COLLOQUIUM
Tuesday February 1st, 2011
12:00 P.M.–1:00 P.M.
Room dv 3130 (Council Chamber)
David Goodwin
Denison University, Ohio
“DAMNED CLAMS AND THE END OF THE COLORADO RIVER:
ESTIMATING PALEO-DISCHARGE OF THE SOUTHWESTERN UNITED
STATES’ MOST IMPORTANT WATER SOURCE”
In the West, “Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting.” Like most of Mark Twain's
quotes, his comment was satirical and irreverent yet based largely in fact. One hundred years
after his death, water allocation remains one of the most politically contentious issues in the
western United States. The Colorado River is the principal source of agricultural, industrial,
and domestic water in the southwestern United States. The magnitude and variability of
ancient river discharge will be an important consideration when developing future water-use
plans for the expanding population in the desert southwest. Here, I present the results of a
collaborative research project aimed at quantitatively reconstructing the discharge of the
Colorado River over the last 1000 years. Our results suggest, that over the last millennium,
annual river discharge has averaged only half the volume currently taken each year from the
river. As the western states, U.S. government and Mexico gear up for a water fight of
unprecedented magnitude, our conclusions suggest that Twain’s quote was not only insightful
but also prophetic.