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The Water/Energy Nexus in the Southwest U.S.

ENERGY AND WATER: Power plants require cooling water and getting water where its needed requires power in the American West–highlighting the tight interconnection between energy and water. Image: Elf/Wikimedia Commons

Here’s a good short read in the Scientific American about the co-mingling impacts of energy use and water use in the Southwest U.S.  Negative impacts to the Colorado River are at the center of this chaos.  Here’s the link:  How Saving Energy Means Conserving Water in U.S. West

Our good friends at Western Resource Advocates provide yet another fact-driven power quote:

“thermoelectric power plants in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah consumed an estimated 292 million gallons of water a day in 2005 – approximately equal to the water consumed by Denver, Phoenix, and Albuquerque, combined.”

 

 

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