{"id":25922,"date":"2024-08-29T16:15:02","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T22:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-technology-in-the-upper-colorado-river-basin-states-will-measure-water-lost-to-the-sky\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:30:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:30:43","slug":"new-technology-in-the-upper-colorado-river-basin-states-will-measure-water-lost-to-the-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-technology-in-the-upper-colorado-river-basin-states-will-measure-water-lost-to-the-sky\/","title":{"rendered":"New technology in the Upper Colorado River basin states will measure water lost to the sky"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The EC Tower at the Colorado State University Extension Office in Yellow Jacket. (Photo courtesy Kazungu Maitaria)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

To help quantify how much water is lost as evapotranspiration \u2014 the biggest unknown in estimating water use \u2014 the Upper Colorado River Commission is installing EC towers across its basin.<\/p>\n

For now, the eddy-covariance towers measure the water lost from soil and plants to the sky and carbon dioxide, a major component of global warming.<\/p>\n

The towers take measurements 20 to 40 times every second, and each one costs a half- million dollars.<\/p>\n

One is up and running now at the Southwestern Colorado Research Center in Yellow Jacket.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome next year, around this time, we will have 32 operating fully seamless, all of them communicating in the entire upper basin,\u201d said Kaz Maitaria, Ph. D., a staff engineer at the Upper Colorado River Commission and a Fulbright Scholar.<\/p>\n

\"Kazungu
Kazungu \u201cKaz\u201d Maitaria beside the EC Tower in Yellow Jacket. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

As far as water goes, irrigated agriculture is the largest water-use sector.<\/p>\n

Knowing how much water is lost to the sky could help people \u2013 especially farmers \u2013 be more prudent in how they use water, without really using less of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re interested in counting water molecules, something that was nonexistent many decades ago because at that time, we thought water was just too much, but now all of a sudden, we have realized we need water. \u2026 Especially us, in the desert,\u201d said Maitaria.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to have better ways of measuring this water of ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharing Colorado River, by the numbers<\/div>\n

On the Colorado River, there\u2019s about 800 reservoirs, created by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for some kind of water security. But how much of it is going up into the sky?<\/p>\n

The answer tells the Upper Colorado River Commission how much water they can distribute, while still keeping some in the river and sending at least 75 million acre-feet to the lower basin every decade.<\/p>\n

It also tells them how much water the upper basin uses: Are we using our share? If not, how much are we using?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem has been, how do you measure crop consumption of the water? It\u2019s so difficult to measure.\u201d said Maitaria. \u201cFor a long time \u2026 we just assumed, if you\u2019re growing plant A, this is what it needs, and then we add in a fudge factor of losses, and there you go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut now \u2026 it\u2019ll be very easy. At the end of the year, we will tell them, look, Colorado has only used half a million-acre feet on irrigation, and here\u2019s why. We can completely quantify, instead of assuming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zooming in, farmers lose a revenue when they say they used more water than they did.<\/p>\n

\u201cThink of it like you\u2019re a farmer,\u201d said Maitaria. \u201cSomebody says you\u2019ve used 10 units, but the truth is that you\u2019ve used eight. \u2026 If you\u2019re given that other extra 2 units, you expand your farming land.\u201d<\/p>\n

By 2026, data will be available for everyone.<\/p>\n

\"Map
Map of the Upper Colorado River Basin. The stars represent where EC Towers are, or will be, located. (Courtesy Kaz Maitaria)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe need to make sure the public gets data that is authentic, scientifically unbiased, so they can use it in whichever way they deem fit. We are not here to tell people, \u2018This is how you should use the data,\u2019\u201d Maitaria said.<\/p>\n

In the 250,000 square miles that make up Colorado\u2019s Upper River Basin, an area equal to 15 European countries, the altitude fluctuates by nearly 8,000 feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very unique problem,\u201d said Kaz. \u201cThink of the elevation change. You\u2019re looking at 11- or 12,000-feet elevation in some of the headwater areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

In others, it drops to 2,500 feet.<\/p>\n

Plus, for a long time, Indian nations haven\u2019t been part of the storyline. They\u2019ve operated as independent states, so they\u2019re not very well instrumented, Maitaria said.<\/p>\n

This year, the commission entered into a memorandum of understanding with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom this moment onward, any time we talk water, Indian nations will be represented,\u201d Maitaria said.<\/p>\n

And so, there will be EC Towers on reservation land to benefit them and everyone else in the basin.<\/p>\n

\"From
From the left: The radiation sensors measure the flux of radiant energy, which drives plant growth. The infrared temperature sensors record temperature. The 3D sonic anemometer senses wind movements and the gas analyzer measures CO2 and water vapor. (Courtesy Kaz Maitaria)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Technology before this couldn\u2019t gauge fluxes on a farm because it looked at things on a straight line. EC Towers have instruments to measure wind in all directions, including vertical.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have vertical component and you have fluxes coming in, it starts telling you a story,\u201d Maitaria said.<\/p>\n

When a farmer applies pesticides to their fields and UV is high, for example, the product is significantly less effective. EC Tower data would show this, so a farmer could choose to apply pesticides after 4 p.m., early in the morning or even days later when UV isn\u2019t as strong.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat makes them use lesser chemicals and still it\u2019s effective,\u201d said Maitaria. \u201cTiming is everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The towers also have barometers to measure when plants are photosynthesizing. At night, in the sun\u2019s absence, plants are dormant, inactive. The towers will measure when plants are active and for how long each day.<\/p>\n

Knowing this information, farmers could alter irrigation time, both in duration and time of day.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes cutting consumption is saving, and it may not change our lifestyle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Working on the ground<\/div>\n

Maitaria said he\u2019s one year into a three-year study in Wyoming where they\u2019re comparing two plots of land. One plot is irrigated 24 hours a day; the plot next to it is watered 8 hours a day, only at night.<\/p>\n

\u201cYear One has basically shown us, just irrigating at night alone, we are still getting the same (result). When you irrigate at night, the water has enough time to move down into the soils. But in daytime, when you water, the air is dry, so it also sucks in, so there\u2019s quite a bit of water that you also lose to the sky,\u201d Maitaria said.<\/p>\n

In effect, by watering at night instead of day, they\u2019re able to apply a fraction of the water \u2013 30% \u2013 and get the same result.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these things, the EC Tower will be able to measure them,\u201d said Maitaira. \u201cProbably the work we are is doing will really make this be the most savvy instrumented area in the world, to be able to study all the dynamics within the semi-arid,\u201d Maitaria said.<\/p>\n

Eventually, the towers will measure more depending on what information people need.<\/p>\n

On the Navajo Nation, for instance, they\u2019re measuring methane because it feels like a \u201cheat island\u201d there. Scientists think it might be methane because of gas mining in the area many years ago, Maitaria said.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the goal with all of this is to better understand nature so we can live within its limits.<\/p>\n

\u201cMother Nature is very, very forgiving. But you can stretch her up to only a certain limit,\u201d said Maitaria. \u201cAfter that, if you don\u2019t change your ways to relieve the pressure, when Mother Nature reacts, anything can happen. We can be wiped out, but Mother Nature will still be around.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so, we must adapt and learn to live with what we have.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not sitting down and crying that things are changing, (saying) \u2018What are we going to do?\u2019\u2026 Already, we have started acting. We are not on firefighting mode, no\u2026 we are just trying to make sure we live within the means of mother nature. We are trying to understand Mother Nature and disseminate that information to everybody,\u201d Maitaria said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

are being installed in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico, including Native land. By 2026, data will be usable <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-25922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25922"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79155,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25922\/revisions\/79155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25922"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=25922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}