Engineer: SSI will face increasing water supply risk in near future

WPS sponsored a talk by water resources engineer Don Hodgins on potential effects of climate change on water security. Based on his analysis of available data for St Mary Lake, Hodgins found that:

• By the 2050s, SSI will face substantial increase in water supply risk. This may be manageable by increasing storage (raising the weir), retaining the moratorium on new hook-ups, and perhaps drawing more water from Lake Maxwell.

• By the 2080s, supply risk will be too severe to manage through simple mitigations like those listed above.  A new and innovative strategy will be required, which may involve augmenting lake supply with groundwater, desalination, mandatory rainwater capture and water recycling.

You can see Hodgins’s slideshow here.