Opinion: Colorado River cuts could get even tougher, thanks to a wet winter
Record snowfall has come to Arizona. It hasn’t even melted yet, and already there’s an extra 100,000 acre-feet of water in Salt River Project’s reservoirs since Jan. 1. Meanwhile, snowpack across the Colorado River basin is well above normal, and while it’s still too early to know how runoff will shape up, some researchers have begun to raise their expectations for a better year. So, we can ease up, right? Maybe we won’t need to stop using nearly as much water this year, as predicted, to keep Lake Mead and Lake Powell on life support? … The feds told the seven Colorado River basin states last summer that they needed to stop using at least 2 million acre-feet of water this year. … But state delegates are back at it again, hoping to reach some sort of voluntary deal by the end of this month.
-Written by Arizona Republic columnist Joanna Allhands.Related article: