Huge water pulse to bring Colorado river back from dead
▻http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129602.800-huge-water-pulse-to-bring-colorado-river-back-from-dead
On 23 March, it will begin its journey back from the dead. In an ecological experiment unprecedented in US history, seven states and two countries have signed an agreement to unleash a huge pulse of water designed to bring the river’s dwindling delta back to life.
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To try to bring back this lost ecosystem, Flessa and his team are planning to release a one-time, 130-billion-litre pulse of water.
The water that will make up the pulse is currently being slowly released from behind the Hoover, Davis and Parker dams. It will collect behind the most southerly dam on the river, the Morelos, which sits on the Mexico-US border and normally diverts the last of the Colorado toward agricultural land.
The experiment isn’t just remarkable for its scale. It is also the first time water has crossed the US-Mexico border for environmental purposes – the result of years of negotiations between Mexican and US water authorities, as well as a host of NGOs. “As far as I know there has never been an agreement to deliver water for biological purposes,” says Michael Cohen of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California. “It’s been in the works for arguably 20 years.”
