AUSTIN, Texas---In this segment of West Texas Talk, Lorne Matalon speaks with Dr. Michael Webber, deputy director of the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. Webber is a prolific author, having written hundreds of scientific articles, columns and books including op-eds in the New York Times and featuresin Scientific American.
The topic is the link between energy and water, how stresses on one can damage the other and what solutions exist to ease stresses on water and power in the southwest. Webber explores the connection between water and energy in his latest booktitled, "Thirst for Power: Energy, Water and Human Survival."
Webber cites examples such as Elephant Butte Dam in New Mexico, now marking its 100th year of operation providing water to New Mexico and Texas but also the subject of intense debate and legal disputes involving both states —and two countries, the United States and Mexico—as populations grow. Construction of the dam created a New Mexico's largest reservoir that provides both flood control for the lower Rio Grande and irrigation water to approximately 180,000 acres of farmland throughout the region.
The conversations also covers issues stressing Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the U.S. serving 20 million people. The lake, near Las Vegas, turns turbines at the Hoover Dam. The dam in turn supplies power to across the southwest and into California cities such as Los Angeles.
The lake's water level is low, approximately 37 per cent full, to the point that delivery of power cities and towns across the southwest risks the possibility of being compromised. Webber posits that water loss can be mitigated in some instances and he provides templates for solutions that are available now.
