Warming western water woes

We live in Montana so that means that we love to fight over water. It’s a western tradition. Sadly, with the progression of climate change we will likely see more altercations.

We all know the story. You only have to look around to see the effects of climate change in Montana. Temperatures have increased from 1-2% since 1950. Snowpacks have generally declined by 20-30% in the western part of the state. We are seeing an overall increase in precipitation, but less is falling as snow in winter and more as rain in early spring as most of the warming comes in January and March. Snowpacks move upslope about 500 feet for every degree Celsius increase. Timing of our vital spring runoff has been moved up by about two weeks in the last 20 years. This means that we have less water in our reservoir systems and in our groundwater aquifers. We’re seeing longer, hotter and drier summers. Our forests are under attack by insects that no longer winter-kill. Colorado expects to lose every single lodgepole in the state in the next fifty years. Forest fires burn hotter and get larger. We’ve seen a northward shift in the range of disease-carrying insects. Mosquitoes are found at higher altitudes than seen before.

Those of us who prefer to spend as much time as possible on the big-brain end of a flyrod are particularly affected. Lower and warmer streamflows mean fewer trout in our blue-ribbon streams. Warmer water favors whirling disease and other fish parasites. We have seen changes in species distribution, more brown trout where there used to be cutthroats and rainbows because the browns are more temperature tolerant. The massive pteronarcys hatch on Rock Creek which used to take place in late April or early May now occurs around April 1st. Flathead Lake is warming, changing species distribution and contributing to increased algal growth. There are predictions that we could lose 5-30% of our trout habitat over the next century and sensitive species like Bull Trout could be entirely gone. Life just ain’t fair.

Now, the Natural Resources Defense Council has recently released a report that gives us more to worry about. With increased warming we can expect to see dramitic increases in the spread of waterborne diseases. As we see an increase in the severity of storms, we can expect to see more cases of wastewater systems overflowing and not being able to handle the load. More untreated sewage will wind up in our waterways. “In fact, studies indicate that more than half of the waterborne disease outbreaks in the United States over the last 50 years have been associated with heavy rain events.” Most waterborne diseases are not life threatining, unless you happen to be very young, very old, or pregnant. Due mainly to climate change the frequency of sewage releases into the Great Lakes is projected to rise by 50 to 120 percent by the end of the century and we can expect similar results in many Montana rivers.

The good news is, there is still time to remedy much of the problem. We need to update our aging drinking water systems to protect from contamination. We need to increase funding for inspections of water systems. We need to upgrade the capacity of wastewater systems to handle the larger storms that we know will happen. Our medical community needs to better understand how to diagnose and treat waterborne illness. Our recreational waters need to be frequently tested for pollution. And finally, we need to do something about global warming while there is still time. Contact your legislators today and let them know that you expect them to support climate change and clean energy proposals now making their way through Congress.