Serving as the “lifeline of the
Southwest,” and one of the most heavily regulated rivers in the
world, the Colorado River provides water to 35 million people and
more than 4 million acres of farmland in a region encompassing
some 246,000 square miles.
From its headwaters northwest of Denver in the Rocky Mountains,
the 1,450-mile long river and its tributaries pass through parts
of seven states: Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico,
Nevada, Utah and Wyoming and is also used by the
Republic of Mexico. Along the way, almost every drop of the
Colorado River is allocated for use.
The Colorado River Basin is also home to a range of habitats and
ecosystems from mountain to desert to ocean.
This summer, officials of the U.S. Interior Department gave
seven states in the American West an ultimatum – either come up
with a voluntary agreement to curtail their use of water from
the Colorado River, or the federal government will impose
mandatory restrictions. Lake Mead, the reservoir created by the
Hoover Dam on the Colorado, is now at just 25% of its capacity.
Our guest, ProPublica investigative reporter Abrahm Lustgarten,
says the water shortage facing the 40 million people who rely
on the Colorado is an emergency but not a surprise. For
decades, it’s been clear the states were draining more from the
Colorado than it could bear. And population growth and climate
change have accelerated the problem.
By volume, the Yuma Desalting Plant is one of the largest in
the United States. Completed in 1992, the plant is owned and
operated by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation with the capacity to
filter 73 million gallons of water per day. It’s only been used
twice. To understand why you have to go back to 1944. In
February of that year, the U.S. and Mexico signed a treaty that
dictated Mexico was entitled to 1.5 million acre-feet of
Colorado River water since that is where it actually
ends. Mike Norris, manager of the USBR Yuma Area Office
said over the years as agriculture increased in the Yuma area,
so did overly salty return flows or brackish water.
Several Metropolitan [Water District] projects critical to
ensuring reliable water supplies for Southern California in the
face of drought and climate change will receive $130 million in
state funding, as a result of legislation signed by Gov. Gavin
Newsom. Metropolitan’s Pure Water Southern California project –
anticipated to be one of the world’s largest water recycling
facilities when complete – will receive $80 million from the FY
2022/23 state budget…. In addition, $50 million has been
provided to Metropolitan for a set of drought emergency
mitigation projects to move locally stored water into parts of
Southern California that depend on extremely limited supplies
from the State Water Project from Northern California.
NASA satellite photos show how drastically the water levels in
Lake Powell and Lake Mead have receded in just the past few
years. They demonstrate the severity of long-term drought and
the challenges Arizona will face to conserve and enhance its
precious water supply. Susanna Eden is the research program
manager for the Water Resources Research Center at the
University of Arizona. She has been with the center for 17
years and has researched water policy and management even
longer. The NASA images are shocking, she said, and should
concern Arizonans. … She also said people may have
a false sense of security when it comes to tackling this
issue.
As climate change tightens its grip on the Colorado River
basin, the states that use its water are struggling to agree on
terms that will reduce their demand. Now, the federal
government is stepping in with a plan to use billions of
dollars to incentivize conservation. The U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation announced new measures in response to the ongoing
dry conditions, unveiling plans to use a chunk of the $4
billion it received as part of the recently-passed Inflation
Reduction Act. That money will be used for what the agency
refers to as “short-term conservation,” to remove
water-intensive grass in cities and suburbs, and to upgrade
aging canals.
Twenty-six tribes in 12 states have been awarded $10.3 million
through the U.S. Interior Department’s Native American Affairs
Technical Assistance to Tribes Program through the U.S. Bureau
of Reclamation to prepare for and mitigate the impacts of
drought. “This funding is part of the department’s continued
commitment to partner with and uphold our trust
responsibilities to Tribal nations,” said Assistant Secretary
for Water and Science Tanya Trujillo. … Reclamation’s Native
American Affairs Technical Assistance Program provides
technical assistance to Native American Tribes to develop,
manage and protect their water and related resources.
For decades, experts feared Colorado’s greenback cutthroat
trout to be extinct, a casualty of mining pollution, anglers
and more competitive species. So when biologists made the
improbable discovery of a naturally reproducing population in a
short stretch of Bear Creek west of Colorado Springs 10 years
ago, they clung to the hope that the near-miracle could be
replicated. Last Friday, Colorado Parks and Wildlife confirmed
that the Bear Creek greenbacks now have company. Reintroduction
efforts in Herman Gulch, the popular hiking destination just
off Interstate 70 near the Loveland ski area, have yielded fish
that are reproducing on their own — and sparking renewed
optimism that other greenback stocking projects will soon
follow suit.
Lake Mead’s receding water levels are now revealing ancient
volcanic eruptions from millions of years ago. Lake Mead is the
biggest man-made reservoir in North America, formed by the
Hoover Dam. Its water levels are rapidly evaporating due to the
ongoing megadrought gripping the southwestern United States.
The lake, which lies across Nevada and Arizona, has made
headlines in recent months due to the multitude of gruesome
discoveries being made at its bottom, as the water continues to
disappear. Multiple sets of human remains have been uncovered
since May, and shipwrecks once concealed by the water are also
emerging.
When Scott Beylik’s grandfather started the now four-acre
Beylik Family Farms in Fillmore in the 1970s, it was a radical
idea to grow tomatoes indoors without soil. Back then, they
were pioneers of what has since become a growing trend in the
agriculture industry: hydroponic farming. The technology
involves lacing water with all the nutrients a plant needs,
which eliminates the reliance on soil. That means no water is
wasted in keeping dirt moist. This type of farming uses less
than 10% of the water needed to grow tomatoes in the field,
according to the National Park Service. Since Beylik mostly
grows tomatoes, it made more sense to grow them in a place
where they’d thrive year-round.
In 2024, Mesa officials expect to lose 7,000 acre-feet, or 16%,
of the city’s share of Colorado River water due to drought
contingency measures. It’s about 8% of Mesa’s total water
consumption, but Mesa Water Director Chris Hassert said, “We
will offset that entire 7,000- acre foot cut with the flip of a
switch” once the city completes the Central Mesa Reuse Pipeline
to increase water exchanges with the Gila River Indian
Community. So, the good news is Mesa has a plan. The bad news
is, costs for this and other water projects have skyrocketed in
a matter of months, complicating efforts to get them done in
the desired time frames.
As the 2022 water year comes to a close, experts on the
Colorado River are reflecting on how drought has affected the
river basin on the Western Slope in Colorado. The United
States Geological Survey defines a water year as “the 12-month
period Oct. 1 for any given year through September 30, of the
following year.” Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022, will designate the
beginning of the 2023 water year. Brendon Langenhuizen,
director of technical advocacy for the Colorado River
District, said that this water year has been “fairly close to
normal.”
Heavy monsoon rains would normally be cause for celebration in
the drought-parched mountains of northeastern New Mexico, where
the Rockies meet the Great Plains, especially after the largest
wildfire in state history came within a mile of torching the
region’s largest community this spring. But not this year, when
fears of running out of fresh water forced officials to cancel
an annual arts and crafts fair that draws thousands of visitors
in Las Vegas, N.M. … Instead of replenishing reservoirs,
the downpours are flooding a burn scar left by the blaze known
as the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak fire, releasing contaminants
into private wells and overwhelming Las Vegas’s main water
supply with ashy sludge.
Our third La Niña weather pattern in three years seems almost
certain, and one climate expert says that could be bad news for
the already overtapped Colorado River. … The Climate
Prediction Center for the National Atmospheric and Oceanic
Administration forecast a 91% chance of a La Niña weather
pattern dominating the Northern Hemisphere from September
through November, and a 54% chance from January through March
of 2023. La Niña winters typically mean drier, warmer weather
in the Southwest that can, although doesn’t always, spread as
far north as Colorado’s southern Rockies, which would clearly
drive down Colorado River flows. The last two to three
years in particular have seen fairly low to very low river
flows in the basin, at the same time La Niña conditions were
present.
The clock is ticking for the Colorado River, but solutions on
how to save the river basin, which provides water to 40 million
people in seven states and Mexico, still appears to be elusive,
at least from the federal government. However, proposed
solutions are starting to bubble up through Colorado
agriculture’s community, including projects that received
funding to address drought this week from the Colorado Water
Conservation Board.
A developer’s proposal to build a surfing lagoon in the
Coachella Valley desert has been rejected by the city of La
Quinta after residents raised concerns about noise, lighting
and the resort’s substantial water footprint in a time of
severe drought. The City Council’s five members voted
unanimously Wednesday night against a zoning change that would
have allowed the developer to build the resort and surf
park. … The wave basin would have stretched across
12 acres and required 18 million gallons to fill. … The
uproar parallels a larger debate over how the Coachella Valley
— with its 120 golf courses, artificial lakes and developments
filled with thirsty grass — should adapt to worsening water
scarcity.
Plans for a large development in La Quinta that would include
hundreds of houses, a hotel and a high-tech surf wave basin
— a centerpiece that’s drawn strong opposition from some
residents and climate experts — were unanimously rejected
by the city council Wednesday night following a
lengthy meeting in a room packed with both opponents and
supporters of the project. The vote marks a major defeat for
the current plans for Coral Mountain Resort, a roughly $200
million private development mapped for 386 acres of vacant land
on the southwest corner of 58th Avenue and Madison Street. …
[C]oncerns have largely centered on whether the wave basin
would be an appropriate use of water amid a historic drought
across California that experts say has been fueled by climate
change.
Colorado and three other Upper Colorado River Basin states
have, for the first time in history, embarked on a series of
formal meetings to find a way to negotiate jointly with some of
the largest owners of Colorado River water rights: tribal
communities. The states, which include New Mexico, Utah,
Wyoming and Colorado, began meeting with six tribes several
weeks ago, according to Rebecca Mitchell, director of the
Colorado Water Conservation Board who also represents Colorado
on the Upper Colorado River Basin Commission.
At dusk, the bats appear in the ghost forest that surrounds
us—blackened tree trunks encrusted with a white coating. These
cottonwood and willow groves are long dead but, amazingly,
still upright after more than half a century underwater. I
am camped on the fickle shoreline of Lake Powell, the
second largest reservoir in the United States, after Lake
Mead. Once a vacation destination visited by two million people
annually—as a kid I learned to water-ski there during family
visits in the 1980s—Lake Powell is today just a hint of its
former self, littered with stranded boat ramps and even entire
abandoned marinas. Instead of a recreation idyll, it’s a symbol
of water troubles in the West and the impact of climate change.
Arizona farmers this year benefitted from mitigation water that
otherwise would have cut their Central Arizona Project
irrigation deliveries to zero. They won’t be so fortunate next
year. When the Bureau of Reclamation issued its first-ever
Tier 1 restriction of Colorado River water from Lake Mead,
Arizona’s farmers faced the elimination of their surface water
supplies from the Central Arizona Project (CAP) for 2022. That
portion of CAP surface water, known as the “ag pool,” is part
of a 512,000-acre-foot cut Arizona faced under the restrictions
as part of the Drought Contingency Plan, an agreement designed
to preserve water in the Colorado River system.
The Pumphouse County Natural Area, one of northern Arizona’s
few preserved wetlands, has expanded its borders. Coconino
County Parks and Recreation recently announced it acquired an
important 6-acre parcel in Kachina Village that will be
restored and incorporated into the preserved natural area.
Located immediately adjacent to an Interstate 17 frontage road,
the parcel would have been an attractive site for future
development in the Kachina Village area, but with this recent
acquisition, it will become a protected piece of the wetland
landscape.
Funding from Arizona Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly’s
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs law will be used to provide
more safe drinking water across the state. … Over
$32,000,000 will be provided towards Arizona projects through
the Environmental Protection Agency.
[Colorado State University professor Stephanie] Kampf and her
team set out to determine whether more wildfires are burning at
high elevations. The answer is unequivocally yes. And the
consequences are dramatic: Snow in wildfire-burned areas is
melting 18 to 24 days earlier than average….And the snowpack
is critical to the health of Western people and ecosystems:
According to the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS),
it contributes 20% to 90% of surface water used for
agriculture, energy production, aquatic species habitat and
more.
The compact — essentially an interstate treaty — set the rules
for apportioning the waters of the river. It was a crucial step
in construction of Hoover Dam, which could not have been built
without the states’ assent. The compact stands as a landmark in
the development of Los Angeles, San Diego, Denver, Phoenix and
other Western metropolises. But it is also a symbol of the
folly of unwarranted expectations. That’s because the
compact was built on a lie about the capacity of the Colorado
River to serve the interests of the Western states — a lie that
Westerners will be grappling with for decades to come.
-Written by Los Angeles Times columnist Michael
Hiltzik.
The National Park Service announced that they are removing some
invasive fish that are threatening another native fishing
species from the Colorado River below the Glen Canyon Dam. The
agency said they are removing smallmouth bass and green
sunfish, which are “threatening the recovery of humpback chub”
who are protected under the Endangered Species Act.
… The agency said the invasive fish will be killed by
use of “EPA-approved fish piscicide rotenone (CFT legumine).”
One Arizona water official said Phoenix won’t require residents
to conserve water yet, fearing that the action wouldn’t
actually benefit the Colorado River and instead would be
diverted to other states struggling with drought. Cynthia
Campbell, the water resource management adviser for the city,
told WBUR’s Peter O’Dowd that the city won’t mandate that its
residents save water by initiating bans on watering lawns. It
will, however, pay residents to kill their grass and replace it
with a more drought-resistant landscaping option, like gravel.
… California isn’t yet required to cut its usage from
the river …
A top Centennial State official warned Colorado River Basin
states that the system’s federal reservoirs could effectively
empty in a few short years barring aggressive reductions to
water demands. Colorado River Water Conservation District
General Manager Andy Mueller painted a bleak future for the
basin’s seven states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada,
New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — on Friday, during his
organization’s annual conference in Grand Junction, Colo., on
the river’s future. … More than two decades of drought
have significantly diminished the Colorado River, which spans
1,450 miles and supplies water to some 40 million individuals.
One month after states missed a federal deadline to propose
ways to drastically cut their use of water supplied by the
Colorado River, water managers who met for a seminar in Grand
Junction said they still didn’t have comprehensive solutions
ready to help bolster the imperiled river system. Water
leaders, agricultural producers, environmentalists and others
from across the drought-stricken river basin met Friday for the
Colorado River District’s annual water seminar to discuss the
historic-low levels in the river’s biggest reservoirs — and the
need to cut back usage from Wyoming to California. While the
problems the basin faces were apparent in the day-long
discussions about the state of the river, solutions were not.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority runs what is likely the
longest-running program to motivate homeowners to replace
water-thirsty grass with desert landscaping, but a new study
says that while the move may save water, the price could be a
superheated city. In a new study, a team of researchers
investigated the microclimate effects of three common landscape
types in an arid region of Phoenix, Arizona. Scientists
found that desert landscaping had the lowest water requirement
but the highest temperatures. Air temperatures in the desert
landscape plot averaged 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit higher
than in the other two landscape types.
In a part of the Coachella Valley where exclusive neighborhoods
wrap around lush golf courses and ponds, a stretch of open
desert could be transformed into a new sort of artificial oasis
… a 12-acre pool where surfers could take off on
sculpted lines of peeling waves. A group of residents has
organized to fight the proposed wave pool, and one of their
primary concerns is water. They argue that, with the Colorado
River in a shortage and the Southwest getting hotter and drier
with climate change, the area can’t afford to have millions of
gallons of precious water filling the giant water feature.
Scorching temperatures and reports of water scarcity are
grabbing headlines, as drought caused by climate change creates
long-term problems for farmers and communities in the United
States and around the world. … As frightening and as
insurmountable a challenge as chronic and growing water
shortages may seem, there are solutions at hand that can save
us from crisis. A small country in one of the driest
regions in the world is among those that have
developed policies and techniques to provide water in cities
and farms alike. That country is Israel. -Written by Seth M. Siegel, author of “Let There Be Water:
Israel’s Solution for a Water-Starved World” and “Troubled
Water: What’s Wrong with What We Drink.” He is currently the
Chief Sustainability Officer of N-Drip, a company which
developed water-saving technology for agricultural use.
With 25 years of experience working on the Colorado River,
Chuck Cullom is used to responding to myriad challenges that
arise on the vital lifeline that seven states, more than two
dozen tribes and the country of Mexico depend on for water. But
this summer problems on the drought-stressed river are piling
up at a dizzying pace: Reservoirs plummeting to record low
levels, whether Hoover Dam and Glen Canyon Dam can continue to
release water and produce hydropower, unprecedented water cuts
and predatory smallmouth bass threatening native fish species
in the Grand Canyon.
With 25 years of experience working
on the Colorado River, Chuck Cullom is used to responding to
myriad challenges that arise on the vital lifeline that seven
states, more than two dozen tribes and the country of Mexico
depend on for water. But this summer problems on the
drought-stressed river are piling up at a dizzying pace:
Reservoirs plummeting to record low levels, whether Hoover Dam
and Glen Canyon Dam can continue to release water and produce
hydropower, unprecedented water cuts and predatory smallmouth
bass threatening native fish species in the Grand Canyon.
“Holy buckets, Batman!,” said Cullom, executive director of the
Upper Colorado River Commission. “I mean, it’s just on and on and
on.”
The second driest state in the country, Utah, doesn’t
contribute much water to the Colorado River as it flows from
Rocky Mountain headwaters through Canyonlands National Park to
Lake Powell. Utah has a unique position in the middle of
the river basin, geographically and politically, and it wields
less influence than thirstier and more populous states like
Colorado, California and Arizona. Its sprawling urban
centers along the Wasatch Front, which are home to 80% of the
state’s population, are outside of the Colorado River Basin and
are less dependent on the river than cities like Phoenix or Las
Vegas. Only 27% of the water used in Utah comes from the
Colorado River, with the majority of the state’s water supply
coming from other rivers that feed into the Great Salt Lake.
Arizona is facing dramatic cuts in water deliveries from the
drought-imperiled Colorado River. But many water managers there
aren’t that worried due to a long in the works conservation
strategy. … The idea is you bank the water for
lean times. The excess is then pumped back out of the ground
and into taps in the city about 30 miles east of here. In fact,
a lot of Arizona has been banking its Colorado River water in
underground reservoirs like this for decades. The state
pioneered the practice because it had to, says Kathryn
Sorensen. She’s a water policy expert at Arizona State
University. … “It’s a secret underground reservoir. You’re
right. Most people really aren’t that interested in water
issues until there’s a crisis.”
As a 20-year drought creeps ever farther up the Colorado River
Basin and seven Western states vie for their fair share of
water under the century-old Colorado River Compact, [Flaming
Gorge Reservoir] on the Wyoming-Utah line is a new
flashpoint. Nobody disputes the root of the problem: The
agreement dates to a cooler, wetter time and is based on
assumptions about precipitation that simply no longer apply, in
part due to climate change. But as business owners like
[Tony] Valdez are finding out firsthand, recreation is just one
of many competing priorities while growing demand in the
basin’s more populous downstream states — California, Nevada
and Arizona — conflicts with dwindling supply from the more
rural states upstream — Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and
Wyoming.
President Biden announced his intent Wednesday to appoint Anne
J. Castle as United States Commissioner, Upper Colorado River
Commission. Castle is a senior fellow at the Getches-Wilkinson
Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment at
the University of Colorado Law School, focusing on western
water issues, including Colorado River policy and
management…. From 2009 to 2014, Castle was the Assistant
Secretary for Water and Science at the U.S. Department of the
Interior where she oversaw water and science policy for the
Department and had responsibility for the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and the U.S. Geological Survey.
Colorado River tributaries in New Mexico bring water to the
alfalfa fields in the Four Corners and the forested hills of
the Gila wilderness in the southwestern part of the state. But
Colorado River and reservoir management was designed during a
much wetter period. And now, water officials are grappling with
how to make do with less. State Engineer Mike Hamman, New
Mexico’s top water manager, said the state “really feels the
shortages” because it doesn’t have the big reservoirs of other
states in the Colorado River Basin. … Nevada, Arizona
and Mexico will all receive less water from the Colorado River
next year because of rapidly-declining reservoirs, the Interior
Department announced on Aug. 16.
Wildlife officials with the National Park Service are
planning to use a specialized poison next week to kill off an
invasive fish species and make room for endangered natives in
the Colorado River. The move should help to remove invasive
smallmouth bass and green sunfish from the river below Glen
Canyon Dam, inside the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area,
according to NPS officials. The two fish have been threatening
smaller native species like the humpback chub, which is listed
as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
In the parched Colorado River basin, water managers are turning
over every stone looking for ways to keep the taps flowing.
Now, they’re finding more water in some unusual places – shower
drains and toilet flushes. At a sprawling sewage treatment
plant in Carson, California, the occasional breeze delivers a
pungent whiff of a reminder of how used water becomes “reused.”
Here, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is
planting the seeds for a massive new facility, where a
multi-billion-dollar installation could help recycle wastewater
and keep drinking supply flowing for the agency’s 19 million
customers.
Surrounding Bernal’s land are the vistas of the Grand Valley, a
strip of high desert situated on Colorado’s Western Slope
marked by dusty mesas and cliffs and the winding, ever-present
Colorado River, which plunges down from the mountains to the
east. Grand Valley farmers and ranchers use the water to
irrigate tens of thousands of acres, growing everything from
peaches and corn to wheat and alfalfa. But since 2000
flows on the river have declined 20% and water levels at Lake
Powell and Lake Mead have dropped to less than 30% of their
combined storage. With the river overtaxed, Grand Valley
farmers now face difficult questions regarding the future of
water in Colorado and the West.
Day after day, week after week, the United States faces a
barrage of climate extremes: wildfires in California. Drought
on the Great Plains. Flooding in Florida. Yet assembling those
puzzle pieces into a clear picture often can be difficult. It’s
a problem the Interior Department and NOAA aim to address with
a new website that provides data on real-time extreme event
conditions as well as risk profiles at the national, state and
local levels. A key feature is a running tally of
climate-juiced hazards — such as droughts, wildfires and floods
— and the number of U.S. residents facing these threats. The
website is constantly updating these figures, but it also
provides historical data for context.
The relentless Western drought that is threatening water
supplies in the country’s largest reservoirs is exposing a
reality that could portend a significant shift in electricity:
Hydropower is not the reliable backbone it once was. Utilities
and states are preparing for a world with less available water
and turning more to wind and solar, demand response, energy
storage and improved grid connections. That planning has helped
Western states keep the lights on this summer even in severe
drought conditions. Take California, which experienced record
demand during a heat wave last week but did not have to impose
any rolling blackouts.
California water agencies that depend on Colorado River supply
are quietly negotiating combined reductions of between 320,000
and 400,000 acre-feet from the fast-dwindling Lake Mead
reservoir next year…. California has the largest and oldest
rights to Colorado River water, totaling 4.4 million acre-feet
per year, with the bulk of that piped to farmers served by the
Imperial Irrigation District, at the state’s hot, dry
southeastern end…. It’s unclear if the amounts being
discussed would be enough to assuage harsh criticism from
officials in other river basin states who are already being
forced to make cuts under previous legal agreements, or more
importantly, to satisfy federal officials who say 2 million to
4 million acre-feet in reduced use is needed from seven states
in 2022 to keep the system and its huge, drought-ravaged
reservoirs afloat.
As soon as the U.S. Department of the Interior last month
announced that Nevada would lose 8% of its water allotment from
the Colorado River next year amid the continuing drought,
officials with the Southern Nevada Water Authority started
fielding questions from concerned residents. And with those
questions came some inaccurate finger-pointing about the water
situation — namely that California is using our water; same
with casinos on the resort corridor. The authority last week,
in an ongoing video series to bring educational awareness for
conservation, addressed those concerns. It’s one of about 12
videos it has done in recent years, stressing that the water
supply here — especially with continued conservation — is
secure.
[T]he US is far from the only place experiencing extreme
dryness. Countries like China are also struggling, as well as
parts of Europe and Africa. China has turned to
cloud seeding as a potential solution to its drought problems.
It’s also being more regularly utilized in the United
Arab Emirates. Cloud seeding is more or less a
technological way to make it rain, even when the weather is
anything but rainy. Planes fly over a region, releasing a
compound like silver iodide into clouds to cause
condensation. … Cloud seeding already happens
across states like Arizona and California, but interest in
the technology appears to be increasing. But not everyone
is on board. Critics say it’s expensive, and it’s unclear
if it’s that effective.
On an early August morning in California’s Imperial Valley,
tractors rumble across verdant fields of alfalfa, mowing down
the tall grass and leaving it to dry in shaggy heaps under the
hot sun. Here, in one of the oldest farming communities in the
Colorado River basin, the forage crop is king. One out of every
three farmed acres in the valley is dedicated to growing
alfalfa … Now, with the basin on the brink of the most
severe water cuts in history, the alfalfa industry has been
propelled to the center of longstanding debates over
sustainable water use and the future of farming in the west.
Faced with deep cuts to the water supply, and angry that other
states are not doing their share, tribes and local governments
in Arizona are increasingly talking about backing off earlier
offers to give up some water. The Gila River Indian Community
said in August that it will begin storing
water underground “rather than contributing them to system
conservation programs for Lake Mead.” Officials in Phoenix,
Scottsdale, Tucson, Peoria and Glendale are considering
following suit, asking to get their full allotment of water
instead of financial compensation they might have received for
reducing their take from the system…. But a spokesperson
for the California Natural Resources Agency said the state has
long been working for years to conserve Colorado River water
and that it is continuing to do so.
Teal Lehto honed her short, snappy explanations of the West’s
complex water problems guiding rafting trips down the Animas
River in her hometown of Durango. She often had lulls of a
minute or less in between shouting paddle commands to the
tourists in her boat — squeezing in a tidy explanation of how
water rights work before yelling “all forward” to her boatmates
to keep them from ramming into rocks. After running the same
stretch of river a few times a day for months, the timing
became second nature. … That same formula works on TikTok,
just trade the tips for likes and followers. On the app, Lehto
goes by “WesternWaterGirl,” and her clips regularly garner
hundreds of thousands of views. Since joining the app in April,
she’s amassed nearly 48,000 followers who tune in for her
fast-paced, snarky and often profanity-laced takes on the
West’s water crisis.
“You’re looking at the most endangered fish in North America,”
Zane Olsen, the manager of the Ouray National Fish Hatchery
tells me as he points to a deep open-topped water tank. Inside
are dozens of juvenile bonytail, the rarest of four endangered
native Colorado River fish species and one Olsen and his
colleagues are trying to bring back from the brink of
extinction. … The native fish have not fared so well
over the past century since humans began trying to make the
western desert bloom by damming the Colorado and its
tributaries, a watershed that was once one of the most
biologically diverse in North America.
Divvying up Colorado River water has been the subject of at
least two letters this week from Republican and Democratic
members of Arizona’s congressional delegation. One note
was sent to the head of the U.S. Department of Interior and the
other to the governor of California. A letter signed by
Republicans Debbie Lesko, Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar calls on
the Interior secretary to quickly help with negotiations
between states that rely on the Colorado River. The
lawmakers also want the feds to make California take water cuts
proportional to its usage.
The water managers of the Yakima River basin in arid Central
Washington know what it’s like to fight over water, just like
their counterparts along the Colorado River are fighting now.
… But a decade ago, the water managers of the Yakima Basin
tried something different. Tired of spending more time in
courtrooms than at conference tables, and faced with studies
showing the situation would only get worse, they hashed out a
plan to manage the Yakima River and its tributaries for the
next 30 years to ensure a stable supply of water.
Climate change has forced a number of states across the nation
to face growing water shortages. From California to Colorado
and everywhere in between, droughts combined with growing
populations are causing communities to worry about having
enough water in the near future. Countries across Africa, the
Middle East and Asia are also particularly vulnerable to a
growing drought crisis. But this isn’t the first time a lack of
water has negatively impacted society. Throughout our history,
societies have been built and then collapsed around water.
These ancient societies fell when the water ran dry.
Queen Creek received a long-awaited green light from the Bureau
of Reclamation to finalize a controversial plan to buy water
directly from farmland along the Colorado River. Driving the
news: The Bureau of Reclamation on Friday issued a document
known as a Finding of No Significant Impact for Queen Creek’s
plan. It clears the way for the town and the bureau to sign
contracts and finalize several other agreements for the water,
which Queen Creek could begin receiving as early as January,
utility director Paul Gardner tells Axios. … Why it
matters: The agreement will help ensure a water supply for
Queen Creek as it continues its rapid growth. Its population
went from 26,361 in 2010 to 59,519 a decade later.
A few times a year, fed by snowmelt and monsoon storms, the
normally dry Grand Falls swells into a raging wall of muddy
water. The 180-foot seasonal waterfall has become something of
a destination for road trippers, van lifers, and influencers in
recent years. But for generations, Grand Falls and the Little
Colorado River that feeds it have watered livestock, supported
medicinal plants, and sustained Native peoples. Grand Falls,
called “Adahiilíní” in the Diné (Navajo) language, is located
on the Navajo Nation in Arizona. For Herman Cody and his niece
Radmilla Cody, it is the place they call home. “We’re all a big
family living along that river,” Herman said.
Water availability in Colorado may never again be what it was,
prompting efforts to voluntarily limit use to stave off
regulatory steps. … Water Education Colorado is a nonprofit
organization attempting to raise awareness of the challenge
that Colorado and the West face as the Colorado River and its
great reservoirs continue their decline. … [Water Education
Colorado] this year is running a campaign to encourage
state residents to tap into 22 ways to save water in order to
reduce water use per person by 22 gallons daily or 8,000
gallons yearly. That would amount to 48 billion gallons of
water statewide annually if everyone were to take up the
challenge.
… Lake Mead’s own decline threatens to upend a vast irrigated
agricultural empire in Southern California and southwestern
Arizona, and to restrict or eventually cut off a significant
source of hydroelectricity and household water for the urban
Southwest. Powell once seemed Mead’s failsafe backup, a
reservoir that, in a wet string of years, could accumulate far
more than what the river delivers in a single year. During dry
spells, it could pour its excess through Grand Canyon and into
Mead, supplying users downstream. Now the excess was gone.
… If the snows that melt to replenish the reservoir are
lower than expected this winter, the dam’s managers warn, it’s
possible that water will dip below Glen Canyon Dam’s hydropower
intakes by the end of 2023.
California water districts are under growing pressure to
shoulder substantial water cutbacks as the federal government
pushes for urgent solutions to prevent the Colorado River’s
badly depleted reservoirs from reaching dangerously low
levels. … Federal officials from the Interior Department
and the Bureau of Reclamation have also laid out plans
that could bring additional federal leverage to bear. Their
plan to reexamine and possibly redefine what constitutes
“beneficial use” of water in the three Lower Basin states —
California, Arizona and Nevada — could open an avenue to a
critical look at how water is used in farming areas and cities.
Arizona has seen a lot of monsoon activity this season across
the entire state. So is that good or bad? It turns out it’s a
little of both. It’s been a dramatic monsoon season, and it’s
not over. … Short term, NWS said this helps the drought, but
long term Percha said this doesn’t make much of a drought dent,
and summer storms aren’t what’s truly needed.
In charge of 500 acres of irrigated turf at Sun City Palm
Desert, including two 18-hole golf courses, parks and softball
fields for the 50-and-over community of 5,000 homes, Tyler
Truman is no stranger to concerns about how much water the
courses and the surrounding areas are using. … As
the drought in the southwest deepens, with a
first-ever Level 2a Shortage Condition declared for the
Colorado River – a major source of water for the desert and all
of Southern California — golf courses in the Coachella Valley
are aware that golf is always a target for those looking at
water usage.
Lower water levels at Lake Powell and rising temperatures in
the Colorado River are contributing to dangerously low
dissolved oxygen levels below Glen Canyon Dam, causing concern
for the health of the trout fishery located near Lees Ferry.
The Bureau of Reclamation works with the U.S. Geological Survey
to closely monitor water quality conditions and is working with
partners and stakeholders to better understand potential
effects. Fish native to the Colorado River, such as humpback
chub and razorback sucker, are generally located farther
downstream where low dissolved oxygen levels are remedied by
riffles and runs, which aerate the water.
At a time of unprecedented aridification across the American
West, the 1,450-mile-long Colorado River and its primary
storage reservoirs — Lake Powell and Lake Mead — have fallen to
historic lows. Fragile ecosystems that depend on the river for
water, food and habitat are in peril. In fact, at least 44 of
49 freshwater fish species native to the basin are now
endangered, threatened, or extinct. … Environmental water
transactions — when owners of water rights are paid to leave
water in the river — could provide a solution. However, states
have been slow to enact laws that enable these transactions.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the National Center for
Atmospheric Research — the campus in Boulder that’s a hub for
scientists studying climate change and water — on Wednesday.
… she and Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse promoted Democrats’
recent climate and tax package. The new law… includes $4
billion for water conservation efforts along the Colorado
River. The aid comes as reservoirs on the river have dropped to
unheard-of levels, and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has
announced cuts that will limit water supplies to some
lower-basin states and Mexico. Asked how the federal
government should intervene in the tense negotiations between
the watershed states, Pelosi stressed that Congress would look
to the states to lead the way.
Could the lettuce you see on store shelves not only in Arizona
but nationwide become harder and harder to find? That’s at risk
of being the case with ongoing water woes and more potential
water cuts in Yuma. It all comes down to if an agreement is
reached and what that agreement looks like. The water cuts made
by the Bureau of Reclamation to the Colorado River that will
affect Pinal County farmers will not affect Yuma farmers.
Still, the bureau said there needs to be millions more cuts to
the water, and Yuma farmers may take the brunt of it. The big
picture problem: Yuma provides 90% of the nation’s leafy greens
like lettuce and spinach during the winter months, and now that
could be at risk.
The Dallas area is still reeling from record-breaking downpours
that triggered flash floods across northeastern Texas last
week. The event swamped houses, submerged vehicles and prompted
hundreds of emergency rescues. At least one death has been
reported so far. The sheer volume of rain was stunning, with
some locations receiving more than a foot. But the deluge was
all the more surprising because Dallas has been choked by
severe drought for months. It’s a phenomenon often referred to
by scientists as “weather whiplash.” And Texas isn’t the only
place it’s happened this summer. Monsoon rains triggered flash
floods in Arizona and New Mexico in the past week, even as the
Southwest continues to suffer under a decades long drought.
Officials are urging large areas of Los Angeles County to heed
a temporary outdoor watering ban that will begin next week and
affect more than 4 million people, as crews make repairs to a
leaking major pipeline. The Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California outlined the 15-day ban at a Tuesday news
conference. The watering restrictions begin Sept. 6 and run
through Sept. 20, allowing workers to repair the 36-mile Upper
Feeder pipeline that supplies water from the Colorado River,
one of the two main sources of water for most of Southern
California.
Democratic attorney general candidate Kris Mayes is
calling to investigate and potentially cancel the leases the
State Land Department signed with a Saudi Arabian company that
is pumping from Phoenix’s backup water supply in western
Arizona. Mayes is also calling for the Saudi Arabian
company to pay the state approximately $38 million for using
the water in La Paz County, which sits in a basin that could be
tapped as future water source for the Phoenix metro
area. Mayes says the lease should be put on hold while
they are investigated because they potentially violate the
Arizona Constitution in two ways: they could violate the
gift clause as well as a clause that requires state land and
its products to be appraised and offered at their true
value.
Already in doubt from the West’s changing climate, a proposed
pipeline across southern Utah remains bogged in a regulatory
limbo that could hold up the project indefinitely. If built,
Utah’s 143-mile Lake Powell pipeline would draw up to 86,000
acre-feet of the Colorado River’s flow — depleted by drought
and overuse — from the ever-shrinking Lake Powell for use in
St. George and Kane County. By the time Utah water bosses clear
a stalled environmental review and secure the water rights,
however, there may be no Lake Powell as we’ve known it, just a
“dead pool” stacked behind Glen Canyon Dam.
As California’s water crisis deepens, a new project aims to
help conserve resources and ensure disadvantaged communities
are not left behind. Cadiz Inc. is hanging onto its years-long
goal of storing water before it evaporates and then selling or
giving it away to communities in Southern California. … Cadiz
incorporated owns over 70 square miles of property in the
eastern Mojave Desert and are hoping to turn the land into a
key conservation site. … For decades, the company has
proposed pumping groundwater from beneath the desert and
selling the water to urban cities in Southern California.
This is the Jim Bridger power plant, one of the largest
coal-fired power sources in the nation and an enormous emitter
of carbon dioxide pollution. … The plant sucks up about 16
million gallons of water each day, using it to power more than
million homes across six western states, all the way to Oregon.
But there’s a problem that looms for the coal plant operator
and the customers that rely on it for electricity. This water
is piped here from the Green River, a tributary of the rapidly
shrinking Colorado River. Now, amidst a decades-long drought
and a shortage of water downstream across the Southwest, future
conservation in the basin could mean industrial users like Jim
Bridger see their water shut off, says Wyoming State Engineer
Brandon Gebhart.
Water managers in recent weeks have put forth plans for
conservation aimed at addressing the water-scarcity crisis on
the Colorado River. But the proposals, which are vague and
voluntary and lack goals with numbers, will probably do little
to get additional water into the nation’s two largest
reservoirs with the urgency officials say is needed.
On his farm, [Jack] Seiler grows thousands of acres of it. Once
matured, the crop is mowed and prepared for shipping. He
pointed to a loaded truck headed for a dairy farm in
Bakersfield. … It is what dairy cows eat, and California is
big in dairy production. Dairy products and milk are valuable
commodities, pulling in close to $7.5 billion a year. During
the drought, some are questioning the practice of growing crops
like alfalfa in the area. U.C. Riverside Economist Chris
Thornberg is one such critic. … Thornberg’s gripe with
Seiler’s farm and others in the area is the amount of water
they use to grow these crops.
The climate and social spending package boosted funding levels
for Western drought mitigation projects to an unprecedented
level — one that water advocates in the region say the U.S. may
never see again. But how the Interior Department decides
who gets what water from the dwindling resources in the
West, particularly in the Colorado River Basin that is
facing a drought crisis, could make or break the historic
funding, experts say. The budget reconciliation bill
signed Aug. 16 by President Joe Biden provides $4 billion
for Western drought and water projects.
Tijuana is paying California for more water than it has in
recent years as the city faces a growing population coupled
with blistering drought that’s gripping the entire West.
Northern Baja is entitled by treaty to 1.5-million-acre feet of
Colorado River water per year, which is Tijuana’s primary water
source. But for years the amount that goes to Tijuana hasn’t
been enough to quench demand. That’s been the case since at
least 1972 when the U.S. and Mexico first let Tijuana pay for
water from California during a serious drought, before it had
an aqueduct to carry river water through the Mexicali Valley.
Major Colorado River cuts must be made, one way or another. The
only looming questions are when and on what terms, with
negotiators scheduled to resume interstate meetings this week.
The Colorado River remains in an unfolding and worsening
crisis. Demand far exceeds supply. Long-term drought, worsened
by climate change, has meant less water refilling the river’s
large reservoirs as water users have continued to overtap
them. … Although all seven states are expected to
be at the meeting, the focus is likely to zero in on reaching a
deal among the three states that comprise the Lower Colorado
River Basin: Arizona, California and Nevada.
Some utilities that draw water from the Colorado River said
they will start conserving more in light of the region’s
shrinking supply. A group of seven water authorities that serve
cities in Colorado, Nevada, and California outlined their plans
in a letter to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on Wednesday.
Cities in the Colorado River basin often tout their ability to
reduce per capita water use, as many have been forced to
stretch a finite quantity of water across rapidly growing
populations. However, conservation in cities is unlikely to
make a substantial change to the region’s supply-demand
imbalance, because the agricultural sector still uses nearly
80% of the river’s supply.
Workers at Lake Mead on Wednesday did something not seen in
many years. They actually raised a boat launch ramp. The ramp
at Hemenway Harbor was briefly closed as crews adjust the pipe
mat and dock for account for rising water level. You read that
right. As KLAS reported on Monday, Lake Mead has risen 2 feet 8
inches over the past four weeks. Bureau of Reclamation
officials said Monday that the lake has been rising because of
“recent storm events and runoff into the tributaries that enter
Lake Mead.”
Amid historic drought in the Colorado River Basin, the Gila
River Indian Community is taking a drastic step to protect
their own water resources. In a statement last week, Governor
Stephen Roe Lewis announced the tribe—located just south of
Phoenix—would stop voluntarily contributing water to an
important state reservoir. “We cannot continue to put the
interests of all others above our own when no other parties
seem committed to the common goal of a cooperative basin-wide
agreement,” the statement reads.
The western United States is, famously, in the grips of its
worst megadrought in a millennium. The Colorado River, which
supplies water to more than 40 million Americans and supports
food production for the rest of the country, is in imminent
peril. … The Bureau of Reclamation, which governs lakes Mead
and Powell and water distribution for the southern end of the
river, has issued an ultimatum: The seven states that draw from
the Colorado must find ways to cut their consumption — by as
much as 40% — or the federal government will do it for them.
Last week those states failed to agree on new conservation
measures by deadline.
Joe O’Dea, the GOP contender for the U.S. Senate, insisted that
the Upper Basin states, which include Colorado, shouldn’t be
“held responsible” for drastic reductions in water use and that
California, Nevada and Arizona should “step up,” arguing the
latter have been overusing their allotment from the Colorado
River. Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, who hopes to keep
his seat, emphasized his work to bring fiscal resources to
Colorado and the rest of the West, which face a decades-long
drought condition compelling them to explore potentially
drastic solutions to their water woes.
San Diegans arguably have more water than they know what to do
with. So much, in fact, officials have been exploring a deal
with the federal government to store excess supplies in
imperiled Lake Mead. … While Northern California and
much of the Southwest grapple with dry, rapidly warming
temperatures, San Diegans have heard relatively little from
local leaders this summer about turning off sprinklers, taking
shorter showers or ripping out lawns.
A levee was breached Monday in a small town near the
Arizona-New Mexico state line, forcing the evacuations of 60
people after a weekend of flash floods across the American
Southwest that also swept away one woman who is still missing
in Utah’s Zion National Park. In Duncan, a rural Arizona town
located about 180 miles (290 kilometers) from Phoenix, weekend
rains overwhelmed a dirt-barrier levee built more than a
century ago to contain the Gila River, putting the town under
inches of water. As many as 60 residents have evacuated, Fire
Chief Hayden Boyd said. Water had already begun to recede, but
more needed to before the town is safe to return to, Boyd
added.
Legal experts and water managers say that despite Reclamation’s
posturing earlier this summer, federal officials likely don’t
want to take control of the complicated situation [on the
Colorado River] any more than the states want to abdicate their
own position. Informal negotiations on how to save more water
are underway but Becky Mitchell, who is negotiating on
Colorado’s behalf as director of the state’s Water Conservation
Board, said there’s no time to waste in starting a more formal
process. She expects the states to officially convene before
the end of the year. The sooner the better, experts agree,
because the current impasse comes at a time when the path
forward is narrowing quickly.
As drought, global warming and chronic overuse push the
Colorado River to perilous new lows, water officials are hoping
to prevent an earthquake from severing a critical
Depression-era aqueduct that now connects millions of Southern
Californians to the shrinking river. Recently, officials from
the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
celebrated as crews lowered a section of earthquake-resistant
pipeline into a portion of the Colorado River aqueduct — the
242-mile system of pumps, tunnels, pipelines and open canals
that carry water from Lake Havasu to Southern
California…. But experts say the project also
underscores the plethora of potential catastrophes the state’s
water managers must consider on a near-daily basis as the
system grows older and more vulnerable to rapid change.
In the foothills of the Rocky Mountains … [t]he clock is
ticking for Las Vegas, a college town and economic hub for
ranchers and farmers who have called this rural expanse of the
Sangre de Cristo mountain range home for generations. It has
less than 30 days of drinking water left. Events have been
canceled in an effort to discourage more people from coming to
town. Residents are showering with buckets in hopes of
salvaging extra water for other uses. Restaurants are worried
they may have to cut back on serving their signature red and
green chile dishes. The three universities that call Las Vegas
home are coming up with conservation plans as the school year
kicks off.
Water purification is a more palatable way to describe the
process of purifying and reusing wastewater, or all the water
that goes down our drains and yes…toilets, too. Currently, most
wastewater is treated to a certain level before being dumped in
the ocean. Water purification involves several additional steps
to get the water to drinkable quality. (More on that here). MWD
has partnered with the L.A. County Sanitation District, to
build what would be the nation’s largest wastewater recycling
facility. By 2032, Upadhyay says they’ll recycle enough water
to replace as much as 15% of the agency’s imported water
supply, though he said recycled water deliveries to some cities
could start as soon as 2027. Currently, recycled water offsets
about 9% of California’s water needs.
Navajo Nation residents in pickup trucks rumbled along dusty
dirt roads in the ethereal painted desert of Monument Valley in
August to a well where they fill up water tanks, sometimes
multiple times a day. The well spigot in the dirt parking lot
next to a shuttered post office in Goulding, Utah, is just up
the road from modern lodges that house tourists visiting the
valley, one of the most iconic settings for Western movies.
… The Navajo, or Diné, have heard for decades the
promise of running water in their homes. Many have yet to see
it, and they don’t expect it to arrive any time soon.
The Bureau of Reclamation had given states and tribes an Aug.
15 deadline to find ways to conserve 2 to 4 million more
acre-feet of [Colorado River] water to stabilize the
drought-stricken river and its two largest reservoirs, Lake
Mead and Lake Powell. Without such a plan, the bureau said, it
would act.The deadline passed with no agreement in place….
Few people were entirely satisfied with the government’s
announcement, but one stakeholder went further than the others
in expressing disappointment, introducing a new wrinkle in
talks among the river’s water users. The Gila River Indian
Community said it would no longer voluntarily leave part of its
Colorado River allocation in Lake Mead, an arrangement that
helped Arizona meet the requirements of a regional agreement
last year.
No one knows exactly why, in the 14th century, the Hohokam
abandoned Pueblo Grande and other settlements across the Salt
River Valley. Two hypotheses (perhaps not mutually exclusive)
are that the Hohokam were laid low by prolonged drought and
that hundreds of years of relentless irrigation salinized the
soil, which in turn led to a collapse in agriculture.
… Today, Pueblo Grande lies at the heart of a sprawling
15,000-square-mile megalopolis with some 4.9 million residents,
which for the better part of half a century has been among the
fastest-growing metropolitan regions in the United
States. Like the previous civilization over which it is
built, Phoenix must rely on maintaining control of that most
precious and fleeting of desert resources: water.
Monsoon rains are causing a flash flooding threat to linger
over a large swath of the Western U.S. following several
flooding events overnight. Flash flood events were reported
over the desert Southwest Saturday night into Sunday morning,
with Moab, Utah, experiencing flooding that spilled from
streets to businesses and mud piling up on storefronts. In
New Mexico’s Carlsbad Caverns National Park, more than 100
people were evacuated after being stuck for hours due to
impassable roadways. More than 12 million people from
Arizona to Louisiana were under flood alerts on Sunday morning.
As water interests in the Colorado
River Basin prepare to negotiate a new set of operating
guidelines for the drought-stressed river, Amelia Flores wants
her Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) to be involved in the
discussion. And she wants CRIT seated at the negotiating table
with something invaluable to offer on a river facing steep cuts
in use: its surplus water.
CRIT, whose reservation lands in California and Arizona are
bisected by the Colorado River, has some of the most senior water
rights on the river. But a federal law enacted in the late 1700s,
decades before any southwestern state was established, prevents
most tribes from sending any of its water off its reservation.
The restrictions mean CRIT, which holds the rights to nearly a
quarter of the entire state of Arizona’s yearly allotment of
river water, is missing out on financial gain and the chance to
help its river partners.
Momentum is building for a unique
interstate deal that aims to transform wastewater from Southern
California homes and business into relief for the stressed
Colorado River. The collaborative effort to add resiliency to a
river suffering from overuse, drought and climate change is being
shaped across state lines by some of the West’s largest water
agencies.
There is just about a week left to
apply for our inaugural Colorado River Water Leaders
program in 2022, which marks the 100th anniversary
of the Colorado River Compact.
The biennial program is modeled after our highly successful
Water Leaders
program in California, now 25 years strong.
Our Colorado River program will select rising stars from the
seven U.S. states and tribal nations that rely on the river -
California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New
Mexico – to participate in the seven-month class designed for
working professionals. Class members will explore issues
surrounding the iconic Southwest river, deepen their water
knowledge and build leadership skills.
Climate scientist Brad Udall calls
himself the skunk in the room when it comes to the Colorado
River. Armed with a deck of PowerPoint slides and charts that
highlight the Colorado River’s worsening math, the Colorado State
University scientist offers a grim assessment of the river’s
future: Runoff from the river’s headwaters is declining, less
water is flowing into Lake Powell – the key reservoir near the
Arizona-Utah border – and at the same time, more water is being
released from the reservoir than it can sustainably provide.
The lower Colorado River has virtually every drop allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
For more than 20 years, Tanya
Trujillo has been immersed in the many challenges of the Colorado
River, the drought-stressed lifeline for 40 million people from
Denver to Los Angeles and the source of irrigation water for more
than 5 million acres of winter lettuce, supermarket melons and
other crops.
Trujillo has experience working in both the Upper and Lower
Basins of the Colorado River, basins that split the river’s water
evenly but are sometimes at odds with each other. She was a
lawyer for the state of New Mexico, one of four states in the
Upper Colorado River Basin, when key operating guidelines for
sharing shortages on the river were negotiated in 2007. She later
worked as executive director for the Colorado River Board of
California, exposing her to the different perspectives and
challenges facing California and the other states in the river’s
Lower Basin.
Known for our popular Water Leaders
program in California – about to mark its 25th anniversary – we
are now launching a Colorado
River Water Leaders program in 2022, the 100th
anniversary of the Colorado River Compact.
The biennial program will select rising stars from the seven
U.S. states that rely on the river – California, Nevada, Arizona,
Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico – to participate in the
seven-month class designed for working professionals. Class
members will explore issues surrounding the iconic Southwest
river, deepen their water knowledge and build leadership
skills.
Water is flowing once again
to the Colorado River’s delta in Mexico, a vast region that
was once a natural splendor before the iconic Western river was
dammed and diverted at the turn of the last century, essentially
turning the delta into a desert.
In 2012, the idea emerged that water could be intentionally sent
down the river to inundate the delta floodplain and regenerate
native cottonwood and willow trees, even in an overallocated
river system. Ultimately, dedicated flows of river water were
brokered under cooperative
efforts by the U.S. and Mexican governments.
Las Vegas, known for its searing summertime heat and glitzy casino fountains, is projected to get even hotter in the coming years as climate change intensifies. As temperatures rise, possibly as much as 10 degrees by end of the century, according to some models, water demand for the desert community is expected to spike. That is not good news in a fast-growing region that depends largely on a limited supply of water from an already drought-stressed Colorado River.
When you oversee the largest
supplier of treated water in the United States, you tend to think
big.
Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water
District of Southern California for the last 15 years, has
focused on diversifying his agency’s water supply and building
security through investment. That means looking beyond MWD’s
borders to ensure the reliable delivery of water to two-thirds of
California’s population.
Twenty years ago, the Colorado River
Basin’s hydrology began tumbling into a historically bad stretch.
The weather turned persistently dry. Water levels in the system’s
anchor reservoirs of Lake Powell and Lake Mead plummeted. A river
system relied upon by nearly 40 million people, farms and
ecosystems across the West was in trouble. And there was no guide
on how to respond.
Managing water resources in the Colorado River Basin is not for the timid or those unaccustomed to big challenges. Careers are devoted to responding to all the demands put upon the river: water supply, hydropower, recreation and environmental protection.
All of this while the Basin endures a seemingly endless drought and forecasts of increasing dryness in the future.
Practically every drop of water that flows through the meadows, canyons and plains of the Colorado River Basin has reams of science attached to it. Snowpack, streamflow and tree ring data all influence the crucial decisions that guide water management of the iconic Western river every day.
Dizzying in its scope, detail and complexity, the scientific information on the Basin’s climate and hydrology has been largely scattered in hundreds of studies and reports. Some studies may conflict with others, or at least appear to. That’s problematic for a river that’s a lifeline for 40 million people and more than 4 million acres of irrigated farmland.
The Colorado River Compact of 1922
divided the river into two basins: The Upper Basin (Colorado, New
Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) and the Lower Basin (Arizona,
California and Nevada), established the allotment for each basin
and provided a framework for management of the river for years to
come.
Out of sight and out of mind to most
people, the Salton Sea in California’s far southeast corner has
challenged policymakers and local agencies alike to save the
desert lake from becoming a fetid, hyper-saline water body
inhospitable to wildlife and surrounded by clouds of choking
dust.
The sea’s problems stretch beyond its boundaries in Imperial and
Riverside counties and threaten to undermine multistate
management of the Colorado River. A 2019 Drought Contingency Plan for the
Lower Colorado River Basin was briefly stalled when the Imperial
Irrigation District, holding the river’s largest water
allocation, balked at participating in the plan because, the
district said, it ignored the problems of the Salton Sea.
Colorado is home to the headwaters
of the Colorado River and the water policy decisions made in the
Centennial State reverberate throughout the river’s sprawling
basin that stretches south to Mexico. The stakes are huge in a
basin that serves 40 million people, and responding to the water
needs of the economy, productive agriculture, a robust
recreational industry and environmental protection takes
expertise, leadership and a steady hand.
Sprawled across a desert expanse
along the Utah-Arizona border, Lake Powell’s nearly 100-foot high
bathtub ring etched on its sandstone walls belie the challenges
of a major Colorado River reservoir at less than half-full. How
those challenges play out as demand grows for the river’s water
amid a changing climate is fueling simmering questions about
Powell’s future.
This event explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
The Colorado River is arguably one
of the hardest working rivers on the planet, supplying water to
40 million people and a large agricultural economy in the West.
But it’s under duress from two decades of drought and decisions
made about its management will have exceptional ramifications for
the future, especially as impacts from climate change are felt.
Every other year we hold an
invitation-only Colorado River Symposium attended by various
stakeholders from across the seven Western states and Mexico that
rely on the iconic river. We host this three-day event in Santa
Fe, N.M., where the 1922 Colorado River Compact was signed, as
part of our mission to catalyze critical conversations to build
bridges and inform collaborative decision-making.
The Colorado River Basin’s 20 years
of drought and the dramatic decline in water levels at the
river’s key reservoirs have pressed water managers to adapt to
challenging conditions. But even more extreme — albeit rare —
droughts or floods that could overwhelm water managers may lie
ahead in the Basin as the effects of climate change take hold,
say a group of scientists. They argue that stakeholders who are
preparing to rewrite the operating rules of the river should plan
now for how to handle these so-called “black swan” events so
they’re not blindsided.
Dates are now set for two key
Foundation events to kick off 2020 — our popular Water 101
Workshop, scheduled for Feb. 20 at McGeorge School of Law in
Sacramento, and our Lower Colorado River Tour, which will run
from March 11-13.
In addition, applications will be available by the first week of
October for our 2020 class of Water Leaders, our competitive
yearlong program for early to mid-career up-and-coming water
professionals. To learn more about the program, check out our
Water Leaders program
page.
High in the headwaters of the Colorado River, around the hamlet of Kremmling, Colorado, generations of families have made ranching and farming a way of life, their hay fields and cattle sustained by the river’s flow. But as more water was pulled from the river and sent over the Continental Divide to meet the needs of Denver and other cities on the Front Range, less was left behind to meet the needs of ranchers and fish.
“What used to be a very large river that inundated the land has really become a trickle,” said Mely Whiting, Colorado counsel for Trout Unlimited. “We estimate that 70 percent of the flow on an annual average goes across the Continental Divide and never comes back.”
Summer is a good time to take a
break, relax and enjoy some of the great beaches, waterways and
watersheds around California and the West. We hope you’re getting
a chance to do plenty of that this July.
But in the weekly sprint through work, it’s easy to miss
some interesting nuggets you might want to read. So while we’re
taking a publishing break to work on other water articles planned
for later this year, we want to help you catch up on
Western Water stories from the first half of this year
that you might have missed.
We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls ride over the river, we know not. Ah, well! We may conjecture many things.
~John Wesley Powell
Powell scrawled those words in his journal as he and his expedition paddled their way into the deep walls of the Grand Canyon on a stretch of the Colorado River in August 1869. Three months earlier, the 10-man group had set out on their exploration of the iconic Southwest river by hauling their wooden boats into a major tributary of the Colorado, the Green River in Wyoming, for their trip into the “great unknown,” as Powell described it.
Even as stakeholders in the Colorado River Basin celebrate the recent completion of an unprecedented drought plan intended to stave off a crashing Lake Mead, there is little time to rest. An even larger hurdle lies ahead as they prepare to hammer out the next set of rules that could vastly reshape the river’s future.
Set to expire in 2026, the current guidelines for water deliveries and shortage sharing, launched in 2007 amid a multiyear drought, were designed to prevent disputes that could provoke conflict.
Bruce Babbitt, the former Arizona
governor and secretary of the Interior, has been a thoughtful,
provocative and sometimes forceful voice in some of the most
high-profile water conflicts over the last 40 years, including
groundwater management in Arizona and the reduction of
California’s take of the Colorado River. In 2016, former
California Gov. Jerry Brown named Babbitt as a special adviser to
work on matters relating to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and
the Delta tunnels plan.
For the bulk of her career, Jayne
Harkins has devoted her energy to issues associated with the
management of the Colorado River, both with the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and with the Colorado River Commission of Nevada.
Now her career is taking a different direction. Harkins, 58, was
appointed by President Trump last August to take the helm of the
United States section of the U.S.-Mexico agency that oversees
myriad water matters between the two countries as they seek to
sustainably manage the supply and water quality of the Colorado
River, including its once-thriving Delta in Mexico, and other
rivers the two countries share. She is the first woman to be
named the U.S. Commissioner of the International Boundary and
Water Commission for either the United States or Mexico in the
commission’s 129-year history.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs is the focus of this tour.
Silverton Hotel
3333 Blue Diamond Road
Las Vegas, NV 89139
Imported water from the Sierra
Nevada and the Colorado River built Southern California. Yet as
drought, climate change and environmental concerns render those
supplies increasingly at risk, the Southland’s cities have ramped
up their efforts to rely more on local sources and less on
imported water.
Far and away the most ambitious goal has been set by the city of
Santa Monica, which in 2014 embarked on a course to be virtually
water independent through local sources by 2023. In the 1990s,
Santa Monica was completely dependent on imported water. Now, it
derives more than 70 percent of its water locally.
The growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges.
These were among the topics that Western Water news explored in 2018.
We’re already planning a full slate of stories for 2019. You can sign up here to be alerted when new stories are published. In the meantime, take a look at what we dove into in 2018:
As stakeholders labor to nail down
effective and durable drought contingency plans for the Colorado
River Basin, they face a stark reality: Scientific research is
increasingly pointing to even drier, more challenging times
ahead.
The latest sobering assessment landed the day after Thanksgiving,
when U.S. Global Change Research Program’s Fourth National Climate
Assessment concluded that Earth’s climate is changing rapidly
compared to the pace of natural variations that have occurred
throughout its history, with greenhouse gas emissions largely the
cause.
As the Colorado River Basin becomes
drier and shortage conditions loom, one great variable remains:
How much of the river’s water belongs to Native American tribes?
Native Americans already use water from the Colorado River and
its tributaries for a variety of purposes, including leasing it
to non-Indian users. But some tribes aren’t using their full
federal Indian reserved water right and others have water rights
claims that have yet to be resolved. Combined, tribes have rights
to more water than some states in the Colorado River Basin.
The Colorado River Basin is more
than likely headed to unprecedented shortage in 2020 that could
force supply cuts to some states, but work is “furiously”
underway to reduce the risk and avert a crisis, Bureau of
Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman told an audience of
California water industry people.
During a keynote address at the Water Education Foundation’s
Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento, Burman said there is
opportunity for Colorado River Basin states to control their
destiny, but acknowledged that in water, there are no guarantees
that agreement can be reached.
Water means life for all the Grand Canyon’s inhabitants, including the many varieties of insects that are a foundation of the ecosystem’s food web. But hydropower operations upstream on the Colorado River at Glen Canyon Dam, in Northern Arizona near the Utah border, disrupt the natural pace of insect reproduction as the river rises and falls, sometimes dramatically. Eggs deposited at the river’s edge are often left high and dry and their loss directly affects available food for endangered fish such as the humpback chub.
Amy Haas recently became the first non-engineer and the first woman to serve as executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission in its 70-year history, putting her smack in the center of a host of daunting challenges facing the Upper Colorado River Basin.
Yet those challenges will be quite familiar to Haas, an attorney who for the past year has served as deputy director and general counsel of the commission. (She replaced longtime Executive Director Don Ostler). She has a long history of working within interstate Colorado River governance, including representing New Mexico as its Upper Colorado River commissioner and playing a central role in the negotiation of the recently signed U.S.-Mexico agreement known as Minute 323.
Nowhere is the domino effect in
Western water policy played out more than on the Colorado River,
and specifically when it involves the Lower Basin states of
California, Nevada and Arizona. We are seeing that play out now
as the three states strive to forge a Drought Contingency Plan.
Yet that plan can’t be finalized until Arizona finds a unifying
voice between its major water players, an effort you can read
more about in the latest in-depth article of Western Water.
Even then, there are some issues to resolve just within
California.
It’s high-stakes time in Arizona. The state that depends on the
Colorado River to help supply its cities and farms — and is
first in line to absorb a shortage — is seeking a unified plan
for water supply management to join its Lower Basin neighbors,
California and Nevada, in a coordinated plan to preserve water
levels in Lake Mead before
they run too low.
If the lake’s elevation falls below 1,075 feet above sea level,
the secretary of the Interior would declare a shortage and
Arizona’s deliveries of Colorado River water would be reduced by
320,000 acre-feet. Arizona says that’s enough to serve about 1
million households in one year.
As California embarks on its unprecedented mission to harness groundwater pumping, the Arizona desert may provide one guide that local managers can look to as they seek to arrest years of overdraft.
Groundwater is stressed by a demand that often outpaces natural and artificial recharge. In California, awareness of groundwater’s importance resulted in the landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in 2014 that aims to have the most severely depleted basins in a state of balance in about 20 years.
We explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop
of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad
sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and
climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs was the focus of this tour.
Hampton Inn Tropicana
4975 Dean Martin Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89118
Dramatic swings in weather patterns
over the past few years in California are stark reminders of
climate variability and regional vulnerability. Alternating years
of drought and intense rain events make long-term planning for
storing and distributing water a challenging task.
Current weather forecasting capabilities provide details for
short time horizons. Attend the Paleo Drought
Workshop in San Pedro on April 19 to learn more about
research efforts to improve sub-seasonal to seasonal
precipitation forecasting, known as S2S, and how those models
could provide more useful weather scenarios for resource
managers.
A drought has lingered in the
Colorado River Basin since 2000, causing reservoir storage to
decline from nearly full to about half of capacity. So far this
year, a meager snowpack in the Rocky Mountains hasn’t helped
much.
In fact, forecasters say this winter will likely go down as the
sixth-driest on record for the river system that supplies water
to seven states, including California, and Mexico.
On our Lower
Colorado River Tour, April 11-13, you will meet with water
managers from the three Lower Basin states: Nevada, Arizona and
California. The three states are working to finalize a Drought
Contingency Plan to take voluntary cuts to keep Lake Mead, the
nation’s largest reservoir, from hitting critical levels and
causing a shortage declaration.
California’s 2012-2016 drought
revealed vulnerabilities for water users throughout the state,
and the long-term record suggests more challenges may lie ahead.
An April 19
workshop in San Pedro will highlight new information about
drought durations in Southern California watersheds dating
back centuries.
Most people see the Grand Canyon from the rim, thousands of feet above where the Colorado River winds through it for almost 300 miles.
But to travel it afloat a raft is to experience the wondrous majesty of the canyon and the river itself while gaining perspective about geology, natural beauty and the passage of time.
Beginning at Lees Ferry, some 30,000 people each year launch downriver on commercial or private trips. Before leaving, they are dutifully briefed by a National Park Service ranger who explains to them about the unique environment that awaits them, how to keep it protected and, most importantly, how to protect themselves.
They also are told about the pair of ravens that will inevitably follow them through the canyon, seizing every opportunity to scrounge food.
Tickets are now on sale for the Water Education Foundation’s April 11-13 tour of the Lower Colorado River.
Don’t miss this opportunity to visit key sites along one of the nation’s most famous rivers, including a private tour of Hoover Dam, Central Arizona Project’s Mark Wilmer pumping plant and the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge. The tour also visits the Salton Sea, Slab City, the All-American Canal and farming regions in the Imperial and Coachella valleys.
Drought and climate change are having a noticeable impact on the
Colorado River Basin, and that is posing potential challenges to
those in the Southwestern United States and Mexico who rely on
the river.
In the just-released Winter 2017-18 edition of River
Report, writer Gary Pitzer examines what scientists
project will be the impact of climate change on the Colorado
River Basin, and how water managers are preparing for a future of
increasing scarcity.
Rising temperatures from climate change are having a noticeable
effect on how much water is flowing down the Colorado River. Read
the latest River Report to learn more about what’s
happening, and how water managers are responding.
This issue of Western Water discusses the challenges
facing the Colorado River Basin resulting from persistent
drought, climate change and an overallocated river, and how water
managers and others are trying to face the future.
This three-day, two-night tour explored the lower Colorado River
where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand
is growing from myriad sources — increasing population,
declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs is the focus of this tour.
Best Western McCarran Inn
4970 Paradise Road
Las Vegas, NV 89119
The Colorado River provides water to 40 million people and 4
million acres of farmland in a region encompassing some 246,000
square miles in the southwestern United States. The 32-page
Layperson’s Guide to the Colorado River covers the history of the
river’s development; negotiations over division of its water; the
items that comprise the Law of the River; and a chronology of
significant Colorado River events.
The Colorado River Delta once spanned nearly 2 million acres and
stretched from the northern tip of the Gulf of California in
Mexico to Southern California’s Salton Sea. Today it’s one-tenth
that size, yet still an important estuary, wildlife habitat and
farming region even though Colorado River flows rarely reach the
sea.
Since 2000, the Colorado River Basin has experienced an historic,
extended drought causing reservoir storage in the Colorado River
system to decline from nearly full to about half of capacity. For
the Lower Basin, a key point has been to maintain the level of
Lake Mead to prevent a shortage declaration.
A healthy snowfall in the Rockies has reduced the odds of a
shortage this year, but the basin states still must come to terms
with a static supply and growing demands, as well as future
impacts from climate change.
On our Lower
Colorado River Tour, April 5-7, you will meet with water
managers from the three Lower Basin states: Nevada, Arizona and
California. Federal, state and local agencies will update you on
the latest hydrologic conditions and how recent storms might
change plans for water supply and storage.
A troublesome invasive species is
the quagga mussel, a tiny freshwater mollusk that attaches itself
to water utility infrastructure and reproduces at a rapid rate,
causing damage to pipes and pumps.
First found in the Great Lakes in 1988 (dumped with ballast water
from overseas ships), the quagga mussel along with the zebra
mussel are native to the rivers and lakes of eastern Europe and
western Asia, including the Black, Caspian and Azov Seas and the
Dneiper River drainage of Ukraine and Ponto-Caspian
Sea.
This issue of Western Water examines the ongoing effort
between the United States and Mexico to develop a
new agreement to the 1944 Treaty that will continue the
binational cooperation on constructing Colorado River
infrastructure, storing water in Lake Mead and providing instream
flows for the Colorado River Delta.
As vital as the Colorado River is to the United States and
Mexico, so is the ongoing process by which the two countries
develop unique agreements to better manage the river and balance
future competing needs.
The prospect is challenging. The river is over allocated as urban
areas and farmers seek to stretch every drop of their respective
supplies. Since a historic treaty between the two countries was
signed in 1944, the United States and Mexico have periodically
added a series of arrangements to the treaty called minutes that
aim to strengthen the binational ties while addressing important
water supply, water quality and environmental concerns.
Lake Havasu is a reservoir on the Colorado River that supplies
water to the Colorado River
Aqueduct and Central Arizona Project. It is located at
the California/Arizona border, approximately 150 miles southeast
of Las Vegas, Nevada and 30 miles southeast of Needles,
California.
Situated in southwest Riverside County near the Santa Ana
Mountains – about 60 miles southeast of Los Angeles – Lake
Mathews is a
major reservoir in Southern California.
As one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world,
the Imperial Valley
receives its water from the Colorado River via the
All-American Canal. Rainfall is scarce in the desert region at
less than three inches per year and groundwater is of little
value.
This issue looks at the historic drought that has gripped the
Colorado River Basin since 2000 and discusses the lessons
learned, the continuing challenges and what the future might
hold.
The dramatic decline in water levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell
is perhaps the most visible sign of the historic drought that has
gripped the Colorado River Basin for the past 16 years. In 2000,
the reservoirs stood at nearly 100 percent capacity; today, Lake
Powell is at 49 percent capacity while Lake Mead has dropped to
38 percent. Before the late season runoff of Miracle May, it
looked as if Mead might drop low enough to trigger the first-ever
Lower Basin shortage determination in 2016.
Read the excerpt below from the Sept./Oct. 2015 issue along
with the editor’s note. Click here to subscribe to Western
Water and get full access.
This issue looks at the dilemma of the shrinking Salton Sea. The
shallow, briny inland lake at the southeastern edge of California
is slowly evaporating and becoming more saline – threatening the
habitat for fish and birds and worsening air quality as dust from
the dry lakebed is whipped by the constant winds.
The shallow, briny inland lake at the southeastern edge of
California is slowly evaporating and becoming more saline –
threatening the habitat for fish and birds and worsening air
quality as dust from the dry lakebed is whipped by the constant
winds.
(Read this excerpt from the May/June 2015 issue along with
the editor’s note. Click here to
subscribe to Western Water and get full access.)
After much time, study and investment, the task of identifying
solutions to ensure the long-term sustainability of the Colorado
River is underway. People from the Upper and Lower basins
representing all interest groups are preparing to put their
signatures to documents aimed at ensuring the river’s vitality
for the next 50 years and beyond.
This 3-day, 2-night tour followed the course of the
lower Colorado River through Nevada, Arizona and California, and
included a private tour of Hoover Dam.
This issue updates progress on crafting and implementing
California’s 4.4 plan to reduce its use of Colorado River water
by 800,000 acre-feet. The state has used as much as 5.2 million
acre-feet of Colorado River water annually, but under pressure
from Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and the other six states
that share this resource, California’s Colorado River parties
have been trying to close the gap between demand and supply. The
article – delayed to include the latest information from
Babbitt’s Dec.
This issue updates progress on California’s Colorado River Water
Use Plan (commonly called the 4.4 Plan ), with a special focus on
the Salton Sea restoration/water transfer dilemma. It also
includes information on the proposed MWD-Palo Verde Irrigation
District deal, the Colorado River Delta, and the legislative
debate in the national and state capitals.
With passage of the original Dec. 31, 2002, deadline to have a
Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA) in place for the
Colorado River, California suffered a cutback in the surplus
Colorado River flows it had relied upon by years. Further
negotiations followed in an attempt to bring the California
parties to an agreement. This issue examines the history leading
to the QSA, the state of affairs of the so-called 4.4 Plan as of
early March, and gives readers a clearer crystal ball with which
to speculate about California’s water future on the Colorado
River.
This issue of Western Water provides the latest information on
some of the philosophical, political and practical ideas being
discussed on the river. Some of these issues were discussed at
the Water Education Foundation’s Colorado River Symposium, “The
Ties that Bind: Policy and the Evolving Law of the Colorado
River,” held last fall at The Bishop’s Lodge in Santa Fe, New
Mexico – site of negotiations on the 1922 Colorado River Compact.
This issue of Western Water explores the issues
surrounding and the components of the Colorado River Basin
seven-state proposed agreement released Feb. 3 regarding sharing
shortages on the river, and new plans to improve the river’s
management. The article includes excerpts from the Foundation’s
September 2005 Colorado River Symposium held in Santa Fe, New
Mexico.
This issue of Western Water marks the 85th anniversary of the
Colorado River Compact and considers its role in the past and
present on key issues such as federal funding for water projects
and international issues. Much of the content for this magazine
came from the Foundation’s September Colorado River Symposium,
The Colorado River Compact at 85 and Changes on the River.
This card includes information about the Colorado River, who uses
the river, how the river’s water is divided and other pertinent
facts about this vital resource for the Southwest. Beautifully
illustrated with color photographs.
In 1997, the Foundation sponsored a three-day, invitation-only
symposium at Bishop’s Lodge, New Mexico, site of the 1922
Colorado River Compact signing, to discuss the historical
implications of that agreement, current Colorado River issues and
future challenges. The 204-page proceedings features the panel
discussions and presentations on such issues as the Law of the
River, water marketing and environmental restoration.
30-minute DVD that traces the history of the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and its role in the development of the West. Includes
extensive historic footage of farming and the construction of
dams and other water projects, and discusses historic and modern
day issues.
Redesigned in 2017, this beautiful map depicts the seven
Western states that share the Colorado River with Mexico. The
Colorado River supplies water to nearly 40 million people in
Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming
and the country of Mexico. Text on this beautiful, 24×36-inch
map, which is suitable for framing, explains the river’s
apportionment, history and the need to adapt its management for
urban growth and expected climate change impacts.
This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, illustrates the
water resources available for Nevada cities, agriculture and the
environment. It features natural and manmade water resources
throughout the state, including the Truckee and Carson rivers,
Lake Tahoe, Pyramid Lake and the course of the Colorado River
that forms the state’s eastern boundary.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to
Water Rights Law, recognized as the most thorough explanation of
California water rights law available to non-lawyers, traces the
authority for water flowing in a stream or reservoir, from a
faucet or into an irrigation ditch through the complex web of
California water rights.
The 20-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Marketing provides
background information on water rights, types of transfers and
critical policy issues surrounding this topic. First published in
1996, the 2005 version offers expanded information on
groundwater banking and conjunctive use, Colorado River
transfers and the role of private companies in California’s
developing water market.
Order in bulk (25 or more copies of the same guide) for a reduced
fee. Contact the Foundation, 916-444-6240, for details.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to California Water provides an
excellent overview of the history of water development and use in
California. It includes sections on flood management; the state,
federal and Colorado River delivery systems; Delta issues; water
rights; environmental issues; water quality; and options for
stretching the water supply such as water marketing and
conjunctive use. New in this 10th edition of the guide is a
section on the human need for water.
A new look for our most popular product! And it’s the perfect
gift for the water wonk in your life.
Our 24×36 inch California Water Map is widely known for being the
definitive poster that shows the integral role water plays in the
state. On this updated version, it is easier to see California’s
natural waterways and man-made reservoirs and aqueducts
– including federally, state and locally funded
projects – the wild and scenic rivers system, and
natural lakes. The map features beautiful photos of
California’s natural environment, rivers, water projects,
wildlife, and urban and agricultural uses and the
text focuses on key issues: water supply, water use, water
projects, the Delta, wild and scenic rivers and the Colorado
River.
This 3-day, 2-night tour follows the course of the lower Colorado River through Nevada, Arizona and California, and includes a private tour of Hoover Dam.
As part of the historic Colorado
River Delta, the Salton Sea regularly filled and dried for
thousands of years due to its elevation of 237 feet below
sea level.
The Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA), signed in 2003,
defined the rights to a portion of Colorado River water for San
Diego County Water Authority, Coachella Valley Water District,
Imperial Irrigation District and the Metropolitan Water District
of Southern California.
The Mexican Water Treaty of 1944 committed the U.S. to deliver
1.5 million acre-feet of water to Mexico on an annual basis, plus
an additional 200,000 acre-feet under surplus conditions. The
treaty is overseen by the International Boundary and Water
Commission.
Colorado River water is delivered to Mexico at Morelos Dam,
located 1.1 miles downstream from where the California-Baja
California land boundary intersects the river between the town of
Los Algodones in northwestern Mexico and Yuma County, Ariz.
The Colorado River Delta is located
at the natural terminus of the Colorado River at the Gulf of
California, just south of the U.S.-Mexico border. The desert
ecosystem was formed by silt flushed downstream from the Colorado
and fresh and brackish water mixing at the Gulf.
The Colorado River Delta once covered 9,650 square miles but has
shrunk to less than 1 percent of its original size due to
human-made water diversions.
The Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program aims
to balance use of Colorado River water resources with the
conservation of native species and their habitat. A key component
of the program is the restoration and enhancement of existing
riparian and marsh habitat along the lower Colorado River.
Lee Ferry on the Arizona-Utah border is a key dividing point
between the Colorado River’s Upper and Lower basins.
This split is important when it comes to determining how much
water will be delivered from the Upper Basin to the Lower Basin
[for a description of the Upper and Lower basins, visit the
Colorado River page].
The construction of Glen Canyon Dam in 1964 created Lake Powell.
Both are located in north-central Arizona near the Utah border.
Lake Powell acts as a holding tank for outflow from the Colorado
River Upper Basin States: Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
The water stored in Lake Powell is used for recreation, power
generation and delivering water to the Lower Basin states of
California, Arizona, and Nevada.
John Wesley Powell (1834-1902) was historic and heroic for being
first to lead an expedition down the Colorado River in 1869. A major
who lost an arm in the Civil War Battle of Shiloh, he was an
explorer, geologist, geographer and ethnologist.
California’s Colorado River Water Use Plan (known colloquially as
the 4.4 Plan) intends to wean the state from its reliance on the
surplus flows from the river and return California to its annual
4.4 million acre-feet basic apportionment of the river.
In the past, California has also used more than its basic
apportionment. Consequently, the U.S. Department of
Interior urged California to devise a plan to reduce its water
consumption to its basic entitlement.
In 2005, after six years of severe
drought in the Colorado River Basin, federal officials and
representatives of the seven basin states — California, Arizona,
Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming — began building a
framework to better respond to drought conditions and coordinate
the operations of the basin’s two key reservoirs, Lake Powell and
Lake Mead.
The resulting Interim Guidelines for Lower Basin Shortages and
the Coordinated Operations for Lake Powell and Lake Mead (Interim
Guidelines) identified the conditions for shortage determinations
and details of coordinated reservoir operations. The 2007 Interim
Guidelines remain in effect through Dec. 31, 2025.
The turbulent Colorado River is one
of the most heavily regulated and hardest working rivers in the
world.
Geography
The Colorado falls some 10,000 feet on its way from the Rocky
Mountains to the Gulf of California, helping to sustain a range
of habitats and ecosystems as it weaves through mountains and
deserts.
This printed issue of Western Water examines how the various
stakeholders have begun working together to meet the planning
challenges for the Colorado River Basin, including agreements
with Mexico, increased use of conservation and water marketing,
and the goal of accomplishing binational environmental
restoration and water-sharing programs.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the
Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study and what its
finding might mean for the future of the lifeblood of the
Southwest.
The Colorado River is one of the most heavily relied upon water
supply sources in the world, serving 35 million people in seven
states and Mexico. The river provides water to large cities,
irrigates fields, powers turbines to generate electricity,
thrills recreational enthusiasts and serves as a home for birds,
fish and wildlife.
This printed issue of Western Water explores the
historic nature of some of the key agreements in recent years,
future challenges, and what leading state representatives
identify as potential “worst-case scenarios.” Much of the content
for this issue of Western Water came from the in-depth
panel discussions at the Colorado River Symposium. The Foundation
will publish the full proceedings of the Symposium in 2012.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the
Colorado River drought, and the ongoing institutional and
operational changes underway to maintain the system and meet the
future challenges in the Colorado River Basin.
This printed issue of Western Water explores some of the major
challenges facing Colorado River stakeholders: preparing for
climate change, forging U.S.-Mexico water supply solutions and
dealing with continued growth in the basins states. Much of the
content for this issue of Western Water came from the in-depth
panel discussions at the September 2009 Colorado River Symposium.
This printed copy of Western Water examines the Colorado River
Delta, its ecological significance and the lengths to which
international, state and local efforts are targeted and achieving
environmental restoration while recognizing the needs of the
entire river’s many users.
This issue of Western Water asks whether a groundwater
compact is needed to manage this shared resource today. In the
water-stressed West, there will need to be a recognition of
sharing water resources or a line will need to be drawn in the
sand against future growth.
