022-04-29 14:52:37 UTC https://padlet.com/22333201/10h00ef45tex7hdm/wish/2164437872 Washington County, Utah, USA 22333201 https://padlet.com/22333201/10h00ef45tex7hdm/wish/2167517794 Not long ago it used to be dessert now it is home to 200,000 thousand people going on half a million by 2065, 6 million tourists come a year.  St George and Washington county have a drought where they are.  People want to have a pipe from the Colorado river to St. George and Washington county to stop the drought.  Then when the pipe is built, it will cost 2 billion dollars, but it will deliver 28 billion gallons a year.  The summer was very dry, which caused the water in the reservoir to go down 40% so now it is at 60% capacity. 

If there is no water in Lake Powell then it populates parts of the northern west.  The more grass that there is, the more water is spent to take care of that grass, so people are paying people to change their yard with rocks and gravel.  ]]> 2022-05-02 23:48:28 UTC https://padlet.com/22333201/10h00ef45tex7hdm/wish/2167517794 Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA 22333201 https://padlet.com/22333201/10h00ef45tex7hdm/wish/2168433717 The Grand Canyon is the backbone of the earth. There used to be a ton of sediment in the Grand Canyon and it was called the desert river. Now the canyon is man made and has a ton of technology built into it. They belive that if they lower the water, it will lower the bugs and then there will be more fish food. There are so many bugs on the water that it is the fish's food and the bugs are horders. The fish, chubs, could have been there for millions of years. All the fish in the water are warm water species. The fish, chub, went into the grand canyon because it is warm water and they are the native fish to the place. The trout is also native to the grand Canyon and they are prime eaters of the chubs. There were 2-3 thousand chubs, but now there are more than 11 thousand in the river. There is a bush tree that is native to the canyon too and it lies on the beaches. ]]> 2022-05-03 14:46:14 UTC https://padlet.com/22333201/10h00ef45tex7hdm/wish/2168433717 Audubon, Phoenix, Arizona, USA 22333201 https://padlet.com/22333201/10h00ef45tex7hdm/wish/2169105547 In the American West, water is a crisis. The drought is in its 16th year of happening. The great salt lake is going down with the water capacity and it doesn't hold as much as it used to. The Colorado river now stops 100 miles from the sea. Birds rely on the Colorado river and many other rivers for a source of water. All the water sources some day might turn to desert and then people will have to find another way to get water. ]]> 2022-05-04 00:06:42 UTC https://padlet.com/22333201/10h00ef45tex7hdm/wish/2169105547 Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico 22333201 https://padlet.com/22333201/10h00ef45tex7hdm/wish/2169107531 The water in the water delta is starting to become salt water. Because this is happening, it is making two different species of fish go extinct. These species are totoabo and the vaquita. Both of them when they get older they can get up to 300 pounds. When the river was cut, it cut out the nursery. Where the dam is there are also plants that are being grown, and one of the major plants that grow is basically wheat in the form of grass that Native Americans used to make bread out of it.]]> 2022-05-04 00:08:51 UTC https://padlet.com/22333201/10h00ef45tex7hdm/wish/2169107531