Fwd: cubic gallons

[James Smith]

I work as a hydrogeologist with the State of Utah, and
I’ve never encountered cubic gallons or cubic acres,
in any context.  I’ll consult with hydrologists in
other divisions as to whether they have come across
these terms.

As already pointed out by Chris Waigl, acre-foot is a
very common measure of water volume.  I suspect
acre-foot is the unit that is supposed to be used in
these excerpts that refer to cubic-acres.  The more of
these examples I read, the more certain I am that
people are simply conflating cubic-feet with acre-feet
to come up with cubic acres (and cubic feet with
gallons to come up with cubic gallons).

e.g., the average flow (1896 to 1921) of the Colorado
River was approx. 17 million acre-feet.  Based on that
flow, CA is allocated 4.4 million acre-feet from the
Colorado River, not 4.4 million cubic acres.  5.2
million cubic acres, the amount CA is supposedly
taking, would be 1,085 million acre-feet.
http://www.water.utah.gov/Interstate/TheColoradoRiverart.pdf

>From C Waigl’s posting----
*In southern California's Imperial Valley, farmers who
buy taxpayer-provided irrigation water for $15.50 a
cubic acre have turned into speculators. Soon they
will net a profit of $384.50 a cubic acre in a massive
water sale to a thirsty San Diego.
http://www.southernenvironment.org/Cases/Water_Resources/AJCop-ed_Nov13.shtml*

Potable (or is that potable?) water in Utah sells for
an average of $380 acre-ft ($700 acre-ft in Park
City).  *Reused* water sells for $300 to $350 acre-ft
in Texas, Arizona and California, with *unused* water
going for $600 to $700 per acre-ft in those states.
http://www.water.utah.gov/WaterReuse/WaterReuseAA.pdf

Irrigation water in Utah sells for up to $75 per
acre-foot – selling water for $15 per cubic acre would
be economically unsustainable: even $15 per acre-foot
is a giveaway.


Again from Chris, as he points out references to cubic
acre-feet:
*North Dakota is asking for a preliminary injunction
against the corps, requiring the agency to maintain
800,000 *cubic acre* feet in the lake to support its
fishery.
<http://shorl.com/hividepyvifro>*

This reservoir would be required to retain roughly the
equivalent of the annual flow of the Columbia River if
these were cubic acre-feet.


James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
South SLC, UT                  |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
                               |or slowly and cautiously.

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