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80 "p-~.f-. I- 1 "-:0> HYDROLOGIC AND HUMAN ASPECTS OF THE 1976-77 DROUGHT before a decision is made to proceed with or reject a project. One approach to better management of the water resource is the conjunctive use of surface arid ground water, Basically this technique involves the recharge of ground- water a'quifers using surplus surface water in wet periods and the withdrawal of ground water to supplement surface supplies during dry periods. The natural recharge is aug- mented by artificial means which include injection wells where water is pumped into the aquifers, spreading basins that allow increased percolation into the aquifers, and dams that store flood waters so that the water can be released over an extended period of time to increase percolation through the streambed. The elimination of evaporation when water is stored underground is a big advantage over surface storage, but the energy needed to recover the water is becoming a more impor- tant facto~ in overall planning, Where the surface-water resources are highly developed to increase !the basin yield in normal years, the flexibility of management and the amount of water in reserve are restricted during a drought, particularly a multiyear drought. The legal complications of conjunctive use often prevent its implementation. Decisions, frequently by the courts, must be made re- garding ownership of the water when under- ground, how the older surface-water rights relate to the surface water that has become ground water, and other questions that are peculiar to a given area. Times have changed; but someone claimed that up to not so long ago, more people had been killed in disputes over water or water rights than had been killed in lover's quarrels! The United States Department of the Inte- rior (1951) !issued a report on the drought in the southwestern United States as of October 1951. The first recommendation made was that , . . all state and local agencies be urged to initiate immediately the necessary action to establish effective controls over ground-water develop- ment and withdrawals in order to insure a stable, agricultural economy in those areas that must depend entirely or in part on ground water as a source of irri- gation water supply. Unfortunately, little action, immediate or otherwise, followed this recommendation made 27 years ago. The drought of 1976-77 should provide new and stronger stimulus to imple- ment this suggestion. Another promising approach to water prob- lems is recent enabling legislation in a few states that allows the formation of con- servancy districts, These have the potential of controlling the use of water to provide more equitable distribution during dry periods and droughts, Because conservancy districts are relatively new and the law in all states is not the same, the effects of actions by the districts during the drought of 1976-77 were mixed-some successes, some defeats. The dual problems of water as a user of energy and energy as a user of water will be- come more important in the near future, The transportation of water from a source to a point of use requires a considerable amount of energy. Power is needed to pump water from w'i!lls, and those pumps lifting water several hundred feet use large amounts of power, The huge pumps that lift water into the Delta- Mendota Canal and the California Aqueduct and over the Tehachapi Mountains in Cali- fornia need large blocks of the less expensive baseload or off-peak power which is not as plentiful as it was, When water is used to generate hydroelectric power that is used to lift the same water into a canal, a loss of energy results, but the process is essential to move the water to where it is needed. The development of new, but not neces- sarily different, sources of energy requires water whether the development is of coal in the northern Great Plains States, oil shale in Colorado and Utah, or nuclear plants or stream generating power plants wherever they may be:. Water is used to make slurries to transport coal by pipeline, in the oil-shale extraction process, for rehabilitation and replanting of strip-mined areas, and for cooling in nuclear and steam plants. The volumes of water required are large enough to cause conflicts with existing uses and rights, and resolutions of these conflicts will be needed in the future. The reduction of major or irreversible damage caused by a drought will require many different measures. The main objectives are to'increase the water supply or reduce the use of it, A wide array of measures have been used, but not all are feasible or suitable in